Theological Commentary: Click Here
Discipleship Focus: Obedience
- Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity. Our true identity comes only from Father.
Clearly Genesis 27 is a chapter in which we have characters who
all demonstrate struggles with obedience.
Isaac is determined to bless Esau in spite of Esau’s blatant disregard
for God’s ways. Rebekah is determined to
have Jacob blessed rather than Esau, whom Isaac desires to bless. Jacob is determined to help his mother carry
out the lie and steal Esau’s blessing.
In this story, Esau is the only one who displays any kind of obedience,
but unfortunately it is a selfish obedience to gain a blessing. Esau has already forsaken his birthright and
married foreign women; he is not an obedient man.
Here’s the thing. Each of
these disobedient characters are only disobedient to God. They are obedient to their own selfish human
desires! Isaac wants to bless his
choice. Rebekah wants her favorite son
blessed. Jacob wants the blessing for
himself. Esau wants the blessing for
himself. They are disobedient to God,
but absolutely obedient to their own desires.
That’s the interesting thing about humanity. It isn’t ever a case of being just
disobedient. The proper question is what
are we obeying when we are disobedient to God?
What is the identity we are pursuing obediently instead of the identity
we should be pursuing? Who or what is giving
us a faulty identity when we should be getting our identity from God?
Not once do any of the characters pause and ask what God would
have them do in this story. That’s the
root of their troubles with obedience.
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