When things get petty

Genesis 25:19-35

Rebekah and Isaac were brought together by divine guidance, but that doesn’t mean everything will go smoothly, and it doesn’t. There is a sign of trouble during the pregnancy. Esau would be born ahead of Jacob and so would have the rights of the first born. But God has more in mind than adherence to human conventions, and he will work through the strangest of ways, or so it seems to us.

There is here a sign of something that will become very clear in the New Testament, and is a prominent theme in Advent readings: God has a preference for working through those without natural or institutional entitlement. That has not to do with their goodness or lack of it. It is all part of this plan for bringing all together in the Living Word. Jacob and Esau had no awareness of the larger scene of which their petty struggle was part. May we trust, in any of our present struggles, that there is the kind of providence at work that Mary was able to see, in hindsight, on behalf of Abraham’s children’s children:

“He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
to Abraham and his descendants forever,
even as he said to our fathers.” (Luke 1:53-55)

Prayer:
God, you have graciously brought me to this day. You have not promised it will be easy. But you have given me the resource of prayer, and the commitment of your presence and purpose. Just give me this day my daily bread of sustenance to do your will. Through Christ. Amen.