As Isaac laid his hands on
Esau, all he could utter were words that were opposite to what he had
pronounced over Jacob. The eldest son soon realized that what was said were
actually opposite of what should have been. Jacob had successfully stolen his
blessing. A hatred of murderous proportion was aroused within his soul. He
began to stall for time. He thought to himself that his father was old and
would soon pass on. And as soon as the mourning period was over, he would kill
Jacob. It’s appalling that the thought of killing his brother should bring him
much comfort. But his hatred was too deep that he could not think otherwise.
When
a man is in that position we can be sure that he would not able to keep quiet about
his intention. Besides, he was not one who would cautiously keep his murderous
thought private. Rebekah came to hear about his intention. She knew that Esau
would not joke or lie about such an intention. After all he was greatly grieved
by the fact that his birthright and blessing were stolen from under his nose.
So Rebekah was not sitting around to see that come to pass. So she commanded
Jacob to flee to Haran, her brother Laban’s place, till the anger of Esau had
cooled down and subsided.
Rebekah
had hope that Esau would soon forget what Jacob had done, but she failed to
realize how grievously hurt Esau was. She underestimated the extent of the
damage. It was not something the eldest son could forget in days. She had
wrongly appraised the situation. What she thought would be over in days
actually ended in her not being able to see her favorite son ever again. We
must always begin with the end in mind before we embark on something. Every
action has a consequence in a cause and effect world. What we sow we will
always reap! We choose the action but we cannot choose the result of our
action. Hence, wisdom dictates that we should try to envisage what would happen
even before we choose our course of action.
So Rebekah plotted to get Jacob away from Esau for a
while. She knew it would be difficult to get Isaac to agree. Her scheming mind
began to work again. The fact that Esau’s two Hittites wives must have bugged
the both of them. So she said to Jacob, “I am tired of living
because of the daughters of Heth; if Jacob takes a wife from the
daughters of Heth, like these, from the daughters of the land, what good will
my life be to me?” She suggested that there was possibility of more miseries
should Jacob followed in his brother’s footsteps and took for
himself a Hittite wife. With that as an excuse, she had hoped that Isaac would
consent to let her send Jacob away to seek a wife from her relatives. She knew
that Isaac would agree when he saw the implication of what she had suggested.
And truly he did.
Here we see how taking matters into one’s own hand
without waiting on the Lord could result in. Rebekah and Jacob tried to run
ahead of God’s timing for Jacob’s life. That had resulted in untold troubles.
Esau was angry and had murderous plot and Jacob’s life was unsafe and had to
flee for safety. Rebekah did not expect that what she had done would separate
her and her favorite son forever, for she would never see him again. Ever
wonder what would have happened had she and Jacob trusted God? Guess we will
never know. But one thing we know for sure that God will work together for good
to them that love Him and are called according to His purpose. Had Jacob
trusted God, things he desired would come to pass but in a less troublesome
way. Let’s learn from Jacob that we must wait for God’s timing to unfold His
plan for our life.
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