How Good Is Your Word?

Then Isaac trembled violently,

and said,

“Who was he then that hunted game

and brought it to me,

so that I ate of all of it before you came,

and blessed him?

Yes, and he will be blessed.”

Genesis 27:33

This chapter in Scripture is one that hurts my heart to read. Isaac has grown old, and he feels his time of death is drawing near. He calls in Esau to give him the blessing of the firstborn. Rebekah overhears this conversation, and she desires that Jacob have this blessing, not Esau. She then goes to Jacob and begins to scheme to take this blessing from Esau.

I hate the deceiving of Isaac. I am sure that had Jacob gone to his father and told him of how Esau had sold his birthright for a bowl of stew, Isaac would have willingly blessed Jacob with the right of the firstborn. Jacob, however, with the encouragement of his mother, chose to deceive his father.

Rebekah had been told by God in Genesis 25:23 that Esau would serve Jacob, yet once again we have another example in Scripture where we try to “help God out” and end up making a huge mess. When will we come to the full understanding that we can take God at His every word?

What I find even more staggering in this chapter is that once Isaac had spoken his blessing, he couldn’t and wouldn’t take it back. Isaac knew the power of his word. He knew that blessings come from God alone. He knew that he could not take back the blessing that had been uttered because he knew that God had given it.

The Scripture says that Isaac “trembled violently”(Genesis 27:33). I do not believe that he trembled on behalf of Esau’s lost blessing. I believe Isaac trembled from the hurt and disappointment that comes from a parent deceived by his child.

We take God at His word when He offers salvation, and He takes us at our word when we ask to receive that salvation. I was raised to not make promises I could not keep, and if I made a promise, no matter what, I was to keep it. I was always told that I was only as good as my word. There once was a day when a person’s word was solid and binding. There once was a day when a verbal contract was as binding as a written one and a handshake confirmed an oath.

In Matthew 12:36 Jesus says, “But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment.”

Precious one, God has not changed. Our world has changed, but God has not. God’s word is solid and binding, and I believe that He still holds us accountable for the words of our mouth.

Oh Father,

Help me to remember that I need to be careful not to allow careless words to proceed out of my mouth. Oh Father, forgive me for the times that I have spoken out of ignorance and anger and frustration. Help me, Father, to always be a person of my word, a person that others can trust with security that my word will be kept. Oh Father, may I honor You with the words of my mouth; may my speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt (Colossians 4:6).

My Jesus, it is in Your name I pray,

Amen.