Interference
- AfraOpoku
- August 4, 2025
- Uncategorized
- 0 Comments
I wonder sometimes.
What would have happened if Jacob hadn’t participated in deceiving Isaac?1
I know we’re all used to what happened.
The twin brother called supplanter, ran for his life after stealing Isaac’s blessing from his brother.2
Believing more in the blessings of Isaac than the blessings of God, he pretended to be Esau with grave consequences.
I can understand why he did it, or shall I say, how his mother convinced him to do it.
After God gave Rebecca a tiny glimpse of the future, she falsely believed that God’s plan would be derailed by Isaac unless she got in the way.3,4
The results were disastrous.
Jacob ended up indentured to his cunning uncle.5
Consequently, he married a woman he didn’t love 6 and spent years working in a foreign land for minimum wage.7
God didn’t plan those circumstances when Jacob was in utero.
The Almighty’s plan for Jacob was already set and no interference from any man could have changed that, had he just trusted.8
So what if Jacob had trusted and not interfered?
He would have gotten to live with his family longer, and been with his mother when she died.9
He wouldn’t have been in fear of Esau and could have coexisted peacefully with his elder brother instead of being in constant fear of retribution.
He likely would never had married multiple women, thus the enmity among his sons would not exist.10
Enmity that had devastating results for Joseph, his favorite.
Speaking of Joseph, this was a young man who had the chance to follow his father’s footsteps.
Remarkably he didn’t.
Abraham compromised with Sarah.11
Isaac compromised with Rebecca.12
Jacob compromised with his brother.13
Joseph solidly bucked them all.
As a child he had dreamed he would rise above his brothers.14
Like Rebecca he had a preview of what God had planned for him.
Unlike Rebecca he refused to take the shortcut
It would have been very easy for him to.
Think about it.
If Joseph pleased Potiphar’s wife enough, she could have given him wealth and maybe even secured his freedom. It is even possible she could have set him up to have a comfortable living in Egypt. She might even have paid his fare to go back to Israel where his father would likely have disowned his older brothers and made him sole heir or even joint hair with Benjamin over what was tremendous wealth.
Joseph had to consider all of that as Potiphar’s wife pestered him.15
Joseph had been dealt poor hand after poor hand and could easily have justified taking the opportunity before him.
He did not.
No wonder Joseph is often compared to Jesus in the scriptures.16
He who was beloved of his earthly father (Jacob), recognized he was beloved of his heavenly father and would thus take no steps to grieve Him
Somehow, he trusted that God would deliver him and even when he tried to be delivered on his own, he didn’t do it in a way that would displease the Lord.17
It wasn’t just the possible benefits Joseph could have gotten had he caved. He could have been motivated by fear. Potiphar’s wife had the power to destroy him and Joseph knew that.
Jacob lied because he was afraid of losing an inheritance.
Joseph could have caved with the legitimate reason that his life was under threat.
Thank God he didn’t compromise.
Sooner or later, everyone comes up to that fork in the road. We get to choose the path we take. There is usually a path which is often attractive, easy and displeasing God and the other is usually one that isn’t appealing, offers no guarantees but it’s a path that isn’t obviously anti-God.
Most compromise because of the promise of better or the fear of worse.
We’re very much the sons of Adam and like Jacob we get lured by the good or scared by negative consequences and forget our God.
We forget He is able to lead us through uncertain plains into his perfect plan for us.
Joseph didn’t anticipate a blessing from God when he said no to the powerful woman who wanted him.
He said no to sinning against God, the one who could shape every line of his destiny and it paid off.18
Jacob’s story would have been written differently had he trusted.
If we trust, God will write our stories in a way that we may not necessarily appreciate in the moment but we will get the best out of our journey in the end.
That’s a good reminder for the crossroad.
1 Gen 27v18-24
2 Gen 27v 42-44
3 gen 25 v 22 -23
4 Gen 27v 8-13
5 Gen 30 v 30
6 Gen 29v29
7 Gen 31v 6-7
8 Gen 25 v 23
10. Gen 37 v 4
11. Gen 20 v 2
12. Gen 26 v 7
13. Gen 27 v 19
14. Gen 37 v 7
15. Gen 39 v 10
16. www.thegospelcoalition.org
17. Gen 40 v 4
18. Gen 41 v 41