I Did It My Way

I Did It My Way

Rebekah

Read: Genesis 27:41–28:5

Did Rebekah feel guilty about deceiving the husband she had lived with for so many years? Was she ashamed of taking advantage of his advanced age and poor eyesight? Or did she excuse her deception as a means that justified the end? Did she really believe that she was helping God work out his plan for Jacob to have precedence over his older brother?

Whatever Rebekah’s feelings or intentions, she got what she wanted. Isaac gave Jacob the blessing usually reserved for the firstborn son. Rebekah “won” in the sense that her plan worked, but she soon learned how much she had lost. When Esau threatened to kill Jacob, she had to send Jacob away to wait until Esau’s jealous anger cooled.

As she watched her favorite son leave home, probably with hot tears stinging her eyes, did she wonder if she would ever see him again? By the time Jacob returned twenty years later, Rebekah would be buried beside her mother-in-law, Sarah, who also suffered from taking matters into her own hands instead of waiting for God to carry out his plan in his way.

People are no different today than in Old Testament times. Like Rebekah, we still struggle with the desire to do things our own way, even when it comes to God’s work. When we are focused on a problem, we may forget to look for God’s will in the situation and resolve it by any means possible.

God is no different today than he was in Rebekah’s time. His intentions and purposes will stand, with or without our cooperation, and often despite our interference. Even when it looks as if God’s plan needs our help, it’s best to concentrate on his will, not on our own ideas of how things need to be done. We win only when God gets his way.

The LORD’s plans stand firm forever; his intentions can never be shaken.

Psalm 33:11