Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Where's Jesus? The story of Jacob stealing the blessing. (Genesis 27)

As I continue on a new line of posts entitled "Where's Jesus?"  I am thinking that every Wednesday I will post a thought on this topic. Today, in my second posting in this line, I would like to explore the story of Jacob stealing the blessing from Esau.  The story is found in Genesis 27.  Where is Jesus in this story of a younger brother tricking his elderly father into giving him the family blessing?  Where is Jesus in this story where Jacob lies to his father? Where is Jesus in a story where the prime player says "The Lord your God gave me success" (v.20) as he perpetuates the ruse in order to scheme his way into blessing?
I see two possibilities:

  1. The first is that Jesus is pictured in the story as an ante-type.  Where Jacob has to scheme and trick his way to blessing, Jesus willingly bestows the blessing on us.  As we come to him in truth, expressing our sin, and the trickery we are involved in, Jesus extends to us the blessing of forgiveness and sonship.
  2. The second is that where Esau, the older son was humiliated and lost everything in order for the wayward younger son to be blessed, similarly, Christ was humiliated and lost communion with God as he hung on the cross crying "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me," in order for his wayward brothers (the Church) to be blessed.
Here are two places I see Jesus.

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