A TRAGEDY

 

I don’t know of anyone in the Old Testament whose life was as interesting, eventful and difficult as that of Jacob.

Destined from birth to carry forth the patriarchal line and obtain the rights of the priesthood, no doubt he was groomed to be the next patriarch by his visionary mother through whom this revelation came (see Genesis 25:22-23). The way the birthright fell into his hands marks the beginning of his extraordinary life.

In reality, Jacob did not cheat his brother of his birthright. Esau gave it away and Jacob took it, and only for one reason….he did not value it. In fact, he despised it (Genesis 25:34). This he confirmed by marrying the daughters of Canaanites who were descendants of Cain hence their children could not have the rights to the priesthood (Genesis 26:34,35). Thus Esau broke the covenant line and was not entitled to his birthright.

Esau started marrying the Canaanite women at 40 years of age, before the birthright blessing was given (Genesis 26:34). Forty years gave him plenty of time to prove himself worthy. Isaac could see this, I am sure, because he would not revoke the blessing once he realised it was given to Jacob, which he could have done as priesthood holders are given the keys to bind and loose on earth and have that action validated in heaven (see Matthew 16:19).

Esau felt bitterly sorry for losing his birthright and begged his father to correct the deception perpetrated on his father (Genesis 27:38). But not sorry enough….when he realised that the damage was irreversible his rebellious character showed itself even more. He made his way to his uncle Ishmael and married his daughter Mahalath to spite his father (Genesis 28:8,9). And so the priesthood covenant was in the right hands with Jacob.

From this point on Jacob’s life takes an interesting turn. He is sent by his parents to Rachel’s brother in Haran to seek a wife from the right lineage. There he not only gains one wife but four and consequently 13 children in total, 12 sons and 1 daughter. And so began the Twelve Tribes of Israel.

I can see Esau in many men who have rejected their rights to the priesthood and have left the Church. I have wondered how they will feel when one day they realise what they have lost. What bitter tears will be shed when they are told that there is no forgiveness of sins in this world nor in the world to come if they have turned away from the covenant of the priesthood once they have received it (D&C 84:41).

On the positive side, the oath and covenant of the priesthood entitles those who honour it, to all that the Father has. This oath and covenant the Father cannot break, ‘neither can it be moved’ (v 40). Is there a greater blessing and a greater promise than this??? I think not….

The Holy Priesthood after the Order of the Son of God was restored through Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery that the power of godliness might be manifest to men of this dispensation (D&C 110:11-16). The promise everlasting, the blessings assured. I bow my knee before such power…..

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Restoration of the Melchizedek Priesthood by Walter Rane)

A MOTHER OF NATIONS

 

No union of two people had a more romantic beginning. It was the union of Isaac and Rebekah.

Isaac was forty years old and Rebekah was a damsel most likely in her teens (Genesis 25:20). There was a whole generation between them. Isaac’s mother Sarah was the sister of Rebekah’s grandmother Milcah. This would make Rebekah half of Isaac’s age, if not younger.

He was well-established and rich, a man of God and the heir of the priesthood and the covenant which would make him the progenitor of all the faithful. She was a righteous, young beautiful virgin and everything Abraham desired for his son’s wife (Genesis 24:16)…like Sarah….and she was destined to become ‘a mother of nations’…..like Sarah.

The marriage of Isaac and Rebekah was born out of the covenant between Abraham and his eldest servant whom he commissioned to travel back to his family in Mesopotamia to procure a wife of his family’s lineage for his beloved son. The servant had to covenant that he would not allow Isaac to marry a Canaanite. It was a matter of preserving the rights to the priesthood,  something the Canaanites were not privileged to because they were of Cain’s lineage.

I will not recount here how successful the servant was in meeting Rebekah and her family through the obvious spiritually engineered process. The amazing thing is that Rebekah agreed to leave the security of her family and travel to a land she has never been to, to marry a man she has never seen.

Picture a man out in the field at the eventide spotting a caravan of camels approaching. A young girl he has never before seen, wearing a vail across her face, alights and is introduced as his wife. All Genesis records is that Isaac ‘brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent, made her his wife and loved her’ (Genesis 24:67). You can just feel the cupid’s bow, can’t you???

I am amazed how men used to master the frontiers of this earth and women carved dynasties by the children they bore.

The heathen land of Canaan that Isaac and Rebekah lived in was not a paradise but it was the promised land for their posterity and they embraced it with trust and faith. Abraham passed on an estate of great wealth to Isaac which gave him a position of influence and prestige in the land but here is the sting… Life is not smooth sailing even for the most noble and chosen……

Like Sarah who waited 38 years for Isaac, Rebekah waited 20 years to become a mother. Genesis records that Isaac was 40 years old when he married Rebekah and 60 years old when she had Jacob and Esau (Genesis 25:20,26). What went through their minds for those 20 years, no doubt knowing the promises, would have tested them to the limit….

We are told that Isaac ‘intreated’ the Lord so that Rebekah could conceive (Genesis 25:21). The dictionary defines this word as: ask earnestly, beseech, implore, BEG….

The faith and trust paid of. Through one of the children Rebekah had were all the promises realized. Jacob’s 12 sons became the Tribes of Israel which roam this earth to this day….through which all the nations of the earth will be blessed.

And the God of Israel? He ALWAYS fulfils His promises. Mormon testified of this throughout the Book of Mormon with phrases such as ‘all this was done that the word of the Lord might be fulfilled’ and ‘God is powerful to the fulfilling of all his words’ (Mosiah 21:4; Alma 37:16; 50:19; Mormon 1:19; Helaman 4:21; Ether 15:3; Words of Mormon 1:4; 3 Nephi 1:13,20).

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Rebekah at the Well by Michael Deas)