R0 9:13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
Rebekah, thank you for believing God. Thank you for desiring God’s will be done. Your faithfulness is demonstrated through securing the Birthright for Jacob…since faith without works is dead.
God said to Rebekah the ancestor of Jesus, ”… Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one
By His foreknowledge and purpose, God said of Jacob and Esau, 'Ro 9:13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. ' Ro 9:28 For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth. '
people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger. ” By God’s foreknowledge of Jacob’s faithfulness and Esau’s unfaithfulness, Jacob was predestined to receive the birthright. Like father-in-law Abraham, Rebekah believed God and became the earthly instrument by which Jacob received the inheritance as the elect of God. Her work of faith is worthy of praise and not ridicule. Not only did Rebekah honor the wishes of God but she saved both Jacob and Esau when she perceived in her heart that Esau, like Cain, desired to murder his brother. I greatly admire this faithful woman of God. Like Noah, Moses, Abraham and others, Rebekah believed God and obeyed… not knowing she was accomplishing God’s will in aligning the geneology of Christ. God has put it in my heart to defend and to honor Rebekah.
According to His foreknowledge of her faithfulness and obedience, God chose Rebekah as the wife of Isaac and as the mother of Jacob (Israel). Ge 24:51 Behold, Rebekah is before thee, take her, and go, and let her be thy master’s son’s wife, as the LORD hath spoken. Rebekah’s faithfulness to God’s purpose for Jacob has brought the wrath of contemporary Christendom down on her head. Both she and Jacob are falsely accused and called ’deceivers’….’thieves of the birthright.’ God forbid.
Abraham consulted God for a wife for Isaac…..then followed God’s directions in sending the faithful and believing eldest servant to fetch niece Rebekah…God’s chosen for Isaac. (Gen 24:20 And he said unto me, The LORD, before whom I walk, will send his angel with thee, and prosper thy way; and thou shalt take a wife for my son of my kindred, and of my father’s house:) The servant faithfully executed the will of God…and, along with the messenger from God…found Rebekah at the well. Our first glimpse of her in scripture reveals her heart of servitude and humility.Gen 24:46 And she made haste, and let down her pitcher from her shoulder, and said, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also: so I drank, and she made the camels drink also. After meeting AND serving Abraham’s representative at the well, Rebekah faithfully answered the invitation to become the wife of Isaac.. She said, “I will.’ (Gen 24:58 And they called Rebekah, and said unto her, wilt thou go with this man? And she said, I will go.) She was part of the ‘blessing’ inherent to the Birthright/sonship.
Birthright and blessing are not the same. Esau despised the birthright of spiritual inheritance yet coveted the material blessing of wealth and power. And after Esau traded the Birthright for a bowl of beans…(a bargain he never intended to honor), he begged Isaac for the wealth blessing related to the right of the firstborn. Jacob loved God and…with his whole heart…desired the inheritance of sonship.
God’s made-for-each-other plan about Isaac and Rebekah began to be fulfilled immediately after Abraham’s eldest and most faithful servant returned from the house of Abraham’s brother… with Rebekah….chosen of God to be Isaac’s wife and the earthly instrument who would fulfil God’s purposed ‘ inheritance’ for Jacob. (Gen 24:64 And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she lighted off the camel. 67 And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.)
We later see Rebekah about to give birth ….but as the time draws near…she does not understand the heightened and vigorous ’struggle’ of the offspring inside her womb. She talks to God. He reveals to her His purpose about the twins who will be born to her. Jacob is loved and already chosen by God to inherit the Birthright of the first born. Esau is rejected because he despised the Birthright. It’s Cain and Abel all over again. It is Spirit versus Flesh. It is Good versus Evil. It is Spiritual inheritance versus fleshly inheritance. It is God’s will versus man’s will . It is Israeli versus Arabs . It is Canaan (Jacob) versus Edom (Esau). It is the purpose and judgement of a just God
(Gen. 25:22 And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to inquire of the LORD. 23 And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger. 24And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. 25And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau. 26 And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau’s heel; and his name was called Jacob: and Isaac was threescore years old when she bare them.’)
Folks …’ it don’t git no plainer n dat!’ lol. As God chose Joseph to rule over his brethren to save Israel during famine….likewise…God purposed Jacob to rule over Esau…to be the father of the twelve tribes of Israel.
Rebekah was faithful to the will of God about Jacob and Esau. Why did God choose Rebekah rather than Isaac to carry out His purposes about Jacob as the seed line to Christ??????? God foreknew Rebekah’s heart, her faithfulness, and her obedience. She could be trusted to carry out God’s desire for Israel. But in our blindness we have the self-righteous audacity to judge both she and Jacob as deceivers. We are blind to the beautiful miracle God wrought when through faithful Abraham, his eldest servant, and through Rebekah….Israel sprang forth.
Isaac and Rebekah were married twenty years before the birth of Jacob and Esau. They were childless until Isaac asked God to open Rebekah’s womb. Isaac was sixty when the twins came forth. God wanted both Isaac and Rebekah..and all of us today….to be clear that Jacob and came by the will of God…and not by the will of man. How dare we judge and falsely accuse the faithful of God!!
Rebekah, thank you for believing God. Thank you for desiring God’s will be done. Thank you for your faithfulness and your work of obedience in securing the Birthright of Jacob…Israel.
Amen. God’s ways are not our ways. I thank Him for His everlasting presence in my life, His direction, and His encouragement to jump through the hoops, even when my legs wobble.
Indeed the idea of free will in the biblical sense is always an interesting subject, but here is where theology and the study of the doctrine of God simply must be seen in the first place. In the history of the Church we can see this issue and debate between Augustine and Pelagius. Augustine in the end, won the day.. and behind this was the so-called theology of the Federal Headship of Adam, for all men are born into this common physical and spiritual descent, from and of their common father of the human race, Adam. (Rom.5) And only in the Last Adam, Jesus Christ, is there redemption and perfection! But this is always first, a “forensic” and legal justification ‘In Christ’, which of course follows our sanctification, and both are closely intwined, but always at least “theologically”, as our Reformers: Luther and Calvin, etc., they are really separate. If we lose this, then we can fall into Pelagianism, and loose God as the first and only “Causa Gratiae” of our salvation. Therefore, it simply must be seen as in the Pauline theology, that in the so-called “ordo salutis” (order of salvation), that “regeneration” comes first in the gift of God! So there is simply nothing “in us” that causes our salvation, and even our ability to choose God is itself a gift of grace! This is the position of St. Paul, and too the later Augustine. (Rom. 8: 30, etc.) But, in this we too must respect, as even Augustine did, our gift of God’s “synergism”, that together with God – in His agencies – we have God’s synergy!
Ain’t iot the truth, Mary
. Especially when ‘my legs wobble’…lol. He surely is our strength. Thanks for visiting.
PS..Btw, it is here that I would recommend the reading of Augustine’s profound work: the Confessions. Sadly, I fear many if not most Christians, have just not read them! And we should remember that Augustine was and grew-up in a much more pagan, but certainly more intellectual time and climate than our own, at least in this 21st century.
Irishanglican, nice to hear from you. Synergy…good description. I recently heard a coach say of his player, ‘You say you want to be a football player. But rather than training…you go out drinking and partying and show me what you really want is to be a drunk.’ Some wisdom there somewhere
And yet GOD is somehow sovereign even in synergy. HE is both the cause & effect!