Rebekah and the Quest for Her Own Plan

By: Rebekah Hargraves

Photo Courtesy of Emma Matthews Content Production

“Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt game and to bring it. So Rebekah spoke to Jacob her son, saying, “Indeed I heard your father speak to Esau your brother, saying, ‘Bring me game and make savory food for me, that I may eat it and bless you in the presence of the Lord before my death.’ Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to what I command you. Go now to the flock and bring me from there two choice kids of the goats, and I will make savory food from them for your father, such as he loves. Then you shall take it to your father, that he may eat it, and that he may bless you before his death.” ~Genesis 27:5-10

I most definitely live up to my old namesake’s sin struggle here, I hate to say. I suppose many of us can relate - we want what we want, how we want it, and when we want it. We think we know best, we have our own agenda, and if God doesn’t jump to make it happen, well, we’ll just take matters into our own hands. Ever been there? If so, you certainly have company with Rebekah (both of us Rebekahs!).

Trouble was brewing in Rebekah's family nearly from the very beginning (literally - Rebekah's twins even fought while still in the womb - see Genesis 25:22-23!). To make family dynamics worse, parents Isaac and Rebekah played favorites, with Isaac preferring Esau and Rebekah favoring Jacob. This is seen most clearly in the passage quoted above from Genesis 27. Esau is on his death bed and desires to give his son, Esau, a special blessing. Rebekah, catching wind of the plan, schemes with Jacob (perhaps her influence is to blame for his then being known for quite a while after as a deceiver?) to get Isaac to bestow that special blessing on him instead. 

What is particularly sad about this is that it is this very plan of deception which leads to a years-long schism between brothers, a schism that often led to Esau wanting to go so far as to murder Jacob. God later heals the broken relationship in a wonderfully touching reconciliation story that you can read about in Genesis 32, but the damage is nevertheless done for many years to come. All because Rebekah took it upon herself to operate according to her own plan and her own desires and influenced her son to do the same.

Sometimes in life we will be required to give up plans, desires, and goals that really mean a lot to our hearts. Not just things that we would kinda like to see happen but don’t really care one way or another if they don’t come to pass. No, I’m talking things that are heartfelt, soul-level, incredibly important things to us, things that we want so desperately to happen that, if they don’t, we wonder how we will go on. 

This is where knowing and relying on sound theology comes in. We will only be able to willingly relinquish our own plans and desires if we trust that God knows best and operates in our lives out of a heart of immense love, care, and concern for us. We will only trust God in this way if we love Him deeply, and we will only be able to love Him deeply if we truly know Him. I bet you can guess what comes next - we will only truly know Him if we know His Word. 

Yes, everything always circles back to the importance of knowing and being in the Word, because it is just that crucial to our ability to live our one life well to the glory of God and advancement of His kingdom. Paul makes this clear in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 - “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

It is this very Word of God that encourages us with such perspective-changing and hope-filled truths as those contained in passages like Jeremiah 29:11-13 (“'For I know the thoughts that I think toward you’, says the Lord, ‘thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.’“) and Romans 8:28 (“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.“).

The realities of these truths do not mean that we will be sheltered away from ever having to experience hard, trying, heartbreaking times in our lives - after all, when the prophet Jeremiah penned those words of the Lord’s, God’s people were currently enduring what would become a 70-year period of Babylonian exile! And the phrase “all things” in Romans 8:28 refers to just that - all things, the good, bad, and ugly. 

What is ultimately more encouraging, however, is not the idea that we will get all we want and our own plan for a pain-free life will come to fruition, but rather that even as we go through the ups and downs of life, we will have the Lord God Almighty on our side and serving as our help, hope, and defense through it all. That, my friend, is some pretty great news!