Daily Lesson for February 12, 2014

Today's Lesson from Genesis 27:

22 So Jacob went near to Isaac his father, who felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” 23 And he did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's hands. So he blessed him. 24 He said, “Are you really my son Esau?” He answered, “I am."

The use of performance enhancing drugs has been the major headline in professional sports over the last decade. Some of the world's greatest and most celebrated athletes have fallen from the pedestals we put them on when it came out that they cheated their way to the top.

As sad as it is to think about these athletes' fall from the pedestal, it's even more sad to think about what it must have been like for them to stand on it in the first place. It must be the loneliest feeling in the world to stand up there knowing you don't really belong. You have to have a sick and very empty feeling way down in the pit of your gut when you know all the accomplishments the crowd lauds you for really aren't yours at all. How do you live with yourself? It must be terrifying to think your secret might be found out. It might be even more terrifying to think you will take your secret will go with you into the grave.

Jacob knew that terror. He too cheated to win. He stood before his blind father Isaac wearing his brother Esau's clothes and lied right through his teeth to get his blessing. Like the athlete who wants the approval of he crowd so much she will cheat for it, Jacob wanted his father's blessing so much he was willing to be someone he wasn't to get it. "Are you Esau?" his father asked. "I am," he said. And so he was given the blessing, but the blessing wasn't his to receive. The next decade of his life was spent running from the consequences of his deception. He ran until finally it caught up with him.

Here is the truth. All our cheating will one day be revealed. Our lies and our manipulation will be exposed. 

And here is the Gospel. When we fall from the pedestal, we will be caught by a gracious God whose love, unlike the love of the crowd, is absolutely unconditional - win, lose, draw, or cheat - and unlike Isaac's blessing is for all the children.