The stuff you learn when you’re reading your kid stuff. When reading to their children, all parents hope to pass on valuable wisdom. This of course is the hope of Our Heavenly Father especially regarding what He wrote.
Take the account of Isaac, Rebekah, Esau and Jacob. Here’s some additional insights I learned about favouritism, deception and marriage dysfunction when I read it out from a kid’s bible.
Firstly, a recap: Isaac and Rebekah had twin sons, Esau and Jacob. The parents each had their favourite son. Fair enough but unfortunately they acted on it. That didn’t make for a harmonious home life, especially when one of the skills they passed on was deception. The fruit of favourtism and deception? Rebekah coached her favourite son Jacob to steal Esau’s blessing from his father.
So goes this well known story. But here are the insights which struck me this time around.
Marriage Maintenance
It certainly wasn’t good that Rebekah had taught deception to her son but wait up, it gets worse. She was purposely coaching her son to deceive his own father – Deception plus rebellion. And not just of the son but Rebekah herself since this act itself is one of deceiving her own husband. Clearly, there was marriage dysfunction and it was now spreading further into the family affecting father-son and brother-brother relations.
Things didn’t start that way. The lesson? Maintain your marriage or it will naturally and unpleasantly deteriorate.
Consequences
What came of this deception? Hatred and murder entered Esau’s heart and Jacob had to run away. The family was broken up. A spiritual separation as seen in a wife’s willingness to deceive her husband had now manifested in a physical separation. Rebekah wanted to bless her favourite son but her plan put him in exile. Her act of betrayal also lost her Esau as reflected in her words to Jacob, “Why should I lose both of you in one day?”
Of course, Jacob was complicit in the deception. He too suffered the consequences of his decisions by himself being a victim of deception.
It does end well. Jacob and Esau do make amends. But it is intriguing that the last mention of Rebekah in the text is just prior to Jacob going into exile. Phone and video communication hadn’t been invented yet. Not for a long, long time. It may be that the ultimate consequence of deceptively blessing her favourite son was to lose him soon after that.
Heady stuff for a kid’s bible reading. Back then, my 11 month old son could skip those insights but for the rest of us, take heed.
