Dan Knapp - May 17, 2026
The damage of deception
Genesis 26:34-27:46 When Jacob and Esau were born, God made promises about his plans for them. But as parents, Isaac and Rebekah gave in to favouritism and became indifferent to Esau’s life choice about who he marries. Isaac’s spiritual state seems as bad as his physical state. Now we see the harmful effects of ungodly parenting leads to their son Jacob being estranged for 20 years. It may be that Rebekah tries to “help God's promise come true” in her own strength (like her father-in- law Abraham did with Hagar). She suggests Jacob lies to his father. He does. Four times. He take’s God’s name in vain. We don’t need to be told this was wrong, you just need to see the impact on Esau and Isaac’s heartbreaking conversation and Esau’s vow to murder Jacob. Rebekah fixes the consequence of her last trick with another trick: convincing Isaac that she’s concerned that Jacob needs to find a wife. How does this story show us any hope of knowing God might redeem this family? For more about Christ Central Church Portsmouth visit: https://christcentral.church Or via socials: www.facebook.com/christcentral.ch www.instagram.com/christcentralchurchportsmouth To connect with us email: hello@christcentral.church or give us your details at https://www.christcentral.church
From Series: "Genesis - God's people in God's plan"
The Bible has clear instructions in parts, but most of it is story. Stories of people messing up. Stories of people discovering God’s grace. Stories we can learn wisdom from. The middle bit of Genesis tells the story of three generations who discover what it means to be God’s people in God’s plan for his world. And they don’t always get it right. Their stories include: marriage problems, death and grief, parenting struggles, choosing a spouse, sexual immorality, deception, reproductive ethics, unjust employers, relationships that distort God’s design, the strength of friendship, birth, infertility, abuse, betrayal, forgiveness, aging, value of life from womb to tomb, loneliness, racism, politics, war, buying land, wealth management, and learning wisdom from all the ambiguity of ordinary life trying to trust God in a fallen world. We face many issues in life where we have to ask: What does it mean to be God’s people in this? What’s God’s plan for it?
