I am Israel

The Lord chose Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to establish his chosen people, to give to them what he promised and to bring about His will on Earth. The Lord is faithful and just and sovereign above all. No one can thwart his plans or undo what he has declared and predetermined.

For I have chosen him so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.”

Genesis 18:19

I am intrigued by the story of Jacob and Esau. Twin brothers born from Isaac and Rebecca. Isaac was the son of Abraham and Sarah, born as the second son of Abraham after he fathered Ismail from his servant Hagar.

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty walk before me faithfully and be blameless.  Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.”

Abram fell facedown, and God said to him,  “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations.  No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham,  for I have made you a father of many nations.  I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you.  I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.  The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”

God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah.  I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”

Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?”  And Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!”

Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac.  I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.  And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation.  But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.” When he had finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him.”

Reading from Genesis 19

God chose Isaac to establish his covenant. Isaac grew up and married Rebecca, a wife chosen for him by a servant of the Lord and Abraham.  She bore him twin boys.

Abraham became the father of Isaac,  and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan Aram and sister of Laban the Aramean.

Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer and his wife Rebekah became pregnant.  The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord.

The Lord said to her,

“Two nations are in your womb,

and two peoples from within you will be separated;

one people will be stronger than the other,

and the older will serve the younger.”

When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb.  The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment; so they named him Esau.  After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob.  Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them.

The boys grew up, and Esau became a skilful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents. Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob.”

Reading from Genesis 25

God said, the older will serve the younger. God determined who would be born first. Esau was born first, but Jacob would receive God’s blessing. It was predetermined.  Isaac loved Esau, he wanted his firstborn son to receive his blessing, but God chose Jacob. Things are never what it seems…

When we read the story of how Jacob was blessed by Abraham, it can seem unjust, sad even. Both boys wanted their father’s blessing but God chose Jacob, The Bible says, “God loved Jacob and Esau he hated.” Is God unjust?

It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.  Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”  In other words, it is not the children of physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.  For this was how the promise was stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”

Romans 9:6

It is God who determines who he will give his inheritance to. It is God who determines who His children are, who his chosen nation is and who will bear His great Name.

Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac.  Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.”  Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” 

What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all!  For he says to Moses,

“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,

and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 

It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.  For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”  Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.

One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ ”  Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?

What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?  As he says in Hosea:

“I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people;

and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,” 

and,

“In the very place where it was said to them,

‘You are not my people,’

there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’ ”

Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:

“Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved. For the Lord will carry out his sentence on earth with speed and finality.” 

It is just as Isaiah said previously:

“Unless the Lord Almighty

had left us, descendants,

we would have become like Sodom,

we would have been like Gomorrah.” 

Romans 9:10

The reality is we are not very good judges, Our own hearts are capable of deceiving us. Our eyes are used to darkness so it does not recognise light and truth. Who will save us? God is not unjust, but the world is not accepting of how God chooses to display his blessings.

When I looked at the story of Jacob and Essau, I was trying to determine what Esau did or what was said that would make God reject him. Why did God reject Cain’s offering instead of Abel’s? Who deserves God’s mercy and compassion? Why did Jesus come?

Jesus said he came for the lost sheep of Israel.

Who are they?

Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.  Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

Revelations 22:14

Since the beginning of creation, God has proven his selection. By questioning God’s elect, we are accusing God of being unjust and our hearts deceive us. This is the reason why Paul says in Romans, “But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God?”  No one is good, no one deserves to be saved, we all accuse God, we all crucified Jesus, not one is without blame, but we are justified by Jesus and declared blameless by Him because he showed us mercy and declared us saved. “It does not depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.”

Had it not been for Jesus, who came to save the descendants, this place would be like Sodom and Gomorrah. Even now there is a remnant chosen by God.  Predestined by birth, chosen by God, justified by Jesus and sealed with the Holy Spirit.  They are the ones whom God has chosen to carry His Word and truth. The world will be blessed by them.  However, things are not always what they seem…

God does not choose the strong or the worthy, he chooses the weak; the sick, the widow, the fatherless, the hungry, the meek, the slaves. These are the ones who love God because they know they need him and the world does not accept them. 

The Pharisees and lawmakers hated Jesus because they considered themselves more worthy. They should be teaching the people, they should be judging him, people should listen to them, not to him… Esau hated Jacob because he received the blessing instead of him. Cain hated Abel because God accepted his offering. The Pharisees hated Jesus because He was the blessing, the promise, the Saviour, the Messiah, they did not accept him. 

Those who have God’s authority by the anointing of his Holy Spirit have been given authority to bless others, but the world is not always accepting of what they consider weak.

In this world what master will let a slave give him instruction? What master chooses authority over humility and his evil desires over righteousness and obedience?

The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land where I tell you to live.  Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants, I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham.  I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed,  because Abraham obeyed me and did everything I required of him, keeping my commands, my decrees and my instructions.”

Genesis 26:2

It’s all about the blessing…

“Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. He said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.” When Rebekah was told what her older son Esau had said, she sent for her younger son Jacob and said to him, “Your brother Esau is planning to avenge himself by killing you.  Now then, my son, do what I say: Flee at once to my brother Laban in Harran.  Stay with him for a while until your brother’s fury subsides.  When your brother is no longer angry with you and forgets what you did to him, I’ll send word for you to come back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?

Genesis 27:41

Jacob left his parents and his land. He went into the world, got married and had twelve children by different wives. One day God asked him to return to the land he left… He packed up all his belongings and returned.

“Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’  I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps.  Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children.  But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’ ”

Genesis 32:9

Jacob left with nothing “I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan.”, he never claimed his father’s inheritance, Esau received his father’s inheritance, but Jacob held on to a promise, and his blessing is worth more to him than earthly belongings. He was still afraid of Esau, and he did not know how he would be received or what would happen to his children, his wives or his life possessions. All that was at the mercy of God. What Jacob had was a promise that he inherited from his Father and a blessing that was given to him by God himself.

“He spent the night there, and from what he had with him he selected a gift for his brother Esau:  two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,  thirty female camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.  He put them in the care of his servants, each herd by itself, and said to his servants, “Go ahead of me, and keep some space between the herds.”

That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.  After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.  Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”

But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

The man asked him, “What is your name?”

“Jacob,” he answered.

Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel,  because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”

Genesis 32:13

Jacob did not let go of his blessing. It’s also a reminder to us to call on God regarding his blessings. If we are the children of God, we carry God’s name. We pray Hallowed be Your Name, your kingdom come… This is your chosen nation whom you chose to put your good Name and to glorify you to all other nations. “For your Name’s sake, we pray,” Your will be done, not mine. Despite fears, anguish, and persecution, despite our understanding… we will not let go of this blessing until you have glorified your name. The name you have put your people, Israel.

God is always in control. Everything is just as it should be even though it is not always how we expect it sometimes. Jacob was meant to receive the blessing. God calls himself the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. These are the names He has chosen for himself and Israel is the name for the people he has chosen. The faith God has put in our hearts and the truth of his revelations are a gift from God. The children of God know they are His because they have His promises, his Holy Spirit, a hope that is a certainty in their hearts and they rejoice that they are at the Mercy of God.  They follow him wherever He goes. They don’t always know what kind of welcome they will receive where they go, but they know that God is in control and will be with them whatever the situation.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,  through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we  boast in the hope of the glory of God.  Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;  perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Romans 5:1

God’s children have the Holy Spirit in their hearts. This is who they show themselves to be, one in Spirit. Do not be deceived by clever words or high standing, question God who will confirm His spirit with the truth.

“In the very place where it was said to them,

‘You are not my people,’

there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’ ”

I am Israel.

“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.”

1 Corrinthians 15:10