Hero or villain?
The problem with deception is that you don’t know when you are being deceived. Have you ever thought about this? Deceptions and lies from the enemy have taken down the best people. Life doesn’t play-out as clear as a superhero movie or a comic book where the is a “bad” and a “good” guy. News flash! You might be the bad guy sometimes in certain areas in your life. I think this type of “looking for the villain” approach can mess up how we view scripture.
Over the last few weeks, the Lord has been teaching me so much about Jacob/Israel. Jacob lives his life both playing the villain and being the hero. He was born to Issac and Rebekah after a very tough pregnancy with a twin brother who was Esau. We know they were not identical twins because Esau was hairy. This brotherhood was also unique in the fact that Issac loved Esau and Rebekah loved Jacob.
Jacob was a mama’s boy. Esau was a man’s man. Esau was born first but Jacob came out holding onto his brother’s heel. His name Jacob means “holder of the heel”. For anyone in this culture, the “first born” idea was everything. Because of his firstborn status, Esau would be the one to inherit everything. Don’t miss that word everything. Esau had a grandfather (Abraham) to whom God had made a pretty crazy promise. Esau’s inheritance was wealth, money and fame! Maybe that’s why Esau was so loved by his father. We know from scripture Esau had everything going for him.
27 When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents. 28 Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
Living in a very patriarchal culture, not being the first born, dwelling in tents with your Mama, and heck, scripture even says Jacob’s skin was smooth - Jacob doesn’t sound like the picture of masculinity. It doesn’t sound like a leader. But Jacob was good at “stewing” in both senses of the word. Jacob could cook, but he also had a skill of ambition and calculated manipulation. So the scene is set. Manly man Esau heads out to hunt food, while Jacob stews.
29 Once when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was exhausted. 30 And Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted!” (Therefore his name was called Edom.) 31 Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright now.” 32 Esau said, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?”33 Jacob said, “Swear to me now.” So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. 34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.
Isn’t it just like the enemy to place the thing we need right in front of us, yet his deception leads us down the path of selling the identity God has given us?
You see, the enemy can’t touch our identity until we give it to him, so he places things in front of us that we think we need or we convince ourselves that “it’s an open door from the Lord”. All this is done when in reality that identity in Jesus is all we need. Satan is a little stew-making punk! Just like . . .
I hesitate here.
Jacob, let me introduce myself to you. My name is Ryan. I got you beat. I very often reject where God has placed me and sit and stew on how to work my way out. I often think of how Esau doesn’t deserve that birthright when I have been through more!!!
Just like I have had to go on a journey with God and meet people just like me, so did Jacob. But, just like me, this isn’t a well-timed or even planned journey. Life happens . . . but that is where God works best. He makes the unseemly, unplanned journey a date with destiny.
Jacob, with a little encouragement from his mama, decides to take the blessing of his not-so twin brother too. Issac, getting old and with bad eyesight, senses that death is close. So he sends Esau out to kill a final meal for him. While Esau is gone, Jacob dresses up in animal hair and tricks his father into giving him his brother’s blessing.
18 So he went in to his father and said, “My father.” And he said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?” 19 Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, that your soul may bless me.”
This is the part of the superhero movie where people start yelling at the screen. LOW MOVE BRO! Jacob takes the blessing and the birthright and flees for his life. Thus, his journey with the Lord begins. Long story short, Jacob falls in love, but his future father-in-law Laban is a match for Jacob’s stewing kind and deceives Jacob out of his true love. Jacob ends up with two wives as his pay for many years of serving Laban.
Don’t you think Jacob gets to points in this long journey away from his family where he doesn’t know who he is anymore? That’s what happens when we are deceived; we live lives full of deception and manipulation propping up a skillful, hairy, firstborn, twin brother facade in front of our insecurities and it is so wearying. Not just tiring but wearying. All this while living scared to see if my old life (Esau) is going to catch up with me. In Genesis 32, that is exactly where Jacob is. He is scared looking over his shoulder for a brother who he fears wants him dead and he runs into a man that he wrestles all night long.
22 The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had. 24 And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. 25 When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 26 Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” 27 And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28 Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.”
Did you see it?!?!? Jacob broke! Jacob, known and named by his past, owns it! The deception and manipulation leaves and Jacob owns his identity. He stole his brothers identity and that wasn’t good enough. Even when his father Issac asked the same question, “Who are you?,” Jacob continued with his manipulation and said that he was Esau. But in this holy bout, he owns the liar, deceiver, and villain that he is. In those moments, Jesus gives us new names! In those moments, nations are named. In those moments, heroes are born.