When We Try to Help God

Genesis 27:9-17

⁹Go to the flock and bring me two good young goats, so that I may prepare from them delicious food for your father, such as he loves. ¹⁰And you shall bring it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.” ¹¹But Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. ¹²Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing.” ¹³His mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, bring them to me.”

¹⁴So he went and took them and brought them to his mother, and his mother prepared delicious food, such as his father loved. ¹⁵Then Rebekah took the best garments of Esau her older son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son. ¹⁶And the skins of the young goats she put on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. ¹⁷And she put the delicious food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.

(ESV)

Thought:
Rebekah for the most part is a woman that Bible shows as honourable and godly, but then this story comes into frame. She has trusted God in leaving her father’s house in journeying to the Land of Canaan to marry a man she does not know, except that he is her cousin. Yet when she receives this promise from God that “the older will serve the younger”, that Jacob would be favoured over Esau, and yet it appears that it is going to plan. Isaac is about to bless Esau. Does she choose to trust in God?

No. She resorts to deception and manipulation, makes you wonder where Jacob learnt it from. Do you know why the Jews killed Jesus besides hating him? They thought his movement of disciples would lead to an uprising and therefore Rome would come and destroy them. They knew the promise that the Land of Canaan was theirs but when it was threatened, rather than trust in God they murdered him.

They deceived people, bringing false witnesses against Jesus, they manipulated Pilate through pressure tactics in order to crucify Jesus. They have the promise from God, but yet they are acting like devils in order to keep it. Jacob would show himself to be very much the same in his actions throughout his life, in interactions with his father, brother and uncle.

God doesn’t need help keeping his promises, we know the promises of God, how he is working all things to our good, how he will never leave us, how he will save all those who come to him in faith and repentance. But rather than trust him, we give him reasons why we are such good Christians so that he won’t leave us. We don’t like God’s plan so we use sinful means to make his plan seem better to our minds, chasing things we shouldn’t for happiness because we actually just don’t trust him. Or we say we trust that he will save those who come in faith, but then we think if we send our kids to all the right things, teach them the answers to all the questions, God must save them, or at least will want to save them. Again we try to manipulate him, deceive him, anything but actually sit back and trust that has everything under control.

We are people of faith, who trust in a God we cannot see, so don’t always expect his workings to be visible either. He will be faithful to his promises, he always has been.

Reflection:
This passage invites us to examine where we, like Rebekah, try to take control when God’s timing or methods unsettle us. We often use pressure, planning, or manipulation to secure what He has already promised. Faith means resisting the urge to “fix” God’s plan and instead learning to rest, obey, and trust that He is working even when we cannot see it.

Prayer:
Father, forgive me for the ways I try to control Your work instead of trusting Your promises. Teach me to rest in Your timing and Your wisdom, not my own schemes. When fear tempts me to manipulate outcomes, remind me that You are faithful, sovereign, and good. Help me walk in quiet trust, confident that You will accomplish all You have said. Amen.