Unmended Fences: Genesis 27:41-46
God knows the devastating truth about how sin breaks relationships. This is one of the underlying themes of Genesis. Adam and Eve broke relationship. Cain broke relationship. In Genesis, one story after another demonstrates how sin breaks relationship.
Esau’s anger burned against Jacob. The Bible uses the word hate. The only thing holding Esau back from taking revenge on Jacob is respect for his father. Esau hated Jacob because Jacob – through Rebekah – outmaneuvered Esau in their scheming. To reiterate from prior days, nobody is righteous in this story. Everyone is complicit. There is no single person who gets close to being righteous in this story.
As a result, Rebekah sends Jacob away to her brother Laban. Once more the most dangerous part of sin is put on display. Sin breaks relationships.
It might seem odd to hear the claim that broken relationships are the dangerous consequences of sin. It’s true, though. Human beings are incredibly good at overcoming obstacles and events. Most of us have faced significant obstacles and challenges in life and we can all claim to have overcome them. Sure, some obstacles are harder to overcome than others. Still, human beings as a species are resilient. We specialize in staring down challenges and figuring out a way through them to the other side.
On the other hand, human beings are not particularly skilled at mending broken relationships. We can do it, of course. The problem is we often don’t want to. It is hard to apologize. It is hard to admit wrong. It is hard to make amends and restitution. Taking the first step and accepting guilt is frequently the step that prevents relationships from being mended.
From the perspective of the sin’s victim, it is also not particularly easy to forgive. Sometimes we want to hold onto our anger because anger tricks us into thinking it feels better than forgiveness. Other times we’d rather bury the relationship and suppress the anger than go through the hassle of mending the relationship. Forgiveness frequently takes more work than asking for forgiveness.
The world is a big place. There are plenty of places for people to go so they can avoid each other rather than mend relationships. That’s exactly what happens in this story. Everyone is guilty of some sin. Nobody steps up to acknowledge their guilt. The anger festers. Rebekah sends her beloved son away. The relationship stays broken, all because of sin that doesn’t get overcome.
God knows how sin breaks relationship. He knows because our sin breaks our relationship with Him, too. He also knows our difficulty with mending relationships. That’s why He sent His Son to do what we cannot. Jesus takes on our sin, pays our price, and guarantees our relationship with God can be mended. God does it because we cannot. God knows the devastating truth about how sin breaks relationships.
