June 30, 2021 — An Assembly Of Peoples

The subtle phrasing is easily overlooked, but God’s plan always was to bring, through His plan, the most blessing to the most people.

Coming to the end of Genesis 27, is Rebekah still conniving? It looks like it. She wants her favorite son, Jacob, safely away from his brother’s anger but also wants his leaving to have her husband’s blessing. So she says to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth; if Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth, like these who are the daughters of the land, what good will my life be to me?” (v 46). The daughters of Heth were the Hittite wives whom Esau had chosen. Thus she frames an excuse for Jacob’s hurried departure, concealing the true cause which included her scheme to trick Isaac. So the father calls his younger son to him, and instructs Jacob to find a wife back in Padan-aram where the family originated. Then he blesses him. Along with the blessing of the Lord, the multiplying of his seed, and the possession of the land, Isaac adds this interesting note: “…that you may be an assembly of peoples” (28:3). This seems to be similar to the promise regarding Abraham, “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed” (22:18). This idea of an assembly composed of various “peoples,” not simply the Jews, is explained by Paul when he writes to the Galatians, “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, ‘In you all the nations shall be blessed’” (3:8). So here is Jacob, heading off to avoid his brother’s wrath, and the Spirit of God uses this occasion to point forward to the day when God would use the scattered Jews to actually assemble thousands of souls from among the nations to be the people of God. With such a dubious start, Jacob leaves his father’s herds behind, but with the undeserved grace of God upon him.

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