GE�ESIS 27 COMME�TARYWRITTE� A�D EDITED BY GLE�� PEASE

1. This is a chapter about failure, for Isaac failed to get his son Esau blest, and Rebekah failed to see her son Jacob blest, for he left and she never saw him again. Esau failed to get the blessing he wanted, and Jacob also failed to get blest in the sense of having the inheritance, for he took off and never got it. Everyone was fighting for success and all ended up failing to just trust God to work it out in his way.

2. C. H. MACKI�TOSHAnd, be it remembered, that in setting before us, in faithful love, all the traits of man's character, it is simply with a view to magnify the riches of divine grace, and to admonish our souls. It is not, by any means, in order to perpetuate the memory ofsins, for ever blotted out from His sight. The blots, the failures, and the errors of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, have been perfectly washed away, and they have taken their place amid "the spirits of just men made perfect;" but their history remains, on the page of inspiration, for the display of God's grace, and for the warning of God's people in all ages; And, moreover, that we my distinctly see that the blessed God has not been dealing With perfect men and women, but with those of "like passions as we are" that He has been walking and bearing with the same failures, the same infirmities, the same errors, as those over which we mourn every day. This is peculiarly comforting to the heart; and it may well stand in striking contrast with the way in which the great majority of human biographies are written, in "which, for the most part, we find, not the history of men, but of beings devoid of error and infirmity. histories have rather the effect of discouraging than of edifying those who read them. They are rather histories of what men ought to be, than of what they really are, and they are, therefore, useless to us, yea, not only useless, but mischievous.

These chapters present to us the history of Jacob — at least, the principal scenes in that history. The Spirit of God here sets before us the deepest instruction, first, as to God's purpose of infinite grace; and, secondly, as to the utter worthlessness and depravity of human nature.There is a passage in Genesis 25:1-34 which I purposely passed over, in order to take if up here, so that we might have the truth in reference to Jacob fully before us "And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord was entreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. And the children struggled together within her: and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the Lord. And the Lord said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger." This is referred to in Malachi, where we read, "I have loved you, saith the Lord: yet ye say, wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the Lord: yet I have loved Jacob, and hated Esau." This is again

referred to in Romans 9:1-33 : "For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election, might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth; it was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated."

Let us now examine the chapters consecutively. Genesis 27:1-46 exhibits a most humbling picture of sensuality, deceit, and cunning; and when one thinks of such things in connection with the people of God, it is sad and painful to the very last degree. Yet how true and faithful is the Holy Ghost! He must tell all out. He cannot give us a partial picture. If he gives us a history of man, he must describe man as he is, and not as he is not. So, if He unfolds to us the character and ways of God, He gives us God as He is. Andthis, we need hardly remark, is exactly what we need. We need the revelation of one perfect in holiness, yet perfect in grace and mercy, who could come down into all the depth of man's need, his misery and his degradation, and deal with Him there, and raise him up out of it into full, unhindered fellowship with Himself in all the reality of what Heis. This is what scripture gives us. God knew what we needed, and He has given it to us, blessed be His name!

3. Jacob the schemer became Jacob the dreamer and a type of the coming redeemer.Clarence Macartney in Old Testament Heroes says, “Jacob is the best and worst man in the Old Testament.” Abraham and Isaac and other heroes excite our admiration, but we cannot be like them, but we can identify with Jacob in all his weaknesses. In him we see the dual nature we see in ourselves. Both good and bad mixed together.

Ford-“Almost every visitation of God to this ;man that is recorded in Genesis was tocorrect him, or chastise him, or break him. Jacob needed to be broken by the hardships of life before he could learn that active obedience his grandfather Abraham acquired, and that passive obedience his father Isaac possessed.”

“It is true he wanted God’s blessing, but it was not that he might serve God, but thatGod might serve him. Jacob’s world, religious as well as secular, was entirely bounded by Jacob.”

4. MEYER, "This chapter narrates a sad story of the chosen family. Esau is the only character which elicits universal sympathy. Isaac appears to have sunk into premature senility. It seems hardly credible that he who had borne the wood for the offering up Mount Moriah, and had yielded himself so absolutely to the divine will, would have become so keen an epicure. He could only be reached now through the senses. Perhaps this was due to the prosperity and even tenor of his life. It is better, after all, to live the strenuous life, with its uphill climb, than to be lapped in the ease of the valley. The birthright had been already promised to Jacob, and there was no need for him to win it by fraud; and Rebekah was truly blameworthy in that she deceived her husband, showed partiality toward her children, and acted unworthily of herself. Who would have expectedthat out of such a family God was about to produce the religious leaders of the world! Pharaoh would one day crave a blessing from those kid-lined hands!

5. W. H. GRIFFITH THOMAS, "NOWHERE, perhaps, is the real character of the Bible more evident than in this chapter. The story is given in all its naked simplicity, and, although no precise moral is pointed, the incidents carry their own solemn lesson to every reader. All four persons concerned with the history are portrayed without hesitation or qualification, and the narrative makes its profound impression upon the reader by its simple but significant recital of facts. It is an unpleasant picture that we have here presented to us, a family life full of jealousy and deceit. If love is not found in the home, where may we expect it? And if, in particular, jealousies are found associated with the profession of faith in God, how terrible is the revelation!

I. The Father's Plot (Ge 27:1, 2, 3, 4)

Isaac's part in the history here recorded is sometimes overlooked, and yet it is evident that he was in large measure responsible for the sad results. In the time of old age he calls his elder son and speaks of his own approaching death, inviting his son to prepare food that he may eat, and at the same time give his elder son the parental and patriarchalblessing. There does not seem to have been any real sign of approaching death, and, as a matter of fact, Isaac lived for over forty years after this event. The hurry and secrecy which characterized his action are also suspicious, and not the least of the sad and deplorable elements is the association of old age with feasting, personal gratification, andself-will. It is perfectly clear that he knew of the purposes of God concerning his younger son (Ge 25:23), and yet here we find him endeavoring to thwart that purpose by transferring the blessing from the one for whom it was divinely designed. This partiality for Esau, combined with his own fleshly appetite, led the patriarch into grievous sin, and we cannot but observe how his action set fire to the whole train of evils that followed in the wake of his proposal.

Esau was quite ready to fall in with his father's suggestion. He must have at once recalledthe transaction with his brother whereby the birthright had been handed over to Jacob. He must also have known the divine purpose concerning him and his brother; and although his marriage with a Canaanitish woman had still further disqualified him for spiritual primogeniture, it mattered nothing so long as he could recover what he now desired to have. He realized at last the value of that which his brother had obtained from him, and he is prompt to respond to his father's suggestion, since he sees in it the very opportunity of regaining the lost birthright.

II. The Mother's Counter-Plot (Ge 27:5-17)

We have now to observe with equal care the part played by Rebekah. Isaac had evidently not counted on his wife's overhearing his proposal to Esau, nor had he thought of the possibility of her astuteness vanquishing his plot. It is necessary that we should be perfectly clear about Rebekah's part in this transaction. Her object was to preserve for

Jacob the blessing that God intended for him. Her design, therefore, was perfectly legitimate, and there can be very little doubt that it was inspired by a truly religious motive. She thought that the purpose of God was in danger, and that there was no other way of preventing a great wrong being done. It was a crisis in her life and in that of Jacob, and she was prepared to go the entire length of enduring the Divine curse so long as her favorite son could retain the blessing that God intended for him. Yet when all this is said, and it should be continually borne in mind, the sin of Rebekah's act was utterly inexcusable. We may account for it, but we cannot justify it. She was one of those who take upon themselves to regard God as unable to carry out His own purposes, thinking that either He has forgotten, or else that His will can really be frustrated by human craft and sin. And so she dared to do this remarkably bold thing. She proved herself to be quite as clever as Isaac and Esau.

Jacob's compliance was not immediate and hearty, for he evidently perceived the very real risk that he was running (Ge 27:12). He also saw the sin of it in the sight of God, and feared lest after all he should bring upon himself the Divine curse instead of the Divine blessing. Yet, influenced and overpowered by the stronger nature of the mother, he at length accepted the responsibility for this act, and proceeded to carry out his mother's plans.

III. The Younger Son's Deception (Ge 27:1-29)

The preparations were quickly and skillfully made, and Jacob approached his father withthe food that his mother had prepared for him. The bold avowal that he was the first-born was persisted in, and his aged father entirely deceived. Lie follows lie, for Jacob hadto pay the price of lies by being compelled to lie on still. Nothing in its way is more awful than this deception. We pity Jacob as the victim of his mother's love, but we scorn and deplore his action as the violation of his conscience and the silencing of his better nature.The terrible thoroughness with which he carried out his mother's plans is one of the mosthideous features of the whole story.

The father's benediction is now given; and although it is mainly couched in terms of temporal blessing, we see underlying it the thought of that wider influence suggested by the promise of universal blessing given to Abraham and his seed.

IV. The Elder Son's Defeat (Ge 27:30-40)

It was not long before the true state of affairs came out. Isaac must have been astonished at the discovery for more than one reason. He had thought doubtless that in blessing, as he considered, his elder son, he had overreached both Rebekah and Jacob, and now he finds after all that the Divine purpose has been accomplished in spite of his, own willful attempt to divert the promise from Jacob. It is, however, to Isaac's credit that he meekly

accepts the inevitable, and is now quite prepared to realize that God's will must be done.

We are not surprised at Esau's behavior, for we know the true character of the man. His bitter lamentation was due to the mortification he felt at being beaten. His cry of disappointment was probably, if not certainly, due to the fact that he had lost the temporal advantage of the birthright and blessing, not that he had lost the spiritual favor of God associated with it. His indignation at Jacob, like all other anger, is characterized by untruth; for whilst Jacob undoubtedly supplanted him, the taking away of the birthright was as much his own free act as it was due to Jacob's superior cleverness. We cannot help being touched by his tearful request to his father to give him even now a blessing. He realizes, when it is too late, what has been done, and although a partial blessing is bestowed upon him it is quite beyond all possibility that things can be as he had desired them to be. Esau had despised his birthright, but, however it came about, he was evidently conscious of the value of the blessing; and when the New Testament tells us that "he found no place for repentance," it means, of course, that there was no possibility of undoing what had been accomplished. He found no way to change his father s mind, though he sought earnestly to bring this about (Heb.12:17-note). There is asense in which the past is utterly irretrievable, and it is only very partially true that "we may be what we might have been."

6. COFFMAN, “Beginning with this chapter and throughout the rest of Genesis, the life, posterity,

and activities of Jacob are the invariable theme. In this emphasis, he takes his place as "The Israel" of God; he was the father of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, and remained at the head of the chosen race until they were favorably settled in Egypt, and where they would, in time, become the mighty nation that God had foretold in his promises to Abraham and Isaac.

The almost monotonous detail of this section is a strange mingling of righteousness and wickedness, of successes and disasters, of heroism and knavery, of strength and weakness, and of doubt and faith. The purpose of this detailed account would appear to be that of providing a window of observation, from which the clear and inevitable consequences of sin are manifested in the lives of Israel, with the necessary deduction that whatever happened to them provides a safe prophecy ofwhat always happens when sin is indulged. Indeed, the N.T. flatly affirms this to be true:

"Now these things happened unto them by way of example; and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come" (1 Corinthians 10:11).

"For whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning, that through patience and through comfort of the Scriptures we might have hope" (Romans 15:4).SIZE>

The uniqueness and inspiration of this amazing narrative are inherent in the variety and completeness of the revelation. What men spoke in their own hearts, the true basis of their motivation, the secrets of their intentions, what they did in the loneliness of the field, or upon their beds with their wives or concubines, what they did when they were away from home, how they reacted to temptation, and why they acted as they did, how they cheated and deceived each other, what they dreamed, the vows they made, the sorrows they bore, the hardships they endured - on and on, the sacred record tells it all, without dwelling long either upon their heroic deeds of faith or upon their shameful acts of jealousy, envy or fraud. Where on earth has there ever been another history like this one about real people?

Fiction indeed relates many intimate and private actions of its subjects, but the design

is never that of fairness in presenting a total picture; here in Genesis we have both private and intimate deeds, but also fairness and continuity which never appear in fiction. This priceless record of the Old Israel is a sacred and precious source book, loaded with everlasting benefit for the children of the New Israel, who, if they apply themselves, and are wise, may be able to emulate what was desirable and avoid what was shameful in the lives of the children of the Old.

ATTEMPTED THEFT OF THE BIRTHRIGHT FRUSTRATED

"And it came to pass that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, that he could not see, he called Esau his elder son, and said unto him, My son: and he said unto him, Here am I. And he said Behold now, I am old, I know not the day of my death. Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me venison; and make me savory food, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat; that my soul may bless thee before I die."

Note the heading we have given this paragraph. It contrasts vividly with that found in many commentaries. Peake entitled it, "Jacob Cheats Esau of His Father's Blessing";[1] and Robinson entitled it, "Jacob Steals Esau's Blessing!"[2] Such views cannot be correct. What is in view here is a plot - initiated by Esau, concurred in by Isaac, and long nurtured by the flattering deeds of Esau - which was designed to take back the birthright and the blessing which conveyed it, from Jacob to whom he had sold it and confirmed the sale with a solemn oath.

The birthright and blessing in view here did not belong to Esau. They were the propertyof Jacob, by right of divine prophecy (Genesis 25:33f), a right which Esau despised and which he had solemnly renounced, "selling it" for one mess of red beans! Whence then are all these bold denunciations of Jacob for "cheating," "stealing," and "defrauding his brother"? We concur in the opinion of Morris that such distortions are the result, as well as the continuing cause, "of tremendous waves of anti-Semitism andpersecutions visited against the Jews through the centuries."[3] Morris gave that opinion in protest of such titles as "The Stolen Blessing" in Scofield's Reference Bible.

It is a matter of extreme doubt and disobedience that Isaac would have deliberately decided to give the birthright and blessing to Esau. He knew better, and that he attempted to do so without the knowledge or consent of Rebekah proves it. Note in thetext, that "such as I love" reveals that Esau had long pampered his father by bringing those tasty morsels of the hunt. And it is not amiss to understand his doing so by design to frustrate the will of God and his own ratification of it by an oath.

Perhaps there was some attempt to rationalize his disobedience by Isaac, a thing Esauhad no doubt aided. One device would have been that of making a distinction between "birthright" and "blessing," as noted by Esau in Genesis 27:36; but there was no distinction! The birthright automatically carried with it the right of the patriarchal blessing also. This right, "encompassed headship over Isaac's household, the paradiseland, nationhood with dominion, and mediatorship of divine judgment."[4] It also included the "double portion" of the father's wealth, and the right of priesthood on behalf of the Chosen People. Note that this "blessing" which Isaac thought he was transferring to Esau included exactly those things pertaining to the birthright. We can discern in the narrative Esau's false interpretation of his shameful "sale" of the birthright, making it a partial and incomplete thing, which it was not.

These things are not presented as an approval or justification of the deceitful and sinfulthings Rebekah and Jacob did in order to frustrate Isaac and Esau's evil purpose, but an explanation of why they did so, and also a rebuttal of those over-zealous remarks

about what an unqualified scoundrel Jacob was. As a matter of fact, there is not a wordof rebuke from the Lord against any of the wicked deeds visible in this chapter. Nevertheless, it is clear that, "The sin of Isaac and Esau was infinitely more grievous."[5]

"I know not the day of my death ..." Speiser remarked that this is meaningless, because "nobody could be said to know that!"[6] That kind of thinking has led some to interpret the passage as meaning, "I know that I shall die soon." Despite his remark, however, Speiser rendered the passage thus: "There's no telling when I may die." ThatIsaac indeed acted in the contemplation of death is certain (Genesis 27:4). In this connection, the age of Isaac should be considered. "Isaac was then in his 137th year, at which age his half-brother Ishmael had died fourteen years previously."[7]

"My son ..." (Genesis 27:1). Leupold commented on the use of "my son," in this passage and by Rebekah in Genesis 27:8, noting that they carry the particular connotation of, "the son which each particularly loved."[8] The shameful and sinful partiality of both Isaac for Esau and Rebekah for Jacob provide a horrible example of the evil of such injustice on the part of parents. Papa's Boy and Mama's Boy! Millennialhatreds between great races of people began right here in this senseless favoritism.

We remarked earlier that God expressed neither approval or disapproval of the wickedness concentrated here in this chapter, where even Isaac sought to convey the headship of the Chosen Race to Esau, the profane fornicator with two pagan wives, who despised all the promises, and whose sensual and inconstant life rendered him totally unfit for such responsibilities. Whatever view one takes of the consequences of what the Lord related here, it is crystal clear that God disapproves of all sin, and that "the wages of sin is death."

Note the sequel to these events:

(1) "Isaac suffered for his preference for Esau, which was not determined by the will of God, but by his weak affection."[9] Also, his foolish and rebellious intention of by-passing the will of God with reference to the Messianic line might be identified as the reason that the Bible virtually closed any further reference to him in the Scriptures.

(2) Esau suffered for his despising the blessings of the birthright.

(3) Rebekah suffered for her part in the deception by being deprived of both her sons. Jacob left home, and Rebekah, as far as the record says, never saw him anymore. Esau was further estranged.

(4) Jacob suffered many years of hardship, deception, and injustice at the hands of Laban. As a keeper of Laban's cattle his status was that of the lowest slaves known in that day. Hosea made mention of this humiliation of Jacob in Hosea 12:12 as a deterrent to the pride of Ephraim. See my comment at Hosea 12:12.

(5) The unity of Isaac's family was irrevocably shattered.

1

When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see, he called for Esau his older son and said to him, "My son." "Here I am," he answered.

1. Here we see a good reason to make final plans before you are so handicapped thatyou can be taken advantage of. People who wait too long to take care of their final affairs tempt others to manipulate them. Isaac felt he was old and would not live that much longer, but the fact is he lived for another 40 years and more. Still, it would have been wise to do what he is doing before he lost his sight. Putting things off is a problem we all face, for it is human nature to wait until we have to do something rather than just getting it done because it needs to be done.

2. Isaac lived in pre-glasses days, and his eyes were worn out and he was going blind. Eye problems are among the most common for the aging. This was the hardest loss for both my grandmother and my wife's grandmother, for they both loved to read. Isaac had no such problem, for there was not much to read anyway. He felt old and knew he was capable of dying any day, and so he decided to make arrangements. In that day they did not worry about car and plane accidents and so they just waited until they felt really old to make their will.

3. Barnes, “- Isaac Blessing His SonsThe life of Isaac falls into three periods. During the first seventy-five years he is

contemporary with his father. For sixty-one years more his son Jacob remains under the paternal roof. The remaining forty-four years are passed in the retirement of old age. Thechapter before us narrates the last solemn acts of the middle period of his life.

Gen_27:1-4

Isaac was old. - Joseph was in his thirtieth year when he stood before Pharaoh, and therefore thirty-nine when Jacob came down to Egypt at the age of one hundred and thirty. When Joseph was born, therefore, Jacob was ninety-one, and he had sojourned fourteen years in Padan-aram. Hence, Jacob’s flight to Laban took place when he was seventy-seven, and therefore in the one hundred and thirty-sixth year of Isaac. “His eyes were dim.” Weakness and even loss of sight is more frequent in Palestine than with us. “His older son.” Isaac had not yet come to the conclusion that Jacob was heir of the promise. The communication from the Lord to Rebekah concerning her yet unborn sons in the form in which it is handed down to us merely determines that the older shall serve the younger. This fact Isaac seems to have thought might not imply the transferrence of the birthright; and if he was aware of the transaction between Esau and Jacob, he may not have regarded it as valid. Hence, he makes arrangements for bestowing the paternal

benediction on Esau, his older son, whom he also loves. “I am old.” At the age of one hundred and thirty-six, and with failing sight, he felt that life was uncertain. In the calmness of determination he directs Esau to prepare savory meat, such as he loved, that he may have his vigor renewed and his spirits revived for the solemn business of bestowing that blessing, which he held to be fraught with more than ordinary benefits.

4. Clarke, “Isaac was old - It is conjectured, on good grounds, that Isaac was now about one hundred and seventeen years of age, and Jacob about fifty-seven; though the commonly received opinion makes Isaac one hundred and thirty-seven, and Jacob seventy-seven; but see note on Gen_31:55, etc.

And his eyes were dim - This was probably the effect of that affliction, of what kind we know not, under which Isaac now labored; and from which, as well as from the affliction, he probably recovered, as it is certain he lived forty if not forty-three years after this time, for he lived till the return of Jacob from Padan-aram; Gen_35:27-29.

5. Gill, “And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old,.... He is generally thought to be about one hundred and thirty seven years of age at this time, which was just the ageof his brother Ishmael when he died, Gen_25:16; and might put him in mind of his own death as near at hand; though if he was no older, he lived after this forty three years, for he lived to be one hundred and eighty years old, Gen_35:28,

and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see; which circumstance is mentioned, not only as a sign of old age, and as common to it, but for the sake of the following history, and as accounting for it, that he should not know Jacob when he blessed him; and this was so ordered in Providence, that by means of it the blessing might be transferred to him, which otherwise in all probability would not have been done, if Isaac had had his sight:

he called Esau his eldest son; who though he was married, and had been married thirty seven years at this time, yet still lived in his father's house, or near him; for as he was born when his father was sixty years of age, and he married when he himself was forty, and his father must be an hundred, so if Isaac was now one hundred and thirty seven, Esau must have been married thirty seven years; and though he had disobliged hisfather by his marriage, yet he retained a natural affliction for him; nor had he turned himout of doors, nor had he any thoughts of disinheriting him; but on the contrary intended to bestow the blessing on him as the firstborn, for which reason he is here called "his eldest son":

and said unto him, my son; owning the relation, expressing a tender affection for him, and signifying he had something further to say unto him:

and he said unto him, behold, here am I; by which Esau intimated he was ready to hear what his father had to say to him, and was willing to obey him. The Targum of Jonathan says, this was the fourteenth of Nisan, when Isaac called Esau to him.

6. Henry, “Here is, I. Isaac's design to make his will, and to declare Esau his heir. The promise of the Messiah and the land of Canaan was a great trust, first committed to Abraham, inclusive and typical of spiritual and eternal blessings; this, by divine direction, he transmitted to Isaac. Isaac, being now old, and not knowing, or not

understanding, or not duly considering, the divine oracle concerning his two sons, that the elder should serve the younger, resolves to entail all the honour and power that were wrapped up in the promise upon Esau his eldest son. In this he was governed more by natural affection, and the common method of settlements, than he ought to have been, if he know (as it is probable he did) the intimations God had given of his mind in this matter. Note, We are very apt to take our measures rather from our own reason than from divine revelation, and thereby often miss our way; we think the wise and learned, the mighty and noble, should inherit the promise; but God sees not as man sees. See 1Sa_16:6, 1Sa_16:7.

II. The directions he gave to Esau, pursuant to this design. He calls him to him, Gen_27:1. For Esau, though married, had not yet removed; and, though he had greatly grieved his parents by his marriage, yet they had not expelled him, but it seems were pretty well reconciled to him, and made the best of it. Note, Parents that are justly offended at their children yet must not be implacable towards them.

7. Jamison, “Gen_27:1-27. Infirmity of Isaac.

when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim — He was in his hundred thirty-seventh year; and apprehending death to be near, Isaac prepared to make his last will - an act of the gravest importance, especially as it included the conveyance through a prophetic spirit of the patriarchal blessing.

8. K&D 1-4, “When Isaac had grown old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could no

longer see (מראת from�seeing,�with�the�neg.��מן as�in�Gen_16:2,�etc.),�he�wished,�in�the�

consciousness�of�approaching�death,�to�give�his�blessing�to�his�elder�son.�Isaac�was�then�in�his�

137th�year,�at�which�age�his�half-brother�Ishmael�had�died�fourteen�years�before;

(Note:�Cf.�Lightfoot,�opp.�1,�p.�19.�This�correct�estimate�of�Luther's�is�based�upon�the�

following�calculation:�-�When�Joseph�was�introduced�to�Pharaoh�he�was�thirty�years�old�

(Gen_41:46),�and�when�Jacob�went�into�Egypt,�thirty-nine,�as�the�seven�years�of�abundance�

and�two�of�famine�had�then�passed�by�(Gen_45:6).�But�Jacob�was�at�that�time�130�years�old�

(Gen_47:9).�Consequently�Joseph�was�born�before�Jacob�was�ninety-one;�and�as�his�birth�

took�place�in�the�fourteenth�year�of�Jacob's�sojourn�in�Mesopotamia�(cf.�Gen_30:25,�and�

Gen_29:18,�Gen_29:21,�and�Gen_29:27),�Jacob's�flight�to�Laban�occurred�in�the�seventy-

seventh�year�of�his�own�life,�and�the�137th�of�Isaac's.)

and�this,�with�the�increasing�infirmities�of�age,�may�have�suggested�the�thought�of�death,�

though�he�did�not�die�till�forty-three�years�afterwards�(Gen_35:28).�Without�regard�to�the�words�

which�were�spoken�by�God�with�reference�to�the�children�before�their�birth,�and�without�taking�

any�notice�of�Esau's�frivolous�barter�of�his�birthright�and�his�ungodly�connection�with�Canaanites,

Isaac�maintained�his�preference�for�Esau,�and�directed�him�therefore�to�take�his�things�(ליםE,�

hunting�gear),�his�quiver�and�bow,�to�hunt�game�and�prepare�a�savoury�dish,�that�he�might�eat,�

and�his�soul�might�bless�him.�As�his�preference�for�Esau�was�fostered�and�strengthened�by,�if�it�

did�not�spring�from,�his�liking�for�game�(Gen_25:28),�so�now�he�wished�to�raise�his�spirits�for�

imparting�the�blessing�by�a�dish�of�venison�prepared�to�his�taste.�In�this�the�infirmity�of�his�flesh�is

evident.�At�the�same�time,�it�was�not�merely�because�of�his�partiality�for�Esau,�but�unquestionably

on�account�of�the�natural�rights�of�the�first-born,�that�he�wished�to�impart�the�blessing�to�him,�just

as�the�desire�to�do�this�before�his�death�arose�from�the�consciousness�of�his�patriarchal�call.

9. JOH� TRAPP, “Ver. 1. Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim.] Old age is of itself a disease, and the sink of all diseases. This Solomon sweetly sets forth [Ecclesiastes 12:1-7] by a continued allegory, Ubi quot lumina imo flumina orationis exerit saith one. In general, he calls it "the evil day, the years that have no pleasure in them." In particular, the senses all fail; the hands tremble; the legs buckle; the teeth cannot do their office, as being either lost or loosened; "the silver cord," that is, the marrow of their backs, is consumed; "the golden ewer," that is, the brainpan, broke; "the pitcher at the well," that is, the veins at the liver; "the wheel at the cistern," that is, the head, which draws the power of life from the heart; all these worn weak, and wanting to their office. So that sleep faileth; "desire faileth"; (a) neither spring nor summer (signified by the almond tree and grasshopper) shall affect with pleasure; "the daughters of music shall be brought low," as they were in old Barzillai; "the sun, moon, and stars are darkened," for any delight they take in their sweet shine; yea, "the clouds return after rain"; a continual succession of miseries, like April weather, as one shower is unburdened, another is brewed, and the sky is still overcastwith clouds. Lo, such is old age. And is this a fit present for God? wilt thou give him the dregs, the bottom, the very last sands, thy dotage, which thyself and friends are weary of? "Offer it now to thy prince, will he be pleased with thee"? [Malachi 1:8] The Circassians, a kind of mongrel Christians, as they baptize not their children till the eighth year, so they enter not into the Church, the gentlemen specially, till the sixtieth year, but hear divine service standing outside the temple; that is to any, till through age they grow unable to continue their rapines and robberies, to which sin that nation is exceedingly addicted: so dividing their time between sin and devotion; dedicating their youth to rapine, and their old age to repentance. (b) But God will not be so put off. He is "a great King," and stands upon his seniority. [Malachi 1:14] In the Levitical law, there were three sorts of firstfruits:

1. Of the ears of corn, offered about the Passover;

2. Of the loaves, offered about Pentecost;

3. About the end of the year in Autumn.

Now of the first two God had a part, but not of the last: to teach us, that he will accept of the services of our youth or middle-age: but for old age, vix aut ne vix quidem . Besides Abraham in the Old Testament, and Nicodemus in the New, I

know not whether we read of any old man ever brought home to God.

10. HAWKER, "This Chapter contains the history of Jacob’s craftily obtaining the blessing of the birth-right from his father Isaac, and thereby supplanting his brother Esau: a circumstance, which unless read with a spiritual apprehension, will be to us, as it is always to the carnal, a stumblingstone and rock of offence. In this Chapter the Holy Ghost also relates the sad conduct of the Patriarch Isaac, who, notwithstanding the open revelation God made to him before the birth of his two sons, Jacob and Esau, that the elder should serve the younger, in direct defiance of this will of God, sought to entail the covenant blessing on Esau. He gives directions to Esau! how to prepare for him venison, in order to receive this blessing; Rebekah contrives by stratagem to obtain it for her son Jacob: the success of Jacob, and the disappointment of Esau, are both related in this Chapter. Esau determines to be revenged of Jacob: and Rebekah in order to prevent it, contrives to send Jacob to her brother’s house by way of refuge.

Gen_27:1

I would earnestly beseech the Reader, before he enters upon the perusal of this chapter, to consult very carefully the following scriptures: First, Gen_25:23. Here you see, that the appointment of Jacob to the birth-right was of the Lord. Also do not forget this one thing, that He, who thought proper to have this blessing given to Jacob, by a transfer, might, had he pleased, have as easily given it by birth-right. Next consult Gen_25:32-34, and compare with Heb_12:16-17. The construction which the Holy Ghost hath put on Esau’s conduct, clearly proves what that conduct was. He poured contempt upon the promised blessing of redemption; and how shall the soul that rejects that mercy, be made the rich partaker of it! Thirdly, consult Mal_1:2-3. And if these scriptures need anyfarther comment, let the Reader turn to Rom_9:7 to the end; and these are enough, under the divine teaching, to explain this whole transaction.

11. CALVIN, "And it came to pass that when Isaac was old. In this chapter Moses prosecutes, in many words, a history which does not appear to be of great utility. It amounts to this; Esau having gone out, at his father’s command, to hunt; Jacob, in his brother’s clothing, was, by the artifice of his mother, induced to obtain by stealth the blessing due by the right of nature to the firstborn. It seems even like child’s play to present to his father a kid instead of venison, to feign himself to be hairy by putting on skins, and, under the name of his brother, to get the blessing by a lie. But in order to learn that Moses does not in vain pause over this narrative as a most serious matter, we must first observe, that when Jacob received the blessing from his father, this token confirmed to him the oracle by which the Lord had preferred him to his brother. For the benediction here spoken of was not a mere prayer but a legitimate sanction, divinely interposed, to make manifest the grace of election. God had promised to the holy fathers that he would be a God to their seed for ever. They, when at the point of death, in order that the succession might be secured to their posterity, put them in possession, as if they would deliver, from hand to hand, the favor which they had received from God. So Abraham, in blessing his son Isaac, constituted him the heir of spiritual life with a solemn rite. With the same design, Isaac now, being worn down with age, imagines himself to be shortly about to depart this life, and wishes to bless his firstborn son, in order that the everlasting covenant of God may remain in his own family. The Patriarchs did not take this upon themselves rashly, or on their own private account, but were

public and divinely ordained witnesses. To this point belongs the declaration of the Apostle, “the less is blessed of the better.” (Hebrews 7:7.) For even the faithful were accustomed to bless each other by mutual offices of charity; but the Lord enjoined this peculiar service upon the patriarchs, that they should transmit, as a deposit to posterity, the covenant which he had struck with them, and which they kept during the whole course of their life. The same command was afterwards given to the priests, as appears inNumbers 6:24, and other similar places. Therefore Isaac, in blessing his son, sustained another character than that of a father or of a private person, for he was a prophet and aninterpreter of God, who constituted his son an heir of the same grace which he had received. Hence appears what I have already said, that Moses, in treating of this matter, is not without reason thus prolix. But let us weigh each of the circumstances of the case in its proper order; of which this is the first, that God transferred the blessing of Esau to Jacob, by a mistake on the part of the father; whose eyes, Moses tells us, were dim. The vision also of Jacob was dull when he blessed his grandchildren Ephraim and Manasseh; yet his want of sight did not prevent him from cautiously placing his hands in a transverse direction. But God suffered Isaac to be deceived, in order to show that it was not by the will of man that Jacob was raised, contrary to the course of nature, to the rightand honor of primogeniture.

12. COKE, “Genesis 27:1. Was old, &c.— Bishop Kidder, from several passages of the history

laid together, proves, that Isaac was now one hundred and thirty-six or one hundred and thirty-seven years old; when his faculties being much impaired, and apprehending the approach of death, (though he lived forty years after,) he determined to "impart the solemn Abrahamic benediction" to his eldest son Esau, in which channel most probably he conceived that it was to pass, though his wife Rebekah knew to the contrary. Some have imagined, that as Isaac lived so many years afterwards, he was hastened to this act of blessing his son by an indisposition which threatened his death, and rendered more agreeable to his sickly appetite the favourite food procured by his son. Asthere can be no question, that the imparting this benediction was a high religious act, and evidently prophetic, (as in the case of Jacob also, see ch. Genesis 49:1.) it is very reasonable to conclude, that something more than mere eating was intended; some religious ceremony, sacrifice, or feast; an opinion, for which, in the course of the chapter, we may probably find some countenance.

13. BI, "Isaac was old and his eyes were dim

Isaac in the near prospect of death

I. HE HAS WARNINGS OF HIS APPROACHING END.

1. His advanced age.

2. Signs of weakness and decay.

II. HE SETS IN ORDER HIS WORLDLY AFFAIRS.

1. Duties prompted by the social affections.

2. Duties regarding the settlement of inheritance and property. (T. H.Leale.)

Isaac’s preparation for death

1. His longing for the performance of Esau’s filial kindness as for a last time.

(1) Esau was his favourite son; not on account of any similarity between them,

but just because they were dissimilar; the repose and contemplativeness and inactivity of Isaac found a contrast in which it reposed in the energy and even the restlessness of his firstborn.

(2) It was natural to yearn for the feast of his son’s affection for the last time, for there is something peculiarly impressive in whatever is done for the last time.

2. Isaac prepared for death by making his last testamentary dispositions. They were made, though apparently premature—

(1) Partly because of the frailty of life and the uncertainty whether there may be any to-morrow for that which is put off to-day;

(2) Partly perhaps because he desired to have all earthly thoughts done with and put away. When he came to die there would be no anxieties about the disposition of property, to harass him. For it is good to have all such things done with before that hour comes. Is there not something incongruous in the presence of a lawyer in the death room, agitating the last hours? The first portion of our lives is spent in learning the use of our senses and faculties, ascertaining where we are, and what. The second in using those powers, and acting in the given sphere, the motto being, “Work, the night cometh.” A third portion, between active life and the grave, like the twilight between day and night (not light enough for working, nor yet quite dark), nature seems to accord for unworldliness and meditation. It is striking, doubtless, to see an old man, hale and vigorous to the last, dying at hiswork, like a warrior in armour. But natural feeling makes us wish perhaps that aninterval might be given; a season for the statesman, such as that which Samuel had on laying aside the cares of office in the schools of the prophets, such as Simeon and Anna had for a life of devotion in the temple, such as the labourer has when, his long day’s work done, he finds an asylum in the almshouse, such as our Church desires when she prays against sudden death; a season of interval in which to watch, and meditate, and wait. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)

The blind father

Isaac.

1. Now very aged. One hundred and thirty-six years old. Feeble. Ought to have been specially reverenced, both as a father and because so aged. Reverence due to old age. What more beautiful than old age (Pro_15:31)? See the Word of God concerning old age (Lev_19:32; 2Ch_36:17; Pro_20:29).

2. Helpless. Forced to sit in the house while his sons were actively employed. Dependent on the kind offices of others.

3. Blind. And therefore should have been specially reverenced, and treated with mostrespectful tenderness,

4. Felt his end approaching (Gen_27:4). Should therefore have been treated with the greater consideration.

5. About to impart the covenant blessing. A most solemn act. To be given, and received, in the fear of God.

6. Would signalize it with a feast. The last he might have; and his own beloved Esau should prepare it. (J. C. Gray.)

The day of death unknown

I have read a parable of a man shut up in a fortress under sentence of perpetual imprisonment, and obliged to draw water from a reservoir which he may not see, but into which no fresh stream is ever to be poured. How much it contains he cannot tell. He knows that the quantity is not great; it may be extremely small. He has already drawn out a considerable supply during his long imprisonment. The diminution increases daily,and how, it is asked, would he feel each time of drawing water and each time of drinking it? Not as if he had a perennial stream to go to-”I have a reservoir; I may be at ease.” No: “I had water yesterday, I have it to-day; but my having it yesterday and my having it to-day is the very cause that I shall not have it on some day that is approaching.” Life is a fortress; man is the prisoner within the gates. He draws his supply from a fountain fed byinvisible pipes, but the reservoir is being exhausted. We had life yesterday, we have it today, the probability—the certainty—is that we shall not have it on some day that is to come. (R. A.Wilmot.)

Isaac, the organ of Divine blessing

It is a strange and, in some respects, perplexing spectacle that is here presented to us—the organ of the Divine blessing represented by a blind old man, laid on a “couch of skins,” stimulated by meat and wine, and trying to cheat God by bestowing the family blessing on the son of his own choice to the exclusion of the Divinely-appointed heir. Outof such beginnings had God to educate a people worthy of Himself, and through such hazards had He to guide the spiritual blessing He designed to convey to us all. Isaac laid a net for his own feet. By his unrighteous and timorous haste he secured the defeat of his own long-cherished scheme. It was his hasting to bless Esau which drove Rebekah to checkmate him by winning the blessing for her favourite. The shock which Isaac felt when Esau came in and the fraud was discovered is easily understood. The mortification of the old man must have been extreme when he found that he had so completely taken himself in. He was reclining in the satisfied reflection that for once he had overreached his astute Rebekah and her astute son, and in the comfortable feeling that, at last, he hadaccomplished his one remaining desire, when he learns from the exceeding bitter cry of Esau that he has himself been duped. It was enough to rouse the anger of the mildest andgodliest of men, but Isaac does not storm and protest—“he trembles exceedingly.” He recognises, by a spiritual insight quite unknown to Esau, that this is God’s hand, and deliberately confirms, with his eyes open, what he had done in blindness: “I have blessed him: Yea, and he shall be blessed.” Had he wished to deny the validity of the blessing, he had ground enough for doing so. He had not really given it; it had been stolen from him. An act must be judged by its intention, and he had been far from intending to bless Jacob. Was he to consider himself bound by what he had done under a misapprehension? He had given a Messing to one person under the impression that he was a different person; must not the blessing go to him for whom it was designed? But Isaac unhesitatingly yielded. This clear recognition of God’s hand in the matter, and quick submission to Him, reveals a habit of reflection, and a spiritual thoughtfulness, which are the good qualities in Isaac’s otherwise unsatisfactory character. Before he finished his answer to Esau, he felt he was a poor feeble creature in the hand of a true and just God, who had used even his infirmity and sin to forward righteous and gracious ends. It was his sudden recognition of the frightful way in which he had been tampering

with God’s will, and of the grace with which God had prevented him from accomplishing a wrong destination of the inheritance, that made Isaac tremble very exceedingly. In this humble acceptance of the disappointment of his life’s love and hope, Isaac shows us the manner in which we ought to bear the consequences of our wrong-doing. The punishment of our sin often comes through the persons with whom we have to do, unintentionally on their part, and yet we are tempted to hate them because they pain andpunish us, father, mother, wife, child, or whoever else. Isaac and Esau were alike disappointed. Esau only saw the supplanter, and vowed to be revenged. Isaac saw God in the matter, and trembled. So when Shimei cursed David, and his loyal retainers would have cut off his head for so doing, David said: “Let him alone, and let him curse; it may be that the Lord hath bidden him.” We can bear the pain inflicted on us by men when we see that they are merely the instruments of a Divine chastisement. The persons who thwart us and make our life bitter, the persons who stand between us and our dearest hopes, the persons whom we are most disposed to speak angrily and bitterly to, are often thorns planted in our path by God to keep us on the right way. (M. Dods, D. D.)

2

Isaac said, "I am now an old man and don't know the day of my death.

1. Isaac was the man of round numbers. He was married at 40, had a son at 60, and died at 180.He was just like all of us, for none know the day of their death. Some feelthey have many years ahead, and they die the next day. Others, like Isaac, feel their time is short, and then go on for another half of a lifetime. The unknown, however, does motivate us to make plans, as it did Isaac.

2.In this chapter we see the results in part of a divided family. Isaac is about 137 years old and acts like he will die very soon. He will live to be 180 (35:28). Some have suggested that his impatience to give Esau the blessing suggests a carnal, premature move. Isaac's getting old. The typical calculation of his age at this point is 137. Isaac's brother Ishmael had died at that same age. So Isaac's thinking he's pretty close to death himself

3. JOHN TRAPP, “Ver. 2. I am old, I know not the day of my death.] No more

doth any, though never so young. There be as many young skulls as old, in Golgotha. But, young men, we say, may die; old men must die. To the old, death is pro ianuis; to the young, in insidiis. Senex, quasi semi-nex. Old men have pedem in cymba Charontis, one foot in the grave already. Our decrepit age both expects death, and solicits it: it goes grovelling, as groaning for the grave. Whence Terence (a) calls an old man Silicernium; and the Greeks γηροντα, πασα το εις γην οραν, of looking toward the ground, whither he is tending; or, as others will have it, of loving earth and earthly things; which old folk greedily graspat, because they fear they shall not have to suffice them while alive, and to bring them honestly home, as they say, when they are dead; as Plutarch gives the reason,

4. Clarke, “I know not the day of my death - From his present weakness he had reason to suppose that his death could not be at any great distance, and therefore would leave no act undone which he believed it his duty to perform. He who lives not in reference to eternity, lives not at all.

5. Gill, “And he said, behold, now I am old,.... See Gill on Gen_27:1,

I know not the day of my death; how soon it will be; everyone knows he must die, but the day and hour he knows not, neither young nor old; and though young men may promise themselves many days and years, an old man cannot, but must or should live in the constant expectation of death.

6. HAWKER, “Dying patriarchs always called their households round them. Gen_49:1; Deu_33:1.

7. Calvin, “2.Behold, now I am old, I know not the day of my death. There is not the least doubt that Isaac implored daily blessings on his sons all his life: this, therefore, appears to have been an extraordinary kind of benediction. Moreover, the declaration that he knew not the day of his death, is as much as if he had said, that death was every moment pressing so closely upon him, a decrepit and failing man, that he dared not promise himself any longer life. Just as a woman with child when the time of parturition draws near, might say, that she had now

no day certain. Every one, even in the full vigor of age, carries with him a thousand deaths. Death claims as its own the foetus in the mother’s womb, and accompanies it through every stage of life. But as it urges the old more closely, so they ought to place it more constantly before their eyes, and should pass as pilgrims through the world, or as those who have already one foot in the grave. Inshort, Isaac, as one near death, wishes to leave the Church surviving him in the person of his son.

3

�ow then, get your weapons--your quiver and bow--and go out to the open country to hunt some wild game for me.

1. Isaac was a real lover of wild game, and he was proud of his boy who could go outand hunt it. He was a man’s man, and not like his other son Jacob who was a mother’s boy. He appeals to men, and he was his father's favorite. It is strange to seethat Abraham favored Ishmael, and Isaac favors Esau. But God 's favor went to the other sons, and here God favored Jacob. Favoritism is folly because choosing your favorite child may be going against the choice of God. Leave the choice to God and let him have his way with your children rather than try to manipulate things to give one an advantage over the others.

2. Pink is drawing a radical conclusion about the hunter when he writes, "Only two men in Scripture are specifically termed "hunters,’’ namely, �imrod and Esau, and they have much in common. The fact that Esau is thus linked together with �imrod,the rebel, reveals his true character." Being hunters does not link these two togetherat all. This type of thinking puts Satan and our Savior together in that both are connected with the lion. There is no basis for judging Esau as bad because of his hunting skills. He is bad because of acts of evil and not because of his love of hunting.

Why was it that Isaac desired to partake of venison from Esau before blessing him? Does not Genesis 25:28 answer the question—"And Isaac loved Esau because he did eat of his venison." In view of this statement it would seem, then, that Isaac desired to enkindle or intensify his affections for Esau, so that he might bless him with all his heart. But surely Isaac’s eyes were "dim" spiritually as well as physically. Let us not forget that what we read here at the beginning of Genesis 27 follows immediately after the record of Esau marrying the two heathen wives. Thus it will be seen that Isaac’s wrong in being partial to Esau was greatly aggravated by treating so lightly his son’s affront to the glory of Jehovah—and all for a meal of venison! Alas, what a terrible thing is the flesh with its "affections and lusts" even in a believer, yea, more terrible than in an unbeliever. But worst of all, Isaac’s partiality toward Esau was a plain disregard of God’s word to Rebekah that Esau should "serve" Jacob (Gen. 25:23). By comparing Hebrews 11:20 withRomans 10:7 it is certain that Isaac had himself" heard" this.

3. Clarke, “Thy weapons - The original word �כלי keley signifies vessels and instruments of any kind; and is probably used here for a hunting spear, javelin, sword, etc.

Quiver - תלי teli, from תלה talah, to hang or suspend. Had not the Septuagint

translated the word φαρετραν, and the Vulgate pharetram, a quiver, I should rather have

supposed some kind of shield was meant; but either can be suspended on the arm or from the shoulder. Some think a sword is meant; and because the original signifies to hang or suspend, hence they think is derived our word hanger, so called because it is generally worn in a pendent posture; but the word hanger did not exist in our language

previously to the Crusades, and we have evidently derived it from the Persian khanjar, a poniard or dagger, the use of which, not only in battles, but in private assassinations, waswell known.

4. Gill, “Now therefore, take, I pray thee, thy weapons,.... Or "thy vessels", or "instruments" (n), his instruments of hunting: as

thy quiver and thy bow; the former is the vessel or instrument, in which arrows were put and carried, and has its name in the Hebrew language from its being hung at the girdle, though another word is more commonly used for a quiver; and Onkelos and Jarchi interpret this of a sword; and which is not disapproved of by Aben Ezra and Ben Melech, who explain it either a quiver or a sword; and the latter was as necessary for hunting as the former, see Gen_27:40; and such a sword may be meant, as Mr. Fuller observes (o), which we call a "hanger" (i.e. a small sword often worn by seamen); and of the bow being an instrument of hunting, not anything need be said:

and go out to the field, and take me some venison; this does not necessarily intend what we commonly call so, but anything hunted in the field, as hares, wild goats, &c. and indeed the latter seems to be what Isaac loved, by the preparation Rebekah

afterwards made.

5. Strahan, "AFFECTION. Some minds are attracted to one another by

affinity, others by contrast. Isaac loved Esau, who was his opposite ; and Rebekah loved Jacob, who was her image (25 28 ). In spirit and manner of life Esau presented the most striking unlikeness to his father. The one was at home in strenuous action, the other in quiet meditation. Isaac was not more gentle, placid, retiring than Esau was fierce, bold, intrepid. Yet Isaac was irresistibly drawn to the hot, impulsive youth, seeing in him all that he missed in himself. He listened with delight to the huntsman s tales of adventure. The breathless pursuit, the hazardous encounter, the hairbreadth escapes stirred his imagination. He felt that his son s noble stature and restless energy were prophetic of future greatness."

4

Prepare me the kind of tasty food I like and bring it to me to eat, so that I may give you my blessing before I die."

1. Esau could not only hunt it, he could cook it, and so was an all around man who could do it all. That is why he was the favorite of Isaac. Isaac is greatly condemned by many because of his favoritism toward Esau. He is considered to be defying God's revealed will by doing so because back in Gen. 25:23 God revealed to Rebekah that the older son would serve the younger. The problem is that we do not know if Isaac knew of this message from God. You would assume that his wife would tell him what God said to her, but we do not know if she did. We cannot judge Isaac based on an assumption. Many do, however, and a common opinion goes like this from an author who judges Isaac, "Isaac knew what God had said, buthere he is in a sneaky and secretive fashion trying to give the birthright to Esau. His personal choice was Esau, but the previous choice, which was God’s choice, was Jacob. What Isaac is doing is an act of disobedience."

2. Many will say he was sinning by trying to give Esau the blessing, for he was tryingto go around the will of God and get his will fulfilled instead. This is a radical charge against this man of God's choosing, and God's Word does not support the

charge. All we read in the the book of Hebrews is this in 11:20, "By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future." Isaac is credited by God to have acted in faith, and he blessed both of his sons and not just Jacob. He is not condemned by God anywhere, and I see no reason why men should be allowed to override God and make him sinful where God does not. So the man liked to eat! Lethim who is without sin throw the first stone. He was no rebel here trying to defy God, but just showing love to a son with whom he had a special relationship. He may have been on the wrong track, but God used his wife to get him to go the way he should to do God's will. He was not fighting it, but just not as aware as his wife ofwhat God's will was. So if God is for him, who can be against him? I see preachers finding sin all too frenquently in the lives of God's chosen when there is no basis for it. There is all kinds of valid sin in the saints to use for messages, but it is not being honest to find it where God does not.

3. Clarke, “Savory meat - �מטעמים matammim, from טעם taam, to taste or relish; how

dressed we know not, but its name declares its nature.

That I may eat - The blessing which Isaac was to confer on his son was a species of Divine right, and must be communicated with appropriate ceremonies. As eating and drinking were used among the Asiatics on almost all religious occasions, and especially in making and confirming covenants, it is reasonable to suppose that something of this kind was essentially necessary on this occasion, and that Isaac could not convey the righttill he had eaten of the meat provided for the purpose by him who was to receive the blessing. As Isaac was now old, and in a feeble and languishing condition, it was necessary that the flesh used on this occasion should be prepared so as to invite the appetite, that a sufficiency of it might be taken to revive and recruit his drooping strength, that he might be the better able to go through the whole of this ceremony.

This seems to be the sole reason why savory meat is so particularly mentioned in the text. When we consider, 1. That no covenant was deemed binding unless the parties had eaten together; 2. That to convey this blessing some rite of this kind was necessary; and, 3. That Isaac’s strength was now greatly exhausted, insomuch that he supposed himself to be dying; we shall at once see why meat was required on this occasion, and why that meat was to be prepared so as to deserve the epithet of savory.

As I believe this to be the true sense of the place, I do not trouble my readers with interpretations which I suppose to be either exceptionable or false.

4. Gill, “And make me savoury meat, such as I love,.... For, though he had lost his

sight, he had not lost his taste, nor his appetite for savoury food:

and bring it to me, that I may eat; this, was enjoined to make trial of his filial affection and duty to him, before he blessed him:

that my soul may bless thee before I die; not only that he might do it with cheerfulness and vivacity, having eaten a comfortable meal, and being refreshed with it,

but that having had proof of his son's duty and affection to him, he might confer the blessing on him heartily: this blessing was not an ordinary and common one, but what parents used to bestow upon their children at the time of their death, or a little before it; and good men oftentimes did this under a spirit of prophecy, declaring what would be the case and circumstances of their children in time to come; and particularly the principal part of the blessing of Isaac, which Abraham had entailed upon him by divine direction, and he thought to have entailed on Esau his firstborn, was the promise of the descent of the Messiah from him and his seed, and of the possession of the land of Canaan by them: and this shows that Rebekah had not made known the oracle to Isaac, that the "elder should serve the younger", Gen_25:23, or, if she had, he had forgot, or didnot understand it, and might think it respected not the persons of his sons, but their posterity; or however, from a natural affection for Esau his firstborn, and that the blessing and inheritance might go in the common channel, he was desirous he should have it; and he might also be ignorant of Esau's having sold his birthright to Jacob, or that he made no account of it.

5. Jamison, “make ... savory meat — perhaps to revive and strengthen him for the duty; or rather, “as eating and drinking” were used on all religious occasions, he could not convey the right, till he had eaten of the meat provided for the purpose by him who was to receive the blessing [Adam Clarke] (compare Gen_18:7).

that my soul may bless thee — It is difficult to imagine him ignorant of the divine purpose (compare Gen_25:23). But natural affection, prevailing through age and infirmity, prompted him to entail the honors and powers of the birthright on his elder son; and perhaps he was not aware of what Esau had done (Gen_25:34).

6. Calvin, “That my soul may bless thee. Wonderfully was the faith of the holy man blended with a foolish and inconsiderate carnal affection. The general principle of faith flourishes in his mind, when, in blessing his son, he consigns to him, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, the right of the inheritance which had been divinely promised to himself. Meanwhile, he is blindly carried away by the love of his firstborn son, to prefer him to the other; and in this way he contends against the oracle of God. For he could not be ignorant of that which God had pronounced before the children were born. If any one would excuse him, inasmuch as he had received no command from God to change the accustomed order of nature by preferring the younger to the elder; this is easily refuted: because when he knew that the firstborn was rejected, he still persisted in his excessive attachment. Again, in neglecting to inquire respecting his duty, when

he had been informed of the heavenly oracle by his wife, his indolence was by nomeans excusable. For he was not altogether ignorant of his calling; therefore, hisobstinate attachment to his son was a kind of blindness, which proved a greater obstacle to him than the external dimness of his eyes. Yet this fault, although deserving of reprehension, did not deprive the holy man of the right of pronouncing a blessing; but plenary authority remained with him, and the force and efficacy of his testimony stood entire, just as if God himself had spoken from heaven; to which subject I shall soon again allude.

7. The Lord's plan was that Jacob would get the birthright and the blessing. "But inspite of all this - in spite of God's instruction concerning Jacob before he was born, in spite of the plainly obvious superiority of Jacob's character and spiritual discernment and convictions over those of Esau, in spite of Jacob's further legalization of his claim to the patriarchal blessing through his purchase of the birthright from Esau, confirmed by Esau's solemn oath, in spite of Esau's obvious indifference to his spiritual heritage and to the will of God - in spite of all this, Isaac nevertheless determined that he was going to give the blessing to Esau." (Morris)Isaac is dealing dirty. He's made a plan to give the blessing to Esau in secret. "If Esau had sold his birthright for a mess of pottage, Isaac was about to give away the blessing for a mess of venison." (C.H.M.)

8. Chris Robinson

Now let me close with two inferences from our text. First, we have noted that Isaac should have detested his son Esau, rather than doting on him. Esau, after all, made the precious Lifeline of no effect. Does this mean that you should detest your son or daughter—whether they be child or adult—if they reject the gospel today? By no means! Especially if they have been baptized! You see, Isaac knew that Jacob was to be preferredover Esau, because God had told Him so. Isaac knew that Jacob was on the Lifeline to Christ, whereas Esau was a dead line. Isaac’s doting on Esau was in direct opposition to God’s revealed will.

9. BILL BALDWINIsaac is also being devious, like Rebekah and Jacob 1. Normal situation: A man is ready to die. He calls all his sons before him to bless them all, with special blessing going to the firstborn. 2. But Isaac intends to give the whole blessing to Esau and leave none for Jacob. 3. So he does this on the sly, calling only Esau into his presence. 4. Thus, by deceitfulness, he sets up his own and Esau's downfall later in the chapter. (How could Jacob have pulled off his stunt if Esau had been standing right

next to him?) 7. And Isaac is Defying God 1. God had said, "The older will serve the younger." 2. God had chosen Jacob, that the blessing of Abraham should come to him. 3. How foolish is Isaac, to think he can thwart the plan of God? 4. How wicked is he to want to? 5. Oh children of God! It is good for us that Isaac should seem so foolish and sinful! 1. See now the folly and sin of our own flesh when we would thwart the plan of God. 2. How often are we frustrated by what his Providence brings! 3. How often do we treat God with suspicion as though he does not desire our good? 4. How we fear his discipline and the trials he sends and would escape them if we could! 5. How foolish! For God is powerful. 6. How wrong! For God is righteous.

10. Isaac was right in what he wanted to do, but wrong in both the timing and the

person. He wanted to give it to his favorite. We all need to exercise spiritual authority and blessing, but we need to be careful how we do it. Doing the right thing the right way: Example David was right in wanting to take the Ark safely and permanently housed in Jerusalem, but wrong about putting it in a cart. Moses was right in wanting to help the children of Israel but wrong in killing the Egyptian. Saul was right in wanting to consult God about the upcoming battle on Mt. Gilboa but wrong in trying to get the answer through a spirit channeler.

Isaac loved Esau, not because he was a Holy man, not because he pursued the pilgrim way of God. Esau thought he was great hunter, provider and venison cook. It was carnal, sensual, affection that motivated, and now controlled him. This is what motivated him to bless the wrong man.(see verse 4). He thought spiritual blessing could be imparted in the energy of the flesh. If you take a quick look at the chapter, "savoury meat " is mentioned 6 times, venison 7 times, and eating 8 times. Here is a man controlled by appitite. Over 20 references to carnal desires.

What is the Blessing?Two weeks ago, we talked about what the birthright was - the right of the firstborn to takeprecedence over his brothers - taking the authority of the father when he dies. The one who had the birthright became the head of the house, and priest of the family. It also entitled him to a double-portion of the estate at the father's death.

But what is the blessing? The blessing is a verbal conveying of God's covenant promises. Whereas the birthright imparted material benefits from the father, the blessing imparted spiritual benefits from the Lord.Now I know of nothing mystical or magical about the blessing. It is ultimately up to the Lord to accomplish it. In trying to give the blessing to Esau instead of Jacob, Isaac is ignorantly trying to force God's hand. Many people today think that they can force the hand of God to do as they will instead of as He wills. In doing so, they set themselves above God - claiming to have a better plan, a better method, a better idea of what's going on

5

�ow Rebekah was listening as Isaac spoke to hisson Esau. When Esau left for the open country to hunt game and bring it back,

Eavesdropping had changed the course of history, for what she overheard led her to interfere with what otherwise would have happened. Eavesdropping leadsto plotting.

1. Barnes, “Gen_27:5-13

Rebekah forms a plan for diverting the blessing from Esau to Jacob. She was within hearing when the infirm Isaac gave his orders, and communicates the news to Jacob. Rebekah has no scruples about primogeniture. Her feelings prompt her to take measures, without waiting to consider whether they are justifiable or not, for securing to Jacob that blessing which she has settled in her own mind to be destined for him. She thinks it necessary to interfere that this end may not fail of being accomplished. Jacob views the matter more coolly, and starts a difficulty. He may be found out to be a deceiver, and bring his father’s curse upon him. Rebekah, anticipating no such issue; undertakes to bear the curse that she conceived would never come. Only let him obey.

2. Clarke, “And Rebekah heard - And was determined, if possible, to frustrate the design of Isaac, and procure the blessing for her favorite son. Some pretend that she received a Divine inspiration to the purpose; but if she had she needed not to have recourse to deceit, to help forward the accomplishment. Isaac, on being informed, would have had too much piety not to prefer the will of his Maker to his own partiality for his eldest son; but Rebekah had nothing of the kind to plead, and therefore had recourse to the most exceptionable means to accomplish her ends.

3. Gill, “And Rebekah heard when Isaac spake to Esau his son,.... She might hear Isaac call to him by one means or another, that he had sent for him, or might see him go into his father's tent, and might stand at the door of it and listen to hear what he said to him; though the Targum of Jonathan says, she heard by the Holy Spirit:

and Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it; as his father directed and enjoined him; and thus it was ordered by divine Providence, that there might be time and opportunity for Jacob to get the blessing before his broker

4. HAWKER, “Genesis 27:5-10

There is not a passage in scripture which needs more the enlightening influences of the Holy Ghost to guide into all truth, than these verses. Various have been the opinions of Commentators upon the transaction here recorded. Almost all, and indeed everyone which I have seen, condemn the conduct of Jacob and his mother, passing by at the sametime all reproof upon Isaac. I confess it appears to me that Isaac was most faulty of the whole. I venture to propose one or two thoughts upon the subject, and shall then leave the matter to the Reader himself to form his own judgment, praying that God the Holy Ghost may give him a right judgment in this, as well as all things.

The Lord had informed Rebecca, when she was with child, that she had twins in her womb, and that two manner of people should be separated from her bowels; and that theelder should serve the younger. Gen_25:21-23. Thus informed of God himself, how couldIsaac presume to counteract, or attempt to alter, the appointment of God? The method Rebecca took to defeat the purpose of her blind husband was, no doubt, a deception; but it seems to have very clearly originated from the sense she had of what God had said. Perhaps it might have been better to have openly expostulated with Isaac, and have pointed out to him the danger of despising the divine precept. But she feared probably the success. And the object appeared to her important. Certain it is, that her conduct, as well as Jacob’s, on this occasion is not spoken of, in this relation of it, as incurring the divine displeasure. Neither do I find in any other part of scripture a passage to this amount. But, as I said before, I do not presume to decide upon it. The Lord the Spirit be the Reader’s Teacher!

5. CALVI�, “And Rebekah heard. Moses now explains more fully the artifice by which Jacob attained the blessing. It truly appears ridiculous, that an old man, deceived by the cunning of his wife, should, through ignorance and error, have given utterance to what was contrary to his wish. And surely the stratagem of Rebekah was not without fault; for although she could not guide her husband by salutary counsel, yet it was not a legitimate method of acting, to circumvent him by such deceit. For, as a lie is in itself culpable, she sinned more grievously still in this, that she desired to sport in a sacred matter with such wiles. She knew that the decree by which Jacob had been elected and adopted was immutable; why then doesshe not patiently wait till God shall confirm it in fact, and shall show that what he had once pronounced from heaven is certain? Therefore, she darkens the celestial oracle by her lie, and abolishes, as far as she was able, the grace promised to her son. �ow, if we consider farther, whence arose this great desire to bestir herself; herextraordinary faith will on the other hand appear. For, as she did not hesitate to provoke her husband against herself, to light up implacable enmity between the

brothers, to expose her beloved son Jacob to the danger of immediate death, and to disturb the whole family; this certainly flowed from no other source than her faith. (42) The inheritance promised by God was firmly fixed in her mind; she knew that it was decreed to her son Jacob. And therefore, relying upon the covenant of God, and keeping in mind the oracle received, she forgets the world. Thus, we see, that her faith was mixed with an unjust and immoderate zeal. This is to be carefully observed, in order that we may understand that a pure and distinct knowledge does not always so illuminate the minds of the pious as to cause them to be governed, in all their actions, by the Holy Spirit, but that the little light which shows them their path is enveloped in various clouds of ignorance and error; so that while they hold aright course, and are tending towards the goal, they yet occasionally slide. Finally, both in Isaac and in his wife the principle of faith was preeminent. But each, by ignorance in certain particulars, and by other faults, either diverged a little from theway, or, at least, stumbled in the way. But seeing that, nevertheless, the election of God stood firm; nay, that he even executed his design through the deceit of a woman, he vindicates, in this manner, the whole praise of his benediction to his own gratuitous goodness.

6. K&D 5-17, “Rebekah, who heard what he said, sought to frustrate this intention, and to secure the blessing for her (favourite) son Jacob. Whilst Esau was away hunting, she told Jacob to take his father a dish, which she would prepare from two kids according to his taste; and, having introduced himself as Esau, to ask for the blessing “before Jehovah.” Jacob's objection, that the father would know him by his smooth skin, and so, instead of blessing him, might pronounce a curse upon him as a mocker, i.e., one who was trifling with his blind father, she silenced by saying, that she would take the curse upon herself. She evidently relied upon the word of promise, and thought that she ought to do her part to secure its fulfilment by directing the father's blessing to Jacob; and to this end she thought any means allowable. Consequently she was so assured of the success of her stratagem as to have no fear of the possibility of a curse. Jacob then acceded to her plan, and fetched the goats. Rebekah prepared them according to her husband's taste; and having told Jacob to put on Esau's best clothes which were with her in the dwelling (the tent, not the house), she covered his hands and the smooth (i.e., the smoother parts) of his neck with the skins of the kids of the goats,

(Note: We must not think of our European goats, whose skins would be quite unsuitable for any such deception. “It is the camel-goat of the East, whose black, silk-like hair was used even by the Romans as a substitute for human hair. Martial xii. 46.” - Tuch on v. 16.)

and sent him with the savoury dish to his father.

7. JOH� TRAPP, “Ver. 5. Esau went to the field to hunt, &c.] But before he returned, the blessing was otherwise bestowed. "The hope of the hypocrite shall perish". [Job 8:13] How many lie languishing at hope’s hospital, as he at the pool of Bethesda, and no help comes! They repair to the creatures, as to a lottery, with heads full of hopes, but return with hearts full of blanks. Or, if they draw nigh to God, they think they take hold of him; but it is but as the child that catcheth at the shadow or the wall, which he thinks he holds fast in his hand; but it vanisheth. The

common hope is ill bottomed. "Hope unfailable," [Romans 5:5] is founded upon "faith unfeigned". [1 Timothy 1:5] Deo confisi nunquam confusi. He sneaketh sweetest comfort "to the heart, in the wilderness". [Hosea 2:14]

8. John Phillips writes: "The great temptation for such women is to boss and bully their husbands. As a result the women become increasingly masculine, and the man becomes increasingl feminine. A truly strong woman will use her strenghth to minister strenghth to her husband, not to rob him of whatever backbone he might once of had. Rebekah's is the story of the unsurrendered wife." (Page 227). Phillps goes on and comments that Rebekah may have surrendered all respect and Isaac forfeited all right to Rebekah's respect down in Gerar. What a pity she never knew her mother-in-law who could have taught her a few things about submission, even inthe face of that awful experience.

Rebekah is determined to outsmart her husband. Besides she has "scripture on her side". It is amazing how we can justify our deceit. The question really is; "Does Godreally need our clever little schemes?" God could have chased off the venison for a hundred miles in every direction. He could have spoken to Isaac in such a clear and compelling way, that he dared not disobey.

Here we have the sorry spectacle of a wife deceiving her husband, and the wife all the while thinking she has no other choice. She would pay for it in the end. Before the day is over her son will be fleeing for his life. God does not let us get away with our sin. "For a few days" she consoled herself. But those days would turn to monthsand years. 20 years, she never saw her boy again. She died before he ever came back. It could very well be that Jacob was not spoken. Surely the way of the transgressor is hard.

9. RAY PRITCHARD RAY PRITCHARD RAY PRITCHARD RAY PRITCHARD Portrait of a Dysfunctional FamilyGenesis 27

Although it is not a new word, most of us never heard the term "dysfunctional" until

a few years ago. In the last decade, however, "dysfunctional" has become one of the

buzz-words of this mixed-up generation. The dictionary defines the noun dysfunction

as "the disordered or impaired functioning of a bodily system or organ." In laymen's

terms that means your body doesn't work the way it is supposed to.

But that's not exactly how the word is used today. Most often we hear

"dysfunctional" applied to human relationships—we hear of dysfunctional families

and dysfunctional marriages, for example. In both cases, dysfunctional describes

intimate human relationships that don't work the way they are supposed to work.

Go to your favorite secular or Christian bookstore and you will find dozens of books

with the word "dysfunc-tional" in the title:

—"Secrets of a Dysfunctional Family"

—"Healing a Dysfunctional Marriage"

—"Overcoming Your Dysfunctional Childhood"

—"Dysfunctional Relationships—Where They Come From, How to Change Them"

Our particular focus in this study is on dysfunctional families. Here's a working

definition: A dysfunctional family is one in which there has been a major breakdown

in the basic relationships within the family so that the family itself no longer

functions properly.

There's no such thing as a perfect family—never has been and never will be as

long as sin is part of the human condition. Sin distorts everything we do and say

—it colors life so that no marriage, no family, no parent-child relationship is truly

perfect.

Dysfunctional Families Aren't New Having said that, it's not surprising that

when we turn to the pages of Holy Scripture, we don't have to look very far to

find dysfunctional family relationships:

1. Consider the very first family—Adam and Eve who blamed each other for their

own disobedience.

2. Consider their children—Cain murdered his brother Abel.

3. Consider Noah's three sons—Ham disgraced his father by uncovering his

nakedness.

4. Consider Abraham and Sarah—He lied about his wife, calling her his sister. His

nephew Lot turned out to be a major disappointment.

5. Consider David—Although he was a great king, a great warrior, and a great

poet, as a father and husband he was a failure. His marriage to Michal was

largely a failure, his marriage to Bathsheba was based on an adulterous affair,

and his son Absalom turned against him. As his kingdom crumbled, so did his

family.

Three Generations of Family Dysfunction If you want another example,

consider the family of Jacob and Esau. Let's start two generations before with

Abraham and Sarah. The dysfunction begins when Sarah is unable to conceive so

Abraham sleeps with Hagar, Sarah's maidservant. When Abraham goes in to

Hagar, a son is created whose name is Ishmael. The resulting relationship causes

so much strain between Sarah and Hagar that Hagar runs away. At length Hagar

returns, gives birth to Ishmael, and a tenuous peace is restored until Sarah gives

birth to Isaac, at which point Abraham in response to Sarah's complaints sends

Hagar and Ishmael away for good. What's going on here? Not only do Sarah and

Hagar not get along, neither do Ishmael and Isaac get along.

We pass now to the second generation. Isaac marries Rebekah and after 20

years, she gives birth to Jacob and Esau. But the boys are very different, and

Isaac prefers Esau while Rebekah loves Jacob. This family favoritism is not

hidden to the two boys, who become rivals, not allies. While sibling rivalry is a

fact of life—even in the best of families—in dysfunctional families the rivalry

becomes the defining fact of family life. That's what happens with Jacob and

Esau. Because of their vastly different personalities, and because of parental

favoritism, they are destined to be rivals (and sometimes bitter enemies) as long

as they live.

No One Looks Good When we come to Genesis 27, the three generations of

family dysfunction are about to come to a fearful climax. Those patterns of

unhealthy relationships ultimately will destroy Jacob's own family. What you see

at the beginning of this chapter is a family that, while not working very well, at

least is staying together. By the end of the chapter the family has been blown

apart once and for all.

10. Rev. Bruce Goettsche, "The one thing you don't have to teach in school is

the art of making excuses. I'm not sure when we first master this skill but it seems like it is early in life. Have you heard the "Psychiatric Folk Song" by Anna Russell?

I went to my psychiatrist to be psychoanalyzedTo find out why I killed the cat and blacked my husband's eye.He laid me on a downy couch to see what he could find,And here's what he dredged up, from my subconscious mind.When I was one, my mummy hid my dolly in a trunkAnd so it follows, naturally, that I am always drunk.When I was two, I saw my father kiss the maid one day,and that is why I suffer from kleptomania.At three I had a feeling of ambivalence towards my brothersand so it follows naturally I poisoned all my lovers.but I am happy now I have learned the lessons this has taught:Everything I do that's wrong, is someone else's fault!

It's tongue in cheek but the point is made. We seem to have an excuse for everything. One of the most famous excuses of all is really a philosophy: "the endjustifies the means". It's proclaimed in various forms:

1. nobody was hurt

2. everything turned out O.K.

3. we made a profit

4. we got elected

In our text this morning we see an illustration of what happens when we function by the principle that the end justifies the means. But let me caution you here . . . it is easy to sit on our "high horse" and look down at Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob and Esau. We must be careful because we are more like them than we like to think. We read a very human story here.

11. COFFMAN, “Esau is consistently called "his son," and Jacob is called "my son" by Rebekah.

Although Isaac evidently thought he might die soon, he lived, in fact, some forty more years afterward. The temporary blindness (?) and disability that came upon him could very well have beenprovidential as a means of frustrating his evil purpose.The skill of Rebekah who could prepare little goats to taste like venison has often been mentioned, but this should be understood in the light of Isaac's state of health and debilitation.

"I shall seem to him as a deceiver ..." Jacob did not object to the deception they planned, but onlyto the possibility of detection.

"Upon me be thy curse ..." Along with the rash prayer of Rachel (Genesis 30:1), this impromptu

prayer of Rebekah was a disaster, for she did indeed that day suffer the loss of her beloved Jacob and never saw him anymore. "Little did she realize that her death would come before he could return. Indeed the curse did fall upon her."[11]

"The skins of the kids of the goats ..." "These were the Oriental camel-goats, whose wool is black, silky, and of a fine texture, sometimes used as a substitute for human hair."[12]

This bold and unscrupulous plan of deception was executed with skill and efficiency. It succeeded because of its very daring.

"The goodly garments of Esau ... which were with her in the house ..." This should probably notbe read as indicating that Esau and his two pagan wives were living in the same house with Isaac and Rebekah. If that was the case, it might indicate that this chapter is related out of chronological sequence, which after all, is not unusual. However, perhaps Morris was correct in the view that:

"The goodly garments might have been special garments associated with the priestly function of thehead of the house. If so, it would appear that Rebekah had kept these in her own house for this purpose."[13]

If that was the case, it should be noted that Esau had gone hunting in them, hence the smell mentioned by Isaac, and such disrespect for the sacred garments would have been thoroughly in keeping with Esau's character.

12. COKE, “Genesis 27:5-6, &c. And Rebekah, &c.— Rebekah, acquainted with the Divine will concerning the channel in which the grand promise was to pass, resolved to do her part towards preventing the ill effects of Isaac's partial fondness for an eldest son, who had already indicated so unworthy a disposition. To which end she incites her son Jacob to an act of deceit, endeavouring to absolve him from all guilt or blame, if he consent: Upon me be thy curse, my son, Genesis 27:13.; as much as to say, I will warrant thee success, and will readily bear all the evil, if any happen.

REFLECTIONS.—Infirmities of age were come upon Isaac; and therefore, as his time was likely to be short, he resolves,

1. To bestow on Esau, as first-born, the blessing of the promised land andSEED ; perhaps, not understanding the prophecy, or not attending to it through natural affection and the rights of primogeniture.Note; Man proposes, but God disposes.2. He communicates his resolution to Esau, who was still it seems his favourite, though he had displeased him byMARRIAGE ; and bids him shew one instance of his affection in procuring him some venison, that he might eat, and bless him before he died. Note; (1.) Though children marry imprudently, parents must not be inflexible in their resentments. (2.) When we grow old, it is time to think of dying. (3.) All worldly concerns should be dispatched before that time: it is then work enough to die.But Rebekah overhearing the conversation between Isaac and Esau, resolves immediately to put Jacob in his place, a thing, in many respects, utterly unjustifiable. Had she pleaded with Isaac the Divine command,SIMPLICITY had probably prevailed, and Jacob, without a cheat, had got the blessing: yea, it must have prevailed, because the truth and promise of God were pledged. But nowshe contrives the plot, and will have Jacob execute it.

6

Rebekah said to her son Jacob, "Look, I overheard your father say to your brother Esau,

1. Isaac’s wife, Rebekah, overhears this and she’s furious. She’s furious that Isaac is choosing Esau, his favorite son, over Jacob, her favorite son. So she comes up with this scheme.

2, PINK, "How like Sarah before her, who, in a similar "evil hour" imagined that she could give effect to the Divine promise by fleshly expediencies (Gen. 16:2). As another has suggested "they both acted on that God dishonoring proverb that ‘The Lord helps those who help themselves,’" whereas the truth is, the Lord helps those who have come tothe end of themselves. If Rebekah really had confidence in the Divine promise she might well have followed tranquilly the path of duty, assured that in due time God would Himself bring His word to pass."

3. Gill, “And Rebekah spake unto Jacob her son,.... Who was in the tent with her, and for whom she had the strongest affection:

saying, behold, I heard thy father speak unto Esau thy brother; heard the conversation that passed between them, and particularly what Isaac had given in charge to Esau:

4. Henry 6-17, “Rebekah is here contriving to procure for Jacob the blessing which was designed for Esau; and here,

I. The end was good, for she was directed in this intention by the oracle of God, by which she had been governed in dispensing her affections. God had said it should be so, that the elder should serve the younger; and therefore Rebekah resolves it shall be so, and cannot bear to see her husband designing to thwart the oracle of God. But,

II. The means were bad, and no way justifiable. If it was not a wrong to Esau to deprivehim of the blessing (he himself having forfeited it by selling the birthright), yet it was a wrong to Isaac, taking advantage of his infirmity, to impose upon him; it was a wrong to Jacob too, whom she taught to deceive, by putting a lie into his mouth, or at least by putting one into his right hand. It would likewise expose him to endless scruples about the blessing, if he should obtain it thus fraudulently, whether it would stand him or his inany stead, especially if his father should revoke it, upon the discovery of the cheat, and plead, as he might, that it was nulled by an error personae - a mistake of the person. He himself also was aware of the danger, lest (Gen_27:12), if he should miss of the blessing, as he might probably have done, he should bring upon himself his father's curse, which he dreaded above any thing; besides, he laid himself open to that divine curse which is pronounced upon him that causeth the blind to wander out of the way, Deu_27:18. If Rebekah, when she heard Isaac promise the blessing to Esau, had gone, at his return from hunting, to Isaac, and, with humility and seriousness, put him in remembrance of that which God had said concerning their sons, - if she further had shown him how Esau had forfeited the blessing both by selling his birthright and by marrying strange wives, it is probable that Isaac would have been prevailed upon knowingly and wittingly to confer the blessing upon Jacob, and needed not thus to have been cheated into it. This would have been honourable and laudable, and would have looked well in the history; but God left her to herself, to take this indirect course, that he might have the glory of bringing

good out of evil, and of serving his own purposes by the sins and follies of men, and that we might have the satisfaction of knowing that, though there is so much wickedness and deceit in the world, God governs it according to his will, to his own praise. See Job_12:16, With him are strength and wisdom, the deceived and the deceiver are his. Isaac had lost the sense of seeing, which, in this case, could not have been imposed upon,Providence having so admirably well ordered the difference of features that no two faces are exactly alike: conversation and commerce could scarcely be maintained if there were not such a variety. Therefore she endeavours to deceive, 1. His sense of tasting, by dressing some choice pieces of kid, seasoning them, serving them up, so as to make him believe they were venison: this it was no hard matter to do. See the folly of those that are nice and curious in their appetite, and take a pride in humouring it. It is easy to impose upon them with that which they pretend to despise and dislike, so little perhaps does it differ from that to which they give a decided preference. Solomon tells us that dainties are deceitful meat; for it is possible for us to be deceived by them in more ways than one,Pro_23:32. 2. His sense of feeling and smelling. She put Esau's clothes upon Jacob, his best clothes, which, it might be supposed, Esau would put on, in token of joy and respect to his father, when he was to receive the blessing. Isaac knew these, by the stuff, shape, and smell, to be Esau's. If we would obtain a blessing from our heavenly Father, we must come for it in the garments of our elder brother, clothed with his righteousness, who is the first-born among many brethren. Lest the smoothness and softness of Jacob's hands and neck should betray him, she covered them, and probably part of his face, with the skins of the kids that were newly killed, Gen_27:16. Esau was rough indeed when nothing less than these would serve to make Jacob like him. Those that affect to seem rough and rugged in their carriage put the beast upon the man, and really shame themselves, by thus disguising themselves. And, lastly, it was a very rash word which Rebekah spoke, when Jacob objected the danger of a curse: Upon me be thy curse, my son, Gen_27:13. Christ indeed, who is mighty to save, because mighty to bear, has said, Upon me be the curse, only obey my voice; he has borne the burden of the curse, the curse of the law, for all those that will take upon them the yoke of the command, the command of the gospel. But it is too daring for any creature to say, Upon me be the curse, unless it be that curse causeless which we are sure shall not come, Pro_26:2.

5. Jamison 6-10, “Rebekah spake unto Jacob — She prized the blessing as invaluable; she knew that God intended it for the younger son [Gen_25:23]; and in her anxiety to secure its being conferred on the right object - on one who cared for religion - she acted in the sincerity of faith; but in crooked policy - with unenlightened zeal; on the false principle that the end would sanctify the means.

6. BI 6-10, Go now to the flock, and fetch me from thence two good kids of the goats; and I will make them savoury meat for thy father, such as he loveth

Rebekah’s cunning plot in favour of Jacob

I. THE HUMAN ELEMENT IN IT.

1. The partiality of a fond mother.

2. Ambition.

II. THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT IN IT.

1. It seemed as if the oracle of God was likely to become void.

2. The crisis was urgent. (T. H. Leale.)

Crooked measures to obtain a worthy object

This is a mysterious affair. It was just that Esau should lose the blessing, for by selling hisbirthright he had despised it. It was God’s design, too, that Jacob should have it. Rebekah also knowing of this design, from it having been revealed to her that “the elder should serve the younger,” appears to have acted from a good motive. But the scheme which she formed to correct the error of her husband was far from being justifiable. It was one of those crooked measures which have too often been adopted to accomplish theDivine promises; as if the end would justify, or at least excuse the means. Thus Sarah acted in giving Hagar to Abraham; and thus many others have acted under the idea of being useful in promoting the cause of Christ. The answer to all such things is that which God addressed to Abraham: “I am God Almighty; walk before Me, and be thou perfect.” The deception practised on Isaac was cruel. If he be in the wrong, endeavour to convince him; or commit it to God, who could turn his mind, as he afterwards did that of Jacob when blessing Ephraim and Manasseh; but do not avail yourself of his loss of sight to deceive him. Such would have been the counsel of wisdom and rectitude; but Rebekah follows her own. (A. Fuller.)

Use of unscrupulous meals by religious persons

To this day the method of Rebekah and Jacob is largely adopted by religious persons. It is notorious that persons whose ends are good frequently become thoroughly unscrupulous about the means they use to accomplish them. They dare not say in so many words that they may do evil that good may come, nor do they think it a tenable position in morals that the end sanctifies the means; and yet their consciousness of a justifiable and desirable end undoubtedly does blunt their sensitiveness regarding the legitimacy of the means they employ. For example, Protestant controversialists, persuaded that vehement opposition to Popery is good, and filled with the idea of accomplishing its downfall, are often guilty of gross misrepresentation, because they do not sufficiently inform themselves of the actual tenets and practices of the Church of Rome. In all controversy, religious and political, it is the same. It is always dishonest to circulate reports that you have no means of authenticating; yet how freely are such reports circulated to blacken the character of an opponent, and to prove his opinions to be dangerous. It is always dishonest to condemn opinions we have not inquired into, merely because of some fancied consequence which these opinions carry in them; yet how freely are opinions condemned by men who have never been at the trouble carefully to inquire into their truth. They do not feel the dishonesty of their position, because they have a general consciousness that they are on the side of religion, and of what has generally passed for truth. All keeping back of facts which are supposed to have an unsettling effect is but a repetition of this sin. There is no sin more hateful. Under the appearance of serving God, and maintaining His cause in the world, it insults Him by assuming that, if the whole bare, undisguised truth were spoken, His cause would suffer. The fate of all such attempts to manage God’s matters by keeping things dark, and misrepresenting fact, is written for all who care to understand in the results of this scheme of Rebekah’s and Jacob’s. They gained nothing, and they lost a great deal, by their wicked interference. They gained nothing; for God had promised that the birthright

would be Jacob’s, and would have given it him in some way redounding to his credit and not to his shame. And they lost a great deal. The mother lost her son; Jacob had to flee for his life, and, for all we know, Rebekah never saw him more. And Jacob lost all the comforts of home, and all those possessions his father had accumulated. He had to flee with nothing but his staff, an outcast to begin the world for himself. From this first false step onwards to his death, he was pursued by misfortune, until his own verdict on his lifewas, “Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life.” (M. Dods, D. D.)

Ahead of Providence

Luther was very importunate at the throne of grace to know the mind of God in a certain matter; and it seemed to him as if he heard God speak to his heart thus: “I am not to be traced.” One adds, “If He is not to be traced, He may be trusted; and that religion is of little value which will not enable a man to trust God where he can neither trace nor see Him. But there is a time for everything beneath the sun; and the Almighty has His ‘times and seasons.’ It has been frequently with my hopes and desires, in regard to Providence, as with my watch and the sun. My watch has often been ahead of true time; I have gone faster than Providence, and have been forced to stand still and wait, or I have been set back painfully. Flavel says, ‘Some providences, like Hebrew letters, must be read backwards.’” (J. G. Wilson.)

God will not have His kingdom maintained by carnal policy

We must walk in simplicity, sine plicis, for though the serpent can shrink up into his folds, and appear what he is not, yet it doth not become the saint to shuffle either with God or men. Jacob got the blessing by a wile, but he might have got it cheaper by plain dealing. (W. Gurnall.)

A lie not permitted to man

The minister of the seminary at Clermont, France, having been seized at Autun by the populace, the mayor, who wished to save him, advised him not to take the oath, but to allow him to tell the people that he had taken it. “I would myself make known your falsehood to the people,” replied the clergyman; “it is not permitted me to ransom my lifeby a lie. The God who prohibits my taking the oath will not allow me to make it believed that I have taken it.” The mayor was silent, and the minister was martyred.

7

`Bring me some game and prepare me some tasty food to eat, so that I may give you my blessing in the presence of the LORD before I die.'

1. Gill, “Bring me venison, and make me savoury meat,.... Fetch him venison out of the field, and dress it in a savoury manner, and bring it to him:

that I may eat, and bless thee before the Lord before my death; the phrase "before the Lord" is here added, which yet perhaps might be expressed by Isaac, though before omitted by the historian, and has a very considerable emphasis in it; for this solemn blessing was given not only in the presence of the Lord, and before him as a witness, but by calling upon him, and praying for direction in it, and then pronouncing it in his name and by his authority, he approving of it, so that it was ever after irrevocable.

2. SCOTT HOEZEE That doesn't work, though, in that the birthright and the blessing are two different things. So just because Esau let Jacob have his birthright benefit did not mean it was right for Jacob later to angle for the father's special blessing, too. He just stole it, that's all. What makes this theft even more dramatic is the way Rebekah and Jacob speak during this affair.

You maybe didn't notice this when we read the whole story a few minutes ago, but do you know that neither Isaac nor Esau ever utter the holy name "Yahweh"? Do you know who does invoke God's holy name: Rebekah and Jacob smack in the midst of their deceit! In verse 7 Rebekah reports Isaac's words to Jacob, claiming that Isaac had told Esau that he would give Esau the blessing, "in the presence of Yahweh." But look back at what Isaac is reported to have said in verse 4 and you will see that Isaac actually did not mention the presence of Yahweh. Rebekah does. Rebekah is well aware that the scheme she and Jacob are quite literally cooking up will take place in the presence of Yahweh. Yet still she presses forward with the deception.

Then, once Jacob appears before dottering old Isaac, the old man wonders how Esau had managed to hunt down some critter so quickly. It is then that Jacob tells one of the more bold-faced of his lies, but look at how he tells it in verse 20: "Yahweh, your God, gave me success." He not only lies, he brings Yahweh down into this tawdry action, evoking this holy God of Abraham and Isaac and so, in a way, making Yahweh his partner in crime!

In the narrative as we have it, God is not said to do or say anything directly. Themotivations for all this appear quite secular, mundane, and so very human. Rebekah may have loved both of her boys, but she didn't much like Esau. He was about as dumb as he was hairy and Rebekah simply couldn't abide the thought of his taking over the family once Isaac was dead. What made all of this more acute for Rebekah was a small, but telling, little detail at the very end of

Genesis 26: at the age of 40 Esau married two Hittite girls named Judith and Basemath and from the sounds of things, as daughters-in-law go, these two were a real burden to Isaac and Rebekah. They were, we are told, "a source of grief." However, you get the feeling that the fact Esau had married two such losers was not a source of amazement, at least not to Rebekah. The amazing thing would have been if Esau had actually managed to settle down with a nice girl.

8

�ow, my son, listen carefully and do what I tell you:

1. Gill, “Now therefore, my son, obey my voice,.... Hearken to what I am about to say, and do

according to that which I command thee, in every particular; she required of him filial obedience to all that she enjoined him; which, though not difficult to be performed, she was aware Jacob would make objections to, as he did; and therefore she is so pressing and peremptory in her injunctions, as well knowing it was respecting an affair of the greatest moment and importance.

2. SCOTT HOEZEE. “Rebekah just liked Jacob more. True, God had tipped her off with a cryptic oracle about how the older would one day serve the younger, but you don't get the sense in Genesis 27 that Rebekah is trying to fulfill some divine command. She is instead taking matters into her own hands. She doesn't pray for God's guidance, doesn't try to reason with Isaac. Instead she chooses a course of deception and she is well aware from the get-go that Jacob has the wits, the intelligence, and the native ability to be a good liar to make the thing work. And it does. Isaac is taken in by fake hair and the smell of the outdoors from Esau's clotheson Jacob's body.

3. RO� THOMAS, “It is interesting to observe that Isaac's intention to bless Esau was not something he shared with his wife, Rebekah. Why? He knew that she would have a problem with it! This is a house divided! Because Isaac favored Esau and Rebekah favored Jacob, there grew a great wall of indifference and secrecy betweenthe two. Rebekah happened to overhear the conversation between Isaac and Esau.

Children are preprogramed to divide and conquer. They know how to pit one parent against the other, so that they are home free to do as they please! They know which parent to ask certain favors when the other is not around. Fathers and mothers need to always be on the same page, talking together, praying together,

working together, for the good of the children.

Gaining this bit of information, Rebekah had some options. We always have options.

She could confront her husband Isaac about his decision to bless Esau. Even though Jacob was her favorite, she still had the weight of God's Word behind her. The Lordhad spoken and told her as well as her husband that the older would serve the younger. This was God's Word and will.

She could have entreated the Lord for wisdom and help, so to remedy the situation. As a younger woman, she sought wisdom from God in prayer and the Lord was gracious to give her insight into her situation. James 1:5 reads, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; andit shall be given him."

Truly, Rebekah could have, should have prayed and confronted her husband. She could have sought the Lord, then sought her husband, making him accountable to God. If Isaac would not listen, Rebekah could have once again taken the matter to God, asking Him to intervene. This is what Abigail did concerning her husband, andthe Lord took care of �abal! The Lord could have caused Isaac to experience a change of heart. The Lord could have moved Esau to forfeit his right to the blessing,realizing that it was not God's will. The Lord could have seen to it that Esau had a hunting accident! Is anything too hard for the Lord? Listen, God has a thousand ways to answer every prayer!

Instead, Rebekah immediately begins to plot and scheme to get her way. In doing so she misuses her parental influence and authority. In verse 8 she tells her son, "�ow therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command thee." Here Rebekah puts Jacob in a difficult situation. He is faced with obeying his mother, or obeying God; pleasing his mother or pleasing God. This is a tough place to be! Several times in this passage, Rebekah uses the word, "obey." �otice verse 13. "Andhis mother said unto him, Upon me be thy curse, my son: only obey my voice, and go fetch me them."

We must remember that it is never right to do wrong! All authority comes from God, and we are to respect and obey that authority as long as it is affirming the Word of God and the will of God.

9

Go out to the flock and bring me two choice young goats, so I can prepare some tasty food for your father, just the way he likes it.

1. JOH� TRAPP, “Ver. 9. Savoury meat for thy father, &c.] She knew his diet, and could fit his tooth. The wife is to take care to please ( µεριµνα) her husband; to use her wits, and busy her thoughts how to give him content in diet, and other things of the world, as the apostle hath it. [1 Corinthians 7:34] It was devilish policy in Agrippina, the mother of �ero - and it came home to her - to temper the poison that she gave her husband Claudius the emperor, in the meat he most delighted in, (a) and then to make a jest of it. Let us be sure to bring God such service as he loveth. He will eat, not only our "honey," but our "honeycomb"; he will drink, not only our"wine," but our "milk"; [Song of Solomon 5:1] take in good part unperfect performances, so the heart be upright. But displeasing service is a double dishonour.The fat of rams was rejected with infinite disdain, where the hands are full of blood,the heart of sin. [Isaiah 1:11; Isaiah 1:15] The philosopher (b) could complain of his countrymen, that when they went to offer sacrifice to health, they did then banquet most riotously against health.

2. Gill, “Go now to the flock,.... To the flock he had the care of, and that immediately, for the case required haste:

and fetch me from thence two good kids of the goats; two young kids that were fat, as Jonathan and Ben Melech interpret it; and, though two may seem to be too much to be dressed for Isaac only; it may be observed, that Rebekah intended only to take out some of the choicest and most tender and delicate parts of them, and which would best suit her purpose, and which she would make most like to venison; and the rest could be disposed of for the use of the family: and, if it should be questioned whether Rebekah had a right to do this without her husband's leave, the Jewish writers have an answer ready; that, in her dowry or matrimonial contract, Isaac had allowed her to take two kids of the goats every day (p):

and I will make them savoury meat for thy father, such as he loveth; such as would pass with him for venison: Jarchi says, that the taste of a kid is like the taste of a young roe or fawn; however, by seasoning, the natural taste might be altered so as not to be distinguished, as we find it was; and such as have the best skill in venison may be imposed upon and deceived by more ways than one, as well as Isaac was.

10

Then take it to your father to eat, so that he may give you his blessing before he dies."

1. Here we see the evidence of a dysfunctional marriage. Rebekah is going to go against a plan that she knows is the will of her husband. She is spying on him and using what she gains by invading his privacy to thwart his purpose. She is a disobedient wife, and on top of it she gets her son to go along with defying his father's will. �ow you have the corrupting of the family unity, and so a dysfunctional family.

1. JOH� TRAPP, “Ver. 10. And thou shalt bring it to thy father.] Though this action, in the general intendment, was good, yet the execution of it wanted not particular error. Her course had been, rather, to have reminded her husband of God’s promise to Jacob, and gently to have exhorted him to do nothing against it; and then to have entreated the Lord, to bend his mind to the obedience of his divine will, though to the crossing of his own. But the saint’s righteousness, while here, is mixed; as light and darkness, dimness at least, in a painted glass, dyed with some obscure and dim colour: it is transparent, and giveth good, but not clear and pure light.

2. Gill, “And thou shall bring it to thy father,.... For venison; and as if he was Esau that brought it:

that he may eat, and that he may bless thee before his death; to whom she knewby the divine oracle the blessing belonged, Gen_25:23, as well as by virtue of the sale of the birthright to him by his brother, Gen_25:33, and through Esau's forfeiting of it by marrying with the Canaanites, Gen_26:34; in these her sentiments she was right, but wrong in the ways and means she took to get it for him.

3. TwinsWhen you walk anywhere with two babies you are sure to get plenty of attention. It seems so romantic to have twins. But as one mother poet says, it ain’t all glamorous.

Drudgery that’s double or more.Laundering till your hands are sore;Tangle of lines with soggy things drying.Day and night chorus of yelling and crying,Endless chores and no end of expenses,Worries that drive you out of your senses.Everyone bothering you with questions,Everyone giving you crazy suggestions,If I knew whom to blame for twins, I’d sue’em

Those who want twins are welcome to ‘em.

4. Five Symptoms Here are five symptoms of a dysfunctional family:

1. Estrangement—Family members who avoid other family members.

2. Anger—It may be expressed or repressed.

3. Lack of Trust—Seen in faulty patterns of communication.

4. Deception—Inability to speak the truth to other family members.

5. Unhealthy Secrecy—Refusal to face the truth.

Note: You may find one or more of these traits in healthy families from time to time,

but dysfunctional families adopt these traits as a normal pattern of life.

It may surprise you to know that, although the word is new, the concept of a

dysfunctional family is not new at all. The idea itself goes back to the very beginning

of time. After all, the real cause of dysfunctionality is the entrance of sin into the

human race. Ever since Adam and Eve disobeyed God, every family has been

dysfunc-tional to one degree or another. As long as you have sin, even the best

relationships will be less than perfect.

5. Charles Spurgeon writes, “Do right if heaven itself should grieve. If the skies

should not be propped except by a lie, let them fall. Come what may, you never must in any degree or in any shape depart from the honest, the true, the right, the Christ-like, that which God commands, that which alone God will approve. [Spurgeon Metropolitan Tabernacle Vol. 61 p. 379]

6. BOB SANDERS The Moral of the Story6. BOB SANDERS The Moral of the Story6. BOB SANDERS The Moral of the Story6. BOB SANDERS The Moral of the Story

This is not a happy story. It ends in tragedy for everyone. Isaac has nothing left with which to bless Esau, and Esau is so bitter he plans to kill Jacob as soon as their father dies. Rebekah has to send Jacob far away to live with her relatives toavoid Esau’s rage. Jacob skulks off, a penniless and homeless refugee. He’ll begone for the next twenty years, and Rebekah will die without ever seeing her beloved child again.Perhaps you’re wondering, “What’s the moral of this story?” Good question. I’vethought of several. See if one of these fits you.One might be how God can work through even the most screwed-up and dysfunctional families to bring blessing. Maybe you think your family situation is pretty bleak, pretty hopeless. But if God can use Jacob’s family in all its weirdness, he probably can use yours as well. Another might be to think about the power of blessing in your own life. Who was it that you most wanted to receive the blessing from? Did you ever get it? What has it meant for you? Or, you might think about how you’re using the power of

blessing that you have. Have your children received your blessing? Have you told them in words how special they are, how much you love them, how much you value each one for who he / she is? Maybe your children are quite young. Maybe they’re already grown and gone. But no matter their age, they still long toreceive your blessing. You might also think about your power to bless people like your spouse or your close friends: to discern what God is doing in their lives, and to choose words that affirm and empower them to become that person. You have the power to give blessing, or to withhold it. How are you using it?And one other idea. Like Jacob, it may seem like you have to pretend to be someone you’re not in order to get the approval and the blessing of the people in your life. It happens. I know. But I want you to know this: you don’t have to pretend to get the approval and blessing of God. You just have to be yourself – even if that self seems pretty pitiful, pretty inadequate. Even if that self isn’t the one others want to see. It’s the self God sees, and loves, and cherishes. “There’s no one like you,” God wants to say. “I love you so much I sent my firstborn Son, to die for you. He dressed up like you, took on your sins and failures, so that you might become like him – my beloved child. Don’t keep tryingto fake it. Accept it: the blessing of God Almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” Amen. From a sermon preached by the Rev. Dr. Timothy J. Keller entitled “The Problem of Blessing” to Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New York, New York on Oct. 28, 2001. I’m indebted to Dr. Keller for many of the insights in this message.

7. WESLEY Rebekah is here contriving to procure the blessing for Jacob, which was designed for Esau. If the end was good, the means were bad, and no way justifiable. If it were not a wrong to Esau to deprive him of the blessing, he himself having forfeited it by selling the birth right, yet it was a wrong to Isaac, taking advantage of his infirmity, to impose upon him: it was a wrong to Jacob, whom she taught to deceive, by putting a lie in his mouth. If Rebekah, when she heard Isaac promise the blessing to Esau, had gone to him, and with humility and seriousness put him in remembrance of that which God had said concerning their sons; if she had farther shewed him how Esau had forfeited the blessing, both by selling his birth-right, and by marrying of strange wives; 'tis probable Isaac would have been prevailed with to confer the blessing upon Jacob, and needed not thus to have been

cheated into it. This had been honourable and laudable, and would have looked wellin history; but God left her to herself to take this indirect course, that he might havethe glory of bringing good out of evil.

8. THEOLOGICAL ISSUE OF GOD’S PREDETERMINED WILL AND MAN’S FREE WILL. BY an unknown author.

Can God bless through unrighteousnessCan God bless through unrighteousnessCan God bless through unrighteousnessCan God bless through unrighteousnessI have a real problem with Rebekah's and Jacob's deception. If God is a God of truth, thenthis is the opposite of truth. It is a sin. It is unrighteous. And though it is quite in keeping with Jacob's opportunistic and deceptive character so far, it is hardly worthy of approval -- except perhaps by shrewd people who value expediency over integrity.Can God -- does God -- intend sin to work out his purposes? The surprising answer of Genesis is "yes." Later in Genesis we come to the sordid tale of Joseph's brothers selling him into slavery out of jealously, and then deceiving Jacob by dipping Joseph's coat in animal blood and giving it to the grieving father. But in spite of being a slave, and an untrue charge of rape, because God's hand is on him, Joseph appears before Pharaoh, prophetically interprets Pharoah's dream, is appointed second in command in the entire kingdom, and saves an entire nation from starvation through his preparations for the famine. After Jacob finally dies, Joseph's brothers are terrified. Now that their father is dead he won't hesitate to punish them for selling him into slavery many years before. They come to him pleading their father's deathbed wishes. Listen to Joseph's answer:

"You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives" (Genesis 50:20).

While Joseph's brothers had sold him into slavery with the basest of motives, and a clear sin against him and against their father, "God intended it for good ...." Does this mean that somehow Joseph's brothers are innocent, that God made them do it and they had no choice? No. They were responsible for their sin, just as Judas was responsible for his sin, even though in his sin he was fulfilling prophecy.

"The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born." (Mark 14:21)

God's sovereignty and man's free willGod's sovereignty and man's free willGod's sovereignty and man's free willGod's sovereignty and man's free willWe see human sin and responsibility on the one side, and God working out his plan on the other. Of course, we're getting deep into things we scarcely understand. We throw around such words as predestination, foreknowledge, foreordination, and the like as if weunderstood them. They are merely theological constructs to label what we've never experienced firsthand. Whole churches have divided over views of God's sovereignty andman's will, and there's no need to re-visit these sorry controversies.But to be biblical and balanced we must affirm two seemingly contrary truths:

27. God is sovereign

28. Man has a free will

Both are somehow true. I take great comfort in Romans 8:28-29:

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who lovehim, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers."

In spite of man's evil, God will still work good and his plan out of it and in spite of it. True, man's evil causes great pain and suffering which God does not always shield us from -- nor did he shield his own Son -- but he will work out his plan.

Preferring one child over anotherPreferring one child over anotherPreferring one child over anotherPreferring one child over anotherRebekah loved Jacob which Isaac loved Esau (25:28). What trouble this caused! But Jacob himself made the same mistake by loving the sons of his beloved wife Rachel -- Joseph and Benjamin -- to the obvious pain and jealously of their brothers. Later, David makes a similar mistake to the run of his family. As parents, we need to learn from this. While we cannot love our children the same, we must love them equally if we want to produce a peaceful household and children whose lives are blessed. Of course, our children are different, and we show our love in different ways to them. One is an athlete, and we encourage him in sports. Another is an artist and we encourage her in her art, and try to find ways of furthering her talents and skills. Yes, here brother may misunderstand our attentions, but we must make him feel loved, too. Sometimes it's a difficult balancing act, but we must stay on the tightwire. If we don't, weproduce children who feel unloved by their parents, and cause both family strife and greatpersonal unhappiness. Love is the key.

Jacob have I loved ....Jacob have I loved ....Jacob have I loved ....Jacob have I loved ....We can't leave this passage without looking for a moment at God's preference of Jacob over Esau. Esau was a descendent of Abraham, but didn't have the spiritual acuity to appreciate it. While God blessed his descendents with nation-status, the country of Edom,they were subjugated again and again by the sons of Jacob (Israel). Why?Here we really get into the thick of predestination. In explaining God's sovereignty in Romans 9, Paul uses Jacob and Esau as examples and quotes Malachi 1:2-3:

"Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" the LORD says. "Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his mountains into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals."

This indicates, says the Apostle Paul, "... that God's purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls" (9:11) "It does not ... depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy" (9:16).This is a hard pill for us to swallow, that God is in ultimate control and we can't do anything about it. We don't like anyone taking away our control of our destiny, do we? Not even God.Did God really love Jacob and hate Esau? No. God loved them both, but for his plan of

redemption he preferred Jacob over Esau, and decided to bring the blessings of Abraham to the entire world through the offspring of Jacob rather than Esau. "Love" and "hate" are used hyperbolically in place of "prefer" or "show favor" in order to make a point.It's pretty obvious that neither Jacob nor Esau had a sterling character. God didn't chose Jacob over Esau because Jacob was more righteous. God had a plan in spite of Jacob's character. Oh, God works on Jacob's character and changes it, as we'll see in successive weeks, but his plan and purpose for Jacob is not dependent upon Jacob's goodness and worthiness, but on God's grace and plan.

ConclusionConclusionConclusionConclusionAnd all this time you thought the Old Testament had nothing to say! While we haven't got all our questions answered, this passage which contrasts Jacob and Esau has given us lots to think about, and good grist for character insight and personal growth for us. We've seen that there's hope for people as flawed as we are. We've seen that God's choice to bless us is based on His own purposes, not us. And that should give us hope. For surely, God has made clear in the New Testament that he intends to bless us in spite of ourselves, in spite of our flawed character. He is faithful to us, not for our sakes alone, but for the sake of Jesus who died for us to redeem us. In the next lessons, we find, however, that God isn't passing over our character, but has very definite plans to help us clean up our act. Someone once said, "God catches his fish before he cleans them." Certainly, God has "caught" Jacob. Now let's see what he will do with him.

9. EBC, “JACOB’S FRAUD"The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever."- Psa_33:11

THERE are some families whose miserable existence is almost entirely made up of malicious plottings and counter-plottings, little mischievous designs, and spiteful triumphs of one member or party in the family over the other. It is not pleasant to have the veil withdrawn, and to see that where love and eager self-sacrifice might be expected their places are occupied by an eager assertion of rights, and a cold, proud, and always petty and stupid, nursing of some supposed injury. In the story told us so graphically in this page, we see the family whom God has blessed sunk to this low level, and betrayed by family jealousies into unseemly strife on the most sacred ground. Each member of thefamily plans his own wicked device, and God by the evil of one defeats the evil of another, and saves His own purpose to bless the race from being frittered away and lost. And it is told us in order that, amidst all this mess of human craft and selfishness, the righteousness and stability of God’s word of promise may be more vividly seen. Let us look at the sin of each of the parties in order, and the punishment of each.

In the Epistle to the Hebrews Isaac is commended for his faith in blessing his sons. It was commendable in him that, in great bodily weakness, he still believed himself to be the guardian of God’s blessing, and recognised that he had a great inheritance to bequeath to his sons. But, in unaccountable and inconsistent contempt of God’s expressed purpose, he proposes to hand over this blessing to Esau. Many things had occurred to fix his attention upon the fact that Esau was not to be his heir. Esau had sold his birthright, and had married Hittite women, and his whole conduct was, no doubt, of apiece with this, and showed that, in his hands, any spiritual inheritance would be both unsafe and unappreciated. That Isaac had some notion he was doing wrong in giving to

Esau what belonged to God, and what God meant to give to Jacob, is shown from his precipitation in bestowing the blessing. He has no feeling that he is authorized by God, and therefore he cannot wait calmly till God should intimate, by unmistakable signs, thathe is near his end; but, seized with a panic test his favourite should somehow be left unblessed, he feels, in his nervous alarm, as if he were at the point of death, and, though destined to live for forty-three years longer, he calls Esau that he may hand over to him his dying testament. How different is the nerve of a man when he knows he is doing God’s will, and when he is but fulfilling his own device. For the same reason, he has to stimulate his spirit by artificial means. The prophetic ecstasy is not felt by him; he must be exhilarated by venison and wine, that, strengthened and revived in body, and having his gratitude aroused afresh towards Esau, he may bless him with all the greater vigour. The final stimulus is given when he smells the garments of Esau on Jacob, and when thatfresh earthy smell which so revives us in spring, as if our life were renewed with the year,and which hangs about one who has been in the open air, entered into Isaac’s blood, and lent him fresh vigour.

It is a strange and, in some respects, perplexing spectacle that is here presented to us-theorgan of the Divine blessing represented by a blind old man, laid on a "couch of skins," stimulated by meat and wine, and trying to cheat God by bestowing the family blessing on the son of his own choice to the exclusion of the divinely-appointed heir. Out of such beginnings had God to educate a people worthy of Himself, and through such hazards had He to guide the spiritual blessing He designed to convey to us all.

Isaac laid a net for his own feet. By his unrighteous and timorous haste he secured the defeat of his own long-cherished scheme. It was his hasting to bless Esau which drove Rebekah to checkmate him by winning the blessing for her favourite. The shock which Isaac felt when Esau came in and the fraud was discovered is easily understood. The mortification of the old man must have been extreme when he found that he had so completely taken himself in. He was reclining in the satisfied reflection that for once he had overreached his astute Rebekah and her astute son, and in the comfortable feeling that, at last, he had accomplished his one remaining desire, when he learns from the exceeding bitter cry of Esau that he has himself been duped. It was enough to rouse the anger of the mildest and godliest of men, but Isaac does not storm and protest-"he trembles exceedingly." He recognises, by a spiritual insight quite unknown to Esau, that this is God’s hand, and deliberately confirms, with his eyes open, what he had done in blindness: "I have blessed him: Yea, and he shall be blessed." Had he wished to deny the validity of the blessing, he had ground enough for doing so. He had not really given it: it had been stolen from him. An act must be judged by its intention, and he had been far from intending to bless Jacob. Was he to consider himself bound by what he had done under a misapprehension? He had given a blessing to one person under the impression that he was a different person; must not the blessing go to him for whom it was designed? But Isaac unhesitatingly yielded.

This clear recognition of God’s hand in the matter, and quick submission to Him, reveals a habit of reflection, and a spiritual thoughtfulness, which are the good qualities in Isaac’s otherwise unsatisfactory character. Before he finished his answer to Esau, he felt he was a poor feeble creature in the hand of a true and just God, who had used even his infirmity and sin to forward righteous and gracious ends. It was his sudden recognition of the frightful way in which he had been tampering with God’s will, and of the grace with which God had prevented him from accomplishing a wrong destination of the inheritance, that made Isaac tremble very exceedingly.

In this humble acceptance of the disappointment of his life’s love and hope, Isaac shows

us the manner in which we ought to bear the consequences of our wrong-doing. The punishment of our sin often comes through the persons with whom we have to do, unintentionally on their part, and yet we are tempted to hate them because they pain andpunish us, father, mother, wife, child, or whoever else. Isaac and Esau were alike disappointed. Esau only saw the supplanter, and vowed to be revenged. Isaac saw God in the matter, and trembled. So when Shimei cursed David, and his loyal retainers would have cut off his head for so doing, David said, "Let him alone, and let him curse: it may be that the Lord hath bidden him." We can bear the pain inflicted on us by men when we see that they are merely the instruments of a divine chastisement. The persons who thwart us and make our life bitter, the persons who stand between us and our dearest hopes, the persons whom we are most disposed to speak angrily and bitterly to, are often thorns planted in our path by God to keep us on the right way.

Isaac’s sin propagated itself with the rapid multiplication of all sin. Rebekah overheard what passed between Isaac and Esau, and although she might have been able to wait until by fair means Jacob received the blessing, yet when she sees Isaac actually preparing to pass Jacob by and bless Esau, her fears are so excited that she cannot any longer quietly leave the matter in God’s hand, but must lend her own more skilful management. It may have crossed her mind that she was justified in forwarding what sheknew to be God’s purpose. She saw no other way of saving God’s purpose and Jacob’s rights than by her interference. The emergency might have unnerved many a woman, butRebekah is equal to the occasion. She makes the threatened exclusion of Jacob the very means for at last finally settling the inheritance upon him. She braves the indignation of Isaac and the rage of Esau, and fearless herself, and confident of success, she soon quiets the timorous and cautious objections of Jacob. She knows that for straightforward lying and acting a part she was sure of good support in Jacob. Luther says, "Had it been me, I’d have dropped the dish." But Jacob had no such tremors-could submit his hands and face to the touch of Isaac, and repeat his lie as often as needful.

An old man bedridden like Isaac becomes the subject of a number of little deceptions which may seem, and which may be, very unimportant in themselves, but which are seento wear down the reverence due to the father of a family, and which imperceptibly sap the guileless sincerity and truthfulness of those who practise them. This overreaching of Isaac by dressing Jacob in Esau’s clothes, might come in naturally as one of those daily deceptions which Rebekah was accustomed to practise on the old man whom she kept quite in her own hand, giving him as much or as little insight into the doings of the family as seemed advisable to her. It would never occur to her that she was taking God inhand; it would seem only as if she were making such use of Isaac’s infirmity as she was inthe daily practice of doing.

But to account for an act is not to excuse it. Underlying the conduct of Rebekah and Jacob was the conviction that they would come better speed by a little deceit of their ownthan by suffering God to further them in His own way-that though God would certainly not practise deception Himself, He might not object to others doing so that in this emergency holiness was a hampering thing which might just for a little be laid aside that they might be more holy afterwards-that though no doubt in ordinary circumstances, and as a normal habit, deceit is not to be commended, yet in cases of difficulty, which callfor ready wit, a prompt seizure, and delicate handling, men must be allowed to secure their ends in their own way. Their unbelief thus directly produced immorality-immorality of a very revolting kind, the defrauding of their relatives, and repulsive also because practised as if on God’s side, or, as we should now say, "in the interests of religion."

To this day the method of Rebekah and Jacob is largely adopted by religious persons. It is notorious that persons whose ends are good frequently become thoroughly unscrupulous about the means they use to accomplish them. They dare not say in so many words that they may do evil that good may come, nor do they think it a tenable position in morals that the end sanctifies the means; and yet their consciousness of a justifiable and desirable end undoubtedly does blunt their sensitiveness regarding the legitimacy of the means they employ. For example, Protestant controversialists, persuaded that vehement opposition to. Popery is good, and filled with the idea of accomplishing its downfall, are often guilty of gross misrepresentation, because they do not sufficiently inform themselves of the actual tenets and practices of the Church of Rome. In all controversy, religious and political, it is the same. It is always dishonest to circulate reports that you have no means of authenticating: yet how freely are such reports circulated to blacken the character of an opponent, and to prove his opinions to be dangerous. It is always dishonest to condemn opinions we have not inquired into, merely because of some fancied consequence which these opinions carry in them: yet how freely are opinions condemned by men who have never been at the trouble carefully to inquire into their truth. They do not feel the dishonesty of their position, because they have a general consciousness that they are on the side of religion, and of what has generally passed for truth. All keeping back of facts which are supposed to have an unsettling effect is but a repetition of this sin. There is no sin more hateful. Under the appearance of serving God, and maintaining His cause in the world, it insults Him by assuming that if the whole bare, undisguised truth were spoken, His cause would suffer.

The fate of all such attempts to manage God’s matters by keeping things dark, and misrepresenting fact, is written for all who care to understand in the results of this scheme of Rebekah’s and Jacob’s. They gained nothing, and they lost a great deal, by their wicked interference. They gained nothing; for God had promised that the birthrightwould be Jacob’s, and would have given it him in some way redounding to his credit and not to his shame. And they lost a great deal. The mother lost her son; Jacob had to flee for his life, and, for all we know, Rebekah never saw him more. And Jacob lost all the comforts of home, and all those possessions his father had accumulated. He had to flee with nothing but his staff, an outcast to begin the world for himself. From this first false step onwards to his death, he was pursued by misfortune, until his own verdict on his lifewas, "Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life."

Thus severely was, the sin of Rebekah and Jacob punished. It coloured their whole afterlife with a deep sombre hue. It was marked thus, because it was a sin by all means tobe avoided. It was virtually the sin of blaming God for forgetting His promise, or of accusing Him of being unable to perform it: so that they, Rebekah and Jacob, had, forsooth, to take God’s work out of His hands, and show Him how it ought to be done. The announcement of God’s purpose, instead of enabling them quietly to wait for a blessing they knew to be certain, became in their unrighteous and impatient hearts actually an inducement to sin. Abraham was so bold and confident in his faith, at least latterly, that again and again he refused to take as a gift from men, and on the most honourable terms, what God had promised to give him: his grandson is so little sure of God’s truth, that he will rather trust his own falsehood; and what he thinks God may forget to give him, he will steal from his own father. Some persons have especial need to consider this sin-they are tempted to play the part of Providence, to intermeddle where they ought to refrain. Sometimes just a little thing is needed to make everything go to ourliking-the keeping back of one small fact, a slight variation in the way of stating the matter, is enough-thine’s want just a little push in the right direction: it is wrong, but very slightly so. And so they are encouraged to close for a moment their eyes and put to

their hand.

Of all the parties in this transaction none is more to blame than Esau. He shows now how selfish and untruthful the sensual man really is, and how worthless is the generosity which is merely of impulse and not bottomed on principle. While he so furiously and bitterly blamed Jacob for supplanting him, it might surely have occurred to him that it was really he who was supplanting Jacob. He had no right, divine or human, to the inheritance. God had never said that His possession should go to the oldest, and had in this case said the express opposite. Besides, inconstant as Esau was, he could scarcely have forgotten the bargain that so pleased him at the time, and by which he had sold to his younger brother all title to his father’s blessings.

Jacob was to blame for seeking to win his own by craft, but Esau was more to blame for endeavouring furtively to recover what he knew to be no longer his. His bitter cry was thecry of a disappointed and enraged child, what Hosea calls the "howl" of those who seem to seek the Lord, but are really merely crying out, like animals, for corn and wine. Many that care very little for God’s love will seek His favours; and every wicked wretch who hasin his prosperity spurned God’s offers will, when he sees how he has cheated himself, turn to God’s gifts, though not to God, with a cry. Esau would now very gladly have given a mess of pottage for the blessing that secured to its receiver "the dew of heaven, the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine." Like many another sinner, he wanted both to eat his cake and have it. He wanted to spend his youth sowing to the flesh, and have the harvest which those only can have who have sown to the spirit. He wished both of two irreconcilable things-both the red pottage and the birthright. He is a type of those who think very lightly of spiritual blessings. while their appetites are strong, but afterwards bitterly complain that their whole life is filled with the results of sowing to theflesh and not to the spirit.

"We barter life for pottage; sell true bliss

For wealth or power, for pleasure or renown;

Thus Esau-like, our Father’s blessing miss,

Then wash with fruitless tears our laded crown."

The words of the New Testament, in which it is said that Esau "found no place for repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears," are sometimes misunderstood. They do not mean that he sought what we ordinarily call repentance, a change of mind about the value of the birthright. He had that; it was this that made him weep. What he sought now was some means of undoing what he had done, of cancelling the deed of which he repented. His experience does not tell us that a man once sinning as Esau sinned becomes a hardened reprobate whom no good influence can impress or bring to repentance, but it says that the sin so committed leaves irreparable consequences-that no man can live a youth of folly and yet find as much in manhood and maturer years as ifhe had lived a careful and God-fearing youth. Esau had irrecoverably lost that which he would now have given all he had to possess; and in this, I suppose, he represents half the men who pass through this world. He warns us that it is very possible, by careless yielding to appetite and passing whim, to entangle ourselves irrecoverably for this life, if not to weaken and maim ourselves for eternity. At the time, your act may seem a very small and secular one, a mere bargain in the ordinary course, a little transaction such as one would enter into carelessly after the day’s work is over, in the quiet of a summer evening or in the midst of the family circle: or it may seem so necessary that you never think of its moral qualities, as little as you question whether you are justified in breathing; but you are warned that if there be in that act a crushing out of spiritual hopes

to make way for the free enjoyment of the pleasures of sense-if there be a deliberate preference of the good things of this life to the love of God-if, knowingly, you make light of spiritual blessings, and count them unreal when weighed against obvious worldly advantages-then the consequences of that act will in this life bring to you great discomfort and uneasiness, great loss and vexation, an agony of remorse, and a life-long repentance. You are warned of this, and most touchingly, by the moving entreaties, the bitter cries and tears of Esau.

But even when our life is spoiled irreparably, a hope remains for our character and ourselves-not certainly if our misfortunes embitter us, not if resentment is the chief result of our suffering; but if, subduing resentment, and taking blame to ourselves instead of trying to fix it on others, we take revenge upon the real source of our undoing, and extirpate from our own character the root of bitterness. Painful and difficult is such schooling. It calls for simplicity, and humility, and truthfulness-qualities not of frequent occurrence. It calls for abiding patience; for he who begins thus to sow to the spirit late in life must be content with inward fruits, with peace of conscience, increase of righteousness and humility, and must learn to live without much of what all men naturally desire.

While each member of Isaac’s family has thus his own plan, and is striving to fulfil his private intention, the result is, that God’s purpose is fulfilled. In the human agency, such faith in God as existed was overlaid with misunderstanding and distrust of God. But notwithstanding the petty and mean devices, the short-sighted slyness, the blundering unbelief, the profane worldliness of the human parties in the transaction, the truth and mercy of God still find a way for themselves. Were matters left in our hands, we should make shipwreck even of the salvation with which we are provided. We carry into our dealings with it the same selfishness, and inconstancy, and worldliness which made it necessary: and had not God patience to bear with, as well as mercy to invite us; had He not wisdom to govern us in the use of His grace, as well as wisdom to contrive its first bestowal, we should perish with the water of life at our lips.

11

Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, "But my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I'm a man with smooth skin.

1. JOH� TRAPP, “Ver. 11. Esau my brother is a hairy man.] This Rebekah thoughtnot of. Plus vident oculi, quam oculus. Two is better than one; but woe be to him that is alone. We want much of our strength, in the want of a faithful friend, who might be our monitor. Whence David so bemoans the loss of his Jonathan; and St

Paul counted it a special mercy to him, that Epaphroditus recovered. [Philippians 2:25-27] This the heathen persecutors knew, and therefore banished the Christians, and confined them to isles and mines, where they could not have access one to another. (a) Dr Taylor rejoiced that ever he came into prison, there to be acquaintedwith that angel of God - so he calls him - John Bradford. While Ridley and Latimer lived, they kept up Cranmer from entertaining counsels of revolt. It was not for nothing, surely, that our Saviour sent forth his disciples by two and two. He knew, by experience, that Satan is readiest to assault when none is by to assist. Aaron may be for a mouth to Moses, Moses for a God to Aaron. [Exodus 4:16]

2. HAWKER, “Is not this a very apt similitude of Him, who assumed our likeness, the likeness, as the apostle terms it, of sinful flesh; and was made sin for us, though he knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him? Rom_8:3-4; 2Co_5:21. Reader! if you seek a blessing from God your Father, so must you be clothed, in the garment of Jesus, who is indeed our elder brother, and the first born among many brethren.

3. Gill, “And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother,.... Being timorous lest he should do an ill thing, and be accounted a deceiver, and bring a curse upon himself:

behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man; covered all over with hair; as with a hairy garment; so he was born, and so he continued, and no doubt his hair increased, Gen_25:25,

and I am a smooth man: without hair, excepting in those parts where it is common for all men to have it.

4. Henry, “

5. Jamison, “Jacob said, Esau my brother is a hairy man — It is remarkable that his scruples were founded, not on the evil of the act, but on the risk and consequences of deception.

6. Calvin, “And Jacob said to Rebekah. That Jacob does not voluntarily present himself to his father, but rather fears lest, his imposture being detected, he should bring a curse upon himself, is very contrary to faith. (43) For when the Apostle teaches, that “whatsoever is not of faith is sin,” (Romans 14:23,) he trains the sons ofGod to this sobriety, that they may not permit themselves to undertake anything with a doubtful and perplexed conscience. This firm persuasion is the only rule of right conduct, when we, relying on the command of God, go intrepidly wheresoever he calls us. Jacob, therefore, by debating with himself, shows that he was deficient infaith; and certainly, although he was not entirely without it, yet, in this point, he is convicted of failure. But by this example we are again taught, that faith is not always extinguished by a given fault; yet, if God sometimes bears with his servants thus far, that he turns, what they have done perversely, to their salvation, we must not hence take a license to sin. It happened by the wonderful mercy of God, that

Jacob was not cut off from the grace of adoption. Who would not rather fear than become presumptuous? And whereas we see that his faith was obscured by doubting, let us learn to ask of the Lord the spirit of prudence to govern all our steps. There was added another error of no light kind: for why does he not rather reverence God than dread his father’s anger? Why does it not rather occur to his mind, that a foul blot would stain the hallowed adoption of God, when it seemed to owe its accomplishment to a lie? For although it tended to a right end, it was not lawful to attain that end, through this oblique course. Meanwhile, there is no doubt that faith prevailed over these impediments. For what was the cause why he preferred the bare and apparently empty benediction of his father, (44) to the quiet which he then enjoyed, to the conveniences of home, and finally to life itself? According to the flesh, the father’s benediction, of which he was so desirous, that he knowingly and willingly plunged himself into great difficulties, was but an imaginary thing. Why did he act thus, but because in the exercise of simple faith in the word of God, he more highly valued the hope which was hidden from him, shall the desirable condition which he actually enjoyed? Besides, his fear of his father’s anger had its origin in the true fear of God. He says that he feared lest he should bring upon himself a curse. But he would not so greatly have dreaded a verbal censure, if he had not deemed the grace deposited in the hands of his father worth more than a thousand lives. It was therefore under an impulse of God that he fearedhis father, who was really God’s minister. For when the Lord sees us creeping on the earth, he draws us to himself by the hand of man.

12

What if my father touches me? I would appear to be tricking him and would bring down a curse on myselfrather than a blessing."

Jacob knew he was tricking his father and that there was risk involved. It was not an innocent plan, but a plot to deliberately deceive dad.

While Isaac was trying to thwart God's plan, Rebekah was trying to help accomplish God's plan. Unfortunately, even with opposite motivations, they both committed the same sin.

Rebekah knew what God had told her, but now she's seeing that God is about to be "tricked" - that His will and His intention won't happen. "I'd better help God out", she thinks. So she tried to get God's work done in the flesh.

This is very much like the sin of Abraham, when he tried to accomplish God's promise in the flesh. God had promised descendants to Abraham, but since Sarah seemed too old, he listened to his wife and took Hagar as a surrogate mother. God had also promised the birthright and the blessing to Jacob (Gen 25:23), but since it looked like Esau was going to get it, he listened to his mother and dressed up like Esau.

This is the kind of nonsense and incompetence that results when we stop relying on Providence. When we walk by sight, and not by faith, we always take a wrong turn.I see a real immaturity in Jacob at this point as well. He's 40 years old, but like a child, his only concern is not whether it's the right thing to do, but whether or not he'll get caught.

1. JOH� TRAPP, “Ver. 12. My father peradventure will feel me.] Our heavenly Father will certainly feel us, and better feel us; and we shall feel him too, in his fatherly corrections, before he bless us. Suffer we must, or ere we reign: no coming to the crown, but by the cross. Christ himself was "perfected by sufferings"; [Hebrews 2:10; Hebrews 5:9] and we must be "conformed to his image". [Romans 8:29] When Ignatius came to the wild beasts, �ow, saith he, I begin to be a Christian. Qui non eat Crucianus, non est Christianus, saith Luther, on the 29th of Genesis: and in another place, I have no stronger argument, saith he, against the Pope’s kingdom, than this, that he reigneth without the cross.

And I shall seem to him as a deceiver.] So shall all complimenting hypocrites to God,that pretend his service to their wicked or worldly ends and aims. They think, belike, to deceive him; (a) but therein they are fairly deceived, for he searcheth the hearts; and bring a curse, instead of a blessing, upon themselves and their posterity. "The hypocrite in heart heaps up wrath". [Job 36:13] �emo enim magis; ram meretur, saith a father, {b} quam amicum simulans inimicus . Where shall we read of a hypocrite received to mercy?

2. Clarke, “I shall bring a curse upon me - For even in those early times the spirit ofthat law was understood, Deu_27:18 : Cursed is he that maketh the blind to wander out of the way; and Jacob seems to have possessed at this time a more tender conscience than his mother.

3. Gill, “My father peradventure will feel me,.... For, though he could not see him, and so discern whether he had any hair or no on him, yet, suspecting him by his voice, hemight call him to him to feel him, as he did; for Jacob understood his mother right, that he was to represent his brother Esau in the transaction of this affair:

and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; one that imposes upon another and causes him to err, leads him to say or do wrong things: and not only appear as one, but be really one, and even a very great one, as the doubling of the radical letters in the word shows; yea, the worst of deceivers, a deceiver of a parent, of one that was both aged and blind:

and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing; and he might justly fear,

that should he be found out, it would so provoke his father, that instead of blessing him, he would curse him, see Deu_27:18.

4. God has to work through poor tools and use evil to achieve his purpose because that is all there is to work with. These are the best, and so the rest are even more eviland foolish. God has no choice but to bring good out of evil because there is not enough good to start with, and so he needs to use evil to bring forth good. All of the people God used to develop his people as the 12 tribes of Israel were full of flaws.

5. STEVE� COLEFrank Sinatra’s well-known song, “I Did It My Way,” wasshocking for its blatant ungodliness. Of course what Sinatra statedplainly in that song, “I did it my way,” is true of every person whodoes not submit his life to Jesus Christ. Most people just aren’t asopen as Sinatra in stating the controlling force of their lives.In Genesis 27, four people sing Sinatra’s song. Isaac doesthings his way by trying to bestow the family blessing on Esau, inopposition to God’s revealed will. Esau tries to take back what hehad already sold to his brother Jacob. When he is foiled, he plansto kill his brother. Rebekah deceives her aging husband into givingthe blessing to her favorite son, Jacob. And Jacob lies to his fatherand outsmarts his brother. Rebekah and Jacob could argue thatthey were only trying to bring about the will of God, since Godhad told Rebekah that her older son would serve the younger. ButI’m not persuaded by those who attribute high motives to Rebekahand Jacob. I think that what you have here are four self-centeredpeople seeking their own advantage. They all did it their way, notGod’s way. In the end they all came up empty and paid a high price

for their selfishness.

6. PI�K How the character of Jacob comes out here! He reveals his native shrewdness and foresight, but instead of shrinking back in horror from the sin, he appears to have been occupied only with what might prove its unpleasant consequences. "And his mother said unto him, Upon me be thy curse, my son: only obey my voice, and go fetch me them.And he went and fetched, and brought them to his mother: and his mother made savory meat, such as his father loved. And Rebekah took goodly raiment of her eldest son, Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them upon Jacob her younger son: And she putthe skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck: And she gave the savory meat and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob" (vv. 13-17). It is difficult to say who was most to blame, Jacob or his mother. Rebekah was the one to whom God had directly made known His purpose respecting her two sons, and, be it noted, the wife of Isaac was no heathen but, instead, one who knew the Lord—cf. "She went to inquire of the Lord" (Gen. 25:22). Her course was plain: she should have trusted the Lord to bring to nought the carnal design of Isaac, but she took the way of the flesh, plotted against her husband, and taught her son to deceive his father.Yet in condemning Rebekah we are reminded of Romans 2:1, "Therefore thou are inexcusable O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another,

thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things."

7. PINK, “How the character of Jacob comes out here! He reveals his native shrewdness and foresight, but instead of shrinking back in horror from the sin, he appears to have been occupied only with what might prove its unpleasant consequences. "And his mother said unto him, Upon me be thy curse, my son: only obey my voice, and go fetch me them.And he went and fetched, and brought them to his mother: and his mother made savory meat, such as his father loved. And Rebekah took goodly raiment of her eldest son, Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them upon Jacob her younger son: And she putthe skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck: And she gave the savory meat and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob" (vv. 13-17). It is difficult to say who was most to blame, Jacob or his mother. Rebekah was the one to whom God had directly made known His purpose respecting her two sons, and, be it noted, the wife of Isaac was no heathen but, instead, one who knew the Lord—cf. "She went to inquire of the Lord" (Gen. 25:22). Her course was plain: she should have trusted the Lord to bring to nought the carnal design of Isaac, but she took the way of the flesh, plotted against her husband, and taught her son to deceive his father.Yet in condemning Rebekah we are reminded of Romans 2:1, "Therefore thou are inexcusable O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things."

We refrain from quoting at length the verses that follow. Jacob complies with his mother’s suggestion, and adds sin to sin. First he impersonates his brother, tells lies to hisfather, and ends by going the awful length of bringing in the name of the Lord God (v. 20). To what fearful lengths will sin quickly lead us once we take the first wrong step! A similar progression in evil is seen (by way of implication) in Psalm 1:1: the one who "walks" in the consul of the ungodly will soon be found "standing" in the way of sinners, and then it will not be long ere he is discovered "sitting" in the seat of the scornful.

At first suspicious, Isaac’s fears were allayed by his son’s duplicity, and the blessing was given, "and he came near and kissed him: 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: Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine: Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother’s sons bow down to thee: cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee" (vv. 27-29). It is to be noted that the "blessing" which Jacob here receives from the lips of his father was far below the blessed string of promises which he received directly from God when wholly cast upon His grace (see Genesis 28:13-15).

8. RON THOMASWe can see here that Jacob is not operating on principle. No where does he say, "This is not right. This is deceit. We are not to bear a false witness. I would have to lie to my father. Have you sought the Lord about this action?" Willingly, Jacob becomes part of a conspiracy and lies to his father more than once.

We are never to operate by expediency, what the situation seems to demand; we are neverto be driven by urgency, acting solely on the basis of time, the pressure of some deadline;we are never to decide upon what others in authority expect of us; but by principle, what is right according to the Word of God. It doesn't matter what everyone else is doing. The criteria for our decisions and conduct is what is right in God's eyes. We are to be a peopleof principal. It is never right to do wrong.

Jacob attempts to back up and brace up his unprincipled behavior by including God. Notice verses 19-20. "And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau thy firstborn; I have doneaccording as thou badest me: arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me. 20 And Isaac said unto his son, How is it that thou hast found it so quickly,my son? And he said, Because the LORD thy God brought it to me." It is so easy to call our will, God's will. We push others away by including the name of God to cover our actions!

13

His mother said to him, "My son, let the curse fall on me. Just do what I say; go and get them for me."

Rebekah did not take the curse seriously, either because she did not believe in curses, or because she was really willing to be cursed for the sake of her boy getting the blessing.

This is not a pretty picture. We have a very dysfunctional family here, and one full of jealousy and deceit. When a son is actually encouraged to lie and deceive his father by his mother, you have a civil war going on. Obedience to parents is commanded by God, but this is not to be so when the parent asks you to do what is wrong and contrary to the will of God.

1. JOH� TRAPP, “Ver. 13. Upon me be thy curse, my son.] A bold speech: but she respected the promise by faith; she relied on that oracle, [Genesis 25:23] which Isaac might misinterpret, understanding it not of the persons of his sons, but of their posterity. Bernardus non vidit omnia. Isaac was not more blind in his eyes than in his affection to his firstborn; and that might mislead him. But Rebekah saw further than he, and therefore made this bold adventure, not without some mixture of infirmity, to procure Jacob the blessing, against her husband’s will and intention. A wife is not to perform such blind obedience to her husband as Plutarch (a) prescribeth, when he layeth it as a law of wedlock on the wife to acknowledge and worship the same gods, and none else, but those whom her husband honours and reputes for gods. Be men pleased or displeased, God must not be displeased.

2. Clarke, “Upon me be thy curse, my son - Onkelos gives this a curious turn: It hasbeen revealed to me by prophecy that the curses will not come upon thee, my son. What a dreadful responsibility did this woman take upon her at this time! The sacred writer states the facts as they were, and we may depend on the truth of the statement; but he nowhere says that God would have any man to copy this conduct. He often relates facts and sayings which he never recommends.

3. Gill, “And his mother said unto him, upon me be thy curse, my son,.... That is, if thy father should curse thee, which I am well assured he will not, let the curse, be what it will, fall upon me, and not on thee; I shall bear the blame and the punishment: this she said in the strong faith of the divine oracle, being fully persuaded her scheme would succeed, and that Jacob would have the blessing, and therefore she feared no curse falling upon her or her son; and this she said to encourage him: the Targum of Onkelos is,"to me it has been said in prophecy, that the curses shall not come upon thee, my son:"

only obey my voice, and go fetch me them; the two fat kids of the goats from the flock.

4. Jamison, “and his mother said unto him, Upon me be thy curse — His conscience being soothed by his mother, preparations were hastily made for carrying out the device; consisting, first, of a kid’s flesh, which, made into a ragout, spiced with salt, onions, garlic, and lemon juice, might easily be passed off on a blind old man, with blunted senses, as game; second, of pieces of goat’s skin bound on his hands and neck, itssoft silken hair resembling that on the cheek of a young man; third, of the long white robe - the vestment of the first-born, which, transmitted from father to son and kept in a chest among fragrant herbs and perfumed flowers used much in the East to keep away moths - his mother provided for him.

5. Calvin, “Upon me be thy curse, my son. Here Rebekah sins again, because she burns with such hasty zeal that she does not consider how highly God disapproves ofher evil course. She presumptuously subjects herself to the curse. But whence this unheeding confidence? Being unfurnished with any divine command, she took her own counsel. Yet no one will deny that this zeal, although preposterous, proceeds from special reverence for the word of God. For since she was informed by the oracle of God, that Jacob was preferred in the sight of God, she disregarded whatever was visible in the world, and whatever the sense of nature dictated, in comparison with God’s secret election. Therefore we are taught by this example, that every one shouldwalk modestly and cautiously according to the rule of his vocation; and should not dare to proceed beyond what the Lord allows in his word.

6. BI, "Upon me be thy curse, my son

Rebekah’s imposition on Isaac considered

This language plainly shows that she thought her conduct justifiable, and thus we have a melancholy instance of the way in which good people sometimes deceive themselves, andsuffer their judgments to be misled by carnal reasonings, and the counsels of the natural heart.

I. The OBJECT which she had in view. She wished the blessing to go, not to Esau the first-born, but to Jacob, her younger son. And what, may we ask, was the reason of this preference? Did she love Jacob best? It is probable that she did. But Rebekah might haveanother motive for wishing that the blessing should be given to Jacob. She knew that he was fittest for receiving it. She knew that he highly valued it, not merely for the sake of any worldly benefit annexed to it, but on account of the spiritual promises contained in it. Esau, on the contrary, had repeatedly shown the greatest contempt for the blessing and its promises. But even this reason, however sufficient it might have been, was not, we may conjecture, the chief motive by which Rebekah’s mind was influenced. She had a still stronger reason for wishing to defeat her husband’s purpose. She felt assured that in this design he was opposing the will and purpose of the Almighty. Her desire, then, was good, and her attempt praiseworthy. The end which she proposed to herself was to prevent her husband from acting contrary to the divine will, and to assist in turning the blessing where God intended it should go. So far, then, as the object which she had in view was concerned, far from finding any thing to blame, we see much to commend. It sprang from her faith and piety, and showed her zeal for the glory of God. Let us consider.

II. The MEANS which she used for attaining this object. Here we are forced to withhold our commendation; nay, we must go farther, we must positively condemn her conduct, and declare it to have been utterly without excuse. We say nothing of the probability which there was of a discovery, and of the dangerous consequences which might have followed. Admitting that a discovery was very unlikely to take place; admitting that her plan was most wisely laid, with every prospect of success; yet of what kind was her wisdom? Was it that wisdom “ which is from above, and which is first pure, and then peaceable, full of good fruits, and without hypocrisy”? Or rather, was it not that wisdom” which descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish”? (Jas_3:15; Jas_3:17.) Was it that wisdom whichour Lord prescribes when he says, “Be ye wise as serpents, and harmless as doves”? Or rather, was it not the crooked policy of the old Serpent, who is a liar and the father of lies? Rebekah, indeed, could not but know that to impose on her husband by means of his infirmity, and to tempt her son to the commission of falsehood and deception, were acts which in themselves were highly sinful. What may we suppose, then, were the arguments by which she would probably defend and even justify her conduct? She would say to herself, “I am placed in very extraordinary circumstances. Here is Isaac about to act in direct opposition to the DivineWill. Here is the blessing, which God has designed for Jacob, on the point of being given to Esau. Is it not my duty to prevent the purposes of the Almighty from being defeated? Though the means to which I may have recourse are such as on a common occasion might not be lawfully used, yet does not the necessity of the present case allow and even require me to use them?” But how vain and false would such reasoning be! What permission had Rebekah received “to do evil, that good might come”? Her duty was to belearned, not from the purposes, but from the precepts of the Almighty. Did she suppose that God could not complete His designs without her committing sin in order to fulfil them? Or, did she think that sin would not be sin, because she dressed it in this specious

covering? In all cases the Law of God is to be our rule. In no case can we claim the privilege of setting it aside. Rebekah’s sin, however she might excuse it to herself, was sufficient to have ruined her soul; and unquestionably, unless through God’s grace she had afterwards repented and obtained forgiveness, it would have ruined her soul. Such isthe case with every sin. Whatever good may come of the evil which we do, that good will not excuse the evil, nor make it less. But it may be further said, “Rebekah’s plan succeeded. Jacob, by his deception, obtained the blessing; and thus God, by making the means successful, showed that He approved them.” It is true that God permitted Rebekah’s plan to be successful; but it does not therefore follow that He approved it. Indeed, it is utterly impossible that He could approve falsehood in any shape or in any case. He permitted it to be practised, and He overruled it for the fulfilling of His own purposes; but this is a very different thing from approving it. Nay, if we attentively examine the whole matter, in all its effects and consequences, we shall discover clear marks of God’s displeasure against both her and Jacob for their parts in this transaction. Sin ever brings along with it shame and sorrow, and those who permit themselves to do evil that good may come will surely in the end deplore their worldly wisdom and presumptuous conduct. It may yet, however, be further asked, “What ought Rebekah to have done? Was she, knowingly, to have let her husband act contrary to the Divine intentions, without endeavouring to prevent him? Was she to have taken no steps in order to have procured the blessing for Jacob? “I answer, there were means which she might lawfully have used for the attainment of her end; and to these she ought to have confined herself. She should have reasoned the mutter with Isaac. She should meekly have pointed out to him the mistake which he was on the point of committing. She should have reminded him of the revelation which God had given of His will in this affair; and thus, by persuasion and argument, she should have endeavoured to turn him from his purpose. There is reason to think that such a conduct would probably have succeeded. Isaac, when he afterwards discovered what had been done, appears to have suddenly recollected himself; and, shuddering at the danger from which he had escaped, in a very striking manner, confirmed the blessing to Jacob: “Yea and he shall be blessed.”It is, therefore, likely that he would before have yielded to a mild remonstrance, affectionately urged. At any rate, Rebekah should have added also to it strong faith and fervent prayer. These are the weapons of our warfare. (E. Cooper, M. A.)

7. Influence of woman

Samuel Morley’s mother was a woman of rare piety. He was wont to say concerning her, “I am much what my mother has made me.”

Lessons

1. Faith pursueth God’s oracle through the worst of difficulties and fears.

2. Fleshly passion may mix with faith in its strongest operations.

3. Affection may make mothers adventure to bear a curse for their sons.

4. Natural affection may be instant to have things done irregularly upon a ground of faith. (G. Hughes, B. D.)

8. RAY PRITCHARD

Rebekah in Charge When he says, "But a curse will come upon me if I am caught," Rebekah replies in the words of mothers throughout history, "Just do what I say." ClearlyRebekah is the dominant leader in this family. I would summarize her personality with these four words:

Strong ResourcefulDecisiveCunning

She is the prime mover in this story and, it seems, in the family as well. It appears that Isaac has abdicated his position of spiritual leadership in favor of his wife.

Who thought of the deception? Rebekah.Who said, "Go get the food"? Rebekah.Who said, "Put on this goatskin"? Rebekah.Who said, "Let the blame fall on me"? Rebekah.Who said, "Leave home till Esau cools off"? Rebekah.

At every point she is in charge. She always has an answer for every question and a solution for every problem.

One question. If this was so brazenly wrong, why did Jacob do it?

1. Because he was under pressure from his mother.2. Because he wanted the blessing so badly.3. Because he believed the end justified the means.4. Because he didn't respect his father sufficiently.

I think Jacob said to himself, "God wants me to have the blessing, so if I have to cheat a little bit to get it, that's all right. God will understand." Jacob is half right. God did want him to have the blessing. And God did understand what he was doing. But that didn't make it right.

14

So he went and got them and brought them to his mother, and she prepared some tasty food, just the way his father liked it.

Here is another story of fast food where it had to happen fast to pull of this plot

to get the blessing before Esau gets back. It was fast food to the rescue. Abrahamand Sarah made food fast to entertain God, but here it was to do wrong. Adam and Eve wanted fast food too and just grabbed the apple and ate not consideringthe consequences.

1. Barnes, “Verse 14-29

The plan is successful. Jacob now, without further objection, obeys his mother. She clothes him in Esau’s raiment, and puts the skins of the kids on his hands and his neck. The camel-goat affords a hair which bears a great resemblance to that of natural growth, and is used as a substitute for it. Now begins the strange interview between the father and the son. “Who art thou, my son?” The voice of Jacob was somewhat constrained. He goes, however, deliberately through the process of deceiving his father. “Arise, now, sit and eat.” Isaac was reclining on his couch, in the feebleness of advancing years. Sitting was the posture convenient for eating. “The Lord thy God prospered me.” This is the boldreply to Isaac’s expression of surprise at the haste with which the dainty fare had been prepared. The bewildered father now puts Jacob to a severer test. He feels him, but discerns him not. The ear notes a difference, but the hand feels the hairy skin resemblingEsau’s; the eyes give no testimony. After this the result is summarily stated in a single sentence, though the particulars are yet to be given. “Art thou my very son Esau?” A lurking doubt puts the definite question, and receives a decisive answer. Isaac then calls for the repast and partakes.

2. Gill, “And he went and fetched and brought them to his mother,.... Being satisfied with what his mother had said, he went to the field where the flock was, and took out of it two young kids, and brought them to his mother; and thus far he did right to obey her commands:

and his mother made savoury meat, such as his father loved; by picking out proper pieces, and seasoning them well, it was as grateful to him as if it had really been venison, such as he loved.

3. Calvin, “.And he went and fetched. Although it is probable that Jacob was not only influenced by a desire to yield obedience to the authority of his mother, but was also persuaded by her seasonings, he yet sinned by overstepping the bounds of his vocation. When Rebekah had taken the blame upon herself, she told him, doubtless, that injury was done to no one: because Jacob was not stealing away another’s right, but only seeking the blessing which was decreed to him by the celestial oracle. It seemed a fair and probable excuse for the fraud, that Isaac, unless he should be imposed upon, was prepared to invalidate the election of God. Therefore Jacob, instead of simply declining from what was right in submission to his mother, was rather obeying the word of God. In the meantime (as I have said) this particular errorwas not free from blame: because the truth of God was not to be aided by such falsehoods. The paternal benediction was a seal of God’s grace, I confess it; but she ought rather to have waited till God should bring relief from heaven, by changing themind and guiding the tongue of Isaac, than have attempted what was unlawful. For

if Balaam, who prostituted his venal tongue, was constrained by the Spirit, contrary to his own wish, to bless the elect people, whom he would rather have devoted to destruction, (Numbers 22:12,) how much more powerfully would the same spirit haveinfluenced the tongue of holy Isaac, who was not a mercenary man, but one who desired faithfully to obey God, and was only hurried by an error in a contrary direction? Therefore, although in the main, faith shone preeminently in holy Jacob, yet in this respect he bears the blame of rashness, in that he was distrustful of the providence of God, and fraudulently gained possession of his father’s blessing.

4. BI, "And he went, and fetched, and brought them to his mother

Rebekah’s cunning plot accepted and carried out by Jacob

I. REVEALS SOME QUALITIES OF JACOB’S CHARACTER.

1. He was a weak and pliable man.

2. He lacked the power of self-determination.

3. He was fearful of consequences.

4. He could long indulge the thought of that which was forbidden.

II. REVEALS THE GRADUAL DEBASEMENT OF JACOB’S CHARACTER.

1. He overcomes difficulties in the way of sin.

2. He learns to act a falsehood.

3. He proceeds to the direct falsehood.

4. He allows himself to be led into sin under the idea that he is carrying out the purpose of God. (T. H. Leale.)

The stolen blessing

I. THE TEMPTATION ORIGINATED IN A SENSUOUS REQUEST OF ISAAC.

II. THIS TEMPTATION WAS PRESENTED TO JACOB THROUGH THE UNSCRUPULOUS LOVE OF REBEKAH. We cannot but admire her love. But it was not based upon principle.

III. THIS TEMPTATION WAS GREEDILY RESPONDED TO BY THE WEAK AND CRAFTY NATURE OF JACOB. (F. B. Meyer, B.A.)

Sharp practice

I. JACOB’S CONDUCT UNFOLDS THE STRENGTH OF EARLY PREFERENCES.

II. JACOB’S CONDUCT SHOWS PROGRESS IN A WRONG DIRECTION.

III. JACOB’S CONDUCT LETS US SEE SOME OF THE INFLUENCES WHICH IMPEL MEN TO GREATER EVIL.

1. One is that of relationship.

2. Another influence worked in the man himself. Jacob had a vehement craving for the blessing.

IV. JACOB’S CONDUCT PROVES THAT THERE MAY BE MORE RELIGION ON THE LIPS THAN IN THE LIFE (Gen_27:20). (D. G. Watt, M. A.)

The supplanter

I. THE POWER OF PARENTAL INFLUENCE AND THE DANGER OF PARENTAL PARTIALITY.

II. THE PROGRESS OF MORAL DETERIORATION. This is seen—

1. In Isaac.

2. In Rebekah.

3. In Esau.

4. Especially in Jacob.

Lessons:

1. That mere fondness is not affection.

2. To beware of encouraging or countenancing the appearance of untruth.

3. That no righteous purpose can justify an unrighteous act.

4. To avoid the beginning, “the very appearance of evil.”

5. To beware what thoughts we cherish.

6. Success does not avert the moral consequences of wrong-doing. (A. F.Joscelyne, B. A.)

The blessing fraudulently obtained

I. THE SPIRIT OF DOUBT AND MISTRUST LEADS MEN TO PRACTICE DECEIT.

1. It was deceiving a relative.

2. Deceiving an infirm relative.

3. Deceiving an infirm relative in spiritual matters.

II. IT DEADENS MEN’S MORAL SENSIBILITIES.

1. It creates indifference to man’s moral culture.

2. It renders one insensible to the greatest danger.

III. IT INVOLVES PAIN.

1. Loss of peace.

2. Instability.

3. Humiliation. (Homilist.)

The blessing obtained by fraud

1. Many of the most serious evils in life must be traced to parental mismanagement.

2. No end, however good, will sanction bad ways of accomplishing it.

3. Our history illustrates the prolific nature of sin. The commission of one crime makes another necessary, in order to supply what is lacking in the first.

4. The sins of youth have often a long and lasting influence. (A. McClelland, D. D.)

Duplicity

I. THE CONSPIRACY.

1. Its nature.

2. Its cause.

(1) Precariousness of Isaac’s life.

(2) Rebekah’s fear that patriarchal blessing would be bestowed on Esau, though God had declared that it should be given to Jacob.

(3) The nature and importance of the patriarchal blessing.

II. THE DISCOVERY.

1. Its suddenness.

2. Its effect. Practical lessons:

1. That sad consequences ever follow the practice of duplicity, whether in the family or elsewhere.

2. That a mother should teach a son to deceive his father is full of warning.

3. That such wrong should be perpetrated in the name and for the promotion of religion suggests the importance of scrutinizing our motives.

4. That the consciences of pious persons should allow them to justify themselves in such conduct suggests the blinding power of unbelief that God will fulfil what He has promised. (D. C. Hughes, M. A.)

The sin of Isaac and his family

I. Look at ISAAC.

1. His sin lay in aiming at a wrong object—he wanted to set aside the will of God.

2. Mark the punishment of Isaac. It was two-fold. First, his object was defeated—Esau lost the blessing. And man will always be defeated when man struggles with his Maker. He vindicates His authority in an unexpected moment and by unexpected means, and then where and what are we? Our schemes, and efforts, and hopes, are all laid low; and worse than this—they are all turned against ourselves. And so was it here; for notice another part of Isaac’s punishment—not only was his object defeated,but in aiming at it, he brought much sin on his family and much anguish on himself.

II. We may turn now to REBEKAH.

1. Her sin was altogether different in its character from Isaac’s. It consisted in aimingat a right object by sinful means.

2. The punishment of Rebekah may appear slight, and yet to a fond mother like her, it must have been deeply painful. The curse was indeed on her, and it came in a form she little anticipated—she lost the son for whom she had plotted and sinned. Her example speaks plainly and solemnly also to all who are parents amongst us. It tells us that children are easily led into sin. Deceit and falsehood are bound up in the heart of every child that breathes, and it is as easy to call them into action as to get their tongues to speak or their feet to move. It is easy also to find motives that seem good, for prompting the lie, or sanctioning the lie, or concealing the lie; but as surely as there is a God living in heaven, the evil we prompt or encourage or tolerate in our children will come down in the end on our own heads. The curse of it will be on us. The blow may at first strike others, but in the end it will recoil on ourselves. Our poorchildren may themselves sting us to the quick; or if not so, the hand of God may be on them. We may see in their undoing at once our own punishment and our own sin.

III. Let us turn now to JACOB. The instant we look at him, we are struck with this fact, that the nearer a man is to God, the more God is displeased with any iniquity He sees in him, and the more openly and severely He punishes it. Of all this family, Jacob was the most beloved by Him, but yet, as far as regards this world, he appears to have suffered from this transaction the most bitterly.

1. His sin was of a complicated character. To a hasty observer, it might appear light. Certainly much might be said in palliation of it. He was not first in the transgression. The idea of it did not originate with him. His feelings revolted at it when it was proposed to him. He remonstrated against it. Besides, it was a parent who urged him on, a fond and tender mother. And we must remember, too, that all those motives which led Rebekah to form this plot would operate also in Jacob’s mind to lead him to execute it. It was furthering the will of God, it was saving a father from sin. Let young persons see here what a single deviation from truth can do. In one short hour it made the pious Jacob appear and act like one of the worst of men.

2. As for the punishment of Jacob’s sin, we must read the history of his life to see the extent of it. It followed him almost to his dying hour. He was successful in his treachery; it obtained from his deceived father the desired birthright; but what fruit had he from his success? We might say none at all, or rather he sowed the wind and he reaped the whirlwind. His fears were realized; he did bring a curse on him and nota blessing.

IV. We come now to the case of Esau. Alive to the present and reckless of the future, he preferred to it the momentary gratification of a sensual appetite. (C. Bradley, M. A.)

How Jacob stole his blessing

I. ISAAC’S OBSTINATE PARTIALITY.

II. REBEKAH’S CRAFTINESS, AND JACOB’S FRAUD.

III. THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE FRAUD. Isaac’s vain regret. Esau’s murderous malice. Rebekah’s fear for her favourite son. Jacob’s hasty banishment. Conclusion: What may we especially learn for ourselves?

1. Not to resist God’s will, like Isaac. We may sometimes think we know what is best;

yet, if we listened to God’s word, we should not do the very thing we perhaps most like to do.

2. Not to forfeit God’s favour and blessing, like Esau. It was Esau’s own recklessness and worldliness that led to his being rejected, and to “the blessing” being withheld from him. He had shown himself to be incapable of deeper thoughts and religious faith.

3. Not to do wrong that good may come, like Rebekah and Jacob. God’s promises willbe fulfilled in due time. But we must neither murmur, nor be hasty (comp. Heb_2:3).(W. S. Smith, B. D.)

The wily supplanter

Jacob, whose nature was at this time true to his name.

1. Receives a hint from his mother. Sad that her maternal love should have promptedsuch an act. Esau, as much her son as Jacob. She was equally bound by natural obligations to care far one as the other. No apologies seem to be a sufficient vindication of conduct that was in its very essence wrong.

2. Closes with his mother’s recommendation. He ought to have resented it; to have expostulated, and over-ruled it. He rather suggests difficulties (Gen_27:11) to prompther ingenuity.

3. Adopts the disguise she prepared, and followed her directions. Deception; and self-deception the worst of all. Perhaps thought it well, even by such means, to gain the blessing.

4. Repeated falsehoods. Again and again assured his father that he was Esau.

5. Obtained the blessing. Yet how could that bless which had been so obtained? God, in His mercy, ultimately brought good out of the evil Otherwise the father’s blessing, so obtained, must have been a curse. (J. C. Gray.)

Appearances often deceptive

“The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” We cannot always depend upon appearances. When, at the time of the gunpowder plot, the Parliament houses were searched, only coals and fagots were found in the cellars beneath. But, on a more careful search, barrels of gunpowder were found under the coals and wood, as well as Guy Fawkes with his preparations to blow up the king and his parliament. Many a fine-looking tree is rotten at the core; some who are very healthy in appearance are secretly and fatally diseased; gilding or paint sometimes covers really worthless rubbish; so the lives of some who profess to be “the epistles of Christ “ are really a forgery, for theyare not what they profess to be. Many who speak in religious services, or at other times and places, with “Jacob’s voice,” or as saints, really have “the hands of Esau,” for they areliving in the practice of wickedness. (G. Hughes, B. D.)

The deception of Isaac

It is often forgotten that Jacob was divinely appointed to be the inheritor of the blessing.

The omission from the calculation or thought of that one fact is likely to lead not only to mental perplexity but to moral confusion. You find the proof of the assertion in Gen_25:23. The Lord said unto Rebekah, in view of the birth of her children, “The one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.” The mystery, therefore, is Divine. Jacob was a destined man; Jacob was destined before he was born; what, then, was his error? Not in feeling, how mysteriously soever, the pressure of his destiny, but in prematurely taking it into his own hands. We must not force Providence. Is there not an appointed time to man upon the earth, in a much wider sense than in the sense of marking out the day of his death? Is there not a time for the rising of the sun and the going down of the same? Is there not a seed time in the year, as well as a harvest day? We are tempted to force Providence, thus to do the right thing in the wrong way, and at the wrong time. Right is not a question of a mere point; it gathers up into its mystery all the points of the case, so that it is not enough to be going in the right road; we must have come into that road through the right door, at the right hour, and by direct intervention and sanction of God. It is tempting to natures like ours to helpourselves by trickery. We do like to meddle with God. Granted that the mother saw the religious aspect of this whole case, and knew the destiny of the boys, she had no right to force Divine Providence. Was Rebekah moved by the consciousness of destiny, or was she excited by the spirit of revenge? It is easy for us to mistake our revenge for religion. Some men pray out of spite; some men preach Christ out of envy; it is possible to build a church upon the devil’s foundation, and to light an altar with the devil’s fire. Jacob was pre-eminently a destined child, a man with a special mark upon him: how he will come out of this we shall see; but God will be King and Master, and right shall be done. What, then, is to be our attitude under the consciousness of destiny, and under the suggestion of tempting events? Our attitude is to be one of perfect resignation. (J. Parker, D. D.)

The temptation of destiny

Although the prediction of the fact did not entitle her or her son to bring about its fulfilment, yet it makes some slight difference in the case. For we see even now that whena nation or a man once feels that it is “manifest destiny” to do a certain thing—predetermined—he feels free to do that thing, no matter how unjust it is.

We see the same delusion in a thousand other cases. Shakespeare recognizes it in the great drama of “Macbeth.” The prediction, “Thou shalt be king hereafter,” did not justify the murder, but it seemed to give to it a certain supernatural countenance, marshalling the murderer the way that he was going. If this can be the case when the supernatural soliciting comes from below, how much more strong when it was felt to come from above—from God Himself! Then remember, besides, that there was somethingnot altogether evil in Jacob’s passionate coveting of the birthright. For it was a sacred good, and eagerlyto appreciate it as he did was itself a sign of some fitness for it; while to despise it as Esaudid marked the man as unworthy of it. (A. G. Mercer.)

The selection of Jacob

But now hear me for a moment in defence of that Divine Providence which allowed the substitution of this particular man, Jacob, in the place of this particular man, Esau, as the third of the patriarchs. The importance of a right choice here is not easily over-rated. For several reasons the character of the patriarchs was to influence and mould the character of the Hebrew race more than could be done by any of the whole line of law-

givers, princes, prophets, and warriors—Moses, perhaps, excepted, To have the right man, then, was indeed important. But was Jacob he? or, at least, was he more fit than Esau? He was. What was Jacob? Let us see. A man may be described by three things—whether he has ends—what they are—and how he reaches them.

1. Whether he has ends. Esau had not, He was one of a class of characters who live without any distant ends to reach—who live very much from day to day, working perhaps energetically for their little daily plans, or floating from interest to interest. Jacob was, above all things else, a man of purpose.

2. The next question about a man is, What are his ends? Two traits in a man’s ends lift up the man—the remoteness and the generosity of his ends. If very remote—that is, if a man takes into his vision the whole scope of his life, and with a masterly powerbrings under his whole existence to that far-oft end—that man, even though his ends are selfish, is a superior person. Now Jacob was certainly that man. Show me such a man anywhere, and I will show you his equal here. Seven years of the hardest service he served for Rachel, and counted them but as seven days—and then seven more. He wore through twenty years of the hardest life,carrying on his design that he should bethe successor and heir of Isaac, and though he was of a timid nature, never yielding that purpose, even when he stood in the presence of the avenger Esau himself. Never was there a more patient, tenacious soul. This was singular, for remember that primitive men may be persistent in passions, but not in purposes, save in that one passion and purpose—revenge. But Jacob had all the calmness and tenacity of an advanced age. His end, however, may have been a selfish one. Self-advancement? Yes. But, considering the age and place, self-advancement was one of the higher forms of virtue, especially when we know that the end Jacob sought had a certain sacredness about it—the hope, namely, that he should be in the line of God’s special favours—should take eminent place as His servant.

3. The third test of a man is the means he uses to reach his ends. Jacob’s were bad enough. Remember, however, that the rule, the end does not justify the means, was unknown to Jacob—is, in fact, a great and modern discovery in morals, not fully known even yet. And remember, besides, that whatever his means were, they were always effective, and never gratuitously wicked. On the whole, then, here was a mixedcharacter as to its excellence, but a high character as to its ability. Nay, besides—this very mixture, the very defects of character, made Jacob a fit instrument of the Divine purposes. He was, even in his weakest points, far better fitted to lay the foundations of a family and kingdom than the impulsive and purposeless Esau. Had he been a more purely excellent man, he would have been less fitted. A style of character purelyexcellent cannot lay a permanent grasp upon the men of early ages, or men of any agenot high enough to receive it. The powerful great man is the one who is at once above and yet along-side of his fellows. Hence we see, as a matter of fact, that among the patriarchs, though Abraham is most revered, Jacob has been the truly influential man with the Jewish masses. He has moulded the mass of the Jewish people into his own image. I regard this as specially providential. Thus the purer and higher were ledto God and held to God through the high spirit that was in Abraham; the body were held to God and their religion through the lower soul of Jacob. They could be inferior Jacobs when they could not be properly children of Abraham.

So, through lower and higher instruments, the purposes of God are worked out.

1. Among the thoughts suggested by the subject, notice first the effect of success in the judgment of character. Esau, once gone under, holds no place.

2. Notice, again, how poorly we judge of mixed characters. The same Jacob who over-reached his father, his brother, and I might say destiny itself, the supplanter, the robber, who “from a shelf the precious diadem stole, and put it in his pocket,” was yet the same who wrestled all night with God. Truly we are all of different natures, marvellously mixed—a worm, a god! This should teach me at least some things, such as humility to myself. I know by this that the statues of the demi-gods stand on clay feet—that my best moments, my best feelings, are but a part of me—that I have a whole world of things to repent of, and to be ashamed of, before God. That, and nothing of soul growth, was especially the fact with Jacob. His character was unlike that of the other patriarchs in this: Abraham and Isaac, such as we see them at first, are very much such as we see them at last. But Jacob only becomes his real, that is, his higher self at the last. At the bottom of his young and eager ambition and selfishness there was at the very first, as I have said, something good, the root of a great tree of right—namely, the real sense that God’s blessing and favour were above allvalue—and so in his blind, but most earnest way, he went to work to grasp them.

3. There is one test every man should solemnly try himself by, one test of what our ultimate selves and our ultimate destiny will be—Does the good part of our characters grow? (A. G. Mercer.)

5. Steven cole A third undercurrent is mistrust. You can’t carry on secretsand manipulative plots in a family without eroding trust. Isaacdidn’t trust Rebekah or Jacob or he would have included them inthe plan to give away his blessing. Rebekah didn’t trust Isaac or shewouldn’t have gone to such elaborate lengths to deceive him. Jacobknew that his father wouldn’t trust him, as seen in his comment tohis mother, “Perhaps my father will feel me, then I shall be as adeceiver [mocker] in his sight; ...” (27:12). Neither Jacob nor Esautrusted each other. It was a family riddled with mistrust because itoperated on the basis of deception and secrecy instead of honestyand openness.

But did Isaac get what he wanted? Instead of wild game, hegot spiced up goat. Instead of blessing Esau, he put him under acurse, because he ordained that whoever cursed Jacob should becursed, and Esau planned to kill Jacob. His family was riddled withrivalry and his sons were separated from him. He and his wife wereat odds and didn’t trust each other. Isaac sought his own way,didn’t get what he wanted, and paid a high price.

And what about the cost? Rebekah calculated that the wholething would blow over soon (27:44-45): “Stay with him a few days,until your brother’s fury subsides, until your brother’s anger againstyou subsides, and he forgets what you did to him. Then I shall sendand get you from there.” The “few days” turned out to be 20 years,and Rebekah probably never saw her favorite son again. When he

returns, Isaac is mentioned, but not Rebekah. In the only othermention of her name in Genesis, Jacob on his deathbed states thatthey buried Rebekah in the cave of Machpelah (49:31, implying thathe was not there). So Rebekah spent her final years bereft of hersons, emotionally estranged from her blind husband. She soughther own way, didn’t get what she wanted, and paid a high price.

Again, I must disagree with commentators who exonerate Jacob.Some say that he was valuing spiritual things and, after all, hewas only obeying his mother. But remember, the man wasn’t ateenager—he was probably 77 years old! He should have rebukedhis mother for her deceptive scheme. Clearly, Jacob is not a spiritually-minded man. He does not fear God or His moral law; he onlyfears that the scheme might not work and he might get cursed insteadof blessed. He wanted the wealth and advantage which wentalong with the blessing. Like Rebekah, Jacob was seeking his ownway under the guise of seeking God’s way.Note the extremes he was willing to take to get what hewanted. His blind old father asks, “Who are you, my son?” Jacobflatly lies, “I am Esau your firstborn; I have done as you told me”(27:18-19). When Isaac questions how he could have returned soquickly, Jacob crassly gives God the credit (27:20)! But because ofJacob’s voice, Isaac still has doubts. So he calls Jacob to him so hecan feel his skin. After feeling the deceptive goatskins on Jacob’sarms, he asks again, “Are you really my son Esau?” And Jacobbaldly lies again, “I am” (27:24). He caps the whole thing off with akiss! Where is Jacob’s conscience?Jacob’s actions seem incredible—until you get honest withyourself. If you know your heart, you can see yourself right there inJacob’s sandals, doing the same thing. Haven’t you ever bent thetruth when you were under pressure or when you thought it wasfor a good cause? And once you tell the first lie, it’s harder to bailout. So you dig yourself in deeper and deeper.Did Jacob get what he was after? On the surface, yes, he gotthe blessing. But it didn’t quite do for him what he was expecting.He had to flee from his brother who wanted to kill him. Theblessing stipulated that he would be master of his brothers (vs. 29),but before Esau bowed to Jacob, Jacob would bow before Esauand call him lord (33:3, 8). He thought the blessing would put himin a position of influence, but before that it forced him to becomethe indentured servant of a man who deceived him. Later the sonsof this deceiver would deceive their father concerning his belovedson, Joseph, telling him that the animals had killed the boy. For 20years he mourned for that son, thinking him to be dead before he

found out the truth. So Jacob sought his own way, didn’t get whathe wanted, and paid high installment payments for years to come.4. The theme is illustrated with Esau.While we may sympathize with Esau, there is no doubt that hewas seeking his own way. Granted, he was the older brother, so the

birthright and blessing should have been his. But he had made alegal agreement with his brother to sell his birthright. It was nottrue, as Esau laments, that Jacob took away his birthright (27:36).Esau gave it up. Here, he was in cahoots with his father’s secretiveplan to get the blessing for himself; he just happened to get outsmarted.As a godless man, not concerned about the spiritualpromises God had given to Abraham, Esau was clearly seeking hisown way, not God’s way.His tears (27:34, 38) may make us feel sorry for him. But remember,Esau wasn’t truly repentant, ready to turn from his selfseekingways to follow God’s ways. He was just sorry he didn’t getwhat he was after. He was like the guy who heard at work that hisneighbor’s house burned down. Since they didn’t get along toowell, he shrugged and said, “Too bad!” Then he drove home andfound out that his own house had burned down, too. If he startedwailing, you wouldn’t assume that he was sorry for his neighbor orfor his own bad attitude. He was just sorry for himself. Esau wasn’ttruly repentant toward God; he was just sorry his scheme hadn’tworked.Clearly, Esau didn’t get the blessing he desired. He ended upestranged from God’s promises to Abraham and his descendants.He became the father of the Edomites, who lived to the east of theDead Sea and were later subjected by several kings of Israel. Theyfinally succeeded in casting off Israel’s rule, even as Isaac prophesied(27:40). They sided with Nebuchadnezzar in his overthrow ofJerusalem (587 B.C.) and were overjoyed at its destruction (Ps.137:7; Lam. 4:21, 22; Obadiah 10-16). Esau, like Isaac, Rebekah,and Jacob, sought his own way, didn’t get what he wanted, andpaid a high price.ConclusionLet me draw four concluding lessons from this drama:

(1) If we sow to the flesh, we’ll reap from the flesh. The law of sowingand reaping is as true for God’s people as it is for unbelievers. Ifyou live for the pleasures of the flesh, you will reap from the fleshcorruption (Gal. 6:7-8). If you live for the things of this world, youmay get them, but you’ll be poor before God.Some may protest: “But we’re under grace, not law!” But remember,Paul warned about sowing and reaping in the very letterwhere he strongly argues for the grace of God--Galatians. Youcan’t plant spinach and harvest sweet corn. While sin may tastesweet in your mouth, it will be bitter in your stomach and you’llwish you had never tasted it! That’s true for believers under grace.(2) You can’t thwart the ultimate purpose of God, so why not work withHim, not against Him? It is utter futility to fight God. It may seem asif you’re going to be able to get away with your plan. But “He whosits in the heavens laughs; the Lord scoffs at them” (Ps. 2:4). Man’ssin can never thwart God’s purpose. It may appear that things arenot under God’s control and that the forces of evil are going toturn world history to their own ends. It’s only an illusion. Even thewrath of man will bring ultimate praise to God (Ps. 76:10). God,

not man, determines history. You can either smash yourself to bitstrying to fight against God or you can submit to His purpose. Asthe apostle Paul and millions of others can tell you, life is a lotmore pleasant when you don’t kick against the goads.(3) Godly ends do not justify wrong means. Was it God’s will to givethe blessing to Jacob? Yes! Was it right for Rebekah and Jacob togain the blessing through deception? No! Methods do matter!Wrong methods don’t become right just because they work, evenwhen they help accomplish God’s purpose. We live in a pragmaticculture, and many Christians have bought into any method thatworks. Just because a marketing scheme brings people into thechurch does not make it right. God’s work must be done in Hisway.(4) The way to find your life is to lose it for Christ’s sake. Hebrews11:20 states: “By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even regardingthings to come.” How can that be, when it seems that he was actingin the flesh? The answer is in Genesis 27:33, where a tremblingIsaac realizes that he has really blessed Jacob, not Esau, as he intended.He admits, “Yes, and he shall be blessed.” At that point

Isaac realized that he and Esau had been fighting against God andthey had lost. God pinned him to the mat, Isaac admitted defeat,and submitted to God’s sovereign way. So Isaac gives up his themesong, “I Did It My Way.” He lost his life, only to find real life inGod.That’s the key, by the way, to family harmony—when eachmember dies to his own selfish way and lives for God’s way. Whatis God’s word to wives? “Submit to your husband.” Many Christianwives hate that word! It grates on the flesh. But it is God’sWord to wives! Before you husbands start gloating, rememberGod’s word to you: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ alsoloved the church and gave Himself up for her.” The Bible nevertells husbands to get their wives to submit. It tells us to seek thehighest good of our wives by dying to our own selfish ways. God’sword to children is, “Obey your parents” and you will be blessed.To parents (especially fathers) He says, “Don’t provoke your childrento anger, but bring them up in the training and instruction ofthe Lord.” (Eph. 5:22-6:4).Many Christian counselors are telling hurting people, “Assertyourself! Stand up for your rights! Don’t be codependent! You’vegot a right to some happiness in life, so go for it!” But God’s Wordis clear: If you seek your own way, you won’t get what you wantand you’ll pay a high price in family conflict. If you’ll die to yourway and seek God’s way, He will give you the desires of your heart.You’ve got to decide which will be your theme song: “I did it myway,” or, “I did it God’s way?”

15

Then Rebekah took the best clothes of Esau her older son, which she had in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob.

1. Clarke, “Goodly raiment - Mr. Ainsworth has a sensible note on this place. “The priest in the law had holy garments to minister in, Exo_28:2-4, which the Septuagint

there and in this place term την�στολην, The robe, and στολην�Uγιαν, the holy robe. Whether the first-born, before the law, had such to minister in is not certain, but it is probable by this example; for had they been common garments, why did not Esau himself, or his wives, keep them? But being, in all likelihood, holy robes, received from their ancestors, the mother of the family kept them in sweet chests from moths and the like, whereupon it is said, Gen_27:27, Isaac smelled the smell of his garments.” The opinion of Ainsworth is followed by many critics.

2. Gill, “And Rebekah took goodly garments of her eldest son Esau,.... Or "desirable" (q) ones, exceeding good ones:

which were with her in the house; which she had the care and keeping of, and were wore only on particular occasions: some think these were priestly garments, which belonged to him as the firstborn, and were not in the keeping of his wives, being idolaters, but in his mother's keeping; which is not very probable, yet more likely than that they were, as some Jewish writers (r) say, the garments of Adam the first man, which Esau seeing on Nimrod, greatly desired them, and slew him for them, see Gen_10:10; and hence called desirable garments:

and put them upon Jacob her younger son; that be might be took for Esau, should Isaac examine him and feel his garments, or smell them.

3. COKE, “Genesis 27:15. Took goodly raiment of her eldest son, &c.— Some critics of very

great name, as Bochart, Selden, Grotius, &c. are of opinion, that these were the sacerdotal garments, appropriated to the first-born, which seems very probable; and if so, we have a confirmation of what was suggested onGenesis 27:1. The Jews, who generally render the truth itselfsuspicious by their fabulous additions, pretend that these were the very garments in which Adam, Noah, and Abraham sacrificed and performed religious offices. It, however, certainly deserves

observation, that the word rendered goodly, comes from a root חמד chamad, signifying to desire

earnestly, to covet, and is applied to all sorts of sacred things, both of the true and false worship, which were to the respective parties eminently the objects of theirdesire and affections. See the

Lexicographers. For the skins of kids, Genesis 27:16 it is remarked, that in the eastern countries,

goats' hair very much resembles the human.

16

She also covered his hands and the smooth part of hisneck with the goatskins.

1. Gill, “And she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands,.... Upon both his hands, and the whole of them that was bare, that he might appear to be like Esau:

and upon the smooth of his neck; which in Esau was covered with hair as his hands;and Hiscuni, a Jewish writer (s), observes, that the skins of goats are rough, and like the skin of a hairy man; and so Bochart (t) remarks, that goats' hair in the eastern countries is not much unlike human hair; see 1Sa_19:13.

17

Then she handed to her son Jacob the tasty food and the bread she had made.

1. Gill, “And she gave the savoury meat,.... Seasoned and dressed in such a manner as might be taken for venison:

and the bread which she had prepared to eat with it:

into the hand of her son Jacob; the dish of meat in one hand, and the bread in the other.

18

He went to his father and said, "My father." "Yes, my son," he answered. "Who is it?"

1. Gill, “And he came unto his father,.... Into the tent and apartment where he was:

and said, my father; to try whether he was awake, and to let him know that he was come, since he could not see him:

and he said, here am I; what hast thou to say to me?

who art thou, my son? for, from the voice and the quick dispatch made, he suspected it was not his son Esau.

2Henry, “Observe here, I. The art and assurance with which Jacob managed this intrigue. Who would have thought that this plain man could have played his part so well in a design of this nature? His mother having put him in the way of it, and encouraged him in it, he dexterously applied himself to those methods which he had never accustomed himself to, but had always conceived an abhorrence of. Note, Lying is soon learnt. The psalmist speaks of those who, as soon as they are born, speak lies, Psa_58:3;Jer_9:5.

3. Jamison, “he came unto his father — The scheme planned by the mother was to be executed by the son in the father’s bedchamber; and it is painful to think of the deliberate falsehoods, as well as daring profanity, he resorted to. The disguise, though wanting in one thing, which had nearly upset the whole plot, succeeded in misleading Isaac; and while giving his paternal embrace, the old man was roused into a state of high satisfaction and delight.

4. COFFMA�, “It is curious that Jacob referred to Jehovah in this episode as "your God,"

thus answering the question after the manner of the irreligious Esau, who from this appears as one who had renounced all faith in God for himself.

"So he blessed him ..." should be rendered, "Still, as he was about to bless him."[14] "This is the denotation of the Hebrew imperfect."[15] The source-splitting critics, not knowing this, suppose two sources!

Rebekah's cunning plan of deception addressed all of Isaac's four remaining senses except hearing. Hearing should have been enough for Isaac to discern the truth, but, as he had turned away from hearing God's Word with reference to his two sons, it was fitting indeed that he should have ignored hearing as it also concerned the words of Jacob. He was a man who lived according to taste, smell, and feeling. His eyesight had faded. Marshall Keeble used to warn people against going by "their feelings" in religion, saying, "If Isaac had stuck to hearing and ignored his feelings, he would not have been deceived."

"The kiss ..." (Genesis 27:26) "The kiss appears here for the first time as the token of true love and deep affection."[16]

"Give thee of the dew of heaven ..." Our version translates this expression by an identical rendition in Isaac's blessing of Esau (Genesis 27:29), but later versions render the words in Esau's blessing as "away from the dew of heaven." "The expression has a double meaning."[17] "It means either: (1) of the dew of heaven (as in Jacob's blessing); or (2) away from the dew of heaven (as in Esau's blessing).[18] Thus, the context and theological considerations must determine which is meant. The scholars are correct in rendering it

differently in the two places. This characteristic of the Bible extends throughout; and, just asthis word has two different meanings in a single chapter, just so the word "seed" must be interpreted according to the context.

"And nations (shall) bow down to thee ..." All of the thirty-two kingdoms of Canaan were conquered, subdued, and driven out of Palestine by the posterity of Jacob, as prophesied here; but there is a remote and greater fulfillment also which took place in Christ the Second Israel as manifested on earth in his Church. The ancient prophets expanded on this prophecy by affirming that, "The nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish ... (they) shall come bending low to you" (Isaiah 60:12,14). The fulfillment of this came when theGentiles bowed before the feet of Christ, the true Israel. There is no promise here that racial Jews shall eventually rule the earth.

5. K&D 18-23, “But Jacob had no easy task to perform before his father. As soon as he had spoken on entering, his father asked him, “Who art thou, my son?” On his replying, “I am Esau, thy first-born,” the father expressed his surprise at the rapid success of his hunting; and when he was satisfied with the reply, “Jehovah thy God sent it (the thing desired) to meet me,” he became suspicious about the voice, and bade him come nearer, that he might feel him. But as his hands appeared hairy like Esau's, he did not recognise him; and “so he blessed him.” In this remark (Gen_27:23) the writer gives the result of Jacob's attempt; so that the blessing is merely mentioned proleptically here, and refers to the formal blessing described afterwards, and not to the first greeting and salutation.

Jacob comes, no doubt trembling, to his father, honing the skills of deception that hewill use so effectively later on. His father’s reply reflects doubt. This does not sound like Esau. From this point on the writer skilfully builds up the tension for his hearers. Will Isaac see through the deception?

27.19 ‘And Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau, your firstborn. I have done as you bade me. Get up, I pray you, sit and eat of my venison that your soul may bless me.”

The reply sounds right, but there is something Isaac does not like.

27.20-21 ‘And Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you found it so quickly, my son?”And he said, “Because Yahweh your God sent me good speed.” And Isaac said to Jacob, “Come near, I pray you, that I may feel you my son, whether you are truly my son Esau or not.”

Isaac is uneasy. The speed with which the venison has been found adds to his already growing doubts. And the reply makes him even more uneasy. It is not like Esau to speak with such piety. He would have expected that of Jacob. He knows he must use his hands and feel the speaker so as to ensure who it is.

27.22 ‘And 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.” ’

His son approaches and he feels his hands. There can be no doubt that they are hairy like Esau’s. Certainly not Jacob’s. He does not dream that his younger son would dare to deceive him. And how would Jacob know what he had asked Esau to

do? But the voice, and the words spoken, they speak so much of Jacob. But in the end the hairiness decides it.

27.23 ‘And he did not work out who he was because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands. So he blessed him.’

The deception has worked. Isaac has been convinced. If we think he should have suspected we must remember he had no reason to suspect. And with his eyes blind and his senses dulled (he has not yet eaten) he accepts the evidence of the hairiness which can really not have any other explanation. The enormity of what Jacob has done is so great that he probably could not believe it was possible. Surely a son would not deceive his own father? Yahweh Himself would pronounce on the iniquityof the man who deceives the blind (compare Leviticus 19.14; Deuteronomy 27.18 where the principle is in mind).

‘So he blessed him.’ A summary, speaking of what is to come indicating that he is now convinced. We have noted before this tendency to say briefly what happens before expanding on it, (see 26.1b; 26.18). We might paraphrase ‘that is the main reason why he now enters the blessing process’.

27.24 ‘And he said, “Are you truly my son Esau?” And he said, “I am’.

Isaac now moves into the blessing process. The question is formal. He is not now voicing suspicion but simply asking for the recipient to confirm his title.

(The blessing process goes - confirmation of the recipient, partaking of the requested offering, a sealing kiss, the blessing).

19

Jacob said to his father, "I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game so that you may give me your blessing."

This was no white fib, but a black lie. He was deceiving his father by pretending to be his brother Esau.

Jacob knew the promise of God and listened to his mother rather than to God. "Whoever believes will not act hastily" (Isa. 28:16). Most of the really bad decisions I have made, I made in haste. Rebekah must have been a good cook to make goat's meat taste like venison. Jacob is the perfect example of the hypocrite. His voice and hands do not agree (in other words, what he says and what he does). In v. 19 Jacob

will tell three lies "I am Esau"; "I have done" (his mother did); "eat my venison" (itwas goat's meat). His kiss in v.27 was equally as deceitful. Did Jacob pay a price? Many times over. Laban deceived him concerning his wives, changed his wages. In addition, Jacob's own sons would also kill a kid (37:31) and put its blood on Joseph's coat to deceive their father. "Be sure that your sin will find you out" (�um.32:23).

A look at Jacob's suspicious behavior). �ote the fear: He feared he might be found out. "I shall seem as a deceiver!" (Exactly). It did not seem to bother him that he was a deceiver! Yet he does what his mother suggests. �OTE: HE wanted to keep upappearances while still being a deceiver.

Look at verse !9: Jacob tells 5 lies in a row. Somehow the old man is still not quite convinced. At the last lie he adds God's name in order to give it added credibility.

1. Clarke, “I am Esau thy first-born - Here are many palpable falsehoods, and such as should neither be imitated nor excused. “Jacob,” says Calmet, “imposes on his father in three different ways. 1. By his words: I am thy first-born Esau. 2. By his actions; he gives him kids’ flesh for venison, and says he had executed his orders, and got it by hunting. 3. By his clothing; he puts on Esau’s garments, and the kids’ skins upon his hands and the smooth of his neck. In short, he made use of every species of deception that could be practiced on the occasion, in order to accomplish his ends.” To attempt to palliate or find excuses for such conduct, instead of serving, disserves the cause of religion and truth. Men have labored, not only to excuse all this conduct of Rebekah and Jacob, but even to show that it was consistent, and that the whole was according to the mind and will of God!

Non tali auxilio,non defensoribus istis

The cause of God and truth is under no obligation to such defenders; their hands are more unhallowed than those of Uzzah; and however the bearers may stumble, the ark of God requires not their support. It was the design of God that the elder should serve the younger, and he would have brought it about in the way of his own wise and just providence; but means such as here used he could neither sanction nor recommend.

2. Gill, “And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau thy firstborn,.... Had he only said that he was his firstborn, he might have been excused from lying, because he had bought the birthright of Esau; but when he says, I am Esau, he can by no means be excused; for to say he impersonated Esau will not do; besides, he afterwards says he was his very son Esau, Gen_27:24,

I have done according as thou badest me; which is another lie; for Isaac had not bid him bring him any venison, nor go into the field for it, and take it and dress it for him; nor indeed had Jacob done either of these:

arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison; or "hunting" (u), what he had hunted;

another untruth, for it was not venison he brought him, nor anything that was hunted by him: by this it seems that Isaac lay upon a bed or couch through infirmity, and therefore is bid to arise and put himself in a proper posture for eating, which in those times and countries was usually sitting:

that thy soul may bless me; as this was the thing in view, so speaking of it as soon as he came in, and which he desired might be done after his father had eat and drank, might serve to take off the suspicion of his being another person; since this was what Isaac himself proposed to Esau to do; and this he said when there were none else present.

3. Henry, “I wonder how honest Jacob could so readily turn his tongue to say (Gen_27:19), I am Esau thy first-born; nor do I see how the endeavour of some to bring him off with that equivocation, I am made thy first-born, namely by purchase, does him any service; for when his father asked him (Gen_27:24), Art thou my very son Esau? he said, I am. How could he say, I have done as thou badest me, when he had received no command from his father, but was doing as his mother bade him? How could he say, Eatof my venison, when he knew it came, not from the field, but from the fold? But especially I wonder how he could have the assurance to father it upon God, and to use hisname in the cheat (Gen_27:20): The Lord thy God brought it to me. Is this Jacob? Is thisIsrael indeed, without guile? It is certainly written, not for our imitation, but for our admonition. Let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. Good men have sometimes failed in the exercise of those graces for which they have been most eminent.

4. CALVI�, “And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau (46) At first Jacob was timid and anxious; now, having dismissed his fear, he confidently and audaciously lies. By which example we are taught, that when any one has transgressed the proper bounds of duty, he soon allows himself unmeasured license. Wherefore there is nothing better than for each to keep himself within the limits divinely prescribed to him, lest by attempting more than is lawful, he should open the door to Satan. I have before shown how far his seeking the blessing by fraud, and insinuating himself into the possession of it by falsehood, was contrary to faith. Yet this particular fault and divergence from the right path, did not prevent the faith which had been produced by the oracle from holding on, in some way, its course. In excusing the quickness of his return by saying that the venison was brought to him by God, he speaks in accordance with the rule of piety: he sins, however, in mixing the sacred name of God with his own falsehoods. Thus, when there is a departure from truth, the reverence which is apparently shown to God is nothing else than a profanation of his glory. It was right that the prosperous issue of his hunting should be ascribed to the providence of God, lest we should imagine that any good thing was the result of chance; but when Jacob pretended that God was the author of a benefit which had not been granted to himself, and that, too, as a cloak for his deception, his fault was not free from perjury.

5. JOH� TRAPP, “Ver. 19. I am Esau thy firstborn, &c.] Here he utters three lies in a

breath: besides his ascribing to God that he did, [Genesis 27:20] so taking that reverend name in vain. This was his sin, and he smarted for it to his dying day: for he had scarcely a merry hour after this; but God followed him with one sorrow upon another, to teach him and us what an "evil and bitter thing sin is," [Jeremiah 2:19] and how it ensnares and ensnarlsus. Aristotle could say, that a lie is in itself evil and wicked. (a) The Hebrews call it Aven, a great iniquity. And the Scripture reckons it among monstrous sins, [Revelation 21:8] and condemns it to hell, - whether it be the officious, merry, or pernicious lie. Indeed, every lie ispernicious to ourselves or others, or both; because flatly forbidden of God, and because it is against the order of nature, and for that "no lie is of the truth," as St John hath it, [1 John 2:21] but of the devil, who began, and still upholds his kingdom by lies. [John 8:44] Contrarily, God is truth, and his children are all such as will not lie, [Isaiah 63:8 Revelation 14:5] at least, not get a haunt and a habit of lying, which David calls "a way of lying": "Remove from me the way of lying," saith he, [Psalms 119:29] that I make not a trade or common practice of it. We find that [1 Samuel 21:2] he very roundly telleth two or three lies together, as Jacob here did; and all deliberate. So that tale he told Achish of invading the south of Judah, when he had been upon the Geshurites and Gerarites. [1 Samuel 27:8-11] I know not how it can be excused. But this was not David’s "way," his common course; pity itshould. Honest heathens condemned lying; the Persians punished it severely in their children. (b) Homer censures it in Dolon, Ulysses, and others, (c) Clitarchi historici, saith Quintilian, ingenium probatur, fides infamatur. Nepos reporteth of Epaminondas, (d) that he so loved truth that he would not once lie, no, not in jest. A shame to many Christians, who think the officious and sporting lie to be nothing. Whereas [Galatians 1:10] we must notspeak the truth to please men, much less lie. And for saving ourselves, we must rather die then lie; else Peter had not sinned in denying his Master. As for profiting others, we may notlie, though it were to save a soul. [Romans 3:7] We may as well commit fornication with the Moabites, to draw them to our religion, or steal from rich men to give to the poor, as lie to do another man a good turn. See Job 13:7-9.

6. WESLEY19. And Jacob said, I am Esau - Who would have thought this plain man could have played such a part? His mother having put him in the way of it, he applies himself to those methods which he had never accustomed himself to, but had always conceived an abhorrence of. But lying is soon learned. I wonder how honest Jacob could so readily turn his tongue to say, I am Esau thy first- born: and when his father asked him, ver. 24. Art thou my very son Esau? to reply I am. How could he say, I have done as thou badst me, when he had received no command from his father, but was doing as his mother bid him? How could he say, Eat of my venison, when he knew it came not from the field, but from the fold? But especially I wonder how he could have the forehead to father it upon God, and to use his name in the cheat.

7. SCOTT HOEZEE What you mostly do not expect, however, is to find God himself appearing complicit with what seems to be something unjust. Yet throughout a good deal of Genesis, God frequently appears to be on the wrong side of things. The most consistent example of God's apparent injustice is his routine ignoring of an iron-clad ancient societal rule: the rule of primogeniture. The

firstborn son, the eldest child in the family, was the most important one. Hewas the one who, by virtue of birth order, was to inherit most of the land and household goods. He would be the one to take his father's place one day as the paterfamilias, the head of the whole clan. The notion of the firstborn being of first importance was so widely assumed in the Ancient Near East as to be virtually unassailable. That is simply the way things were done. That was simply the way things had always been done.

In the Bible, however, God keeps choosing as his favored one the younger child. It started with Abel, who seemed to garner God's favor more than the older, firstborn Cain. It continues with Esau and Jacob. Or is it "Jacob and Esau." That's the way we usually say it, isn't it: Jacob first, then Esau. That's not how they tumbled out of the womb, however. Esau was older. Granted, he was older by only a minute or two, but firstborn is firstborn. Eventually in Genesis we will see another example of God's choosing whomever he wants irrespective of birth order when young Joseph rises upabove his ten or so older brothers. Moses will one day rise above his older brother Aaron, David will get chosen ahead of his more strapping elder brothers, and so on.

But to people steeped in the tradition of "Firstborn, first in line," God's way of operating seemed profoundly unfair and unjust. But nowhere is this more obvious than in the case of younger Jacob. The tale we read tonight is a much beloved Bible story that has been told with great drama in Sunday school and Worship Center classrooms around the world from timeimmemorial. Sunday school teachers at church and parents reading to theirchildren at the dinner table never skip this story. But neither do we always savor its full punch or appreciate its theological scandal. Think of it this way: can you imagine a father reading this story to his children in the hopes that maybe one of his kids will dupe the old man the same way crafty Jacob did his father?!

Obviously no one hopes that will happen! But then how come you never hear of a parent reading this story and then saying to the kids, "You ever try to lie to me like Jacob did and I'll whoop your hide!" We don't dare to say that because we sense all along in Genesis that Jacob is the hero here.But if so, he's a kind of anti-hero. He's a born sneak. He came out of the womb grabbing at his older brother's heel and he basically never stopped grabbing at every opportunity. He worked the angles, exploited his twin brother's dim-witted nature, told lies like a professional, and could work outwhole scams in his head without much effort at all. He was a crook, a sneak, a liar, and also by the way God's kind of guy. And if you don't find that even mildly amazing, you didn't pay attention to what we just read.

20

Isaac asked his son, "How did you find it so quickly, my son?" "The LORD your God gave me success," he replied.

To add to the lie, he brought the Lord in as an accomplice. He was using religionto back up his deception.

This is horrible. Proverbs 19:22 saysProv. 19:22 ...It is better to be a poor man than a liar.

1. Gill, “And Isaac said unto his son,.... Supposing him to be Esau:

how is it that thou hast found it so quickly, my son? that is, the venison; that he had met with it so soon in, the field, and got it dressed and ready in so short a time, which was not common, and seemed to be too little for doing all this in it, and so still created some suspicion of deceit:

and he said, because the Lord thy God brought it to me; which was another falsehood; for it was not the Lord, but his mother brought it to him: and this seems to be the most marvellous of all, that so good a man should dare to bring the name of the Lord God into this affair; indeed he does not say the Lord my God, or our God, but thy God; which some think was done on purpose, the more to cover the deceit, because they suppose that Esau, whom Jacob impersonated, was an idolater, but this is not so evident;rather it looks as if Jacob had not the confidence to call the Lord his God with a lie in his mouth.

2. PINK 2. PINK 2. PINK 2. PINK We refrain from quoting at length the verses that follow. Jacob complies with his mother’s suggestion, and adds sin to sin. First he impersonates his brother, tells lies to his father, and ends by going the awful length of bringing in the name of the Lord God (v. 20). To what fearful lengths will sin quickly lead us once we take the first wrong step! A similar progression in evil is seen (by way of implication) in Psalm 1:1: the one who "walks" in the consul of the ungodly will soon be found "standing" in the way of sinners, and then it will not be long ere heis discovered "sitting" in the seat of the scornful.

At first suspicious, Isaac’s fears were allayed by his son’s duplicity, and the blessing was given, "and he came near and kissed him: and he smelled the smellof 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: Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine: Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother’s sons bow down to thee: cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee" (vv. 27-29). It is to be noted that the "blessing" which Jacob here receives from the lips of his father was far below the blessed string of promises which he received directly from God when wholly cast upon His grace (see Genesis 28:13-15).

21

Then Isaac said to Jacob, "Come near so I can touch you, my son, to know whether you really are my son Esau or not."

Isaac is somewhat suspicious, for it does not say he was also going deaf, and so the voice of Jacob had to sound different than that of Esau. Some even feel that Isaac was not fooled but knew this had to be the doing of his wife, and that he went along with it because he knew she was probably right and that Jacob was to be the one God chose.

1. Gill, “And Isaac said unto Jacob, come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee, my son,.... Still suspecting some fraud in the case; and whereas he knew that Esauwas a hairy man, and Jacob smooth, he thought by feeling he could discover the imposture, if there was any:

whether thou be my very son Esau, or not; which he still pretty much questioned.

22

Jacob went close to his father Isaac, who touched himand said, "The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the

hands are the hands of Esau."

1. Gill, “And Jacob went near unto Isaac his father,.... Boldly and without trembling; which he could the better do, as his father could not see him, and so not capable of discerning any change in his countenance or outward behaviour:

and he felt him; some parts of his body, especially his hands:

and said, the voice is Jacob's voice; very like it, as if it was the same, as indeed it was:

but the hands are the hands of Esau; are like them, being hairy as they; or, as the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem,"the feeling of the hands is as the feeling of the hands of Esau;''they feel like them.

2. Henry, “The success of this management. Jacob with some difficulty gained his point, and obtained the blessing.

1. Isaac was at first dissatisfied, and would have discovered the fraud if he could have trusted his own ears; for the voice was Jacob's voice, Gen_27:22. Providence has ordered a strange variety of voices as well as faces, which is also of use to prevent our being imposed upon; and the voice is a thing not easily disguised nor counterfeited. This may be alluded to to illustrate the character of a hypocrite. His voice is Jacob's voice, but his hands are Esau's. He speaks the language of a saint, but does the works of a sinner; but the judgement will be, as here, by the hands.

3. Calvin, “Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee. It hence appears that the holy man was suspicious of fraud, and therefore hesitated. Whence it may seem thatthe benediction was vain, seeing it had no support of faith. But it thus pleased God so to perform his work by the hand of Isaac, as not to make him, who was the instrument, a willing furtherer of his design. �or is it absurd that Isaac, like a blind man, should ignorantly transfer the blessing to a different person from him whom he intended. The ordinary function of pastors has something of a similar kind; for since by the command of God, they reconcile men to him, yet they do not discern to whom this reconciliation comes; thus they cast abroad the seed, but are uncertain respecting the fruit. Wherefore God does not place the office and power with which he has invested them, under the control of their own judgment. In this way the ignorance of Isaac does not nullify the heavenly oracles; and God himself, although the senses of his servant fail, does not desist from the accomplishment of his purpose. Here we have a clear refutation of the figment of the Papists, that the whole force of the sacrament depends upon the intention of the man who consecrates; as if, truly, it were left to the will of man to frustrate the design of God. �evertheless, what I have already so often said must be remembered, that however Isaac might be deceived in the person of his son, he yet did not pronounce the blessing in vain: because a general faith remained in his mind and in part governed

his conduct. In forming his judgment from the touch, disregarding the voice, he did not act according to the nature of faith. And, therefore, with respect to the person, he was plainly in error. This, however, did not happen in consequence of negligence;since he diligently and even anxiously turned every way, that he might not deprive the firstborn of his right. But it pleased the Lord thus to render his senses dull, partly for the purpose of showing, how vain it is for men to strive to change what he has once decreed, (because it is impossible hut that his counsel should remain firm and stable though the whole world should oppose it,) and partly, for the purpose of correcting, by this kind of chastisement, the absurd attachment by which Isaac was too closely bound to his firstborn. For whence arose this minute investigation, except from the fact that an inordinate love of Esau, which had taken entire possession of his mind, turned him aside from the divine oracle? Therefore, since he yielded an excessive indulgence to natural feeling, he deserved in every way to be blinded. So much the greater care ought we to take that, in carrying on God’s work,we should not give the reins to our human affections.

23

He did not recognize him, for his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau; so he blessed him.

It would seem that the voice would be a dead giveaway, and that the hands with skins on would be easily felt to be skins and not his own hair, but Isaac is not a great investigator and lets his doubts go quickly.

1. Clarke, “And he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy - From this circumstance we may learn that Isaac’s sense of feeling was much impaired by his present malady. When he could not discern the skin of a kid from the flesh of his son, we see that he was, through his infirmity, in a fit state to be imposed on by the deceit of his wife, and the cunning of his younger son.

2. Gill, “And he discerned him not,.... As he could not see, he could make no judgment by that sense; and, though he had his hearing, and thought the voice was like Jacob's, he might imagine there might be an alteration in Esau's voice, coming in haste and weary from the fields; yet, as there could not be any deception in his feeling, he thought it safest to trust to that, as it follows:

because his hands were hairy as his brother Esau's hands; which could not in a short time become so naturally; it was more reasonable to think that Esau's voice should be altered and become like Jacob's, than that Jacob's hands should become like Esau's:

so he blessed him; or intended and determined within himself to bless him, for the blessing was not given till afterwards; unless this is to be understood of a common blessing, congratulating him on the quick dispatch he made, and the great success he met with; and after this gave him the patriarchal blessing, which as yet he had not, being not thoroughly satisfied of him, as appears by what follows.

3. Henry, “At length he yielded to the power of the cheat, because the hands were hairy (Gen_27:23), not considering how easy it was to counterfeit that circumstance; and now Jacob carries it on dexterously, sets his venison before his father, and waits at table very officiously, till dinner is done, and the blessing comes to be pronounced in the close of this solemn feast. That which in some small degree extenuates the crime of Rebekah and Jacob is that the fraud was intended, not so much to hasten the fulfilling, as to prevent the thwarting, of the oracle of God: the blessing was just going to be put upon the wrong head, and they thought it was time to bestir themselves.

24

"Are you really my son Esau?" he asked. "I am," he replied.

He gives one last chance for Jacob to confess his lie, but he does not do so and confirms it by lying again.

1. Gill, “And said, art thou my very son Esau?.... Still having some doubt on his mind whether he really was so or not, because of his voice:

and he said, I am; as for the observation of Jarchi upon this, in order to excuse Jacob from lying, that he does not say, "I am Esau", only "I", it will not do, since it is an answer to Isaac's question, with a design to deceive him; and he intended by it that he should understand him as he did, that he was really Esau.

2. K&D 24-29, “After his father, in order to get rid of his suspicion about the voice, had

asked him once more, “Art thou really my son Esau?” and Jacob had replied, “I am” (אני

=�yes),�he�told�him�to�hand�him�the�savoury�dish�that�he�might�eat.�After�eating,�he�kissed�his�son�

as�a�sing�of�his�paternal�affection,�and�in�doing�so�he�smelt�the�odour�of�his�clothes,�i.e.,�the�

clothes�of�Esau,�which�were�thoroughly�scented�with�the�odour�of�the�fields,�and�then�imparted�

his�blessing�(Gen_27:27-29).�The�blessing�itself�is�thrown,�as�the�sign�of�an�elevated�state�of�mind,

into�the�poetic�style�of�parallel�clauses,�and�contains�the�peculiar�forms�of�poetry,�such�as��ראה for

הוה�, ה]ה for�היה,�etc.�The�smell�of�the�clothes�with�the�scent�of�the�field�suggested�to�the�

patriarch's�mind�the�image�of�his�son's�future�prosperity,�so�that�he�saw�him�in�possession�of�the�

promised�land�and�the�full�enjoyment�of�its�valuable�blessings,�having�the�smell�of�the�field�which�

Jehovah�blessed,�i.e.,�the�garden�of�paradise,�and�broke�out�into�the�wish,�“God�(Ha-Elohim,�the�

personal�God,�not�Jehovah,�the�covenant�God)�give�thee�from�the�dew�of�heaven,�and�the�fat�

fields�of�the�earth,�and�plenty�of�corn�and�wine,”�i.e.,�a�land�blessed�with�the�dew�of�heaven�and�a�

fruitful�soil.

In�Eastern�countries,�where�there�is�so�little�rain,�the�dew�is�the�most�important�prerequisite�for�

the�growth�of�the�fruits�of�the�earth,�and�is�often�mentioned�therefore�as�a�source�of�blessing�

(Deu_33:13,�Deu_33:28;�Hos_14:6;�Zec_8:12).�In�משמ]י,�notwithstanding�the�absence�of�the�

Dagesh�from�the�ש,�the�מ is�the�prep.�מן,�as�the�parallel��לeמ proves;�and�שמ]ים both�here�and�in�

Gen_27:39�are�the�fat�(fertile)�districts�of�a�country.�The�rest�of�the�blessing�had�reference�to�the�

future�pre-eminence�of�his�son.�He�was�to�be�lord�not�only�over�his�brethren�(i.e.,�over�kindred�

tribes),�but�over�(foreign)�peoples�and�nations�also.�The�blessing�rises�here�to�the�idea�of�

universal�dominion,�which�was�to�be�realized�in�the�fact�that,�according�to�the�attitude�assumed�

by�the�people�towards�him�as�their�lord,�it�would�secure�to�them�either�a�blessing�or�a�curse.�If�we�

compare�this�blessing�with�the�promises�which�Abraham�received,�there�are�two�elements�of�the�

latter�which�are�very�apparent;�viz.,�the�possession�of�the�land,�in�the�promise�of�the�rich�

enjoyment�of�its�produce,�and�the�numerous�increase�of�posterity,�in�the�promised�dominion�over

the�nations.�The�third�element,�however,�the�blessing�of�the�nations�in�and�through�the�seed�of�

Abraham,�is�so�generalized�in�the�expression,�which�is�moulded�according�to�Gen_12:3,�“Cursed�

be�every�one�that�curseth�thee,�and�blessed�be�he�that�blesseth�thee,”�that�the�person�blessed�is�

not�thereby�declared�to�be�the�medium�of�salvation�to�the�nations.�Since�the�intention�to�give�the�

blessing�to�Esau�the�first-born�did�not�spring�from�proper�feelings�towards�Jehovah�and�His�

promises,�the�blessing�itself,�as�the�use�of�the�word�Elohim�instead�of�Jehovah�or�El�Shaddai�(cf.�

Gen_28:3)�clearly�shows,�could�not�rise�to�the�full�height�of�the�divine�blessings�of�salvation,�but�

referred�chiefly�to�the�relation�in�which�the�two�brothers�and�their�descendants�would�stand�to�

one�another,�the�theme�with�which�Isaac's�soul�was�entirely�filled.�It�was�only�the�painful�

discovery�that,�in�blessing�against�his�will,�he�had�been�compelled�to�follow�the�saving�counsel�of�

God,�which�awakened�in�him�the�consciousness�of�his�patriarchal�vocation,�and�gave�him�the�

spiritual�power�to�impart�the�“blessing�of�Abraham”�to�the�son�whom�he�had�kept�back,�but�

whom�Jehovah�had�chosen,�when�he�was�about�to�send�him�away�to�Haran�

25

Then he said, "My son, bring me some of your game to eat, so that I may give you my blessing." Jacob brought it to him and he ate; and he brought some wine and he drank.

1. Gill, “And he said, bring it near to me,.... Being in a good measure satisfied that it must be Esau that was with him, he agreed that he should set his savoury meat before him he had prepared and brought to him:

and I will eat of my son's venison, that my soul may bless thee; this showed that as yet he had not blessed him, at least that the main and principal blessing was yet to come:

and he brought it near to him, and he did eat; set it on a table before him, and guided his hands to it, or fed him with it, and he made a meal of it:

and he brought him wine, and he drank; and so was comfortably refreshed, and in a good temper and disposition of mind to confer the blessing.

2. BI, "2. BI, "2. BI, "2. BI, "God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine

Isaac blessing Jacob

I. WITH TEMPORAL BLESSINGS.

1. A fertile soil.

2. Abundance of provision.

3. Political pre-eminence.

II. WITH SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS.

1. The channel of spiritual blessing to mankind.

2. A test of character. (T. H. Leale.)

Isaac’s blessing—the parent’s warning

I. First, we shall consider WHEREIN ISAAC’S BLESSING CONSISTED.

1. Plenty, heaven and earth combining to enrich the happy possessor.

2. Power, almost unlimited, especially over his own brethren.

3. And last, though not the least, a mighty influence with God and a great interest in the courts of heaven. “Cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee.” Or, in other words, “Let God be an enemy to all thy enemies, and a friend to all thy friends.”

4. Now these, doubtless, were very desirable mercies, and they belonged, by right, to the first-born; though God was pleased sometimes to revoke that taw, and to transferthese blessings from the elder to the younger, as instanced in the case before us, and also in that of Cain and of Reuben. These, I say, were very desirable mercies, and, when accompanied with the Divine sanction, of untold value. But still, after all, they were but temporary. They lasted only for this life; and Jacob, I doubt not, might have managed very well without any one of them. The blessing of Isaac, therefore, must have comprised something more than what we have here recorded; otherwise we may be well assured that Jacob would never have risked so much to obtain it, nor would his mother ever have placed him in so hazardous and perilous a situation. But the fact is, these temporal blessings were but the “shadows of better things to come.” They were, to use an apostolic phrase, “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” They included all those good things which were more particularly specified to Abraham when God entered into covenant with him. They intimated, for instance, in the first place, that from him should descend the Messiah—He who was to be the “Prince of the kings of the earth . . . before whom all nations should come and worship . . . and who was to rule them with a rod of iron, and to break them to shivers as a potter’s vessel.” And, in the second place, that from him also should come the church that was to be specially owned and blessed by God; and consequently we find Isaac, when afterwards confirming the blessing to Jacob, calling it the “blessing of Abraham.”

II. What were THE MEANS THAT REBEKAH ADOPTED to secure the blessing for her favourite son Jacob. They were little else than a tissue of lies and deceit.

III. Let us now see what LESSONS we may gather up from a contemplation of the whole subject.

1. In the first place, then, it reads a very solemn and affecting warning to parents. It teaches the folly and danger of making invidious distinctions between the different members of your families—of showing an undue partiality for one child more than another. It is a withering curse. It introduces discord and dissension into every family wherever it finds a footing, and it is the fruitful source of all evil, social and moral. Whenever, therefore, you feel its chilling influence beginning to steal over you, oh, remember Rebekah, and in the name and strength of your God shake it fromyou. Give it no encouragement; or, if you must, keep it to yourself. Let no one else ever see or feel it. In the second place, learn from this subject the way in which our Heavenly Father will have us to seek for His blessing. We must come to Him for it in and through our Elder Brother. We must come clothed in His “goodly raiment,” even that pure and spotless robe which He wrought for us on Calvary. There is no other way under heaven whereby we can be saved. And if you ask me by what means we areto get this goodly raiment—this pure and spotless righteousness, I answer, simply by asking for it. “Ask,” says your God and Saviour, “and you shall have.” And although it cost Him a great price—even His own precious blood—yet He offers it to you without money and without price. Oh, go to Him, then, and ask Him for this precious gift; for “the gift of God is eternal life.” (E. Harper, B. A.)

Isaac blessing Jacob

1. That parents ought to bless their children; too many do curse, and not bless them.

2. Children ought to fear the causeful curses of their parents. The better son feared the curse of his father (Gen_27:12).

3. Parents ought rather to gather a stock of Divine promises, that they may bless their children more out of faith than out of form, praying for them out of a promise, as Isaac did then for his son Jacob, praying that the blessing of Abraham might come upon him (Gen_28:4).

4. A wishing our children’s weal customarily without a praying for them believingly, is neither enough for parents, nor is it all (or at all) that is warranted by Isaac’s blessing Jacob here. There is much difference between a formal wish and a faithful prayer for their good.

5. Spiritual blessings must be sought and sued for in their proper season. Here Esau came too late for the blessing, which was bestowed before he lost the right season (which is a part of time above all other parts, even the shine and lustre of time), so could not obtain it, no, not with tears Heb_12:16-17). (C. Ness.)

26

Then his father Isaac said to him, "Come here, my son, and kiss me."

1. Barnes, “Gen_27:26-29

He gives the kiss of paternal affection, and pronounces the benediction. It contains, first, a fertile soil. “Of the dew of heaven.” An abundant measure of this was especially precious in a country where the rain is confined to two seasons of the year. “Of the fatness of the earth;” a proportion of this to match and render available the dew of heaven. “Corn and wine,” the substantial products, implying all the rest. Second, a numerous and powerful offspring. “Let peoples serve thee” - pre-eminence among the nations. “Be lord of thy brethren” - pre-eminence among his kindred. Isaac does not seem to have grasped the full meaning of the prediction, “The older shall serve the younger.” Third, Prosperity, temporal and spiritual. He that curseth thee be cursed, and he that blesseth thee be blessed. This is the only part of the blessing that directly comprises spiritual things; and even this of a special form. It is to be recollected that it was Isaac’s intention to bless Esau, and he may have felt that Esau, after all, was not to

be the progenitor of the holy seed. Hence, the form of expression is vague enough to apply to temporal things, and yet sufficiently comprehensive to embrace the infliction of the ban of sin, and the diffusion of the blessing of salvation by means of the holy seed.

2. Gill, “And his father Isaac said unto him,.... After he had eat and drank, and the repast was over, and all were took away:

come near now, and kiss me, my son; which was desired either out of affection to him, excited by this instance of preparing such savoury and agreeable food; or else having some suspicion still, and willing to have more satisfaction before he proceeded further to bless, from the smell of his breath, and of his garments,

3. Henry 26-29, “Now let us see how Isaac gave Jacob his blessing, Gen_27:26-29. (1.) He embraced him, in token of a particular affection to him. Those that are blessed of Godare kissed with the kisses of his mouth, and they do, by love and loyalty, kiss the Son, Psa_2:12. (2.) He praised him. He smelt the smell of his raiment, and said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed, that is, like that of the most fragrant flowers and spices. It appeared that God had blessed him, and therefore Isaac would bless him. (3.) He prayed for him, and therein prophesied concerning him. It is the duty of parents to pray for their children, and to bless them in the name of the Lord. And thus, as well as by their baptism, to do what they can to preserve and perpetuate the entail of the covenant in their families. But this was an extraordinary blessing; and Providence so ordered it that Isaac should bestow it upon Jacob ignorantly and by mistake, that it might appear he was beholden to God for it, and not to Isaac. Three things Jacob is here blessed with: - [1.] Plenty (Gen_27:28), heaven and earth concurring to make him rich. [2.] Power (Gen_27:29), particularly dominion over his brethren, namely, Esau and his posterity. [3.] Prevalency with God, and a great interest in Heaven: “Cursed by every one that curseth thee and blessed be he that blesseth thee. Let God be a friend to all thy friends, and an enemy to all they enemies.” More is certainly comprised in this blessing than appears prima facie - at first sight. It must amount to an entail of the promise of the Messiah, and of the church; this was, in the patriarchal dialect, the blessing: something spiritual, doubtless, is included in it. First, That from him should come the Messiah, who should have a sovereign dominion on earth. It was that top-branch of his family which people should serve and nations bowdown to. See Num_24:19, Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion, the star and sceptre, Gen_27:17. Jacob's dominion over Esau was to be only typical of this, Gen_49:10. Secondly, That from him should come the church, which should be particularly owned and favoured by Heaven. It was part of the blessing of Abraham, when he was first called to be the father of the faithful (Gen_12:3), I will bless those that bless thee; therefore, when Isaac afterwards confirmed the blessing to Jacob, he called it the blessing of Abraham, Gen_28:4. Balaam explains this too, Num_24:9. Note, It is thebest and most desirable blessing to stand in relation to Christ and his church, and to be interested in Christ's power and the church's favours.

4. Calvin, “.Come near now, and kiss me. We know that the practice of kissing was then in use, which many nations retain to this day. Profane men, however, may say, that it is ludicrous for an old man, whose mind was already obtuse, and who

moreover had eaten and drunk heartily, should pour forth his benedictions upon a person who was only acting a part. (47) But whereas Moses has previously recorded the oracle of God, by which the adoption was destined for the younger son, it behoves us reverently to contemplate the secret providence of God, towards which profane men pay no respect. Truly Isaac was not so in bondage to the attractions of meat and drink as to be unable, with sobriety of mind, to reflect upon the divine command given unto him, and to undertake in seriousness, and with a certain faith in his own vocation, the very work in which, on account of the infirmity of his flesh, he vacillated and halted. Therefore, we must not form our estimate of this blessing from the external appearance, but from the celestial decree; even as it appeared at length, by the issue, that God neither vainly sported, nor that man rashly proceeded in this affair: and, truly, if the same religion dwells in us which flourished in the patriarch’s heart, nothing will hinder the divine power from shining forth the more clearly in the weakness of man.

5. Criswell, “In the Bible, thirty-nine times in the Old Testament is the word nashaq meaning “to kiss”; in the �ew Testament, phileo, which usually means “to love in a friendly way”—three times it is translated “kiss”; in the �ew Testament, kataphileo, “to kiss tenderly” is used six times; in the �ew Testament philema, the word for “kiss” is used seven times. In the Old Testament, a few times “to kiss” is used in poetic imagery. For example, in Ezekiel three, the prophet says he saw the wings of the cherubim and they nashaq—translated in the King James Version—“they touched each other”; literally Ezekiel wrote, “the wings of the cherubim folded and kissed each other.” There is a beautiful, beautiful verse in Psalm 85 and 10: Mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace kissed each other.

There is a verse in Proverbs 44 and verse 26: Every man shall kiss his lips who giveth a right answer.

In the Talmud, one of the most beautiful poetic descriptions, I think in human speech is the Midrash in the last chapter of Deuteronomy on the death of Moses. And the rabbi said in that Midrash that Moses died with the kiss of God upon his lips.

We might say it like this: God kissed the breath of Moses away. So I point out a fewtimes in the Old Testament, the word kiss is used in a poetic and a symbolic and imagery sense.

But practically all of the time, indeed, I think all of the other instances outside of these they just pointed out, the word refers to a caress of the lips. And the first time the word nashaq the kiss is used in the Bible is in the passage that I just read in the 27th chapter of the Book of Genesis.

And it is one of those strong, strange providences that this first use of the word is two-fold. There are two sides to a kiss. One can be a kiss of deception and

seduction, an artful ploy of hypocrisy, feigning a love that is no wise felt. And, of course, the other can be the kiss of tenderest sympathy and love and purity and faithfulness. In the Bible nashaq sometimes is used to describe a ploy, a seduction and deception and hypocrisy. For example, in the Second Samuel is the story of Absalom as he stole the hearts of the men of Israel away from David and mounted a rebellion against him. And the way Absalom did it, the Bible says, was when a man came to Jerusalem for any cause, to lay a cause before the king, Absalom intercepted him—met him and kissed him, and said, “Would God I were king in Israel.” In that same Second Samuel, the use of that word “kiss” in deception. When Absalom mounted his rebellion, he made Amasa captain of the hosts of the army that fought against David and almost won [2 Samuel 17:25]. Joab was the captain of the hosts of the army of David, and in the large, generous, graciousness ofDavid—in seeking to heal the breach in Israel—he made Amasa leader of the army of Absalom his own captain of the hosts and displaced Joab. So when Joab met Amasa, Joab took Amasa’s face as though he was graciously kissed the face of Amasa. But Amasa did not notice that under a fold of his garment, Joab had a sword. And when Joab kissed Amasa, he pulled out that sword and ran him through. And Amasa died wallowing—the Bible says—in his own blood [2 Samuel 20:1-12].

The kiss of deception and subtlety and seduction, in the seventh chapter of the Book of Proverbs, the wise man says, I discerned among you a young man passing through the streets—

in the twilight, in the evening, in the black and the dark night.

And behold, there met him a woman with the attire of a harlot, and subtle of heart. .. .

So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him. . . .

I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, . . . .

I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning. Let us soak ourselves with loves.. . .

With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the kiss of her lips. . , .

He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as the fool to the correction of the stocks;

Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life” [Proverbs 7:9-23].

The kiss of the harlot, one of seduction. And of course, the most famous kiss in the world, I suppose, when Judas said to the Sanhedrin: He whom I kiss, it is he. Seize him, hold him fast [Mark 14:44]. And in the nighttime, Judas leads the band from the temple court and he meets the Lord with his apostles and he says: Hail, Master. And kissed him. And the Lord said: Judas, you betray your Lord with a kiss? [Luke 22:47, 48]. The kiss was also in the Old Testament a sign of adoration and theworship of an idol. Do you remember when Elijah said: And I, and I only Lord, am left. Do you remember what the Lord said? Elijah, “I have reserved for me seven thousand who have not bowed a knee to Baal nor have kissed him” [1 Kings 19:18]. In the Book of Job the thirty-first chapter, Job pleading his integrity says, I have never kissed my hand toward the sun and the moon” [Jib 31:26, 27]. And in the thirteenth chapter of the Book of Hosea, Hosea describes the apostasy of Israel in saying that they were kissing the golden calves at Bethel and at Dan [Hosea 13:1,2]. So there are tragically so, instances where the kiss is one of apostasy and subtlety and seduction.

But there is another side of this caress of the human heart, and this is the kiss that we love to think of in its truth and in its purity and in its goodness and in its preciousness. First, the kiss of personal endearment and personal love. This is the basis of marriage and the home and the generations. In the story of Jacob, who came to Heron, into the house of Rebekah’s brother named Laban, Jacob sees Rachel who is described as a beautiful girl. And the Bible says: And Jacob kissed Rachel. In the Song of Solomon, the first verse and the text of the song—“The Song of songs, which is Solomon’s. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth [Song o Solomon 1:1, 2]. There is not a more beautiful poem in the English literature than “[Asolando:] Summum Bonum,” the highest greatest good, written by Robert Browning. Do you remember it?

All the breath and the bloom of the year in the bag of one bee:All the wonder and wealth of the mine in the heart of one gem:In the core of one pearl all the shade and the shine of the sea:Breath and bloom, shade and shine, --wonder, wealth,and—how far above them—

Truth that's brighter than gem,Trust, that's purer than pearl, --Brightest truth, purest trust in the universe--all were for meIn the kiss of one girl.

[Robert Browning, “Asolando: Summum Bonum”]

Beautiful. How true. The kiss also in the Bible—the sweet love of a family. When Joseph made himself known to his brothers, he first kissed Benjamin. Then he kissed all of the sons of Jacob his brothers. And all of us are moved by the pathos and compassion of the father, in Luke 15, who welcomes back the prodigal son. And he saw his boy from afar and ran to meet him and kissed him. There is a kiss

of friendship in the Bible. Moses worked for Jethro for forty years. And when Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt, Jethro met him and Moses kissed him. When Samuel anointed Saul, after the anointing oil was poured on the head of Samuel the young man—was poured on the head of Saul the young man, Samuel kissed the young fellow. And one of the moving instances in the life of David, when David fled before Absalom and the rebellion against him, he crossed over Jordan. And on the east side was a Gileadite named Barzillai. His name means “son of iron.” And Barzillai fed David and his armies while he was fleeing from Absalom. And when Absalom was defeated and David crossed back over Jordan to Jerusalem,he asked old Barzillai to go with him. And Barzillai said, I am four-score years old—I am eighty years of age. and I ought to stay with my people, be buried by my father and my mother, but my prayers and love will go with you, said old Barzillai. And when time came for David to pass over Jordan, the Book says he kissed Barzillai, his old friend.

So the kiss came also to be a gesture of sweet farewell and parting. When the familyof Jacob returned back to Canaan, Laban kissed his daughter Rachel and Leah and their children. One of the sweetest stories in the Bible is the story of Ruth. And Orpah kissed Ruth and went back. But Ruth clave to her—Orpah kissed �aomi. But Ruth clave to her mother-in-law and accompanied her to her new home in Bethlehem. When David was sent away from the court of Saul, Jonathon kissed David goodbye. When Elijah called Elisha into the prophetic ministry, Elisha said: Let me first kiss my father and my mother goodbye. And this beautiful scene in the life of Paul after he had spoken to the Ephesian elders who have met him on the seashore at Miletus, the twentieth chapter of Acts closes, “And when Paul had thus spoken, he kneeled down, and prayed with them all. And they all wept sore, and fellon Paul’s neck, and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more” [Acts 20:36-38].

And not only the kiss of farewell in life. But there was a kiss of farewell in death. Inthe forty-ninth chapter of Genesis, when Jacob—when Israel died, Israel charged his sons and said unto them: I am to be gathered now to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the grave that is in the field of Ephraim the Hittite. There they buriedAbraham and Sarah. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah. And there I buried Leah. And when Jacob made an end of commanding his sons, he yielded up the spirit. And the Bible, he was gathered unto his people, he died. �ow the next verse, “And Joseph fell upon his father’s face, and wept upon him, and kissed him” [Genesis 50:1]—the kiss of a final farewell.

Then of course, in the Bible there is the kiss of reverence and of worship and of gratitude to God. The second Psalm is a messianic Psalm. It describes the glory of the coming of our Lord. And in that second Psalm, the singer speaks of those who are gathered against the Lord. But he admonishes us, “Kiss the Son. . . . Blessed areall they that put their trust in him” [Psalm 2:12]. And you have a poignantly beautiful example of that when our Lord was seated in the home of Simon the Pharisee. And as the custom was in that day, they leaned on the table on which they

broke bread and their feet were out in the aisle. And while the Lord was eating, there came a gentle woman. And she broke an alabaster box over the Lord, and anointed his feet and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet—reverence and gratitude and worship of our dear Lord. And thus it came to pass, that the admonition of our Savior through your great apostle and author of most of the Books of the �ew Testament lies in that kind of a personal admonition. Paul would write in [chapter] sixteen of Romans, verse sixteen, ”Salute one another with a holy kiss” [Romans 16:16]; and he writes the same thing in 1 Corinthians 16:20; and the same admonition in 2 Corinthians 13:12; and the same admonition in 1 Thessalonians 5:26; and the same admonition is written by the apostle Peter in 1 Peter 5:14: “Greet ye one another—salute one another with a holy kiss, the kiss of love and charity and communion. Thus it is that the Holy Scriptures and the apostle Paul to the churches admonishes us to be kind and thoughtful and gracious and loving and tender and full of encouraging remembrance for each other. We belong to the body of Christ. We are one in his precious name; and as such, we are to reflect ever the tender, compassionate and loving spirit of our wonderful savior. That is the Christian life and the Christian heart and the Christian attitude.

I read of a woman, a godly Christian woman. She was standing with a throng, a crowd before a heavy iron gate. Beyond was a police station and a police court and a temporary prison. And the crowd that was gathered there, some were standing out of curiosity—some had relatives on the inside. And among them, this godly woman. As they stood there, the great iron gate began to part. It began to open. And there was heard the heavy shuffling of feet. And above the din and the noise, the shrill scream of a woman. And soon, there appeared as the gate continued to open, a policemen on this side and a policemen on that side, holding a screaming woman who filled the air with her oaths and her curses. Her hair was dirty and unkempt and matted. She had a heavy bruise on her right temple, and her dress was dirty and torn. As they dragged that screaming, cursing woman through the gates, and in front of this godly Christian woman, she thought, “What could I do?” To sing a song would have been ridiculous. To pray, there was no time. To read a Scripture would have been no good. To give her money, she could not have receivedit. And suddenly, as though it were an inspiration from heaven, as though an angel of God suggested it; suddenly she went forward and held the woman’s face in her hand and kissed her face. It may have been the startling and astonishment of the officers that released their grasp, or it could have been a superhuman effort on the part of the visitors, but she wrenched herself loose and raised her hand to heaven and said, “Oh God, who kissed me? �o one has kissed me like that since my motherwhen I was a small child.” She looked around and said, “Who kissed me?” And with many sobs, the officers took her to the van and to the penitentiary. In the days that followed, this godly woman went to the penitentiary and asked to see that inmate. The warden replied, “We think she has lost her mind, for she does nothing but ask, Who kissed me? And when each one of us walk into the cell, she asks, Who kissed me?” The warden said, “You are so welcome.”

So they opened the door to the cell, and this godly woman entered in. And that

prisoner said, “Do you know who kissed me?”

And the gracious Christian friend said, “Why do you ask?”

And the reply, the woman said, “When I was seven years of age, my widowed mother died in a dark basement on the back side of an alley. Just as she died, she called me and drew me to her side and said, Oh, my poor little girl, what will become of you? May God take care of you. And she put her head upon my face andkissed me. �o one ever kissed me like that until that day when they were dragging me through the gate of that police station, and that some body who kissed me, kissedme as my dear mother did when I was seven years old. Who kissed me?”

And the woman said, “It was I. It was I.” And she spoke to her of the love of the Lord to whom her mother had commended the child years ago; brought her to a sweet, saving knowledge of the blessed Jesus. And the rest of the story—a model prisoner; clean and pure and forgiven. She led many, many, many of the other inmates in that woman’s prison to a saving knowledge of our Lord. I do not deny that once in a while you will find somebody who has been won to Christ by the preacher’s service. But having been a pastor over half a century, I have learned through the years, practically all of us who have been won to the Lord, have been won through the sweet, tender kindness and remembrance of a godly mother or a precious friend or somebody who cared, was interested, was compassionate, who ledus to the face of our savior. That is how we ought to be—always interested, compassionate. And if there is aught that we can do to help, that ought to be our commitment and our life as a Christian.

I think of you sweet people—homebound. We have a dear fellow minister in our church named Floyd Chapin. And every week, he goes out to the True Home and spends the day with those sweet people in the True Home. In how many ways do I see people in this church who are thoughtful and kind and prayerful and gracious and compassionate. That is what it is to be like Jesus. And when Jesus saw the people, he had compassion upon them. He was moved with compassion. I think Jesus moved with compassion is his endearing name. And when we are most like him, we are most like that—thoughtful and prayerful and interested. And if there isa burden that we can share, if there is a prayer that we can pray, if there is something by which we can help, may God use us to be that blessing to you. And out of all of the things that any one of us might be able to do, the most beautiful and beloved of all would be this—that we bring you in faith, in love, in trust to our livingLord.

Oh, that it might be this morning—the family, you; or just a couple, you; or just one, some body, you—open his heart to the tender, loving grace of our dear Savior. And today, that you might answer his call with your life. �ow, may we stand for theprayer.

Our Lord who looks down upon us from heaven, if there have ever been times when

we have been calloused or hardened or unsympathetic or unthoughtful, may the Lord forgive us. And help us to be more like Thee. Oh, Lord, nobody ever asked of Thee and You turned them away. Always with the feeling of our infirmities, and your heart has not changed even though you are in heaven—the Lord of the universe. Still thine arms extended wide and welcome to us, our friend our savior. And our Lord, we pray that this holy and beautiful and precious moment, would be a time when many would come to thee and to us.

And while our people pray, and while we wait before God—out of that balcony, you; in the press of people on this lower floor, you; down a stairway, down an aisle. God has spoken to me Pastor, and today I am responding. I am answering with my life. Bring the family, or just you. So Lord, sanctify and hallow as only God could do the appeal of this morning hour and Thy saving and forgiving and keeping name,amen.

�ow, as our men stand here in welcome, and as our people pray and wait, and as wesing this hymn of appeal, “Just A Closer Walk With Thee.” Out of the balcony; down one of these aisles, make that decision for the Lord. And welcome, thrice welcome. While we pray and while we sing.

6. 6. 6. 6. RAY PRITCHARD, “The Dirty Deed What happens next is so well-known that it hardly needs repeating. Jacob, wearing the goatskins prepared by his mother, carries the tasty food to the father. Isaac, although he is old and decrepit, senses that something is wrong. His mind tells him that Esau couldn't have gotten the wild game so fast and the voice doesn't sound like Esau.

Note the many ways that Jacob deceives his father:

1. Deliberate Deception. "I am Esau your firstborn."2. Blasphemy. "The Lord your God gave me success."3. Repeated Deception. "Are you really my son Esau?" "I am," he replied.4. Dishonest Intimacy. "So he went to him and kissed him." 5. Misleading Detail. "Isaac caught the smell of his clothes."

But this should not surprise us. This is what happens whenever you set off on the path of deception. This follows whenever you say, "It doesn't matter how we do it." Jacob's lies are bound to happen because he decided that the end justifies the means. Soon one lie leads to another and then another and finally you have to keep on lying to cover up your previous lies. The Blessing In any case, Isaac sets his doubts aside and gives Jacob (thinking he is Esau) the blessing. The blessing basically involves three things:

1. Personal Prosperity (v. 28)2. Pre-eminence (v. 29)

3. Protection by God (v. 29)

In essence Jacob now receives from Isaac the blessing revealed in the Abrahamic covenant.

One other note. In this scenario, who is deceiving whom? On one hand, Jacob is definitely deceiving his father Isaac. However, Isaac—because he thinks Jacob is really Esau—thinks he is deceiving Jacob by giving the blessing to Esau. Both intend to deceivethe other; only Jacob succeeds. The most amazing point is that through this act of deception, God's will was done! Why? Because God's choice (Jacob) did in fact end up with the blessing. That doesn't justify the deception, but it does demonstrate how God works through the weakness of sinful men to accomplish his purposes.

This story, seen in that light, is a story of the sovereignty of God. It reminds me of the words Joseph utters many years later: "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good." (Genesis 50:20) Both Isaac and Jacob had less than noble motives, but God overruled their bad motives to insure that his will was ultimately done

27

So he went to him and kissed him. When Isaac caughtthe smell of his clothes, he blessed him and said, "Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the LORD has blessed.

The smell and the touch said he was Esau, and so the sound of his voice that said he was Jacob came in second. Two out of three ain’t bad was his conclusion, and so he went with his two senses that agreed he must be Esau.

V. 27 Isaac still had a good nose and like the smell of the field. Mcgee tells of two men working in a tight place and one said, “Wow! I think the deodorant one of us is using has quite working. The other said, “It must be yours because Idon’t use any.”

1. JOH� TRAPP, “Ver. 27. As the smell of a field.] Compare Song of Solomon 2:13;Song of Solomon 4:12-14. Aristotle (a) writes of a parcel of ground in Sicily that sendeth such a strong smell of fragrant flowers to all the fields and pasturages thereabouts, that no hound can hunt there, the scent is so confounded by the sweet

smell of those flowers. Labour we so to resent heavenly sweetnesses, so to savour thethings above, that we may have no mind to hunt after earthly vanities, &c. Alexander’s body is said to be of such an exact constitution, that it gave a sweet scent where it went. Christ, the true body, smells so sweet to all heavenly eagles, that, being now lifted up, he draws them after him. [Matthew 24:28 John 12:32]

2. Clarke, “The smell of my son is as the smell of a field - The smell of these garments, the goodly raiment which had been laid up in the house, was probably occasioned by some aromatic herbs, which we may naturally suppose were laid up with the clothes; a custom which prevails in many countries to the present day. Thyme, lavender, etc., are often deposited in wardrobes, to communicate an agreeable scent, andunder the supposition that the moths are thereby prevented from fretting the garments. Ihave often seen the leaves of aromatic plants, and sometimes whole sprigs, put in easternMSS., to communicate a pleasant smell, and to prevent the worms from destroying them.Persons going from Europe to the East Indies put pieces of Russia leather among their clothes for the same purpose. Such a smell would lead Isaac’s recollection to the fields where aromatic plants grew in abundance, and where he had often been regaled by the scent.

3. Gill, “And he came near, and kissed him,.... Jacob came near and kissed Isaac his father:

and he smelled the smell of his raiment; which being not like the smell of a sheep coat, but of a field, might give him more full satisfaction that it was truly Esau:

and he blessed him; with his patriarchal and prophetic blessing, which here begins:

and said, see, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed; like a field fall of fragrant herbs, flowers, and spices, watered with the dews and rain of heaven, and so made fruitful, which emits a most, delightful odour; this may respect the scent of Esau's clothes, now on Jacob's back, which they received from the fields, which Esau continually frequented; or rather from the odoriferous herbs and fruits which were put among them in the chest, in which Rebekah had laid them up; and it may be, that whereas the goatskins on his hands and neck would be apt to send forth a rank and disagreeable smell, these might be so scented by Rebekah as to prevent that. Some render these words, "see the smell of my son, whom the Lord hath blessed (w), as the smell of a field"; and so Isaac pronounces him blessed of the Lord, as well as by himself; the sense is the same: as to the smell many interpreters consider this as a type and figure of the acceptance of believers with God, being clothed with the goodly, excellent, and desirable garment of the righteousness of Christ their elder brother, even of their persons, services, and sacrifices; which is indeed truly spiritual and evangelical; but is liable to this objection, that it makes profane Esau a type of Christ. I see not that anything can well be objected to the application of this son of Isaac's to the Messiah himself, whom he may have a special regard unto in this prophetic blessing, reading the words, "the smell of my son shall be as the smell of a field": or "my son, whom the Lord hath blessed", and came before with all the blessings of goodness, and in whom all nations shall be blessed, shall be "as the smell of a field"; all whose garments smell of myrrh, aloes, and cassia, Psa_45:8, even Isaac's principal son, that should be of his seed,

of whom Jacob his present son was a type, and who was to spring from him.

4. Calvin, “See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field. The allegory of Ambrose on this passage is not displeasing to me. Jacob, the younger brother, isblessed under the person of the elder; the garments which were borrowed from his brother breathe an odour grateful and pleasant to his father. In the same manner we are blessed, as Ambrose teaches, when, in the name of Christ, we enter the presence of our Heavenly Father: we receive from him the robe of righteousness, which, by its odour, procures his favor; in short, we are thus blessed when we are put in his place. But Isaac seems here to desire and implore nothing for his son but what is earthly; for this is the substance of his words, that it might be well with his son in the world, that he might gather together the abundant produce of the earth, that he might enjoy great peace, andshine in honor above others. There is no mention of the heavenly kingdom; and hence it has arisen, that men without learning, and but little exercised in true piety, have imagined that these holy fathers were blessed by the Lord only in respect to this frail and transitory life. But it appears from many passages to havebeen far otherwise: and as to the fact that Isaac here confines himself to the earthly favors of God, the explanation is easy; for the Lord did not formerly set the hope of the future inheritance plainly before the eyes of the fathers, (as he now calls and raises us directly towards heaven,) but he led them as by a circuitous course. Thus he appointed the land of Canaan as a mirror and pledge to them of the celestial inheritance. In all his acts of kindness he gave them tokens of his paternal favor, not indeed for the purpose of making them content with present good, so that they should neglect heaven, or should follow a merely empty shadow, as some foolishly suppose; but that, being aided by such helps, according to the time in which they lived, they might by degrees rise towards heaven; for since Christ, the first-fruits of those who rise again, and the author of the eternal and incorruptible life, had not yet been manifested, his spiritual kingdom was, in this way, shadowed forth under figures only, until the fullness of the time should come; and as all the promises of God were involved, and in a

sense clothed in these symbols, so the faith of the holy fathers observed the same measure, and made its advances heavenwards by means of these earthly rudiments. Therefore, although Isaac makes the temporal favors of God prominent, nothing is further from his mind than to confine the hope of his son to this world; he would raise him to the same elevation to which he himself aspired. Some proof of this may be drawn from his own words; for this is the principal point, that he assigns him the dominion over the nations. But whence the hope ofsuch a dignity, unless he had been persuaded that his race had been elected by the Lord, and, indeed, with this stipulation, that the right of the kingdom should remain with one son only? Meanwhile, let it suffice to adhere to this principle, thatthe holy man, when he implores a prosperous course of life for his son, wishes that God, in whose paternal favor stands our solid and eternal happiness, may bepropitious to him.

5. WESLEY 20. The Lord thy God brought it to me - Is this Jacob? It is certainly written not for our imitation, but our admonition, Let him that, standeth, take heed lest he fall. �ow let us see how Isaac gave Jacob his blessing. 27-1. He kissed him; in token of particular affection to him. Those that are blessed of God are kissed with the kisses of his mouth, and they do by love and loyalty kiss the son, Psalm ii, 12. 2. He praised him. Upon occasion of the sweet smell of his garments he said, See the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed - That is, like that of the most fragrant flowers and spices. Three things Jacob is here blessed with,(1.) Plenty, ver. 28. Heaven and earth concurring to make him rich. (2.) Power, ver. 29. Particularly dominion over his brethren, viz. Esau and his posterity. (3.) Prevalency with God, and a great interest in heaven, Cursed be every one that curseth thee - Let God be a friend to all thy friends, and an enemy to all thine enemies. �ow, certainly more is comprised in this blessing than appears at first; it must amount to an entail of the promise of the Messiah: that was in the patriarchal dialect the blessing; something spiritual doubtless is included in it. First, That from him should come the Messiah, that should have a sovereign dominion on earth. See �um. xxiv, 19. Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion, the star and scepter, �um. xxiv, 17. Jacob's dominion over Esau was to be only typical of this, chap. xlix, 10. Secondly, That from him should come the church that should be particularly owned and favoured by Heaven. It was part of the blessing of Abrahamwhen he was first called to be the father of the faithful, chap. xii, 3. I will bless them that bless thee; therefore when Isaac afterwards confirmed the blessing to Jacob, he called it the blessing of Abraham, chap. xxviii, 4.

6. HOLE, “Mankind is endowed with five senses, as we all know. One of the five waslacking with poor Isaac. Sight being gone, he was shut up to the other four, and this striking story shows that all the four were exercised. Rebekah's clever cookery presented the flesh of the kids as though it were venison, so his taste was deceived. Her production of Esau's garments, putting them on Jacob, was effectual in deceiving his sense of smell. Her plan of covering Jacob's hands and neck with the hairy skin of the slain kids was equally successful in deceiving his powers of feeling. One sense remained, that of hearing, and Isaac recognized the voice as that of Jacob. It was a case of three senses against one. Three senses declared that the son he could not see was Esau, and only one declared that it was Jacob. Isaac accepted the verdict of the majority and blessed the son he could not see.

, with which they could easily be supplied from Arabia, famed for aromatic herbs: though perhaps the common flowers and odoriferous herbs of the country were most in use: and in these it is not improbable those garments (the sacerdotal, as we suppose) were kept. Isaac, no stranger to the smell of them, thence concluded that they belonged to his son Esau; and from this circumstance of their odour, he takes occasion to begin his benediction. By See, the smell, &c. some suppose the old patriarch to express, that the smell of his son's garments was as grateful and pleasing as that of a field, which the Lord hath blessed; that is, hath made fertile in all useful produce. See Hebrews 6:7. While others again suppose that he asserts, See, the smell is, &c. i.e..behold, the odour of my son's apparel resembles that of a field blest with fertility by the Lord, a field full of flowers and odoriferous herbs. By the word full, I refer to מלא male, which is found in theSamaritan, &c. and is much defended by Houbigant.

28

May God give you of heaven's dew and of earth's richness-- an abundance of grain and new wine.

1. JOH� TRAPP, “Ver. 28. God give thee of the dew.] For that country was dry andthirsty. They had rain, say some, but twice a year; the former in seedtime, and the latter rain in May. The blessings here bestowed are plenty, victory, domestical preeminency, and outward prosperity. Esau likewise hath the like, but not with a God give thee. But beyond all these, "some better thing" was provided and promised. Erant enim speculum, et pignus coelestium. The Church of Rome borrows her mark from the market plenty, or cheapness, &c.; she vaunts of her temporal felicity, and makes a catalogue of the strange victories which the Catholics

have had. Immo vix unquam fuerunt Haeretici superiores, quando iusto proelio dimicatum est, saith Bellarmine. (a) Upon one of the Easter holidays, saith George Marsh, martyr, Master Sherburn and Master More sent for me, persuading me much to leave mine opinions, saying, all the bringers up and favourers of that religion had ill luck, and were either put to death, or in prison, and in danger of life.(b) Again, the favourers of the religion now used, had wondrous good luck and prosperity in all things. These wizards, these "disputers of this world," as the apostle calls them, [1 Corinthians 1:20] either knew not, or believed not, that the Church is the heir of the Cross, Ecclesia haeres Crucis, as an ancient speaketh; that opposition is, as Calvin wrote to the French king, Evangelii genius , - the bad genius that dogs the gospel; that truth breeds hatred, (c) as the fair nymphs did the ill favoured fawns and satyrs, and seldom goes without a scratched face. Some halcyons the Church hath here, as in Constantine’s time ( Repugnante contra temetipsam tua faelicitate, saith Salvian, in his first book to the Catholic Church); but grace she shall be sure of here, "with persecution"; and glory hereafter without interruption. As for outward things, aut aderunt sane, aut non oberunt; either she shall have them, or be as well without them. God shall be her cornucopia; her All-sufficient; her "shield and exceeding great reward." Sine Deo, omnis copia est egestas.

2. Clarke, “God give thee of the dew of heaven - Bp. Newton’s view of these predictions is so correct and appropriate, as to leave no wish for any thing farther on the subject.

“It is here foretold, and in Gen_27:39, of these two brethren, that as to situation, and other temporal advantages, they should be much alike. It was said to Jacob: God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine; and much the same is said to Esau, Gen_27:39 : Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above. The spiritual blessing, or the promise of the blessed seed, could be given only to One; but temporal good things might be imparted to both. Mount Seir, and the adjacent country, was at first in the possession of the Edomites; they afterwards extended themselves farther into Arabia, and into the southern parts of Judea. But wherever they were situated, we find in fact that the Edomites, in temporal advantages, were little inferior to the Israelites. Esau had cattle and beasts and substance in abundance, and he went to dwell in Seir of his own accord; but he would hardly have removed thither with so many cattle, had it been such a barren and desolate country as some would represent it. The Edomites had dukes and kings reigning over them, while the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. When the Israelites, on their return, desired leave to pass through the territories of Edom, it appears that the country abounded with Fruitful Fields and Vineyards: Let us pass, I pray thee, through thy country; we will not pass through the fields, or through the vineyards, neither will wedrink of the water of the wells; Num_20:17. And the prophecy of Malachi, which is generally alleged as a proof of the barrenness of the country, is rather a proof of the contrary: I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness, Mal_1:3; for this implies that the country was fruitful before, and that its present unfruitfulness was rather an effect of war, than any natural defect in the soil. If the country is unfruitful now, neither is Judea what it was formerly.” As there was but little rain in Judea, except what was termed the early rain, which fell about the beginningof spring, and the latter rain, which fell about September, the lack of this was supplied by

the copious dews which fell both morning and evening, or rather through the whole of the night. And we may judge, says Calmet, of the abundance of those dews by what fell on Gideon’s fleece, Jdg_6:38, which being wrung filled a bowl. And Hushal compares an army ready to fall upon its enemies to a dew falling on the ground, 2Sa_17:12, which gives us the idea that this fluid fell in great profusion, so as to saturate every thing. Travellers in these countries assure us that the dews fall there in an extraordinary abundance.

The fatness of the earth - What Homer calls ουθαρ�αρουρης, Ilias ix., 141, and Virgiluber glebae, Aeneid i., 531, both signifying a soil naturally fertile. Under this, therefore, and the former expressions, Isaac wishes his son all the blessings which a plentiful country can produce; for, as Le Clerc rightly observes, if the dews and seasonable rains ofheaven fall upon a fruitful soil, nothing but human industry is wanting to the plentiful enjoyment of all temporal good things. Hence they are represented in the Scripture as emblems of prosperity, of plenty, and of the blessing of God, Deu_33:13, Deu_33:28; Mic_5:7; Zec_8:12; and, on the other hand, the withholding of these denotes barrenness,distress, and the curse of God; 2Sa_1:21. See Dodd.

3. Gill, “Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven,.... Or "shall" or "will give thee" (x), seeing he was blessed of God, and the blessed seed should spring from him, as well as his posterity should inherit the land of Canaan; for this is said rather by way of prophecy than wish, and so all that follow; and the dew of heaven is the rather mentioned, not only because that makes the earth fruitful on which it plentifully falls, but likewise because the land of Canaan, the portion of Jacob's posterity, much needed it, and had it, for rain fell there but seldom, only twice a year, in spring and autumn; and between these two rains, the one called the former, the other the latter rain, the land was impregnated and made fruitful by plentiful dews; and these signified figuratively both the doctrines and blessings of grace, which all Jacob's spiritual offspring, such as are Israelites indeed, are partakers of, and especially under the Gospel dispensation, see Deu_32:2,

and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine; and such the land of Canaan was, a fat and fertile land, abounding with all good things, see Deu_8:8; by which are figured the plenty of Gospel provisions, the word and ordinances, which God has given to his Jacob and Israel in all ages, as he has not given to other people, and especially in the times of the Messiah, Jacob's eminent seed and son, see Psa_147:19.

4. Jamison, “Gen_27:28-46. The blessing.

God give thee of the dew of heaven — To an Oriental mind, this phraseology implied the highest flow of prosperity. The copious fall of dew is indispensable to the fruitfulness of lands, which would be otherwise arid and sterile through the violent heat; and it abounds most in hilly regions, such as Canaan, hence called the “fat land” (Neh_9:25, Neh_9:35).

plenty of corn and wine — Palestine was famous for vineyards, and it produced varieties of corn, namely, wheat, barley, oats, and rye.

5. Calvin, "Cursed be every one that curseth thee. What I have before said must be remembered, namely, that these are not bare wishes, such as fathers are wont to utter on behalf of their children, but that promises of God are included in them; for Isaac is the authorized interpreter of God, and the instrument employed by the HolySpirit; and therefore, as in the person of God, he efficaciously pronounces those accursed who shall oppose the welfare of his son. This then is the confirmation of the promise, by which God, when he receives the faithful under his protection, declares that he will be an enemy to their enemies. The whole force of the benediction turns to this point, that God will prove himself to be a kind father to his servant Jacob in all things, so that he will constitute him the chief and the head of a holy and elect people, will preserve and defend him by his power, and will secure hissalvation in the face of enemies of every kind.

6. COKE, “Genesis 27:28. God give thee, &c.— It is here foretold, and in Genesis 27:39 of

these two brethren, that, as to situation and other temporal advantages, they should be much alike. It was said to Jacob, God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty ofcorn andWINE : and much the same is said to Esau, Genesis 27:39. Behold, thy dwelling shall beof the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above. The spiritual blessing,INDEED , or the promise of the blessed Seed, could be given only to one; but temporal good things might be communicated to both. Mount Seir, with the adjacent country, was at first the possession of the Edomites: they afterwards extended themselves farther into Arabia, as they did also into the southern parts of Judea. But wherever they were situated, we find, in fact, that the Edomites, in temporal advantages, were for many ages little inferior to the Israelites. Esau had cattle, and beasts, and substance in abundance, and he went to dwell in Seir of his ownACCORD : but he would hardly have removed thither with so many cattle, had it been such a barren and desolate country as some would represent it. (ch. Genesis 36:6-8.) The Edomites had dukes and kings reigning over them, while the Israelites were slaves in AEgypt. When the Israelites,in their return out of AEgypt, desired leave to pass through the territories of Edom, it appears that the country abounded with fruitful fields and vineyards; Let us pass, I pray thee, through thy country:we will not pass through the fields, or through the vineyards, neither will we drink of the water of the wells, Numbers 20:17. If the country be barren and unfruitful now, so neither is Judea what formerly it was. The face of any country is much changed in a long course of years; and it is totally a differentthing when a country is regularly cultivated by inhabitants living under a settled government, than when tyranny prevails, and the land is left desolate. It is frequently seen that God, as the Psalmist says, (Psalms 107:34.) turneth a fruitful land into barrenness for the wickedness of them that dwell therein.

The dew of heaven— In those warm countries where rain commonly falls but at two seasons of theyear, viz. about April and October, hence called the former and the latter rain, Deuteronomy 11:14 the copious fall of the morning and evening dews in a great measure supplied the place of rain; though the name dewmay well be supposed to include rain, which is only a more copious dew. But as both are so necessary to fructify the earth, especially in thirsty climates, hence they are represented in Scripture as emblems of plenty, prosperity, and the blessing of God, Deuteronomy 13:18. Micah 5:7. Zechariah 8:12. And, on the other hand, the withholding of these denotes barrenness, distress, and the curse of God, 2 Samuel 1:21.Haggai 1:10.

The fatness of the earth— What Homer calls ουθαρ αρουρης, and Virgil, uber glebae. Under

this, therefore, and the former expression, Isaac wishes his son all the blessings which a plentiful country can produce. For, as Le Clerc observes, if the dews and seasonable rains of heaven fall upon a fertile soil, nothing but human industry is wanting to the plentiful enjoyment of all temporal good things. And this prophetic prayer was remarkably answered, by God's settling the Israelites in the possession of Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey.

29

May nations serve you and peoples bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may the sons of your mother bow down to you. May those who curse you be cursed and those who bless you be blessed."

29. Let people serve thee--fulfilled in the discomfiture of the hostile tribes that opposed the Israelites in the wilderness; and in the pre-eminence and power they attained after their national establishment inthe promised land. This blessing was not realized to Jacob, but to his descendants; and the temporal blessings promised were but a shadow of those spiritual ones, which formed the grand distinction of Jacob's posterity.

1. Clarke, “Let people serve thee - “However alike their temporal advantages were toeach other,” says Bp. Newton, “in all spiritual gifts and graces the younger brother was tohave the superiority, was to be the happy instrument of conveying the blessing to all nations: In thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed; and to this are to be referred, in their full force, those expressions: Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee. Cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee. The same promise was made to Abraham in the name of God: I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee, Gen_12:3; and it is here repeated to Jacob, and thus paraphrased in the Jerusalem Targum: ‘He who curseth thee shall be cursed as Balaam the son of Beor; and he who blesseth thee shall be blessed as Moses theprophet, the lawgiver of Israel.’ It appears that Jacob was, on the whole, a man of more religion, and believed the Divine promises more, than Esau. The posterity of Jacob likewise preserved the true religion, and the worship of one God, while the Edomites were sunk in idolatry; and of the seed of Jacob was born at last the Savior of the world. This was the peculiar privilege and advantage of Jacob, to be the happy instrument of conveying these blessings to all nations. This was his greatest superiority over Esau; and in this sense St. Paul understood and applied the prophecy: The elder shall serve the younger, Rom_9:12. The Christ, the Savior of the world, was to be born of some one family; and Jacob’s was preferred to Esau’s, out of the good pleasure of Almighty God, who is certainly the best judge of fitness and expedience, and has undoubted right to dispense his favors as he shall see proper; for he says to Moses, as the apostle proceeds toargue, Rom_9:15. ‘I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.’ And when the Gentiles were converted to Christianity, the prophecy was fulfilled literally: Let people serve thee, and let nations bow down to thee; and will be more amply fulfilled when the fullness of the Gentiles shallcome in, and all Israel shall be saved.”

2. Gill, “Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee,.... Which was literally true in the times of Joshua and the judges, when the Canaanites were conquered and subdued, and those that remained became tributary to the Israelites; and still more so in the times of David, a son of Jacob, in the line of Judah, when the Philistines, Moabites, Syrians, Ammonites, and Edomites, became subject to him, his servants and tributaries; and yet more so in the times of the Messiah that was to spring from Jacob, and did, to whom many nations have been already subject, and all will in the latter day, Psa_72:11. And this passage is applied to the Messiah, and his times, by the Jews, in an ancient book (y) of theirs, at least said to be so. The Targum of Jonathan paraphrases it of the children of Esau or the Edomites, and of the children of Keturah; and that of Jerusalem, of the children of Esau, and of Ishmael:

be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee; these seem rather to be the children of Esau, Jacob's brother, and his mother's sons; the Targum of Jerusalem interprets the latter of the sons of Laban, his mother's brother, the Arabians and Syrians; which will be more fully accomplished when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, Rev_11:15; who will thenappear to be King of kings, and Lord of lords, Rev_17:14, even the King of the whole earth:

cursed be everyone that curseth thee; it signifies, that those who were the enemies of Jacob, or would be the enemies of the church and people of God, his spiritual Israel, and of the Messiah, would be reckoned the enemies of God, and treated as such:

and blessed be he that blesseth thee; and that those that were his friends, and the friends of the people of God, and heartily wish well to the interest of Christ, these should be accounted the friends of God, and be used as such. The same blessing is pronounced on Abraham the grandfather of Jacob, Gen_12:3.

3. Jamison, “Let people serve thee — fulfilled in the discomfiture of the hostile tribes that opposed the Israelites in the wilderness; and in the pre-eminence and power they attained after their national establishment in the promised land. This blessing was not realized to Jacob, but to his descendants; and the temporal blessings promised were but a shadow of those spiritual ones, which formed the grand distinction of Jacob’s posterity.

4. COKE, “Genesis 27:29. Let people serve thee, &c.— However alike their temporal

advantages were to be, the younger brother was to have the superiority in all spiritual gifts, was to be the happy instrument of conveying the blessing to all nations: In thee and in thy Seed shall all

the families of the earth be blessed:and to this are to be referred in their full force those

expressions, let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee; cursed be every one that curseththee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee. The same promise was made to Abraham by the Lord, Iwill bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee, ch. Genesis 12:3. and it is here repeated to Jacob, and is thus paraphrased in the Jerusalem Targum, "He who curseth thee shall be cursed, as Balaam the son of Beor; and he who blesseth thee shall be blessed, as Moses the prophet, the lawgiver of Israel." It appears that Jacob was a man of much more religion, and

believed the divine promises more than Esau. ThePOSTERITY of Jacob likewise preserved

the true religion, and the worship of the one true God, while the Edomites were sunk in idolatry. And

of theSEED of Jacob was born at last the Saviour of the world. This was the peculiar privilege

and advantage of Jacob, to be the happy instrument of conveying these spiritual blessings to all nations. This was his greatest superiority over Esau; and in this sense St. Paul understands and applies the prophecy,the elder shall serve the younger, Romans 9:12. The Christ, the Saviour of theworld, was to be born of some one family: and Jacob's was preferred to Esau's out of the good pleasure of Almighty God, who is certainly the best Judge of fitness and expedience, and hath undoubted right to dispense his favours as he shall see proper; for he saith to Moses, (as the apostle proceeds to argue, Romans 9:15.) I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. And when the Gentiles were converted to Christianity, the prophecy was fulfilled literally, Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee; and will more amply be fulfilled, when the fulness of the Gentiles shall come in, and all Israel shall be saved.

5. What we see in the betrayal of Isaac by his wife and son Jacob is the trying to do the will of God by trickery rather than letting God work it out His way. It is like the jumping ahead with Sarah and giving Abraham another woman to give him a son and not waiting for God to do it his way. It was God’s plan to make Jacob the one He would use to form His people, but He would have done it differently than the way they chose. Man is always fouling things up by not waiting for God.

Sanford justifies Rebekah by saying she was following a higher law by betraying herhusband and eldest son, and she was doing the will of God. But there is no way to know if she was doing His will or not. It seems as likely that she was running out ahead of God rather than waiting for Him to work it out. It cost her the son she loved to do what she did.

Jacob was the one who got the blessing, but his life seemed more like the one who got the curse. His family life was terrible. His wife Leah was jealous of his wife Rachel because he loved her; Rachel was jealous because Leah gave him more children; the hired women were jealous of both. There was constant tension in the home. It was like Wharton says in his book Famous Men of the Old Testament about a woman who was a widow with several children who married a man with several of his own, and they had some together. She said, “I am just wretched. Someof your children, and some of my children, are all the time fighting with some of ourchildren.”

Deathbed words were considered to be especially effective, and even prophetic, and were treated very seriously. (See Genesis 48.1 etc; Deuteronomy 33.1 etc; 2 Samuel 23.1 etc).

‘Be lord over your brothers, and let your mother’s sons bow down to you.’ He is to have pre-eminent place in the family tribe. Perhaps he has in mind the words, ‘Kings shall come from you’ (17.6). His son is to be a ‘king’ over his brothers. In other words he is seeking for his son total pre-eminence. Thus Isaac is seeking to restore the damage done by the sale of the birthright, not realising that he is in fact confirming it. It is this perversity that gives some justification to Jacob’s action.

‘Your brothers.’ This is then defined as ‘your mother’s sons’. This suggests that

other sons have been born to Rebekah. Alternately it may be that this was a stereotyped phrase incorporated into the blessing by Isaac (but see verse 37).

‘Cursed be everyone who curses you and blessed be everyone who blesses you.’ The pronouncing of curses and blessings was a common feature of covenants. Abraham was promised the same thing in 12.3. So Isaac is confirming the covenant promises on his son. See also �umbers 24.9; Deuteronomy 27 and 28.

It is clear that once the blessing is given it cannot be withdrawn. The authority and promised blessing has been passed on and nothing can change it, ‘yes, and he shall be blessed’ (verse 33). So did Jacob ensure that he received the full benefit of the purchased birthright.

30

After Isaac finished blessing him and Jacob had scarcely left his father's presence, his brother Esau came in from hunting.

1. Barnes, “Gen_27:30-41

Esau’s blessing. Esau comes in, but it is too late. “Who then?” The whole illusion is dispelled from the mind of Isaac. “Yea, blessed he shall be.” Jacob had no doubt perpetrated a fraud, at the instigation of his mother; and if Esau had been worthy in other respects, and above all if the blessing had been designed for him, its bestowment on another would have been either prevented or regarded as null and void. But Isaac nowfelt that, whatever was the misconduct of Jacob in interfering, and especially in employing unworthy means to accomplish his end, he himself was culpable in allowing carnal considerations to draw his preference to Esau, who was otherwise unworthy. He knew too that the paternal benediction flowed not from the bias of the parent, but from the Spirit of God guiding his will, and therefore when so pronounced could not be revoked. Hence, he was now convinced that it was the design of Providence that the spiritual blessing should fall on the line of Jacob. The grief of Esau is distressing to witness, especially as he had been comparatively blameless in this particular instance. But still it is to be remembered that his heart had not been open to the paramount importance of spiritual things. Isaac now perceives that Jacob has gained the blessing by deceit. Esau marks the propriety of his name, the wrestler who trips up the heel, and pleads pathetically for at least some blessing. His father enumerates what he has done for Jacob, and asks what more he can do for Esau; who then exclaims, “Hast thou but one blessing?”

2. JOH� TRAPP, “Ver. 30. Esau his brother came in.] All too late. Detained he was

by the devil, say the Hebrews, who not seldom makes a fool of hunters, and leads them about. A sweet providence of God there was in it, certainly, that he should come in as soon as Isaac had done and Jacob was gone, and no sooner. Like as there was in that which Master Fox (a) reports of Luther, that on a time, as he was sitting in a certain place upon his stool, a great stone there was in the vault, over his head; which being stayed miraculously so long as he was sitting, as soon as he was up, immediately fell upon the place where he sat, able to have crushed him in pieces. A warrant once came down, under seal, for the execution of the Lady Elizabeth: Stephen Gardiner was the engineer, and thought he had been sure of his prey, but God pulled the morsel out of his mouth; for one Master Bridges, mistrusting false play, presently made haste to the queen, who renounced and reversed it. (b) Another time, while Sir Henry Benningfield, her keeper, was at court, one Basset, a gentleman and a great favourite of Stephen Gardiner’s, came, with twenty men well appointed, to Woodstock to have murdered her. But by God’s great providence, Sir Henry had left so strict a charge behind him, that no living soul might have access unto the princess, upon what occasion soever, till his return, that they could not be admitted, whereby their bloody enterprise was utterly disappointed. "The Lord knoweth how to deliver his". [2 Peter 2:9] "He keepeth all their bones, not one of them is broken". [Psalms 34:20]

3. Gill, “And it came to pass, as soon as Isaac had made an end of,

blessing Jacob,.... So that he had the whole entire blessing, and nothing wanting; and takes in blessings of all sorts, temporal, spiritual, and eternal, of which the land of Canaan, and the fruits of it, were typical:

and Jacob was yet scarce gone out from the presence of Isaac his father; which no doubt he made haste to do, as soon as he had got the blessing; partly to avoid his brother, whom he might expect to come in every moment, and partly to relate to his mother the success he had met with: or "scarce in going out was gone out" (z), was just gone out, and that was all; the Targum of Jonathan says, he was gone about two hands' breadths; that is, out of the door of his father's tent, which was a small space indeed. Jarchi interprets this doubling of the word, of the one going out and the other coming in at the same time; but Ainsworth more rightly observes, that it makes the matter the moreremarkable, touching God's providence herein:

that Esau his brother came in from his hunting; and not only was come out of thefield from hunting, but had been at home some time, and had dressed what he had caught in hunting, and was just coming in with it to his father, as appears from Gen_27:31.

4. Henry 30-35, “Here is, I. The covenant-blessing denied to Esau. He that made so lightof the birthright would now have inherited the blessing, but he was rejected, and found no place of repentance in his father, though he sought it carefully with tears, Heb_12:17. Observe, 1. How carefully he sought it. He prepared the savoury meat, as his father had directed him, and then begged the blessing which his father had encouraged him to expect, Gen_27:31. When he understood that Jacob had obtained it

surreptitiously, he cried with a great and exceedingly bitter cry, Gen_27:34. No man could have laid the disappointment more to heart than he did; he made his father's tent to ring with his grief, and again (Gen_27:38) lifted up his voice and wept. Note, The day is coming when those that now make light of the blessings of the covenant, and sell their title to them for a thing of nought, will in vain be importunate for them. Those that will not so much as ask and seek now will knock shortly, and cry, Lord, Lord. Slighters of Christ will then be humble suitors to him. 2. How he was rejected. Isaac, when first madesensible of the imposition that had been practised on him, trembled exceedingly, Gen_27:33. Those that follow the choice of their own affections, rather than the dictates of the divine will, involve themselves in such perplexities as these. But he soon recovers himself, and ratifies the blessing he had given to Jacob: I have blessed him, and he shall be blessed; he might, upon very plausible grounds, have recalled it, but now, at last, he is sensible that he was in an error when he designed it for Esau. Either himself recollecting the divine oracle, or rather having found himself more than ordinarily filled with the Holy Ghost when he gave the blessing to Jacob, he perceived that God did, as it were, sayAmen to it. Now, (1.) Jacob was hereby confirmed in his possession of the blessing, and abundantly satisfied of the validity of it, though he obtained it fraudulently; hence too he had reason to hope that God graciously overlooked and pardoned his misconduct. (2.) Isaac hereby acquiesced in the will of God, though it contradicted his own expectations and affection. He had a mind to give Esau the blessing, but, when he perceived the will ofGod was otherwise, he submitted; and this he did by faith (Heb_11:20), as Abraham before him, when he had solicited for Ishmael. May not God do what he will with his own? (3.) Esau hereby was cut off from the expectation of that special blessing which he thought to have preserved to himself when he sold his birthright. We, by this instance, are taught, [1.] That it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God thatshoweth mercy, Rom_9:16. The apostle seems to allude to this story. Esau had a good will to the blessing, and ran for it; but God that showed mercy designed it for Jacob, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, Rom_9:11. The Jews, like Esau, hunted after the law of righteousness (Rom_9:31), yet missed of the blessing of righteousness, because they sought it by the works of the law (Rom_9:32); while the Gentiles, who, like Jacob, sought it by faith in the oracle of God, obtained it by force, withthat violence which the kingdom of heaven suffers. See Mat_11:12. [2.] That those who undervalue their spiritual birthright, and can afford to sell it for a morsel of meat, forfeit spiritual blessings, and it is just with God to deny them those favours they were careless of. Those that will part with their wisdom and grace, with their faith and a good conscience, for the honours, wealth, or pleasures, of this world, however they may pretend a zeal for the blessing, have already judged themselves unworthy of it, and so shall their doom be.

5. Jamison 30-35, “Esau came in from his hunting — Scarcely had the former scenebeen concluded, when the fraud was discovered. The emotions of Isaac, as well as Esau, may easily be imagined - the astonishment, alarm, and sorrow of the one; the disappointment and indignation of the other. But a moment’s reflection convinced the aged patriarch that the transfer of the blessing was “of the Lord,” and now irrevocable. The importunities of Esau, however, overpowered him; and as the prophetic afflatus was upon the patriarch, he added what was probably as pleasing to a man of Esau’s character as the other would have been.

6. K&D 30-40, “Jacob had hardly left his father, after receiving the blessing ( oך� יצא� ,�was�

only�gone�out),�when�Esau�returned�and�came�to�Isaac,�with�the�game�prepared,�to�receive�the�

blessing.�The�shock�was�inconceivable�which�Isaac�received,�when�he�found�that�he�had�blessed�

another,�and�not�Esau-that,�in�fact,�he�had�blessed�Jacob.�At�the�same�time�he�neither�could�nor�

would,�either�curse�him�on�account�of�the�deception�which�he�had�practised,�or�withdraw�the�

blessing�imparted.�For�he�could�not�help�confessing�to�himself�that�he�had�sinned�and�brought�

the�deception�upon�himself�by�his�carnal�preference�for�Esau.�Moreover,�the�blessing�was�not�a�

matter�of�subjective�human�affection,�but�a�right�entrusted�by�the�grace�of�God�to�paternal�

supremacy�and�authority,�in�the�exercise�of�which�the�person�blessing,�being�impelled�and�guided�

by�a�higher�authority,�imparted�to�the�person�to�be�blest�spiritual�possessions�and�powers,�which�

the�will�of�man�could�not�capriciously�withdraw.�Regarding�this�as�the�meaning�of�the�blessing,�

Isaac�necessarily�saw�in�what�had�taken�place�the�will�of�God,�which�had�directed�to�Jacob�the�

blessing�that�he�had�intended�for�Esau.�He�therefore�said,�“I�have�blessed�him;�yea,�he�will�be�

(remain)�blessed”�(cf.�Heb_12:17).�Even�the�great�and�bitter�lamentation�into�which�Esau�broke�

out�could�not�change�his�father's�mind.�To�his�entreaty�in�Gen_27:34,�“Bless�me,�even�me�also,�O�

my�father!”�he�replied,�“Thy�brother�came�with�subtilty,�and�hath�taken�away�thy�blessing.”�Esau�

answered,�“Is�it�that�(הכי)�they�have�named�him�Jacob�(overreacher),�and�he�has�overreached�me

twice?”�i.e.,�has�he�received�the�name�Jacob�from�the�fact�that�he�has�twice�outwitted�me?�הכי is�

used�“when�the�cause�is�not�rightly�known”�(cf.�Gen_29:15).�To�his�further�entreaty,�“Hast�thou�

not�reserved�a�blessing�for�me?”�(צלu,�lit.,�to�lay�aside),�Isaac�repeated�the�substance�of�the�

blessing�given�to�Jacob,�and�added,�“and�to�thee�(�לכה for��לך as�in�Gen_3:9),�now,�what�can�I�do,�

my�son?”�When�Esau�again�repeated,�with�tears,�the�entreaty�that�Isaac�would�bless�him�also,�the�

father�gave�him�a�blessing�(Gen_27:39,�Gen_27:40),�but�one�which,�when�compared�with�the�

blessing�of�Jacob,�was�to�be�regarded�rather�as�“a�modified�curse,”�and�which�is�not�even�

described�as�a�blessing,�but�“introduced�a�disturbing�element�into�Jacob's�blessing,�a�retribution�

for�the�impure�means�by�which�he�had�obtained�it.”�“Behold,”�it�states,�“from�the�fat�fields�of�the�

earth�will�thy�dwelling�be,�and�from�the�dew�of�heaven�from�above.”�By�a�play�upon�the�words�

Isaac�uses�the�same�expression�as�in�Gen_27:28,�“from�the�fat�fields�of�the�earth,�and�from�the�

dew,”�but�in�the�opposite�sense,�מן being�partitive�there,�and�privative�here,�“from�=�away�from.”�

The�context�requires�that�the�words�should�be�taken�thus,�and�not�in�the�sense�of�“thy�dwelling�

shall�partake�of�the�fat�of�the�earth�and�the�dew�of�heaven”�(Vulg.,�Luth.,�etc.).

(Note:�I�cannot�discover,�however,�in�Mal_1:3�an�authentic�proof�of�the�privative�meaning,�

as�Kurtz�and�Delitzsch�do,�since�the�prophet's�words,�“I�have�hated�Esau,�and�laid�his�

mountains�and�his�heritage�waste,”�are�not�descriptive�of�the�natural�condition�of�Idumaea,�

but�of�the�desolation�to�which�the�land�was�given�up.)

Since�Isaac�said�(Gen_27:37)�he�had�given�Jacob�the�blessing�of�the�super-abundance�of�corn�

and�wine,�he�could�not�possibly�promise�Esau�also�fat�fields�and�the�dew�of�heaven.�Nor�would�

this�agree�with�the�words�which�follows,�“By�thy�sword�wilt�thou�live.”�Moreover,�the�privative�

sense�of�מן is�thoroughly�poetical�(cf.�2Sa_1:22;�Job_11:15,�etc.).�The�idea�expressed�in�the�words,�

therefore,�was�that�the�dwelling-place�of�Esau�would�be�the�very�opposite�of�the�land�of�Canaan,�

viz.,�an�unfruitful�land.�This�is�generally�the�condition�of�the�mountainous�country�of�Edom,�

which,�although�not�without�its�fertile�slopes�and�valleys,�especially�in�the�eastern�portion�(cf.�

Robinson,�Pal.�ii.�p.�552),�is�thoroughly�waste�and�barren�in�the�western;�so�that�Seetzen�says�it�

consists�of�“the�most�desolate�and�barren�mountains�probably�in�the�world.”

The�mode�of�life�and�occupation�of�the�inhabitants�were�adapted�to�the�country.�“By�(lit.,�on)�

thy�sword�thou�wilt�live;”�i.e.,�thy�maintenance�will�depend�on�the�sword�(על as�in�Deu_8:3�cf.�

Isa_28:16),�“live�by�war,�rapine,�and�freebooting”�(Knobel).�“And�thy�brother�thou�wilt�serve;�yet

it�will�come�to�pass,�as�(אשרE,�lit.,�in�proportion�as,�cf.�Num_27:14)�thou�shakest�(tossest),�thou�

wilt�break�his�yoke�from�thy�neck.”�רוד,�“to�rove�about”�(Jer_2:31;�Hos_12:1),�Hiphil�“to�cause�

(the�thoughts)�to�rove�about”�(Psa_55:3);�but�Hengstenberg's�rendering�is�the�best�here,�viz.,�“to�

shake,�sc.,�the�yoke.”�In�the�wild,�sport-loving�Esau�there�was�aptly�prefigured�the�character�of�his

posterity.�Josephus�describes�the�Idumaean�people�as�“a�tumultuous�and�disorderly�nation,�

always�on�the�watch�on�every�motion,�delighting�in�mutations”�(Whiston's�tr.:�de�bell�Judg�4;�1:1-

21:25;�1).�The�mental�eye�of�the�patriarch�discerned�in�the�son�his�whole�future�family�in�its�

attitude�to�its�brother-nation,�and�he�promised�Edom,�not�freedom�from�the�dominion�of�Israel�

(for�Esau�was�to�serve�his�brother,�as�Jehovah�had�predicted�before�their�birth),�but�only�a�

repeated�and�not�unsuccessful�struggle�for�freedom.�And�so�it�was;�the�historical�relation�of�

Edom�to�Israel�assumed�the�form�of�a�constant�reiteration�of�servitude,�revolt,�and�reconquest.�

After�a�long�period�of�independence�at�the�first,�the�Edomites�were�defeated�by�Saul�(1Sa_14:47)�

and�subjugated�by�David�(2Sa_8:14);�and,�in�spite�of�an�attempt�at�revolt�under�Solomon�

(1Ki_11:14.),�they�remained�subject�to�the�kingdom�of�Judah�until�the�time�of�Joram,�when�they�

rebelled.�They�were�subdued�again�by�Amaziah�(2Ki_14:7;�2Ch_25:11.),�and�remained�in�

subjection�under�Uzziah�and�Jotham�(2Ki_14:22;�2Ch_26:2).�It�was�not�till�the�reign�of�Ahaz�that�

they�shook�the�yoke�of�Judah�entirely�off�(2Ki_16:6;�2Ch_28:17),�without�Judah�being�ever�able�

to�reduce�them�again.�At�length,�however,�they�were�completely�conquered�by�John�Hyrcanus�

about�b.c.�129,�compelled�to�submit�to�circumcision,�and�incorporated�in�the�Jewish�state�

(Josephus,�Ant.�xiii.�9,�1,�xv.�7,�9).�At�a�still�later�period,�through�Antipater�and�Herod,�they�

established�an�Idumaean�dynasty�over�Judea,�which�lasted�till�the�complete�dissolution�of�the�

Jewish�state.�

Thus�the�words�of�Isaac�to�his�two�sons�were�fulfilled-words�which�are�justly�said�to�have�been�

spoken�“in�faith�concerning�things�to�come”�(Heb_11:20).�For�the�blessing�was�a�prophecy,�and�

that�not�merely�in�the�case�of�Esau,�but�in�that�of�Jacob�also;�although�Isaac�was�deceived�with�

regard�to�the�person�of�the�latter.�Jacob�remained�blessed,�therefore,�because,�according�to�the�

predetermination�of�God,�the�elder�was�to�serve�the�younger;�but�the�deceit�by�which�his�mother�

prompted�him�to�secure�the�blessing�was�never�approved.�On�the�contrary,�the�sin�was�followed�

by�immediate�punishment.�Rebekah�was�obliged�to�send�her�pet�son�into�a�foreign�land,�away�

from�his�father's�house,�and�in�an�utterly�destitute�condition.�She�did�not�see�him�for�twenty�years,

even�if�she�lived�till�his�return,�and�possibly�never�saw�again.�Jacob�had�to�atone�for�his�sin�against

both�brother�and�father�by�a�long�and�painful�exile,�in�the�midst�of�privation,�anxiety,�fraud,�and�

want.�Isaac�was�punished�for�retaining�his�preference�for�Esau,�in�opposition�to�the�revealed�will�

of�Jehovah,�by�the�success�of�Jacob's�stratagem;�and�Esau�for�his�contempt�of�the�birthright,�by�

the�loss�of�the�blessing�of�the�first-born.�In�this�way�a�higher�hand�prevailed�above�the�acts�of�

sinful�men,�bringing�the�counsel�and�will�of�Jehovah�to�eventual�triumph,�in�opposition�to�human�

thought�and�will.

7. Calvin, "Jacob was yet scarce gone out. Here is added the manner in which Esau was repulsed, which circumstance availed not a little to confirm the benediction to Jacob: for if Esau had not been rejected, it might seem that he was not deprived of that honor which nature had given him: but now Isaac declares, that what he had done, in virtue of his patriarchal office, could not but be ratified. Here, truly, it again appears, that the primogeniture which Jacob obtained, at the expense of his brother, was made his by a free gift; for if we compare the works of both together, Esau obeys his father, brings him the produce of his hunting, prepares for his fatherthe food obtained by his own labor, and speaks nothing but the truth: in short, we find nothing in him which is not worthy of praise. Jacob never leaves his home, substitutes a kid for venison, insinuates himself by many lies, brings nothing which would properly commend him, but in many things deserves reprehension. Hence it must be acknowledged, that the cause of this event is not to be traced to works, but that it lies hid in the eternal counsel of God. Yet Esau is not unjustly reprobated, because they who are not governed by the Spirit of God can receive nothing with a right mind; only let it be firmly maintained, that since the condition of all is equal, ifany one is preferred to another, it is not because of his own merit, but because the Lord has gratuitously elected him.

8. COFFMA�, “This blessing was not even a pale copy of the one given to Jacob; even in the mention of "dew from heaven," etc., there was a double meaning, and in its use concerning Esau, it meant that he would dwell far away from such blessings. One may have nothing but pity for the weeping Esau and the bitterness that filled his heart. �othing breaks men's hearts like being compelled, at last, to accept the consequences of their actions. See Revelation 6:15-17.

"This verse (Genesis 27:36) skillfully places the words for birthright and blessing side by side,"[19]showing with what diligence Esau had attempted to contrive a difference in the two in the mind of his father, in which he had apparently succeeded. It was the height of wickedness for Esau to suppose that with the "sale" of his birthright he did not also convey the patriarchal blessing that went with it. We believe those scholars are in error who assert, "The first loss had been largely his own (Esau's) fault, but this time, he was indeed supplanted."[20] This episode reveals how, "A higher hand prevailed above the acts of sinful men, bringing the counsel and will of Jehovah to eventual triumph, in opposition to human thought and will."[21]

The blessing of Esau did allow one small hope, that, on occasions, Edom would be able to throw off the yoke of Israel. "An example of this was in the reign of Joram, king of Judah (2 Kings 8:20-22; 2 Chronicles 21:8-10)."[22] Another occasion is mentioned in the Book of Obadiah (Obadiah 1:1:10). Still another, perhaps, is seen in the fact that Herod the Great was descended from Esau; and he was ruling Israel ruthlessly in the days of Christ.

31

He too prepared some tasty food and brought it to hisfather. Then he said to him, "My father, sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your blessing."

1. Gill, “And he also made savoury meat, and brought it unto his father,.... Which was made of real venison, or of creatures taken in hunting, and not like Jacob's, made of other flesh, in imitation of it; for what the Jewish writers (a) say is not to be regarded, that he was hindered from getting true venison, by angels loosing the deer he bound; still less what the Targum of Jonathan says, that he killed a dog, made savoury meat of it, and brought it to his father:

and said unto his father, let my father arise, and eat of his son's venison, that thy soul may bless me; this address is made by Esau to his father in a very respectful manner, as became a dutiful son to an aged and honoured parent; who in obedience to his command had prepared agreeable food for him, and now brought it to him, in order to receive his blessing, which he had himself proposed to give him upon it.

32

His father Isaac asked him, "Who are you?" "I am your son," he answered, "your firstborn, Esau."

‘Who are you?’ Isaac’s mind is frozen with shock. He cannot believe what he is hearing.

1. Gill, “And Isaac his father said unto him, who art thou?.... Hearing another voice more like Esau's than what he had heard before surprised him, and therefore in haste puts this question:

and he said, I am thy son, thy firstborn Esau; all which was true in a sense; he washis son, and he was Esau, and he was his firstborn by nature, but not by right, for he had sold his birthright.

2. Esau’s reply gives away that he knows he is seeking to take something of what he had sold to Jacob. He is conscious that he is about to receive one of the rights of the firstborn. But he has sold his birthright. We do not know how far the two would be seen as officially interconnecting, but we cannot doubt that they do. We must probably see that Esau’s view is very different from Jacob’s. What he meant by the contract was far different from what Jacob had intended.

27.33 ‘And Isaac trembled very violently, and said, “Then who is he who has taken venison, and brought it to me, and I have eaten of all before you came, and have blessed him. Yes and he shall be blessed.” ’

Isaac is distraught. He realises that he has been deceived. But he is aware, as all are, that what has been given cannot be taken back. The seal has been made with Jacob, and the blessing has been given.

Isaac’s words confirm the close connection between the eating and the blessing. They were all part of the same process, the bonding and then the blessing.

‘Yes, and he shall be blessed.’ There is no going back from what he has done.

27.34 ‘When Esau heard the words of his father he cried with an extremely loud and

bitter cry, and said to his father, “Bless me, even me also, oh my father.”

Esau too is distraught. All he had hoped for has come to naught. Surely his father can do something to remedy the situation. Can he not have the blessing as well?

27.35 ‘And he said, “Your brother came with guile and has taken away your blessing.”

The answer is basically, ‘no’. What he has given he has given. He cannot take it back or change it.

27.36 ‘And he said, “Is he not rightly called Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright, and see, now he has taken away my blessing.”

Esau makes a bitter play on words. The root idea behind the word ‘Jacob’ is protection. Jacob-el (the el is assumed) means ‘may God protect’. But a secondary root which indicates supplanting can also be read into the consonants (see on 25.26).

Esau claims to see birthright and blessing as two separate things, but had he thought it through he would have recognised that he was wrong. For as the wording of Isaac’s blessing made abundantly clear, in the firstborn’s case they are really two parts of the one privilege. While it is true that the birthright centred more on property and official position over the tribe, and the blessing concentrated more on the giving of something personal, in the case of the firstborn both were interconnected.

The blessing was specially directed in the light of the birthright. Had Esau received the blessing and yet yielded to Jacob the birthright both would have been in an impossible position. And Esau would probably have won, because the blessing would have been seen as empowering him in a way the birthright did not. If Esau did not see the implications there can be no doubt that Jacob and Rebekah did.

There is therefore poetic justice in the fact that Esau, who was seeking to supplant his brother in spite of his oath, finds himself supplanted. Later he would recognise the justice of it and be reconciled with his brother.

27.37 ‘And Isaac answered and said to Esau, “Behold I have made him your lord, and I have given to him all his brothers for servants, and I have sustained him with corn and wine. And what then shall I do for you, my son?”

Isaac too finds himself helpless. Had he not intended such favour to his elder son that he gave him everything there would have been something left. But he had intended to leave nothing for Jacob. So there is nothing left.

It demonstrates what had been the singlemindedness of Isaac’s purpose that he

thinks this. He knows what he had intended. Jacob was to be left out of the reckoning.

‘All his brothers for servants.’ This would seem to confirm that there were other brothers. Alternately it may signify the whole tribe as ‘brothers’ (consider Genesis 19.7 where it means fellow-citizens; 24.27 where it means kinsfolk; 31.46 where it means servant companions).

27.38 ‘And Esau said to his father, “Have you but one blessing my father. Bless me, even me also, oh my father.” And Esau raised his voice and wept.

In his disappointment and anguish Esau seeks for some crumb of comfort. Is there nothing that his father can give him? We must recognise that it is some official benefit that he seeks. His father could easily give him a general blessing.

27.39 ‘And Isaac his father answered and said to him, “Behold, from the fatness of the earth will be your dwelling, and from the dew of heaven from above. And by your sword you will live, and you will serve your brother. And it will happen, when you will break loose, that you will shake his yoke from off your neck.” ’

Isaac grants him one favour. Independence. He will release him from his debt of servitude to Jacob.

‘From the fatness of the earth will be your dwelling, and from the dew of heaven from above.’ ‘From’ here probably means ‘away from’. The fatness of the earth andthe dew of heaven is to be given by God to Jacob (verse 28). But Esau is released from enjoying it. He may go away from his brother, away from God’s provision. The land he will go to will not enjoy the same dewfall, and will not be as productive.

‘And by your sword you will live and you will serve your brother.’ His future will bein warfare and booty. He will be a raider at the head of warriors. ‘You will serve your brother.’ This may be partly ironic meaning try to give him his deserts. But in the end it is prophetic and will be fulfilled when Edom becomes subject to Israel (2 Samuel 8.14; Obadiah 1.18-20).

‘And it will be that when you will break loose, that you will shake his yoke from your neck.’ The submission will not be permanent and in the end Edom will be free of Israel’s yoke.

Esau does indeed leave home in accordance with the blessing and establishes himselfin the mountainous country of Seir where the dew is scarcer and the land not so productive. But he gathers a band of warriors (32.6; 33.1), builds up his own tribe, becomes wealthy in possessions (33.9) and is free to do whatever he wants.

He was a free spirit and he would never have been satisfied leading the family tribe and being beholden to the inhabitants of Canaan. He found a future which satisfied

him and this helps to account for his willingness to forgive Jacob and treat him as a beloved brother (33.4).

But that is in the future. For the present things begin to look ugly.

27.41 ‘And 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 will I slay my brother Jacob.” ’

As we have seen earlier, Isaac thought he was near death, and it is clear Esau thought likewise. ‘The days of mourning for my father are at hand’ means exactly this. (Probably no one thought that Isaac would linger on another twenty years or more. But he did, and by the time he died all the differences had been settled).

Thus Esau decides to wait until then before carrying out his plan to kill Jacob. He does not want to distress his father. But he clearly lets his thoughts be known, for word gets back to Rebekah and she decides to send Jacob to a place of safety.

27.42-45 ‘And the words of Esau her elder son were told to Rebekah, and she sent and called Jacob her younger son and said to him, “Look, your brother Esau consoles himself about you with the thought of killing you. �ow therefore, my son, obey my voice, and arise. Flee to my brother Laban, to Haran. And wait with him a few days until your brother’s hot fury turns away, until your brother’s anger turns from you and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send for you from there. Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day?”

When Rebekah realises what Esau intends to do she decides to send Jacob to a placeof safety. With her son she is honest. He must flee to her brother in Haran until Esau’s anger has abated. ‘A few days’ is wishful thinking. Even in the best of circumstances it would take quite some time. Haran is not just round the corner. But she is trying to make it sound temporary. �either she nor Jacob realise that they will never meet again.

The repetition of the phrase, with slight differences, about Esau’s hot fury stresses how great a threat it is. But she is confident that the hot fury that has gripped him will subside, and that eventually even his anger against Jacob will die down and what has happened will be unimportant. She knows her son and knows that both will happen. She knows his heart is on other things. (Such repetitions, almost word for word, are a constant feature of ancient literature).

‘Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day?’ If Esau murders Jacob then he too will become liable to death for fratricide, especially as Jacob is now the heir apparent. She still has love in her heart for Esau.

However Isaac must be told a different story. �o one wants him upset by what is happening and he must not learn of his elder son’s evil intent. It is clear that he is in

his dotage and not up with things. He does not realise the storm that is growing around him. So Rebekah takes a different tack with him. She wants the initiative forJacob’s departure to seem to come from him.

And here we really come to the end of the Isaac stories. All that remains is his sending Jacob to Haran (28.1), twenty years of silence, and his welcoming back of Jacob at Mamre (35.27), followed immediately by his death (35.29).

Thus if we ignore the stories describing his childhood, the seeking of Rebekah and the birth and blessing of his sons, the only account of any length about Isaac is his activity at Gerar and Beersheba. And this out of one hundred and eighty years of life. And why is this? Because there were no covenant records.

Isaac passed a peaceable life, first at Beer-lahai-roi (25.11), then at Gerar and Beersheba (chapter 26), and finally at Mamre (35.27). He experienced few theophanies and made few covenants worth recording. Thus the silence about his life.

This demonstrates that the idea that Genesis contains camp fire stories passed down, with anecdotes about the lives of the patriarchs, just is not true.

33

Isaac trembled violently and said, "Who was it, then, that hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it just before you came and I blessed him--and indeed he will be blessed!"

Verses 30-33: The blessing is confirmed: Jacob gets out with the blessing while the gettin' is good. He leaves his father thinking that he has gotten away with it. Perhaps Isaac was getting ready to nod off when the tent flap is opened. "let my father arise, and eats his son's venison, that your soul may bless me. Esau had come to collect something that had never belonged to him.

see verse 33: See the margin of the Scofield Bible. Isaac shook like a leaf. He was shaken to his core. Isaac had acted in the flesh and God overruled him. He was shaken to the depths of his being. WHO? Where is he that hath taken venison and brought it to me? Then with the full swelling tide of the Holy Spirit he adds, Yes, and he shall be blessed.

1. Clarke, “And Isaac trembled - The marginal reading is very literal and proper, And Isaac trembled with a great trembling greatly. And this shows the deep concernhe felt for his own deception, and the iniquity of the means by which it had been brought about. Though Isaac must have heard of that which God had spoken to Rebekah, The elder shall serve the younger, and could never have wished to reverse this Divine purpose; yet he might certainly think that the spiritual blessing might beconveyed to Esau, and by him to all the nations of the earth, notwithstanding the superiority of secular dominion on the other side.

Yea, and he shall be blessed - From what is said in this verse, collated with Hebrews 12:17, we see how binding the conveyance of the birthright was when communicatedwith the rites already mentioned. When Isaac found that he had been deceived by Jacob, he certainly would have reversed the blessing if he could; but as it had been conveyed in the sacramental way this was impossible. I have blessed him, says he, yea, and he must, or will, be blessed. Hence it is said by the apostle. Esau found no place for repentance, µετανοιας γαρ τοπον ουχ εὑρε , no place for change of mind or purpose in his father, though he sought it carefully with tears. The father could not reverse it because the grant had already been made and confirmed. But this had nothing to do with the final salvation of poor outwitted Esau, nor indeed with that ofhis unnatural brother.

2. Calvin, “And Isaac trembled very exceedingly (48) Here now again the faith which had been smothered in the breast of the holy man shines forth and emits fresh sparks; for there is no doubt that his fear springs from faith. Besides, it is nocommon fear which Moses describes, but that which utterly confounds the holy man: for, whereas he was perfectly conscious of his own vocation, and therefore was persuaded that the duty of naming the heir with whom he should deposit the covenant of eternal life was divinely enjoined upon him, he no sooner discovered his error than he was filled with fear, that in an affair so great and so serious Godhad suffered him to err; for unless he had thought that God was the director of this act, what should have hindered him from alleging his ignorance as an excuse, and from becoming enraged against Jacob, who had stolen in upon him by fraud and by unjustifiable arts? But although covered with shame on account of the error he had committed, he nevertheless, with a collected mind, ratifies thebenediction which he had pronounced; and I do not doubt that he then, as one awaking, began to recall to memory the oracle to which he had not been sufficiently attentive. Wherefore, the holy man was not impelled by ambition to bethus tenacious of his purpose, as obstinate men are wont to be, who prosecute tothe last what they have once, though foolishly, begun; but the declaration, I have blessed him, yea, and he shall be blessed, was the effect of a rare and precious faith; for he, renouncing the affections of the flesh, now yields himself entirely to God, and, acknowledging God as the Author of the benediction which he had uttered, ascribes due glory to him in not daring to retract it. The benefit of this doctrine pertains to the whole Church, in order that we may certainly know, that whatever the heralds of the gospel promise to us by the command of God, will beefficacious and stable, because they do not speak as private men, but as by the

command of God himself; and the infirmity of the minister does not destroy the faithfulness, power, and efficacy of God’s word. He who presents himself to us charged with the offer of eternal happiness and life, is subject to our common miseries and to death; yet, notwithstanding, the promise is efficacious. He who absolves us from sins is himself a sinner; but because his office is divinely assigned him, the stability of this grace, having its foundation in God, shall never fail.

3. WESLEY, “Isaac trembled exceedingly - Those that follow the choice of their own affections rather than the dictates of the Divine will, involve themselves in such perplexities as these. But he soon recovers himself, and ratifies the blessing he had given to Jacob, I have blessed him, and he shall be blessed - He might have recalled it, but now at last he is sensible he was in an error when he designed it for Esau. Either recollecting the Divine oracle, or having found himself more than ordinarily filled with the Holy Ghost when he gave the blessing to Jacob, he perceived that Goddid as it were say Amen to it.

4. COKE, “Genesis 27:33. Isaac trembled, &c.— It may appear extraordinary, that Isaac should

be so exceedingly alarmed at this event, and yet confirm what he had done;

notWITHDRAWI�G the blessing, so deceitfully gained: I have blessed him, yea, and he

shall be blessed. To the common answers taken from Isaac's being convinced of the Divine interposition, &c. I would add, that every attentive reader must discern, what a great difference in sense the signs of the future, shall or will, make in our language; a difference to which the future tense in other languages is a stranger: indeed very often much depends upon the proper application of these signs. In the present case, instead of shall, read will; and you must immediately observe, that the passage will have another, and a very just sense; yea, and he WILL be blessed. God will give him the blessing; it is his design, and I cannot reverse it. Shuckford is of opinion, that the prophetic Spirit of God at that moment enlightened Isaac's mind, and shewed him God's will.

5. Biblical Illustrator, “Genesis 27:33-40

And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father

Esau’s cry

No one can read this chapter without feeling some pity for Esau.All his hopes were disappointed in a moment. He had built much upon this blessing; for in his youth he had sold his birthright, and he thought that in his father’s blessing he would get back his birthright, or what would stand in its place. He had parted with it easily, and he expected to regain it easily, tie thought to regain God’s blessing, not by fasting and prayer, but by savoury meat, by feasting and making merry.

I. Esau’s cry is the cry of one who has rejected God, and who in turn has been rejected byHim. He was

(1) profane, and

(2) presumptuous.

He was profane in selling his birthright, presumptuous in claiming the blessing. Such as Esau was, such are too many Christians now. They neglect religion in their best days; they give up their birthright in exchange for what is sure to perish and make them perish with it. They are profane persons, for they despise the great gift of God; they are presumptuous, for they claim a blessing as a matter of course.

II. The prodigal son is an example of a true penitent. He came to God with deep confession—self-abasement. He said, “Father, I have sinned.” Esau came for a son’s privileges; the prodigal son came for a servant’s drudgery. The one killed and dressed hisvenison with his own hand, and enjoyed it not; for the other the fatted calf was prepared,and the ring for his hand and shoes for his feet, and the best robe, and there was music and dancing. (J. H. Newman, D. D.)

Esau’s late repentance

I. The character of Esau has unquestionably a fair side. Esau was by no means a man of unqualified wickedness or baseness; judged according to the standard of many men, he would pass for a very worthy, estimable person. The whole history of his treatment of Jacob puts his character in a very favourably light; it represents him as an open-hearted, generous person, who, though he might be rough in his manners, fond of a wild life, perhaps as rude and unpolished in mind as he was in body, had yet a noble soul, which was able to do what little minds sometimes cannot do—namely, forgive freely a cruel wrong done to him.

II. Nevertheless, it is not without reason that the apostle styles Esau a profane person. The defect in his character may be described as a want of religious seriousness; there wasnothing spiritual in him—no reverence for holy things, no indications of a soul which could find no sufficient joy in this world, but which aspired to those joys which are at God’s right hand for evermore. By the title of profane the apostle means to describe the carnal, unspiritual man—the man who takes his stand upon this world as the end of his thoughts and the scene of all his activity, who considers the land as a great hunting-field, and makes the satisfaction of his bodily wants and tastes the whole end of living.

III. Esau’s repentance was consistent with his character; it was manifestly of the wrong kind. Sorrow of this world; grief for the loss of the corn and wine. (Bishop Harvey Goodwin.)

Esau disappointed of his blessing

I. HE IS OVERWHELMED BY A HEART-RENDING SORROW

II. HE REFERS HIS WRONGS TO THEIR TRUE AUTHOR.

III. HE PLEADS PATHETICALLY WITH HIS FATHER.

IV. HE IS CONTENTED WITH AN INFERIOR BLESSING. God’s blessings without God.Nothing of heaven enters into it. (T. H. Leale.)

The deceived father and the defrauded son and brother

I. ISAAC’S CONDUCT.

1. Remark, first, the double blessing—Jacob’s containing temporal abundance, temporal rule, and spiritual blessing, the main points plainly being the rights of primogeniture; Esau’s, in the first part identical with his brother’s, but different afterwards by the want of spiritual blessing: God’s gifts without God, the fruit of the earth and the plunder of the sword, but no connection with the covenant of God. Of course the destinies of Israel and Edom are prefigured in this, rather than the personal history of Jacob and Esau. For the predicted liberty of Edom, the breaking the yoke off the neck, did not take place till the reign of Jehoram, long after Esau’s death 2Ki_8:22). So that when it is written, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated,” the selection of nations to outward privileges is meant, not the irrespective election of individuals to eternal life. Now in these blessings we have the principle of prophecy. We cannot suppose that the Jacob here spoken of as blessed was unmixedly good, nor the Esau unmixedly evil. Nor can we imagine that idolatrous Israel was that in which all the promises of God found their end, or that Eden was thenation on whom the curse of God fell unmixed with any blessing. Prophecy takes individuals and nations as representations for the time being of principles which theyonly partially represent. They are the basis or substratum of an idea. For instance, Jacob, or Israel, represents the principle of good, the Church of God, the triumphant and blessed principle. To that, the typical Israel, the promises are made; to the literal Jacob or Israel, only as the type of this, and so far as the nation actually was what it stood for. Esau is the worldly man, representing for the time the world. To that the rejection belongs; to the literal Isaac, only so far as he is that.

2. Next observe Isaac’s adherence to his promise. If anything can excuse a departure from a promise, Isaac might have been excused in this case; for in truth he did not promise to Jacob, though Jacob stood before him. He honestly thought that he was speaking to his first-born; and yet, perhaps partly taught to be punctiliously scrupulous by the rebuke he had received in early life from Abimelech, partly feeling that he had been but an instrument in God’s hands, he felt that a mysterious and irrevocable sacredness belonged to his word once past, and said, “Yea, and he shall be blessed.” Jesuitism amongst us has begun to tamper with the sacredness of a promise. Men change their creed, and fancy themselves absolved from past promises;the member of the Church of Rome is no longer bound to do what the member of the Church of England stipulated. Just as well might the king refuse to perform the promises or pay the debts of the prince whom he once was. Therefore, let us ponder over such texts as these. Be careful and cautious of pledging yourself to anything; but the money you have once promised, the offer you have once made, is irrevocable—it is no longer yours; it is passed from you as much as if it had been given.

II. ESAU’S CONDUCT.

1. Remark his contentment with a second-rate blessing: “Hast thou not another blessing?” &c. These words, taken by themselves, without reference to the character of him who spoke them, are neither good nor evil. Had Esau meant only this: God has many blessings, of various kinds; and looking round the circle of my resources, I perceive a principle of compensation, so that what I lose in one department I gain in some other; I will be content to take a second blessing when I cannot have the first. Esau would have said nothing which was not praiseworthy and religious; he would have only expressed what the Syro-Phoenician woman did, who observed that thoughin this world some have the advantages of children, whereas others are as little favoured as dogs, yet that the dogs have the compensatory crumbs. But it was not in

this spirit at all that Esau spoke. His was the complaining spirit of the man who repines because others are more favoured than he; the spirit of the elder son in the parable, “thou never gavest me a kid.” This character transformed outward disadvantages into a real curse. For, again I say, disadvantages are in themselves onlya means to more lustrous excellence. But if to inferior talents we add sloth, and to poverty envy and discontent, and to weakened health querulousness, then we have indeed ourselves converted non-election into reprobation; and we are doubly cursed—cursed by inward as well as outward inferiority.

2. Remark Esau’s malice (verse 41). “The days of mourning for my father are at hand,then will I slay my brother Jacob.” Distinguish this from the resentment of righteous indignation. Resentment is an attribute of humanity in its original, primal state. He who cannot feel indignant at some kinds of wrong has not the mind of Christ. Remember the words with which he blighted pharisaism—words not spoken for effect, but syllables of downright, genuine anger; such expressions as peculiarly belong to the prophetic character, in which indignation blazes into a flame; the prophetic writings are full of it. Very different from this was Esau’s resentment. Anger in him had passed into malice; private wrong had been brooded on till it had become revenge, deliberate and planned vindictiveness. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)

Esau and the blessing

I. This narrative SUGGESTS A WARNING AGAINST THE UNDER-VALUING OF PRIVILEGE.

II. This narrative SUGGESTS THAT GOD IS ABLE TO BLESS EVERY DESIRING SOUL.Eternal life for all. See the inexhaustible nature of the Divine riches exemplified in—

1. The vast numbers who have been made partakers of it already passed from mortal sight.

2. The multitudes on their way at this moment to the same heavenly kingdom who have “ obtained like precious faith.”

III. This narrative REMINDS US THAT ONE MAY SEEK THE BLESSING TOO LATE. Though Esau obtained at last a blessing, he did not realize the blessing. (F. Goodall, B. A,)

The cry of one man representing the wail of many

I. There is here THE SENSE OF AN IMMENSE LOSS. A holy character is the highest birthright. We have all to lament the loss of this.

II. THE SENSE OF A GREAT INJURY. Victimized by his own brother. Far worse to bear than an injury from an enemy.

III. THE SENSE OF REMORSE.

IV. THE SENSE OF APPROACHING HOPELESSNESS. Conclusion:

1. What we have all lost. Our birthright—the image of God.

2. What we should all chiefly struggle for. The restoration of the Divine image. Our loss is not, like Esau’s, irremediable. We can, by faith in Christ, regain it. (Homilist.)

The repentance of Esau

I. CERTAINLY WE ARE NOT TO GATHER HENCE THAT ANY TRUE PENITENT CAN TURN TO GOD AND BE REJECTED OF HIM. ESAU’S rejection was no such contradiction of God’s love as the rejection of any one weeping penitent upon earth would surely be. For, first, there is about Esau’s very cry itself, loud and bitter as it was, no sign of true penitence; and, next, when he uttered it, so far as that which he had then lost is concerned, his day of probation was already over, his time of trial closed, his hour of judgment come. There is doubtless, as we shall see hereafter, a true counterpart of thisbefore every impenitent man, with horrors aggravated above any which waited upon Esau’s sentence, as far as time is exceeded by eternity, and temporal disadvantage by the death of the enduring soul. But there is not one word in it to make any one who, in this his day of grace, turns to the Lord, and cries to him for cleansing and for pardon, doubt the full certainty of a most gracious acceptance by Him who suffered the woman that wasa sinner to wash His blessed feet with her tears, and to wipe them with the hair of her head.

II. This, then, certainly is not the lesson which is taught us here; but just as certainly IT IS THAT WE, TOO, MAY CAST AWAY GOD’S MERCY TO US; that we, the true children of promise, bred in the family of One greater than Isaac—that we, the inheritors of a birthright greater far than Jacob sought for or Esau despised—that we, the children of God’s grace, may reject His grace, and cast profanely from us our more blessed birthright. Such awful cases the experience of every parish priest has, I suppose, brought before him. I have seen them and have trembled. I have seen the fearful paroxysms of a loud and violent despair. I have seen what is more awful still, the obstinate sinner, calmly, deliberately, determinately put from himself the hope of salvation, and declare that in a few hours he shall be in hell. And so indeed it must be. For if this were not so, what could the warning mean, “Look diligently, test any man fail of the grace of Christ.” Surely it must mean that the time of hopeless lamentation will come to every obstinate despiser of God’s grace; that His Spirit does not always strive with any man—that there isa limit to the trial of every man. Can we not, as we gaze with awe upon the fearful picture,see in some measure why this doom is irreversible? For must it not of necessity happen that the very perfection of this miserable wickedness sets the seal of hopeless continuance upon such spiritual wretchedness? For such a spiritual being with such a nature must hate the good; must, above all, hate supremely God, the All-Good; must see in Him the highest and most absolute conceivable contradiction of itself, and so must recoil infinitely from Him, and in recoiling from Him must choose the evil with an ever-renewed iteration and ever-increasing intensity of choice. Nor does the perfection of the misery which such a soul endures at all incline it to any breath of penitence; it only deepens the blackness and the malignity of its despair. There is nothing in itself purifying in suffering.

III. But if we would learn one true lesson from this portion of God’s Word, we must not only note the general warning of looking diligently lest we fall from God’s grace, but we must see further AGAINST WHAT SPECIAL FORMS OF EVIL THIS WARNING IS PECULIARLY DIRECTED. And indeed, for many here, as everywhere, this is a lesson needing very signally to be learned. For remember what were Esau’s circumstances and Esau’s trial. Born to the inheritance of a certain birthright, exercising, as to his first title to it, no volition regarding it; having centred in his own person the mysterious privileges which ordinarily belonged to the first-born son of the heir of promise—he cast these

away; not from special or marked depravity of character, but from yielding to the temptations of appetite.

This one special attribute of sensuality is clearly shadowed forth in this example; we see its direct tendency to lead to delaying repentance until true repentance is impossible. Forits gratifications fill for a season, and occupy the degraded soul. Thus the first drawings of the blessed Spirit are resisted, His first tender motions on the soul are quenched; and it is in yielding to these, instead of resisting them, that there is the only possibility of any true repentance. So it was with Esau, when, under the overmastering impulse of a sensual temptation, he was led to cast all good away—for “thus Esau despised his birthright.” Surely the application is too explicit to be missed. Is not the warning plain against exactly that whole class of sins of the real guilt of which the world takes least account? Is it not as much as saying that indulged sensuality does build up barriers against true repentance, which are all but impassable? Does it not meet the man possessed, by natural endowment, of high spirits, of frankness, of cheerfulness, of all thatmakes him a popular companion—with strong passions, with great powers of enjoyment—who flings himself freely into life, is the leader of a set, and, from there being a certain look of generosity about his vices, is lauded perhaps for his unselfishness; who has naturally a far more attractive character than the less courageous, less spirited, less frank, more self-conscious, more self-watchful man beside him? doest it not meet this man in his hours of sensual temptations, and say, Thou hast a birthright, beware of despising it, beware of bartering it? Does it not say to him, “Thou, too, art a son of Abraham”? yea, and more, “Thou art a son of Christ”; without thy choice, before thy knowledge, of God’s mere love and mercy, that blessed privilege was made thine. His love yearned over thine infancy, His Spirit has striven with thy youth, His care is watching over thee now, and thou, too, art tempted to barter these inestimable blessings for the mess of pottage. In thee, too, appetite craves for indulgence; before thine eyes a sensuous fancy paints her glowing pictures of the mad delight of gratified desire, of the feast, of the revel, of the impure orgy, of the satisfied sense. All these she sets before thee,and thy spirit, faint often and weary in this struggle, whispers to thee, Lo! I die in this abstinence; and what good shall this birthright do me? Oh, then beware—for then is the tempter nearest, closest, most dangerous. Then, under the form of what he whispers to thee is a common practice, a slight evil, the yielding to an irresistible temptation; then is he tempting thee, too, after this example of the old profaneness of Esau, to despise thy birthright. Nor can you tell that in any one of these allowed instances of sensual indulgence you may not actually sell your birthright. It is the very secret of the power of the temptation, that in each separate instance it looks so inconsiderable in its future consequence, compared with the pressing urgency of the present desire. It is the gusty impulsiveness of your nature which exposes you so certainly to the danger. You become profane without knowing it; you meant but to gratify appetite, and lo! for appetite you have bartered your soul. Here, then, is God’s warning to you. He sets, from the beginning, the end before you. He shows you what such conduct really is, and whither it must lead you. He lets you hear the loud and bitter cry. (Bp. S. Wilberforce.)

Lessons

I. To respect and reverence old age, and commiserate its infirmities.

II. To cultivate a spirit of truth, honesty, and honour in our dealings.

III. To shun every occasion of household strife.

IV. To seek the blessing of our heavenly Father, in the full confidence that all He has given to others has not so impoverished Him that there is not a blessing left for us. (J. C. Gray.)

The blessing

An accurate view of individual history—the history of real life—is always interesting.

I. THE FACTS HERE STATED.

1. Notice the individuals concerned; these are, Isaac and Rebekah, and their twin sons, Esau and Jacob. Isaac was the child of promise, given to Abraham in his old age, through whom the blessing pronounced on Abraham was to descend to an innumerable multitude. He married Rebekah, his cousin, the grand-child of Abraham’s brother; and the offspring of their union were these twin children, Esau and Jacob. All that is recorded of the parents impresses us with the conviction of their piety. In the short notices of their life, we observe that, with sufficient evidence of their partaking of human infirmity, we have abundant testimony to their devotional habits, their submission to the dispensations of Providence, their peaceable and liberal disposition, and their prosperity under the blessing of the Lord.Esau and Jacob, their children, were characters widely differing from each other.

2. The blessing that Jacob obtained. It was a blessing which was inherent in the posterity of Abraham, and which one of the sons of Isaac was consequently to inherit.

3. The means which were used for the obtaining of this blessing. Isaac was on the point of conferring the blessing of the first-born upon Esau, contrary to the Divine intimation, contrary to the warrantable expectations of Rebekah, and contrary to those predilections which she seems to have cherished for the younger son, and which his regular and domestic habits appear to have strengthened. Acting under theinfluence of unbelief, she immediately suggested to Jacob the plan of supplanting his brother by fraud. Jacob’s objections appear to have been those of prudence rather than of principle; they yielded to a mother’s earnest entreaties; and the result shows him to be no inapt scholar in the ways of deception. There is something very humiliating in the whole of Jacob’s interview with his father. Every succeeding step ismarked with grosser hypocrisy and deeper guilt; and though, in the mysterious providence of God, the promised blessing was permitted to rest on his head, yet the guilt of that scene must afterwards have been like a barbed arrow in his conscience, and given increased severity to many of his subsequent sufferings. The promise was given to Isaac with this recognition of Abraham’s character, “Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.” Isaac did the same. He entered into the spirit of the covenant, and lived a life of obedience. On what reasonable ground, therefore, could Esau, knowing this, expect the blessing? Hewas a “profane person, a fornicator,” a mere sensualist. It is in this light, therefore, that we should regard him, and by these things that we must measure his tears.

II. The circumstances that have come before us suggest SOME VERY IMPORTANT ANDUSEFUL PRACTICAL REMARKS. We notice—

1. The evil of parental partialities. The selection of one child for favouritism is altogether inconsistent with the sacredness of parental duty, and with the strict justice which is essential to parental discipline. In the present instance, the fondness of Isaac for his first-born, and of Rebekah for her younger child, led both themselves

and their children into sin.

2. The fearful results of one deviation from rectitude. One vice entails another. One instance of error or untruth frequently places a man in circumstances in which he is led to commit many to bring him off without suspicion; and he who tells one lie will not scruple much, in a very short time, blasphemously to call the name of God to witness it. “And he said, Because the Lord thy God brought it to me.” Let every one, then, beware how he approaches the first appearances of evil, or oversteps in the least degree the line of propriety. “We cannot hope to be preserved when we have placed ourselves in questionable circumstances; and we have not strength to keep ourselves.

3. The character of the over-ruling providence of God. It was said of Jacob and Esau, “the elder shall serve the younger.” But the ways of God are very mysterious. The same result is brought about by a series of natural events, on which we could not have calculated; events, however, which are in no respect the results of an absolute fatalism, but which are seen to arise fairly out of the elements of character and habitsof the parties concerned. “we see each character developed in its peculiarities by the course which it is permitted to pursue; and to each, in the sovereignty of Divine Providence, a moral discipline is applied, calculated to forward the best interests of the soul.

4. The melancholy character of the sorrow of the world. While, therefore, the afflictions of Jacob, though they were the consequences of his sins, led him to draw near to God in his solitude, the grief of Esau was merely the regret consequent on worldly disappointment. The privation of the blessing of the first-born was only lamented by him as the ruin of his best earthly hopes. It was the downfall of his ambition. It was a limit prescribed to his indulgences. It was merely that sorrow which often seizes on ungodly men in the course of Providence, and in which they know not where to turn for consolation, because they will not turn to God.

5. Observe the immeasurable extent of the Divine compassion. It is only on the mercy of God that Jacob or Esau, or any character similar to either, can rest a sure and certain hope of deliverance at last. (E. Craig.)

Godly and worldly sorrow

I suppose that when we read the account of Esau’s grief, of his affecting appeal to his father and of its ill success, we begin to think it an instance of the fruitlessness of repentance. Those who have thrown away God’s gifts of grace, who have despised them in former days, and sold them for some mess of pottage, who are now wishing to have them back and to return to God, are apt to be disheartened and dismayed by such a passage in God’s Word. The fear springs up lest they also should find no answer to their prayers, lest theirs should be fruitless tears, lest the cry should be made by them in yam, “Bless me also, O my Father.” But however natural such thoughts from the first impression of the scene, a closer study of the passage may serve to drive away the clouds.We may learn to see that there was something wrong and faulty in Esau’s sorrow, great as it was, something in the nature of his distress of mind not altogether satisfactory or right. If we examine his conduct at the time, we fail to see any religious element in it at all. It was a worldly sorrow, a burst of natural but worldly grief; there was no confession of his former sin, no acknowledgment that the blessing had been justly lost, no word of self-condemnation, no avowal like the penitent thief upon the cross, that he, indeed, was

justly suffering for past misdeeds, and was reaping as he had sown; no allusion to his faithlessness, to his contempt of the promise of God in selling his birthright for the mess of pottage, no turning to God, no mention of God at all, or of God’s just anger for his pastoffence. And hence we may conclude that he took a mere worldly view of his loss, that he felt mere worldly sorrow—sorrow for the loss of some temporal advantages to himself and his descendants, and perhaps mingled with this keen sense of worldly disappointment—sorrow at having missed a father’s benediction, especially as he believed it, in his case, to carry with it some unusual power. If this is a right view of Esau’s state of mind, we see at once that he is not to be regarded as a true penitent, that he is not presented to us as such, and that therefore no feelings of true penitence are to be chilled or checked in their growth by the treatment which he received. The great truth still stands out as clearly as ever, quite unclouded by any instance in Scripture to the contrary, that God does receive back the penitent; that godly sorrow, if it lead on to the after acts and fuller development of repentance, never rends our hearts in vain; not in vain does any wandering child of God draw near, and kneeling down at the foot of the cross exclaim, “Bless me also, O my Father.” Whenever the sorrow of the heart is true godly sorrow, and the conscience-stricken bow themselves in genuine compunction at the mercy-seat of God, mercy comes forth from the throne of God, and the penitent is blessed. But all sorrow—and it is this which the history of Esau impressively proclaims—is not godly sorrow, and has not its blessed fruit. Men may grieve over losses, disasters, reverses brought on them through sin, without grieving altogether for the sin, without being grieved and angry with themselves for sinning. And what harder burden to bear than this worldly sorrow, when the heart is dry and dead to the influence of grace, when the soul has no light in its dark place, when God is not confessed in time of trial, when chastisements for sin fail to create the sense of sin, or to break the will of the disobedient child, when there is no mark of the Cross of Christ, but when it is the fruitless cross of theworld, which cannot heal? If we are in any suffering, under any trial through transgressions, whether lately or long since done, we can find blessings springing up amid the thorns, should we own the hand of God and sorrow after a godly sort; but if we steel our hearts, and go through trial without taking it as from our Saviour’s hands, without owning “rod lamenting the sins and errors and neglects, the worldliness and the foolishness from which the trial grew, then indeed it is a heavy weight to bear, and there is a still heavier burden to be laid upon us hereafter. (Bp. Armstrong.)

Esau, the man of nature

While in Jacob’s conduct the high and noble aims which he pursued were in most discordant contrast with the ungenerous means which he employed, Esau was fluctuating and contradictory within himself; though the general tone of his mind was indifference to spiritual boons, his sentiments were spontaneous and profound wheneverthe voice of nature spoke; he despised the birthright (Gen_27:34), but regarded himself always as the first-born son (Gen_27:32); he slighted the prophecy of God (Gen_27:23), but coveted most anxiously the blessing of his father; he attributed to the latter a greater force than to the former; he hoped to to neutralize the effect of the one by the weight of the other; he could not comprehend or feel the invisible, but he was keenly susceptible ofthe visible; his mind was not sublime, but his heart was full of pure and strong emotions;he saw in his father only the earthly progenitor, not the representative of the Deity—he was, indeed, the man of nature. As such he is described in the affecting scene of our text; tie is designedly placed in marked contradistinction to his brother Jacob: nature, simplicity, deep and genuine affection on the one side; shrewdness, ambition, and

indefinite, soaring, but unsatisfied intellectual craving on the other. This contrast not only implies the kernel and spirit of this narrative, but forms the centre of all Biblical notions. Hence Esau’s vehement disappointment will receive its proper light; he deeply repented that he had sold his birthright, but only because he believed that he was for thatreason justly deprived of the father’s blessing due to the eldest son (Gen_27:36); he beard without envy or animosity, that Jacob’s descendants had been declared the future lords of his own progeny; leaving that prerogative ummurmuringly to his brother, he exclaimed: “Hast thou but one blessing, my father?” and bursts forth into another flood of tears. (M. M.Kalisch, Ph. D.)

Esau’s irreligious envy of Jacob

It was not that he desired to be a servant of the Lord, or that his posterity should be His people, according to the tenor of Abraham’s covenant: but as he that should be possessedof these distinctions would in other respects be superior to his brother, it became an object of emulation. Thus we have often seen religion set at nought, while yet the advantages which accompany it have been earnestly desired; and where grace has in a manner crossed hands by favouring a younger or inferior branch of a family, envy and itstrain of malignant passions have frequently blazed on the other side. It was not as the father of the holy nation, but as being “lord over his brethren,” that Jacob was the object of Esau’s envy. And this may further account for the blessing of Isaac on the former dwelling principally upon temporal advantages, as designed of God to cut off the vain hopes of the latter, of enjoying the power attached to the blessing, while he despised the blessing itself. When Esau perceived that Jacob must be blessed, he entreated to be blessed also: “Bless me, even me also, oh my father!” One sees in this language just that partial conviction of there being something in religion, mixed with a large portion of ignorance, which it is common to see in persons who have been brought up in a religious family, and yet are strangers to the God of their fathers. If this earnest request had extended only to what was consistent with Jacob’s having the pre-eminence, there was another blessing for him, and he had it: but though he had no desire after the best part ofJacob’s portion, yet he was very earnest to have had that clause of it reversed, “be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother’s sons bow down to thee.” If this could have been granted him, he had been satisfied; for “ the fatness of the earth” was all he cared for. Butthis was an object concerning which, as the apostle observes, “he found no place of repentance” (that is, in the mind of his father), “though he sought it carefully with tears.”Such will be the case with fornicators and all profane persons, who, like Esau, for a few momentary gratifications in the present life, make light of Christ and the blessings of the gospel. They will cry with a great and exceeding bitter cry, saying, “Lord, Lord, open untous!” But they will find no place of repentance in the mind of the Judge, who will answer them, “I know you not whence ye are: depart from Me ye workers of iniquity!” Esau’s reflections on his brother for having twice supplanted him, were not altogether without ground; yet his statement is exaggerated. He lost his birthright because he himself, despising it, sold it to Jacob. (A. Fuller.)

Late and false tears

Why did he not rather weep to his brother for the pottage than to Isaac for a blessing? If he had not then sold, he had not needed now to buy. It is just with God to deny us those favours which we were careless in keeping, and which we undervalued in enjoying. How

happy a thing is it to know the seasons of grace, and not to neglect them! How desperate to have known and neglected them I These tears are both late and false. (Bp. Hall.)

34

When Esau heard his father's words, he burst out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, "Bless me--me too, my father!"

1. Gill, “And when Esau heard the words of his father,.... That another person had been before him, and got the blessing; and especially when he heard this ratified, and confirmed, and made irrevocable:

he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry; as loud as he possibly could, and inas doleful and hideous a manner as can be imagined; according to the Vulgate Latin version, he roared like a lion:

and said unto his father, bless me, even me also, O my father; thou art my father, and I am a child of thine as well as Jacob, show paternal affection to me; give me also a child's blessing, one at least equal to what thou hast given Jacob, if not a greater, as being the firstborn.

2. SBC, “No one can read this chapter without feeling some pity for Esau. All his hopes were disappointed in a moment. He had built much upon this blessing, for in his youth he had sold his birthright, and he thought that in his father’s blessing he would get back his birthright, or what would stand in its place. He had parted with it easily, and he expected to regain it easily. He thought to regain God’s blessing, not by fasting and prayer, but by savoury meat, by feasting and making merry.

I. Esau’s cry is the cry of one who has rejected God, and who in turn has been rejected by Him. He was: (1) profane; and (2) presumptuous. He was profane in selling his birthright, presumptuous in claiming the blessing. Such as Esau was, such are too many Christians now. They neglect religion in their best days; they give up their birthright in exchange for what is sure to perish and make them perish with it. They are profane persons, for they despise the great gift of God; they are presumptuous, for they claim a blessing as a matter of course.

II. The prodigal son is an example of a true penitent. He came to God with deep confession—self-abasement. He said, "Father, I have sinned." Esau came for a son’s privileges; the prodigal son came for a servant’s drudgery. The one killed and dressed hisvenison with his own hand, and enjoyed it not; for the other the fatted calf was prepared,

and the ring for his hand and shoes for his feet, and the best robe; and there was music and dancing.

J. H. Newman, Selection front Parochial and Plain Sermons, p. 141; also vol. vi., p. 15.

3. Calvin, "He cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry. Though Esau persists in imploring the blessing, he yet gives a sign of desperation, which is the reason why heobtains no benefit, because he enters not by the gate of faith. True piety, indeed, draws forth tears and great cries from the children of God; but Esau, trembling andfull of fears, breaks out in wailings; afterwards he casts, at a venture, his wish into the air, that he also may receive a blessing. But his blind incredulity is reproved by his own words; for whereas one blessing only had been deposited with his father, he asks that another should be given to him, as if it were in his father’s power indiscriminately to breathe out blessings, independently of the command of God. Here the admonition of the Apostle may suggest itself to our minds,

“that Esau, when he sought again the forfeited blessing with tears and loud lamentations, found no place for repentance,”

(Hebrews 12:17;)

for they who neglect to follow God when he calls on them, afterwards call upon him in vain, when he has turned his back. So long as God addresses and invites us, the gate of the kingdom of heaven is in a certain sense open: this opportunity we must use, if we desire to enter, according to the instruction of the Prophet,

“Seek ye the Lord while he may be found;

call ye upon him while he is near.” (Isaiah 55:6.)

Of which passage Paul is the interpreter, in defining that to be the acceptable time of the day of salvation in which grace is brought unto us by the gospel. (2 Corinthians 6:2.) They who suffer that time to pass by, may, at length, knock too late, and without profit, because God avenges himself of their idleness. We must therefore fear lest if, with deafened ears, we suffer the voice of God now to pass unheeded by, he should, in turn, become deaf to our cry. But it may be asked, how isthis repulse consistent with the promise,

“If the wicked will turn from all his sins that he has committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live?” (Ezekiel 18:21.)

Moreover, it may seem at variance with the clemency of God to reject the sighings ofthose who, being crushed by misery, fly for refuge to his mercy. I answer, that repentance, if it be true and sincere, will never be too late; and the sinner who, from his soul, is displeased with himself, will obtain pardon: but God in this manner punishes the contempt of his grace, because they who obstinately reject it, do not seriously purpose in their mind to return to him. Thus it is that they who are given up to a reprobate mind are never touched with genuine penitence. Hypocrites truly

break out into tears, like Esau, but their heart within them will remain closed as with iron bars. Therefore, since Esau rushes forward, destitute of faith and repentance, to ask a blessing, there is no wonder that he should be rejected.

Esau goes ballistic, losing all perspective of the truth. He says, "Jacob took away mybirthright", when in fact, Esau had despised it and sold it for a bowl of stew! The book of Hebrews says:

Hebr. 12:15-17 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; that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. 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.

4. Dr. Arthur G. Ferry, Jr.I do not think there is enough anguish in my voice to properly communicate what was in Esau's voice when he said, "Bless me too, my father." I think this is the cry ofevery child to his or her parents: bless me too, my mother; bless me too, my father. This is the cry from every child to their parents, "Bless me too, my mother. Bless metoo, my father." I think it is our cry. We who are adults also seek blessings from ourparents.There should be no unblessed child in a home. Each of us needs the blessing of our parents. Paul Tournier, the late Swiss psychiatrist-theologian, used the story of Esauto describe a certain type of psychological problem which he was constantly dealing with in his therapy in Switzerland. He called it "The Unblessed Child".

It had nothing to do with the gifts of the child, or the ability of the child, or the opportunities in life the child enjoyed, or even material possessions. It had to do with this child not being blessed, not feeling approved by his or her parents, feeling that somehow they did not measure up, that somehow they never really pleased their parent. There are in this congregation men and women who will say to themselves, "I am an unblessed child. I never amounted to what my mother wanted for me. I never accomplished what my father wanted me to accomplish. I am one of those unblessed children."

I have a friend who is one of the most talented preachers I know. He taught preaching for many years, and has written one of the classic books on preaching that's in the literature of the field today. He was reared in a home of a very successful businessman who had been mayor in their town. He was a perfectionist when it came to expectations for his children. His father has been dead now for 2 decades, but he is still working to please his father. He is still trying to do something with his life which would make him think, "My Dad would really like that." It is unbelievable what it does to a child to grow up in a family and feel they have not been blessed.

You're saying, "Well Pastor, I'm convinced I ought to bless my children. How can I bless my children?

What are the power-laden words, those actions, those gestures which will bless my children?" I have already suggested you should resist the temptation to make the passing of material gain for children your only goal. I don't think it is a sin to die and leave things to your children that they can spend, or live in, or drive. That's not what I'm saying, but if this is all you leave them, then you have not left them enough.

There is something that wants us to make it easier for our kids. My father used to say to me, "I just hope you don't have to work the way I've worked." As if there wassomething wrong with working. Or there is something in us that makes us more interested in sheltering our children from life than equipping them for life. I don't know what it is, but it is there, and I guess what I want to say is, don't assume the obvious is obvious to your children. I know parents who love their children, but somehow never communicate that love. I know parents who are proud of their children, and somehow never communicate that pride to their children.Here are some suggestions to get us started:

I. �OTHI�G BLESSES A CHILD MORE THA� BEI�G LOVED OR ACCEPTED. This needs to be felt by the child, communicated by the parent, understood by both. When you are little, it come by touch, by holding, by looking, by talking, by giving attention. There is a kind of bonding that comes. I used to wonder how, when all thecalves ran up to the cow, how one cow could tell her calf from another. Then when we began to watch the little calves be born, here was that mother licking the calf, smelling the calf, spending time with the calf, a kind of early bonding.

If this is true in the animal world, it is really true with people. There needs to be a kind of physical bonding, touching, holding, looking, bouncing, making noises, listening to noises, and being delighted. That doesn't sound hard, does it? Or love is communicated by just being interested in the child and listening.

A little kid comes in, and in her sweaty little hand is a bouquet of dandelions. They smell terrible, but if you are to look beyond that bouquet to a child who is so anxious to please you, to communicate their love for you, the dandelions turn into long stem red roses. You get a vase and you put water in it, you put it in a place and you crow over this lovely gift. What a marvelous gift to a child!

People who sit down with little children and read that same story over and over and over until you have real thoughts about Dr. Seuss and his rhyming words; then you begin to play games with your children -- you come to a spot and you put the wrong word in and they correct you, and that becomes a game. It is a sort of a way of saying, "You are significant to me. You are an important person. I like to read to you, and you make reading an enjoyable thing."

Words of praise for children are powerful words, and sometimes as pushy parents in our desire to get them to go to their full potential we leave the impression that they will never please us. Sometimes those small victories need to be crowed over. Words of love and affection are essential. They may come from all sorts of people, but if they do not come from your parents, you are not blessed. I have seen people stand as adults in a community and be praised by all of their peers, and I knew that inside them there was an emptiness, because while the whole world had praised them, their father or mother did not praise them. It is an easy thing to bless a child. They need love and acceptance.

II. CHILDRE� ARE ALSO BLESSED WHE� THEIR PARE�TS HAVE A GOODRELATIO�SHIP WITH EACH OTHER. To be able to say "My mother and dad love each other" is a marvelous thing for a child. It gives them a sense of security. It gives them a sense of belonging.

Children read the relationship. Often before words or definitions they understand that the good nourishes them and the bad frightens them. To neglect your marriage is to neglect your children.

This does not mean that a single parent cannot bless a child. It is just that the child'sneeds never change, so if as a single father or a single mother you are parenting, it isjust a little harder for you and you have a little larger load to carry.

III. CHILDRE� ARE BLESSED BY THE CO�SISTE�CY OF OUR LIVES A�D BY THE I�VOLVEME�T I� OUR LIVES. It's what our character is. When what we are saying to them is what we are acting out in our lives, they feel blessed. Things sort of fit together if they watch us become truth tellers, honest with them, honest with others, honest with each other; if they see us respecting people, treating people as persons; if they sense in us a prizing of values; if they sense in us an interest in life.

It's not good for children to be worshipped. It's not good for children if the only interest their parents have is those children. It gives them too much power, and sometimes makes them feel unloved. When given a choice, a child will choose between what we are rather than what we say. If they see us as phony, they but the life rather than the words. They are blessed by the consistency and the involvement in our lives.

IV. THEY ARE BLESSED AS WE I�TRODUCE THEM TO GOD. I hear there are 2 things we ought not to force on our children; religion and politics. I always translate that: there are just 2 things that are not important to me, religion and politics. I realize you cannot choose God for your child, you cannot impose upon a child your faith. It is not an automatic thing. It is not an easy thing. Each

generation must decide.

But you can early introduce a child to the biblical faith that this is a God- centered world, not a man-centered world. You can introduce a child to the revelation of himself we have in Jesus Christ. You can introduce a child to the value system that grows out of the Judeo-Christian faith where they learn a basis for right and for wrong. You can create a climate which predisposes a child toward faith.

It doesn't bother me at all to go out and make my garden produce squash rather than weeds and roses rather than thistles. A parent blesses a child by creating a kind of climate in which faith can take place.

V. WE BLESS OUR CHILDRE� WHE� WE LET THEM GROW UP. There is such a temptation to keep them children. I remember when we used to haveparent dedication day just once a year, when all of the parents who had babies that year would bring their babies. In a little service I would stand with the parents and at times even hold the baby, and sometimes we would have our picture made together.

The most common phrase I would hear was, "They are so sweet, I hate to see them grow up." I've always felt that's a way of saying, "Aren't they cute?" I remember one day a mother said to me, "I just don't think I can let this child go, ever." and I kiddingly said to her, "Well, God has a secret weapon. He's going to turn her into a teenager, and you'll be glad when she leaves."

That's not exactly true. It is still hard on parents to have their children grow up; it is such a temptation to keep them children. We are afraid for them. You cannot protect your children from the world. We are afraid sometimes for ourselves, and you cannot stop the process of children growing up. You never stop loving them; you never stop praying for them; you never stop caring for them, but you stop trying to control them, and you bless your children by letting them grow up.

What about you? When did you sense you were a blessed child, if you did? Let me tell you when it came to me. I went through a period when I just didn't know about my Dad. My Dad was not articulate, not good with words. I remember hearing my father say, "I love you." He was not a secure person. He didn't feel comfortable about how well he did things, although when he learned to do something he could doit over and over again. He was not physically affectionate. I never remember him touching me and putting his arms around me. Lots of you have parents like that. But I know my father loved me. He blessed me in many ways.

Let me say a word to you who have come to adulthood and don't feel blessed. Your parents may never be able to bless you, but there is a heavenly parent anxious to bless you. You don't have to come, like Jacob to Esau deceiving God, pretending youare someone else. You can come just like you are, inadequate, failure, a sinner,

whatever, and God will love you, forgive you, and accept you, and make you His child and bless you. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is how God reaches out and blesses us and makes us His children in Jesus Christ.

5. PI�K, “We need not tarry long on the pathetic sequel. No sooner had Jacob left his father’s presence than Esau comes in with his venison and says, "let my father arise and eat of his son’s venison, that thy soul may bless me." Then it is that Isaac discovers the deception that has been practiced upon him, and he "trembled very exceedingly." Esau learns of his brother’s duplicity, and with a great and exceeding bitter cry says, "Bless me, even me also, O my father," only to hear Isaac say, "Thy brother came with subtlety, and hath taken away thy blessing behold I have made him thy lord." Esau renews his request saying, "Hast thou but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me, also." Then it was that Isaac uttered that prophecy that received such a striking fulfillment in the centuries that followed―"Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above; And by thy sword shalt thou live, and shaltserve thy brother: and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck" (vv. 39, 40). For Esau "serving his brother" see 2 Samuel 8:14 (David was a descendant of Jacob); and for "thoushalt break his yoke from off thy neck" see 2 Chronicles 21:8.

Above we have noticed that when Isaac discovered that he had blessed Jacob instead of Esau he "trembled very exceedingly." This was the turning point in the incident, the point where, for the first time, light breaks in on this dark scene. It was horror which was awakened in his soul as he now fully realized that he had been pitting himself against the expressed mind of Jehovah. It is beautiful to notice that instead of "cursing" Jacob (as his son had feared, see Genesis 5:12) now that Isaac discovers how God had graciously overruled his wrong doing, he bowed in self-judgment, and "trembled with a great trembling greatly" (margin). Then it was that faith found expression in the words "And he shall be blest" (v. 33). He knew now that God had been securing what He had declared before the sons were born. It is this which the Spirit seizes on in Hebrews 11:20, "By faith

Isaac blest Jacob and Esau concerning things to come."

6. RON THOMAS

Notice verses 34-36. "And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried witha great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father. And he said, Thy brother came with subtilty, and hath taken away thy blessing.36 And he said, Is not he rightly named Jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright; and, behold, now he hath taken away my blessing. And he said, Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me?" It is a strange sight to see such a strong man weep like a baby. Wailing andweeping in agony, Esau begs his father for a blessing. This is a sad and tragic moment in the life of Esau, but we must remember that he is suffering the consequences of his own actions and decisions. He willingly sold his birthright to his brother for a bowl of Jacob's Big Red. Suddenly Esau is living for more than the present. His father's blessing means something to him, but it is too late.

Esau attempts to seek sympathy and excuse his actions by placing blame on Jacob. In verse 36 it says, "And he said, Is not he rightly named Jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright; and, behold, now he hath taken away my blessing. And he said, Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me?" Esau has a short memory. He has forgotten his own part in selling his birthright. We can blame others for our sin, we can rewrite history, but God knows all and sees all. He is the final judge, and He always gets it right!

Isaac does not attempt to reverse himself. Perhaps he is convicted and has finally surrendered to what was the plan and purpose of God all along! Verse 37 reads, "And Isaac answered and said unto Esau, Behold, I have made him thy lord, and all his brethren have I given to him for servants; and with corn and wine have I sustained him: and what shall I do now unto thee, my son?"

There are consequences to sin. When we are rebellious and disobedient, we lose something irretrievable. At this point, it would be good to consider some commentary given in Hebrews 12:16-17. "Lest there be any fornicator, or profaneperson, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.17 For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears." There was no going back for Esau. The birthright and the blessing were lost.

Jacob is left to suffer his own set of consequences. He flees his dysfunctional home in fear for his life, forced to fend for himself. Jacob has yet to fully face himself. He is a blessed man with plenty of baggage. The good news in Jacob's life is that dysfunctional people from dysfunctional families can become functionalin God's kingdom. When we turn fully to the Lord and His grace, He can rid us of our baggage, transforming a sinful past into a source of blessing and ministry. If God can use Jacob, He can use us.

35

But he said, "Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing."

1. Clarke, “Hath taken away thy blessing - This blessing, which was a different thingfrom the birthright, seems to consist of two parts:

1.The dominion, generally and finally, over the other part of the family; and,

2.Being the progenitor of the Messiah.

But the former is more explicitly declared than the latter.

36

Esau said, "Isn't he rightly named Jacob [1] ? He has deceived me these two times: He took my birthright, and now he's taken my blessing!" Then he asked, "Haven't you reserved any blessing for me?"

1. Clarke, “Is not he rightly named Jacob? - See note on Genesis 25:26.

He took away my birthright - So he might say with considerable propriety; for though he sold it to Jacob, yet as Jacob had taken advantage of his perishing situation, he considered the act as a species of robbery.

2. Calvin, “Is he not rightly named Jacob? That the mind of Esau was affected with no sense of penitence appears hence; he accused his brother and took no blame to himself. But the very beginning of repentance is grief felt on account of sin, together with self-condemnation. Esau ought to have descended into himself,and to have become his own judge. Having sold his birthright, he had darted, likea famished dog, upon the meat and the pottage; and now, as if he had done no wrong, he vents all his anger on his brother. Further, if the blessing is deemed of any value, why does he not consider that he had been repelled from it, not simplyby the fraud of man, but by the providence of God? We see, therefore, that like a blind man feeling in the dark, he cannot find his way.

3. HOLE, “Our thoughts are now turned to Esau, who had been forestalled in this fraudulent way. Yet, as is so often the case, man's evil is overruled to work out the purpose of God. The great trembling of Isaac would seem to indicate that he was convicted of having tried to defeat God's purpose, and that having failed in this, andhaving been used to pronounce on Jacob what he intended for Esau, the thing was irrevocable. As for Esau, he at once recognized that here was the sequel to the wanton way in which he had sold his birthright. In regard to him we might summarize the whole sad story as:— The birthright: the barter: the bitter cry. The birthright was gone, and the bitter cry remained.

In Hebrews 12: 16, Esau is designated, "profane person," and coupled with a "fornicator." The appropriateness of the connection is apparent when we remember

that this latter sin is used figuratively for unholy connections between the believer and the world; whilst the profane person is one who lives wholly for this world, and shuts God and His world out of his thoughts. Esau had not only done this but also had despised what was of God. �ow when people go to the length of despising God and His blessing they perish, as is stated in Acts 13: 41. In our day and in our land there are multitudes slipping into that great sin in regard to the Gospel, and they stand on the brink of destruction.

Esau was now a pitiful sight. He wept. His tears could not undo the past or recover the birthright, but they did draw forth a blessing from Isaac, though not the blessing. And in uttering what he did in verses 39 and 40, he spoke doubtless as a prophet. For many a long century the yoke of Jacob has been off the neck of Esau.

But the feud between the two brothers remains to this day, and is one of the greatestforces provoking discord in the earth. The beginning of it and the root of it come before us in verse 41. But again we see that in all his thoughts Esau had not God before him, otherwise he would not have imagined he could defeat God's purpose byslaying his brother.

4. HE�RY, “1. This he desired: Bless me also, Gen_27:34. Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me? Gen_27:36. Note, (1.) The worst of men know how to wish well to themselves; and even those who profanely sell their birthright seem piously to desire the blessing. Faint desires of happiness, without a right choice of the end and a right use of the means, deceive many into their own ruin. Multitudes go to hell with their mouths fullof good wishes. The desire of the slothful and unbelieving kills them. Many will seek to enter in, as Esau, who shall not be able, because they do not strive, Luk_13:24. (2.) It is the folly of most men that they are willing to take up with any good (Psa_4:6), as Esau here, who desired but a second-rate blessing, a blessing separated from the birthright. Profane hearts think any blessing as good as that from God's oracle: Hast thou but one? As if he had said, “I will take up with any: though I have not the blessing of the church, yet let me have some blessing.”

5. RO� THOMASIn verse 36, we hear the voice of Esau saying, "Is not he rightly named Jacob? for hehath supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright; and, behold, now he hath taken away my blessing." Esau seems to imply that Jacob's name shaped him into his present identity. "Jacob is his name, and scheming is his game." However, the name Jacob was given to match his nature, his character!

Why are we the way we are? Hopefully we know who we are, and the way we are. I Thessalonians 4:3-4 reads, "For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, thatye should abstain from fornication: 4 That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour." If we are to "possess" our vessel, we

must first know our vessel, that is, know who we are and how we are. The word "possess" in the Greek is ktaomai (ktah'-om-ahee) which means to obtain, to own, to gain the mastery. The road to maturity, is coming to grips with our weaknesses, our sinful selves. It is honestly facing ourselves, assessing what is and is not consistent with Christ, and asking the Lord for the grace to change. By the way, it isalways easier to identify the baggage of others than it is identifying our own.

Jacob is Jacob because of his genetic preprograming. He was born with a certain nature, a nature that manifested itself at birth, however in this passage, we understand that his mother Rebekah has the same nature. She is the one leading theway in this elaborate plan to deceive. As parents, we can see both our strengths and weaknesses in our children. They are more like us, than we would want to admit.

Jacob is Jacob because of his adamic preprograming. He is a sinner! We are all born sinners, ...born to be wild! In Psalm 51:5 David said, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me." When we are saved, we are left with a sinful nature that wars against our spiritual nature. Paul in Romans 7:18 said, "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing."

Jacob is Jacob because of his family of origin. Jacob is also a product of his home, his upbringing. The kind of home we grew up in, came out of, shapes us in ways we are not aware. Our family of origin has a great impact on our lives.

In the home, we learn how to relate to others. A son leans how to treat women and a future wife, by observing his father. A daughter learns how to relate to men and her future husband, by observing her mother. In the home we are helped as well as hindered! All homes include both blessings and baggage!

As we take a close look at Jacob's home of origin, we must conclude that it was dysfunctional. What is a dysfunctional family? The word "dysfunctional," means not functioning or not functioning as it should function. It is a family that works against itself, contrary to the purpose, plan, and pattern of God's Word. The function of a home or family, has to do with roles, relationships, and responsibilities.There are two sets of roles, relationships, and responsibilities, one set is godward, the other is manward. For example, a father is to work to provide for the physical needs of his family, however he is to tend to it's spiritual needs as well. A home that is not biblical in it's roles, relationships, and responsibilities, is dysfunctional.

6. COKE, “Genesis 27:36. Is not he rightly named Jacob— i.e.. A supplanter. There is

something very affecting in this scene between Esau (who was now, as Le ClercCOMPUTES ,

past his seventieth year) and his blind and aged parent. But his instant accusation of Jacob for taking away his birth-right, when he parted with it so freely and so profanely, gives one no high idea of his character, unless perhaps the petulance of sorrow may be allowed to plead a little for

him. See Hebrews 12:17 where you read, that though Esau sought the blessing with tears, he could

not gain it, for he found no means to change his father's mind, to induce him to repent of bestowing

it on Jacob. This, and not what is read in our version, is the true sense of the passage.

37

Isaac answered Esau, "I have made him lord over you and have made all his relatives his servants, and Ihave sustained him with grain and new wine. So whatcan I possibly do for you, my son?"

1. Gill, “And Isaac answered and said unto Esau,.... Giving an account of the blessing be had bestowed upon his brother:

behold, I have made him thy lord; the lord of his posterity, who would be subdued and become tributary to his seed:

and all his brethren have I given to him for servants; the Edomites, who sprung from his brother Esau, who, according to this prophetic blessing, became servants to David, who was a son of Jacob's; see Gill on Gen_27:29,

and with corn and wine have I sustained him; promised him a fruitful country, the land of Canaan, abounding with all good things, particularly with corn and wine, which are put for all the rest:

and what shall I do now unto thee, my son? what is there remains? what can be bestowed upon thee? there is nothing left; dominion over others, even over all nations, yea, over thyself and thy posterity, and plenty of all good things, are given already to Jacob; what is there to be done for thee, or thou canst expect?

2. Calvin, "Behold, I have made him thy Lord. Isaac now more openly confirms what I have before said, that since God was the author of the blessing, it could neither be vain nor evanescent. For he does not here magnificently boast of his dignity, but keeps himself within the bounds and measure of a servant, and denies that he is at liberty to alter anything. For he always considers, (which is the truth,) that when he sustains the character of God’s representative, it is not lawful for him to proceed further than the command will bear him. Hence, indeed, Esau ought to have learned from whence he had fallen by his own fault, in order that he might have humbled himself, and might rather have joined himself with his brother, in order to become a partaker of his blessing, as his inferior, than have desired

anything separately for himself. But a depraved cupidity carries him away, so that he, forgetful of the kingdom of God, pursues and cares for nothing except his own private advantage. Again, we must notice Isaac’s manner of speaking, by which he claims a certain force and efficacy for his benediction, as if his word carried with it dominion, abundance of corn and wine, and whatever else God had promised to Abraham. For God, in requiring the faithful to depend on himself alone, would nevertheless have them to rest securely upon the word, which, at his command, is declared to them by the tongue of men. In this way they are said to remit sins, who are only the messengers and interpreters of free forgiveness.

3. SCOTT HOEZEE

For reasons not clear to us, Isaac has just one blessing to give such that once Jacob scams it, there is quite literally nothing left for Esau but a quasi-curse in the form of Isaac's prediction that Esau is going to have a rough life of drought, hunger, fighting, and (worst of all) serving his younger brother. Again, we've been taught since Sunday school to admire Jacob somehow and more-or-less ignore Esau. But Genesis 27 makes very clear that Esau was deeply hurt. We aretold twice that he cries out in lament and weeping. "Daddy, no! Say it isn't so! Pleeeeeeease bless me, too!" It's pathetic. It is also properly heart-wrenching. Esau is not the sharpest knife in the drawer by any means but there is no evidence in Genesis that he's a bad sort of fellow. In fact, as we will see later on in this series, eventually Esau becomes a most radiant stream of grace and mercy. He gets the short end of the covenant stick but in the long run he makes peace with that and serves God as best he can anyway.

38

Esau said to his father, "Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father!" Then Esau wept aloud.

1. Gill, “And Esau said unto his father, hast thou but one blessing, my father?.... He seems to speak diminutively of what had been given to Jacob, calling it one blessing: whereas there were many, and of different sorts, both temporal and spiritual; but it may be Esau had not so clear and comprehensive a view of what was contained in Jacob's blessing; or at least was willing to think and hope that there was notso much given, but there might be some behind for him, and that his father had a greaterstock than to be drained of all at once:

bless me, even me also, O my father: with another blessing, with one equal to what has been given my brother:

and Esau lift up his voice, and wept; in order to move the affections of his father, and to prevail upon him to reverse the blessing he had bestowed on Jacob, and give it to him; but he could not bring his father to repentance, to change his mind, and revoke the blessing, and give it him, with all his crying and tears, as the apostle observes, Heb_12:17.

2. SBC, “I. The character of Esau has unquestionably a fair side. Esau was by no means a man of unqualified wickedness or baseness; judged according to the standard of many men, he would pass for a very worthy, estimable person. The whole history of his treatment of Jacob puts his character in a very favourable light: it represents him as an open-hearted, generous person, who, though he might be rough in his manners, fond of awild life, perhaps as rude and unpolished in mind as he was in body, had yet a noble soul, which was able to do what little minds sometimes cannot do—namely, forgive freelya cruel wrong done to him.

II. Nevertheless it is not without reason that the apostle styles Esau a profane person. The defect in his character may be described as a want of religious seriousness; there wasnothing spiritual in him—no reverence for holy things, no indications of a soul which could find no sufficient joy in this world, but which aspired to those joys which are at God’s right hand for evermore. By the title of profane the apostle means to describe the carnal, unspiritual man—the man who takes his stand upon this world as the end of his thoughts and the scene of all his activity, who considers the land as a great hunting field, and makes the satisfaction of his bodily wants and tastes the whole end of living.

III. Esau’s repentance was consistent with his character; it was manifestly of the wrong kind. It was emphatically sorrow of this world, grief for the loss of the corn and wine. Jacob had taken his birthright—that he could have pardoned him; but it grieved Esau to his very soul that Jacob had gotten the promise of the world’s wealth besides. He continued in heart unchanged, and so he found no place of repentance, though he soughtit carefully with tears.

Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons, 2nd series, p. 1.

3. Calvin, "Hast thou but one blessing ? Esau seems to take courage; but he neglectsthe care of his soul, and turns, like a swine, to the pampering of his flesh. He had heard that his father had nothing left to grant; because, truly, the full and entire grace of God so rested upon Jacob, that out of his family there was no happiness. Wherefore, if Esau sought his own welfare, he ought to have drawn from that fountain, and rather to have subjected himself to his brother, than to have cut himself off from a happy connection with him. He chose, however, rather to be deprived of spiritual grace, provided he might but possess something of his own, andapart from his brother, than to be his inferior at home. He could not be ignorant, that there was one sole benediction by which his brother Jacob had been constitutedthe heir of the divine covenant: for Isaac would be daily discoursing with them concerning the singular privilege which God had vouchsafed to Abraham and his

seed. Esau would not previously have complained so bitterly, unless he had felt that he had been deprived of an incomparable benefit. Therefore, by departing from thisone source of blessing, he indirectly renounces God, and cuts himself off from the body of the Church, caring for nothing but this transitory life. But it would have been better for him, miserably to perish through the want of all things in this world,and with difficulty to draw his languishing breath, than to slumber amidst temporaldelights. What afterwards follows, — namely, that he wept with loud lamentations, — is a sign of fierce and proud indignation, rather than of penitence; for he remitted nothing of his ferocity, but raged like a cruel beast of prey. So the wicked, when punishment overtakes them, bewail the salvation they have lost; but, meanwhile, do not cease to delight themselves in their vices; and instead of heartily seeking after the righteousness of God, they rather desire that his deity should be extinct. Of a similar character is that gnashing of teeth and weeping in hell which, instead of stimulating the reprobate to seek after God, only consumes them with unknown torments

39

His father Isaac answered him, "Your dwelling will be away from the earth's richness, away from the dewof heaven above.

1. Barnes, “Gen_27:39-41

At length, in reply to the weeping suppliant, he bestows upon him a characteristic

blessing. “Away from the fatness.” The preposition (מי mı}y) is the same as in the blessing

of Jacob. But there, after a verb of giving, it had a partitive sense; here, after a noun of place, it denotes distance or separation; for example, Pro_20:3 The pastoral life has beendistasteful to Esau, and so it shall be with his race. The land of Edom was accordingly a comparative wilderness (Mal_1:3). “On thy sword.” By preying upon others. “And thy brother shalt thou serve.” Edom was long independent; but at length Saul was victorious over them 1Sa_14:47, and David conquered them 2Sa_8:14. Then followed a long struggle, until John Hyrcanus, 129 b.c., compelled them to be circumcised and incorporated into Judaism. “Break his yoke.” The history of Edom was a perpetual struggle against the supremacy of Israel. Conquered by Saul, subdued by David, repressed by Solomon, restrained after a revolt by Amaziah, they recovered their independence in the time of Ahab. They were incorporated into the Jewish state, and furnished it with the dynasty of princes beginning with Antipater. Esau was now exasperated against his brother, and could only compose his mind by resolving to slay him during the days of mourning after his father’s death.

2. Gill, “And Isaac his father answered and said unto him,.... Being willing to

bestow what he could upon him, without lessening or breaking in upon the grant made to Jacob:

behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above: this agrees with part of the blessing of Jacob, only the clauses are inverted, and no mention made of corn and wine; the land of Edom not being so fat and fruitful as the land of Canaan. Castalio renders the words very differently, "thy habitationshall be from the fatness of the earth, or without the fatness of the earth, and without the dew of heaven from above" (c); or otherwise he thinks Esau would have the same blessing with Jacob, and so would have no occasion of complaint or grief, or to have hated his brother and sought his life; to which may be added, that the land of Edom, which Esau and his posterity inhabited, was a very desert country, see Mal_1:3.

4. Henry, “(1.) It was a good thing, and better than he deserved. It was promised him, [1.] That he should have a competent livelihood - the fatness of the earth, and the dew ofheaven. Note, Those that come short of the blessings of the covenant may yet have a verygood share of outward blessings. God gives good ground and good weather to many that reject his covenant, and have no part nor lot in it. [2.] That by degrees he should recover his liberty. If Jacob must rule (Gen_27:29), Esau must serve; but he has this to comfort him, he shall live by his sword. He shall serve, but he shall not starve; and, at length, after much skirmishing, he shall break the yoke of bondage, and wear marks of freedom. This was fulfilled (2Ki_8:20, 2Ki_8:22) when the Edomites revolted.

(2.) Yet it was far short of Jacob's blessing. For him God had reserved some better thing. [1.] In Jacob's blessing the dew of heaven is put first, as that which he most valued, and desired, and depended upon; in Esau's the fatness of the earth is put first, for it was this that he had the first and principal regard to. [2.] Esau has these, but Jacob has them from God's hand: God give thee the dew of heaven, Gen_27:28. It was enough to Esau to have the possession; but Jacob desired it by promise, and to have it from covenant-love. [3.] Jacob shall have dominion over his brethren: hence the Israelites often ruled over the Edomites. Esau shall have dominion, that is, he shall gain some power and interest, but shall never have dominion over his brother: we never find that the Jews were sold into the hands of the Edomites, or that they oppressed them. But the great difference in that there is nothing in Esau's blessing that points at Christ, nothing that brings him or his into the church and covenant of God, without which the fatness of the earth, and the plunder of the field, will stand him in little stead. Thus Isaac by faith blessed them both according as their lot should be. Some observe that Jacob was blessed with a kiss (Gen_27:27), so was not Esau.

5. Jamison, “Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth — The first part isa promise of temporal prosperity, made in the same terms as Jacob‘s [Genesis 27:28] - the second part refers to the roving life of hunting freebooters, which he and his descendants should lead. Though Esau was not personally subject to his brother, hisposterity were tributary to the Israelites, till the reign of Joram when they revolted and established a kingdom of their own (2 Kings 8:20; 2 Chronicles 21:8-10).

6. CALVI�, “Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth. At length Esau obtains what he had asked. For, perceiving himself to be cast down from the rank

and honor of primogeniture, he chooses rather to have prosperity in the world, separated from the holy people, than to submit to the yoke of his younger brother. But it may be thought that Isaac contradicts himself, in offering a new benediction, when he had before declared, that he had given to his son Jacob all that was placed at his disposal. I answer, that what has been before said concerning Ishmael must benoted in this place. For God, though he hearkened to Abraham’s prayer for Ishmael, so far as concerned the present life, yet immediately restricts his promise, by adding the exception implied in the declaration, that in Isaac only should the seedbe called. I do not, however, doubt, that the holy man, when he perceived that his younger son Jacob was the divinely ordained heir of a happy life, would endeavor toretain his firstborn, Esau, in the bond of fraternal connection, in order that he might not depart from the holy and elect flock of the Church. But now, when he seeshim obstinately tending in another direction, he declares what will be his future condition. Meanwhile the spiritual blessing remains in its integrity with Jacob alone,to whom Esau refusing to attach himself, voluntarily becomes an exile from the kingdom of God. The prophecy uttered by Malachi, (Malachi 1:3,) may seem to be contradictory to this statement. For, comparing the two brothers, Esau and Jacob, with each other, he teaches that Esau was hated, inasmuch as a possession was givento him in the deserts; and yet Isaac promises him a fertile land. There is a twofold solution: either that the Prophet, speaking comparatively, may with truth call Idumea a desert in comparison with the land of Canaan, which was far more fruitful; or else that he was referring to his own times. For although the devastationsof both lands had been terrible, yet the land of Canaan in a short time flourished again, while the territory of Edom was condemned to perpetual sterility, and given up to dragons. Therefore, although God, with respect to his own people, banished Esau to desert mountains, he yet gave to him a land sufficiently fertile in itself to render the promise by no means nugatory. For that mountainous region both had its own natural fruitfulness, and was so watered by the dew of heaven, that it would yield sustenance to its inhabitants.

7. JOH� TRAPP, “Ver. 39. Answered and said unto him.] Dixit, non benedixit; quiapotius fuit praedictio futurae conditionis, quam benedictio, saith Pareus. And whereas we read, "Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven"; Castalio renders it thus: Tua quidem sedes a terrae pinguitudine, et a supero coeli rore aberit. For Mishmanne, saith he, signifieth ab pinguitudine, sive sine pinguitudine: as it doth also, Psalms 109:24, "My flesh faileth from fatness," that is, for lack of fatness, or, without fatness." (a) So the sense he sets upon this text is, Thou shalt dwell far from the fatness of the earth, in a barren country, &c. For Isaac could not give Esau what he had given Jacob afore: and this was what Esau so grieved at, and threatened his brother for. Or if he could, what cause had Esau so to take on? why should it trouble me, that another partakes of thesunlight with me, when I have never the less? &c. Objection. But the apostle saith, "Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau". [Hebrews 11:20] Solution. It was a blessing, no doubt, that Edom should shake off Israel’s yoke; as it follows, Genesis 27:40, and happened, 2 Kings 8:20.

Mal. 1:3-5 ...I have hated Esau, and I have made his mountains a desolation, and appointed his inheritance for the jackals of the wilderness." Though Edom says, "We have been beaten down, but we will return and build up the ruins"; thus says the LORD of hosts, "They may build, but I will tear down; and men will call them the wicked territory, and the people toward whom the LORD is indignant forever."The one part of Esau's blessing that's good news to him is that one day he would "break Jacob's yoke from his neck." But the Lord's hand will always be against him.

40

You will live by the sword and you will serve your brother. But when you grow restless, you will throw his yoke from off your neck."

1. Clarke, “By thy sword shalt thou live - This does not absolutely mean that the Edomites should have constant wars; but that they should be of a fierce and warlike disposition, gaining their sustenance by hunting, and by predatory excursions upon the possessions of others. Bishop �ewton speaks on this subject with his usual good sense and judgment: “The elder branch, it is here foretold, should delight more in war and violence, but yet should be subdued by the younger. By thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother. Esau might be said to live much by the sword;for he was a cunning hunter, a man of the field. He and his children got possession of Mount Seir by force and violence, expelling from thence the Horites, the former inhabitants. By what means they spread themselves farther among the Arabians is not known; but it appears that upon a sedition and separation several of the Edomites came and seized upon the south-west parts of Judea, during the Babylonish captivity, and settled there ever after. Before and after this they were almost continually at war with the Jews; upon every occasion they were ready to join with their enemies; and when �ebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem, they encouraged him utterly to destroy the city, saying, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundations thereof. Psalm 137:7. And even long after they were subdued by the Jews, they retained the same martial spirit; for Josephus in his time gives them the character of ‹a turbulent and disorderly nation, always erect to commotions, and rejoicing in changes; at the least adulation of those who beseech them, beginning war, and hasting to battles as to a feast.‘ And a little before the last siege of

Jerusalem they came, at the entreaty of the Zealots, to assist them against the priestsand people; and there, together with the Zealots, committed unheard-of cruelties, and barbarously murdered Annas, the high priest, from whose death Josephus datesthe destruction of the city.” See Dr. Dodd.

And - when thou shalt have the dominion - It is here foretold that there was to be a time when the elder was to have dominion and shake off the yoke of the younger. The word תריד (tarid), which we translate have dominion, is rather of doubtful meaning, as it may be deduced from three different roots, ירד (yarad), to descend, to be brought down or brought low; דרה (radah), to obtain rule or have dominion; and to complain; meaning either that when reduced very low God would ,(rud) רוד magnify his power in their behalf, and deliver them from the yoke of their brethren;or when they should be increased so as to venture to set up a king over them, or when they mourned for their transgressions, God would turn their captivity. The Jerusalem Targum gives the words the following turn: “When the sons of Jacob attend to the law and observe the precepts, they shall impose the yoke of servitude upon thy neck; but when they shall turn away themselves from studying the law andneglect the precepts, thou shalt break off the yoke of servitude from thy neck.”

“It was David who imposed the yoke, and at that time the Jewish people observed the law; but the yoke was very galling to the Edomites from the first; and towards the end of Solomon‘s reign Hadad, the Edomite, of the blood royal, who had been carried into Egypt from his childhood, returned into his own country, and raised some disturbances, but was not able to recover his throne, his subjects being over-awed by the garrisons which David had placed among them; but in the reign of Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, the Edomites revolted from under the dominion of Judah, and made themselves a king. Jehoram made some attempts to subdue them again, but could not prevail; so the Edomites revolted from under the hand of Judah unto this day, 2 Chronicles 21:8, 2 Chronicles 21:10, and hereby this part of the prophecy was fulfilled about nine hundred years after it was delivered.” See Bishop �ewton.

“Thus,” says Bishop �ewton, “have we traced, in our notes on this and the25th chapter, the accomplishment of this prophecy from the beginning; and we find that the nation of the Edomites has at several times been conquered by and made tributary to the Jews, but never the nation of the Jews to the Edomites; and the Jews have been the more considerable people, more known in the world, and more famous in history. We know indeed little more of the history of the Edomites than asit is connected with that of the Jews; and where is the name or nation now? They were swallowed up and lost, partly among the �abathean Arabs, and partly among the Jews; and the very name, as Dr. Prideaux has observed, was abolished and disused about the end of the first century of the Christian era. Thus were they rewarded for insulting and oppressing their brethren the Jews; and hereby other prophecies were fulfilled, viz., Jeremiah 49:7, etc.; Ezekiel 25:12, etc.; Joel 3:19; Amos 1:11, etc.; and particularly Obadiah; for at this day we see the Jews subsistingas a distinct people, while Edom is no more, agreeably to the words of Obadiah, Obadiah 1:10: For thy violence against thy brother Jacob, in the return of his

posterity from Egypt, shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever. Andagain, Obadiah 1:18: There shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau, for the Lord hath spoken it. In what a most extensive and circumstantial manner has God fulfilled all these predictions! and what a proof is this of the Divine inspiration of thePentateuch, and the omniscience of God!”

2. CALVI�, “By thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother. It is to be observed that events are here predicted which were never fulfilled in the person of Esau; and therefore, that the prophecy is concerning things at that time far distant. For Jacob was so far from having obtained dominion over his brother, that on his return from Padan-aram, he suppliantly tendered him his obedience; and the breaking off of the yoke which Isaac here mentions, is referred to a very remote period. He is therefore relating the future condition of Esau’s posterity. And he says first, that they shall live by their sword: which words admit a twofold sense, either that, being surrounded by enemies, they shall pass a warlike and unquiet life; or that they shall be free, and their own masters. For there is no power to use the sword where there is no liberty. The former meaning seems the more suitable; namely, that God would limit his promise, lest Esau should be too much exalted: for nothing is more desirable than peace. The holy people also are warned that there will always be some enemies to infest them. This, however, is a very different thing from living by his own sword; which is as if he had said, that the sons of Esau, like robbers, should maintain their security by arms and violence, rather than by legitimate authority. A second limitation of the promise is, that though armed with the sword, he should still not escape subjection to his brother. For the Idumeans were, at length, made tributary to the chosen people; (49) but the servitude was not long continued; because when the kingdoms were divided, the power by which they had held all their neighbors in subjection and fear, was cut off; yet the Lord would have the Idumeans brought into subjection for a short time, that he might furnish a visible demonstration of this prophecy. As to the rest of the time, the restless and unbridled liberty of Esau was more wretched than any state of subjection.

3. JOH� TRAPP, “Ver. 40. When thou shalt have the dominion.] Cum planxeris, saith Junius; when thou hast for some time undergone hard, troublesome, and lamentable servitude, the grief whereof thou dost greatly groan under; as in David’stime, [2 Samuel 8:14] who "cast his shoe over them". [Psalms 60:8] The Sodomites, those worst of men, were the first that we find in Scripture brought in bondage to others. [Genesis 14:4] When the Danes and other foreigners domineered in this kingdom, was it not a lamentable time? were not men’s dearest lives sold as cheap assparrows were among the Jews, five for two farthings? Did we but live a while in Turkey, Persia, yea, or but in France, saith one, a dram of that liberty we yet enjoy, would be as precious as a drop of cold water would have been to the rich man in hell, when he was so grievously tormented with those flames. Take we heed, lest for the abuse of this sweet mercy, God send in the Midianites to thresh out our grain, the Assyrians to drink up our milk, to make a spoil of our cattle, [Jeremiah 49:32] and to cause us to eat the bread of our souls in the peril of our lives, as our fathers

did in Queen Mary’s days.

4.Pink, “Then it was that Isaac uttered that prophecy that received such a striking fulfillment in the centuries that followed—"Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above; And by thy sword shalt thou live,and shalt serve thy brother: and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck" (vv. 39, 40). For Esau "serving his brother" see 2 Samuel 8:14 (David was a descendant of Jacob); and for "thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck" see 2 Chronicles 21:8.

Above we have noticed that when Isaac discovered that he had blessed Jacob insteadof Esau he "trembled very exceedingly." This was the turning point in the incident, the point where, for the first time, light breaks in on this dark scene. It was horror which was awakened in his soul as he now fully realized that he had been pitting himself against the expressed mind of Jehovah. It is beautiful to notice that instead of "cursing" Jacob (as his son had feared, see Genesis 5:12) now that Isaac discovershow God had graciously overruled his wrong doing, he bowed in self-judgment, and "trembled with a great trembling greatly" (margin). Then it was that faith found expression in the words "And he shall be blest" (v. 33). He knew now that God had been securing what He had declared before the sons were born. It is this which the Spirit seizes on in Hebrews 11:20, "By faith Isaac blest Jacob and Esau concerning things to come."

Many are the lessons illustrated and exemplified in the above incident. We can do little more than name a few of the most important. 1. How many to-day are, like Esau, bartering Divine privileges for carnal gratification. 2. Beware of doing evil that good may come. What shame and sorrow they do make for themselves who in their zeal for good do not scruple to use wrong means. Thus it was with Rebekah and Jacob. 3. Let us seek grace to prevent natural affections overriding love for Godand His revealed will. 4. Remember the unchanging law of Sowing and Reaping. How striking to observe that it was Rebekah, not Isaac, who sent her beloved child away! She it was who led him into grievous sin, and she it was whom God caused to be the instrument of his exile. She, poor thing, suggested that he find refuge in the home of Laban her brother for "some days." Little did she imagine that her favoritechild would have to remain there for twenty years, and that never again should she behold him in the flesh. Ah! the mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small, and we might add "surely." And during those long years Jacob was to be cheated by Laban as he had cheated Isaac. 5. Learn the utter futility of seeking to foil God: "So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy" (Rom. 9:16); either Isaac’s "willing" nor Esau’s "running" could defeat the purpose of Jehovah. "There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the counsel of the Lord that shall stand" (Prov. 19:21). Man proposes but God disposes.

Finally, have we not here, deeply hidden, a beautiful picture of the Gospel. Jacob found acceptance with his father and received his blessing because he sheltered behind the name of the father’s firstborn, beloved son, and was clothed with his garments which diffused to Isaac an excellent odor. In like manner, we as sinners, find acceptance before God and receive His blessing as we shelter behind the name of His beloved Firstborn, and as we are clothed with the robe of righteousness whichwe receive from Him thus coming before the Father in the merits of His Son who "hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor" (Eph. 5:2).

29. Heaven's dew and earth's richness -- an abundance of grain and new wine

30. The subjection of whole nations.

31. Priority and superiority over his brothers,

32. Protection from the curses of others, and

33. To be a source of blessing to others.

When Esau returns too little and too late, his father gives him a kind of anti-blessing, but the promise that he will overthrow his brother's domination at some point.

5. KE��ETH BOYD, “Esau does not entirely pass out of history at this point however. Nor apparently did he continue simply to weep. Picking himself up, at first he vows to kill Jacob for tricking him out of his inheritance, but then, discovering that Jacob has made a swift exit to Mesopotamia to escape his revenge, he decides to get on with his life and apparently does quite well for himself. Twenty years later, when a nervous Jacob returns, with the wives and children he has accumulated in the meantime, and with gifts designed to appease Esau, Esau is more than generous. Seeing Jacob approaching, 'Esau ran to meet him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept'. The brothers are reconciled, and the reconciliation is permanent. When their father dies, they meet again to bury him. But when their father dies, it is still Jacob and not Esau who stands in the historic line; and it is Jacob, renamed Israel, who becomes the father of that people. Esau too becomes the father of a people, the Edomites. But the Edomites, although initially regarded as brothers of the Israelites, in time become their enemies; and eventually, in the era between the Old and New Testaments, when Edomite political power has waned, they are forcibly incorporated into the Jewish people. In terms of biblical history, it is the story of Jacob and Israel, not Esau and Edom, that prevails.

6. Gabriel Josipovici observes that the Bible, especially the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament) is above all realistic… in its assessment of the human condition… It starts

from the position that it is a fact of life that some are more fortunate than others, that

fathers, [and in Jacob's case, we might add, mothers] love some of their children more

than others. This may not be fair, but then why should life be fair? The Hebrew Bible,

accepting this premiss, concentrates rather on the question: How do we respond to the

unfairness of life?

Josipovici, I think, is touching here on something crucial for our understanding not only of Esau's circumstances but also of our own: how, for example, to respond to the disappointment of being rejected, of not being the parents' favourite? That was Esau's question, and we have seen how he responded to it – by letting his anger cool,by getting on with his life, and by being generous when Jacob returned. George Edalji, if Barnes' novel is to be believed, responded in a similar way. And, albeit in less dramatic ways, the question is one to which most of us may have to respond at some time in our lives. As Josipovici puts it: That is the way the world is, [the Bible] says, neither fair nor equitable. What are you going to do about it? How are you going

to live so as to be contented and fulfilled? To these questions, Josipovici adds, the Bible gives us no theoretical answers. Rather, it 'shows us various forms of response to these questions' in the stories it relates.

How Esau responded to life's unfairness is one of these stories. He let his anger cool, he got on with his life, and he was generous. Our �ew Testament lesson today – Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan –tells a not dissimilar story. Samaritans were people of mixed ancestry, part Jewish, part not: it's possible, I suppose, that the Samaritan in the story may have had Edomites, Esau's people, among his ancestors. But certainly, by the Jewish establishment, Samaritans were regarded as not pure, but half-breeds – much the same prejudice as some 19th century English people in rural Staffordshire had against George Edalji because his father was an Indian Parsee and his mother English. At any rate, the Samaritan had every reason to havea chip on his shoulder. The world was neither fair nor equitable to him. So why should he bother with the man, quite possibly a Jew, lying half-dead by the roadside? As a world-weary doctor in one of Chekhov's stories asks: 'why hinder people dying, if death is the normal and lawful end of us all? What does it matter whether some tradesman or petty official lives, or does not live, an extra five years?'The good Samaritan, by contrast, was not beguiled by such questions. The crucial question for him, rather, was 'What are you going to do about it?'

The world is neither fair nor equitable. What are you going to do about it? Of course, we cannot prove by intellectual argument that what we do makes any ultimate difference. We cannot prove that the generosity of Esau or the Good Samaritan, or ourselves if and when we are generous, has anything more than the temporary effect of a sticking plaster on one or two of this world's countless wounds. But then, what can we prove intellectually about such a vast question? Despite all the knowledge we have gained in recent centuries, the ultimate questions about ourselves – Who are we? How ought we to live? What may we hope for? – areno nearer any agreed philosophical or scientific answer than they ever were. It is all a very great mystery. But what if our response is part of the meaning of that mystery? What if our generosity not only helps to heal another individual and ourselves, but also is what the wounded heart of the universe awaits, so that sad

time may be transfigured into glad eternity? Here, of course, we reach the limits of human language and human knowledge. But still faith whispers, urgently: 'What are you going to do about it?'

7. COKE, “Genesis 27:40. By thy sword shalt thou live, &c.— The elder branch, it is here

foretold, should delight more in war and violence, but yet should be subdued by the younger; and bythy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother. Esau himself might be said to live much by theSWORD , for he was a cunning hunter, a man of the field, ch. Genesis 25:27. He and his children got possession of mount Seir by force and violence, by destroying and expelling thence theHorites, the former inhabitants, Deuteronomy 2:22. We have noACCOUNT , and therefore cannotpretend to say, by what means they spread themselves farther among the Arabians: but it appears, that upon a sedition and separation, several of the Edomites came and seized upon the south-west parts of Judea during the Babylonish captivity, and settled there from that time. Both before and after this, they were almost continually at war with the Jews: upon every occasion they were ready to join with their enemies; and when Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem, they encouraged him utterly to destroy the city, saying, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof, Psalms 137:7. Andeven long after they were subdued by the Jews, they still retained the same martial spirit: for Josephus in his time gives them the character of "a turbulent and disorderly nation, always erect to commotions, and rejoicing in changes, beginning war at the least adulation of those who beseech them, and hasting to battles as it were to a feast." And a little before the last siege of Jerusalem, they came to assist the enemies of the Jews, committed unheard-of cruelties, and barbarously murdered Ananus the high-priest.And it shall come to pass, &c.— It is here foretold that there was to be a time when the elder should have dominion, and shake off the yoke of the younger; And it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck. The word which we translate have dominion, is capable of various interpretations. Some render it in the sense of laying down, or shaking off, as the Septuagint and Vulgar Latin, and it shall come to pass, that thou shalt shake off, and shalt loose his yoke from off thy neck. Some again render it in the sense of mourning, or repenting as the Syriac, but if thou shalt repent, his yoke shall pass from off thy neck. But the most common rendering is, when thou shalt have dominion: and it is not said, or meant, that they should have dominion over theSEED of Jacob, but simply, have dominion, as they had, when they appointed a king of their own. The Jerusalem Targum thus paraphrases the whole; and it shall be "when the sons of Jacob attend to the law, and observe the precepts, they shall impose the yoke of servitude upon thy neck; but when they shall turn away themselves from studying the law, and neglect the precepts, behold, then thou shalt shake off the yoke of servitude from thy neck." It was David who imposed the yoke, and at that time the Jewish people observed the law; but the yoke was very galling to the Edomites from the first: and towards the latter end of Solomon's reign, Hadad, the Edomite of the blood-royal, who had been carried into AEgypt and kept there from his childhood, returned into his own country, and raised some disturbances, 1 Kings11:14-25. but was not able to recover his throne, his subjects being overawed by the garrisons which David had placed among them: but in the reign of Jehoram, the son of Jehoshophat, king of Judah, the Edomites revolted from under the dominion of Judah, and made themselves a king. Jehoram made some attempts to subdue them again, but could not prevail; so the Edomites revolted from under the hand of Judah unto this day, says the author of the Books of Chronicles, 2 Chronicles 8:10 and hereby this part of the prophecy was fulfilled about nine hundred years after it was delivered.Thus we have traced in our notes on this and the 25th chapter, the accomplishment of this prophecy from the beginning, and we find that the nation of the Edomites has, at several times, been conquered by, and made tributary to the Jews, but never the nation of the Jews to the Edomites: and the Jews have been the more considerable people, more known in the world, and more famous in history. We know indeed little more of the history of the Edomites than as it is connected with that of the Jews: And where is the name or nation now? They were swallowed up and lost, partly among the Nabathaean Arabs, and partly among the Jews: and the very name was abolished and disused about the end of the first century after Christ. Thus were theyREWARDED

for insulting and oppressing their brethren the Jews, and hereby other prophecies were fulfilled, viz. of Jeremiah 49:7; Jeremiah 49:39. of Ezekiel 25:12; Ezekiel 25:17. of Joel

3:19 of Amos 1:11; Amos 1:15 and of Obadiah: and at this day we see the Jews subsisting as a distinct people, while Edom is no more: for agreeably to the words of Obadiah Obo_1:10 for thy violence against thy brother Jacob, shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever: and again, Obadiah 1:18there shall not be any remaining ofTHE HOUSE of Esau, for the Lord hath spoken it.When thou shalt have the dominion— These words, Mr. Mann observes, being part of Isaac's prediction, addressed to Esau, concerning the future state of hisPOSTERITY compared with thatof his brother Jacob, seem to carry a sense in our translation, which it is not likely the prophet would endeavour to convey. For to say, that when the Edomites shall get the upper-hand of the Israelites, they will be no longer subject to the Israelites, would have been a truth which Esau would

have scarcely taken for inspiration. The word תריד tarid, may indeed signify thou shalt have the

dominion: but it appears so improper here, that the learned Louis Capel thought it would be more

adviseable to follow the Targum of Onkelos, in substituting for תריד tarid, (thou shalt have the

dominion,) פריד parid (he shall rebel,) when he shall rebel, or apostatize, thou shalt break his

yoke, &c. The correction is ingenious, but surely not necessary; for תריד tarid, the word in the text,

has in the Chaldee and the Syriac another sense, amend,or repent; and if you will allow the Syriac

version and the Greek of Symmachus, כאשר תריד casher tarid, should be rendered, when thou

shalt be reformed, or amended, thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck, which was effected about eight hundred and sixty-five years after this. 2 Kings 8:20.REFLECTIONS.—We have in the foregoing verses,

1. The deception put upon Isaac. Jacob appears, with assurance answers his father's inquiries, produces his venison, brings in God for his helper, removes the just suspicions of hisVOICE by producing his hands; and thus, after repeated asseverations, confirms his father in the identity of his person as Esau; herein committing a very great sin, or rather a complication of sins, which, however God might over-rule them for the good of his church in general, is noted to his shame. Learn here, (1.) How soon lying is learnt. (2.) When a man is entangled in one lie, he is led of course to forge many more to support himself in it. (3.) The simplest-hearted have much need to watch against being overtaken in this sin. (4.) The voice which imposes upon Isaac, cannot impose upon God.2. The blessing obtained by it. Isaac kissed him in token of his regard: he blessed him as the blessed of the Lord, and solemnly puts him in possession ofTHE GOVERNMENT of his brethrenand the neck of his enemies, and therein conveys to him the generation of the promised Seed. They who take wrong means, may obtain their ends for the good of the church through God's over-ruling providence; but they themselves will suffer, as Jacob did, for the indirect steps they have used.And now, Esau, big with the expectance of the blessing, hastes to his father with the savoury meat: but how amazed, how shocked, to find his hopes disappointed, and the benediction already bestowed!Observe,

1. His bitter sorrow. Note; It is too late to grieve for the consequences of sin, when we have neglected to grieve for the cause of them. He now sought importunately the privilege he had slighted. The day is near, when they who makeLIGHT of God's covenant, shall seek in vain for the promises of it.2. Isaac's steadiness. Though struck at first with amaze, and trembling with surprise, he is convinced it was God's determination, and he confirms it. No place was found for repentance, though Esau sought it diligently with tears. Hebrews 12:17.

3. Esau's reproaches of Jacob. Instead of repenting of his own sin, he abuses his brother for a supplanter. With such a temper, no wonder his intreaties are vain, and his prayers rejected. Note; It is too late when sentence is passed to cry for pity or pardon.

4. His importunity for a blessing also. Though he may not have the best, he may have some. Note; Many are desirous of happiness, who never take the way which leads to it.

5. Isaac yields to his request. He bestows upon him a good land, a plentiful dwelling: and confirms his subjection to his brother, with the hope, however, in time, of shaking off his yoke: all which we shall see fulfilled in their season. Note; There are common blessings, which are shared by the evil

and good; and many times, the wicked are most favoured with them: but all, without Christ, are scarce a crumb cast to a dog.

41

Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. He said to himself, "The days of mourning for my father are near; then Iwill kill my brother Jacob."

Here is sibling rivalry gone to its ultimate end when one wants to kill the other.He had no hard feelings expressed about losing his birthright for a bowl of soup, butlosing his blessing was terrible to him and motivated him to think of murder. Why?

Jacob have I love and Esau have I hated is in the same category with hate your mother and father. It is like saying God have I loved and mom and dad have I hated. They are not my final and ultimate loyalty. Esau was not selected to be the one who would be the channel of the covenant of God. God in sovereignty makes thechoice, and in many ways Jacob had to suffer greatly by being the chosen, and Esau had a simpler life as far as the record goes. God blesses those not worthy, and this went for Esau as well as Jacob.

1. Clarke, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand - Such was the state of Isaac‘s health at that time, though he lived more than forty years afterwards, that his death was expected by all; and Esau thought that would be a favorable time for him to avenge himself on his brother Jacob, as, according to the custom of the times,the sons were always present at the burial of the father. Ishmael came from his own country to assist Isaac to bury Abraham; and both Jacob and Esau assisted in burying their father Isaac, but the enmity between them had happily subsided long before that time.

1B. HE�RY, “Here is, I. The malice Esau bore to Jacob upon account of the blessing which he had obtained, Gen_27:41. Thus he went in the way of Cain, who slew his brother because he had gained that acceptance with God of which he had rendered himself unworthy. Esau's hatred of Jacob was, 1. A causeless hatred. He hated him for noother reason but because his father blessed him and God loved him. Note, The happinessof saints is the envy of sinners. Whom Heaven blesses, hell curses. 2. It was a cruel hatred. Nothing less would satisfy him than to slay his brother. It is the blood of the saints that persecutors thirst after: I will slay my brother. How could he say that word

without horror? How could he call him brother, and yet vow his death? Note, The rage ofpersecutors will not be tied up by any bonds, no, not the strongest and most sacred. 3. It was a politic hatred. He expected his father would soon die, and then titles must be tried and interests contested between the brothers, which would give him a fair opportunity for revenge. He thinks it not enough to live by his sword himself (Gen_27:40), unless hisbrother die by it. He is loth to grieve his father while he lives, and therefore puts off the intended murder till his death, not caring how much he then grieved his surviving mother. Note, (1.) Those are bad children to whom their good parents are a burden, and who, upon any account, long for the days of mourning for them. (2.) Bad men are long held in by external restraints from doing the mischief they would do, and so their wicked purposes come to nought. (3.) Those who think to defeat God's purposes will undoubtedly be disappointed themselves. Esau aimed to prevent Jacob, or his seed, fromhaving the dominion, by taking away his life before he was married; but who can disannul what God has spoken? Men may fret at God's counsels, but cannot change them.

2. CALVI�, “And Esau hated Jacob. It hence appears more clearly, that the tears ofEsau were so far from being the effect of true repentance, that they were rather evidences of furious anger. For he is not content with secretly cherishing enmity against his brother, but openly breaks out in wicked threats. And it is evident how deeply malice had struck its roots, when he could indulge himself in the desperate purpose of murdering his brother. Even a profane and sacrilegious contumacy betrays itself in him, seeing that he prepares himself to abolish the decree of God by the sword. I will take care, he says, that Jacob shall not enjoy the inheritance promised to him. What is this but to annihilate the force of the benediction, of whichhe knew that his father was the herald and the minister? Moreover, a lively picture of a hypocrite is here set before us. He pretends that the death of his father would beto him a mournful event: and doubtless it is a religious duty to mourn over a deceased father. But it was a mere pretense on his part, to speak of the day of mourning, when in his haste to execute the impious murder of his brother, the deathof his father seemed to come too slowly, and he rejoiced at the prospect of its approach. (50) With what face could he ever pretend to any human affection, when he gasps for his brother’s death, and at the same time attempts to subvert all the laws of nature? It is even possible, that an impulse of nature itself, extorted from him the avowal, by which he would the more grievously condemn himself; as God often censures the wicked out of their own mouth, and renders them more inexcusable. But if a sense of shame alone restrains a cruel mind, this is not to be deemed worthy of great praise; nay, it even betrays a stupid and brutal contempt of God. Sometimes, indeed, the fear of man influences even the pious, as we have seen, in the preceding chapter, Genesis 26:1, respecting Jacob: but they soon rise above it,so that with them the fear of God predominates; while forgetfulness of God so pervades the hearts of the wicked, that they rest their hopes in men alone. Therefore, he who abstains from wickedness merely through the fear of man, and from a sense of shame, has hitherto made but little progress. Yet the confession of the Papists is chiefly honored by them with this praise, that it deters many from sin, through the fear lest they should be compelled to proclaim their own disgrace. But

the rule of piety is altogether different, since it teaches our conscience to set God before us as our witness and our judge.

3. JOH� TRAPP, “Ver. 41. And Esau hated Jacob, &c.] Because God said, "Jacob have I loved." And, as all hatred is bloody, he resolves to be his death. "The righteous is abomination to the wicked," saith Solomon. [Proverbs 29:27] Moab wasirked because of Israel, or, did fret and vex at them, [�umbers 22:3-4] who yet passed by them in peace. But the old Serpent had set his limbs in them, transfused his venom into them: hence that deadly hatred that is and will be betwixt the godly and the wicked. Pliny speaks of the scorpion, that there is not one minute wherein he doth not put forth the sting: so doth that serpentine seed, acted by Satan. The panther so hates man, that he flies upon the very picture of a man, and tears it to pieces. So doth Satan and his imps upon the image of God, in whomsoever they find it. They "satanically hate me," saith David [Psalms 35:19] of his enemies. And seest thou thy persecutor full of rage? saith Bernard; know thou, that he is spurred on by the devil that rides him, (a) that acts and agitates him. [Ephesians 2:2]

And Esau said in his heart.] Effutiverat etiam minaces voces; he had also bolted out some suspicious speeches, as our gunpowder traitors did whereby he was prevented.The days of mourning for my father.] �o matter for his mother: yet God saith, "Ye shall fear every man his mother and his father". [Leviticus 19:3] The mother is first mentioned, because usually most slighted. Luther thinks, he threateneth his father also, in these words; as if he should say, I will be avenged, by being the death of my brother, though it be to the breaking of my father’s heart. (b) A bloody speech of a vindictive spirit, whom nothing would satisfy, but to be a double parricide.I will slay my brother.] But threatened men live long: for even Isaac, who died soonest, lived above forty years beyond this. "My times are in thy hand," saith David. [Psalms 31:15]

4. William Sandford LaSor wrote, "Perhaps there is another side to this story that seems so hard to understand. It is possible that somemen held the brithright so cheaply because they did not want the headache that went with it, for the birthright was not only a privilege but a responsibility. You see, from the time he became the elder in the family, the holder of the birthright had to make all decisions for the family. It was in my lifetime and yours too, that a man gave up the crown of the British empire for the woman he loved; and mnay of us felt that it may have been not just for the woman he loved, but also for the desire to escape the responisibility, the burden of being tried down to the cares of the Empire Esau was simply not interested in his birthright and what it implied--the religious heritage as well as the cultural heritage of Isaac, Esau was of the earth, earthy, a worldly man; he had no sense of values. That is illustrated again, I think, by the fact that he was so careless of his father's will that he went out and married two Hittite women, even though it

was the expressed desire of the patriarch that the wives of these men shoul dnot be Canaanites or Hittites, ub to fthe same stock as the patriarchs themselve. namely Hebrew women. Esau's whole life was a renunciation of the values of Abraham andIsaac. He just did not care about those things.

5. A �ew York State woman unknowlingly allowed her family jewels to be sold for 10 cents at a friend's garage sale. It happened after she took the jewels out of a bank safety deposit box to wear to a wedding. The bank was closed when she got home, so she put the jewels in an old shaving case and stuffed it in another box. In time, she forgot about the jewels, and later she gave the shaving case to a friend who was collecting items for a garage sale. By the time the woman realized what she had done, the precious gems had been sold to an unknown buyer for a dime. In a sense, her pain is similar to Esau's. He too discovered what it's like to realize suddenly that he had lost something of great value.

6. COKE, “Genesis 27:41. The days of mourning are at hand— In this however he was

mistaken, as Isaac lived forty years after: he was also happily prevented from executing his wicked purpose by his mother's care, who sent away her son Jacob to Laban, designing soon to fetch him back from thence, Genesis 27:45though in this she was disappointed, Jacob continuing with Laban

above twenty years. She seems to have been a very tender mother,ANXIOUS for the welfare

of her sons, though most engaged to Jacob, probably by the goodness and humanity of his behaviour, as well as the knowledge she had of the Divine preference of him. Houbigant

translates מתנחם לך mithnachem leca, thinks, or meditates concerning thee to kill thee: which he

thinks much more natural than doth comfort himself, and which he avers is more agreeable to the Hebrew.

7. GRA�T, ESAU'S HATRED AWAKE�ED

This occasion awakened such hatred in Esau toward Jacob that he purposed to kill him after their father's death (v.41). While it is only written that Esau said this in his heart, he must also have told someone else of his intention, for his mother heard about it, and warned Jacob of it (v.42).

Rebekah therefore advised Jacob to leave and take a long journey back to Haran, where he could count on the hospitality of her brother Laban. She tells him he should stay there "a few days" until Esau's anger has abated, but the few days turned out to be over 20 years, probably because Jacob was not anxious to see Esau in all that time. But the government of God did not allow Jacob to see his mother again on earth (see Gen.35:27), though he did see his father. She said she would sendfor him at the appropriate time and have Jacob brought home again. She was therefore as fully deprived of Jacob's presence as if she had been bereaved of him, as she feared (v.45).

Rebekah had made that decision for Jacob before she spoke to Isaac about it. But her words to Isaac in verse 46 were altogether different to those to Jacob. She tells Isaac she is tired of living because of the daughters of Heth, two of whom Esau had married. They evidently continued to be "a grief of mind" to her (ch.26:35). How many Christian mothers since then have had deep sorrow over their children being married to unbelievers! Rebekah tells Isaac therefore that her life would be miserable if Jacob were to marry one of the daughters of Heth.

7. The question then is this, can God love those who he hates? The answer is yes he does. He hates their sin and folly and judges it, but he also provides a way of forgiveness and hope of salvation. God experiences ambivalence which is both loving and hating the same people. God is love and he cannot cease to be that no matter how much he must judge the sins of man in wrath. Matt. 5:43-48, Luke 6:26-36. How could Jesus teach us to love our enemies if He could not do it himself?

Esau was the most hated of men, and even God hated him-Mal. 1:3, Rom. 9:13. But the entire chapter of Gen. 36 is devoted to him and his people for their perpetual remembrance. We see he had great wealth 326:7, his people were not to be abhored-Deut. 23:7 and yet Ps. 83. They held high offices in Israel-I Sam. 21:7. They were used of God I Kings 11:14-22. They were a strong people who fought for independence and won just as Americans did-II Kings 8:20-22. David defeated themin I Chroin 18:12-13 but God brought them back to power in II Chron. 28:17. They were allies of Israel-II Kings 3. They lasted until the Messiah and came to Jesus from Idumea which was Esau’s people in Mark 3:8.

It is a great paradox that these people so hated as enemies are also loved by God. They were cursed in Isa. 34. They refused to help Israel in �um. 20:14-21. They shed Jewish blood in Ezek. 25. Rejoiced at the fall of Jerusalem in Ps. 137:7 and the last of the books of the O.T. curses them in Mal.1:1-5 and the whole book of Obadiah is about cursing them. And yet they were spared when all others suffered in Dan. 11:36-45. In 36:11,34 we see Teman was Esaus’s grandson and one of the friends of Job was a Temanite-Job 2:11, 4:1, 42:7-9. In Acts 15:12-19 James quotes Amos 9:11-12 where the remnants of Esau’s people are to be incorporated into God’s blest people. These most hated of all people are among the loved and blest of the seed of Abraham.

It is a strange paradox that Esau who was an enemy of God’s people has the longest of the genealogies in Gen. 36. Some feel it is a waste of time to study it as if this part of the Bible is a mistake, but it must have been important for someone to include all of this. Who keeps a record in detail of their enemies? These are nothing but names, but to the Holy Spirit they are souls that God loves. They show that God’s love is

truly universal and that he did not choose Israel because he did not love her enemies, and she was more worthy of his grace and love. God blest this son Esau whom he hated more than Jacob in many ways. He gave him a large family and made him wealthy and with a great nation and one to be respected by Israel-Deut. 2:1-6, Josh 24:4. His sons were dukes when Jacob’s were only shepherds. The wise men in the Christmas story were likely from the line of Esau and the shepherds from the line of Jacob. Esau’s people were free and were kings when Jacob’s people were slaves in Egypt. Being chosen and favored of God does not necessarily mean the best life on earth.

In the Chickamauga Battlefield, there are hundreds of markers that tell the story of one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. Yet there is one particular marker that reminds us of one of the darkest periods in American history. It is a monument that marks the spot where Confederate General Benjamin H. Helm was mortally wounded. The marker reads:

Benjamin H. Helm

Brig. Gen. C.S.A.

Breckinridge’s Division

Mortally wounded here about

10:00 A.M. Sept.20th, 1863

The significance of that one marker among hundreds, is that Confederate General Helm was the brother-in-law of President Abraham Lincoln. It reminds of a time in our history when a country was divided. State fought against state; family against family; brother against brother, and friend against friend. One of the great tragedies of the Civil War was the division it created between families. But an even greater tragedy is the division you often find among the family God. It is not unusual to hear of brother fighting against brother, sister against sister, a part of the family fighting against another part of the family.

We read in Psalm 133:1, "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" Unity is good but division is grievous. Unity is pleasant butdivision is painful. How sad it is when instead of majoring in communion, many are muddled in contention. Instead of bearing one another’s burdens we are often burdened with one another’s battles.

We are often like two porcupines that were huddled together to keep warm but theirquills pricked each and kept them apart. They needed each other, but they kept needling each other.

In the story before us we find brother against brother. We have a scene filled with hatred and contempt. One brother despises another brother and will be satisfied with nothing less than the destruction and death of that brother. First, notice with me:

1. A HATRED THAT IS DEFILI�G

We read in Genesis 27:41, “And Esau hated Jacob.” Here is a brother that detests, abhors, and hates his brother. What a sad and tragic statement. I read the story about two neighbors had a falling-out over the boundary line fence between their farms. Feelings became so intense that each built his own fence. These fences were built about four feet apart. �ot only were they added expenses, but neither of the neighbors had the use of the four-foot strip of land—it rightfully belonged to neitherof them. For lack of a better name, this four-foot strip was called “The Devil’s Lane."1

A good name for hatred is the “Devil’s Lane,” for it is path right into our heart to defile to the heart and life. Someone has said that hating people is like burning downyour own house to get rid of a rat. A person who is filled with hatred may do little todestroy the other, but in the process burns their own house down. As I think of hatred, I think of how it is:

A. Personally Defiling

Dr. S.I. Mcmillian, in his book "�one Of These Diseases" describes hatred: “The moment I start hating a man I become his slave. I cannot enjoy my work anymore because he even controls my thoughts. . .The man I hate may be miles from my bedroom, but more cruel than any slave driver, he whips my thoughts into such a frenzy that my inner-spring mattress becomes a rack of torture. I really must acknowledge that I am a slave to every man on whom I pour my wrath.”

What is Dr. McMillian saying? He is saying that hatred defiles the life. It robs a person of inner peace and peace of mind. It crowds out rest and fills the heart with restlessness. Instead of a tranquil mind there is a tortured mind. Someone has said that hate is like acid. It can damage the vessel in which it is stored as well as destroy the object on which it is poured.

One of the worst cases of hatred that I ever read about was found in a will written in1935 by a Mr. Donohoe. It says, “Unto my two daughters, Francis Marie and DeniseVictoria, by reason of their unfilial attitude toward a doting father, . . . I leave the sum of $1.00 to each and a father’s curse. May their lives be fraught with misery, unhappiness, and poignant sorrow. May their deaths be soon and of a lingering malignant and torturous nature. May their souls rest in hell and suffer the torments of the condemned for eternity.”

When I read that it makes me shudder. I can’t imagine a father writing such a will for his children. I do not know the background as to why he felt this way, but regardless of the reason, I will say this: He was the one fraught with misery, unhappiness that died a death of lingering malignant and torturous nature. Hatred is personally defiling. It robs the life of contentment and fills it with contempt. It strips the soul of victory and fills it with vice. Instead of a tranquil heart there is a troubled heart.

I also think of how hatred is:

B. Spiritually Defiling

The command of God in Leviticus 19:17, is “Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart.” Hatred displeases God and grieves the Holy Spirit. To hate is to disobey God. When you allow hatred to fill your heart, you forget what God desires and you think only of what you desire.

How spiritually defiling is hatred? If you think you can pray and God will hear, you are wrong. We read in Mark 11:25, "And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses."

If you think you can live a Spirit-filled life you are sadly mistaken. We read in Galatians 5:22, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith ..."

If you think you can come to the house of God and worship you are in for a surprise.We read in Matthew 5:23-24, "Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift."

The bottom line is; whoever, whatever, or whenever, one is not right with God if in their heart they hate another person. It is personally defiling and spiritually defiling.

Joseph Richardson, a �ew York millionaire lived and died in a house only five feet wide. It was called the “Spite House,” and it deserved its name. Owning the narrow lot of land on which it was built, Mr. Richardson wished to sell it to the neighboring property owners. They would not pay him what he asked, and so he put up this house, which disfigured the block—and then condemned himself to a life of discomfort in it.2

There are many believers that live in a “Spite House” and have narrowed their life to one of personal and spiritual discomfort. Secondly, notice with me:

2. A HATRED THAT IS DOMI�ATI�G

Esau was not only defiled by his hatred but he was dominated by his hatred. �otice the story. We see how he was:

A. Consumed With Revenge

We read in verse 41, "And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him: and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then will I slay my brother Jacob." Esau is consumed with killing his

brother. He says, “I want do anything while my father is living, but when he is dead,I’ll slay Jacob.” He is eaten up with hatred. He is totally consumed with making his brother pay. He lives for the day when he can get revenge.

The Columbus Dispatch carried a story about a couple from Hopkinsville, Kentucky whose son was killed by a drunk driver. For more than two years, Frank and Elizabeth Morris dedicated their lives to punishing the drunken driver who hadkilled their only child. Driven by hatred, they monitored his every court appearance, followed him to the county jail to make sure he was serving his weekend sentence and watched his apartment to try to catch him violating his probation. "We wanted him in prison," Mrs. Morris said. "We wanted him dead." The story went on to tell how Tommy Pigage, the young man who caused the fatal crash still gets a lot of attention from the Morrises. They drive him to church twice a week and often set a place for him at their dinner table. Unable to find satisfaction through revenge, the couple recently decided to forgive Pigage and try to rebuild his life along with their own. "The hate and bitterness I was feeling was destroying me," Mrs. Morris said, "I needed to forgive Tommy to save myself."

That story has a great end, but for more than two years the Morris’ were consumed with revenge. Sunday after Sunday people sit on Church pews consumed with hatred and revenge.

I read about a fellow that went to the hospital to visit his partner, who was dying of some unknown malady. Suddenly the dying man said, "John, before I go I must confess some things to you and ask your forgiveness. I know I'm about to die. I want you to know that I robbed the firm of $100,000. I sold our secret formula to our competitors, and also, John, I'm the fellow who supplied your wife with the evidence that helped her get her divorce from you that cost you a fortune." John mumbled, "Oh, that's OK, old man. I'm the guy who poisoned you."

I read about a bank in Marin Country, California, that came up with the ideal of providing personal checks with a persons picture on it. Its customers can simply bring in their own photograph or drawing and have them printed onto a standard check form. Undeterred by the higher cost, more than 500 customers signed up for the illustrated checks.

But perhaps the most imaginative—and vindictive—customer is the one who ordered special checks to be used solely for making his alimony payments. They show him beautifully kissing his new wife.

One has said that revenge is like a rolling stone which a man has forced up a hill, that returns upon him with greater violence. It has also been said that the pleasures of revenge is like the pleasure of eating chalk and coals: a foolish disease made the appetite, and it is entertained with an evil reward.

At times we are a lot like Abe Lemmons who was fired as the basketball coach of theTexas Longhorns. When asked if he was bitter at Texas Athletic Director Deloss Dodds who fired him as the Longhorn's basketball coach. He replied, "�ot at all, but I plan to buy a glass-bottomed car so I can watch the look on his face when I runover him."

Furthermore, we see him:

B. Consoled By Resentment

We read in verse 42, "And these words of Esau her elder son were told to Rebekah: and she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said unto him, Behold, thy brother Esau, as touching thee, doth comfort himself, purposing to kill thee." Rebekah overheard what Esau said and came and told Jacob of his plans. But noticean interesting statement she made. She said, “thy brother, as touching thee, doth comfort himself.” The word simply means to console.

In his hatred, he found comfort and satisfaction in the thoughts of getting revenge. I’ve seen people console themselves in their hatred. What do I mean? I’ve seen people that whenever they got a chance to tear down the person they hated, they jumped at the opportunity. I have known people who in their hatred for another, found personal pleasure in going from one person to the next, call person after person, to spew their own personal dislikes, spite, hate, and venom.

I think it is a sad day in any persons life when they become so filled with hate that they live to talk about others; try to hurt the name and reputation of others; seek to destroy others. It is a sad day in any life when they find comfort in their hatred.

Thirdly, notice with me:

3. A HATRED THAT IS DESTRUCTIVE

Hatred when it is all said and done is divisive and destructive. �otice from our storythe:

A. Hurt It Brought

We read in verses 43-45, "�ow therefore, my son, obey my voice; and arise, flee thou to Laban my brother to Haran; And tarry with him a few days, until thy brother's fury turn away; Until thy brother's anger turn away from thee, and he forget that which thou hast done to him: then I will send, and fetch thee from thence: why should I be deprived also of you both in one day?" The whole scene is one of the hurt his hatred brought to the family. Isaac is hurting, Rebekah is hurting, Jacob is hurting, and even Esau is hurting. The whole family is racked by sorrow, sadness, and hurt.

Oh the story of hurt that has been caused by someone with a heart filled with hatred. In families, churches, and among friends. Hurt that sometimes takes years to get over and in some cases is never gotten over. Also, notice the:

B. Home It Broke

Here is Rebekah sending Jacob away to flee his brothers fury. She thought it would be for a few days, a few weeks at the most, but when Jacob left that day, Rebekah never saw Jacob again. Hatred destroyed this home. Hatred has destroyed many a home and church. People filled with hatred only think of themselves and never the hurt and harm their actions bring.

�otice the words in verse 45 “and he forget that.” That’s what he should have done, although it would be years before he ever forgave Jacob. But that is what should be done and must be done. The costs are too high and the consequences to one personally and others are too great. You say, “Forget it!” Yes, forget it. Get it out and let it go.

I think of the experience of Corrie Ten Boom, who years after her concentration camp experiences in �azi Germany, met face to face one of the most cruel and heartless German guards that she had ever contacted. He had humiliated and degraded her and her sister. He had jeered and visually raped them as they stood inthe delousing shower. �ow he stood before her with hand out-stretched and said, "Will you forgive me?" She writes, "I stood there with coldness clutching at my heart, but I know that the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart. I prayed, Jesus, help me! Woodenly, mechanically I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me and I experienced an incredible thing. The current started in my shoulder, raced down into my arms and sprang into our clutched hands. Then this warm reconciliation seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to myeyes. I forgive you, brother, I cried with my whole heart. For a long moment we grasped each others hands, the former guard, the former prisoner. I have never known the love of God so intensely as I did in that moment!"

May I say to you that to forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover the prisoner was you.(From Forerunner Commentary)

Genesis 27:39-41 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)

Once Isaac had given his—really God's—blessing, there was nothing left for Esau. The blessing was an "all or nothing" addition to the inheritance; it could not be portioned between Isaac's two sons. In reality, the subsequent "blessing" Esau receives is tantamount to a curse. In the �ew King James Version, it reads as if Isaac blesses Esau in Genesis 27:39-40, yet it is not a blessing but a prophecy.

As shown here, the two uses of "of" in verse 39 have been mistranslated; in this context, the Hebrew word implies, not "belonging to," but "from" or "away from." On this verse, the Keil and Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament observes, "By a play upon the words Isaac uses the same expression as in v. 28, 'from the fat fields of the earth, and from the dew,' but in the opposite sense, min being partitive [imparting] there, and privative [depriving] here, 'from = away from.'" Thus, Isaac prophesies that Esau's descendants would live in an infertile, arid area.

One consequence of this is prophesied in verse 40: There will be continual strife between the "have," Jacob, and the "have-not," Esau; they would engage in a constant, internecine quarrel over "the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven." More often than not, Jacob would be dominant—until Esau would rebel infrustration and anger. Isaac predicts that they will frequently come to blows, and occasionally, Esau's descendants will enjoy the upper hand for a time.

Esau's utterly human reaction upon hearing Isaac's words is consistent with what we know of his personality: "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" (Genesis 27:41). Too late, he realized the value of the blessing, and now his entire attention was focused in hatred against his brother. Hebrews 12:15-16 describes his attitude toward Jacob asa "root of bitterness," a profound and deep-set animosity that ultimately corrupts and defiles one who maintains it.

This reveals the mindset of Esau and his descendants, the Edomites. Everything thatshould have been theirs was now Jacob's, and they will fight until the bitter end of days to get it back! Yet God says it is not to be. His prophecy in the "blessing" allows Esau only occasional supremacy. Since Jacob's seed possessed both the birthright and the blessing, they would normally prevail and ultimately have the ascendancy.

The birthright made Jacob the recipient of a double portion of the inheritance, and the blessing was a gift of God by which the patriarch passed on the promised family blessings. These blessings included the patriarchy—"Be master over your brethren"(Genesis 27:29)—which was now Jacob's! This meant that, upon Isaac's death, the leadership position in Abraham's family passed not to the elder, Esau, but to the younger, Jacob. Esau was left to form his own house, but without the power, position, and wealth inherent within the birthright and the blessing.

In these prophecies, the Bible shows that dominant family traits are passed down to succeeding generations. Therefore, even today, Israelites generally think and behavemuch like their father Jacob, while Edomites still retain the attitudes and drives of Esau. Though not every Israelite or Edomite will imitate his ancestor's personality to the letter, these traits will surface as national characteristics, allowing perceptive observers to identify their origins and fit them into Bible prophecy.

For Jacob's thefts of the birthright and blessing, Esau hated his brother enough to begin to plot his death! This burning hatred has been passed on from generation to generation ever since that time, for approximately 3,700 years. This, then, provides us with a basic understanding of the contentious relationship between these two peoples.

9. Richard T. RitenbaughAll About Edom (Part One)

Obadiah 1:1-4 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)

Edom lived in the area east of the Jordan in the mountainous areas south of the Dead Sea—a dry, barren, rocky place. Here, in this end-time prophecy, Edomites are still living in this inhospitable place.

Verse 1 contains a parenthetical statement that informs us that God has sent a messenger among the nations, urging them to "rise up against her." This is how things really work: God is the prime mover of world affairs. He determines His purpose and starts affairs rolling toward its fulfillment by inspiring an idea. Then the political and diplomatic mechanisms of nations take over to bring it to fruition, guided and pushed all the while by God (see Isaiah 46:9-11; Isaiah 55:11).

In this case, a national leader decides to send an ambassador to other nations to form a military alliance against Edom. The complaint, as explained in subsequent verses, is that Edom must be brought down to size, perhaps because she is not a team player, wanting all the glory and plunder for herself. That God is the ultimate author of this message means that it will happen as advertised.

Obadiah 1:2 adds emphasis to verse 1. The "I" is God Himself; it is His purpose to bring about Edom's national deflation. He wants Edom to recognize this! He thinks that the Edomites need to be brought into account for their actions and severely punished. Those among the nations who are scheming against Edom are merely agents God will use to fulfill His decree.

Verse 3 strikes at the root of Edom's problem: "The pride of your heart." It was easy for the Edomites to believe themselves to be invincible due to the nearly uninhabitable territory they dwelled in. To the west, where Israel lay, the geographymade their territory nearly impregnable. Otherwise, they could feel secure because their fortresses were carved out of the rock, so they could either hunker down for long periods or engage in guerilla warfare. An attacking army could in no way pry them out, and they knew it. They felt invulnerable, and this filled them with pride.

"Pride" in verse 3 is the Hebrew word zadon, from the root, ziyd. This root is translated "cooked" in Genesis 25:29, where Jacob cooked a stew that the famished

Esau desired. "Cooked" would be better translated "boiled" or "seethed." When heat is applied to water, it boils, and from this process, the Hebrews gained their understanding of pride.

Obadiah, it seems, specifically used this word to draw the reader's attention back to this incident, perhaps suggesting that Esau's selling of the birthright was rooted in his pride. Esau became heated and angry, and it manifested itself as haughtiness, arrogance, pride—the major trait he passed on to his descendants. Just as stew boilsup under heat, so Edom puffs herself up thinking that she is self-reliant and invincible. God, however, is out to prove her wrong.

The Edomite challenge at the end of Obadiah 1:3 bears some scrutiny: "Who will bring me down to the ground?" This is remarkably similar to the words of Lucifer in Isaiah 14:13-14 and to those of the great harlot in Revelation 18:7. This same pride will lead Edom into trouble. The Bible declares that, in all three of these examples, God will have the last word: He will humble them all. In Obadiah 1:4, He decrees, no matter how high and mighty Edom considers herself to be, "from there Iwill bring you down."

Richard T. RitenbaughAll About Edom (Part Three): Obadiah

Obadiah 1:10 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)

Leviticus 19:17, "You shall not hate your brother in your heart," succinctly describes the fundamental flaw in Edom, hatred. Edom's hatred is the primary consequence of her pride. Because he always felt that he should have been the master and received his father's wealth and blessings, Esau nursed his wounded feelings of superiority, and it boiled over into hatred of his brother. This flaw became a prime feature of Edomite character.

Hatred against a brother can lead a person to terrible acts, most often underhanded ones. In the case of the Edomites, their vile attitudes first manifested themselves in such things as gloating and rejoicing over Israel's catastrophes, and led to actions such as pillaging, selling into slavery, and taking the other's territory when Israel and Judah were weak.

God encapsulates the reason for His terrible judgment against Edom into a single word: "violence." In Hebrew, this word is chamas, believe it or not, so strikingly similar to the name of the Palestinian terrorist organization, Hamas. In actuality,

Hamas is an acronym for Harakat al-Muqawima al-Islamiyya, the Islamic Resistance Movement. Along with Hezbollah, it has been Israel's chief enemy for many years. It is difficult to see this as a mere coincidence.

Could this be a scriptural clue as to the modern-day identity of Edom or perhaps Amalek? The details revealed in Obadiah support such a conclusion. A survey of recent Middle East history shows how Hamas has set itself against the Jews; no other group bears such vehement hatred for them. Even though it has secured political power in Palestine, it will not renounce its perpetual hatred against the state of Israel—not even to become a viable player on the world stage. Members of Hamas simply want to annihilate Israel.

Chamas suggests immoral, cruel violence, going hand-in-hand with "slaughter" in the previous verse. The two words are undoubtedly linked. Edom will be cut off with the same slaughter and in the same manner by which she treated Israel: with violence, with chamas!

Why does God describe Esau in these terms? What drives Esau to hate Israel so viscerally? Deuteronomy 32 succinctly illustrates God's attentive relationship with Israel, how He found her, cared for her, and formed her into a great nation. God's love for Israel undergirds why hatred and violence against Israel is such a terrible transgression. Indeed, God's relationship with Israel is a driving factor behind Edom's hot anger—it is essentially jealousy!

Zechariah 2:8 describes Israel as "the apple of His eye." If a person pokes another in the eye, it hurts the recipient terribly. Because Esau's perpetual enmity and violence against Israel are fingers in God's eye, He takes extreme umbrage. The Edomites, rebelling against God's will, picked on one whom God has chosen. This is sin, not only against Israel, but also against God. Rather than humbly bowing before His will that the older shall serve the younger, Edom has waged perpetual war against Jacob's descendants. In doing so, she has, in effect, declared war againstGod—a very serious sin.

9. BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR, “Genesis 27:41-45

Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing.

Esau’s resentment

I. IT WAS CARNAL.

II. IT WAS OVER-RULED FOR GOOD. (T. H. Leale.)

Lessons

1. Esau’s wicked hypocrites hate always bitterly those whom God loves dearly.

2. God’s blessing on His own is the cause why the wicked do so much hate and curse them.

3. The hearts of the wicked are meditating mischief, and their tongues belching it outagainst the righteous.

4. Pretended mourning for the dead is the hypocrite’s cloak for the death of the living.

5. Mischievous hypocrites in the Church, stick not to hasten the death of parents when they hinder from their ends.

6. Resolutions of the wicked are for the slaughter of the righteous and blessed, were it in their hands. (G. Hughes, B. D.)

Lessons

1. Providence ordereth the counsels of the wicked to be revealed that they may be prevented.

2. God maketh sometimes the instruments of their straits to be instruments of deliverance to His. So Rebekah was to Jacob.

3. It is but meet that such who bring into danger should be solicitous to prevent it.

4. Timely advice for safety should be taken with greatest heed, as given with greatest care.

5. The murder of the innocent is the comfort of the cruel and wicked man. Revenge comforts the hypocrite, when no harm is done to him (Gen_27:22).

6. The mother’s voice must be heard when it tends to the good of children.

7. Flight from danger into exile is many times the lot of persecuted saints.

8. God can make the wicked’s habitations sometimes shelters to His people (Gen_27:43.)

9. Gracious parents and children would part but for a little time if it might be.

10. Time wears out anger and memory of all pretended injuries in the wicked (Gen_27:44).

11. Tender mothers long to preserve the lives of children, evil and good.

12. To be childless, or bereft of all, is an evil deprecated by the saints (verse Jer_31:15). (G. Hughes, B. D.)

42

When Rebekah was told what her older son Esau hadsaid, she sent for her younger son Jacob and said to him, "Your brother Esau is consoling himself with the thought of killing you.

1. Barnes, “Gen_27:42-46

Rebekah hearing this, advises Jacob to flee to Laban her brother, and await the abatement of his brother’s anger. “That which thou hast done to him.” Rebekah seems not to have been aware that she herself was the cause of much of the evil and of the misery that flowed from it. All the parties to this transaction are pursued by a retributive chastisement. Rebekah, especially, parts with her favorite son to meet him only after an absence of twenty years, if ever in this life. She is moreover grievously vexed with the connection which Esau formed with the daughters of Heth. She dreads a similar matrimonial alliance on the part of Jacob.

2. Clarke, “Doth comfort himself, purposing to kill thee - מתנחם לך (mithnachem lecha), which Houbigant renders cogitat super te, he thinks or meditates to kill thee. This sense is natural enough here, but it does not appear to be the meaning of the original; nor does Houbigant himself give it this sense, in his Racines Hebraiques. There is no doubt that Esau, in his hatred to his brother, felt himself pleased with the thought that he should soon have the opportunity of avenging his wrongs.

2B. HE�RY, “1. She gave Jacob warning of his danger, and advised him to withdraw for a while, and shift for his own safety. She tells him what she heard of Esau's design, that he comforted himself with the hope of an opportunity to kill his brother, Gen_27:42. Would one think that such a bloody barbarous thought as this could be a comfort to a man? If Esau could have kept his design to himself his mother would not have suspected it; but men's impudence in sin is often their infatuation; and they cannot accomplish their wickedness because their rage is too violent to be concealed, and a bird of the air carries the voice. Observe here, (1.) What Rebekah feared - lest she should be deprived of them both in one day (Gen_27:45), deprived, not only of the murdered, but of the murderer, who either by the magistrate, or by the immediate hand of God, would by sacrificed to justice, which she herself must acquiesce in, and not obstruct: or, if not so, yet thenceforward she would be deprived of all joy and comfort in him. Those that are lost to virtue are in a manner lost to all their friends. With what pleasure can a childbe looked upon that can be looked upon as no other than a child of the devil? (2.) What Rebekah hoped - that, if Jacob for a while kept out of sight, the affront which his brother resented so fiercely would by degrees go out of mind. The strength of passions is weakened and taken off by the distances both of time and place. She promised herself that his brother's anger would turn away. �ote, Yielding pacifies great offences; and even those that have a good cause, and God on their side, must

yet use this with other prudent expedients for their own preservation.

3. Jamison, “these words of Esau were told Rebekah — Poor woman! she now earlybegins to reap the bitter fruits of her fraudulent device; she is obliged to part with her son, for whom she planned it, never, probably, seeing him again; and he felt the retributive justice of heaven fall upon him heavily in his own future family.

4. CALVI�, “And these words of Esau... were told to Rebekah. Moses now makes a transition to a new subject of history, showing how Jacob, as a wanderer from his father’s house, went into Mesopotamia. Without doubt, it was an exceedingly troublesome and severe temptation to the holy matron, to see that, by her own deed, her son was placed in imminent danger of death. But by faith she wrestled to retain the possession of the grace once received. For, if she had been impelled by a merely womanly attachment to her younger son, it certainly would have been her best and shortest method, to cause the birthright to be restored to Esau: for thus the cause of emulation would have been removed; and he who was burning with grief at the loss of his right, would have had his fury appeased. It is therefore an evidence of extraordinary faith, that Rebekah does not come to any agreement, but persuades her son to become a voluntary exile, and chooses rather to be deprived of his presence, than that he should give up the blessing he had once received. The benediction of the father might now seem illusory; so as to make it appear wonderful that so much should be made of it by Rebekah and Jacob: nevertheless, they were so far from repenting of what they had done, that they do not refuse the bitter punishment of exile, if only Jacob may carry with him the benediction utteredby his father. Moreover, we are taught by this example, that we must bear it patiently, if the cross attends the hope of a better life, as its companion; or even if the Lord adopts us into his family, with this condition, that we should wander as pilgrims without any certain dwelling-place in the world. For, on this account, Jacobis thrust out from his paternal home, where he might quietly have passed his life, and is compelled to migrate to a strange land; because the blessing of God is promised unto him. And as he did not attempt to purchase temporal peace with his brother by the loss of the grace received; so must we beware lest any carnal advantage or any allurements of the world should draw us aside from the course of our vocation: let us rather bear with magnanimity losses of all kinds, so that the anchor of our hope nay remain fixed in heaven. When Rebekah says that Esau consoled himself with the thought, that he would slay his brother; the meaning is, that he could not be pacified by any other means, than by this wicked murder

5. JOH� TRAPP, “Ver. 42. And these words of Esau, &c.] For he could not hold, as Absalom did, who, intending to murder Amnon, spake neither good nor evil to him. These still revenges are most dangerous, as a dog that barks not. That Esau vented himself in words, was a great mercy of God to Jacob. He thought nothing, good man, but followed his calling, not knowing his danger. But his provident mother heard about it, and took course to prevent it. So doth the sweet fatherly providence of God take care and course for the safety of his servants, when they are either ignorant or secure. Masses were said in Rome for the good success of the Powder

Plot; but no prayers in England for our deliverance: and yet we were delivered. A sevenfold psalmody they had framed here, which secretly passed from hand to hand, with tunes set, to be sung for the cheering up of their wicked hearts, with an expectation, as they called it, of their day of Jubilee. (a) The matter consisteth of railing upon King Edward, Queen Elizabeth, and King James; of petition, imprecation, prophecy, and praise. This Psalter is hard to be had: for they are takenup by the Papists as other books are, that discover their shame. But Mendoza, that liar ( conveniunt rebus nomina saepe suis), sounded the triumph before the victory. That blind letter of theirs brought all to light, by the mere mercy of "the Father of lights," who was pleased to put a divine sentence into the mouth of the king. Sorex suo perit indicio. Hunc tibi pugionem mittit Senatus, dixit ille: detexit facinus fatuus, et non implevit. So here. See the like, 1 Samuel 19:2, Acts 9:24; Acts 23:16.

And she sent and called Jacob.] Why did she not call both her sons together, andmake them friends, by causing the younger to resign up his blessing to the elder?Because she preferred heaven before earth, and eternity before any the world’s amity or felicity whatsoever. The devil would fain compound with us when he cannot conquer us; as Pharaoh would let some go, not all; or if all, yet not far. Religiosum oportet esse, sed non religantem. He cannot abide this strictness, &c. But we must be resolute for God and heaven. Better flee with Jacob, yea, die a thousand deaths, than, with the loss of God’s blessing, to accord with Esau.

43

�ow then, my son, do what I say: Flee at once to my brother Laban in Haran.

1. Barnes, “Rebekah hearing this, advises Jacob to flee to Laban her brother, and await the abatement of his brother’s anger. “That which thou hast done to him.” Rebekah seems not to have been aware that she herself was the cause of much of the evil and of the misery that flowed from it. All the parties to this transaction are pursued by a retributive chastisement. Rebekah, especially, parts with her favorite son to meet him only after an absence of twenty years, if ever in this life. She is moreover grievously vexedwith the connection which Esau formed with the daughters of Heth. She dreads a similar matrimonial alliance on the part of Jacob.

2. Gill, “Now therefore, my son, obey my voice,.... Hearken to what I say, and do

according to it, as he had already in many instances, and particularly in a late one, in which he succeeded, and therefore had good reason to attend to her advice and direction,see Gen_27:13,

and arise, flee thou to Laban my brother, to Haran; where Laban her brother, dwelt.

3. Henry, “1. She gave Jacob warning of his danger, and advised him to withdraw for a while, and shift for his own safety. She tells him what she heard of Esau's design, that he comforted himself with the hope of an opportunity to kill his brother, Gen_27:42. Wouldone think that such a bloody barbarous thought as this could be a comfort to a man? If Esau could have kept his design to himself his mother would not have suspected it; but men's impudence in sin is often their infatuation; and they cannot accomplish their wickedness because their rage is too violent to be concealed, and a bird of the air carries the voice. Observe here, (1.) What Rebekah feared - lest she should be deprived of them both in one day (Gen_27:45), deprived, not only of the murdered, but of the murderer, who either by the magistrate, or by the immediate hand of God, would by sacrificed to justice, which she herself must acquiesce in, and not obstruct: or, if not so, yet thenceforward she would be deprived of all joy and comfort in him. Those that are lost tovirtue are in a manner lost to all their friends. With what pleasure can a child be looked upon that can be looked upon as no other than a child of the devil? (2.) What Rebekah hoped - that, if Jacob for a while kept out of sight, the affront which his brother resented so fiercely would by degrees go out of mind. The strength of passions is weakened and taken off by the distances both of time and place. She promised herself that his brother's anger would turn away. Note, Yielding pacifies great offences; and even those that have agood cause, and God on their side, must yet use this with other prudent expedients for their own preservation.

4. Jamison, “Poor woman! she now early begins to reap the bitter fruits of her fraudulent device; she is obliged to part with her son, for whom she planned it, never, probably, seeing him again; and he felt the retributive justice of heaven fall upon him heavily in his own future family.

5. . K&D, “by fleeing to her brother Laban in Haran, and remaining there “some days,” as she mildly puts it, until his brother's wrath was subdued. “For why should I lose you both in one day?” viz., Jacob through Esau's vengeance, and Esau as a murderer by the avenger of blood (Gen_9:6, cf. 2Sa_14:6-7). In order to obtain Isaac's consent to this plan, without hurting his feelings by telling him of Esau's murderous intentions, she spoke to him of her troubles on account of the Hittite wives of Esau, and the weariness oflife that she should feel if Jacob also were to marry one of the daughters of the land, and so introduced the idea of sending Jacob to her relations in Mesopotamia, with a view to his marriage there.

44

Stay with him for a while until your brother's fury subsides.

It is of interest how often brothers are in conflict in the Bible. You have Cain and Abel, Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, and Joseph and his brothers. But in the �ew Testament you see Jesus choosing brothers for his twelve disciples. There is James and John, Peter and Andrew, and Matthew and the other James. Half of His disciples were brothers, and so we see that they can be key factors in the unity of a group, and do not need to be factors for division as they were so often in the Old Testament. Even the story of Jacob and Esau ends with reconciliation. That is part of the message of his life, that when their is reconciliation with God there will be reconciliation with man. Get the vertical relation with God right, and the horizontalrelation with man will work out as well.

But there is ever much conflict between men who are those of force and action with those who are of thought and sensibility. The men of violence and the men of peace. Those for whom life is primarily self-gratification, and those for whom it is primarily service to others. Some like to think that twins are always somewhat opposite, and one is good and the other evil. This stems from the account of Jacob and Esau.

1.. Clarke, “Tarry with him a few days - It was probably forty years before he returned, and it is likely Rebekah saw him no more; for it is the general opinion of the Jewish rabbins that she died before Jacob‘s return from Padan-aram, whether the period of his stay be considered twenty or forty years. See note on Genesis 31:55,etc.

2. And tarry with him a few days,.... Which Aben Ezra interprets a few years; rather, as Hiscuni, one year; perhaps it may be better should it be said one or two years; but instead of so short a time Jacob stayed there twenty years, and perhaps Rebekah never saw him anymore, being dead before he returned; after this account, no more mention is made of her:

until thy brother's fury turn away; which she hoped would abate, subside, and be entirely gone in process of time, and especially when the object of it was out of sight, and so it might be thought would be out of mind.

3. Calvin, “And tarry with him a few days. This circumstance mitigates the severity

of banishment. For the shortness of the time of suffering avails not a little to supportus in adversity. And it was probable that the enmity of Esau would not prove so obstinate as to be unassuaged by his brother’s absence. In the Hebrew expression which is translated “a few days,” the word few is literally “one” put in the plural number. (51) Rebekah means, that as soon as Jacob should have gone away of his own accord, the memory of the offense would be obliterated from the mind of Esau; as if she had said, Only depart hence for a little while, and we shall soon assuage his anger.

45

When your brother is no longer angry with you and forgets what you did to him, I'll send word for you to come back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?"

She apparently realized that she lost Esau because he would have nothing to do with her after her betrayal, and if Jacob did not flee he would be killed and she would lose both her boys in one day. There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that in a conflict it would be Esau who would win.

1. Clarke, “Why should I be deprived also of you both - If Esau should kill Jacob, then the nearest akin to Jacob, who was by the patriarchal law, Genesis 9:6, the avenger of blood, would kill Esau; and both these deaths might possibly take place in the same day. This appears to be the meaning of Rebekah. Those who are ever endeavoring to sanctify the means by the end, are full of perplexity and distress. God will not give his blessing to even a Divine service, if not done in his own way, onprinciples of truth and righteousness. Rebekah and her son would take the means out of God‘s hands; they compassed themselves with their own sparks, and warmed themselves with their own fire; and this had they at the hand of God, they lay down in sorrow. God would have brought about his designs in a way consistent with his own perfections; for he had fully determined that the elder should serve the younger, and that the Messiah should spring not from the family of Esau but from that of Jacob; and needed not the cunning craftiness or deceits of men to accomplishhis purposes. Yet in his mercy he overruled all these circumstances, and produced good, where things, if left to their own operations and issues, would have produced nothing but evil. However, after this reprehensible transaction, we hear no more of Rebekah. The Holy Spirit mentions her no more, her burial excepted, Genesis 49:31.See note on Genesis 35:8.

3. Gill, “Until thy brother's anger turn away from thee,.... Which is repeated from the preceding verse, to carry on the connection:

and he forget that which thou hast done to him; in getting the blessing from him; being convinced that Jacob had done him no injury, and that he had no just cause of being angry with him, it being the will of God that he should have the blessing; and besides, having bought the birthright of him, the blessing belonged to him in course; or however would in time forgive and forget what he thought was an injury done him:

then I will send, and fetch thee from thence; send messengers to him that should acquaint him with the disposition of his brother towards him, and, if agreeable, bring him along with them to his mother again; this is said to encourage him to go:

why should I be deprived also of you both in one day? who might either in the quarrel kill one another; or however, as one would be murdered, so the other, the murderer, must die by the hand of the civil magistrate, according to the law in Gen_9:6; or should he escape justice being done him by men, yet the hand of God would find him; or if obliged to flee and hide himself, it would be as if he was not.

4. Jamison, “Why should I be deprived of you both? — This refers to the law of Goelism, by which the nearest of kin would be obliged to avenge the death of Jacob upon his brother.

5. . CALVI�, “Why should I be deprived of you both in one day ? Why does Rebekah fear a double privation? for there was no danger that Jacob, endued with adisposition so mild and placid, should rise up against his brother. We see, therefore, that Rebekah concluded that God would be the avenger of the iniquitous murder. Moreover, although God, for a time, might seem to overlook the deed, and to suspend his judgment, it would yet be necessary for him to withdraw from the parricide. Therefore, by this law of nature, Rebekah declares that she should be entirely bereaved; because she would be compelled to dread and to detest him who survived. But if Rebekah anticipated in her mind what the judgment of God would be, and devoted the murderer to destruction, because she was persuaded that wickedness so great would not be unpunished; much less ought we to close our eyes against the manifest chastisements of God

6. JOH� trapp, “Ver. 45. And he forget, &c.] While wrongs are remembered, they are not remitted. He forgives not, that forgets not. When an inconsiderate fellow hadstricken Cato in the bath, and afterwards cried him mercy, he replied, I remember not that thou didst strike me. (a) Our Henry VI is said to have been of that happy memory, that he never forgot anything but injuries. Esau was none such: he was of that sort whom they call πικροχολοι, soon angry, but not soon pleased. His anger was like "coals of juniper," [Psalms 120:4] which burn extremely, last long (a whole twelve month about, as some write), and though they seem extinct, revive again: -

7. SCOTT HOEZEE We should feel bad for Esau and we should be none-too-quick

to claim that Jacob's actions are readily understandable or justified. In a sense, the whole thing ends rather badly. It doesn't take too long before Esau's deep hurt curdles into murderous anger. So long as his father is alive, Esau refuses to break the old man's heart by ripping Jacob's lungs out. But some evenings after dinner, Rebekah would see Esau methodically sharpening his hunting knife but all the whileglaring across the room at Jacob. Esau was anything but subtle and so it didn't require a genius to see what was on his simple mind. So Jacob has to flee. Here, again, Rebekah manages to make Isaac an unwitting accomplice, convincing him to send Jacob on his way on the pretense that he'd find a better wife among Laban's people than the nettlesome little witches Esau had married from among the Hittites. Isaac agrees and so Jacob steals away in the dead of night, escaping his brother's fury but leaving his parents for good. So far as we know, Jacob never again saw his mother alive.

8. MACKI�TOSH, “But we are sure to bring unmixed sorrow upon ourselves, when we take ourselves, our circumstances, or our destinies, out of the hands of God.* Thus it was with Jacob, as we shall see in the sequel. It has been observed by another, that whoever observes Jacob's life, after he had surreptitiously obtained hisfather's blessing, will perceive that he enjoyed very little worldly felicity. His brother purposed to murder him, to avoid which he was forced to flee from his father's house; his uncle Laban deceived him, as he had deceived his father, and treated him with great rigor; after a servitude of twenty-one years, he was obliged toleave him in a clandestine manner, and not without danger of being brought back ormurdered by his enraged brother; no sooner were these fears over, than he experienced the baseness of his son Reuben, in defiling his bed; he had next to bewail the treachery and cruelty of Simeon and Levi towards the Shechemites; then he had to feel the loss of his beloved wife; he was next imposed upon by his own sons, and had to lament 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. So just, wonderful, and instructive are all the ways of providence."

As to Rebekah, she was called to feel all the sad results of her cunning actings. She, no doubt, imagined she was managing matters most skillfully; but, alas! she never saw Jacob again: so much for management! How different it would have been had she left the matter entirely in the hands of God. This is the way in which faith manages, and it is ever a gainer. "Which of you by taking thought, can add to his stature one cubit?" We gain nothing by our anxiety and planning; we only shut out God, and that is no gain. It is a just judgement from the hand of God to be left to reap the fruits, of our own devices; and I know of few things more sad than to see a child of God so entirely forgetting his proper place and privilege, as to take the management of his affairs into his own hands. The birds of the air, and the lilies of the field, may well be our teachers when we so far forget our position of unqualified dependence upon God.

Jacob was judged for his evil some think, for he did not live as long as Abraham or

Isaac. Gen. 25:8; 35:29 and 47:9 He paid for his deception and lies.

Why was it that the sons of Jacob came to him at the end of his life and told him that Joseph was yet alive? Jacob had deceived his father with his brother’s coat. He suffered deceit all his life. At the end, when he discovered his son Joseph was alive, he realized the deceit he suffered was God’s reward for the deceit he perpetrated upon his own father. �ow he could sit with his sons and fellowship with them saying, "Yes, I deceived my father as you deceived me." Jacob saw what bitterness there was in deceit. How would he ever have understood the sinful nature of deceit if it weren’t for the twenty years he spent grieving over the loss of his son Joseph? The bitterness of deceit was brought home to Jacob when upon hearing, "Joseph is still alive," he learned that his own sons had deceived him.

It is through suffering in times of barrenness that the Lord teaches us the exceeding sinfulness of sin. In all the twenty years of grieving, Jacob had not received one hint that Joseph was yet alive. He lived in barrenness to harvest the fruit of his own sin.

46

Then Rebekah said to Isaac, "I'm disgusted with living because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes awife from among the women of this land, from Hittitewomen like these, my life will not be worth living."

�ow she comes up with a good excuse to get Jacob out of the home and country. She cannot tolerate him getting involved with the local women, and so he needs to be sent away to get a proper wife.

1. Clarke, “I am weary of my life - It is very likely that Rebekah kept many of the circumstances related above from the knowledge of Isaac; but as Jacob could not go to Padan-aram without his knowledge, she appears here quite in her own character,

framing an excuse for his departure, and concealing the true cause. Abraham had been solicitous to get a wife for his son Isaac from a branch of his own family; hence she was brought from Syria. She is now afraid, or pretends to be afraid, that her sonJacob will marry among the Hittites, as Esau had done; and therefore makes this to Isaac the ostensible reason why Jacob should immediately go to Padan-aram, that he might get a wife there. Isaac, not knowing the true cause of sending him away, readily falls in with Rebekah‘s proposal, and immediately calls Jacob, gives him suitable directions and his blessing, and sends him away. This view of the subject makes all consistent and natural; and we see at once the reason of the abrupt speechcontained in this verse, which should be placed at the beginning of the following chapter.

1. In the preceding notes I have endeavored to represent things simply as they were. I have not copied the manner of many commentators, who have labored to vindicatethe character of Jacob and his mother in the transactions here recorded. As I fear God, and wish to follow him, I dare not bless what he hath not blessed, nor curse what he hath not cursed. I consider the whole of the conduct both of Rebekah and Jacob in some respects deeply criminal, and in all highly exceptionable. And the impartial relation of the facts contained in this and the 25th chapter, gives me the fullest evidence of the truth and authenticity of the sacred original. How impartial isthe history that God writes! We may see, from several commentators, what man would have done, had he had the same facts to relate. The history given by God details as well the vices as the virtues of those who are its subjects. How widely different from that in the Bible is the biography of the present day! Virtuous acts that were never performed, voluntary privations which were never borne, piety which was never felt, and in a word lives which were never lived, are the principal subjects of our biographical relations. These may be well termed the Lives of the Saints, for to these are attributed all the virtues which can adorn the human character, with scarcely a failing or a blemish; while on the other hand, those in general mentioned in the sacred writings stand marked with deep shades. What is the inference which a reflecting mind, acquainted with human nature, draws from acomparison of the biography of the Scriptures with that of uninspired writers? The inference is this - the Scripture history is natural, is probable, bears all the characteristics of veracity, narrates circumstances which seem to make against its own honor, yet dwells on them, and often seeks occasion to Repeat them. It is true! infallibly true! In this conclusion common sense, reason, and criticism join. On the other hand, of biography in general we must say that it is often unnatural, improbable; is destitute of many of the essential characteristics of truth; studiously avoids mentioning those circumstances which are dishonorable to its subject; ardently endeavors either to cast those which it cannot wholly hide into deep shades,or sublime them into virtues. This is notorious, and we need not go far for numerousexamples. From these facts a reflecting mind will draw this general conclusion - an impartial history, in every respect true, can be expected only from God himself.

2. These should be only preliminary observations to an extended examination of the characters and conduct of Rebekah and her two sons; but this in detail would be an ungracious task, and I wish only to draw the reader‘s attention to what may, under

the blessing of God, promote his moral good. �o pious man can read the chapter before him without emotions of grief and pain. A mother teaches her favorite son to cheat and defraud his brother, deceive his father, and tell the most execrable lies! And God, the just, the impartial God relates all the circumstances in the most ampleand minute detail! I have already hinted that this is a strong proof of the authenticity of the sacred book. Had the Bible been the work of an impostor, a single trait of this history had never appeared. God, it is true, had purposed that theelder should serve the younger; but never designed that the supremacy should be brought about in this way. Had Jacob‘s unprincipled mother left the matter in the bands of God‘s providence, her favorite son would have had the precedency in such a way as would not only have manifested the justice and holiness of God, but would have been both honorable and lasting to Himself. He got the birthright, and he got the blessing; and how little benefit did he personally derive from either! What was his life from this time till his return from Padan-aram? A mere tissue of vexations, disappointments, and calamities. Men may endeavor to palliate the iniquity of these transactions; but this must proceed either from weakness or mistaken zeal. God has sufficiently marked the whole with his disapprobation.

3. The enmity which Esau felt against his brother Jacob seems to have been transmitted to all his posterity; and doubtless the matters of the birthright and the blessing were the grounds on which that perpetual enmity was kept up between the descendants of both families, the Edomites and the Israelites. So unfortunate is an ancient family grudge, founded on the opinion that an injury has been done by one of the branches of the family, in a period no matter how remote, provided its operation still continues, and certain secular privations to one side be the result. How possible it is to keep feuds of this kind alive to any assignable period, the state of a neighboring island sufficiently proves; and on the subject in question, the bloody contentions of the two houses of York and Lancaster in this nation are no contemptible comment. The facts, however, relative to this point, may be summed up in a few words. 1. The descendants of Jacob were peculiarly favored by God. 2. They generally had the dominion, and were ever reputed superior in every respect to the Edomites. 3. The Edomites were generally tributary to the Israelites. 4. They often revolted, and sometimes succeeded so far in their revolts as to become an independent people. 5. The Jews were never subjected to the Edomites. 6. As in the case between Esau and Jacob, who after long enmity were reconciled, so were the Edomites and the Jews, and at length they became one people. 7. The Edomites, as anation, are now totally extinct; and the Jews still continue as a distinct people from all the inhabitants of the earth! So exactly have all the words of God, which he has spoken by his prophets, been fulfilled!

4. On the blessings pronounced on Jacob and Esau, these questions may naturally be asked. 1. Was there any thing in these blessings of such a spiritual nature as to affect the eternal interests of either? Certainly there was not, at least as far as mightabsolutely involve the salvation of the one, or the perdition of the other 2. Was not the blessing pronounced on Esau as good as that pronounced on Jacob, the mere temporary lordship, and being the progenitor of the Messiah, excepted? So it evidently appears. 3. If the blessings had referred to their eternal states, had not

Esau as fair a prospect for endless glory as his unfeeling brother? Justice and mercyboth say - Yes. The truth is, it was their posterity, and not themselves, that were the objects of these blessings. Jacob, personally, gained no benefit; Esau, personally, sustained no loss.

2. Gill, “And Rebekah said to Isaac,.... Not what she had told Jacob concerning the enmity of Esau to Jacob, and his intention to kill him, lest it should grieve him, and bringhis gray hairs with sorrow to the grave; but what follows, as an excuse to get Isaac's leave for Jacob's departure, concealing the true reason of it:

I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth; whom Esau had married, Gen_26:34; who were continually vexing and teasing her by their impiety and idolatry, their irreligion and profaneness, their disobedience and contradiction, their froward temper and behaviour:

if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth; as his brother has done, and after his example, as the best are too apt to be led by bad examples:

such as these which are of the daughters of the land: like those Esau had married, of the same tribe, or of other of the tribes of the Canaanites, which were in religion and manners like unto them:

what good shall my life do me? I shall have no comfort in it; death would be more eligible than such a life: this she said with great vehemence and affection, to move and work upon Isaac to lay him commands on Jacob, and give him orders and directions to go to her family and friends, and there take him a wife; and the succeeded according to her wishes, as the following chapter shows.

3. Henry, “ She impressed Isaac with an apprehension of the necessity of Jacob's going among her relations upon another account, which was to take a wife, Gen_27:46. She would not tell him of Esau's wicked design against the life of Jacob, lest it should trouble him; but prudently took another way to gain her point. Isaac saw as uneasy as he was to Esau's being unequally yoked with Hittites; and therefore, with a very good colour of reason, she moves to have Jacob married to one that was better principled. Note, One miscarriage should serve as a warning to prevent another; those are careless indeed that stumble twice at the same stone. Yet Rebekah seems to have expressed herself somewhattoo warmly in the matter, when she said, What good will my life do me if Jacob marry aCanaanite? Thanks be to God, all our comfort is not lodged in one hand; we may do the work of life, and enjoy the comforts of life, though every thing do not fall out to our mind, and though our relations be not in all respects agreeable to us. Perhaps Rebekah spoke with this concern because she saw it necessary, for the quickening of Isaac, to give speedy orders in this matter. Observe, Though Jacob was himself very towardly, and wellfixed in his religion, yet he had need to be put out of the way of temptation. Even he was in danger both of following the bad example of his brother and of being drawn into a snare by it. We must not presume too far upon the wisdom and resolution, no, not of those children that are most hopeful and promising; but care must be taken to keep themout of harm's way.

4. Jamison, “Rebekah said to Isaac — Another pretext Rebekah‘s cunning had to devise to obtain her husband‘s consent to Jacob‘s journey to Mesopotamia; and she succeeded by touching the aged patriarch in a tender point, afflicting to his pious heart - the proper marriage of their younger son.

5. CALVI�, “And Rebekah said to Isaac. When Jacob might have fled secretly, his mother, nevertheless, obtains leave for his departure from his father; for so a well-ordered domestic government and discipline required. In giving another cause than the true one to her husband, she may be excused from the charge of falsehood; inasmuch as she neither said the whole truth nor left the whole unsaid. �o doubt, she truly affirms that she was tormented, even to weariness of life, on account of herHittite daughters-in-law: but she prudently conceals the more inward evil, lest she should inflict a mortal wound on her husband: and also, lest she should the more influence the rage of Esau; for the wicked, often, when their crime is detected, are the more carried away with desperation. �ow, although in consequence of the evil manners of her daughters-in-law, affinity with the whole race became hateful to Rebekah, yet in this again the wonderful providence of God is conspicuous, that Jacob neither blended, nor entangled himself, with the future enemies of the Church.

6. JOH� TRAPP, “Ver. 46. I am weary of my life, &c.] A wise woman, saith an interpreter, not willing to grieve her husband, she conceals from him Esau’s malicious hatred of Jacob, and pretends another cause of sending him away, to take him a fit wife. Let women learn not to exasperate their husbands with quick words or froward deeds; but study their quiet. Livia, wife to Augustus, (a) being asked howshe could so absolutely rule her husband, answered, By not prying into his actions, and dissembling his affections, &c.

7. PI�K And here the history of Isaac terminates! After charging Jacob not to take a wife from the daughters of Canaan (Gen. 28:1) he disappears from the scene and nothing further is recorded of him save his death and burial (Gen. 35:27-29). As another has said, "instead of wearing out, Isaac rusted out," rusted out as a vessel no longer fit for the master’s use.

Isaac is laid aside. For forty long years we know nothing of him; he had been, as it were, decaying away and wasting. The vessel was rusting till it rusted out.

8. PINK, 8. PINK, 8. PINK, 8. PINK, Many are the lessons illustrated and exemplified in the above incident. We can do little more than name a few of the most important. 1. How many to-day are, like Esau, bartering Divine privileges for carnal gratification. 2. Beware of doing evil that good may come. What shame and sorrow they do make for

themselves who in their zeal for good do not scruple to use wrong means. Thus itwas with Rebekah and Jacob. 3. Let us seek grace to prevent natural affections overriding love for God and His revealed will. 4. Remember the unchanging law of Sowing and Reaping. How striking to observe that it was Rebekah, not Isaac, who sent her beloved child away! She it was who led him into grievous sin, and she it was whom God caused to be the instrument of his exile. She, poor thing, suggested that he find refuge in the home of Laban her brother for "some days." Little did she imagine that her favorite child would have to remain there for twentyyears, and that never again should she behold him in the flesh. Ah! the mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small, and we might add "surely." Andduring those long years Jacob was to be cheated by Laban as he had cheated Isaac. 5. Learn the utter futility of seeking to foil God: "So then it is not of him thatwilleth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy" (Rom. 9:16); either Isaac’s "willing" nor Esau’s "running" could defeat the purpose of Jehovah. "There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the counsel of the Lord that shall stand" (Prov. 19:21). Man proposes but God disposes.

Finally, have we not here, deeply hidden, a beautiful picture of the Gospel. Jacobfound acceptance with his father and received his blessing because he sheltered behind the name of the father’s firstborn, beloved son, and was clothed with his garments which diffused to Isaac an excellent odor. In like manner, we as sinners, find acceptance before God and receive His blessing as we shelter behind the name of His beloved Firstborn, and as we are clothed with the robe ofrighteousness which we receive from Him thus coming before the Father in the merits of His Son who "hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor" (Eph. 5:2).

9. RAY PRITCHARD

Jacob Got What He Wanted, But . . .

Think of it this way. In the beginning Jacob didn't have the blessing; in the end he did. Jacob got what he wanted but because he got it through fraudulent means, it cost him his own family.

His family is destroyed.He is penniless.He is homeless.He is fleeing for his life.He is estranged from his brother.He has humiliated his father.As far as we know, he never saw his mother Rebekah again.

One last note. Because Jacob left and Esau stayed home, Jacob forfeited all the material prosperity that would have been his through his inheritance from Isaac.

He got what he wanted . . . but he lost his own family. Why? Because he wouldn't wait onGod. Chuck Swindoll calls waiting the hardest discipline of the Christian life. Psalm 37:15 says, "Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him." Most of us don't want tobe still and we don't want to wait. We want our answers right now.

Two Undeniable Truths

While this story speaks to us on many levels, perhaps the chief lesson has to do with the importance of waiting on God. We can look at this truth both positively and negatively:

1. Those who wait on the Lord, though it is difficult, will in the end not be disappointed.

2. Those who impatiently try to force God's hand may get what they want but in the process they will lose everything of value in life.

Let's try a question out for the second time: What are you willing to trade in life in order to get what you want? Your family? Your friends? Your career? Your children? Your purity? Your integrity? To say it another way: What kind of deal are you willing to make in order to force God's hand?

Remember, there are no shortcuts with God. Every shortcut turns out to be a dead-end street. Those who take short-cuts end up wandering aimlessly through life. Write it down in big letters: God doesn't need your help to fulfill his will in your life. That's the number-one lesson of this story. If he wants to give a blessing, he can give it. If he wants to elevate you, he can do it. If he wants to raise you up to a position of great power, he can do it.

If God wants Jacob to have the birthright, there's no way Esau can keep it.If God wants Jacob to have the blessing, there's no way Esau can get it.

If God wants Jacob to have the blessing, there's no way Isaac can give it to Esau.

No way! Can't happen. Not in a million years. God doesn't need Jacob's help. Or Rebekah's either. If God wants to, he can work a miracle or he can arrange the circumstances or he can simply change Isaac's mind or just strike him dead. God is infinitely creative when it comes to finding ways of accomplishing his purposes on earth.

But when we interfere, when we try to "help" God out, we only mess things up. The ironic truth is that whenever we try to "help" God out, we may in fact get whatever it waswe wanted, but the price will be too high.

The Hardest Prayer You Will Ever Pray

A year ago I preached through the Lord's Prayer. When I came to the phrase, "Thy will bedone," I called it "The hardest prayer you will ever pray." After some reflection, I have changed my mind. I now want to call that "The second hardest prayer you will ever pray." To pray "Thy will be done" does often seem impossibly difficult. But there is a prayer even more difficult to pray: "My will be done."

When you pray as Jacob did—"My will be done," God responds by saying, "All right, then, your will be done, but you're going to be sorry." In the end you'll never regret saying, "Lord, thy will be done—in your way, in your time, and according to your plan."

A Vow to Wait

Let's make this very practical. If you are like most people, you probably have a hard time waiting for the things in life you really care about. Take a moment to complete the following statement:

10. COKE, “Genesis 27:46. I am weary, &c.— See notes on ch. Genesis 26:34, &c. The writers

of theUNIVERSAL History remark, that whosoever narrowly observes Jacob's life, after he had obtained his father's blessing, will own, that it consisted in nothing less than in worldly felicity, of which he enjoyed as little perhaps as any man whatever. Forced from his home into a far country, for fear of his brother; deceived and oppressed by his own uncle, and forced to fly from him after a servitude of twenty-one years; in imminent danger either of being pursued and brought back by Laban, or murdered by an enraged brother: these fears are no sooner over, but the baseness of his eldest son in defiling his couch; the treachery and cruelty of the two next to the Shechemites; and, lastly, the loss of his beloved wife, and supposed untimely end of his son Joseph: all these overwhelmed him with fresh successions of grief; and, to complete all, his being forced by famine todescend into AEgypt, and to die in a strange land; these, and many more, are sufficient proofs that his father's blessing was of a quite different nature, and consisted chiefly in these two particulars; viz. the possession of the land of Canaan, in right of primogeniture, which his brother had sold him, and which rather belonged to hisPOSTERITY than to himself; the other and more glorious one was, that of the Messiah's being born of his race, and not of that of Esau.

REFLECTIONS.—Observe, 1. The natural effects of disappointed pride appear in Esau's hatred and revenge. Though loth to grieve his aged father, and draw down his curse, he however thinks he

has not long to wait, and then Jacob shall pay dearly for his cunning. Note; (1.) He is not the last wicked son, who is pleased with the hopes of his father's death. (2.) Marvel not, if brother rise against brother, when religion is concerned: it was so from the beginning.

2. Rebekah resolves to disappoint his purposes. She admonishes Jacob of his danger, and advises him to give way by yielding and absence. Note; Distance of time and place wears off, or weakens the impressions of resentment. She justly fears lest she should be deprived of both sons at once, bythe murder of one and the execution of the other. The thought of a son a murderer must needs be shocking to every parent.

3. She conceals from Isaac Esau's purpose, but finds a very urgent reason for his consent to her design, by pleading the danger of Jacob's marrying a Canaanite, and that such a step would make her life miserable. Note; (1.) Parents are greatly interested in the settlement of their children. (2.) Where one child hath settled wrong, they should be doubly careful of those who remain.