reasonably supposed, that this holy man could have so far declined from God as to set himself in deliberate and deter- mined opposition to his will, was not God able to overrule his actions, and to constrain him, as he afterwards did Jacob him- self, to cross his hands, and, even against his will, to transfer the blessing to him for whom it was designed3? At all events, if they could see no means of preventing the dreaded event, was God unable to effect it ? and might not he be safely left with the execution of his own purposes ? Was it necessary for them to resort to fraud and lying, in order to prevent his decrees from being superseded and defeated?]
2. As means, it was most unjustifiable and base — [We are perfectly astonished when we see a person of Rebekah's exemplary character devising such a plot, and a plain man like Jacob executing it in such a determined way ; a plot to deceive a holy and aged man, a husband, a parent, in the very hour of his expected decease, and in reference to a point of such importance. We know from the whole of their lives that this was not their ordinary mode of acting : but from the address they shewed throughout the whole of it, we should have thought them the greatest proficients in the arts of dissi- mulation and fraud. Every difficulty seems to have been fore- seen and guarded against with consummate skill: and where Rebekah's experience had not suggested a precaution, the sub- tilty of Jacob supplied a ready remedy. Lies, when once begun, were multiplied without fear or shame : and because they were not sufficient, God himself was called in as aiding the decep- tion. It was in vain to think that the circumstance of God's having made known his will respecting the birthright could sanction any such means as these ; or that they were at liberty to do evil in order that good might come. The whole trans- action was vile and hateful in the extreme : and, as long as fraud, and lying, and hypocrisy before God, and uncharitable- ness and undutifulness to man, are odious, so long must this action merit the execration and abhorrence of all mankind.]
But that we may have a more complete view of this event, let us consider,
II. The reflections it suggests —
Truly profitable is it to the contemplative mind. Methinks, the most superficial observer cannot but remark from hence,
1. How mysterious are the ways by which God accomplishes his own purposes!
a Gen. xlviii. 8 — 20.