Friends, what is the nature of sovereign election? Is it not that God's purposes are accomplished regardless of the circumstances of the times or the exploits of men or even the strategies of the devil? The latter point aside for now, it's hard not to be amused at the family drama that unfolds in the story of Jacob.

God chose Jacob to fulfill His covenant with Abraham, but it is interesting what transpires to get him there. He was born to a divided family, where the mother loved him while the father loved his brother. The critical matter of who got the birthright and blessing came by way of a double deception rather than obedience to divine revelation. Even Jacob's search for a Jewish mate seemed only incidental to his mother's desire to separate him from his murderous brother. Finally, the two wives that would produce the twelve tribes of Israel arose out of drunkenness, deception, polygamy, incest, and slavery. And these kinds of things would be multiplied in the continuing saga of the history of God's people.

Yet, all God's purposes would still be accomplished. One of the wisest comments was made by Jacob's uncle Laban, when he first betrothed his daughter Rebekah to Isaac:

This is from the Lord; we can say nothing to you one way or the other (Genesis 24:50).

In other words, since it is from the LORD, there is nothing that can be said or done to prevent it from coming to pass. Later, when he had murderous intentions for Jacob, his son-in-law, God would remind him of this (Genesis 31:24).  Even later, in the days of Samuel, when God pronounced judgment against the house of the high priest Eli, Eli too acknowledged the sovereign will of God:

Eli said, “He is the Lord; let him do what is good in his eyes.” (1 Samuel 3:18).

Even over a thousand years after this, when the Sanhedrin met to decide the fate of Peter and the apostles, the renowned teacher Gamaliel was consulted. And at that time, he too affirmed the sovereign purposes of God:

Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.” (Acts 5:38)

There are plenty of verses like this from more recognized saints in the Bible; however, these lesser known figures reveal that in biblical times there was universally very little question with respect to God's sovereign fulfillment of His purposes in spite of changing circumstances and human plots and exploits.

It is not that God negates human free will altogether, but He sometimes uses, shapes, directs, and even overrides, the sinful free will of people to accomplish His divine purposes. Thus, it must be affirmed that God, not human free will, is sovereign.

The Promise that God gave to Abraham in 17:6-8, He reaffirms to Isaac in 26:3-5 and to Jacob in 28:13-15. This covenant just changes a little in wording, but it is still the same basic promise. "Im going to give this land to youand your descendants, they are going to be many, all over the place, and you will be blessed. I will be with you, and keep you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land, and I will not leave until I keep my promises."

  The Lord has kept that promise until this day. There are people of Jewish descent all over the world, and the Lord has led them back to the land that Abraham paid 400 shekels for, and that countless Jewish inhabitants have fought for, given their lives for, and are still in possession of that land to this day.

The covenant, however, has changed. Gentiles, crying out to God for rescue, and receptive to the Lordship of Christ, have become part of this covenant. When Jesus Christ came, He changed the definition of who a Child of God could be. Anyone could recieve salvation, and Jesus proved that in his ministry, and when he died, we were able to become children of God by adoption and mercy.

Hebrews 8:6-12 explains the new covenant with Jesus Christ as the mediator as the new covenant. We get the gift of Christ, He is our God (v. 10). Instead of becoming a Jew and living under law, we get the deal of a lifetime. In return for loving God, and having not just a life change, but a heart change, we get to become children by adoption.  We are as beloved as Jacob, Isaac, Moses, Aaron, to God.

Gen 29:20 So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.

It is a beautiful picture of first love...When we first fall in love, everything is easy to do, whether it is the falling in love with a person or falling in love with God. When I first became a believer in college; praying, reading the bible, going to church, bible studies...everything was easy and exciting. There was no hard work in it.  I couldn't get enough to fill my thirst to know God more and more! Then what happens, as time passes, the things we used to do for our loved one becomes more and more difficult and even sometimes burdensome. 

What about God? Does His love for us also grow dim with time?

Lamentations 3:22 says "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to an end"

Isn't it reassuring to know that the love of God is NOT like ours, its doesn't wax and wane, it doesn't change with the cicumstances, it is not even dependant on us at all. Not only is God's love steadfast, nothing can separate us from his love.

 Romans 8:38-39 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 As he is steadfast, let us remain steadfast and persistent in loving the Lord.

I also wonder at the grace God has had up to this point.  We learn as the bible progresses that God is jealous for his holiness, his wrath is great against ungodliness... But long suffering, especially for those kind of acts done by the righteous.

Abraham- counted righteous and friend of God. Was made a promise by the Almighty.  An outcome that nothing would stop. Yet he lies, twice, about his relationship to his wife to spare his life.  Would God not have stepped in to save him, as he stepped in to save Sarah from being taken?

Esau is the first I noticed that took more than one wife. Jacob lies, Rebekah lies, then Jacob ends up with 2 wives, the first in the chosen line to do this. Yet it seems God is more interested in the purpose of his creation, ie glorifying God, than to make bad men good. (He does but it is as if he did it not for the reason of turning a 'bad man good')

During this time, we only hear God speak of promises. Very little direction on What to do, rather we see that their Works doesn't matter very much, but rather their chosen-ness.

What I get from this is God's priority: Glorify God. The rest seems secondary, externalities and byproducts. He does what he does for the Glory of God. How he does it is according to who is: Good, loving, sovereign, holy, full of grace.

Why not just come down and reveal Jesus?
Because it would be more awesome to show:
-That the 'god' of this world could find no fault in God, even over 5000+ years.
-That even given the perfect beginning, we could not maintain a small garden.
-That left to ourselves, we'll lie to our fathers, steal from our brothers, and war brutally with our neighbors.
-That even given a set of instructions and codes to be gracious and merciful, we would corrupt and use against the gracious and merciful (Even God!)

What's left but to bow our heads and say, "your will be done."
 

In talking with my wife this morning about the actions of Rebekah, it was commented that there weren't any consequences to Rebekah's actions of conspiring to steal Esau's blessing (Genesis 27:5-10).  Even though it was God's plan all along to do so that doesn't justify her actions to go about taking matters into her own hands.  I don't think this was God's plan necessarily but it still resulted in Jacob receiving Isaac's blessing.  One might say that a mother seeing one's son subject to unneccessary hardship or one son wanting to kill the other was punishment enough but the text does not tell of this.  Is this one of those situations that we ask why and the answer brings us back to God's word being perfect.  Maybe we weren't meant to know explicitly.