Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac. Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” Romans 9:10-13

Very often we do not understand the ways of God (a more truthful statement has never been written). Why does God seem to elevate one over another such as the case with Jacob and Esau? It’s not because of anything either of them had done because they weren’t even born yet when Rebekah was told that one would serve the other. Later in the chapter we will learn of some of the reasons for this but as in many of our own lives, we get glimpses into God’s ways every now and then only to be stymied at seemingly simple things. We get just the right amount of answers to our problems at just the moment we need them.

We’ll never get full answers because it would certainly overwhelm us. You see, God is at work in your life and in the lives of 6 billion people. Because we do not live on an island, our interactions with other people matter. If we were to get the whole story about why such and happen, it would take years to explain a solitary event because our lives intersected with Joe’s, whose life intersected with Mary, Ray, and Thomas, who in turn interacted with a half dozen other people, and on and on and on. As you can see, it would get complicated fairly quickly.

The best we can manage even on a good day is to thank Him for working out all the details. Of course we pray the best we know how for God’s intervention in others’ lives, but in the end, it is He who works on the nitty gritty in our lives and in those we pray for.