Genesis

Chapter Twenty-seven

Preface

In this chapter of Genesis the manipulative and scheming plan of Rebekah, with the complicity of her son Jacob that was proffered upon Isaac in order to get the blessing he intended for Esau, is provided in detail for the student of God’s Word.  It is generous of God to reveal in His Word so many of the faults of His children throughout the ages.  Otherwise, Christians of today would be apt to think that God requires a sinless life after the moment of salvation (when a person by faith alone in Christ alone receives the gift of eternal life) in order to maintain one’s salvation.  Although it is God’s preference that a believer be without sin, and even provides the means for the believer to overcome sin in his life (1 John 1:9; Ephesians 5:18; Colossians 2:6), such a state of holiness is extraordinarily difficult to achieve (if at all) as long as the believer is in his earthly body.

God never condones (overlooks or disregards) the sins of His children.  Even though Scripture teaches that a person can never lose his salvation, it is clear that his actions (or inactions) subsequent to being “born again” will not only affect his life upon earth but will determine his rewards (or lack of rewards) after passing on into eternity (Romans 14:10; 1 Corinthians 3:10-15; 4:5; 2 Corinthians 5:10).

This is the case with God’s children in this chapter.  The means by which Rebekah and Jacob used in obtaining Isaac’s blessing is totally without moral credit.  They used fraud and deceit.  Their conduct was deplorable, not only due to the means they employed, but primarily because it stemmed from a lack of faith in God’s promise (Genesis 25:23b).  God did not condone their disbelief and despicable actions any more than He condoned the disbelief and conduct of Sarah and Abraham in the matter of Hagar and Ishmael (Genesis 16).  Later in the book the reader will find that the disbelief and conduct by Rebekah and Jacob carried a stiff penalty for both of them.

Now if Isaac was informed by his wife of God’s correct order of ancestral succession (central to His “blessing”), which was most likely the case, his actions then revealed that He did not believe God and chose instead to act on his feelings and appetite.  This appears to be the trend in various charismatic Christian groups of today.  Whereas God over and over again stresses the importance of faith and provides almost no justification for “feelings,” many Christians continue to prefer the latter.  Unfortunately, these charismatic groups emphasize feelings, signs and wonders to the dearth and detriment of God’s Word (Bible doctrine).

Genesis 27:1-29

Now it came to pass, when Isaac was old and his eyes were so dim that he could not see, that he called Esau his older son and said to him, “My son.” And he answered him, “Here I am.”  Then he said, “Behold now, I am old. I do not know the day of my death.  Now therefore, please take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me.  And make me savory food, such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die.”  Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt game and to bring it.  So Rebekah spoke to Jacob her son, saying, “Indeed I heard your father speak to Esau your brother, saying, ‘Bring me game and make savory food for me, that I may eat it and bless you in the presence of the LORD before my death.’  Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to what I command you.  Go now to the flock and bring me from there two choice kids of the goats, and I will make savory food from them for your father, such as he loves.  Then you shall take it to your father that he may eat it and that he may bless you before his death.”  And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Look, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth-skinned man.  Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be a deceiver to him; and I shall bring a curse on myself and not a blessing.”  But his mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, get them for me.”  And he went and got them and brought them to his mother, and his mother made savory food, such as his father loved.  Then Rebekah took the choice clothes of her elder son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son.  And she put the skins of the kids of the goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck.  Then she gave the savory food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.  So he went to his father and said, “My father.” And he said, "Here I am. Who are you, my son?”   Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn; I have done just as you told me; please arise, sit and eat of my game, that your soul may bless me.”  But Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?” And he said, “Because the LORD your God brought it to me.”  Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not.”  So Jacob went near to Isaac his father, and he felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”  And he did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's hands; so he blessed him.  Then he said, “Are you really my son Esau?” He said, “I am.”  He said, “Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son's game, so that my soul may bless you.” So he brought it near to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank.  Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come near now and kiss me, my son.”  And he came near and kissed him; and he smelled the smell of his clothing, and blessed him and said: “Surely, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field which the LORD has blessed.  Therefore may God give you of the dew of heaven, of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine.  Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be master over your brethren, and let your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be those who bless you!”

Isaac is now 137 years old.  He has failing or failed eyesight, and he thinks he is about to die, perhaps because his brother Ishmael had died at that age (Genesis 25:17)—actually he would live to be 180 years old (Genesis 35:28).  Isaac had always loved Esau over Jacob (Genesis 25:28), primarily because of Esau’s prowess in hunting, which provided the culinary wild game dishes he loved so well.  Here he promised Esau that he would pass on to him the blessing that he had received from Abraham his father in return for a meal of wild game.

Hearing this, Rebekah plotted to deceive her husband so her son Jacob would receive the intended blessing.  Her scam was unnecessary because God had already promised the blessing to Jacob (Genesis 25:23b).  Still, she pressed on with her elaborate scheme with the willing assistance of Jacob.

She cooked goat’s meat so that it tasted like savory venison, and put the goat’s skins on Jacob’s arms to impersonate the hairy Esau.  Isaac made the mistake of trusting his feelings; the hairy arm “felt” like Esau’s.  We should not trust our emotional feelings in spiritual matters.  As Martin Luther observed:

“Feelings come and feelings go, and feelings are deceiving;

Our warrant is the Word of God; naught else is worth believing.”

Although Rebekah planned the deception, Jacob was equally guilty for carrying it out.  And he reaped what he sowed.  C.H. Mackintosh observed that:

“. . . whoever observes Jacob’s life, after he had surreptitiously obtained his father’s blessing, will perceive that he enjoyed very little worldly felicity.  His brother sought to murder him, to avoid which he was forced to flee from his father’s house; his uncle Laban deceived him. . . . He was obliged to leave him in a clandestine manner. . . . He experienced the baseness of his son Reuben . . . the treachery and cruelty of Simeon and Levi towards the Shechemites; then he had to feel the loss of his beloved wife . . . the supposed untimely end of Joseph; and to complete all, he was forced by famine to go into Egypt, and there died in a strange land. . . .”

(Believer’s Bible Commentary, by William MacDonald, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1990)

Once Isaac believed that it was Esau who was with him, he pronounced the blessing on Jacob, a blessing of prosperity, dominion and protection.  The blessings spoken by the patriarchs were prophetic; they came to pass literally because, in a real sense, these men spoke by inspiration.  Furthermore, such blessings were spoken and passed on because of the patriarch’s faith in God’s Word (Hebrews 11:20—“By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.”)

Genesis 27:30-40

Now it happened, as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting.  He also had made savory food, and brought it to his father, and said to his father, “Let my father arise and eat of his son's game, that your soul may bless me.”  And his father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?” So he said, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.”  Then Isaac trembled exceedingly, and said, “Who? Where is the one who hunted game and brought it to me? I ate all of it before you came, and I have blessed him-and indeed he shall be blessed.”  When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, “Bless me-me also, O my father!” But he said, “Your brother came with deceit and has taken away your blessing.”  And Esau said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright, and now look, he has taken away my blessing!” And he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?”  Then Isaac answered and said to Esau, “Indeed I have made him your master, and all his brethren I have given to him as servants; with grain and wine I have sustained him. What shall I do now for you, my son?”  And Esau said to his father, “Have you only one blessing, my father? Bless me-me also, O my father!” And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.  Then Isaac his father answered and said to him: “Behold, your dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above.  By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother; and it shall come to pass, when you become restless, that you shall break his yoke from your neck.”

When Esau returned and learned that Jacob had received the blessing from Isaac, he immediately threw an emotional tantrum and beseeched Isaac to also bless him.  This Isaac could not do; he had only one opportunity to make the transition from himself to another.  The writer of the book of Hebrews (12:16, 17) had this to say on the matter:

Lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.

But Isaac did grant Esau the following:  “Behold, your dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above.  By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother; and it shall come to pass, when you become restless, that you shall break his yoke from your neck.” (vss. 39, 40)  Probably a better translation of this passage would be:

Then Isaac his father made answer and said to him, Far from the fertile places of the earth, and far from the dew of heaven on high will your living-place be:  By your sword will you get your living and you will be your brother's servant; but when your power is increased his yoke will be broken from off your neck.

This suggests that the Edomites would live in the desert, would be warriors, would be subject to the Israelites, but would one day rebel against and break off from their rule.  This latter prophecy was fulfilled in the reign of Joram, King of Judah (2 Kings 8:20-22).

Genesis 27:41-46

So Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him, and Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then I will kill my brother Jacob.” And the words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah. So she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said to him, “Surely your brother Esau comforts himself concerning you by intending to kill you.  Now therefore, my son, obey my voice: arise, flee to my brother Laban in Haran.  And stay with him a few days, until your brother's fury turns away, until your brother's anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him; then I will send and bring you from there. Why should I be bereaved also of you both in one day?”  And Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth; if Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth, like these who are the daughters of the land, what good will my life be to me?”

Rebekah, having learned of Esau’s plan of killing Jacob after his father’s death and the subsequent prescribed period of mourning ended, instructed Jacob to flee to her brother Laban in Haran and stay with him until Esau’s rage subsided.  She knew that if Esau took the law into his own hands and murdered Jacob, this would end up as a double-sorrow for her. 

She was also fed-up with the disappointments that continuously arose from the marriage of Esau to Hittite woman, and she wanted no such marriage or marriages for her son Jacob.  The spiritual application of Rebekah’s concern for the Christian today is that an unholy association with the things of the world will only produce great misery, enmity with God and spiritual defeat.  (Matthew 16:26; Luke 21:34)

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (1 John 2:15)

Set your mind [affections] on things above, not on things on the earth. (Colossians 3:2)

Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age. (Titus 2:12)

Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. (James 4:4)