Author: Christine Wyrtzen

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

Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “I heard your father speak to your brother Esau, ‘Bring me game and prepare for me delicious food, that I may eat it and bless you before the Lord before I die.’ Now therefore, my son, obey my voice as I command you. Go to the flock and bring me two good young goats, so that I may prepare from them delicious food for your father, such as he loves. And you shall bring it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.”  Genesis 27:6-10

You’ve heard the words.  Or, you might have spoken these words.  “He won’t know the difference.  He’s out of it!”  This is Rebekah’s attitude as she sets out to trick her husband.  Isaac is nearly blind and it’s true that he won’t be aware if Jacob dresses up to pose as his twin brother, Esau.  The rest of the story is infamous.

Old age invites the reckless behavior of someone younger.  Visit an elderly person who is unaware of time and it’s tempting to stay two minutes instead of twenty – just because you know they won’t remember or know the difference.  But here’s the thing ~ God’s Spirit asks the penetrating question, “Who, in my name, are you taking advantage of?”

The feeble, frail, and helpless, are the ones over whom God is most passionate.  Mistreat them and His anger is kindled.  It doesn’t just apply to the older population.  Each person I am in a relationship with has a place of frailty, a tender spot where they are vulnerable. In my flesh, I can smell an opportunity to gratify myself at their expense.  But when I reach out to the feeble, to the ‘least of these, Jesus says that I am really interacting with Him. 

I am 68 years old.  No longer a thirty-something, I am clearly in the last quarter of my life.  Because of this, I can see the possibility of a younger person treating me as if I’m clueless.  They would assume I’m not as fast, or as aware, or as technologically savvy as they are.  And the truth is, I am no match technologically to someone in their twenties, as hard as I might work at staying current.  I don’t like how this bias feels but know that this is just the way it is. 

What is humbling and unfortunate though is when I bring this same disrespect to those who might be weaker, those who might not be as informed as I am in a certain area, or be as healthy as me, or are as young. The burning question is this:  How would Jesus treat them?  Would He take shortcuts?  I doubt it.  Integrity and respect must be the hallmarks of attitudes and interactions.   Whatever I do is for the glory or the dishonor of Christ.

Help me see Your face in the faces of the feeble, beginning at home.  Amen

He [Isaac} said, “Behold, I am old; I do not know the day of my death. Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me, and prepare for me delicious food, such as I love, and bring it to me so that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die.” Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it, Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “I heard your father speak to your brother Esau, ‘Bring me game and prepare for me delicious food, that I may eat it and bless you before the Lord before I die.’ Now therefore, my son, obey my voice as I command you.  Genesis 27:2-8

Is your spiritual rudder straight?  When you see evil winning, do you live frustrated?  What if it were in your power to make righteousness win, would you do it?  Would it be wrong to make it happen?

Rebekah didn’t think so.  As a mother, she knew the hearts of both of her sons.  Esau was bent toward rebellion; Jacob toward God.  Esau, by birthright, was normally the one to whom the blessing would fall.  (She forgot that God had already worked this out when the babies were in her womb. Gen.25:23)  When an opportunity presents itself to make things right, for her nearly blind husband to pass the blessing onto their younger son, she quickly conceives a plan.  She believes that the future of her family rests on her shoulders. 

Do I believe that?  Do I ever play God in my family’s life?  Influencing them and controlling them are two different things.  And sinful people can be controlling.  We are strong personalities with definite opinions.  Given time, we can weave a convincing argument when we believe in something.  But here’s the question.  Are we trying to control someone where God is already at work?  His plan is perfect.  His timing is perfect.  He knows the hearts of the people who are involved.  Do we really think we know them better than Him?  If we believe that we need to compensate for God’s seeming inactivity, we are acting out of unbelief.  Faith is absent.

There are times that God calls each of us to take a stand and wield spiritual power prayerfully.  That’s easier than the alternative; taking a stand and wielding power prematurely because we’re afraid God isn’t going to do anything.  Rebekah wanted something holy.  For this, I commend her.  Her methods, however, were deplorable.

Give me grace to ignore the ticking of my own clock and to wait on You. Amen

[Abimelech] said, “We see plainly that the Lord has been with you. So we said, let there be a sworn pact between us, between you and us, and let us make a covenant with you,that you will do us no harm. So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. In the morning they rose early and exchanged oaths. And Isaac sent them on their way, and they departed from him in peace. That same day Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well that they had dug and said to him, “We have found water.” He called it Beersheba.  Genesis 26:28-33

Seeds of the kingdom are highly reproductive.  If I plant something simple today, in faith, God will multiply the effects of it.  I may believe that what I offered was meager but that’s not the way God looks at it. What happened at Beersheba is a prime example.  As you review the chain of historical events with me, focus on the implications for your own story.

• Abraham and King Abimelech made a covenant on this piece of land regarding water rights.  Grateful that he could settle there, Abraham named the place ‘Beersheba’, the place of seven wells.
• His son, Isaac, also made a covenant with King Abimelech at Beersheba over water rights.  The King admitted that he was in awe of God’s obvious favor on Isaac.  After the ceremony, Isaac re-confirmed the name of the place ‘Beersheba’.
• Jacob will have the most significant spiritual experience of his life at Beersheba.  It will be here that he wrestles with the Lord and settles his own calling to lead God’s people.
• Nehemiah will return with the exiles to Beersheba, a momentous event in the restoration of God’s people to their own land.
• Beersheba will become the administrative center for the whole region, famous for its commerce and fortresses.

Touched by God, indeed.

People can be blessed.  Land can be blessed.  Words can be blessed.  Touches can be blessed.  There are no limits.  The Spirit will hover over what is consecrated to God.  When God’s finger touches the ordinary, it becomes extraordinary!  When I turn my face toward heaven and exclaim that my home, finances, children, calling, and even my pain…. are offered to God as sacrificial acts of worship, heaven comes down.  The spiritual seeds that are planted will multiply exponentially and I can count on seeing the cataclysmic results.

I have never been able to forecast what You will do. Ah, but Lord, many times You’ve done more than I dreamed.  In faith, I wait for what is yet to be seen.  Amen

From there he went up to Beersheba. And the Lord appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the God of Abraham your father. Fear not, for I am with you and will bless you and multiply your offspring for my servant Abraham’s sake.” So he built an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord and pitched his tent there. And there Isaac’s servants dug a well.  Genesis 26:23-25

Has God spoken to you in the land of your youth?  Have you visited your birthplace, prayerfully pondered your beginnings, and tried from an adult’s perspective to discern God’s purposes?  If so, I hope you landed on the theological truth that not one detail of your life was a mistake from the vantage point of God’s sovereignty.

Isaac visited home after he had lived a long time, too.  He went home to Beersheba, the land of his youth.  It is there that God spoke to him.  He heard the same blessing that his father heard so many years ago.  It was there that he dug another well, and providentially, found water.

Going back home to visit is a different experience for each person.  While it can be wonderful for one, it can be extremely painful for another.  One thing is certain; it reveals whether or not I have made peace with my past. It doesn’t even require visiting the house where I grew up.  (Most can’t do that anyway.)  All I have to do is take a day and walk down a few familiar streets.  Memories will come flooding back.

There are truths I must embrace as God’s child.  There was a blessing for me in my beginnings.  God promised to be with me.  I can claim that for the present but fail to know it regarding the past as I review my life from a school playground. The promise can be real about my future but vague as I process memories from my adolescence.

Isaac went home to spend his final years where it all began.  He found God there!  Can’t you feel the peace in that statement?  So it is with my life.  I will have no strong purpose or closure if I can’t make peace with the past.  God’s voice can be heard in my childhood, but I must be willing to hear it.  Proclamations of love and blessing grate against my heart’s grain if I’m unwilling to pursue the treasures of the darkness from days long ago.  They’re there, and they’re abundant, but are found in the wisdom and compassion of a Father who promises to redeem every single thing that stunted my growth.  Until now . . .

You didn’t arrive on the scene halfway through my life and ignore my beginnings.  Help me see evidence of your blessing and care in every season of my life.  Amen

But when Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of spring water, the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that also, so he called its name Sitnah. And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth, saying, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”  Genesis 26:19-22

If following Christ were easy, more would do it. Oftentimes the markers are hard to decipher.  I wonder how discouraged Isaac was as he sought for a place to settle.  Everywhere he tried to put down roots, there were obstacles.

Because a well was critical to survival, the first thing Isaac explored was an adequate water supply.  At each site, he re-dug the wells that Abraham had originally dug, the very ones that the Philistines had filled in with dirt.  I can imagine him celebrating as water bubbled up again in them.  But then, arguments from resident people erupted about whose well it really was.  Cramped quarters caused Isaac to move on. God used the selfishness of others and tight quarters to guide Isaac to his rightful place.  Isaac named the 3^rd well ‘Rehoboth’ ~ which means broad places.

It has been my experience that God has used cramped quarters and discontent to move me to my own promised land.  But while I was conflicted, I misread my circumstances.  I accused God of leading me to a place of unhappiness.  I even second-guessed the steps that led me there.

Like my spiritual fathers, I can be called to camp somewhere for a little while.  God shows me that it just might be time to move on when arguments erupt, and quarters become too cramped.  My discontent is often a flashing marker that it’s time to gather my things.

I wonder if Isaac knew, from his father’s stories, that God uses adversity and the sins of others to guide His children to better places.  Hmm, I seem to recall that Abraham and Lot were also cramped.  God used that to separate them.  Lot chose Sodom, Abraham went to his land of blessing.  If I can stop writhing in my discomfort and ask God to show me the bigger picture, I would see my angst as a gift.  It propels me out of my spiritual cocoon into my own ‘Rohobeth’.

Though pain has felt senseless in my past, there has been no such thing, Lord.  You used it all for my good.  Even, and especially, other’s sins against me.  Amen

And Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. The Lord blessed him, and the man became rich, and gained more and more until he became very wealthy. He had possessions of flocks and herds and many servants, so that the Philistines envied him.  The Philistines had stopped and filled with earth all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham.  Genesis 26:12-15

Having grown up in a very small town of less than a thousand people, I can personally attest to the power of generational feuding.  At extended family gatherings, stories were told with disgust about certain families.  Such tales only bred a bias in our young impressionable minds.

This incident in Isaac’s life occurs long before King David is born.  The famous story of the Philistines warring against the people of Israel, taunting them to provide a warrior to battle Goliath, has its roots in Isaac’s generation.  The war began here.  Isaac is prospering, so much so, that the Philistines are filled with envy.  Envy is turning into anger and will erupt in aggression.

Wishing to strategically hurt Isaac where he is vulnerable, they target his wells.  Without water, his livestock will die.  His wealth will diminish.  The Philistines proceed to fill all of Abraham’s wells with dirt.  History reveals that this is not the end of the story.  The Philistines might have thought that they won.  No water.  No wealth.  But they didn’t know God.  Their aggression was pathetic against the covenant of God over His people.

Who is against you today?  Perhaps you are trying to exist in a familial relationship where ill-will and aggression are common occurrences.  Or maybe you exist in a workplace fraught with private wars. Others target where they perceive you are vulnerable.  A blessed existence seems out of reach. 

God has not forgotten you.  His covenant love is intact.  Walk in faithfulness and God will clothe you in sustaining grace.  He will make a way to feast at the table of your spiritual enemies, prospering your soul.  A war against God’s child is a personal war against God.  Who can fight God and win?  Look at history and consider that it is Yahweh that is on your side!

Someone can threaten to block my water supply, Lord.  But You make rivers in the desert.  I stand on your Word in Isaiah 42:13  ‘You, the LORD, go out like a mighty man, like a man of war You stir up Your zeal; You cry out, You shout aloud, You show Yourself mighty against Your foes.’  Praise be to the Lord of hosts.  Amen

So Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, she is your wife. How then could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac said to him, “Because I thought, ‘Lest I die because of her.’ ” Abimelech 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.”  Genesis 26:9-10

Unbelievers sin and put God’s people in danger.  Consider the vast number of believers suffering across our world as you’re reading this.   But the opposite can also be true.  Christians sin and put non-Christians in harm’s way.  Disobedience to God’s law, no matter who commits it, affects everyone in the vicinity.

Like father ~ like son ~ in this Genesis story.  Abraham was afraid of Abimelech, feared that this pagan king would take Sarah to his harem.  But it was the pagan King who feared God and spared Sarah.  Isaac, years later, does the same thing.  Fearing for Rebekah, he lies to King Abimelech about her identity and once again, it is the pagan who makes the moral choice.  He knows that Isaac’s sin has put him and his people in a precarious position with God and Abimelech trembles over the ramifications.

I can suffer the effects of others’ choices too.  Anyone in authority over me can exert his free will and bring calamity in my direction.  Whether the head of a household, the head of a company, or the head of a church, no sin stays isolated to the one who commits it.

I consider the story of Jonah.  The ‘perfect storm’ came upon the ship that carried Jonah.  The sailors feared for their lives, and it dawned on them that someone on the ship might be responsible for bringing their misfortune.  They confronted Jonah, he accepted the responsibility for their peril, and the rest is history.

Under whose hand are you suffering today?  No wonder we are called to pray for those in authority.  In humility, we are called to speak up when prompted by the Spirit, to give the one in charge the opportunity to see his sin and repent.

Or it could be that I am the one who is sinning against God.  I can assume that this is private and that only I am affected.  This is one of Satan’s greatest deceptions.  If God would allow me to see into the future, I would understand the extent to which my choices affect the lives of those around me.  It may appear that they are unaware, but even on a subconscious level, they may be forming a new behavioral default because of what I normalized.

Oh, let me learn from history.  It is begging to be my teacher.  Let righteousness be my legacy – even down to the small things.  Amen

When the men of the place asked him [Isaac] about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he feared to say, “My wife,” thinking, “lest the men of the place should kill me because of Rebekah,” because she was attractive.  Genesis 26:7

Can you believe it?  Isaac repeated the same sin as his father Abraham.  Afraid of the resident king, and also aware of his wife’s utter beauty, Isaac felt he had to lie and spread the word that his wife was really his sister. Isaac’s plot was a carbon copy of the one his father concocted years before.

Oh, the power of a bloodline.  Joyce Carol Oates, a modern-day author, said that “We are linked by blood and blood is memory without language.”  Absolutely true.

Did Abraham tell Isaac the story of selling Sarah?  I wonder.   If Abraham did reveal the story of his own lie to King Abimelech, and stress how tragic the outcome would have been without God’s intervention, I doubt that Isaac would have been quick to repeat it.

I can be quick to tell my children the family stories I am most proud of but shy to reveal my past mistakes.  I feel I must protect my reputation at all costs.  How many parents die with secrets?  Probably most.

But let’s assume Abraham did tell Isaac the story of his earlier sin and related it with great passion.  Isaac could have grown up making a vow under his breath, “I’ll never do what my father did!”  How many young adults breathe these kinds of inner vows in anger?  They spend their lives endeavoring to be UN-like someone in their family.  But, by default, they are just like them and often can’t see it.

The spiritual pull of a bloodline is a powerful force and I’d be foolish to underestimate it.  Holy legacies are passed down but so are UN-holy ones.  How can I be saved from repeating my parent’s sin?  By acknowledging their sin before God, asking God to forgive them, and trusting God to wipe all effects of their bad choices from me and my children.  Only the resurrection power of God can stand up against generational bondages and win.  You and I need not walk in the ways of our fathers nor even feel the allure.

You don’t just change behaviors, You change the heart behind them.  Thank you for writing Your Word on my heart and giving me freedom.  Amen

And the LORD appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I shall tell you.  Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands.  So Isaac settled in Gerar.”  Genesis 26:2-3,6

God told Isaac to dwell in the land.  “Dwell” means that he is a resident alien.  He is camped out there in ‘Promised Land Territory’ but it’s not his homeland.  Not yet. The promise is right in front of him, right outside the flap of his tent but he must live amongst pagans. 

Has God called you to ‘dwell’ in a place where you are the outsider?  Others are clearly in the majority, and they are comfortable, but you are spiritually out of sync with the culture.  All you want to do is pack up and move on.  It could be a city where you live, a church that you attend, a job where you work, or even a difficult family situation that appears to be stuck in dysfunction.  You spend your idle time planning your exit, dreaming of it, in fact.  For Isaac, it was Egypt.  God said, “Don’t leave!  Dwell!”

My family and I have spent time in a few such places.  We lived amongst some who treated us like enemy (over spiritual issues) and acted out with aggression.  We experienced great loss, were extremely vulnerable, and each time we voiced the name of the town where we lived, it was sour on our tongue.  We begged for God to move us.

But He didn’t.  His Word to me one morning in prayer came from the Psalms.  “Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.”  There’s that ‘dwell’ word again.  Our family was to sanctify our home, be faithful to God, and make that little corner a place where God’s glory fell and stayed.  How much we learned about loving and praying for our enemies, about persevering in a place where you didn’t belong.

God moved us a few years later.  The three years did seem like an eternity, but I do have the gift of hindsight that recognizes the treasures in the darkness.  Our faith grew, our spiritual muscles toned, our ability to endure hardship increased, and never did we feel closer to Jesus than when we needed Him so badly.

There were times you said, “Go!” That was hard but it was not as difficult as the day I heard you say, “Stay and dwell.”  I looked to escape but You invited me to learn to live in You for my joy.  I’m so glad I did.  Amen