Genesis 25:19-26

The story in our text presents a real problem for Christians. It is a story in which answered prayer results in family conflict and personal hurting.

The story starts out all right. Isaac and Rebecca accept been married for twenty years without producing an heir. Cipher could be more painful for a Jewish adult female than barrenness, and nothing more tragic for Isaac than not to take a son through whom God could fulfill His promise. And then Isaac prays for his wife and she conceives.
Everything seems fine. To this point we have a story of God's graciousness in answering prayer. This is my kind of story. I could take a story like this and wax eloquent on the "Ability of Prayer."
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Nonetheless suddenly and without alarm the story goes astray. There'south not one baby, at that place are two — and they're struggling against 1 another in the womb. The violence, pain, and difficulty of the pregnancy is so intense that Rebecca cries out, "Why is this happening to me?"
What is this? Is this a example of that mutual feel we've all had? I want it; I become what I want; merely this is not what I want. My uncle always wanted a big luxury auto but he had several children, multiple obligations and never felt he could beget ane. But every yr when the new models came out he was downwards at the dealer'southward showroom. He would e'er take a examination drive, scent the newness, rub the end, kick the tires, and then go out to the street, get in his old Fairlane and drive home — yr afterward year after year.
Finally his day came. All the kids were gone, the mortgage was paid, he was making a fair salary, so he took the plunge. On the first of October, he drove dwelling a brand new 1968 Cadillac. It got between seven and eight miles to a gallon on the open up route, on common cold mornings information technology wouldn't start, on hot days it overheated. The first half-dozen months he owned information technology, he spent more than time at the repair store than at domicile.
Earlier the year was upward he had sold it and bought a slightly used Fairlane Ford. My uncle told me that two of the happiest days of his life were the 24-hour interval he bought that automobile and the day he sold it.
Those experiences are not uncommon. We want the apparel; we go the dress home; then we ask, "Why did I e'er buy this clothes?" Some make that mistake with things far more important than clothes, cars, houses, and lands. Some practice information technology with vocations, careers, personal relationships, fifty-fifty with marriages and children.
Is Rebecca 1 who wanted a child, became pregnant and of a sudden decides "I don't want a kid." No! The problem is not that Rebecca is dissatisfied that God has answered her prayers. The text is articulate: she was barren; she wants a baby, prays fervently and is charmed when she realizes that she is pregnant. Just something is wrong, there is a war raging within her body.
When we pray, peace is supposed to exist the result, not war. When we pray, things are supposed to get improve, non worse. Here we have not the power of prayer but the paradox of prayer; not the joy of answered prayer but the pain of answered prayer.
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Of course it'due south possible to explain this paradox away. Nosotros could blame the problem on Rebecca. Perhaps she is just a chronic complainer for whom the virtually benign pregnancy would be unbearable. Or we could perform a lilliputian theological slight-of-hand and reverse the obvious meaning of the story, proclaiming twins to be a double fulfillment of God'southward promise. This paradox can be explained away — unfortunately, that will not solve our dilemma, for this is only one place where asked prayer results in pain.
Have yous forgotten Moses pleading with God, asking for someone to help him acquit the heavy burdens of beingness the nation's deliverer? God told Moses to anoint Aaron every bit Loftier Priest, and Aaron became Moses' heaviest burden, giving him problems at every turn.
Or what almost that remarkable story from 1 Samuel? State of israel asked God for a male monarch. God told Samuel to anoint Saul as male monarch. Then Saul descended into madness, becoming a paranoid schizophrenic.
Or the tragic story of Hosea, praying to God for a married woman and being told to ally Gomer. So he married Gomer, who in a few years abandons him and their children to become a prostitute at the temple of Baal.
And what well-nigh Paul, with his overwhelming desire to go to Rome to preach the gospel? He writes a marvelous letter to the church there — that alphabetic character containing the most profound theology in all of the Scripture, filled with the prayerful expectation of a future visit. And then God answered Paul'south prayer and he gets to Rome. Merely practice you lot remember how? He is led to Rome in chains. It is in Rome that Paul is murdered by the fiend Nero.
It is not simply biblical characters who struggle with this paradox. I remember Jim and Laura. They were the all-time-looking couple I had ever seen. He looked like an all-American football player. She looked like a movie star. They had been married right later college, but had postponed having children while Jim got established in business organization.
Information technology was five years into the marriage before they tried to have a child. Then it seemed they couldn't take children. A series of tests failed to reveal whatever concrete reasons, but even so no pregnancy. Finally, they resigned themselves to a childless time to come.
Laura was thirty-eight and Jim was forty when they announced to their startled friends that Laura was pregnant. Their friends were concerned for Laura, since thirty-viii is late for the first child. Their friends had good reasons to worry, for the pregnancy was a hard one, but nothing could dampen the enthusiasm of Jim and Laura. Laura said, "Nosotros take been praying for a kid for ten years. This child is a gift from God. He is not going to let anything get wrong."
In reality, everything went incorrect. The pregnancy permanently damaged Laura's health. The baby, a niggling daughter, was built-in with a built center problem. Medical intendance over the next half dozen years drove Jim and his business organization to the edge of bankruptcy. Two weeks shy of her sixth birthday, the child died. She had spent almost half of those six years in the infirmary.
Laura had said this child was an answer to prayer, a gift from God. Was this an reply to prayer? Tin can answered prayer upshot in pain?
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Where practise we turn to become a satisfactory answer to this perplexing question? Rebecca turns to God. Look at Genesis 25:22:
"Why is this happening to me?" So she went to enquire of the Lord.
This was not Rebecca's just option. She could have turned away from God and looked for answers elsewhere. She could accept reverted into her by.
She could accept walled herself in from this new revelation of God, denied the promise had ever been made, denied the prayer was ever answered. She could have turned back to comprehend the polytheistic idol worship of her ancestors. She could have sung, "Give me that Former Time Faith, Requite me that Former Time Faith. It was good enough for Terah, it'south proficient enough for me."
She could have embraced the religious fads of her day. She could have followed the star-gazing astrologers, or turned to the fertility cult of Baal. That is the choice many cull. Multitudes of people are turning to other gods today, post-obit Shirley McLaine into the new age with all its cocky-assistance books and religious smorgasbord.
She could have opted out completely, letting her disappointment and heartache turn to cocky-pity. She could take rejected God and the things of God, descending into a kind of blah cynicism.
But Rebecca chose none of these options; rather she turned to God and the Lord answered her. Look at Genesis 25:23:
The Lord said to her, "Two nations are in your womb and 2 people from within you will exist divide. Ane people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger."
This answer is not uncomplicated, merely neither is life. Here Rebecca comes face to face up with the harsh reality of faith. To exist chosen of God involves both a blessing and a burden.
Rebecca will be the female parent non of one kid but of two. However these brothers will war against one some other. Rebecca will exist the mother not of ane nation but of two. Yet these 2 nations volition war against one some other. This is the price of obedience to God. It involves both a approving and a burden.
If you are looking for "sunday without rain, joy without sorrow, peace without hurting," you need to look somewhere other than the Bible. The Bible is non a fairy tale or a B-western moving picture. Read these stories and hear the agony of the chosen of God equally they struggled under the burdens of their chosenness. Hear the weeping of Jeremiah, the suffering of Chore, the heartbreak of Hosea, the anguish of David, the anger of Amos, the desolation of Peter, and the hurting of Paul.
To exist called involves both approval and burden. The blessing comes in some mysterious manner as we behave the brunt. Information technology is in the bondage of Egyptian slavery that the nation of Israel is born. It is in the heartache of a matrimony gone bad that Hosea experiences the grace of God. Information technology is in a Roman dungeon that Paul proclaims the Gospel in its purest form. Do I need to remind you of those strange words from the Hebrew epistle concerning our Lord? Remember what the writer said, "For the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross." Information technology is in carrying the brunt that we receive the blessing.
Will yous permit me to return to say another word about Jim and Laura? A couple of years had passed since the death of their girl. In that location were a few couples sitting around talking. Someone in the grouping said, "You know, Jim, life is hard to understand. Nosotros idea that Laura's pregnancy was an answer to prayer, only it turned out to have been a terrible tragedy."
Laura reached over and took Jim'southward hand. They looked at each other and smiled. And Jim said to his friends, "That was no tragedy. Our Susan was a approving sent from God. We would not trade 1 unmarried day of those half-dozen years for anything this world has to offering."
To be chosen involves both a blessing and a brunt, and it is in the carrying of the burden that the blessing comes.