#4: January 21, 2008

Insight of the day from Genesis 27-29.

I’ve always wondered about this. What would God have done if Rebekah had not chosen to deceive Isaac into blessing Jacob?

Yet in the end, God’s fulfils His promise. It’s strange. I can’t help but feel outraged at the manner in which God’s promise was eventually fulfilled. If God is good, why does He choose to act through this act of sin?

I believe this a beautiful juxtaposition of human free will and divine sovereignty. It’s one way in which this seeming contradiction – that if God is sovereign, then do humans really have free will – is answered. Rebekah had a choice. She chose to trust in her own effort and was left to face the consequences – separation from the son she loved, fear over the lives of both Esau and Jacob, and the knowledge that she was responsible for the enmity between Jacob and Esau. Yet God in His sovereignty foreknew Rebekah’s choice and chose to use an act of sin for His good purposes. If Rachel had chosen to trust in God to fulfil His promise, perhaps things would have turned out differently. Yet either way, God is sovereign, and we are still free to choose.

The key is whether we choose to trust in God, or trust in ourselves. Our tendency is to go for the latter, but if we trust in God, He has promised to work all things for our good. Surely that is the better choice.