Flawed servants

She was going to have twins, and before they were born, they struggled against each other in her womb. She said, ‘Why should something like this happen to me?’ So she went to ask the LORD for an answer.
The LORD said to her,
‘Two nations are within you;
You will give birth to two rival peoples.
One will be stronger than the other;
The older will serve the younger.’  (verses 22, 23)

Read Genesis 25:19-34

Isn’t it sad how often harmony turns into discord, out of peace comes enmity. The day Rebecca conceived twins was to change the life of Isaac and her forever. While still in the womb, the twins fought with each other. One was born with the other clinging to his heel. One was more favoured by his father, the other by his mother. Later, one was to flee for his life from the other, because he had cheated him of what he believed was his.

And yet one of these boys – the younger one, as it turns out – was to be the next of Abraham’s descendants to carry the covenant on into history. God was able to use even imperfect sons, just as he had used their imperfect father and grandfather before them.

And that’s comforting. Because if God were to use only the perfect, the superheroes, then there’s no way he could use me­ and the same is probably true of you. But through the generations of Old Testament people, whom God refers to as ‘my servant’, we see God using people just like you and me in a powerful way.

He can use you and me just as powerfully.

I thank you, Father, that you can, and do, use me, with all my flaws and limitations, to be your servant. Amen.

by Bob Turnbull, in ‘God’s Promises for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 1999)

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