The One Year Bible - Day 12

I'm writing this a little in arrears since I haven't be spending as much time really digesting the readings. I read them in the morning and listen to them weekdays on the way to work but I've just gone back over the days I haven't blogged about to see if anything new needs to be blogged.

On day 12 we have this extraordinary situation where Jacob tricks Isaac into giving him the blessing that is due to Esau. We can analyse all sorts of things including Jacob and Rebekah's deceit and Esau's undeserving nature, we could also talk about the sovereignty of God in carrying out in Jacob what he already said would happen.

I noticed something else though that is perhaps more of an image than a genuine piece of theology from the passage but did you notice how much Jacob craved God's blessing? In a sense, ignoring his deceit, he was so desperate for God that he did whatever it took to get blessed. It reminded me of the Wesley brothers who wrote Christian hymns to pop music in the 18th century in order to do whatever it took to bring people to Christ, even making themselves "vile" in the process.

I would never condone dishonesty or poor character but we should certainly ask ourselves how desperate we are for God's blessing in our lives rather than trying to create our own blessings!