Gen. 27-28: “Jacob And Rebekah
Join Together To Trick Isaac To Give Esau’s Blessing To Jacob / Jacob Flees For
His Life And God Appears To Him”
By
1.
INTRO:
1.1.
In our last study
we looked at chapters 25-26 of Genesis.
1.1.1. We saw in that study that Abraham continued to be
rejuvenated by the Lord and started a new family.
1.1.2. Abraham finally passed away at a ripe old age.
1.1.3. After 20 years of marriage Isaac and Rebekah finally
received the ability to conceive and Rebekah becomes pregnant with twins. The twins struggle within her and the Lord
tells her why even within the womb they are struggling.
1.1.4. These twins were named “Hairy” (Esau) and “Heel Catcher” (Jacob), after their
character and personal characteristics.
1.1.5. Esau sold his birthright to his brother Jacob for a
bowl of lentil stew.
1.2.
In our study
today, we are going to look at chapters 27-28 of Genesis.
1.2.1. We saw previously that Jacob loved Esau and that
Rebekah loved Jacob, and we discussed how favoritism and not loving your
children equally will cause not only strife between your siblings but also between
you and your spouse. In our story today,
bitterness will develop between Esau and Jacob that will turn into a plan for
fratricide as Esau will plan to murder his brother after Jacob tricks him out
of his patriarchal blessing from his father.
1.2.2. Isaac believes that he is old and will soon die so he
decides that he must confer a blessing upon his oldest son and he sends Esau
out to kill some game and make him a nice meal so that he might bless him.
1.2.3. Rebekah hears Isaac say these things to Esau and so she
schemes a plan to have Jacob trick Isaac into thinking that he is Esau so he
will give to him Esau’s blessing. The
scheme works as planned.
1.2.4. When Esau returns and realizes that his blessing has
been stolen by his brother he receives a minimal blessing from his father but
determines to kill his brother Jacob for deceiving him in this way.
1.2.5. When Rebekah realizes Esau is planning to kill Jacob
she tells Jacob he must flee to her people in
1.2.6. Jacob flees to
2.
VS 27:1-5 - “1
Now it came about, when Isaac was old and his eyes were too dim to see,
that he called his older son Esau and said to him, “My son.” And he said to
him, “Here I am.” 2 Isaac said, “Behold now,
I am old and I do not know the day of my death. 3 “Now then, please take your gear, your quiver and
your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me; 4 and prepare a savory dish for me such as I love,
and bring it to me that I may eat, so that my soul may bless you before I die.”
5 Rebekah was listening
while Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for
game to bring home,” - Isaac feels
that he is at death’s door and so before he dies he wants to bless his eldest
son Esau just as his father Abraham had blessed him before he died
2.1.
Isaac has gotten
old at this point. He is at a minimum
100 years old since he was 60 when his sons were born, and Esau was 40 when he
married two Hittite women. Isaac could
have been upwards of 135 years old at this time however, and Jacob upwards of
75. Since men were much healthier and
lived much longer in those days due to less of a compromised human genome,
Jacob was still relatively young at this age.
2.2.
Isaac actually
was not dying though he thought he was.
We see later that he lives to be 180 years old.
2.3.
The blessing that
Isaac wanted to confer upon Esau was that of spiritual dominance as the eldest
son and the passing on of the Abrahamic covenant promises. As we saw in our last study, Isaac had
admired and favored Esau, but not because he was a spiritual and godly man but
because he was a good and successful hunter, and Isaac loved the taste of
venison.
2.4.
Isaac does not
confer with his wife Rebekah about giving this blessing to Esau instead of
Jacob. Think about it, Isaac was
planning to confer God’s blessing of dominance and the Abrahamic covenant on
Esau in spite of the fact that the Lord had told Rebekah and Isaac when the
twins were being born that the older would serve the younger and be more
powerful, in spite of the fact that Esau was not really a spiritual man at all
and did not even value spiritual blessings in the first place, in spite of the fact
that Esau had sold his birthright for a bowl of lentil stew, and in spite of
the fact that Esau was a fornicator (see Hebrews 12:15-16) and had married two
pagan Hittite women who were a constant vexation to his parents.
2.5.
Isaac didn’t
realize that Rebekah had over heard him tell Esau to go and kill some game and
prepare a dish so he could give to Esau his blessing.
3.
VS 27:6-17 - “6
Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Behold, I heard your father speak to your
brother Esau, saying, 7 ‘Bring me some game
and prepare a savory dish for me, that I may eat, and bless you in the presence
of the Lord before my death.’ 8 “Now therefore, my son, listen to me as I command
you. 9 “Go now to the flock and
bring me two choice young goats from there, that I may prepare them as a
savory dish for your father, such as he loves. 10 “Then you shall bring it to your father,
that he may eat, so that he may bless you before his death.” 11 Jacob answered his mother Rebekah, “Behold, Esau
my brother is a hairy man and I am a smooth man. 12 “Perhaps my father will feel me, then I will be as
a deceiver in his sight, and I will bring upon myself a curse and not a
blessing.” 13 But his mother said to
him, “Your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, get them for
me.” 14 So he went and got them,
and brought them to his mother; and his mother made savory food such
as his father loved. 15 Then Rebekah took the
best garments of Esau her elder son, which were with her in the house, and put
them on Jacob her younger son. 16
And she put the skins of the young goats on his hands and on the smooth
part of his neck. 17 She also gave the savory
food and the bread, which she had made, to her son Jacob.” - Rebekah tells Jacob to go and bring to her a
couple of choice young goats for her to prepare a dish for his father, then
Jacob can trick his father Isaac into giving the blessing that he would give to
Esau instead to him
3.1.
We learn from the
accounts of the book of Genesis that Rebekah was a very capable woman of
action. She is always decisive and acts
immediately. The very first time we saw
her she immediately decided to leave
3.2.
I think that
Rebekah didn’t realize that she didn’t need to help God out and that because
God had promised that Esau would serve Jacob and that Jacob would be more
powerful than Esau, that God would bring that out without her help. However, she and Jacob decide to help God out
to make sure what He said was going to happen did in fact happen. However, we will see that helping out God had
some dire consequences for both Rebekah and Jacob.
3.3.
Rebekah and Jacob
should have realized that even though Isaac may have rendered certain words in
a blessing over Esau that this doesn’t necessarily mean that God is committed
to follow through and fulfill those words.
They both seem to believe that if Isaac utters a blessing that it will
be carried out.
3.4.
Rebekah and Jacob
are often criticized for this deception and truly it was perhaps one of the
most elaborate deceptions that we find in the scripture. However, what is interesting is the fact that
the scripture never condemns Rebekah or Jacob for doing this. Henry M. Morris suggests that perhaps this
deception was considered by Rebekah and Jacob as being the carrying out of the
lesser of two evils. If Isaac had
blessed the wrong son, he would have incurred God’s wrath and discipline and
even diverted God’s plan. So, he
believes that it may be possible that Rebekah and Jacob invented this scheme in
part to protect Isaac from making a horrible decision with many unfortunate
consequences for him.
3.5.
There are some
instances in scripture where people deceived others yet it was with God’s
approval. For instance, when Moses’
parents defied Pharaoh’s orders to kill their baby and floated baby Moses down
the river to Pharaoh’s daughter so that they might have compassion upon their
baby and raise him as their own they were being deceptive. But they were following a higher command and
thus they were in God’s will. Likewise,
when Rahab lied to the authorities in Jericho when they came asking if she was
housing spies and she said no, she was in God’s will because had she turned in
the spies she knew that she would be going against God’s will and plans.
3.6.
This is a very
bold plot and if it failed and either Isaac saw through the deception or Esau
returned before the blessing had been given to Jacob, there could be dire
consequences for carrying it out. Jacob
is a bit hesitant at first to do this, but it appears that Rebekah had long
been conceiving how she could pull off this very ruse. Perhaps she had these goat hair pelts and
Esau’s clothing from the field sitting on a shelf ready for deployment when the
moment was right.
3.7.
Once the plot was
put into motion both Rebekah and Jacob knew that they must hurry because the
timing was critical to their success.
Jacob hurried to kill two goats for the meal, Rebekah began the meat
cooking, and then she immediately began to put together goat hair pelts and
sowed them around Jacob’s neck and hands.
.
4.
VS 27:18-27 - “18
Then he came to his father and said, “My father.” And he said, “Here I am.
Who are you, my son?” 19 Jacob said to his father,
“I am Esau your firstborn; I have done as you told me. Get up, please, sit and eat
of my game, that you may bless me.” 20 Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have it so
quickly, my son?” And he said, “Because the Lord
your God caused it to happen to me.” 21 Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come close, that
I may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not.” 22 So Jacob came close to Isaac his father, and he
felt him and said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the
hands of Esau.” 23 He did not recognize him,
because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands; so he blessed him. 24 And he said, “Are you really my son Esau?” And he
said, “I am.” 25 So he said, “Bring it to
me, and I will eat of my son’s game, that I may bless you.” And he brought it
to him, and he ate; he also brought him wine and he drank. 26 Then his father Isaac said to him, “Please come
close and kiss me, my son.” 27
So he came close and kissed him; and when he smelled the smell of his
garments, he blessed him and said, “See, the smell of my son Is like the smell
of a field which the Lord has
blessed;” - Jacob puts
goat hair skin prepared by his mother around his hands and neck, and wears some
of Isaac’s clothes with the smell of the field on them, and then brings the
dish she prepared to his father and tricks him into thinking that he is Esau so
that he will give him Esau’s blessing
4.1.
Jacob does his
very best to impersonate his brother. He
knew the words that Esau might say, the manner in which he would approach his
father, etc. Since Isaac was now blind
he knew he didn’t need to worry about his father recognizing him. The only hurdle to overcome for Jacob was the
fact that his voice did not exactly match that of his brother Esau.
4.2.
Isaac is
initially surprised that his son Esau would return so fast from a kill with a dish
to eat. Jacob tells his father a lie
saying that the Lord had had ‘caused it
to happen to me.’
4.3.
Isaac immediately
senses that Jacob’s voice does not exactly match that of Esau but when he feels
the hairy pelts on Jacob’s hands he believes that this must indeed be his son
Esau.
4.4.
Note here that
Isaac comments favorably on the ‘smell of his garments,’ saying that the
smell of the field was on them. This
does not mean that he appreciates the fact that they smell like rose
pedals. This means that they smell like
perspiration and game and probably had the scent of animal blood and guts on
them.
4.5.
Isaac eats the
meal and Rebekah is such a skilled cook that she makes the goat meat taste to
Isaac like a fresh kill of venison.
5.
VS 27:28-29 - “28
Now may God give you of the dew of heaven, And of the fatness of the earth,
And an abundance of grain and new wine; 29 May peoples serve you, And nations bow down to
you; Be master of your brothers, And may your mother’s sons bow down to you.
Cursed be those who curse you, And blessed be those who bless you.”” - Isaac blesses Jacob promising dominance over
his brothers who will bow down to him, and the Abrahamic covenant promise that
those who curse him will be cursed and those who bless him will be blessed
5.1.
It is interesting
here in the first part of this blessing given to Jacob because Isaac pronounces
something upon Jacob that we would expect going to Esau who was the outdoorsman
and skillful hunter: ‘may God give you of the
dew of heaven, And of the fatness of the earth.’
Even
this blessing was now taken away from Esau, the outdoorsman and skillful
hunter.
5.2.
Next, Isaac
begins to confer upon Jacob the Abrahamic covenant promises:
5.2.1. Peoples would serve him.
5.2.2. Nations would bow to him.
5.2.3. He would be master over his brothers.
5.2.4. His mother’s sons would bow down to him.
5.2.5. Those who curse him would be cursed and those who
blessed him would be blessed.
6.
VS 27:30-38 - “30
Now it came about, as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob
had hardly gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his
brother came in from his hunting. 31 Then he also made savory food, and brought it to his
father; and he said to his father, “Let my father arise and eat of his son’s
game, that you may bless me.” 32
Isaac his father said to him, “Who are you?” And he said, “I am your son,
your firstborn, Esau.” 33 Then Isaac trembled
violently, and said, “Who was he then that hunted game and brought it to
me, so that I ate of all of it before you came, and blessed him? Yes, and
he shall be blessed.” 34 When Esau heard the words
of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said
to his father, “Bless me, even me also, O my father!” 35 And he said, “Your brother came deceitfully and has
taken away your blessing.” 36
Then he said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob, for he has supplanted me
these two times? He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away
my blessing.” And he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?” 37 But Isaac replied to Esau, “Behold, I have made
him your master, and all his relatives I have given to him as servants; and
with grain and new wine I have sustained him. Now as for you then, what can I
do, my son?” 38 Esau said to his father,
“Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my
father.” So Esau lifted his voice and wept.” - Esau returns from hunting with a savory dish
prepared for his father so that he can receive his blessing, but when Isaac
realizes that Jacob has tricked him into giving Esau’s blessing he tells Esau
that he cannot take back his word, and Esau is distraught and cries
6.1.
Here we see that
Esau returns from his kill and with a dish of savior meat for his father not
too long after Jacob has left. Isaac
realizes immediately what has happened, he has been duped by his wife and son
Jacob and has given the blessing he intended to give to Esau to Jacob.
6.2.
More importantly,
Isaac has come to realize that God has overruled him. It says here in the text that ‘Isaac trembled
violently,’ and the Jewish rabbis have always taught that this was the most
violent of shaking imaginable. Isaac has
come to grips with the fact of how close he came to putting himself at odds
with God and conferring the all important covenant blessings on the wrong
son. I would say that it is probably at
this point that you could say that all of Isaac’s life had passed in front of
him, and he was broken before God.
6.3.
God’s allowing
this deception to occur in Isaac giving a mistaken blessing is similar to when
Balaam tried to curse
6.4.
Another point
that shows how that Isaac realized how wrong he had been is the fact that he
never rebukes either Jacob or Rebekah for deceiving him.
6.5.
We see here that
Isaac, the manly man and skillful hunter breaks down and cries wanting his
father to confer some sort of blessing upon himself, however in Hebrews
12:15-17 we read about how that Isaac was rejected from receiving the blessing
here though he sought for it with tears, and this was because he could find no
place for repentance in his heart, “15 See to it that no one comes short
of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble,
and by it many be defiled; 16
that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his
own birthright for a single meal. 17 For you know that even afterwards, when he desired
to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance,
though he sought for it with tears.” There
comes a point in time in some people’s lives when they are no longer able to
repent.
6.6.
Notice here that Esau calls his brother “supplanter”
which is another definition (like “heel catcher”) of Jacobs name, for
Esau blames his brother Jacob for taking away his birthright when in fact it
was he who had despised his birthright and sold it to Jacob for a mere bowl of
lentil stew.
6.7.
This story is a reminder that we as people would be wise
to consider how our actions can cause others to become bitter and angry towards
us. You never know how doing something
mean or taunting someone else may end up as here in our story with them
plotting to kill you.
6.8.
Exacting our own
revenge is also a major mistake. Someone once said that if you are going to
carry out your own revenge then you better dig two graves. The Lord tells us the following in His word: “19 Never take your own revenge,
beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord,” Rom. 12:19 .
7.
VS 27:39-40 - “39
Then Isaac his father answered and said to him, “Behold, away from the
fertility of the earth shall be your dwelling, And away from the dew of heaven
from above. 40 “By your sword you shall
live, And your brother you shall serve; But it shall come about when you become
restless, That you will break his yoke from your neck.”” - Isaac gives Esau a blessing, but this promise
is that he will live away from the fertility of the earth and the dew of heaven
above, and that by his sword he shall live, but that when he becomes restless
he will break the yoke from his neck
7.1.
The Lord speaks
through Isaac and declares that Isaac shall dwell ‘away from the fertility
of the earth,’ indicating that farming shall not be in His career plans, at
least that he will not be successful at it.
7.2.
Then, goes on and
says that Esau will not be ‘away from the dew of heaven above,’ which
may indicate that his hunting days are limited, or if to be taken in a
spiritual sense that he will not be blessed with the spiritual ‘dew’
from heaven.
7.3.
Then, Isaac tells
Esau that he will serve his younger brother.
But, he says that when he becomes restless that he will break his yoke
from off of his neck.
8.
VS 27:41-46 - “41
So Esau bore a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing with which his
father had blessed him; and Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning for my
father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.” 42 Now when the words of her elder son Esau were
reported to Rebekah, she sent and called her younger son Jacob, and said to
him, “Behold your brother Esau is consoling himself concerning you by
planning to kill you. 43 “Now therefore, my son,
obey my voice, and arise, flee to
8.1.
Fortunately for
Jacob, the servants overheard Esau’s threat to kill Jacob for tricking him and
told Rebekah of the plan.
8.2.
Rebekah believes
that Esau’s anger will soon cool off and so she tells Jacob that she will soon
be calling for him to come home and make peace with his brother. The reality is that evidently Rebekah was
never able to call for Jacob, and that Jacob does not return from
8.3.
Rebekah tells
Isaac that she is sending Jacob to
9.
VS 28:1-5 - “1
So Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and charged him, and said to him,
“You shall not take a wife from the daughters of
9.1.
Isaac calls Jacob
to himself and again blesses him. This
time he also charges him to not take a daughter from
9.2.
In the ensuing
chapters we will find out that in Laban, whom Isaac sends Jacob to, Jacob finds
his match, for Laban deceives him many times over. The “heel-catcher” finds a master “heel-catcher.”
9.3.
Note that Isaac
does not rebuke his son nor does he appear angry at him. Isaac is evidently appreciative of Rebekah
and Jacob for keeping him from being outside of God’s will and plans and
bringing judgment upon himself.
9.4.
Isaac’s blessing
this time on Jacob is even more focused and based upon the Abrahamic covenant which
Jacob is inheriting, and notice what is promised:
9.4.1. The Lord will bless Jacob.
9.4.2. The Lord will make Jacob fruitful and multiply him.
9.4.3. The Lord will make him a company of peoples.
9.4.4. The Lord will give him the blessing of Abraham, to him
and his descendants.
9.4.5. The Lord will cause him to possess the land of his
sojournings.
10.
VS 28:6-9 - “6
Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram
to take to himself a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he
charged him, saying, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,” 7 and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his
mother and had gone to Paddan-aram. 8 So Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan displeased his father Isaac; 9 and Esau went to Ishmael, and married, besides the
wives that he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister
of Nebaioth.” - When Esau
saw that his father had again blessed Jacob and then told him to find a wife
from his mother’s people, Esau decides to take for a wife two of Ishmael’s
daughters since his previously taken wives, the daughters of
10.1. As Isaac sends Jacob away to Paddan-aram he charges
him to take a wife from there and not from the daughters of
10.2. When Esau hears Isaac’s blessing to Jacob and then the
admonition not to marry a woman such as his two Hittite wives, he decides that
he will try to do something to gain his father’s praise. He marries two of Ishmael’s daughters. Doing this however does nothing to change his
situation and really only further complicates his life.
11.
VS 28:10-15 - “10
Then Jacob departed from
11.1. When Jacob leaves his home in
11.2. In Jacob’s dream he sees a ladder that goes from the
earth all of the way up to heaven, to the very throne of God. He sees the
angels of God walking up and down the ladder.
11.3. This ladder which Jacob sees is the ladder of access
to God that is available to every man, woman, and child through the Messiah who
is to come and provide salvation for mankind by dying on the cross and paying
for all of mankind’s sins and transgressions.
In NT terms we might think today of that ladder being a cross for it is
the cross of Jesus Christ through which mankind is able to ascend up to and
have fellowship with the Lord God.
11.4. The Lord is attempting to make Jacob realize through
this incredible dream that possessing the Abrahamic covenant as he does that he
will be the one through whom salvation will come to mankind, through that one
seed of his descendants who will be struck on the heel by the serpent but then
crush his head.
11.5. In the gospels there is a very interesting story given
in the first part of the gospel of John regarding the calling of Nathaniel to
follow Jesus Christ. Evidently, earlier
in the day Nathaniel had been reading this passage about Jacob’s ladder, and
Jesus causes Nathaniel to realize that He was the Messiah by revealing that He
had seem Nathaniel reading that passage.
That passage confirms the interpretation I have previously given for the
symbolism of this ladder. John 1:46-51
contains that passage: “46 Nathanael said to him,
“Can any good thing come out of
11.6. The Lord reiterates to Jacob the fact that he is
indeed inheriting the Abrahamic covenant promises, as He tells him that He will
give him and his descendants the land, multiply the number of his descendants
to be like the dust of the earth, and bless all of the families of the earth
through him.
12.
VS 28:16-21 - “16
Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not
know it.” 17 He was afraid and said,
“How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this
is the gate of heaven.” 18 So Jacob rose early in
the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up as
a pillar and poured oil on its top. 19 He called the name of that place
12.1. Here we seek that Jacob desires to set up a memorial
to what the Lord had done in his life at this time. He takes the stone that he had used for a
pillow and set it up to be a pillar.
Then, he poured oil on its top in order to anoint that place and that
stone because of its special significance to him.
12.2. Jacob also names the place ‘
12.3. Jacob doesn’t make a pact with God here saying he will
do such and so if God will do x and y.
Rather, he is saying that since God has met with him and kept him on
this journey and that He has and will continue to provide for him, and therefore
he will worship the Lord and the Lord will be his God.
12.4. Note here also that Jacob determines that from that
point on that he will give a ‘tenth’ (or “tithe”) of all that he
gets back to the Lord. People wonder if
tithing is something that the Christian should do since it is not specifically
commanded in the New Testament. However,
with Abraham and Melchizedek and now here with Jacob, God’s people realized
that if a person serves the Lord then he ought to give back to the Lord at
least a tenth of all that he has.
13.
CONCLUSIONS:
13.1. Don’t help God out.
13.2. Love your kids equally and don’t do anything that
could cause bitterness to build up between them.
13.3. Be wise and watch how you treat others because it is
not worth making people angry and bitter for no good reason.