Genesis 25:20-26; 27:1-4, 18-30; Matthew 10:16-18
February 27, 2022
- Strange workings of God’s grace
This week I was surprised to see a military superpower actually go to war against a much overmatched nation. Maybe I should not be as surprised since even in my lifetime, we have been at war with Vietnam, Iraq twice, and Afghanistan once. You have seen even more. War is always a tragedy no matter who wins. It saddens me to watch Russia display its flagrant disregard for life in the pursuit of its pride or power or whatever Putin is trying to capture. He has gotten more than he bargained for in the Ukrainians who are giving him a fight, but he seems to have no real concern for basic human rights. There are no rules but his, and he has no problem going around others to get what he wants.
Today, we are considering someone else who has a strained relationship with the rules. Jacob’s aims, however, are completely, completely different, and his actions are supported by the will of God. But they are not fair.
Jacob is a character and a half. He is especially interesting being so earthy, so scandalous, and so real. If you ever wondered which biblical hero would be most willing to lie, cheat, and steal, it is this one. In fact, it is hard to even appreciate how he can be an example faith like his grandfather Abraham was. But maybe faith is not the message of today’s passage. Maybe this story shows us how even God sidesteps the rules to make things happen. This story sets the stage for the rest of Jacob’s life and his relationship with Esau. This story establishes Jacob as the next father figure in God’s people. He is the one who even fights with God and where Israel gets its name. What a way for anyone to begin their story!
The main rule we are breaking today is primogeniture: that 12 dollar word (in today’s inflation) is the notion that the eldest son was the one who carried on the family after dad died. In the law of primogeniture, the eldest son received the lion’s share of the wealth, had the authority, and guarded what made his family a family. It was crucial for the family to survive, and this seemed the best way. Society lived by this standard back then. Primogeniture was accepted law, the order and convention of the people. Everyone did it this way, apparently, except for God and by extension, Rebekah and ultimately Jacob.
A key question is why didn’t God just arrange for Jacob to be born first – if Jacob was in fact to be the one to inherit the blessing? After all, the same God who was making barren couples “with child” could certainly affect a birth order. It would have been simple to switch the placement of those twins in the womb so that Jacob came out first. This would have been easier and so less contentious. Or…. You might guess that God is trying to tell us something about who will be blessed and what that blessing means. From the very, very beginning, Abel was blessed over his older brother Cain, and even younger Seth ended up being the one for the family tree. Isaac was chosen over Ishmael even though Ishmael was Abraham’s older legitimate son. Later, Joseph is picked over his 10 older brothers, and even more, Judah ends up being the blessed tribe over the tribes of his 3 older brothers. Moses was the leader over his older brother Aaron. David was the youngest son of Jessie’s eight. Solomon was picked as king over his older brother. Yes, you should see a strange and troubling trend.
For that matter, Jesus had a way of picking the little person, the least appreciated and most overlooked, the ones without authority or privilege or status to be his most loved. Jesus is also the one who told a certain prodigal story about a lost younger son who was beautifully blessed after being a complete failure. ALL of this flies in the conventional wisdom and the rules for the day.
Outrageous. God is supposed to be about law and order and what is right, but it also seems like God is willing to move the goalposts if that will help certain people find blessing, and it is not the people we would think deserve it. God does not seem to be all that concerned about our expectations in the least. This is enough to make any “goodie-two-shoes” fairly nervous. Just because you always followed the rules, does not mean you will be the one who is most blessed. You will still probably do pretty well for yourself, but God has different priorities. Even more, people in positions and power, those who seem to have it all, are most overlooked in God’s search for greater expressions love, as if they already have their reward.
It comes down to blessing and a future. This is what Ukraine is fighting for in this moment. They desperately want a future. Many other places are clawing each day for just a shot at a new day. We take it for granted that today will be good enough. Certainly, there are people out there who desperately wonder whether they will make it through today, but most of us are not worried about this. We don’t feel that visceral urge for some sign from God that there might be a tomorrow for us. Blessings for us are more about pleasant feelings and nice feelings and content feelings and peaceful feelings and well, feelings.
This is so far removed from the old blessings, the first ones that meant the difference between life and death. The people bearing God’s blessing could dare to hope in faith. There was a future for them and for their children because God said so. The ones with God’s blessing could walk into a future God prepared for them. I hope you understand why anyone would absolutely and desperately seek God’s blessing. It was the guarantee that there was a future for you and your family. Jacob used every trick he had to make sure that future applied to him and his family to be.
When it comes down to life and death, it seems to be acceptable to be street smart. Even Jesus seems to think so. Be innocent but do not be stupid. Don’t let people take advantage of you and do not set yourselves up for dishonor.
Obviously, we cannot really know the mind of God who loves to pick the underdog, the little guy, the outcasts, and the unempowered to lead the way into the hope of God’s tomorrow. They have never been the ones we might expect, but they have all been good candidates in God’s grace. None of us in God’s family deserves the honor or privilege or blessing to be counted among God’s children. None of us deserves to be the ones carrying on the work of God into the tomorrows before us, but God has entrusted us to this work.
If we will ever call ourselves blessed, we have to better understand what that means. It means in a difficult and complicated world in which so many people are given the green light, the voice, and the vote, there are so many who are without even basic necessities. God’s heart will always go to them first. They are the ones who will live into God’s tomorrow in the promise of God’s gracious love. Those who have the best stories, the best testaments, the best witnesses to God’s goodness and faithfulness are the ones who have been at the bottom and found a way up. They are the ones who lived through the brokenness of this unfair world and were given grace to become blessed in the love of Christ Jesus.
The founder of the Richmond Outreach Center in Richmond had one of these stories. His father was in a bad biker gang when he was little and was arrested. The child ended up on the street in every kind of bad way. As a teenager, he had come to the end of his rope and was preparing to end his hopeless life. Then, he noticed a church across the street and decided to give God one last chance. He met with the pastor who was a big bear of a rough guy in this inner-city church. He noticed some of the tattoos were ones he remembered, and the pastor turned out to be his father who had found Christ in prison and had become a pastor. It saved his life, and he became the founding pastor of one of the fastest growing churches in the Richmond area around 20 years ago. They even had their own church biker gang. God gave him an unbelievable blessing, and that is the kind of blessing that gives a future in God’s goodness. Sadly, that story takes some tough turns, but the witness of that blessing reminds us all that God is still with us.
I hope that we all feel blessed but more than “feel” – know deep down in our souls that we are truly blessed and that we have a place in God’s future. This is a witness that we need to know and need to share every chance we have. It is not about what’s fair or who is deserving. God’s blessing is for those who need a tomorrow more than anyone else and who will receive God’s love with open arms. What are we willing to do to live into God’s blessing? If we want to be blessed, we also need to know where God’s blessing is at work in Farmville today. That is where there is a future for us all. To God be the glory. Amen.