ƒ Christianity for Thinking People: The Price of Duplicity

Wednesday, December 6, 2006

The Price of Duplicity

This week we study the deception and estrangement in the households of Isaac and Jacob - Genesis 25:19 through chapter 29. For those of us who may have experienced deception and estrangement within their own family, it is amazing and reassuring to consider that God worked through this family to bring an end to sin, suffering and death.

It is interesting to note that this family's estrangement arose out of Rebekah's desire to see the will of God exercised in the life of her family. But, as with the generation before, seeking to do God's will using human power and intellect results in alienation and pain for generations to come.

As always, we see patterns of the controversy between good and evil. Note the following comment by Matthew Henry (1662 - 1714).

"This struggle between Jacob and Esau in the womb represents the struggle that is maintained between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan:
(1) In the world.
The seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent have been contending ever since (Gen 3:15), and this has occasioned a constant uneasiness among men. ...
(2) In the hearts of believers.
No sooner is Christ formed in the soul than immediately there begins a conflict between the flesh and spirit, Gal 5:17. The stream is not turned without a mighty struggle, which yet ought not to discourage us. It is better to have a conflict with sin than tamely to submit to it."

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