Honor your Mother and Father

When Jacob is advised by his mother to deceive his father, we see the singular act of dishonor: Jacob vs his father Isaac. But if Jacob ignored his mother, he would be dishonoring her.

There’s a dilemma we are supposed to notice. How does a righteous son proceed?

I suspect it is easier for Jacob to honor his mother simply because he knew that she loved him. The text clearly states that Rebekah favored him, and that Isaac favored Esau.

Perhaps there is wisdom in this.

Motherhood and the First Born

You’re not supposed to hate Cain in the story. You’re supposed to look at him through the eyes of a grieving mother who believed that he was the answer to all her problems.

You can relate to Eve, because we’ve all put our trust in something and had it fall apart on us, and perhaps you can relate to Cain, who was under a lot of pressure from his mother.

Trust after a Broken Heart

I’m not a mother, but I try to imagine the depth of hurt, ache, and the mixing of hope & hopelessness bound up in the birth of Seth.

Eve knows God will redeem the world through her children, but one is lost by murdering the other. All of her hope is destroyed.

She holds Seth.

How she must have trembled at his first cry. How she must have clung to him and pressed him close to her body, but also feared losing him, just like she lost the others.

Could she trust God with this child? She trusted him with the first two, and we know what happened.

I weep for Eve. For us.

How do we trust after we’ve been let down? How do we hope when everything we hoped for has been dashed?

The story of Eve and Seth is a story of God healing the broken hearted. It will require time. It will require God.