Rebekah and Jacob’s Plot

Rebekah is far away from me – from what I want for my own children. She preferred the one son over the other. As did Isaac.

“The older shall serve the younger.” She heard it. An alternative narrative. She was for the underdog. There is so much here. The dangerous inevitability of imposing my story onto someone else.

Isaac’s preference is for Esau – he is the first born. But then, Ishmael was also first born.

In a minute Jacob will steal the blessing. He already owns the birthright. Twice in two generations the primogenitor rights have failed to pass to the eldest.

Expectations of what , from my perspective, “should be” distorts my sense of justice and equity. My mind is no longer deliberate and focused. It’s only an anticipation. Not actually present I am controlled by the future projection of the suffering and indignity of my lack. I grieve the death of the story that I thought would be.

And so I feel the pressure to scratch and to grab after those things that should clearly and obviously be mine.

Abimelech & Treaty – Esau’s Local Brides

Settling into the land but not assimilating. A precarious place. Like a monastery surrounded by casinos, Isaac must remain in the land of promise in order to enter into the promise. At the same time, he must remain distinct from a culture opposed to God.

Esau’s local brides threaten everything. With them, the casino has gotten inside the walls and threatens to destroy the distinction, the identity. The promise can’t assimilate without becoming meaningless.

You are in this world but not of it. The world longs to come to God – but on its own terms. And, for the sake of a world longing, this could not be borne.  God is love. Perfect love casts out fear.

What you represent will overcome what has always been.

The Where of Unknowing

The Lord has made room for us…

We’re never told that Abraham planted. But Isaac sows and obtains a yield of one hundred fold. Pretty good for a rookie year.

Like with Abraham and Lot, it’s interesting that the pressure of wealth results in separation and isolation.   Because of his extraordinary and increasing wealth, Isaac needs to find land. And the land has to have water. He only knows that he’s far enough away the competition when nobody is left to fight over the water.

The ambivalence of unknowing – A dark night for his soul.

But joy comes in the morning.

Isaac and the Famine

Famine.

A testing and a drawing. Isaac seeks the Lord in the midst of a famine. His environment is challenging him. He does not have power over this. The temptation is to exit the situation at the side door, to change the circumstances, to alleviate the pressure. The Siren call from Egypt never does go away. It is as close as an open ear.

Staying put is the response of faith. The value Isaac accepts in lieu of certainty is relationship with God.

We face the same choice each day. There are things to do. There are circumstances in my environment that need to be changed – and they can’t wait.

There is no time for God today – unless I make a choice.

Esau’s Pottage

A sold birthright.

Sometimes I wonder what this could mean.

Indifference. Expedience.

Esau is such a buffoon. Who would do this? Of course the answer is- I would. I do the same thing most everyday.

Living for the moment is different than living in the moment.

Isaac and Ishmael bury Abraham

It’s the long view, I believe, that ultimately frees us from the petty and unimportant. There is nothing like death to give perspective.

These half-brothers coming together to bury their father Abraham – astonishing or unsurprising?

As a child, the one has been placed on an alter to be sacrificed. Before that, but at about the same age, the other was turned out without enough food or water to even survive.

Yet here they are, honoring and burying their dead father Abraham.

As they bless his memory they gratefully bless the origin of their very being.   This transcends all. No one is excluded.

Fathers.  We’ve all had them.  None of them was perfect.

God and man and generations.

The Servant Tells His Story

Questing. My experience is that when a person is on a quest, there are always people around who want to help.

What motivates human beings to support the questor?

The servant is on a quest. Abraham made clear the goal. He entered into the quest to fulfill this goal.

Now Abraham’s servant tells his story to the assembled relatives. It is as though the entire family is entranced. The question is never, “Should we let Rebekah go with this man?” – but more like “How can we not let Rebekah fulfill this quest?”.

Like Peter in the Duomo of Firenze, the universe beckons you in order to see your God-narrative revealed in time and space.

Let’s try not to be late.

Laban and the Servant

Hospitality, Urgency, Transparency

The servant can’t wait to know if Rebekah is the answer to his prayer. He is not willing to enter into Laban’s hospitality without knowing for sure. He presses the issue.

The certainty that comes with mission orders every other aspect of a person’s behavior. But not just the missionary’s behavior – all of creation seems to bend to the will of someone who is deeply committed. A strange miracle of cosmic proportion.

The servant has no hidden agenda. He lays his cards out on the table from the beginning. He won’t stop until he find his path. This is the way of a powerful life.

The Servant encounters Rebekah

The servant prayed for a sign. He needed to find a wife for Isaac. He needed to find a woman who could produce value and contribute to the common good of the people in Abraham’s house. It wasn’t like he didn’t have a stake in this. He knew that he would one day serve her.

So the sign he asked for wasn’t arbitrary. He didn’t ask for her to be wearing a certain color, or that a dove should alight near her. He asked that the woman he was looking for would show kindness to a stranger. He did not go into the town center and announce his business – which given the obvious wealth of his master may have resulted in more candidates than he could have managed. Instead, he waited at the well for someone who would be kind to him, a stranger.

Rebekah was simply living her day. She was carrying water. She wasn’t on the lookout for some life changing opportunity that she could not have known existed. At the well, she did not owe Eliezer anything. Yet she extended not only the kindness he requested, but saw his need and watered his animals.

She saw him in his apparent need. She created value and offered it to him. Her only expected reward could have been running behind in her scheduled errand.

The stuff of election. Dispositionally, I like to think it falls out of the sky.   Rebekah was living it every day.

Don’t Take My Son Back There

Abraham knew something. If Isaac returned to Haran, then everything would be lost. The promise of the land would be void. The purpose of the wealth would be assimilated into another person’s dreams and aspirations.

The servant took no chances. If he was a hunter today, we would say he was “loaded for bear”. His retinue was large with obvious signs of his master’s wealth. To the servant, it seemed not unlikely this would be a hard sell – he was going to be prepared.

I suppose there is something to this. Every person lived long enough to think in terms of legacy wants that the fruit of their life’s work should not be squandered.

I suppose the lesson of the luwak is that even when the fruit is consumed, the seed remains. To a parent this is a lifeline. With Abraham, I’m still hoping they won’t go back.