God Works Good From Evil
With: Our Design According to Genesis • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Shifting Perspective
Shifting Perspective
Life is nothing more than a cyclical pattern of unfair/unjust circumstances colliding with human grit and determination in an endless battle for superiority and dominance. It is a mantra driven existence filled with catchy motivational phrases that make your heart believe that today is the day that you will triumph and overcome only to be met with the truth of tomorrow that no matter how hard you work, how much you believe in yourself, how obedient you are to the cosmic rules that sometimes the cards are stacked against you.
This egocentric view denies the ultimate reality of our existence. We are created by the Lord who governs over our days with an eternal purpose. The temporary unfairness of life is just that, temporary. All unfair moments are transformed into life giving stories of God’s glory and His provision of good from the bad, evil and unfair. The ultimate reality is that our days tell the story of God and His eternal redemptive work.
The story of Jacob up to this moment has been a story of personal striving to take hold of what is desired in spite of unfair and unjust circumstances. Jacob deserved more than his birth order would afford him so he took matters into his own hands.
Our Perspective
Our Perspective
Genesis 27:41–28:5 (NIV)
Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. He said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
When Rebekah was told what her older son Esau had said, she sent for her younger son Jacob and said to him, “Your brother Esau is planning to avenge himself by killing you. Now then, my son, do what I say: Flee at once to my brother Laban in Harran. Stay with him for a while until your brother’s fury subsides. When your brother is no longer angry with you and forgets what you did to him, I’ll send word for you to come back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?”
Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I’m disgusted with living because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes a wife from among the women of this land, from Hittite women like these, my life will not be worth living.”
So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. Then he commanded him: “Do not marry a Canaanite woman. Go at once to Paddan Aram, to the house of your mother’s father Bethuel. Take a wife for yourself there, from among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples. May he give you and your descendants the blessing given to Abraham, so that you may take possession of the land where you now reside as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham.” Then Isaac sent Jacob on his way, and he went to Paddan Aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, who was the mother of Jacob and Esau.
When we deny the ultimate reality that the Lord is in control and He determines the course of our lives, we allow our distorted view of reality to justify our position, both good and evil. Esau was just in begrudging his brother and desiring to kill him for look what Jacob had taken from Esau.
Our perspective will lead us to flee from the truth in order to continue to hold to the lie. Once again, Isaac fuels the brokenness instead of stepping in and pointing his family to the ultimate reality. Our perspective lies to us and makes us believe that things are unfair when truthfully our perspective is askew.
The Confusion of Our Perspective
The Confusion of Our Perspective
Genesis 28:6–9 (NIV)
Now Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had sent him to Paddan Aram to take a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he commanded him, “Do not marry a Canaanite woman,” and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and had gone to Paddan Aram. Esau then realized how displeasing the Canaanite women were to his father Isaac; so he went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Ishmael son of Abraham, in addition to the wives he already had.