When we read this week’s Torah Portion we see a great deal of family dysfunction. We see Rebekah and Isaac each choosing a child to favor, we see the division of brothers and we see Isaac repeating a mistake of his father Abraham. The mistake Isaac repeated can be found in Genesis 26 when he lies and says Rebekah is his sister and not his wife due to fearing the men around him. Abraham did this same thing while he and Sarah sojourned in Egypt (Genesis 20). Maybe both Abraham and Isaac rationalized that they weren’t really lying since Sarah was Abraham’s half sister and Rebekah was Isaac’s cousin but this generational pattern of dishonesty would be passed on to Jacob whose name could be translated as trickster which is why we will see him wrestling with Yah and receiving the new name Israel. Even the founding family of Israel had negative generational patterns that had to be broken. In every family both great or small there are negative patterns that we will repeat if we are not careful to examine our hearts and be honest with the next generation about our mistakes. In spite of the division and deceit Yah through his grace still made this family apart of his great plan for the Hebrews and humanity. May Yah’s Grace also reign in our families. Shalom!
Questions to Consider:
1. What generational patterns exist in your family?
2. What steps are you taking to continue the positive generational patterns in your family and what steps are you taking to end the negative generational patterns?
Action Step: 1. Pray about the negative generational patterns in your family and ask Yah to help them stop with you.