The Trap of Deception
I want to talk about a not so good mom in the Old Testament and a very dysfunctional family. We have a lot we can learn from them, that way we don’t make the same mistakes they did. Our passage is Genesis 27, and our topic is the trap of deception.
Deception
Deception has a cost. But it also has a motive. I want to get to the root of the motive of deception today and see how our hearts can be changed by the gospel in this area.
My first thought today is, deceptions comes from a lack of trust in the promises of God. Earlier in Genesis 25:23 while Esau and Jacob are being born Rebekah receives a word from 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.”
Rebekah turns and gives favor to her son Jacob over Esau. A little side note that I think is obvious but often neglected: don’t have favorites when it comes to your kids.
We sometimes joke about this and say in jest “this is why they are my favorite” and I just want to give a pastoral word to you today: those words have the potential to cut your kids deeper than you can ever know. God has blessed you with every single child you have, love them like God loves all of us: evenly. Any other way only causes problems. The enemy LOVES division and he completely destroyed the family we are reading about today by dividing them. Stay united family.
So there is a promise from God here in this passage. Has anyone in this room ever heard a promise from God before? One you are holding onto? Who is still waiting on that promise? The enemy will tempt you to take a hold of that promise with your earthly hands which will prevent your heavenly father from accomplishing his heavenly work in his glorious timing.
Rebekah didn’t trust God, so she destroyed her family trying to do it by her own hand. How will her son fulfill that promise? She didn’t know. But she wanted it done in her way and in her timing and ended up not only losing one son, but both of them. She will never see her son Jacob again after this.
We have to trust in the promises of God, or we will use deception or other means to accomplish that promise in our own way. I love Matthew 16, Peter boldly declares Jesus the Messiah, and then shortly after Jesus says “get behind me Satan.” Why? Peter didn’t trust in God’s promise to deliver the people of God. He thought Jesus would ride in to destroy Rome and be the earthly king his people so desperately wanted. But God had a different way, a better way.
He might have a better way than yours too. Don’t deceive, don’t connive and act in your own wisdom, act in God’s.
Deception give a false since of control
Secondly, deception gives us a false sense of control. Rebekah believes with all of her motherly heart that she is doing something good for her son, but she is acting deceitfully, which is not God’s way. Let me say this, if it isn’t God’s way, you don’t want it.
Mom, I know you love your son or daughter, but God loves them more. Way, way more. Remember this: God chose you to raise his kid, but they were his kids before they were ever yours.
Rebekah acts in one of the most arrogant ways I have seen in all of scripture, and it happens in verse 13: His mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, bring them to me.”
Deception makes you blind to the very deception you yourself are doing. Let me ask you this, does Rebekah have the right to determine who God curses for this wicked and evil act? Of course not. But she is blinded by her own deception. She even says something blatantly untrue.
You see, we think that we have control over all the outcomes don’t we? Let me give some wisdom someone gave to me: if your kids turn out good you can’t take credit, and if they turn out bad you can’t take blame. Now that doesn’t mean we don’t try our best and give them our all, we do those things, but outside of our best at the time with the information we have, what more can we do?
As much as you think you can control the outcomes of your son or daughter’s life, you can’t. As much as you think you can control the timing and outcomes of God’s promises, you can’t. We need to trust in the name of the Lord. Psalm 20:7, Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
Rebekah didn’t trust in God, and her family spins out of control. Mom, dad, son, daughter, if you don’t trust in the Lord your life will spin out of control. You will do all kinds of madness and use all kinds of things to fulfill your life and you will reap consequences none of us would sign up for. Trust in God, rest in his goodness, and allow him to work out his promises in your life.
What will you sow into your family?
Lastly, my main question for you today is: what will you sow into your life and into your family? Rebekah hatches a plan that not only destroys her family, but leaves a lasting legacy. Jacob learns deception from? His mother. He will go and deceive his uncle, and then will be deceived by his sons when they lie about Joseph being dead. Jacob learned having favorites from? His mother, when he favors Joseph.
We are the ones who determine what spiritual seed is sown into our family. Are we sowing strong faith, peace filled trust in our almighty father, the fruit of the Spirit in the darkest of valleys? Or are we anxious and weary, looking for shortcuts and deception of others to create safety and peace by our own hand. Are we struggling to trust our God but openly trusting in our own hand to create our own outcomes?
Galatians 6:7-10, 7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. 10 So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.
This isn’t a verse to scare you, it is a verse to encourage you to not give up! Do not give up and grow weary in doing good, trust in the Lord! Strength will rise as we… wait upon the Lord! (Isaiah 40:31)
What are you sowing into your life and family? For those who don’t have kids the word of God is the same to you today: sow Christ and his way into your life. Sow the gospel and the goodness of your savior into your relationships and into every aspect of your life. Here is the awesome thing about this story, Jacob is a deceitful son of a gun that gets painful practices from his mother, but then he what? He has an encounter with God! And it changes everything! (more on that next week)
Despite the brokenness sown into him and a few mistakes along the way, God gets a hold of his life and does an amazing work. This is possible for you too.
Mom, dad, son, daughter, God has a plan for your life. God has promises that he has committed to making for you. God loves you. But we can’t lose trust in him and try to deceive and conjure up certain outcomes. We have to trust God for that. As children of God, we should want God’s outcomes and not our own anyway. I promise you, your outcomes and your timing are no match for his.
Trust God, and leave it in his hands
We cannot live in a false sense of control. We need to take to the bank the fact that God is. Let me promise you this: your check is going to bounce if you try to cash it. You aren’t in control. The sooner you realize that and trust in your savior, the sooner you’ll experience true inner peace that as Philippians 4:7 says, peace that surpasses understanding. Why does it say that? Because you’ve got to stop trying to understand it in order to get it. Trust God, and leave it in his hands.
So I’ll ask again, what are you sowing into your life and into your family? Do your kids see you on your knees trusting in your almighty father? Or are they seeing you lash out, trying to figure out how it needs to go with your earthly plans? Anxiously sprinting around trying to twist and drum up a plan on your strength? Set an example of peace and trust, and watch them walk in the surpassing beauty of your savior king Jesus. Show them the way to go, by first traversing that way yourself. Sow trust in your heavenly father, so they can do the same. Watch God do a work in your life and in theirs.