Devotion - Thursday February 13

The stories in the Bible which are challenging to understand are often stories with great potential to teach us those aspects of God which we are inclined to overlook.

Genesis 27 is one of those stories - for me.  Issac knows he is about to die.  He wants to pass on his blessing to his first-born son, Esau.  He tells Esau to go and hunt game and prepare a meal.  While Esau is out hunting, Jacob and his mother prepare a meal and take advantage of Issac's blindness to convince him that Jacob is Esau.  Issac gives Jacob the blessing.  When Esau returns, Issac realizes the deception, but  tells Esau there is nothing he can do.  He has given the blessing to Jacob.

I want to cry out "But Jacob got the blessing under false pretenses!"  Surely the words spoken by Issac can be revoked.

I want to say "Those were only words!  What meaning can they have if they were gotten by deceit?

But Genesis 27 is very clear:  The blessing of the father, once given, can never be retracted. The father's words have power.

In the Small Catechism, Luther reminds us that it is not the water alone which saves us through baptism.  It is the water and the word.

From the hymn we sing in worship there is an acknowledgement that thy word "dost cleave the darkness."

Genesis 27 teaches me that when the father speaks, the words have power and effect.

At our baptism, the Word of God is spoken.  "You are marked with the cross of Christ and sealed with the Holy Spirit."  Powerful words.  God's words.  Words which bring change.

In a world were signed documents must be notarized before they have any possible standing, we need to be instructed on the weight of spoken words.  In such a world, it is far too easy for us to dismiss and fail to experience the significance of the words of God spoken to us and over us.