Parents, Perceptions, Positions

Parents

Genesis 27:6-15 (CSB): Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Listen! I heard your father talking with your brother Esau. He said, ‘Bring me game and make a delicious meal for me to eat so that I can bless you in the Lord’s presence before I die.’ Now, my son, listen to me and do what I tell you. Go to the flock and bring me two choice young goats, and I will make them into a delicious meal for your father — the kind he loves. Then take it to your father to eat so that he may bless you before he dies.” Jacob answered Rebekah his mother, “Look, my brother Esau is a hairy man, but I am a man with smooth skin. Suppose my father touches me. Then I will be revealed to him as a deceiver and bring a curse rather than a blessing on myself.” His mother said to him, “Your curse be on me, my son. Just obey me and go get them for me.” So he went and got the goats and brought them to his mother, and his mother made the delicious food his father loved. Then Rebekah took the best clothes of her older son Esau, which were in the house, and had her younger son Jacob wear them.”

Perceptions

Genesis 25:24-26 (AMP): “When her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.The first came out reddish all over like a hairy garment; and they named him Esau (hairy). Afterward his brother came out, and his hand grasped Esau’s heel, so he was named Jacob (one who grabs by the heel, supplanter). 

Positions

Genesis 32:20-21 (NIV): “And be sure to say, ‘Your servant Jacob is coming behind us.’ ” For he thought, “I will pacify him with these gifts I am sending on ahead; later, when I see him, perhaps he will receive me.” So Jacob’s gifts went on ahead of him, but he himself spent the night in the camp.”

The Eyes of Identity

1. I don’t get to make my identity, God gives me my identity

Genesis 1:26-27 (CSB): “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness… So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female.”

Psalm 139:13-16 (NIV): For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well…Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

Genesis 32:24-28 (CSB): “Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he could not defeat him, he struck Jacob’s hip socket as they wrestled and dislocated his hip. Then he said to Jacob, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” “What is your name?” the man asked. “Jacob,”he replied. “Your name will no longer be Jacob,” he said. “It will be Israel because you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed.””

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2. I am not what I do or have, I am who God says I am

 Exodus 3:13-15 (NIV): “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ” God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—‍

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3. I get a new identity when I receive Christ ‍

Matthew 3:16-17 (NIV): As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

Galatians 3:26,29 (NKJV): “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus... And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”