Genesis 25-26
We're starting at Genesis 25, a "narrative kernel," which is a self-contained narrative whole. This kernel is about families. Our church is made up of families. There isn't a church that isn't! A church itself constitutes a certain kind of family, doesn't it? A church family is a specific kind of family that embraces all the other kinds of families that we might mention, such as blood families or friend families, for example.
So it's not unusual that in the context of church worship and work that we talk about each other as "brothers" and "sisters." It's hard to imagine that a fellowship between brothers and sisters could be exceeded by any kind of relationship--and probably no unions are sweeter, prior to marriage, than the relationship of siblings one to another.
Families are our first picture of what it means to have relationships of care, love, mutual concern, and mutual recognition. And here's the thing: The worst crimes are committed in families. And the conflicts in families are the hardest ones to fix, because the people we love the most, we often hurt the most. The hurt can be so intense and deep that it can be hard for people to forgive one another.
Do you know any families where people haven't spoken to one another in years? Or haven't shown up at family reunions and no one has seen them for years?
The problems we have with other people out in the world are only symptomatic of the problems we have within our own families. How well can anyone live in the world without a family that's supportive, respects your integrity as a human, loves and respects you? The one thing we all hope to count on is the love of family. What if you're in the middle of a conflict and you can't go home? What do you do? Let's see how this plays out in Genesis ...
Genesis 25
Earlier in the Bible, we are incensed by this story of Jacob and Esau ... How dare Jacob lie to his daddy! How dare he do to Esau what he did to Esau! And we should have known from the very beginning this was how he would be when he came out of the womb! Because when he was born, he didn't want Esau born first, so he grabbed him by the heels so he could be first. Why would he care? There's a "law of primogeniture," which the Hebrews had and which declared that the firstborn gets it all. The idea is that the firstborn will exercise proper stewardship over what he receives for the rest of the family. If the firstborn receives it then doesn't do right, then he has violated part of the law. So to receive it comes with responsibility.
Esau is the oldest, and he's supposed to receive it. But Esau isn't thinking about the rest of the family. He's thinking about his stomach.
Think about this: If someone has been hurt, and the power of forgiveness is required for there to be restoration and reconciliation, and if the power to forgive is a gift, the gift must be received from someone. The someone who powers the gift of forgiveness must be someone who has powers greater than that which humans possess. They must have a kind of "superhuman" power. It comes as a consequence of divine power, God's power.
You can forgive when you've made yourself receptive to the grace of God.
The reason this story is in Genesis is that it's one of a series of stories of families that have scarcely survived conflict. The first was the curse in the Garden. "She did it!" Right away, Eve becomes Adam's scapegoat. Even if she gave him the fruit (it wasn't an apple; the Bible just says, 'fruit from the tree of knowledge'), he accepted it of his own will. With sin, we look for a way to blame someone else. Let somone else carry the guilt.
Sin is there from the beginning. That's why the book is called "Genesis." Although some people talk about how this is the book of creation, it is also the book about the beginning of our sin, the need for salvation. What if Adam and Eve had rejected the fruit? What would we have? No Bible! No Moses, no prophets, no burning bush, no Jesus, no text, no Word.
But they did fall.
And in time, one brother killed another. But weren't we just talking about how tight brothers are supposed to be? This is the first murder in the Bible, and it doesn't occur between strangers, but between brothers. What does God do? He doesn't kill the murderer; he says, "I'm going to put a mark on you, and everyone will know what you have done--but they should also know they aren't going to lay a hand on you." Already you have a picture of divine favor, grace and repentance. God hated the sin and loved the sinner.
(Sinners sometimes get this wrong: "The Lord loves me, so I can do whatever I want! The Lord will forgive me, anyway." What they don't know is that the Lord grieves over their sins--hates the sin, loves the sinner, wants to call the sinner to redemption.)
So, little by little, there comes so much sin in the world that the Lord thinks, "Why did I create this?" He decides to wash it all away without destroying the creation. He wanted to save two of everything, male and female, just as He created them ... so that they might be able to reproduce themselves after their own kind.
When dry land appears, Noah comes out to make a prayer of sacrifice and thanksgiving. After, he falls asleep, and the sons, seeing the father's nakedness, decide to have sex with their own father. (A lot of folks haven't heard this before, because most preachers won't preach from this text.) The flood had come to wipe out the sin, but the sons defied God's plan. But God doesn't scorch the earth; He forgives.
So when Abraham's Sarah couldn't have any children--in the next story we hear--we have a repeated motif of barrenness. Note that both women and land can be barren, that is to say, lacking the ability to produce, incapable of multiplication. Yet when the Lord entered into a relationship with Abraham, he promised multiplication with a wife who is incapable of multiplying. So here's Sarah, and though she's advanced in age, she produces a child. Even though she's barren, which human beings of their own accord can do nothing about, the Lord does this for her.
Does this mean men are excluded from barrenness? No! This is a powerful metaphor for anyone. There is a much more profound kind of barrenness that doesn't have to do with having children: It's about the soul and spirit.
What makes the land barren? No rain. And isn't it funny how often we use "rain" as a metaphor for blessings? What else? Too much or too little sun. And the land has got to have nutrients, something in the earth that predisposes it to be receptive.
The soul, if not properly nourished (just like land, just like a woman's womb), will produce nothing. But in the case of that kind of barrenness--the land may not be responsible for its barrenness, and a woman may not be responsible for her barrenness--in the soul's condition, that barrenness is on you. It is on you. There's a way to fixt it, though: All you need is to be in relationship with the one who will supply the power of multiplication, the one who crosses out barrenness: God.
You ever notice how someone who has something to give always seems to have more to give? They always are saying, "Take this!" And the more they give, the more they seem to have for others. They never count the cost. "What did you say you needed?"
Remember the woman who came for Missionary Sunday, who said that she was crying on her stoop and her neighbor came by and said, "What's wrong?" She said, "I don't know what to do about my son. If I keep him in the public schools, he's going to be killed or join a gang." And the man went back to his house and came back and said, "I'm going to pay for your son to go to a private school." And he paid the whole thing. And it so radicalized her that she decided to start a program whereby they could raise scholarships for other kids like hers to go to private school. She had more and more to give.
Okay, here we go . . . Genesis 25. (That was a long intro, wasn't it?)
And now Isaac, born to Sarah who had been barren, turns around, and out of all the women he could have married, he picks Rebekah, who happens to be barren, too. It probably wasn't all that common for someone to be barren--with all the "begats" in this book, people were getting busy! So not everyone is barren . . . but he found and chose her. And the Lord granted his prayer. His wife, Rebekah, conceived because the Lord responded to his prayer.
There's an awful lot of talk in scripture about birthright, inheritance, what we are going to be heir to, what we shall receive. What is our portion? Recognize that language? When mamas and daddies die, and especially if they have anything left to leave, what begins to happen? Folk go to battle over what's left! They will fight . . . "It's not fair mama gave you that! I'm going to court!" (There's something to be said about dying broke.) Inheritances, while they're supposed to represent a certain continuity from generation to generation, end up tearing families to pieces. So, rather than everybody getting a piece with which they might be satisfied, everybody gets upset with everybody else. So here's Jacob trying to get everything he can at his brother's expense, looking for the opportunity to find what he can use to do it.
Here's the problem: Esau is afflicted with a fit of hunger, which is temporary. Jacob is to receive land and cattle and . . . just for filling Esau's stomach. There are folk who don't think about what might come; they want to satisfy their needs right now. It's a hard lesson to teach children: If you will forego this, now, you'll have so much more later.
So Jacob says, "Promise me! I'll keep my side of the bargain and give you some of this stew, but you have to give me your birthright." Look at the relationship: Jacob wants what he can get for his own advantage, so he robs his brother of his birthright, and he's robbing him with Esau's eyes wide open.
We talked about water: The land will be barren if it doesn't have water. In order to have water, you must have a well. And "we shall be fruitful" because we have the well.
What you're getting here is a sense of the nature of the promise that God makes--and even if you break your side of the bargain, the Lord has this way of staying with you. Because it's the will of the Lord for you to receive in spite of you. Do you think the Lord is aware the Isaac did not do right by his wife? Of course!
Otherwise, we would not be at all. We could not sustain the Lord turning his back on us. The fact that you're still here is evidence that the Lord has not turned his back you you in any way. And it leaves open the possibility, always, for you to be receptive and to recognize that you have been forgiven.
Families tear themselves to pieces. Can they be restored? Yes! Is there power sufficient of divinity in the world for us, that in spite of however much of a mess we make, the Lord may restore us? Yes! (Now, when we say "restore," we mean "after the fashion of God's own mercy." Not restoration to exactly the same condition as before.)
Hear something, though: Some people are better off without some folks. Yes, you can forgive! Just don't be foolish. Sometimes it's wise to forgive and move on.
The Lord intended for us to be healthy vessels for him to do his good work among his children. If you're being beaten within an inch of your life within an abusive relationship, you're better off being out of it! If you're with a person who has so consumed all the resources of your family because they have openly offended your trust, you don't continue to stay with this person, as much as you love them, if it means sacrificing the care of your children.
The point: The Lord does not expect you to stay in the condition of barrenness. The Lord will cross it out and provide something else, instead. Jacob is going to mess up big time, and Jacob, for fear of losing his life, is going to have to leave. And when he leaves, he's going to end up with his uncle, working for him. And his uncle is going to try to cheat him, his brother, and his father. But before you say "what goes around comes around," you need to know something else. When he goes, he's afraid that Laban is going to kill him. So he's leaving her to go home. And going home, he's afraid because he's afraid when he gets home, his brother's going to kill him.
He doesn't even have a right to appeal to his brother, he's done so much dirt. He played his brother. And he knows his brother knows that he played him. And when he gets home, the brother does the thing that's desired of God: forgives him. But that's for next week.
Join us in person any time ... Bible Study is held on Thursdays at 6:30 p.m.
So it's not unusual that in the context of church worship and work that we talk about each other as "brothers" and "sisters." It's hard to imagine that a fellowship between brothers and sisters could be exceeded by any kind of relationship--and probably no unions are sweeter, prior to marriage, than the relationship of siblings one to another.
Families are our first picture of what it means to have relationships of care, love, mutual concern, and mutual recognition. And here's the thing: The worst crimes are committed in families. And the conflicts in families are the hardest ones to fix, because the people we love the most, we often hurt the most. The hurt can be so intense and deep that it can be hard for people to forgive one another.
Do you know any families where people haven't spoken to one another in years? Or haven't shown up at family reunions and no one has seen them for years?
The problems we have with other people out in the world are only symptomatic of the problems we have within our own families. How well can anyone live in the world without a family that's supportive, respects your integrity as a human, loves and respects you? The one thing we all hope to count on is the love of family. What if you're in the middle of a conflict and you can't go home? What do you do? Let's see how this plays out in Genesis ...
Genesis 25
Earlier in the Bible, we are incensed by this story of Jacob and Esau ... How dare Jacob lie to his daddy! How dare he do to Esau what he did to Esau! And we should have known from the very beginning this was how he would be when he came out of the womb! Because when he was born, he didn't want Esau born first, so he grabbed him by the heels so he could be first. Why would he care? There's a "law of primogeniture," which the Hebrews had and which declared that the firstborn gets it all. The idea is that the firstborn will exercise proper stewardship over what he receives for the rest of the family. If the firstborn receives it then doesn't do right, then he has violated part of the law. So to receive it comes with responsibility.
Esau is the oldest, and he's supposed to receive it. But Esau isn't thinking about the rest of the family. He's thinking about his stomach.
Think about this: If someone has been hurt, and the power of forgiveness is required for there to be restoration and reconciliation, and if the power to forgive is a gift, the gift must be received from someone. The someone who powers the gift of forgiveness must be someone who has powers greater than that which humans possess. They must have a kind of "superhuman" power. It comes as a consequence of divine power, God's power.
You can forgive when you've made yourself receptive to the grace of God.
The reason this story is in Genesis is that it's one of a series of stories of families that have scarcely survived conflict. The first was the curse in the Garden. "She did it!" Right away, Eve becomes Adam's scapegoat. Even if she gave him the fruit (it wasn't an apple; the Bible just says, 'fruit from the tree of knowledge'), he accepted it of his own will. With sin, we look for a way to blame someone else. Let somone else carry the guilt.
Sin is there from the beginning. That's why the book is called "Genesis." Although some people talk about how this is the book of creation, it is also the book about the beginning of our sin, the need for salvation. What if Adam and Eve had rejected the fruit? What would we have? No Bible! No Moses, no prophets, no burning bush, no Jesus, no text, no Word.
But they did fall.
And in time, one brother killed another. But weren't we just talking about how tight brothers are supposed to be? This is the first murder in the Bible, and it doesn't occur between strangers, but between brothers. What does God do? He doesn't kill the murderer; he says, "I'm going to put a mark on you, and everyone will know what you have done--but they should also know they aren't going to lay a hand on you." Already you have a picture of divine favor, grace and repentance. God hated the sin and loved the sinner.
(Sinners sometimes get this wrong: "The Lord loves me, so I can do whatever I want! The Lord will forgive me, anyway." What they don't know is that the Lord grieves over their sins--hates the sin, loves the sinner, wants to call the sinner to redemption.)
So, little by little, there comes so much sin in the world that the Lord thinks, "Why did I create this?" He decides to wash it all away without destroying the creation. He wanted to save two of everything, male and female, just as He created them ... so that they might be able to reproduce themselves after their own kind.
When dry land appears, Noah comes out to make a prayer of sacrifice and thanksgiving. After, he falls asleep, and the sons, seeing the father's nakedness, decide to have sex with their own father. (A lot of folks haven't heard this before, because most preachers won't preach from this text.) The flood had come to wipe out the sin, but the sons defied God's plan. But God doesn't scorch the earth; He forgives.
So when Abraham's Sarah couldn't have any children--in the next story we hear--we have a repeated motif of barrenness. Note that both women and land can be barren, that is to say, lacking the ability to produce, incapable of multiplication. Yet when the Lord entered into a relationship with Abraham, he promised multiplication with a wife who is incapable of multiplying. So here's Sarah, and though she's advanced in age, she produces a child. Even though she's barren, which human beings of their own accord can do nothing about, the Lord does this for her.
Does this mean men are excluded from barrenness? No! This is a powerful metaphor for anyone. There is a much more profound kind of barrenness that doesn't have to do with having children: It's about the soul and spirit.
What makes the land barren? No rain. And isn't it funny how often we use "rain" as a metaphor for blessings? What else? Too much or too little sun. And the land has got to have nutrients, something in the earth that predisposes it to be receptive.
The soul, if not properly nourished (just like land, just like a woman's womb), will produce nothing. But in the case of that kind of barrenness--the land may not be responsible for its barrenness, and a woman may not be responsible for her barrenness--in the soul's condition, that barrenness is on you. It is on you. There's a way to fixt it, though: All you need is to be in relationship with the one who will supply the power of multiplication, the one who crosses out barrenness: God.
You ever notice how someone who has something to give always seems to have more to give? They always are saying, "Take this!" And the more they give, the more they seem to have for others. They never count the cost. "What did you say you needed?"
Remember the woman who came for Missionary Sunday, who said that she was crying on her stoop and her neighbor came by and said, "What's wrong?" She said, "I don't know what to do about my son. If I keep him in the public schools, he's going to be killed or join a gang." And the man went back to his house and came back and said, "I'm going to pay for your son to go to a private school." And he paid the whole thing. And it so radicalized her that she decided to start a program whereby they could raise scholarships for other kids like hers to go to private school. She had more and more to give.
Okay, here we go . . . Genesis 25. (That was a long intro, wasn't it?)
And now it goes through a genealogy.7 This is the length of Abraham’s life, one hundred and seventy-five years. 8Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people. 9His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite, east of Mamre, 10the field that Abraham purchased from the Hittites. There Abraham was buried, with his wife Sarah. 11After the death of Abraham God blessed his son Isaac. And Isaac settled at Beer-lahai-roi.
12 These are the descendants of Ishmael . . .
. . . Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s slave-girl, bore to Abraham. 13These are the names of the sons of Ishmael . . . [It goes through a whole series of generations.] 16These are the sons of Ishmael and these are their names, by their villages and by their encampments, twelve princes according to their tribes.But these aren't the tribes of Israel. Somebody else claims Ishmael as an ancestor: the Muslims. They draw back to Abraham like we do, and they say we have have him as a common ancestor. They say, "You all are the sons and daughters of that other child. We are the sons and daughters of Ishmael."
17(This is the length of the life of Ishmael, one hundred and thirty-seven years; he breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people.) 18They settled from Havilah to Shur, which is opposite Egypt in the direction of Assyria; he settled down alongside all his people. 19 These are the descendants of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham was the father of Isaac, 20and Isaac was forty years old . . .So Abraham was his father; who was his mama? Sarah! (Why don't they just say that?)
. . . when he married Rebekah, daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, sister of Laban the Aramean.There's the first mention of Laban. He married Rebekah, sister of Laban. So any of the children Isaac will have by Rebekah will be Laban's nieces and nephews. Let's keep the family straight, now.
21Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren . . .Remember, Isaac is the son of the woman who had been barren. This is the same Isaac about whom, though Sarah was advanced in age, the Lord had made a promise and the Lord had delivered. And the same son, that when the Lord said to Abraham, "How much do you really love me?" Abraham said, "Oh, you know I love you!" And God called on him to sacrifice Isaac! And Abraham made that trek up onto the mountain to give Isaac back to the Lord. Just as he was about to plunge the knife into Isaac's chest, his wrist was staid just a centimeter. Isaac saw the knife come to his chest! And even if he didn't see it, he was bound, and he was conscious, and if he was conscious, he knew his father intended to kill him for the Lord. The father was going to kill his son. Now, don't you tell this lie that everyone likes to tell, because scripture doesn't say this: "Abraham knew that the Lord was going to save him from this position." No, he didn't! The Lord presented it as a test!
And now Isaac, born to Sarah who had been barren, turns around, and out of all the women he could have married, he picks Rebekah, who happens to be barren, too. It probably wasn't all that common for someone to be barren--with all the "begats" in this book, people were getting busy! So not everyone is barren . . . but he found and chose her. And the Lord granted his prayer. His wife, Rebekah, conceived because the Lord responded to his prayer.
. . . and the Lord granted his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived. 22The children struggled together within her; and she said, ‘If it is to be this way, why do I live?’"Lord have mercy! There aren't even born yet, and they're fussing like this! I don't even know if I want to live if it's going to be like this." It's one thing for a woman to be pregnant and have one child in the womb kicking and going crazy. But two!
So she went to inquire of the Lord. 23And the Lord said to her,Oh, Lord! Divisions already. Father favors one; mother favors the other. The trouble between these sons is already pitched for a heavy battle because of it.
‘Two nations are in your womb,
and two peoples born of you shall be divided;
one shall be stronger than the other,
the elder shall serve the younger.’
24When her time to give birth was at hand, there were twins in her womb. 25The first came out red, all his body like a hairy mantle; so they named him Esau. 26Afterwards his brother came out, with his hand gripping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob.* Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them. 27 When the boys grew up, Esau was a skilful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents. 28Isaac loved Esau, because he was fond of game; but Rebekah loved Jacob.
29 Once when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was famished. 30Esau said to Jacob, ‘Let me eat some of that red stuff, for I am famished!’ (Therefore he was called Edom.*) 31Jacob said, ‘First sell me your birthright.’ 32Esau said, ‘I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?’ 33Jacob said, ‘Swear to me first.’* So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. 34Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank, and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.
There's an awful lot of talk in scripture about birthright, inheritance, what we are going to be heir to, what we shall receive. What is our portion? Recognize that language? When mamas and daddies die, and especially if they have anything left to leave, what begins to happen? Folk go to battle over what's left! They will fight . . . "It's not fair mama gave you that! I'm going to court!" (There's something to be said about dying broke.) Inheritances, while they're supposed to represent a certain continuity from generation to generation, end up tearing families to pieces. So, rather than everybody getting a piece with which they might be satisfied, everybody gets upset with everybody else. So here's Jacob trying to get everything he can at his brother's expense, looking for the opportunity to find what he can use to do it.
Here's the problem: Esau is afflicted with a fit of hunger, which is temporary. Jacob is to receive land and cattle and . . . just for filling Esau's stomach. There are folk who don't think about what might come; they want to satisfy their needs right now. It's a hard lesson to teach children: If you will forego this, now, you'll have so much more later.
So Jacob says, "Promise me! I'll keep my side of the bargain and give you some of this stew, but you have to give me your birthright." Look at the relationship: Jacob wants what he can get for his own advantage, so he robs his brother of his birthright, and he's robbing him with Esau's eyes wide open.
Now, who's the Lord talking to? Isaac.Genesis 26
Now there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar, to King Abimelech of the Philistines. 2The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, ‘Do not go down to Egypt; settle in the land that I shall show you. 3Reside in this land as an alien, and I will be with you, and will bless you; for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will fulfil the oath that I swore to your father Abraham.
4I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven, and will give to your offspring all these lands; and all the nations of the earth shall gain blessing for themselves through your offspring, 5because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.’ 6 So Isaac settled in Gerar. 7When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, ‘She is my sister’; for he was afraid to say, ‘My wife,’ thinking, ‘or else the men of the place might kill me for the sake of Rebekah, because she is attractive in appearance.’Check this out: He's hiding as the husband, not because of the harm that might be done to her, but because of the harm that might be done to him. When people marry, don't they make an agreement? Don't they swear oaths to each other? Don't they talk about how they're going to remain steadfast? Don't they talk about how they're going to honor and respect each other? Don't they say they're going to protect each other? And don't they say, "until death do us part"? A promise is supposed to be unconditional. Not "I'll love if . . ."
8When Isaac had been there a long time, King Abimelech of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw him fondling his wife Rebekah. 9So Abimelech called for Isaac, and said, ‘So she is your wife! Why then did you say, “She is my sister”?’ Isaac said to him, ‘Because I thought I might die because of her.’ 10Abimelech said, ‘What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.’In other words, Abimelech says, "You lied to us! You told us she was available, and anybody who thought she was available might have laid with her, and then your wife would have been exposed! And so would we!"
11So Abimelech warned all the people, saying, ‘Whoever touches this man or his wife shall be put to death.’ 12 Isaac sowed seed in that land, and in the same year reaped a hundredfold.Now, here's the thing. In spite of the fact that he's done all of this wrong, the Lord made a promise, the Lord is not going to forsake him, the Lord is going to increase his number, and he's going to increase his land. The Lord has a Way.
The Lord blessed him, 13and the man became rich; he prospered more and more until he became very wealthy. 14He had possessions of flocks and herds, and a great household, so that the Philistines envied him. 15(Now the Philistines had stopped up and filled with earth all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of his father Abraham.) 16And Abimelech said to Isaac, ‘Go away from us; you have become too powerful for us.’17 So Isaac departed from there and camped in the valley of Gerar and settled there. 18Isaac dug again the wells of water that had been dug in the days of his father Abraham; for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham; and he gave them the names that his father had given them. 19But when Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of spring water, 20the herders of Gerar quarrelled with Isaac’s herders, saying, ‘The water is ours.’ So he called the well Esek,* because they contended with him. 21Then they dug another well, and they quarrelled over that one also; so he called it Sitnah.* 22He moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it; so he called it Rehoboth,* saying, ‘Now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.’
We talked about water: The land will be barren if it doesn't have water. In order to have water, you must have a well. And "we shall be fruitful" because we have the well.
23 From there he went up to Beer-sheba. 24And that very night the Lord appeared to him and said, ‘I am the God of your father Abraham; do not be afraid, for I am with you and will bless you and make your offspring numerous for my servant Abraham’s sake.’ 25So he built an altar there, called on the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent there. And there Isaac’s servants dug a well.
26 Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his adviser and Phicol the commander of his army. 27Isaac said to them, ‘Why have you come to me, seeing that you hate me and have sent me away from you?’ 28They said, ‘We see plainly that the Lord has been with you; so we say, let there be an oath between you and us, and let us make a covenant with you 29so that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you and have done to you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the Lord.’ 30So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. 31In the morning they rose early and exchanged oaths; and Isaac set them on their way, and they departed from him in peace. 32That same day Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well that they had dug, and said to him, ‘We have found water!’ 33He called it Shibah; therefore the name of the city is Beer-sheba to this day.
What you're getting here is a sense of the nature of the promise that God makes--and even if you break your side of the bargain, the Lord has this way of staying with you. Because it's the will of the Lord for you to receive in spite of you. Do you think the Lord is aware the Isaac did not do right by his wife? Of course!
Otherwise, we would not be at all. We could not sustain the Lord turning his back on us. The fact that you're still here is evidence that the Lord has not turned his back you you in any way. And it leaves open the possibility, always, for you to be receptive and to recognize that you have been forgiven.
Families tear themselves to pieces. Can they be restored? Yes! Is there power sufficient of divinity in the world for us, that in spite of however much of a mess we make, the Lord may restore us? Yes! (Now, when we say "restore," we mean "after the fashion of God's own mercy." Not restoration to exactly the same condition as before.)
Hear something, though: Some people are better off without some folks. Yes, you can forgive! Just don't be foolish. Sometimes it's wise to forgive and move on.
The Lord intended for us to be healthy vessels for him to do his good work among his children. If you're being beaten within an inch of your life within an abusive relationship, you're better off being out of it! If you're with a person who has so consumed all the resources of your family because they have openly offended your trust, you don't continue to stay with this person, as much as you love them, if it means sacrificing the care of your children.
The point: The Lord does not expect you to stay in the condition of barrenness. The Lord will cross it out and provide something else, instead. Jacob is going to mess up big time, and Jacob, for fear of losing his life, is going to have to leave. And when he leaves, he's going to end up with his uncle, working for him. And his uncle is going to try to cheat him, his brother, and his father. But before you say "what goes around comes around," you need to know something else. When he goes, he's afraid that Laban is going to kill him. So he's leaving her to go home. And going home, he's afraid because he's afraid when he gets home, his brother's going to kill him.
He doesn't even have a right to appeal to his brother, he's done so much dirt. He played his brother. And he knows his brother knows that he played him. And when he gets home, the brother does the thing that's desired of God: forgives him. But that's for next week.
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