God and Evil
How do you understand God’s relationship with evil in the world? Maybe you think evil is just an illusion and the way to overcome it is mind over matter. Maybe you envision Satan and God fighting it out in heaven, two equal and opposing forces vying for supremacy. Maybe you think evil is just relative, or that there’s no such thing as good or evil only how an individual feels about things, that it’s just social preferences masquerading as “good” or “evil.” Maybe you believe that God created the world but that he did not and does not know all outcomes, that he doesn’t know the future but is working hard to make sure that evil will not win the day.
How do you understand God’s relationship with evil in the world? This isn’t a merely academic question. How we answer this will shape our response to the real evil that comes into our lives. And it will come. The Bible says, “Through many afflictions we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (Jn. 15:20). “All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim. 3:12). We are “fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him” (Rom. 8:17). “Not only the creation, but we ourselves…groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Rom. 8:23). Evil, sin, and suffering will be part of our lives as long as we live.
Comfort, Not Coddling, Is What We Need
My job as one of your pastors is not to coddle you. I want to bring you into the comforts of Christ, but for you to really enjoy the warm blanket of his comforts, your bed has to be made of the steel of biblical truth. Coddled Christians fall apart when their lives fall apart. They become numb with confusion and rage at the God who wasn’t supposed to allow evil or suffering into their lives. They come to their pastors asking, “If this is the way God is, why didn’t you tell us?”
One of my goals in however many years the Lord gives me with you is to build a bed of biblical truth for you that will help you keep the faith when evil comes and to strengthen your courage and put the warm blanket of Christ’s comforts over you when evil seems to prevail in your life.
A Tire Iron and A Warm Blanket
My aim in today’s sermon, from Genesis 27, is to show you that sin and evil never nullify the purposes of God in your life. Even more, my aim is to show you that sin and evil actually succeed in making God’s gracious purposes come to pass. This is the steel bed of biblical truth that will hold us up when evil comes. As one writer says, “I know that a tire iron cannot caress a bruised heart, but if your car is rolling over on you and about to crush you, a cold, steel perpendicular tire iron might save your life. Then later, at home, as you tell the story, tears will flow, and Jesus will hold you as you sob for joy.”[1] In other words, if the back of our faith is broken because we think God is evil or absent, then we won’t welcome him when he comes with the warm blanket of his comfort. How we think about God’s relationship with evil will shape the way we respond when evil knocks on our door.
Genesis 27 is one of many places in the Bible that shows us that God’s relationship with evil isn’t reactionary, but purposeful. The main point of this chapter is that God uses evil to push forward his purpose of blessing the world. We’ll see that human sin doesn’t nullify God’s purposes but actually succeeds in making those purposes come about. This text shows us that sinful scheming actually leads to the fulfillment of God’s promises. It teaches us that God is sovereign over sin.
In this text, we’ll see Rebekah’s scheme (vv. 1-13), Jacob’s deceit (vv. 14-25), Isaac’s blessing (vv. 26-38), and Esau’s fury (vv. 39-46). In this text, God wants to show us that his promises move forward through sinful scheming.
Favoritism in Abraham’s Family
In verses 1-13, we see Rebekah’s scheme. Isaac and Rebekah are clearly not on the same page here. What happened in their marriage to bring them to this place? It looked so good in the beginning. When Abraham’s servant went to find a wife for Isaac, the Lord led him to Rebekah. Her family didn’t want her to go right away, but she volunteered to go all the way to Canaan to marry a man she didn’t know. After the long journey, she saw Isaac in the distance and modestly veiled herself. She became Isaac’s wife and the text says, “He loved her” (24:67). When they were struggling to have children, “Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife” (25:21). The Lord answered his prayer and she conceived and gave birth to twins, Esau and Jacob.
When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter while Jacob was a homebody. This is when Isaac and Rebekah’s marriage started to break down. We read in 25:28, “Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.” The heart of their marriage problem was favoritism. “Isaac loved Esau…but Rebekah loved Jacob.”
The narrator Moses highlights the division this caused in the family. He calls Esau “his son” rather than “their son” (v. 5) and Jacob “her son” not “their son” (vv. 6, 17). Isaac himself calls Esau “my son” (vv. 1, 21, 24, 37) and Rebekah calls Jacob “my son” (vv. 8, 13, 43). Rebekah is so biased toward Jacob that she’d rather receive a divine curse for him than obey God’s will (v. 13). Isaac is so biased toward Esau that he deliberately leaves Jacob out when he calls Esau to receive his blessing (v. 1), when it was customary for a dying man to call all his sons to his side to receive an appropriate blessing, what he would later do with his twelve sons (ch. 49).
We don’t know why there was favoritism in the family, but we do know that it was the root sin that wreaked havoc on Abraham’s family for generations. Jacob will later repeat the sins of his parents. “Now (Jacob) loved Joseph more than any other of his sons” (37:3). Favoritism infected this family and like a cancer it attacked the relationships between husband and wife and between siblings.
Favoritism led Isaac to overlook the sin of his favorite son. Isaac should’ve known that Esau wasn’t worthy of his blessing, that he had done nothing but demonstrate that he was the seed of the serpent, not the seed of the woman. Esau despised his birthright, selling it for a bowl of soup (25:34), showing that he wasn’t worthy of the privilege of being the firstborn. Then when he’s forty years old, he marries two Hittite women (26:34-35). Remember how adamant Abraham was that Isaac not marry a woman from Canaan but rather someone from his kin folk (24:3)? Esau didn’t seem to understand that God called his family to be a set apart and holy nation. So he commits polygamy and marries women that he should’ve never married. Isaac should’ve seen that Esau wasn’t acting worthy of the privilege of being the firstborn. But he was blinded by favoritism, and his sin devastated his family.
Favoritism in Your Family
You may have experienced favoritism in your family. Maybe you’re still experiencing it. Favoring one child over the others does nothing but harm all the children, even the one favored, and harm the marriage. This sin is so harmful that one counselor describes it as “covert incest.” He writes, “Covert incest occurs when a child becomes the object of a parent’s affection, love, passion, and preoccupation. The parent, motivated by the loneliness and emptiness created by a chronically troubled marriage or relationship, makes the child a surrogate partner. The boundary between caring love and incestuous love is crossed when the relationship with the child exists to meet the needs of the parent rather than those of the child…The child becomes an object to be manipulated and used so the parent can avoid the pain and reality of a troubled marriage…It is important to understand that parents re-create their own family systems. Most parents are not malicious and are not aware of the effect they have on their children because a part of their own childhood is buried deep within. Sadly, if one’s own childhood is not seen for what it really was, the pain of these incestuous relationships gets passed on from one generation to the next. If parents never recover their lost childhoods, their grief deepens. They continue to expect their children to be there for them in ways they wished their parents had been. When this expectation goes unmet, parents see their children as ungrateful, unloving, and selfish. The result heightens struggles between adult children and aging parents. Willpower or the right set of moral standards isn’t enough to produce lasting, healthy changes. Only by facing one’s past can one take responsibility for oneself and reclaim the vitality surrendered by being a parent’s surrogate spouse.”[2]
The sin of favoritism has generational effects. This was true in Abraham’s family, and it may be true in yours. If you’ve wondered why you feel so conflicted toward a parent who has shown great care for you, it may be that you received their care for their sake, not yours. If you’ve ever wondered why one of your parents is cold and distant and perhaps even antagonistic toward you, it may be that you’re receiving their anger toward their spouse for giving you the emotional depth they should’ve given them. If you’ve ever wondered why there’s such antagonism or strife or ambivalence between you and your siblings, it may be because of favoritism. There’s also good reason to believe that these kinds of sinful parent-child relationships create conditions for disordered sexual desires that start to play themselves out during adolescence.
Parent’s, the best thing you can do for your children is twofold. First, be honest with yourself about your own story, about how you’re, perhaps unconsciously, recreating your family system and how you’re wanting your kids to give you things God never designed them to give you. And second, pursue with all your might a deepening relationship with your spouse. Marriage is the most fundamental human institution in the world. God intends husbands and wives to be growing together into a “one flesh” union, which means growing in emotional depth and genuine care and concern for each other’s well-being. Husbands and wives, pray for this in your marriage. Husbands, lead your wives into the hard and honest conversations that need to happen to get you there. Singles, consider how your family system has and is shaping you and pray for God to heal whatever may be broken. Church members should be thinking and talking and praying through these things together. We’re called to “bear one another’s burdens” (Gal. 6:2). Marriages that aren’t growing steadily healthier are fertile soil for favoritism, and when this sin springs up, its shoots will start to grow and spread over your family for generations.
Rebekah’s Scheme
The sin of favoritism doesn’t have the last word in Abraham’s family, and it doesn’t have to have the last word in our families either. Sin does not stop God’s good purposes in our lives.
But sin does lead Rebekah to concoct a plan to steal Esau’s blessing for her favorite son Jacob. Rebekah’s plan depended on Isaac’s bad eyesight (v. 1). It seems that he was blind in more ways than one. He should’ve realized that Esau had disqualified himself from the blessing. But he pushes blindly ahead and, like Esau, he’s a man controlled by his appetite.
Fortunately for Jacob, Rebekah hears Isaac’s plan to cut him out of his will and she springs into action and formulates a plan that will allow Jacob to get the blessing. It’s a simple but bold plan. While Esau is out hunting, she’ll prepare a meal for Isaac and Jacob will serve it to him and receive his blessing.
Instead of objecting to this deceitful scheme, Jacob raises a logistical question (vv. 11-12). Jacob understands the risk. He knows that if it doesn’t work, he’ll be cursed instead of blessed. Rebekah quickly dismisses his concern, saying that the curse would fall on her, not him (v. 13). Modest Rebekah has become quite domineering: “Only obey my voice” (cf. vv. 8, 43). Rebekah is so blinded by her preoccupation with Jacob that she’s doing whatever she has to do to make sure he’s blessed. One wonders if her care for Jacob was more for him or for her?
Jacob’s Deceit
Rebekah wasn’t the only one willing to deceive to get the blessing. In verses 14-25, we see Jacob’s deceit. Rebekah prepares the meal and puts goatskins on Jacob so that Isaac will think he’s Esau if he touches him. Then Jacob goes into Isaac with the food. His heart was probably racing as he wondered if this plan would work. Would Isaac recognize his voice? Would the goatskins fool him? Would he taste the difference between young goat meat and venison? When would Esau return? Those goat skins were probably drenched in sweat as he walked into his father’s tent. But there was no turning back now. The sinful family system his parents created have led him here. What will Jacob do?
Verses 18-25 tell us that he’s just as willing to sin to get what he wants as are his parents. He wants to get this over with quickly (v. 19), but Isaac is in no hurry. He tries to discern who he is, testing him five times. Verse 18, “Who are you my son?” Verse 20, “How is it that you have found (the game) so quickly?” Verse 21, “Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.” Verse 24, “Are you really my son Esau?” And in verse 26, “Come near and kiss me, my son.”
When Isaac finally smells Esau’s scent on his clothes, he’s convinced (v. 27). God put all of Isaac’s remaining senses to work for his purposes: his nose, his hands, his ears, and his palate convinced Isaac that this was indeed Esau.
The problem is that it wasn’t. Jacob followed Rebekah into a sinful scheme of deception. Jacob flat out lied to his father, saying that he was Esau (vv. 19, 24), and he even uses the name of the Lord to promote his lies in verse 20. The Lord is still “Isaac’s God” to Jacob. That will change after an all-night wrestling match in chapter 32. But for now Jacob is hell-bent on doing whatever he has to do to please his mother and get the blessing for himself.
Isaac’s Blessing
Rebekah and Jacob’s sinful scheming works. In verses 26-38, Isaac does indeed bless Jacob. Isaac speaks three blessings over Jacob. Verse 28 is a blessing of fertility in the field. Verse 29a is a blessing of political supremacy. Verse 29b is a promise of reciprocal blessings and curses, echoing the original blessing Abraham received in 12:3. Lying Jacob will be blessed and he will be a mediator of blessing to others.
Interestingly, Isaac only focuses on the material and physical aspects of the covenant blessing, leaving out the spiritual and missional dimensions. There’s no mention of God’s presence or blessing all the nations. Isaac’s physical and spiritual eyes are failing. Favoritism led Isaac to overlook the sin of his favorite son Esau, and now he seems to only be concerned with material not spiritual matters.
After Jacob receives the blessing, he leaves just before Esau returns (v. 30). Esau brings the meal he prepared into Isaac and introduces himself. Isaac is understandably confused, but when he realizes what happened his whole body reacts (v. 33). Once he gave the blessing, it couldn’t be taken back. Perhaps he finally realizes that he’s been fighting against God’s purposes, as Esau has, and he finally accepts defeat: “Yes, and he shall be blessed” (v. 33).
Esau also seems to understand this. Isaac’s extreme panic is matched by Esau’s extreme distress (v. 34). He finally realizes that he’s lost everything and Jacob has gained everything. Isaac doesn’t mince words about what happened: Jacob deceived him and stole Esau’s blessing (v. 35). Esau complains bitterly and points out that Jacob is appropriately named (v. 36). Like every son, Esau longs to have the blessing of his father: “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?” (v. 36)
Isaac’s heart is broken for his son: “What then can I do for you, my son?” (v. 37) Because of his sin of favoritism, Isaac can’t even bless the son he loved. All he can do is leave him in agony (v. 38b). Sin has thoroughly destroyed what Isaac loved the most.
Esau’s Fury
The damage of this sinful family system and this sinful scheme is extensive. Verses 39-46 tell us that Esau responded with murderous fury. Esau only found comfort in thinking about killing his brother (v. 42). Rebekah again takes control and commands her favorite son to flee to her brother Laban “until your brother’s fury turns away – until your brother’s anger turns away from you” (vv. 44-45).
These verses yet again confirm that Esau is the seed of the serpent, not the seed of the woman, reminding us of the conflict promised in 3:15, where the Lord says to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring.” Esau wants to murder his brother just like Cain murdered Abel, so Isaac says that Esau will live a wandering existence, like Cain and Ishmael, in the wilderness beside Canaan rather than in the lush land of Canaan (v. 39). Esau is another Cain who’s driven away from the good land (4:14). Esau has despised his birthright, married two Canaanite women, and wants to kill his brother Jacob, the seed of the woman. The seed of the serpent is alive and well in him.
But Jacob receives the blessing. His descendants will inherit the Promised Land. He is the seed of the woman through whom God will crush the head of the serpent.
Does God Approve of Deception?
But Jacob is a scoundrel, a liar, and a thief! Does Jacob being blessed mean that God approves of all his deception? By no means. God’s law explicitly forbids lying (Ex. 20:16). This narrative will show us that Rebekah and Jacob don’t benefit from this deception in the short term. Rebekah has to send him away. She’ll never see her favorite son again. Her brother Laban will give Jacob a taste of his own medicine in chapter 29. And Jacob’s sons will deceive him by claiming that his favorite son Joseph has been killed.
Moses’s point in relaying these things first to Israel and now to us is not that God approves of deception. His message is much more profound. His point is that God uses human deception to accomplish his gracious purposes.
Remember the prophecy that the Lord spoke to Rebekah when the twins were born: “The older shall serve the younger” (25:23). Even if Isaac didn’t know about this prophecy, he knew what kind of guy his favorite son Esau was. But instead of confronting and correcting him, he tried to give him the blessing.
God’s plan was set in motion before either son did anything good or bad. He said clearly that his blessing, his covenant, his chosen people would come through Jacob, not Esau. “The older shall serve the younger.” This was God’s good plan from the beginning and God’s plans are never derailed by sin.
God Works Through Human Deception
Rebekah and Jacob’s evil plan may’ve worked for them, but it also worked to fulfill the word of the Lord. As I said at the beginning, God’s purposes triumph through sin, not in spite of it. In a fallen world, is it any surprise that God intends to use human sin to carry out his purposes? How could he not? What humans would he work with if he could only work with those without sin?
Human sin, even the family-destroying generational sin of favoritism, doesn’t nullify God’s purposes but actually succeeds in making those purposes come about. God is sovereign over sin.
Think of other times God used human deception to move his plan forward. The greatest deception of all time was the trial of Jesus. At the Last Supper, Jesus told his disciples, “The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed!” (Matt. 26:24) Judas betrayed Jesus and would be held responsible for his deception. But Jesus would die “as it is written of him” because God uses deceit to move his plan forward.
Later the same night, “the chief priests and the whole Council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death” (v. 59). After finding two false witnesses, they determined that he deserved death. Then they took Jesus to the Roman governor Pilate who realized Jesus was innocent but feared the crowd and washed his hands of the matter saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood” (27:24). Deceit moves the plan forward.
When Peter stood to preach on the day of Pentecost, he said, “Jesus of Nazareth…(was) delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men” (Acts 2:22-23, cf. 4:27-28). Human deception led to Jesus’ crucifixion. Deceit moves the plan forward.
Evil Commits Suicide
What we’ve seen in Genesis 27 is no different. God’s design was to use human sin to fulfill his promises. Rebekah and Jacob’s evil plan was the means by which God fulfilled his promise. God is so sovereign and so wise that he can ordain that certain things come about through sin without himself sinning.
The cross of Jesus Christ is the clearest culmination of this truth found all over the Bible. When Jesus died, God didn’t just overcome evil. When Jesus died, God made evil serve the overcoming of evil. On the cross, God made evil commit suicide when doing its worst evil.[3]
How do you understand God’s relationship with evil in the world? Genesis 27 shows us that God uses evil to push forward his purpose of blessing the world, that human sin doesn’t nullify God’s purposes but actually succeeds in making those purposes come about. “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10) God is sovereign over sin.
The reason I so desperately want you to see these truths in the Bible and cherish them in your hearts is because I don’t want you to run away from God or think that God is evil or think that God is absent when evil and sin and deception comes knocking on your door. These truths will help you keep the faith when you start to see just how thoroughly sin has infected your family systems and your own heart and the world.
This doesn’t excuse evil and sin. Rebekah’s knowledge of the prophecy that “the older will serve the younger” does not excuse her favoritism and deceit. Sin is sin, and all evil and sin will be judged. They were judged on Jesus’ body on the cross for everyone who trusts in him. And they’ll be judged in hell for everyone who doesn’t.
“In Deep Darkness, A Miracle Was Preparing”
This truth provides us with a warm blanket to wrap up in when evil comes our way. How would God’s presence be comforting to us if we think that things have happened or are happening to us that are outside of God’s good plan for us?
What if the worst tragedies and darkest sins and greatest evils are the places we’ll find the greatest glory? The cross of Jesus Christ certainly says so. Stories in my life and yours suggest so. It’s in the darkness that light becomes most visible. It’s only when we look back, as novelist Marilynne Robinson says, that we see that “in all that deep darkness a miracle was preparing.”[4]
The sinful favoritism of Isaac and the sinful scheming of Rebekah have generational effects on their family. But unbeknownst to them, a miracle was brewing. Through their sin, God was preparing the way for his Son.
This story reminds us that God’s people don’t get it right all the time, but that God keeps blessing his people even when we keep getting things wrong. This story reminds us that God’s grace is greater than our sin.
[1]John Piper, Spectacular Sins and Their Global Purpose in the Glory of Christ (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2008), 16-17.
[2]Kenneth M. Adams, Silently Seduced: When Parents Make Their Children Partners, rev. ed. (Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications, 2011), 15, 21-22.
[3]See Piper, 12.
[4]Marilynne Robinson, Gilead (New York: Picador, 2004), 55.