S3E4 Preserve Me

Hello and welcome to Two Hearts True Healing! I am your host Jacinta Wick and this is Season Three Episode Four of Community; God’s Plan for Humanity and a Mother’s Love. Preserve Me. 

1 Preserve me, God, I take refuge in you.

2 I say to the Lord: You are my God.

      My happiness lies in you alone.”

3 He has put into my heart a marvelous love

      for the faithful ones who dwell in his land

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So begins the Psalm in Liturgy of The Hours. We call on the Lord to preserve and protect us and He shows what happens when we put our trust in the Lord; the fruit is joy and apostolic zeal for God’s beloved. What is the flip side? During this episode we are going to delve into this truth; trusting in God’s providence or the behavior of selfish self preservation and pushing our own agenda. I received a comment from one of our listeners and I wanted to start off this episode clarifying what I mean with the woman helping the man to a fuller understanding. It also has to do with this episode. Male and Female are very complimentary and they both work together to arrive at a better end. Man is objective and big picture oriented and the woman is in the details. (This does not mean men do not see details, they just see them differently.) A woman is needed to fill in the blanks for him to help him arrive at an informed picture. I am not saying he is incapable of arriving at an end without her, but he can have a fuller viewpoint from their complementarity and each needs the other to sometimes lead and other times follow. They need each other’s input to see with the eyes of the heart. It’s a dance of three. The man helps the woman out of her emotions and brings a steadiness and objectivity and the woman brings the heart for the head to delineate. I am not in any way diminishing one or the other as both have something to bring to the table from different angles. They each see differently but both receive. Remember how we talked that the woman is the receiver and the man is the initiator who gives to the wife who is then able to give out of fullness? Where does that fullness come from? From gift. It means both have to give and receive the gift. This comes from the third who is nothing but GIFT, the Holy Spirit.

We are primarily talking about how the woman makes community. Her love transforms in a unique way that brings out order and beauty. But a community is not just her contribution but a give and take of all involved. The woman has the unique role of showing her children how to love the father and how to receive in his presence and relate to him. Wounding occurs when that flow is interrupted by either party not filling in their roles. Either control can be sought after from the woman who doesn’t let him lead by manipulation or from the male over-directing in an overbearing or unthoughtful way. Want a clear example? At the beginning of Jamestown’s history, there were only two women. It was a rough and tumble place that required some pretty hard handedness of a strong leader. When that lapsed, hunger, laziness, and sickness would abound. Let me give an example to show just how things were done to bring about some semblance of order. There was a law that said if a man was caught swearing cold water would be poured down his sleeve. And the law that brought the best results was anyone who does not work does not eat. With the capture of Captain John Smith, they fell into confusion. And who came to the rescue? A woman. Pocahontas.  Except for Pocahontas’ help during that first winter they would have starved. When John Smith went back to England (whether due to an injury or the constant need to command), Jamestown was almost abandoned because of starvation and lawlessness.

Just in time, a supply ship, The Deliverance, came from England with another strong leader who instantly set the men working to repair all the damage done in the absence of a leader. And do you know what one of the first things he did to improve conditions? He arranged for a shipload of women to arrive. Guess what happened? The men and a handful of boys cleaned up shop, repairing the settlement pretty fast and groomed themselves, putting on their best and went to the shore to receive them. Lawlessness pretty much dissolved after that as they had a companion to take away loneliness and someone to raise the standard. Also someone to provide for and to pour oneself out as gift to the other. Men need the challenge of a woman and women need the challenge of civilization. They bring out self-gift in a way that man cannot without her. Or at least without a lot of HARD work. She has a way of beckoning out the best in a man and he beckons out in her beauty. The cherishing he does brings out her willingness to serve and to give back and to keep the standard. Shall we now continue with our scripture study? I feel like this brings out a good backdrop for today’s story.

Let’s pick up our story with Isaac and Rebecca as they have been married for a while. Rebekah has been infertile and Isaac prays over her for healing and Rebecca becomes pregnant with twins. She feels all the movement and struggling in her womb and inquires of the Lord in Genesis 25:23 And the Lord said to her, two nations are in your womb and two peoples, born of you, shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other. The elder shall serve the younger. When she gave birth, the elder twin came out with the younger holding his heel. The elder was hairy so named Esau and the younger, because he was holding his brother’s heel, was called Jacob. From the Hebrew Ya’aqov, Jacob can mean “to follow, be behind,” but it can also mean “to supplant, overreach” or come from the Hebrew word for “heel.” It can also mean “may God protect.” (Baby Center Boy names). We find that he will live up to his name throughout this story. We see Jacob starting to supplant. Esau sells his birthright. We see they are two very different people. Jacob is quiet and dwells in the tents and Esau is a hunter and a man of the field. Isaac loved Esau and Rebekah loved Jacob.

So they have been dwelling in the land where Abraham and Sarah lived but there came a famine and Isaac was going to go to Egypt but the Lord told him not to so he went instead to Abimelech. What does the Lord promise? He carried on His covenant with Isaac, Dwell in the Land of which I shall tell you. Sojourn in this land, and I will fulfill the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. I will multiply your descendants, I will give to your descendants all these lands, and I will fulfill the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give to your descendants all these lands. So Isaac listened to the Lord and went to Abimelech. Rebekah was drop dead gorgeous and Isaac was afraid of being killed and losing her so he lied to the people saying she was his sister. One day the king saw him fondling her and said, “She is your wife? Why have you done this to us? Anyone could have lain with her and brought about guilt with us!” So Isaac makes an excuse about her of his fears and the king sends them away. All seems to go well. And on the surface, it only appears that Isaac does a few things like digging wells. You might be asking what is the significance of this? 

A well meant you were planted in an area. Why? Water was the center of life and sustenance in this culture. So basically He is saying, “I own this land and it is mine!” Isn’t it interesting that the Lord told him to sojourn and yet he is trying to plant himself? He is writing his own story. He redug all the wells of Abraham and fought to stay in this place and was successful. Again God goes along with the story and blesses him even though Isaac is trusting more in his own ambition than in God’s providence. There was some battle over these wells with the locals and finally Isaac moves to a different place and that same night, the Lord appears to Isaac again reiterating that He will bless him and multiply him for the sake of his father. What does Isaac do? Well first he builds an altar to the Lord. That is good, but then what does he do? Dig a well and called it She’bah…The city is called Be’er-she’ba it means oath. Because he made a covenant with Abimilech’s people here because they saw he was successful as well as with the Lord.

He grows old and his sons have grown. Esau does not please his parents because he marries two local woman who make life difficult for Isaac and Rebekah. Jacob is about to copy his father in writing his own story. Let’s pick up in chapter 27. Isaac sees he is about to die and wants to pass on the important “blessing” as we have already talked about and says to his oldest, “Go hunting and make for me food that you have caught so I can bless you before I die.” Well, now we come to my point on self-preservation versus trust the opposite of listening with the heart but listening with the head. Verse 5 Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “I heard your father speak to your brother Esau, ‘Bring me game, and prepare for me savory food, that I may eat it and bless you before I die.’ Now therefore my son, obey my word as I command you. Go to the flock, and fetch me two good kids, that I may prepare from them savory food for your father, such as he loves; and you shall bring it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.”

So we see this family is at war with itself! Instead of focusing on the blessings they are receiving they are holding on to the prosperity and taking versus receiving. Rebekah is not using her study of her husband and listening for good but for her own selfish gain. She knows the way to Isaac’s heart, his stomach. She is misusing her gift and her listening. Instead of strengthening their relationship, she uses her influence to bless her favorite son. It becomes a competition for power and furtherment. Jacob does as his mother commands him and goes dressed in Esau’s clothes and the skins of the goat so he feels and smells like Esau. And he outwits his brother again. With both the birthright and the blessing. It’s interesting to note all through this story that God goes along with it. Even though all this deception and competition is happening he still follows the rules so to speak of the blessing and instead of blessing Esau with the continuing of the family, he does bless Jacob. It is through him that the covenant is passed on. When Isaac and Esau figured out what happened, Esau is very angry and does a couple of things. First, he vows to kill Jacob when Isaac dies. Rebekah once again, “listens” and has to come up with another scheme to get Jacob away safely. She tells him that he must flee to Laban her brother and marry there with kinsmen. She says to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob marries one of the women of the land, what good will my life be to me?” Oh dear! Do you see the power of a woman’s voice? She can manipulate and vie for control. When women complain the husband naturally tries to appease her and make her happy. It is so bad of us women to take advantage of our husbands or other males in our life in this way. It causes a lot of damage in our relationships and in our families. It puts us at war.

What does Isaac do? He sends him to Laban. Jacob wants to please his parents and goes. And what does Esau do? Seeing that they do not like the local women, he goes to Ishmael and married Maha’lath his daugher even though he already had two wives, out of spite and rebellion and retaliation in the fact that now everything was hinging on his younger brother instead of him. Listen to Season Two Episode Five I saw you to hear about the beginning of Jacob’s relationship with God and how God must pull him out of the strife he created to actually come to healing and receive blessing instead of selfish pursuits and taking blessing. He has a lot to learn and does many things to secure his place before actually accepting God’s gift. But guess what? He does learn. Even though it takes time. He even “jacobs” his father-in-law, Laban. But you know what? He had to experience the hard way of himself being jacobed. Laban gives him to wife Leah instead of Rachel and then says if you want Rachel then work for me another 7 years. Ouch! He tasted his own medicine. Then we see again the consequences of “taking” versus receiving. We have two sisters at war for Jacob’s love. Rachel has infertility issues and Leah has two sons. Rachel says, “Give me children, or I shall die!” Jacob’s anger was kindled and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?” Rachel says, “Here! Take my maid Bilhah as a wife; and unfortunately he does. He goes into her and she conceives. What does Rachel say? “God has judged me, and has also heard my voice and given me a son!”

Pause! Oh dear! We haven’t changed much today! Invitro fertilization is the same sin. We take another’s seed other than our husband’s (most of the time) and illicitly take the woman’s egg and force a conception outside of the limits of God’s precious garden and embrace in a labratory! Many lives are carelessly made and killed off and even frozen. What do we do? How do we value their lives? Even this sin spreads to “adopting” a frozen embryo. The same thing. What seems to be compassion is not as we have taken another’s seed into our garden other than our husband’s. It would still be the same sin of taking another’s seed outside of marriage. We are forcing a life. There are licit means to help fertility which include Napro and GIFT which is a procedure that helps the sexual act, though, a bit more controversial than other proven methods with Napro. It is different with flesh and blood adoption as that life came to be in a licit way with the sexual embrace. It is also different because it mirrors God’s action of taking us in. For example Hannah and Samuel given to Eli, Mary and Jesus…are just two examples that come to mind. This is a prefigurement (Samuel and Jesus) and the covenant is passed on through both individuals of the high priesthood and the passing on of the covenant. We know this because of the Gospels. When does Jesus go to the temple? When he ‘comes of age’ just like Samuel coming to age as a youth of the same age. (That is the significance of the finding of the child Jesus.) And the covenant is passed on through adoption. 

Please join me in offering prayers for the victims of InVitro and consider adopting a frozen embryo spiritually. See my Prayer and spread it around to all your friends and family. I have some neat exclusive merch for you to spread it. And it is only listed on this episode and on the bottom of the prayer. Soon, hopefully, a card with the prayer will be more readily available. I have only learned this through struggling and prayer to find the right answer. I know full well the struggle of many of you with infertility. But this does not give us the right to force a life. It is far more wholesome to put up with the rigamarole of legal adoption. I understand your ache! I understand the pain of desire. But let’s use and promote licit means.

Back to our story! Leah sees her sister’s success, and not to be out done, gives her maid to Jacob for the same reason. Then Jacob begets 4 sons this way (two each). Leah’s womb was opened again for more sons and finally miracle of miracles, Rachel conceives Joseph the patriarch. Jacob wants to go to his own land and wants to leave Laban and actually turns to the Lord as he finds himself in his lowest place, though blessed. Episode five in Season two talks about this as the first healing act of obedience from Jacob. Also it talks about how it had ripple effects into his intermediate family, specifically Esau. We know he has grown in trust and in love of the proper way of conceiving and trusting in the Lord to keep His covenant. He has a daughter from Leah. Dinah. (He might have had more as it mentions a few more verses later “daughters,” though that could be slaves’ daughters, son’s daughters, or birth daughters).

Shechem, a local, falls in love with Dinah and forces himself upon her. Jacob accepts the compensation from Hamor, Shechem’s father. However two of her brothers turn rouge. These two of her brothers are enraged but deceitfully say that Shechem can have her as a wife if they circumcise and become one with them. Hamor and Shechem were very influential in the village and they convinced all the men of the place to say if they join Jacob’s clan they would be blessed by this covenant. While they were still in pain from this, Simeon and Levi raid the city killing all the males. They take as booty all the goods, livestock, women and children for their own clan. Jacob’s anger was kindled against them and the eldest son’s blessing gets passed to Judah instead of Simeon, Levi, and Rueban, who also sinned by lying as well with Joseph. He also used deceit. God is clear about how the covenant is passed. IN TRUTH. Yes, Judah sold his brother into slavery to the Ishmaelites, but he, at least, had the justice of defending him as their brother and prefigures the 20 pieces of silver that Jesus was betrayed with in the new covenant of 12 apostles for the salvation of all Israel the nation just as Judah unknowingly saves his family from famine through Joseph. Even after all this, Isaac is alive and dies after all this occurs and Esau and Jacob bury their father. Jacob returns to Bethel under the Lord’s command and God renews his covenant. Unfortunately, Jacob does still play the favorite, like his father before him, with Joseph. And more family drama occurs. But Jacob still stays with the Lord and does pass on the Love of the Lord to Joseph. You can read more about Judah and how the covenant was passed on through harlotry to his daughter-in-law, Tamar, who tricked him yet still maintains honesty and is mentioned in the genealogy of the gospel to the Jews (Matthew) because of her evilness. Everyone knew the sin of Tamar. It is interesting to note, how Mary is considered, at first by her peers in Nazareth, as the harlot but this time it was God that acted in her in the appearance of shame but really there was holiness and no guile. But this is more for another time.  We will be studying more women in this line of covenant more in depth later on.