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SCRIPTURE: GENESIS 27:30-45

Jacob deceitfully takes the blessings of Esau. 

REFLECTION 

The theme for our reflection is “a full and total embrace by God.” It is our belief that God rejects sinners and punishes them. Rightly so but God’s grace is also available to sinners and through His grace He fully and totally embraces them. In today’s Scripture reading, we see Jacob deceitfully take the blessing of his elder brother Esau. Ordinarily, such an act was sinful and left to Esau alone, the blessing should be redrawn and given back to Him but Isaac said “Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate it all before you came, and I have blessed him? Yes, and he shall be blessed.” (Genesis 27:33). 

I am sure most people who read today’s Scripture will question the just nature of God. In other words, how does God allow a deceitful man to get away with a blessing which does not belong to him? If God had cursed Jacob or punished him severely according to our expectation we would not have met the likes of Joseph, David right up to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, since they are all part of the genealogy of Jacob.  My dear friend,  even in the sinful desires of humanity, God was still unfolding His story of salvation. God fully and totally embraces us in our deceitful ways and gives us a second chance. No wonder when the woman committed adultery and was brought to Jesus for His consent with the Pharisees and the Scribes to have her stoned, Jesus said to them “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” (John 8:7). Again, when the prodigal son in Luke 15: 11-32 returned home after squandering all that He took from his father, the elder brother got angry at his father for accepting the prodigal son back and giving him a special welcome party. “But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost and is found.” (Luke 15:28-32). My dear friend, God fully, totally, and graciously embraces us. 

We should however know that sin has direct consequences on our lives even when God has fully and totally embraced us. We will have to live to deal with the direct and indirect consequences of our disobedience and deceitful actions. Although Jacob was blessed by God through his deceitful act, he had to live with guilt and fear of his elder brother,  Esau. He had to flee from his father’s house. We may receive a full and total embrace from God but remember that the untold hardship, pain, and loss we might have caused our loved ones or friends become the guilt we have to deal with for a long time. An example is a Ghanian actress,  Moesha Budong. She had publicly repented and given her life to Jesus and I believe she has been fully and totally embraced by God but she had to deal with the guilt and pain she has caused to people in her past sinful life.  Paul is a classical example of a sinner who was fully and totally been embraced by God yet he had to live with the scars of the pain and persecution he brought upon believers before his conversion. Paul wrote to the Corinthians “Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.  But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. (1 Corinthians 15:8-10) My dear friend no matter the gravity of your sins, if you are willing to repent and come to Jesus, God is ever willing to fully and totally embrace you. Surely, you will have to face the consequences of your action but Jesus says “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Those of us in the shoes of Esau, who have been offended and severely hurt to the point that evil and revenge have taken over our hearts and minds, may the Lord restore and heal us, fully and totally embrace us even as we forgive the Jacobs in our lives. Shalom. 

PRAYER 

GRACIOUS AND LOVING GOD, BE MERCIFUL TO ME, A SINNER!’( LUKE 18:13). I REPENT OF MY DECEITFUL AND SINFUL DEEDS, FULLY AND TOTALLY EMBRACE INTO YOUR ETERNAL LIFE. AMEN 

Jean-Paul Agidi (Rev)