Genesis 27:1 And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son, and said unto him, My son: and he said unto him, Behold, here am I
Have you ever run out? Maybe you are running and run out of energy. Maybe you are hiking and run out of water. Maybe you are driving through South Dakota and run out of fuel. This has happened to me. It is a bad feeling. What do you do when you run out? Sometimes we don’t know who we are trusting until we have exhausted all the resources we have.
In Genesis 27 you have a family, Isaac and Rebekah and their two sons, Jacob and Esau. This story shows who they were trusting, whether they were living by faith or by force. What is faith? Faith is knowing that God is enough. That is something these people had to learn because Isaac didn’t know that God was enough; Rebekah didn’t know that God was enough; neither Esau nor Jacob knew that God was enough. All of them were scheming to get their way.
What are some indications of not trusting God? First, faith is not scheming. It is not dishonest. In Genesis 27:1-4, we are told Isaac was old and nearly blind, and he schemes and connives to give Esau, his firstborn, the birthright and blessing. In the next several verses, Rebekah schemes to get Jacob the blessing by trickery, having Jacob pretend to be Esau in front of his nearly blind father. Isaac schemed to withstand God’s purpose. God had said the younger would be his heir, not the older. Rebekah schemed to help God accomplish His purpose. They both ignored God, but God’s way is always sufficient for God’s will.
Faith assumes that God is faithful, and you cannot trust those who do not trust God. When someone is living by their own means and not by trusting God’s truth, it is hard to trust them. Rebekah was dishonest, Jacob was dishonest, and Isaac was not living an honest life when he tried to give the blessing to the son to whom God said would not receive the blessing. So, faith is not scheming and dishonest.
Faith is not rebellious. Rebekah demanded precisely what she lacked. She says to Jacob, “Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command thee.” Verse 13 says, “And his mother said unto him, Upon me be thy curse.” He was to lie and deceive his father but Rebekah said, “Let me worry about that. Just do what I told you.” She wanted him to obey her.
In verse 43, after things go haywire and Esau wants to kill Jacob because of his scheming to steal the birthright and blessing, she says, “My son, obey my voice; and arise, flee thou to Laban my brother…and tarry with him a few days, until thy brother’s fury turn away.” Again, she was demanding precisely what she lacked. Was she in submission to Isaac? You might say, “Well, you would expect a child to obey.” Do you think Jacob was a child when this happened? I Peter tells us that Sarah obeyed Abraham and the Bible says that people who are living in subjection to the authorities God has placed in their lives are those who trust in God. Faith trusts God.
There may be times when I have questions. The early disciples preached the risen Christ and were thrown in prison for it. When they were freed by the act of God, they preached again and the religious leaders said, “Didn’t we tell you not to preach?” The disciples replied, “We ought to obey God rather than men.” We read that verse as if the disciples replied, “We ought to rebel against men rather than rebel against God.” No, they said, “We ought to obey God rather than men.” God never honors a rebellious attitude. If a day comes when we are told we cannot preach the truth, we will need to preach the truth, not because we are rebels but precisely because we are people of faith who obey God and the authorities God has placed in our lives.
Faith has a bias for obedience and the God-given discernment to know how to obey. Proverbs 1:7 says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge.” Wisdom and discernment come from obedience. If you obey, then you have discernment. Verse 8 says, “My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother.” God says, “If you obey Me, then you have discernment.” How do you obey God? You start by obeying the parents God has put in your life.
Being pious is not the same as being faithful. Being pious and sounding spiritual are not the same as living in obedience. Faith is not dishonest, doesn’t scheme and is not rebellious; it is not self-willed. Ultimately faith is not sensuous, informed strictly by one’s senses. Do you know why Isaac loved Esau? It is because he loved the food that Esau hunted. Do you know why Esau gave up his birthright? It was because he loved food. He sold his birthright for a bowl of pottage. He despised and profaned it, treated it as not worth much. In their own ways these people prioritized their senses above God’s commands, promises, and ethics.
Ultimately, Isaac was deceived by his own senses. The Bible says in verse 1, “It came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see.” Isaac was old and nearly blind. How was it that Isaac was so easily deceived? We might say, “Because he was blind.” That is true, but if you look at the rest of the story, you find that all five of the senses are talked about and Isaac depended on all of them, what he smelled, tasted, heard, felt, and could not see. Isaac was as deceived by the senses he had as by the one sense he did not have.
So many times we say, “I feel like this is right,” “I don’t see it,” or “This doesn’t make sense to me.” These are talking about our senses. Faith is not blind; sight is blind. No one can be more easily deceived than the person who says, “I saw it on the internet, so I know it is true.” The easiest person to deceive is a person dependent upon his senses. Faith is living beyond what you can see to what God knows.
So, with what are you replacing God today? Is it scheming? Is it willfulness? Is it your senses? Acknowledge today that God is enough, because He is.