QT 10/13/2025 Gen 25:19–23, The danger of helping God

Genesis 25:19–23 (ESV) —

19 These are the generations of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham fathered Isaac, 20 and Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean, to be his wife. 21 And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren. And the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived. 22 The children struggled together within her, and she said, “If it is thus, why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord. 23 And the Lord said to her,

“Two nations are in your womb,

and two peoples from within you shall be divided;

the one shall be stronger than the other,

the older shall serve the younger.”

 

NOTE: We learn a lot of new information in this passage. First, Isaac was 40 years old when he married. We can assume he was established and he was knowledgeable about his occupation. In the previous chapter we did see him go out into the fields toward evening to meditate. The word, according to rabbinic tradition, can be translated to pray. It can also mean, to meditate, talk, complain, and reminds me of the story "Fiddler on the Roof" where Tevye, the father of daughters, has very conversational and questioning prayers to God. Here we see him pray for Rebekkah his wife over her barrenness.

 

We also see Rebekah seek God trying to understand what was happening in her body. God speaks to her (we don't know how) and tells her that she has twins. God tells her that one shall be stronger than the other (possibly Esau) and that the older (Esau) shall serve the younger (Isaac). I wonder if that is why she schemes to promote Isaac. The issue I have with her later scheming, as well as the favoritism, is that she should have just trusted God to fulfill his will, rather than trying to "help God."

 

We are all a little like Rebekkah, except we don't have a "specific prophesy" from God. But we still pray and the try to help God answer our own prayer, as if we know God's will and as if God needs some help. It is scheming and it can be very subtle. It is one of the lessons I have been learning over the last few years. When I find myself "thinking" or "dwelling" on some future interaction, it is a warning sign to me that I am not trusting God, but scheming. At that moment I pray:

 

1 Peter 5:7 (RSV) — 7 Cast all your anxieties on him, for he cares about you.

 

PONDER:

1. Do I trust God when I pray?
2. Or do I try to answer my own prayers?
3. Prudence and scheming are not the same things and we need to distinguish them in our hearts

 

PRAYER: Father, thank you for these days. Thank you for what I am learning. Thank you for answering prayers. Thank you for the peace that surpasses understanding when I let you take care of things.