A woman from the Old Testament plays a major role in the premier opening of “Manage or Manipulate.” As in all plays, the characters are introduced as the story unfolds. The curtain is about to open.
You glance down at the program in your hands. It gives the background that sets the stage for this highly acclaimed drama. You read: “Abraham, a widower, had one son, Isaac. In the ancient culture of the Middle East, it was customary for the parents to arrange the wedding of their son and to select lovely and costly gifts of jewelry for the bride-to-be and her family as a dowry. This dowry was to assure the bride and her family of the financial competence of the groom. Abraham sent his trusted servant to venture to the land of his extended family on Mesopotamia 500 miles away in search of a wife suitable for Isaac.” The play begins with the servant arriving at his destination with his men and ten camels.
This is a 4-act play.
Your eyes dart to center stage as the music crescendos and the curtain opens.
Act I Searching for a Bride
A hot, dusty, and thirsty man leads his camel caravan to a well. He prays to God, “If I say to the woman ‘give me a little water, and she shall say, ‘Drink, and I will draw water for your camels,’ let her be the one You chose for my master.”’
Just then a beautiful, young virgin enters from the right carrying a pitcher on her shoulder. They meet and the scene plays out exactly as the servant prayed. There is much excitement at Rebekah’s house when she says, “I will go.”
The next day, the servant escorts Rebekah and her maids back to Canaan.
Act II Love Story has a Smudge
Forty-year-old Isaac walks alone in a furrow of the field, thinking. He looks up to see a camel caravan plodding along the dusty road. He did a quick calculation – more camels returning than when the servant left. His eyes brighten, and he quickens his step to meet the caravan.
Rebekah asks the servant who the man was that walked to meet them. “My master,” he replies.
Rebekah dismounts from her camel and covers her face with her veil. Rebekah and Isaac married that day.
The drama shifts forward twenty years. Rebekah and Isaac reminisce about their past twenty years together.
“We have had a good marriage built on love and trust and God’s promise to bless us with descendants too numerous to count, so why are you so sad?” Isaac asks, tenderly.
“Because I cannot give you a son, and that is a big smudge on our marriage,” she replies, and wipes her tears away.
Isaac pleads with God on behalf of Rebekah. God hears his plea, and Rebekah becomes pregnant – with twins.
You clap in exuberance with the rest of the audience as the curtain closes.
Act III Favoritism and its Consequences
You settle back in your seat as the curtain opens.
The twin boys grew to young men, and you can tell immediately that Rebakah favors Jacob who is quiet and reserved, and Isaac favors Esau who is an outdoorsman and likes to hunt. You watch with keen interest as this once-beautiful family begins to fragment. You are saddened with the strife between the two young men and the tension between Isaac and Rebekah. You move to the edge of your seat and set your eyes toward the stage as the play continues.
Rebekah stands at the kneading table, thinking out loud. I still cannot believe Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of lentil stew just because he was hungry. Doesn’t he care? And how could Jacob be so bold to even offer a bowl of lentil stew? My thoughts could set the smoldering coals of deceitfulness ablaze. I must stop thinking of such things.
There was dead silence in the theater as the curtain closed.
Act IV Manipulation Devastates Four People
Tension in the theater mounts as the curtain opens for the final act.
Isaac and Esau are talking. And Rebekah is listening.
Isaac said, “I am old and blind. I do not know the day of my death. Take your bow and arrows and hunt game. Prepare a savory dish that I may eat and bless you.”
Rebekah gasps and covers her mouth.
When Esau went out, Rebekah said to Jacob, “Jacob, my son, I heard your father say to your brother, bring be savory food that I may eat and bless you in the presence of the Lord. She devised a plan to manipulate the situation in favor of Jacob.
Jacob answered, “Esau is hairy, and I am not. What if my father feels me? I shall seem a deceiver, and I will bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing.”
“I will take care of it. Go, get two goats, and I will prepare a savory meal.” She wept for the treachery she was about to commit against her husband. She reasoned aloud, the blessing is about to go to impetuous Esau, and I know he will squander the blessing. Besides, the Lord said the older shall serve the younger, and maybe this is God’s way…” Her voice trailed off when Jacob returned with the meat.
Rebekah gave Esau’s clothes to Jacob to put on and attached the goat skins to his hands and neck.
Jacob took the food to his father. Isaac questioned Jacob three times about his identity and three times Jacob answered, “I am Esau, your first-born son.” Isaac felt his hands and smelled Esau’s clothes. Though not totally convinced, Isaac blessed Jacob.
When Esau returned and made the savory food, Isaac and Esau discovered Jacob’s deception. Esau’s anger boiled over. “I am going to kill him,” he snarled.
A servant told Rebekah Esau’s words, and Rebekah told Jacob. “Jacob, my son, you must flee to my brother Laban in Haran until your brother’s fury turns away. Then I will send and bring you from there.”
However, Rebekah never saw her beloved son again.
You wipe tears from your eyes as the curtain closes.
The play may have ended on a sad note emphasizing the devastation favoritism, deceit, and manipulation can bring. But God’s plan, unlike the play, does not stop there. God’s plan leads to never ending.
You are reading this blog, and you have entered the theater as a participant in the story on stage. In the same way, God wrote the Scriptures and entered into His own story in the person of Jesus as the Man to redeem humanity.