It was a bad scene from beginning to end. Mother Rebekah was determined that Jacob would receive the family blessing – not his older twin Esau. The Lord had already told her the oldest twin would serve the younger, but she felt she had to take matters into her own hands to help the Lord accomplish His purposes. When it seemed that Esau the eldest son was going to get the family blessing from Patriarch Isaac, mom swung into high gear. “No way! It can’t happen like this. I must come up with a plan!” She concocted a scheme for Jacob to disguise himself and to pretend that he was Esau bringing his father’s favorite meal to him.
When Jacob arrived with the food, he was wearing his brother’s coat. Mom had attached some goat hair to Jacob’s hands and neck so he would feel like hairy Esau. Smart thinking, Rebekah!! Old Isaac, almost blind, was shocked that the meal was ready so quickly. After all, he envisioned Esau out in the field with bow and arrow stalking down the animal for the supper. He didn’t know that Rebekah expedited the process by using goats from the backyard.
The old man exclaimed to his son Jacob: “How is it that thou hast found it so quickly my son?” Jacob replies: “Because the Lord thy God brought it to me.” Genesis 27:20 (Bologna!!! – Ed. Note)
Ah – it sounded so spiritual and so probable. But what a distortion of the truth! In fact, a complete fabrication! How obnoxious to the God of Truth, when we drag Him into our self-concocted schemes and self-induced problems and then claim He was behind the scenes making it happen! As the Lord watched the happenings in their tent that day and then listened to Jacob having the nerve to bring His Name into the big lie, how saddened He must have been over such a failure.
Our hearts are no different today. We can be just as slippery, conniving and deceitful. We can use spiritual babble, as if the Lord was 100% in step with us, when nothing could be further from the truth. e.g. “The Lord is good. I have seen God’s hand in it all.” That’s wonderful when it is true – but pure babble when we are trying to convince ourselves or justify our wrong choices. Scarier still, is when we start to believe our own lie and convince ourselves that the Lord was with us or behind the choice we made.
Reading our Bibles interactively and prayerfully will help to uncover deceit and trickery in our hearts. One verse can unmask our elaborate schemes. One verse can unnerve us as we move forward boldly in the power of our wicked flesh. The Lord can use one verse to uncover a sinful motive in our life. One verse can make our covered sin flash like an alarm light. One verse can set off the sirens of our conscience.
Jeremiah 17:9 says: “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked (incurable).” “The word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12