A Stumble with a Purpose

A Stumble with a Purpose
ROMANS 11.7-15

When Jesus told a story about an older and a younger brother, he was picking up echoes from several powerful stories in the book of Genesis. In Jesus’ own parable in Luke 15, the younger son takes his share of the inheritance, goes off and wastes it all, and is then welcomed back lavishly by the father, which the older son resents with a bitter jealousy. The story ends without the family problem being resolved. Jesus seems to have wanted his hearers to think it through, to see where they belong within the story, and to act accordingly. But the echoes are all there. Cain is jealous of Abel because God accepts his offering (Genesis 4). Ishmael is rejected in favour of the younger Isaac (Genesis 21). Esau bitterly resents Jacob’s trick in stealing his birthright and his blessing (Genesis 27). And then, on a grand scale, Joseph’s older brothers, all ten of them, are furious that his father has favoured him. They think of killing him, but in the end they sell him into slavery (Genesis 37)...