Rebecca - a woman of great integrity or a conniving and liar?
Dr. Roberto Miranda
(Audio: Spanish)
SUMMARY: The speaker reflects on the character of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau, in the context of the story of Esau and Jacob. The speaker acknowledges that Rebekah is often portrayed as a scheming and favoritistic woman, but suggests that her character is more complex than that. The speaker notes that the Bible often presents ambiguous characters, which provides richness and complexity to the stories. The speaker suggests that Rebekah may have been obeying the voice of God when she favored Jacob, as she had received a prophetic word about the destiny of her two children. The speaker acknowledges that there are different interpretations of Rebekah's character, but suggests that she may have had a special intuition regarding the spiritual constitution of her two children. The speaker emphasizes that God seeks the heart, endowment, love, loyalty, and appreciation for his things, and places whoever he gives the sovereign pleasure in places of spiritual authority, even if it is unconventional.
This passage discusses the story of Jacob and Esau from the book of Genesis in the Bible. The speaker reflects on the complex nature of the story and how it illustrates God's use of sin to advance his purposes. The speaker also emphasizes the importance of avoiding favoritism and treating children equally in family dynamics.
The passage of Esau, Rebekah, Jacob, and Isaac highlights the importance of treating children equally, promoting good communication within the family, and remaining true to the principles of Scripture above love and loyalty to family or friends. The lack of communication and ventilation of disagreements in the family creates dysfunctional and deformed families, leading to manipulative and lying children and wives. It is essential to live life seriously and according to the values of the Kingdom of God and to recognize the great things that God has placed in our hands, which require men and women, young people, children, and the elderly who walk possessed by a sense of awe and reverence.
The prayer is about surrendering to the Lord and recognizing the great things He has in store for us. It emphasizes the importance of living morally and ethically, and walking in holy fear and trembling. The prayer blesses the church and its diverse communities, and asks for God's grace to be with all mothers, including single mothers. The prayer ends with a declaration of God's infinite nature.
This passage discusses the story of Jacob and Esau from the book of Genesis in the Bible. The speaker reflects on the complex nature of the story and how it illustrates God's use of sin to advance his purposes. The speaker also emphasizes the importance of avoiding favoritism and treating children equally in family dynamics.
The passage of Esau, Rebekah, Jacob, and Isaac highlights the importance of treating children equally, promoting good communication within the family, and remaining true to the principles of Scripture above love and loyalty to family or friends. The lack of communication and ventilation of disagreements in the family creates dysfunctional and deformed families, leading to manipulative and lying children and wives. It is essential to live life seriously and according to the values of the Kingdom of God and to recognize the great things that God has placed in our hands, which require men and women, young people, children, and the elderly who walk possessed by a sense of awe and reverence.
The prayer is about surrendering to the Lord and recognizing the great things He has in store for us. It emphasizes the importance of living morally and ethically, and walking in holy fear and trembling. The prayer blesses the church and its diverse communities, and asks for God's grace to be with all mothers, including single mothers. The prayer ends with a declaration of God's infinite nature.
I want to honor the mothers of the congregation this afternoon. As we always do with Mother's Day, using the word of the Lord as a starting point and base, foundation, for a meditation that our mothers elicit from us and we want to bless. In these times I like to meditate on something, the family, women that the word of God registers, and today we have something that fits very, very well, very appropriate, you don't even have to force it.
Last Sunday and the one before that that I preached, you heard me talk about two characters, Samson and Esau. And we talked about the importance of living up to our calling and the endowment we have received from God.
We were saying that Esau and Samson are two characters who, despite the fact that they had a great calling, a great anointing, a great purpose that God had for them, did not know how to live up to their calling. And you will remember the sad story of Esau, who was the last one we spoke of, who despised, despised the blessing of being the firstborn and kind of took the birthright for granted, and in a moment of merely physical need despised the birthright and sold it. for a meal, a plate of food, we don't know if it was lentils, but it could have been something else, a sancocho if it had been in the Caribbean or some well-made pupusas from Salvador or Guatemala, we don't know.
But the point is, this man was ferociously hungry, he did not appreciate the great privilege of being the man through whom his family's spiritual lineage ran, and he threw it away out of immediate necessity, as we can sometimes do.
But what is interesting is that a brother told me after the sermon on Sunday at 9 o'clock, Pastor, I think that some things that you wanted to say remained there and time betrayed him. Why don't you give us another sermon on that same theme and develop it a bit more. And you know what? The brother was right because today on Mother's Day, when we sometimes meditate on women of God and topics of that type, there is a character that plays a key role in that drama of Esau and Jacob, who many times doesn't seem to we focus directly. And you can get a lot out of our sister Rebeca, the mother of Jacob and Esau, who plays a slightly sinister role in the history of her children, her intervention in the life of her family a bit complex.
Rebekah appears as a scheming person, in a calculating sense, who takes advantage of an opportunity to put her favorite son in front, and to disenfranchise her first son, Esau.
But I would like you to accompany me in a little exploration of this character, this very interesting woman. I think we can get a lot of spiritual benefit out of it and perhaps even restore a little the image of poor Rebeca who has always appeared as a merely Machiavellian and favoritistic woman, which I think is much more complex than that.
So we first see this, Genesis 26 and 27, where the drama of Jacob and Esau is recorded, it is not only the story of Isaac and his two sons, but it is also the story of a very strong woman, very determined, with a character very clear and very sure of what she wanted to do and the role she had to play in her family. I could say that from time to time the Bible shows us these fascinating women, strong and determined women such as Lea and Rachel, the daughters of Lot, Ruth, Abigail, Esther, women who violate this image of the oppressed, repressed, abused, always put in the closet, that sometimes we have the idea in the Old Testament.
These women knew what they wanted and often passed their husbands by miles. Think of Abigail, for example, when she saves the lives of her family and her same foolish husband, making an important intervention in the life of her family.
He thinks of Raab that when he sees that destruction is coming for the Canaanite tribes, he anticipates and makes a deal with the Jews who are going to invade and saves his own life and the life of his entire family, like a good businessman and makes a pact with the israelites.
These women are worthy of respect and admiration. And it makes me understand clearly that God does not play favorites. I believe that in Scripture we see both great women of God and great men of God. Perhaps struggling in very problematic and very difficult social contexts, but we see that God endows and blesses, and supports and uses the heart that lends itself and makes itself available to him, whether he is a man, young man, old man, woman, whatever. And these women have always fascinated me because of their strength and character in the midst of difficult situations, who wanted to oppress them, but they always come out ahead.
These women were true leaders, even though they lived in a culture that apparently did not grant them many rights. But they learned to assert their rights in other ways. And we learn from this account of Esau and Jacob many spiritual lessons about family dynamics. That is what I want, to take advantage of the family dynamics that we see implicitly recorded in this passage.
The even mysterious and complex way in which God moves in human processes. There are many things that one wonders, well, what is God's opinion, opinion or dictate, or precise judgment of God regarding the behavior of Rebekah or Isaac? What would have been the judicial ruling that God would have given to the conduct of this woman? God moves in very complex ways, let's see it. He sometimes moves through the sin of men, but he is always advancing his purposes.
This account is typical of the Genesis accounts. I say that you don't have to go to the novels of our time or to reality shows in the United States, to find human complexity and narrative literary richness, and tremendous drama as we find in the characters, especially from the book of Genesis.
This particular passage of Rebekah, Esau, Jacob, Isaac, for me is one of the very representative stories of the Bible because we see a number of theological, human, literary, philosophical, ethical problems that are portrayed there and the truth is that they are not we are given a sharp, clear and simple answer. We left here with many doubts. Who did right, who did wrong? Where is the bad, where is the good? How much did God have to do with this and how much did it just have to do with human carnality? All of this is here in a very complex way.
It lends itself to many different interpretations. And that is something that impresses me about the Bible, especially about the Old Testament stories. There is a lot of literary complexity in these stories. Not everything is black or white. There is a lot of gray, like every great literary text.
In my literature studies, I was always taught that the great texts, the great characters in literature are ambiguous characters, difficult to locate, they have good and evil coexisting within them. They love God or they love good but they also do bad things. Sometimes they are bad but they also love their family, they love a wife, a child, no one is totally demonic or totally good.
Think of David, for example, a man who loves God terribly, is willing to risk his life many times but also commits incredible atrocities that brought God's judgment for generations. You remember that the book that I wrote about Jehoshaphat, 'Feet of Clay', deals a lot with the moral ambiguity of human beings and that we see in the Bible. Josaphat himself, a man with a passion for God, made serious mistakes, and I have always said that in that zone of ambiguity, indecision, lack of definition, there is much richness for our lives.
And the Bible specializes in that, it specializes in presenting us with flesh and blood human beings. Not one hundred percent good and one hundred percent bad. And that is one of the things that convinces me that the Bible is a historical book, it is a trustworthy book. Because he is not there to portray artificially decorated and sanitized people, he presents us with the bad smell of his humanity and also presents us with the sublimeness of his loyalty to God and his nobility of spirit. And in that complexity we are invited to enter and take out the good and learn from the bad.
The Bible is not interested in presenting plaster saints, but men and women of flesh and blood, with blood running through their veins, and God dealing with them and advancing his purposes, like you and me, don't be offended, because that's how we are too , right?
We know, we love God but we are in a fight with ourselves. And this literary and biblical passage teaches us a lot about this. It registers a Rebeca and a Jacob overcoat, which are difficult to locate. Were they evil or were they people who loved God? Rebecca herself, for example, and it is important that you learn that many times even though the Bible does not give you a final dictation on a subject, or a character, the fact that you have to deal with that complex reality will to exercise you with your ethical and moral and spiritual muscles.
By having to ask yourself those questions alone, it will already help you to think in a more complex way of life, even if you do not have an answer. For example, Rebecca, is she a stubborn and biased woman with her son Jacob as a mother? Or is it a woman of integrity who is obeying the voice of God, who years before while her children were in her womb had told her, what would be the destiny of each of her two children, spiritually speaking? Did she simply carry out the will of God? Because God told her, in your womb there are two nations, in your womb there are two men who are fighting with each other and when they come to life one of them, the younger, not the older, but the younger will serve to his older brother and there will come a day when the older brother is going to get rid of the domination of his younger brother, but meanwhile he is going to serve, he is going to be the main one in the home.
She received this through a prophetic word, which you will remember God gave her when she went to the temple to ask God why this anguish that I feel in my womb, these two children of mine are fighting with each other? And God gave her a clear word of what was happening spiritually within her.
So what was Rebekah doing when they fight over her son Jacob, is she just obeying a spiritual voice and is she just saying, you know what? God said that it was Jacob through whom the birthright was to flow. And I don't see that my son Esau has the gifts of a man of God, I love him but the truth is that he was born to be a hunter and to be a man of action. And he hasn't necessarily lived up to the calling that would presuppose or the life that his calling, his birthright, would presuppose.
So, was Rebekah really just being like the hand of God to carry out her intent? And in that case then perhaps we would see Rebecca as a woman of great integrity, instead of being a schemer and a liar.
But I'm not sure about that and neither are you. So we can go home disagreeing. If you think she's a villain, amen. But don't crucify her either because I believe that there are good things in her and personally I think that this woman, as a mother, who had had them inside, had a very special intuition regarding the spiritual constitution of her two children.
And as it happens many times in the Old Testament and in Scripture that women are more sensitive to the spiritual intentions of God and it is possible that this woman was more like executing the divine decree, unlike her husband who was simply obeying the social convention that the eldest had to receive the blessing and inherited the double portion and was the spiritual authority of the family.
But God does not necessarily move in the conventional, but many times God chooses the unconventional. And God places whoever he gives the sovereign pleasure in places of spiritual authority. Because God seeks the heart, God seeks the endowment, God seeks love, God seeks loyalty to his kingdom, God seeks appreciation for his things and in this case it seems like Jacob since he was a child, indeed, from the womb of his Mom, Jacob longed for and appreciated what the birthright entailed.
While Esau was a man of the belly and of the body, a man of the field, a man of action, and Jacob was a boy who was more attached to his mother and to things of the spirit, I believe. And instinctively he knew that his family had been called to a universal mission, that through his family flowed the blessing for humanity, that through his lineage an entire nation would be formed that would bless the world spiritually and that there was a universal promise that it ran through his family's DNA and he wanted to be a part of that miracle. He wanted a place within the Kingdom of God and his priesthood.
Esau didn't even think that was important. And God saw that. And he saw it from before and determined that the one who honors me must be the one with the right. Because I believe that God was also giving us a universal lesson, as I was saying last Sunday, that in God it is not the gifted in the sense of the one who has the first place, the one who has gone to the seminary, the one who comes from a distinguished family. , the person whose father or grandfather was a distinguished pastor. God doesn't care about any of that. God goes to the person who is at the moment, in your life, perhaps you do not come from a great family past or whatever, but if you are perfect in your heart towards God, God wants to show his favor towards you.
And if you yearn and you are crying out to the Lord, God will bless you and use you even though others may have to be in front of the line. Because God has always used people like this, those who love, yearn, bellow, as the psalmist says, 'as the servant bellows for the stream of waters, so my soul cries out for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.’
Those are the people that God blesses. And I think Rebeca sensed this in her two children. And like a wild beast he launched himself to do the will of the Lord.
In that sense personally, I believe that Rebeca was more upright than Isaac. By going above the biological law and obeying the spiritual law of God who had established that Jacob would be the heir to the birthright.
And remember another thing that it was Esau who sold his birthright. I think the turning point in Esau's life was not when his mother plotted with Jacob to take poor old Isaac and perhaps a little senile, blind, and trip him up, and trick him by putting animal skins on Jacob's hairless forearms. , and dressing him in the garment of his brother Esau, which was a garment that smelled like the odor of man, of man's sweat. Perhaps Jacob's clothing smelled of incense and delicate perfumes, because he was a delicate boy and had never been in the fields, in the smoke of the firewood, in the open air, but their smells were different.
Then his mom says, no, dress in Esau's dress so that when he smells you, he smells Esau's man. And then like that, they plot and Jacob walks over and tries to make his voice deeper, Dad, it's me Esau, and he says, but son, that doesn't sound like my son Esau's voice. No, it's me, dad, yes. And so he makes up and tells a story to poor Isaac to make him believe that he is Esau and then he takes the promise and the blessing.
But remember that years before Esau possibly already at a decisive moment made a pact with Jacob. He's starving, he comes from the hunt, he comes to exercise and Jacob says, hey, what do you think? Let's make a Deal. Give me your birthright and I will give you this good stew that I have prepared here. And Esau not knowing that at that moment all the angels in heaven and all the demons in hell and God and Satan are watching to see what he is going to do, he believes that it is a moment like any other. But it is a moment pregnant with destiny, as many times our life happens, that we believe that we are living a daily moment and the whole universe is crouching to see what we are going to do. And maybe we will die and never know that that moment was a defining moment for all humanity. Who knows how many people have died and does not know that they have played a terrible role with respect to humanity.
And at that moment Esau, who doesn't appreciate anything spiritual, says, look, don't worry, it's okay, give me the food that birthright is an old wives' tale anyway, so give me the food and take my birthright. And Jacob tells him, no, wait, swear to me. Because this man was a businessman and he was wise and he knew that oaths before God are serious and when a word is given, God is there watching and he is a witness. So swear to me Okay, it's fine, I swear. Give me the food. And I did not know that that was where the matter was defined. The deal was done, the contract was signed, the delivery had been made. What Rebekah and Jacob do later is simply the realization and confirmation and execution of what was already determined in the judicial spiritual realm, when Esau handed over his spiritual right to his brother.
The rest, for me, is almost secondary, it is simply theater, because the decision had already been made, not by Jacob or by Rebecca, but by Esau himself. What God makes us responsible. God is a covenant God.
So when that time comes when Rebekah schemes with her son to dress like Esau and talk like Esau, and steal Esau's blessing, it's all settled. And I think then that Rebeca was probably a very ambiguous character, she didn't do things, it's true, in the most elegant way, and we should learn something too.
That is why I tell you that Scripture is very complicated. You see, it is not that God is necessarily supporting and endorsing the way, but the truth is that in the world, brothers, and in human history, many things happen that are not elegant or beautiful but God uses them to advance his purposes.
And I have learned through my life, reading the Bible, that God wants us to be as complex as the Bible when analyzing the events of the history of the culture, of our family life, in our lives, and that we are not as complex as the Bible. blunt Because God uses who he wants as he wants. I think, for example, of the drama of the pilgrims. I believe I have said that before, the coming of this group from Europe to the United States seeking religious freedom to worship.
And I believe that the birth of the United States, this great nation that has blessed humanity for so many years and has also been a pain in the bones of many other nations, was from God. This nation is born on powerful spiritual foundations, people who loved the Lord, but who also gave a big kick to the poor Indians who were here in the United States and were throwing them out little by little and they possessed the land.
Because they felt that it was as if the Israelites were entering Canaan and driving out the pagans. This is how the Puritans saw the drama of his coming. In reality, they took them out legally and, I say, that the first illegals were these whites who now tell us that we are illegal, honestly. Historically they pushed these nations and used legalistic gimmicks to say that since they had not created a complex culture, then they had no legal right. But they had it, they were here first.
But notice that here we kind of see God moving in a complex way in the sin of these people who later would not even want to teach the Gospel to the indigenous people many times so as not to have to struggle with Christian men and women. Notice how terrible the thing is.
And God created out of this a great nation that for centuries feared God but now at this time, I believe, that this nation has drifted further and further away, both at the official and governmental level, look at President Obama's decision recently, his statement that he endorses and supports gay marriage, he couldn't hide it anymore and had to because his hand was forced.
I believe that this nation is moving further and further away and here comes a group of Latin Americans and Africans and Haitians from other countries and little by little they are possessing the land. There are 14, 12, million Latinos and now these whites who stole the land from the indigenous people now say that we are stealing the land from them. I don't know if God is also moving in these processes to renew the spirituality of this nation, bringing men and women who come from their countries, fearing God and who love the Lord, many of them, and who are blessing this nation with your prayers and your fear of God or love of family, your healthy values, even though we are not perfect.
But I think that this process is also something similar. God using, yes, illegality and illegitimate forms and not totally sacred to bring a process. Because God sometimes uses sin to renew his purposes. So for me, when I see that, I see it in that complex way and that allows me to bless what is happening because I believe that in the long run the purposes of God are being advanced in very complex ways that are difficult to place. completely.
So live in peace, brother, sister, in your heart. But what I want to say is that these are the kinds of reflections that the Bible invites us to do. Because Rebeca is here, she is being biased, she is playing an ambiguous role. But I personally think that she was more astute and spiritually astute than Isaac, that if they let him, he would have given the birthright to a man who didn't deserve it. Because it's interesting that Esau first marries and chooses two pagan women which already implies something about how Samson too, his low regard for his family values and his spiritual life.
The Bible says that those women were like this, it was like a sting, a sore in the soul, because they were irredeemable women, they were pagan women and they caused Esau's parents a lot of pain. And then what about the descendants of Esau? It becomes the Edomite nation. Edom that is in the Bible, staunch enemies of Israel, people who took advantage over the centuries to persecute even their blood brothers. But Esau's offspring strayed completely from the ways of the Lord and became a people far from the ways of God because I believe they had a very different DNA, spiritual genetic code than Jacob's. And that is why Scripture speaks of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, because God does things in very strange ways in the world, brothers.
I think Rebecca understood this. This is the mystery of Rebecca. Yes, she did things a little inappropriate but in the long run, I think she carried out God's design because that's what God wanted.
So, these types of reflections illustrate to us how complex the moral issues recorded in Scripture are sometimes and the complex way in which God proceeds in history to carry out his sublime purposes that he has.
I'm going to jump around a lot and let me just wrap up with a couple of things for you specifically about the family dynamics that I see on record here. And I think that can be of benefit to us at level, at ground level. One of the things I see here is that this story invites me to reflect on the fact that God gives his gifts to whoever he wants, and not necessarily to the one who has the biological right. That God looks at the quality of the heart, the spiritual makeup of the individual and not necessarily the person who came first in line.
Number two, I believe that this also teaches me that bias and favoritism must be avoided in family dynamics. I am not sure, once again, if Rebeca defended Jacob out of mere human preference, of a mother who was partial to a son, or if she did it as I said, for sublime spiritual reasons.
But, in any case, when I examined the text and reflected on it, it invited me for a moment to meditate on it, because there is that problematic of favoritism there and whatever the text was, it is there and it reminds us of that and it is that kind of tells us, you know what? Although you cannot fully determine, but think about it, how important it is that we avoid favoritism and partiality in family dynamics.
If you have children, make sure that you distribute your love equally between them. It doesn't matter how they act, it doesn't matter that one went to college and got a PhD and the other was a crazy head, love them both. And express your love to them as much as possible, avoid expressing favoritism and treat them equally and with love, even if one is the one that benefits you the most and makes you proud of his great achievements and the medals he has from playing soccer and this and the other. No, bless them both and treat their children, brothers, equally because when parents are partial to their children and give them signs that you give me more like Isaac loved the hunt and the food that his son brought him from abroad . Although they give you the benefit they give you, love them because God loves his children equally, although they cause him headaches, but he makes his sun rise, he says, on just and unjust. He gives his rain on the bad and on the good.
Love your children with an equal heart and try to ensure that they always see the love of a father, a mother that is distributed equitably, because when there is no equal treatment, this creates terrible wounds in the children, some deformations, some resentments, inferiority complexes that follow them every day of their lives. Always try to identify if your children have that care, and you can tell because many times the boys give you signs of insecurity. When you hug the other, you look at the other right away, looking to see if you are going to hug him in the same way or not. Observe those signs and make sure that you always treat your children equally.
That is important. I don't know where Isaac and Rebekah totally fall but the text invites us to be sober about it. So, another thing, we have to remain true to the principles of Scripture above love, notice what I just said, let's love our children equally, but we also have to love Scripture more than our children. Do you understand what I mean?
In other words, as parents the guide in the way we educate our children is the word of God. If I have to confront my favorite son, even though I love him desperately because the word of God obliges me to confront him, I am going to do it. Today I see so many parents, for example, whose children have adopted a sexually inappropriate lifestyle, and I see many of them say, 'Well, he's my son and I love him, and he's struggling with a situation and I have to support it whatever it is.” I believe we should support our children but we should not support their sin. You have to tell your son, -'You know what, son? I love you, I will love you to death, count on me, but I do not accept your lifestyle, and I am not going to change the values of the Gospel and the word of God for my love for you.'
You understand? And in that, brothers, there is health. When parents tell our children, you know what? I love you to death but I love God and the word of God more than you. That is a blessing for our children. Love the word, always use the word, because what I see here is this, that Rebekah understands God's dictate for her children, she sees that Esau is not a suitable man for the high purpose that God has for him, and she I think he went over the top of that, and said, you know what? God said that Jacob and Jacob I will support.
Isaac does not do that, but Isaac simply lets himself be carried away by the conventions of society, the greatest is that he must receive the blessing, because we are going to bless him without realizing it, or discerning that God had much more complex purposes and that there were spiritual elements Much deeper is at stake between his two sons, and he is willing to go above God's bizarre purposes to support mere human convention. And I think not, in the spiritual life of the churches, for example, I am a pastor, I love my spiritual children, my spiritual brothers, I cannot be partial to any brother in the congregation simply because I love him, because he speaks more or give more money. No, in the life of the church and the Kingdom of God the family is second, God first, the principles.
I have shared with the brothers the drama that I have been seeing recently, a very renowned church, well known but with pain in my soul and a lot of fear and trembling I say, the pastor who has been a pastor for many years, has become biased with his family, in a very obvious, very clear way, and also with a person, a son who should never have been chosen by him as his successor, because that person does not have a spiritual calling, but because he loves his son, and there are so many pastors today that I think that is terrible, we believe that the church is like a dynasty. I am the pastor, I have my son, and when I die I am going to put my son to be the pastor. A pastor has no right to do that. The church is of the Kingdom of God and of the people of God, sincerely.
Now, I believe that if a son or a daughter has a spiritual endowment and the congregation recognizes it, and there is a process of recognition, it is good that the blessing continues to flow from people who have grown up in the church and who are blessed by the church. . Amen. But otherwise, look brothers, in the Kingdom of God family, friends, personal interests have to be last with the purpose of God and the values of the word of God. That has to be first, be a fierce defender of God's purposes. When you discern them, launch yourself and if you have to die or stand in front of the devil and say, you don't come through here, tell him. Whatever it costs you, and God will bless you and back you up for it. Amen.
So that's another very important element. We have to remain true to the principles of Scripture above love and loyalty to our children or family or friends. Another thing, a third principle, we have to promote good communication in the family, including the venting of disagreements and conflict.
Because I think that one of the problems in this family of Isaac and Rebeca is that you don't see that there was good communication. At no time do we see Isaac and Rebeca sitting down to talk about their differences, their intuitions, their desires. No, each one is for his side. Isaac with his son Esau and Rebekah with his son Jacob. Each scheming to reach a termination that is comfortable for them.
And I wonder, if Rebeca had told Isaac, you know what, Isaac? I see that a correction must be made here because our son Esau seems like he would be the chosen one but you know well, look at how he behaves, look at the type of woman he has chosen as his wife, look at his detachment from the things of God. And what do you think of Jacob? Look how he loves the Lord, look how God is working and endowing him, look at his passion for spiritual things. Don't you think Jacob is more suitable as the holder of the birthright?
I believe that in the family, whatever it is, I believe that there is a place in this interpretation to remember that in the home there must be ventilation, there must be communication, father and mother will not always agree. And we have to avoid families where the father is the boss because he is the head and what he says is what has to be done. And there has to be room for airing differences of opinion including the children as well.
I think that the children, although it is uncomfortable for us, I do not like my daughters to criticize me, I think that Meche is a little more tolerant than me, he has a softer character, and as a man, perhaps I don't like it, but I've learned to listen, and although I do it grumbling many times, but then I go to my room and say, you know what? I have to learn something here from this. And through the years, Meche knows why we talked about this, there has been a struggle but I know that in the long run I have to do what God says, and that is that I have to open the communication valves a little. There has to be space, there has to be questioning, there has to be friction and struggle. That is part of the moral education of our children.
And I believe that here in this case I do not see that, there is no communication but simply a machination, as sometimes happens in marriages. Mom wants to get away with it, dad wants to get away with it, and the children over there. There is no integration of family life and that is something in which you have to be proactive with your wife, with your husband. Force yourself to communicate, force yourself to speak. Don't just act instinctively, ah, because I'm the boss here, how dare you? No, listen and ask yourself if God is not mysteriously working through that little voice. Because God spoke through a donkey, if he had to do it with Balaam and he can do it with anyone, and he can even use a baby to correct you. Stay open.
In this case I think there is something about that as well. I think that another thing, when we do not allow that, in a family that is hermetically closed, where there is no communication, dialogue, negotiation, or process, what happens is that this gives rise to neurotic, dysfunctional, and deformed families, where children and mothers many times, because the problem often with the father, forgive me parents, that is the reality, many times what happens is that when a child is raised in a home where they do not have the opportunity to express themselves, to negotiate , to learn to be a man or a woman, sometimes questioning and doing it inappropriately, but how do you learn? What happens is that they create manipulative and lying children and women and mothers and wives too, manipulative and liars. Because it is the only way that the poor can defend themselves.
So, the originality and creativity in them find covert and secret, but also cartoonish and sinister ways to manifest their energy. And the best thing is that these energies are manifested within the legitimacy that is offered within the family to create serious and knowledgeable and morally complex, intelligent, cultured men and women, the loving struggle of the home is required, a home where there is space so that all these processes and fathers and mothers are willing to pay the price of feeling uncomfortable and often even resentful. But let them know that that is the human dynamic, that is the reality and that is how it has to be if we want to create powerful children, because the alternative is a very obedient boy but lacking in psychological and ethical complexity.
There are many children who behave perfectly but are a zero to the left intellectually, academically, morally, because everything is simply what mom and dad say. But you know what happens? When they go into the world and find a little girl there who manipulates them and the Tongonee are not prepared and they go into the world and take revenge for all the repression in a moment and they take advantage of disobedience, immorality immediately. And they do it with interest.
The best thing is that you control this process within the home. I believe that the home of Esau, Rebekah, Jacob and Isaac, was a home that was not working, there was no dialogue, there was no ventilation of what this woman thought, what Isaac thought. There was no enrichment and these guys were growing like two wild plants out there. There was no training of Esau's spiritual sensitivity, to prepare him for his lineage and his destiny.
In other words, all these things are at stake here. I hope we learn a little from it. I'm going to shut up because otherwise they're going to be here all afternoon.
Brothers, this is a very rich passage that invites us to see the mysterious, elusive, complex God that we have. And how serious the spiritual life is. Do not underestimate the importance of your calling, let us not underestimate how serious life is and how important it is to live it every day soberly thinking about the place you occupy. Perhaps Esau never thought that 3500 years, who knows better, later we would be talking about him and that his story would be incredibly used for rather, for negative illustrations of what a man should not do. But that's how it is.
Their drama has informed generations and yours, you have a great cloud of witnesses around you that you have to live life with great seriousness, you have a calling. There is a very great importance in your life and you have to live life always thinking that they are watching you, your children are watching you, your friends, your community, your church, the people who drive with you on Route 93 at 4 o'clock. the afternoon, and that you have to live life seriously. You are a man, a woman of God, a priestess, a king, a pastor, a shepherdess, a counselor, and you have to live very seriously before God, make heavy, solid decisions and ask God to give you wisdom and that enlightens you
Do not live life according to the conventions of the world, but live, what God says, what God wants and how can I be an instrument at this moment in my life to advance the interests of the kingdom. What others think of me, what the spiritually superficial want to do, that is their business, I am going to live according to the values of the Kingdom of God. And I will be an instrument in his hands.
May God bless you, may his grace be with you. Let's stand up. Take a moment to receive that word in your heart, press it deeply, do not leave here without putting an end to it, but then take it home and continue meditating on it and enter it into the depths of your heart.
We are going to make a prayer of surrender and recognition to the Lord in his spirit. God has great things for us at this time. But it requires a people that lives up to it, that lives morally, that lives ethically, that lives seriously, that lives with holy fear and trembling, that God has given us the birthright, God has given us great things, has placed great things in our hands, the future of this community, neither you nor I can imagine it. The future of the church of Jesus Christ in the coming decades, if Christ does not come before, is incredibly heavy and serious and requires men and women, young people, children, the elderly, who walk possessed by that sense of awe, of reverence.
You are something very special that God has created, you are a spear in the hands of the Lord. Do not live like a scoundrel, do not live like a son of the street, live like a prince, a princess, without pride but very aware of your great and terrible calling that God has placed in your hands. We live in times pregnant with intentionality in which God has great things he wants to do and he needs men and women who are like antennas who receive his messages, receive his energies, do not waste the call. Do not get lost in a conventional, religious, lukewarm, ordinary spirituality, get into the dark, dangerous, but sublime waters of the spirituality of God and his word and live there at that level, a hero, an adventurer, a soldier, a warrior of God, a warrior of God.
I bless your life and I bless the life of this community. Our families, I declare the grace of God over this church, those who are here, those who were here this morning, those who did not come, the Hispanic, North American, Asian, Afro-American, African communities, all these groups that God is assembling and bringing to this nation so that its purposes may be fulfilled. We want to be part of God's move and we ask that his word incarnate deep in our hearts and our lives.
Father, thank you, take us out of here possessed by the sense of your presence and your company. We bless our mothers, these noble women, single mothers, mothers with their husbands at home and we ask that your grace be with them. Also single mothers, Father, those who do not have a husband, those who do not have children, also bless them and may they feel totally supported by you and fully endowed Lord with all their complete character that they are in you, Father. Thank you Lord, thank you. Bless us on this day and we give our time to you with a great sense of privilege to be before your presence, in the name of Jesus. Amen. God bless you my brothers, the grace of the Lord be with you.
You never fail Lord and you always have purposes even though we cannot understand them, you always have purposes Lord. We are going to declare that chorus once more, we are going to say that you are infinite God.
Last Sunday and the one before that that I preached, you heard me talk about two characters, Samson and Esau. And we talked about the importance of living up to our calling and the endowment we have received from God.
We were saying that Esau and Samson are two characters who, despite the fact that they had a great calling, a great anointing, a great purpose that God had for them, did not know how to live up to their calling. And you will remember the sad story of Esau, who was the last one we spoke of, who despised, despised the blessing of being the firstborn and kind of took the birthright for granted, and in a moment of merely physical need despised the birthright and sold it. for a meal, a plate of food, we don't know if it was lentils, but it could have been something else, a sancocho if it had been in the Caribbean or some well-made pupusas from Salvador or Guatemala, we don't know.
But the point is, this man was ferociously hungry, he did not appreciate the great privilege of being the man through whom his family's spiritual lineage ran, and he threw it away out of immediate necessity, as we can sometimes do.
But what is interesting is that a brother told me after the sermon on Sunday at 9 o'clock, Pastor, I think that some things that you wanted to say remained there and time betrayed him. Why don't you give us another sermon on that same theme and develop it a bit more. And you know what? The brother was right because today on Mother's Day, when we sometimes meditate on women of God and topics of that type, there is a character that plays a key role in that drama of Esau and Jacob, who many times doesn't seem to we focus directly. And you can get a lot out of our sister Rebeca, the mother of Jacob and Esau, who plays a slightly sinister role in the history of her children, her intervention in the life of her family a bit complex.
Rebekah appears as a scheming person, in a calculating sense, who takes advantage of an opportunity to put her favorite son in front, and to disenfranchise her first son, Esau.
But I would like you to accompany me in a little exploration of this character, this very interesting woman. I think we can get a lot of spiritual benefit out of it and perhaps even restore a little the image of poor Rebeca who has always appeared as a merely Machiavellian and favoritistic woman, which I think is much more complex than that.
So we first see this, Genesis 26 and 27, where the drama of Jacob and Esau is recorded, it is not only the story of Isaac and his two sons, but it is also the story of a very strong woman, very determined, with a character very clear and very sure of what she wanted to do and the role she had to play in her family. I could say that from time to time the Bible shows us these fascinating women, strong and determined women such as Lea and Rachel, the daughters of Lot, Ruth, Abigail, Esther, women who violate this image of the oppressed, repressed, abused, always put in the closet, that sometimes we have the idea in the Old Testament.
These women knew what they wanted and often passed their husbands by miles. Think of Abigail, for example, when she saves the lives of her family and her same foolish husband, making an important intervention in the life of her family.
He thinks of Raab that when he sees that destruction is coming for the Canaanite tribes, he anticipates and makes a deal with the Jews who are going to invade and saves his own life and the life of his entire family, like a good businessman and makes a pact with the israelites.
These women are worthy of respect and admiration. And it makes me understand clearly that God does not play favorites. I believe that in Scripture we see both great women of God and great men of God. Perhaps struggling in very problematic and very difficult social contexts, but we see that God endows and blesses, and supports and uses the heart that lends itself and makes itself available to him, whether he is a man, young man, old man, woman, whatever. And these women have always fascinated me because of their strength and character in the midst of difficult situations, who wanted to oppress them, but they always come out ahead.
These women were true leaders, even though they lived in a culture that apparently did not grant them many rights. But they learned to assert their rights in other ways. And we learn from this account of Esau and Jacob many spiritual lessons about family dynamics. That is what I want, to take advantage of the family dynamics that we see implicitly recorded in this passage.
The even mysterious and complex way in which God moves in human processes. There are many things that one wonders, well, what is God's opinion, opinion or dictate, or precise judgment of God regarding the behavior of Rebekah or Isaac? What would have been the judicial ruling that God would have given to the conduct of this woman? God moves in very complex ways, let's see it. He sometimes moves through the sin of men, but he is always advancing his purposes.
This account is typical of the Genesis accounts. I say that you don't have to go to the novels of our time or to reality shows in the United States, to find human complexity and narrative literary richness, and tremendous drama as we find in the characters, especially from the book of Genesis.
This particular passage of Rebekah, Esau, Jacob, Isaac, for me is one of the very representative stories of the Bible because we see a number of theological, human, literary, philosophical, ethical problems that are portrayed there and the truth is that they are not we are given a sharp, clear and simple answer. We left here with many doubts. Who did right, who did wrong? Where is the bad, where is the good? How much did God have to do with this and how much did it just have to do with human carnality? All of this is here in a very complex way.
It lends itself to many different interpretations. And that is something that impresses me about the Bible, especially about the Old Testament stories. There is a lot of literary complexity in these stories. Not everything is black or white. There is a lot of gray, like every great literary text.
In my literature studies, I was always taught that the great texts, the great characters in literature are ambiguous characters, difficult to locate, they have good and evil coexisting within them. They love God or they love good but they also do bad things. Sometimes they are bad but they also love their family, they love a wife, a child, no one is totally demonic or totally good.
Think of David, for example, a man who loves God terribly, is willing to risk his life many times but also commits incredible atrocities that brought God's judgment for generations. You remember that the book that I wrote about Jehoshaphat, 'Feet of Clay', deals a lot with the moral ambiguity of human beings and that we see in the Bible. Josaphat himself, a man with a passion for God, made serious mistakes, and I have always said that in that zone of ambiguity, indecision, lack of definition, there is much richness for our lives.
And the Bible specializes in that, it specializes in presenting us with flesh and blood human beings. Not one hundred percent good and one hundred percent bad. And that is one of the things that convinces me that the Bible is a historical book, it is a trustworthy book. Because he is not there to portray artificially decorated and sanitized people, he presents us with the bad smell of his humanity and also presents us with the sublimeness of his loyalty to God and his nobility of spirit. And in that complexity we are invited to enter and take out the good and learn from the bad.
The Bible is not interested in presenting plaster saints, but men and women of flesh and blood, with blood running through their veins, and God dealing with them and advancing his purposes, like you and me, don't be offended, because that's how we are too , right?
We know, we love God but we are in a fight with ourselves. And this literary and biblical passage teaches us a lot about this. It registers a Rebeca and a Jacob overcoat, which are difficult to locate. Were they evil or were they people who loved God? Rebecca herself, for example, and it is important that you learn that many times even though the Bible does not give you a final dictation on a subject, or a character, the fact that you have to deal with that complex reality will to exercise you with your ethical and moral and spiritual muscles.
By having to ask yourself those questions alone, it will already help you to think in a more complex way of life, even if you do not have an answer. For example, Rebecca, is she a stubborn and biased woman with her son Jacob as a mother? Or is it a woman of integrity who is obeying the voice of God, who years before while her children were in her womb had told her, what would be the destiny of each of her two children, spiritually speaking? Did she simply carry out the will of God? Because God told her, in your womb there are two nations, in your womb there are two men who are fighting with each other and when they come to life one of them, the younger, not the older, but the younger will serve to his older brother and there will come a day when the older brother is going to get rid of the domination of his younger brother, but meanwhile he is going to serve, he is going to be the main one in the home.
She received this through a prophetic word, which you will remember God gave her when she went to the temple to ask God why this anguish that I feel in my womb, these two children of mine are fighting with each other? And God gave her a clear word of what was happening spiritually within her.
So what was Rebekah doing when they fight over her son Jacob, is she just obeying a spiritual voice and is she just saying, you know what? God said that it was Jacob through whom the birthright was to flow. And I don't see that my son Esau has the gifts of a man of God, I love him but the truth is that he was born to be a hunter and to be a man of action. And he hasn't necessarily lived up to the calling that would presuppose or the life that his calling, his birthright, would presuppose.
So, was Rebekah really just being like the hand of God to carry out her intent? And in that case then perhaps we would see Rebecca as a woman of great integrity, instead of being a schemer and a liar.
But I'm not sure about that and neither are you. So we can go home disagreeing. If you think she's a villain, amen. But don't crucify her either because I believe that there are good things in her and personally I think that this woman, as a mother, who had had them inside, had a very special intuition regarding the spiritual constitution of her two children.
And as it happens many times in the Old Testament and in Scripture that women are more sensitive to the spiritual intentions of God and it is possible that this woman was more like executing the divine decree, unlike her husband who was simply obeying the social convention that the eldest had to receive the blessing and inherited the double portion and was the spiritual authority of the family.
But God does not necessarily move in the conventional, but many times God chooses the unconventional. And God places whoever he gives the sovereign pleasure in places of spiritual authority. Because God seeks the heart, God seeks the endowment, God seeks love, God seeks loyalty to his kingdom, God seeks appreciation for his things and in this case it seems like Jacob since he was a child, indeed, from the womb of his Mom, Jacob longed for and appreciated what the birthright entailed.
While Esau was a man of the belly and of the body, a man of the field, a man of action, and Jacob was a boy who was more attached to his mother and to things of the spirit, I believe. And instinctively he knew that his family had been called to a universal mission, that through his family flowed the blessing for humanity, that through his lineage an entire nation would be formed that would bless the world spiritually and that there was a universal promise that it ran through his family's DNA and he wanted to be a part of that miracle. He wanted a place within the Kingdom of God and his priesthood.
Esau didn't even think that was important. And God saw that. And he saw it from before and determined that the one who honors me must be the one with the right. Because I believe that God was also giving us a universal lesson, as I was saying last Sunday, that in God it is not the gifted in the sense of the one who has the first place, the one who has gone to the seminary, the one who comes from a distinguished family. , the person whose father or grandfather was a distinguished pastor. God doesn't care about any of that. God goes to the person who is at the moment, in your life, perhaps you do not come from a great family past or whatever, but if you are perfect in your heart towards God, God wants to show his favor towards you.
And if you yearn and you are crying out to the Lord, God will bless you and use you even though others may have to be in front of the line. Because God has always used people like this, those who love, yearn, bellow, as the psalmist says, 'as the servant bellows for the stream of waters, so my soul cries out for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.’
Those are the people that God blesses. And I think Rebeca sensed this in her two children. And like a wild beast he launched himself to do the will of the Lord.
In that sense personally, I believe that Rebeca was more upright than Isaac. By going above the biological law and obeying the spiritual law of God who had established that Jacob would be the heir to the birthright.
And remember another thing that it was Esau who sold his birthright. I think the turning point in Esau's life was not when his mother plotted with Jacob to take poor old Isaac and perhaps a little senile, blind, and trip him up, and trick him by putting animal skins on Jacob's hairless forearms. , and dressing him in the garment of his brother Esau, which was a garment that smelled like the odor of man, of man's sweat. Perhaps Jacob's clothing smelled of incense and delicate perfumes, because he was a delicate boy and had never been in the fields, in the smoke of the firewood, in the open air, but their smells were different.
Then his mom says, no, dress in Esau's dress so that when he smells you, he smells Esau's man. And then like that, they plot and Jacob walks over and tries to make his voice deeper, Dad, it's me Esau, and he says, but son, that doesn't sound like my son Esau's voice. No, it's me, dad, yes. And so he makes up and tells a story to poor Isaac to make him believe that he is Esau and then he takes the promise and the blessing.
But remember that years before Esau possibly already at a decisive moment made a pact with Jacob. He's starving, he comes from the hunt, he comes to exercise and Jacob says, hey, what do you think? Let's make a Deal. Give me your birthright and I will give you this good stew that I have prepared here. And Esau not knowing that at that moment all the angels in heaven and all the demons in hell and God and Satan are watching to see what he is going to do, he believes that it is a moment like any other. But it is a moment pregnant with destiny, as many times our life happens, that we believe that we are living a daily moment and the whole universe is crouching to see what we are going to do. And maybe we will die and never know that that moment was a defining moment for all humanity. Who knows how many people have died and does not know that they have played a terrible role with respect to humanity.
And at that moment Esau, who doesn't appreciate anything spiritual, says, look, don't worry, it's okay, give me the food that birthright is an old wives' tale anyway, so give me the food and take my birthright. And Jacob tells him, no, wait, swear to me. Because this man was a businessman and he was wise and he knew that oaths before God are serious and when a word is given, God is there watching and he is a witness. So swear to me Okay, it's fine, I swear. Give me the food. And I did not know that that was where the matter was defined. The deal was done, the contract was signed, the delivery had been made. What Rebekah and Jacob do later is simply the realization and confirmation and execution of what was already determined in the judicial spiritual realm, when Esau handed over his spiritual right to his brother.
The rest, for me, is almost secondary, it is simply theater, because the decision had already been made, not by Jacob or by Rebecca, but by Esau himself. What God makes us responsible. God is a covenant God.
So when that time comes when Rebekah schemes with her son to dress like Esau and talk like Esau, and steal Esau's blessing, it's all settled. And I think then that Rebeca was probably a very ambiguous character, she didn't do things, it's true, in the most elegant way, and we should learn something too.
That is why I tell you that Scripture is very complicated. You see, it is not that God is necessarily supporting and endorsing the way, but the truth is that in the world, brothers, and in human history, many things happen that are not elegant or beautiful but God uses them to advance his purposes.
And I have learned through my life, reading the Bible, that God wants us to be as complex as the Bible when analyzing the events of the history of the culture, of our family life, in our lives, and that we are not as complex as the Bible. blunt Because God uses who he wants as he wants. I think, for example, of the drama of the pilgrims. I believe I have said that before, the coming of this group from Europe to the United States seeking religious freedom to worship.
And I believe that the birth of the United States, this great nation that has blessed humanity for so many years and has also been a pain in the bones of many other nations, was from God. This nation is born on powerful spiritual foundations, people who loved the Lord, but who also gave a big kick to the poor Indians who were here in the United States and were throwing them out little by little and they possessed the land.
Because they felt that it was as if the Israelites were entering Canaan and driving out the pagans. This is how the Puritans saw the drama of his coming. In reality, they took them out legally and, I say, that the first illegals were these whites who now tell us that we are illegal, honestly. Historically they pushed these nations and used legalistic gimmicks to say that since they had not created a complex culture, then they had no legal right. But they had it, they were here first.
But notice that here we kind of see God moving in a complex way in the sin of these people who later would not even want to teach the Gospel to the indigenous people many times so as not to have to struggle with Christian men and women. Notice how terrible the thing is.
And God created out of this a great nation that for centuries feared God but now at this time, I believe, that this nation has drifted further and further away, both at the official and governmental level, look at President Obama's decision recently, his statement that he endorses and supports gay marriage, he couldn't hide it anymore and had to because his hand was forced.
I believe that this nation is moving further and further away and here comes a group of Latin Americans and Africans and Haitians from other countries and little by little they are possessing the land. There are 14, 12, million Latinos and now these whites who stole the land from the indigenous people now say that we are stealing the land from them. I don't know if God is also moving in these processes to renew the spirituality of this nation, bringing men and women who come from their countries, fearing God and who love the Lord, many of them, and who are blessing this nation with your prayers and your fear of God or love of family, your healthy values, even though we are not perfect.
But I think that this process is also something similar. God using, yes, illegality and illegitimate forms and not totally sacred to bring a process. Because God sometimes uses sin to renew his purposes. So for me, when I see that, I see it in that complex way and that allows me to bless what is happening because I believe that in the long run the purposes of God are being advanced in very complex ways that are difficult to place. completely.
So live in peace, brother, sister, in your heart. But what I want to say is that these are the kinds of reflections that the Bible invites us to do. Because Rebeca is here, she is being biased, she is playing an ambiguous role. But I personally think that she was more astute and spiritually astute than Isaac, that if they let him, he would have given the birthright to a man who didn't deserve it. Because it's interesting that Esau first marries and chooses two pagan women which already implies something about how Samson too, his low regard for his family values and his spiritual life.
The Bible says that those women were like this, it was like a sting, a sore in the soul, because they were irredeemable women, they were pagan women and they caused Esau's parents a lot of pain. And then what about the descendants of Esau? It becomes the Edomite nation. Edom that is in the Bible, staunch enemies of Israel, people who took advantage over the centuries to persecute even their blood brothers. But Esau's offspring strayed completely from the ways of the Lord and became a people far from the ways of God because I believe they had a very different DNA, spiritual genetic code than Jacob's. And that is why Scripture speaks of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, because God does things in very strange ways in the world, brothers.
I think Rebecca understood this. This is the mystery of Rebecca. Yes, she did things a little inappropriate but in the long run, I think she carried out God's design because that's what God wanted.
So, these types of reflections illustrate to us how complex the moral issues recorded in Scripture are sometimes and the complex way in which God proceeds in history to carry out his sublime purposes that he has.
I'm going to jump around a lot and let me just wrap up with a couple of things for you specifically about the family dynamics that I see on record here. And I think that can be of benefit to us at level, at ground level. One of the things I see here is that this story invites me to reflect on the fact that God gives his gifts to whoever he wants, and not necessarily to the one who has the biological right. That God looks at the quality of the heart, the spiritual makeup of the individual and not necessarily the person who came first in line.
Number two, I believe that this also teaches me that bias and favoritism must be avoided in family dynamics. I am not sure, once again, if Rebeca defended Jacob out of mere human preference, of a mother who was partial to a son, or if she did it as I said, for sublime spiritual reasons.
But, in any case, when I examined the text and reflected on it, it invited me for a moment to meditate on it, because there is that problematic of favoritism there and whatever the text was, it is there and it reminds us of that and it is that kind of tells us, you know what? Although you cannot fully determine, but think about it, how important it is that we avoid favoritism and partiality in family dynamics.
If you have children, make sure that you distribute your love equally between them. It doesn't matter how they act, it doesn't matter that one went to college and got a PhD and the other was a crazy head, love them both. And express your love to them as much as possible, avoid expressing favoritism and treat them equally and with love, even if one is the one that benefits you the most and makes you proud of his great achievements and the medals he has from playing soccer and this and the other. No, bless them both and treat their children, brothers, equally because when parents are partial to their children and give them signs that you give me more like Isaac loved the hunt and the food that his son brought him from abroad . Although they give you the benefit they give you, love them because God loves his children equally, although they cause him headaches, but he makes his sun rise, he says, on just and unjust. He gives his rain on the bad and on the good.
Love your children with an equal heart and try to ensure that they always see the love of a father, a mother that is distributed equitably, because when there is no equal treatment, this creates terrible wounds in the children, some deformations, some resentments, inferiority complexes that follow them every day of their lives. Always try to identify if your children have that care, and you can tell because many times the boys give you signs of insecurity. When you hug the other, you look at the other right away, looking to see if you are going to hug him in the same way or not. Observe those signs and make sure that you always treat your children equally.
That is important. I don't know where Isaac and Rebekah totally fall but the text invites us to be sober about it. So, another thing, we have to remain true to the principles of Scripture above love, notice what I just said, let's love our children equally, but we also have to love Scripture more than our children. Do you understand what I mean?
In other words, as parents the guide in the way we educate our children is the word of God. If I have to confront my favorite son, even though I love him desperately because the word of God obliges me to confront him, I am going to do it. Today I see so many parents, for example, whose children have adopted a sexually inappropriate lifestyle, and I see many of them say, 'Well, he's my son and I love him, and he's struggling with a situation and I have to support it whatever it is.” I believe we should support our children but we should not support their sin. You have to tell your son, -'You know what, son? I love you, I will love you to death, count on me, but I do not accept your lifestyle, and I am not going to change the values of the Gospel and the word of God for my love for you.'
You understand? And in that, brothers, there is health. When parents tell our children, you know what? I love you to death but I love God and the word of God more than you. That is a blessing for our children. Love the word, always use the word, because what I see here is this, that Rebekah understands God's dictate for her children, she sees that Esau is not a suitable man for the high purpose that God has for him, and she I think he went over the top of that, and said, you know what? God said that Jacob and Jacob I will support.
Isaac does not do that, but Isaac simply lets himself be carried away by the conventions of society, the greatest is that he must receive the blessing, because we are going to bless him without realizing it, or discerning that God had much more complex purposes and that there were spiritual elements Much deeper is at stake between his two sons, and he is willing to go above God's bizarre purposes to support mere human convention. And I think not, in the spiritual life of the churches, for example, I am a pastor, I love my spiritual children, my spiritual brothers, I cannot be partial to any brother in the congregation simply because I love him, because he speaks more or give more money. No, in the life of the church and the Kingdom of God the family is second, God first, the principles.
I have shared with the brothers the drama that I have been seeing recently, a very renowned church, well known but with pain in my soul and a lot of fear and trembling I say, the pastor who has been a pastor for many years, has become biased with his family, in a very obvious, very clear way, and also with a person, a son who should never have been chosen by him as his successor, because that person does not have a spiritual calling, but because he loves his son, and there are so many pastors today that I think that is terrible, we believe that the church is like a dynasty. I am the pastor, I have my son, and when I die I am going to put my son to be the pastor. A pastor has no right to do that. The church is of the Kingdom of God and of the people of God, sincerely.
Now, I believe that if a son or a daughter has a spiritual endowment and the congregation recognizes it, and there is a process of recognition, it is good that the blessing continues to flow from people who have grown up in the church and who are blessed by the church. . Amen. But otherwise, look brothers, in the Kingdom of God family, friends, personal interests have to be last with the purpose of God and the values of the word of God. That has to be first, be a fierce defender of God's purposes. When you discern them, launch yourself and if you have to die or stand in front of the devil and say, you don't come through here, tell him. Whatever it costs you, and God will bless you and back you up for it. Amen.
So that's another very important element. We have to remain true to the principles of Scripture above love and loyalty to our children or family or friends. Another thing, a third principle, we have to promote good communication in the family, including the venting of disagreements and conflict.
Because I think that one of the problems in this family of Isaac and Rebeca is that you don't see that there was good communication. At no time do we see Isaac and Rebeca sitting down to talk about their differences, their intuitions, their desires. No, each one is for his side. Isaac with his son Esau and Rebekah with his son Jacob. Each scheming to reach a termination that is comfortable for them.
And I wonder, if Rebeca had told Isaac, you know what, Isaac? I see that a correction must be made here because our son Esau seems like he would be the chosen one but you know well, look at how he behaves, look at the type of woman he has chosen as his wife, look at his detachment from the things of God. And what do you think of Jacob? Look how he loves the Lord, look how God is working and endowing him, look at his passion for spiritual things. Don't you think Jacob is more suitable as the holder of the birthright?
I believe that in the family, whatever it is, I believe that there is a place in this interpretation to remember that in the home there must be ventilation, there must be communication, father and mother will not always agree. And we have to avoid families where the father is the boss because he is the head and what he says is what has to be done. And there has to be room for airing differences of opinion including the children as well.
I think that the children, although it is uncomfortable for us, I do not like my daughters to criticize me, I think that Meche is a little more tolerant than me, he has a softer character, and as a man, perhaps I don't like it, but I've learned to listen, and although I do it grumbling many times, but then I go to my room and say, you know what? I have to learn something here from this. And through the years, Meche knows why we talked about this, there has been a struggle but I know that in the long run I have to do what God says, and that is that I have to open the communication valves a little. There has to be space, there has to be questioning, there has to be friction and struggle. That is part of the moral education of our children.
And I believe that here in this case I do not see that, there is no communication but simply a machination, as sometimes happens in marriages. Mom wants to get away with it, dad wants to get away with it, and the children over there. There is no integration of family life and that is something in which you have to be proactive with your wife, with your husband. Force yourself to communicate, force yourself to speak. Don't just act instinctively, ah, because I'm the boss here, how dare you? No, listen and ask yourself if God is not mysteriously working through that little voice. Because God spoke through a donkey, if he had to do it with Balaam and he can do it with anyone, and he can even use a baby to correct you. Stay open.
In this case I think there is something about that as well. I think that another thing, when we do not allow that, in a family that is hermetically closed, where there is no communication, dialogue, negotiation, or process, what happens is that this gives rise to neurotic, dysfunctional, and deformed families, where children and mothers many times, because the problem often with the father, forgive me parents, that is the reality, many times what happens is that when a child is raised in a home where they do not have the opportunity to express themselves, to negotiate , to learn to be a man or a woman, sometimes questioning and doing it inappropriately, but how do you learn? What happens is that they create manipulative and lying children and women and mothers and wives too, manipulative and liars. Because it is the only way that the poor can defend themselves.
So, the originality and creativity in them find covert and secret, but also cartoonish and sinister ways to manifest their energy. And the best thing is that these energies are manifested within the legitimacy that is offered within the family to create serious and knowledgeable and morally complex, intelligent, cultured men and women, the loving struggle of the home is required, a home where there is space so that all these processes and fathers and mothers are willing to pay the price of feeling uncomfortable and often even resentful. But let them know that that is the human dynamic, that is the reality and that is how it has to be if we want to create powerful children, because the alternative is a very obedient boy but lacking in psychological and ethical complexity.
There are many children who behave perfectly but are a zero to the left intellectually, academically, morally, because everything is simply what mom and dad say. But you know what happens? When they go into the world and find a little girl there who manipulates them and the Tongonee are not prepared and they go into the world and take revenge for all the repression in a moment and they take advantage of disobedience, immorality immediately. And they do it with interest.
The best thing is that you control this process within the home. I believe that the home of Esau, Rebekah, Jacob and Isaac, was a home that was not working, there was no dialogue, there was no ventilation of what this woman thought, what Isaac thought. There was no enrichment and these guys were growing like two wild plants out there. There was no training of Esau's spiritual sensitivity, to prepare him for his lineage and his destiny.
In other words, all these things are at stake here. I hope we learn a little from it. I'm going to shut up because otherwise they're going to be here all afternoon.
Brothers, this is a very rich passage that invites us to see the mysterious, elusive, complex God that we have. And how serious the spiritual life is. Do not underestimate the importance of your calling, let us not underestimate how serious life is and how important it is to live it every day soberly thinking about the place you occupy. Perhaps Esau never thought that 3500 years, who knows better, later we would be talking about him and that his story would be incredibly used for rather, for negative illustrations of what a man should not do. But that's how it is.
Their drama has informed generations and yours, you have a great cloud of witnesses around you that you have to live life with great seriousness, you have a calling. There is a very great importance in your life and you have to live life always thinking that they are watching you, your children are watching you, your friends, your community, your church, the people who drive with you on Route 93 at 4 o'clock. the afternoon, and that you have to live life seriously. You are a man, a woman of God, a priestess, a king, a pastor, a shepherdess, a counselor, and you have to live very seriously before God, make heavy, solid decisions and ask God to give you wisdom and that enlightens you
Do not live life according to the conventions of the world, but live, what God says, what God wants and how can I be an instrument at this moment in my life to advance the interests of the kingdom. What others think of me, what the spiritually superficial want to do, that is their business, I am going to live according to the values of the Kingdom of God. And I will be an instrument in his hands.
May God bless you, may his grace be with you. Let's stand up. Take a moment to receive that word in your heart, press it deeply, do not leave here without putting an end to it, but then take it home and continue meditating on it and enter it into the depths of your heart.
We are going to make a prayer of surrender and recognition to the Lord in his spirit. God has great things for us at this time. But it requires a people that lives up to it, that lives morally, that lives ethically, that lives seriously, that lives with holy fear and trembling, that God has given us the birthright, God has given us great things, has placed great things in our hands, the future of this community, neither you nor I can imagine it. The future of the church of Jesus Christ in the coming decades, if Christ does not come before, is incredibly heavy and serious and requires men and women, young people, children, the elderly, who walk possessed by that sense of awe, of reverence.
You are something very special that God has created, you are a spear in the hands of the Lord. Do not live like a scoundrel, do not live like a son of the street, live like a prince, a princess, without pride but very aware of your great and terrible calling that God has placed in your hands. We live in times pregnant with intentionality in which God has great things he wants to do and he needs men and women who are like antennas who receive his messages, receive his energies, do not waste the call. Do not get lost in a conventional, religious, lukewarm, ordinary spirituality, get into the dark, dangerous, but sublime waters of the spirituality of God and his word and live there at that level, a hero, an adventurer, a soldier, a warrior of God, a warrior of God.
I bless your life and I bless the life of this community. Our families, I declare the grace of God over this church, those who are here, those who were here this morning, those who did not come, the Hispanic, North American, Asian, Afro-American, African communities, all these groups that God is assembling and bringing to this nation so that its purposes may be fulfilled. We want to be part of God's move and we ask that his word incarnate deep in our hearts and our lives.
Father, thank you, take us out of here possessed by the sense of your presence and your company. We bless our mothers, these noble women, single mothers, mothers with their husbands at home and we ask that your grace be with them. Also single mothers, Father, those who do not have a husband, those who do not have children, also bless them and may they feel totally supported by you and fully endowed Lord with all their complete character that they are in you, Father. Thank you Lord, thank you. Bless us on this day and we give our time to you with a great sense of privilege to be before your presence, in the name of Jesus. Amen. God bless you my brothers, the grace of the Lord be with you.
You never fail Lord and you always have purposes even though we cannot understand them, you always have purposes Lord. We are going to declare that chorus once more, we are going to say that you are infinite God.
