Overhearing

O. T. #53  "Overhearing"          
May 23, 2013
Genesis 27-Part 2
Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command thee. Genesis 27:8


LET IT GLOW

Have you ever been in the wrong place at the wrong time? You were minding your own business and
overheard a conversation? What did you do with it?
Rebekah heard what Isaac, her husband,  said to Esau, their son. She was listening (NIV); she overheard (NLT). Maybe she was in the back room of the tent folding up clothes and overheard
the conversation.
I noticed that Rebekah didn't talk to her husband Isaac about it, nor did she discourage Esau.
Instead, she started her scheming immediately.

Warren Wiersbe, in his book, Wiersbe's Expository Outlines on the Old Testament, said this:

Rebekah had been told by God that Jacob would receive God's blessings, yet she schemed and plotted to make sure that Esau was left out. Instead of going to God in prayer as she had years before, she depended on her own plans, a practice that would be characteristic of Jacob in later years. Rebekah paid dearly for her sin: she never saw her son again (verse 44-45). Esau deliberately acted to hurt her; and her bad example before Jacob cost him twenty years of trial. 

What did Rebekah overhear?

• Isaac said he was old (137 at the time) and didn't know the day of his death. (He actually     lived 43 more years.)
• Isaac told Esau to get his quiver and bow, then go out hunting and bring him some wild game to eat. Venison is what the KJV says, which is deer meat.
• He told his son to prepare him some tasty food that he liked.
• Isaac was prepared to give Esau the family blessings that God gave to his father, Abraham.

I wonder how God would have taken care of the situation had Rebekah not interfered.
Do we know scheming people? The ones who manipulate others and situations in order to get
their way.
Are we one of them? Are we patient when waiting for God to act or impatient?

LET IT GROW

Rebekah spoke to Jacob, her favorite son, and told him what she overheard Isaac telling Esau, his twin brother. She told Jacob to listen carefully and do what she told him. Here is a 77 year old son, doing what mamma wants.

Certainly Jacob knew God's promise for his life, yet he listened to his mother instead of to God.
(Wiersbe)

Did Jacob make the right choice? Tomorrow we will discuss it.
To whom do I listen, other or God?

To his credit, Jacob objected at first. The differences between him and Esau would surely not fool his father and might result in the blessing being replaced with a curse as a fitting punishment for deception.  (MacArthur)

Rebekah was willing to accept full responsibility and any curse that might result from their scheming. Jacob followed his mother's instructions.

Do you recall another woman scheming we've read about? She told her husband to unite with her
maiden servant so they could have a child? It was Sarah, who wouldn't wait 25 years for God's     plan to take place. She plotted and it turned out disastrous.

LET IT GO

Resist scheming and plotting to have my way.

Do things God's way.

Surrender to do the Lord's will, no matter how long it takes for His plan to happen.