The Easiest Person To Deceive

This was written by Evangelist Wil Rice on Genesis 27:23: And he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy, as his brother Esau*s hands: so he blessed him.

Every morning you open your eyes, you are faced with a choice. You can trust yourself, you can trust others, or you can trust God. Every day, we try to decide whom we can trust. Do we trust the news? Do we trust a picture we saw on Facebook? Do we trust something a friend has said? Do we trust the book we are reading? Whom do we trust? So many times we decide to trust those who satisfy our senses. We see something, hear something, or we just feel something so we believe it must be true. The easiest person in the world to deceive is the person dependent upon his own senses. We sometimes think of faith as blind, but nothing is blinder or more senseless than a person who trusts his own senses because they can be so easily deceived.

In Genesis 27, Isaac and Rebekah were faced with a choice. Would they trust themselves or would they trust God? God had indicated that the younger, Jacob, would have the blessing and the elder, Esau, would not, in contradiction to the custom of the day. Yet, Isaac, because Esau was his favorite, wanted to manipulate matters in order to thwart God*s will. Rebekah, whose favorite son was Jacob, schemed to accomplish God*s will. At the end of the day, one was trying to thwart God*s will and one was trying to accomplish God*s will, but both were manipulating, taking things into their own hands.

Jacob tried to deceive his father into thinking he was Esau in order that he might receive the blessing that his father intended to give to his brother. Genesis 27:1 says it this way, *And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son, and said unto him, My son: and he said unto him, Behold, here am I.* Isaac sends Esau off to hunt for some venison to prepare for him so that Isaac might bless him in a very legal and special way. So, if I were to say, *Isaac was very easily deceived because he was…* You would probably say, *Because he was blind.* The Bible says he was old and his eyes were dim. He could not see, yet I think I could say that Isaac was just as deceived by the senses he had as by the one sense he did not have. In fact, all five senses are mentioned in the text.

In verse 21 Isaac says to Jacob, *Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee.* In verse 22 he heard Jacob*s voice. In verse 28 he tasted. In verse 27 he *came near, and kissed him [Jacob whom he though was Esau]: and he smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him, and said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the LORD hath blessed.* Esau was a smelly man, and Isaac thought he smelled Esau when in fact he smelled Jacob.

The point is that if you can*t even completely trust your senses, how in the world could you trust your perceptions about the future or about things you cannot possibly see or know? God doesn*t merely see, hear, or feel. Those are descriptions that are sometimes used of God in order to help frail people like us understand a little about God. God doesn*t see something then weigh and perceive it to come to conclusions. No, God in the absolute sense knows. Light and darkness are alike to Him. Past, present, future, and eternity are alike to Him. Places near and far across the cosmos are alike to Him. God doesn*t just see or hear; God knows.

Friend, the easiest person in the world to deceive is the person dependent upon his own frail senses. No one in their right mind would believe every picture they see on the internet or say, *Well, it doesn*t make sense to me. I don*t see it. I don*t feel like the Bible is correct.* Begin with what God has actually said. God made a promise to Abraham and God gave direction to Isaac and Rebekah. So, begin with what you know God has said. Instead of following your feelings, follow God Who has a heart for you. Faith is not blind. Faith is the victory, and faith in God and what He has actually said is what will give you the clearest direction for your life.

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