Even The Gifted Can’t Always Get It Right

Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, that your soul may bless me.” Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.  The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”  He said, “Are you really my son Esau?” He answered, “I am.”  Genesis 27:18-27

It’s hard, isn’t it?  There are times when I fail to listen to my gut talking and pay dearly for it.  But then, there are as just as many times when I follow my gut instinct and make disastrous choices.  The need to be led by spiritual understanding rather than my fallible sense of things is crucial.

I’m reviewing this scene from Isaac’s life.  He’s old, nearly blind, and quite vulnerable.  He’s about to be deceived so that Jacob can get the firstborn-blessing.  Isaac is the means to an end.  He does not know it though.  He assumes that his family treats him honorably.

His first instinct was right.  He believed it to be Jacob’s voice and he was right but as soon as he felt his son’s hands, he was confused.  Knowing that blindness impairs judgment, he should have stopped and asked the Lord for insight.  Instead, he made a crucial decision with his senses.

There are times I will swear something is true.  I have mounted my evidence, feel something strongly in my heart, and no one can tell me otherwise.  Time goes by and I discover that I was completely wrong.  I didn’t have all the facts.  My judgment, like that of Isaac, was impaired by something I didn’t acknowledge.  Humility, the kind that comes after failure, is incurred with much remorse.  None are infallible because of some innate giftedness.

I am not advocating becoming an insecure person who wrings their hands over all matters great and small.  Far from it.  Great strength and confidence can be mine but only as I depend on God’s wisdom in all matters.  With Him, minefields are exposed and disasters can be averted.

With your enemy out to deceive and trap, I don’t have a chance without supernatural eyesight.  Thank you for promising all the help I need.  Amen