In Need of a Savior (Genesis 27:35)
But he said, “Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing.”
—Genesis 27:35
This is a hard chapter to read and a hard verse to read—the story of Jacob and Esau. Jacob, a person in the line from Abraham and Isaac that would eventually lead to Jesus, is so deceitful, deceiving his father and taking—stealing—the blessing that belonged to his brother Esau. As I read this, I realize in a fresh way that one of the things I am most thankful for about the Bible is that it does not gloss over reality. We live in a world of evil and deceit, and even people who are, in other ways, held up as models of faith falter in ways that point to our need for Jesus.
Genesis 27:35 reminds us of our desperate need of God’s mercy.
We need God to cover all of us in our sin with his mercy and to sustain us in our suffering. When I put myself in Esau’s shoes, it is clear that Esau was not perfect either. Before this, we see Esau trading his birthright for a bowl of soup. So Esau is not perfect, but that is the point. None of us are. Which means all of us need God, in his mercy, to cover over our sin. And we all need God, in his mercy, to sustain us as we suffer and experience the effects of evil and deceit in this world.
So we pray, O God. First and foremost, and ultimately, we praise you for Jesus. We praise you for the one central person at the core of all Scripture and all history, who is perfect—without evil, without sin, without deceit—who is infinitely trustworthy. Jesus, we praise you for your holiness, for your purity, for being without sin, and then for taking our sin upon yourself, for paying the price for our sin on the cross. All glory be to your name, Jesus. We love you. We worship you as the sinless Savior and Lord of our lives.
Genesis 27:35 reminds us that we must constantly depend on God’s grace.
God, we pray for your covering over our sin. God, please keep us from being deceitful. Keep us from sin in any way. God, we pray that you would help us to be holy today, as you are holy, Jesus—that your life would be our life. And then, God, as we experience the effects of a world of evil and deceit, we pray for your mercy to sustain us in the suffering that comes from that. When we are cheated out of things, when we are hurt in different ways by sin—by others’ sin in this world—God, we pray for your mercy to keep us trusting in you, following you, walking with you, and not responding to evil with evil.
God, please guard us. Keep us from responding to evil with evil. Make us holy and make us whole as we long for the day when we will see your face, Lord Jesus, and when evil and deceit and sin and all suffering will be no more.
God, we pray that you would help us spread that good news today. Help us to be beacons of that light today, around us and around the world.
A Prayer for Egyptian Muslim Arabs
God, we pray specifically today for more than 67 million Egyptian Muslim Arabs—for all these men, women, and children in Egypt who do not know the truth about who you are, Lord Jesus, and how much you love them. God, we pray for the spread of the gospel all across Egypt, especially among Egyptian Muslim Arabs. Please bless our brothers and sisters in Christ there. Bless churches there. Raise up more laborers for the spread of the gospel in Egypt.
God, we pray that you would give them success in spreading the truth about Jesus—that he is not just a man or just a prophet, but that he is God in the flesh, who came to save us from our sins, the sinless Savior that all 67 million-plus Egyptian Muslim Arabs need. God, please cause that good news to spread to them, we pray, all in light of Genesis 27:35.
In Jesus’s name we pray. Amen.
