Genesis 27

¹ When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called Esau his older son and said to him, “My son”; and he answered, “Here I am.” ² He said, “Behold, I am old; I do not know the day of my death. ³ Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me, ⁴ and prepare for me delicious food, such as I love, and bring it to me so that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die.”

⁵ Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it, ⁶ Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “I heard your father speak to your brother Esau, ⁷ ‘Bring me game and prepare for me delicious food, that I may eat it and bless you before the Lord before I die.’ ⁸ Now therefore, my son, obey my voice as I command you. ⁹ Go to the flock and bring me two good young goats, so that I may prepare from them delicious food for your father, such as he loves. ¹⁰ And you shall bring it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.” ¹¹ But Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. ¹² Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing.” ¹³ His mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, bring them to me.” ¹⁴ So he went and took them and brought them to his mother, and his mother prepared delicious food, such as his father loved. ¹⁵ Then Rebekah took the best garments of Esau her older son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son. ¹⁶ And the skins of the young goats she put on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. ¹⁷ And she put the delicious food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob. ¹⁸ So he went in to his father and said, “My father.” And he said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?” ¹⁹ Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, that your soul may bless me.” ²⁰ But Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?” He answered, “Because the Lord your God granted me success.” ²¹ Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.” ²² So Jacob went near to Isaac his father, who felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” ²³ And he did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands. So he blessed him. ²⁴ He said, “Are you really my son Esau?” He answered, “I am.” ²⁵ Then he said, “Bring it near to me, that I may eat of my son’s game and bless you.” So he brought it near to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank. ²⁶ Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come near and kiss me, my son.” ²⁷ So he came near and kissed him. And Isaac smelled the smell of his garments and blessed him and said, “See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed! ²⁸ May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine. ²⁹ Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you!” ³⁰ As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, Esau his brother came in from his hunting. ³¹ He also prepared delicious food and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, “Let my father arise and eat of his son’s game, that you may bless me.” ³² His father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?” He answered, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.” ³³ Then Isaac trembled very violently and said, “Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate it all before you came, and I have blessed him? Yes, and he shall be blessed.” ³⁴ As soon as Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me, even me also, O my father!” ³⁵ But he said, “Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing.” ³⁶ Esau said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has cheated me these two times. He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing.” Then he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?” ³⁷ Isaac answered and said to Esau, “Behold, I have made him lord over you, and all his brothers I have given to him for servants, and with grain and wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son?” ³⁸ Esau said to his father, “Have you but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father.” And Esau lifted up his voice and wept. ³⁹ Then Isaac his father answered and said to him: “Behold, away from the fatness of the earth shall your dwelling be, and away from the dew of heaven on high. ⁴⁰ By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother; but when you grow restless you shall break his yoke from your neck.” ⁴¹ Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.” ⁴² But the words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah. So she sent and called Jacob her younger son and said to him, “Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by planning to kill you. ⁴³ Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise, flee to Laban my brother in Haran ⁴⁴ and stay with him a while, until your brother’s fury turns away— ⁴⁵ until your brother’s anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send and bring you from there. Why should I be bereft of you both in one day?” ⁴⁶ Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I loathe my life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women like these, one of the women of the land, what good will my life be to me?”

I once heard somebody say, “Nowhere is the power of the gospel more evident than in the fact that it survives its own preaching.” As a preacher this is not my favorite quote…even as I agree with it completely! We might also say this about God’s covenant promises to His people in the Old Testament: “Nowhere is the power of God more evident than in the fact that His covenant survives the people to whom it was entrusted!”

We continue our consideration of a deeply dysfunctional family that was yet the conduit through whom God enacted and fulfilled His covenant promises. Considering the foibles of the heroes of our faith may unnerve us, particularly Jacob’s deceitfulness. R.R. Reno writes:

…a worrisome question worms its way into our minds. How can the future patriarch inherit his role on the basis of an outright lie? Jacob obtains Abraham’s inheritance in a way that seems to compromise the sanctity of the covenant and make a mockery of God’s law.[1]

It does seem that way. Even so, one of the great lessons of the story of God’s people throughout the ages is that God is able to work wonders despite the deeply flawed human instruments He employs. In other words, the grandeur of God must not be lost in our considerations of the weaknesses of God’s people. We are weak but God is great. So as we consider now the foibles of Jacob and Esau, let us let our consideration conclude with a hymn of thanks to our great God! But first, Jacob and Esau.

Jacob: Fear and Duplicity

Let us begin with the younger son, Jacob. We have seen how Jacob allowed his mother, Rebekah, to recruit him into the ignoble task of deceiving Isaac. Rebekah, having heard Isaac’s desire to bless Esau instead of Jacob (and this despite the promise of God that “the older will serve the younger” as well as Esau having already sold his birthright to Jacob), plots schemes. While Esau is away catching and preparing game for the food Isaac so dearly loves, Rebekah prepares her own food and has Jacob dress like his brother. Knowing that Isaac’s eyesight is poor, she assumes, rightly, that the old man can be deceived.

At this point, Jacob should have protested and called on his mother to trust in the Lord. Instead, he fears being caught more than he fears the Lord.

Fear

In so many ways the story of this family, from a human perspective, is the story of the intergenerational transmission of a spirit of fear. Abraham fears that he will be killed by Pharaoh, first, then by Abimelech, so he has Sarah pass herself off as his sister. Isaac, having learned what it is to fear from his father Abraham, has Rebekah pass herself off as his sister in Gerar so he would not be killed. And now Jacob demonstrates a spirit of fear. Three generations of fear: each man fearing for his own life and safety. See Jacob’s fear:

¹¹ But Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. ¹² Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing.”

Again, this is difficult. We speak of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob because we rightly esteem these men as great men of God. And, amazingly, they were! Alongside their weaknesses, each had great strengths and demonstrated great faith as well. But as we consider their weaknesses we must say that a spirit of fear seemed to grip the paternal line of this family in ways that was staggering.

In each instance, the problem was not fear so much as fearing the wrong thing. They feared for their own safety more than they feared God. We must be weary of fear!

In Ian Cron’s novel, Chasing Francis, about a pastor from the United States who discovers the life and example of Francis of Assisi, we read this fascinating exchange:

Do you know Thomas Aquinas?”

“Not well. I read some of the Summa Theologica in seminary, but it’s been a long time.”

“Aquinas spoke about two kinds of souls — the magna animi and the pusilla animi. The magna animi is the open soul that has space for the world to enter and find Jesus. It’s where you get your word magnanimous. The pusilla animi is like that.” He pointed at the dark outline of the Rocca Maggiore far up on the hillside, the fortress where the people of Assisi used to run when they were attacked by a neighboring city.

“The pusilla animi is the defended heart. It’s a guarded and suspicious spirit that’s closed to the world. It sees everything and everyone as a potential threat, an enemy waiting to attack. It shields itself from the world. It’s where you get the word — ”

“Pusillanimous,” I said. “Someone who is fearful.”

“Precisely. Francis possessed the magna animi. That’s what each Christian, and the church, should be like.”[2]

Jacob, in this moment, was gripped by the pusilla animi, the fearful heart. Many are. Fear blinds us. Fear causes us to act foolishly and only in regard to our own safety and well-being. Fear is corrosive.

Duplicity

Jacob also showed a capacity for duplicity, for dishonesty, for deceit. Consider his bold carrying-out of his mother’s scheme.

¹⁸ So he went in to his father and said, “My father.” And he said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?” ¹⁹ Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, that your soul may bless me.” ²⁰ But Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?” He answered, “Because the Lord your God granted me success.” ²¹ Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.” ²² So Jacob went near to Isaac his father, who felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” ²³ And he did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands. So he blessed him. ²⁴ He said, “Are you really my son Esau?” He answered, “I am.”

The lies roll off of Jacob’s tongue:

• “I am Esau your firstborn.”
• “Because the Lord your God granted me success.”
• “I am.” (In answer to, “Are you really my son Esau?”

This is brazen. This is wrong. Shockingly, Jacob even evokes the name of the Lord in his lie! That is a dangerous thing to do. Fear walks hand in hand with duplicity. We lie and deceive to save our own hides because we fear. Here, again, we see that Jacob is trafficking in the family trait. Abraham knew what it was to lie. Isaac learned it from Abraham. Jacob learned it from Isaac.

As if in anticipation of our despairing of the moral characters of the patriarchs, Reno writes:

We should look to see what God is doing with Jacob…rather than sizing him up as a moral exemplar…” He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel” (Num. 23:21 AV). Why not? Because the Lord has something he plans to do with those whom he has chosen: “There shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel (24:17 AV).[3]

That is a timely word, a needed reminder. Even given these sins, God still blesses Jacob, God still sees him as His man.  God works with cracked vessels, but we must not grow comfortable with or refuse to turn the cracks over to God for His healing and forgiveness!

Beware fear, it will lead you to lie and deceive. Beware lying, for such is not of God. But if you have lied, know that God can forgive and God can still bless you. God does not abandon Jacob. He will not abandon you. Come to Him in repentance and faith.

Esau: Impulsivity, Lack of Perspective, and Anger

Esau, impetuous and seething, is a picture of a man who lacks control. Esau, unaware of Jacob’s deception, comes back to his father Isaac to be blessed.

Impulsivity and Lack of Perspective

Esau’s reaction to the revelation of Jacob’s deceit is fascinating in what it reveals about his own character.

³² His father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?” He answered, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.” ³³ Then Isaac trembled very violently and said, “Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate it all before you came, and I have blessed him? Yes, and he shall be blessed.” ³⁴ As soon as Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me, even me also, O my father!” ³⁵ But he said, “Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing.” ³⁶ Esau said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has cheated me these two times. He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing.” Then he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?”

Esau, enraged, accuses Jacob of “taking away” his birthright and blessing. He points out that Jacob has truly lived up to his name. The ESV Study Bible explains:

The name “Jacob”…not only resembles the Hebrew term for “heel” (‘aqeb) but also has the connotation of “deceiver.” To grasp someone by the heel was apparently a figure of speech meaning “to deceive.” The motif of deception appears in a number of episodes associated with Jacob.[4]

See how impulsivity robs us of perspective. Yes, as we have just seen, Jacob did deceive his father for the birthright, but Esau’s argument that his has happened “two times” is simply wrong. No, Esau’s impulsively earlier sold his birthright to Jacob in a fit of appetite! Nobody made him do that. Jacob did not deceive him at that time. Esau knew this. Esau should rightly have said, “Well, after all, I sold him my birthright! He is the first for all intents and purposes.” And if Esau knew the divine prophecy of Genesis 25, that the older would serve the younger, his demand for a blessing shows even less perspective.

³⁷ Isaac answered and said to Esau, “Behold, I have made him lord over you, and all his brothers I have given to him for servants, and with grain and wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son?” ³⁸ Esau said to his father, “Have you but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father.” And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.

It is as if Esau sought to piggyback off of Isaac’s attempt to control the future despite Isaac’s awareness that Esau must serve Jacob and when this attempt failed he cried out in desperation for his own blessing. This too is a picture of impulsivity, this emotional, desperate thrashing about for a blessing for himself. But the blessing could only be given once, as John Walton explains:

            The blessing…served as a proclamation of the destiny of the sons. It was not accorded the same status as a prophesy from God (note Isaac’s use of the first person, “I have made him…” in 27:37), but it still was an exercise of authority believed to be binding through the very speaking of the words. This is why Isaac could not “take it back” even though it became clear that he had been tricked.[5]

Isaac, filled with grief, acquiesces, but the “blessing” he gives is a reflection that something has gone terribly wrong according to his own plans.

³⁹ Then Isaac his father answered and said to him: “Behold, away from the fatness of the earth shall your dwelling be, and away from the dew of heaven on high. ⁴⁰ By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother; but when you grow restless you shall break his yoke from your neck.”

Isaac foretold a future of violence and strife for his son, Esau. Despite all of their scheming, the older would still serve the younger.

Anger

The result, for Esau, was anger and the threat of violence.

⁴¹ Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”

Do you see! We are back now to the first two brothers of human history, Cain and Abel. Esau “hated Jacob” and determined to murder Jacob. All sin has the ring of the first sins of the human race. All sin situates us east of Eden. And anger especially so.

A few years ago a tell-all book was written about a movie star who is infamous for his explosive temper. The former friend of the star who wrote it describes the angry movie star trying to understand his own anger. He writes:

HE SAYS TO ME, “I’ve tried therapy and it doesn’t work.”

He says to Naomi, “I have so much rage and no one can tell me where it comes from.”[6]

Where indeed? It comes from hell itself, from the whispers of the tempter who is always trying to push us further and further from Eden. It comes from the fallen heart of lost humanity. Anger poisons us. Anger must be combatted.

Thomas Merton writes of “Abbot Ammonas, who spent fourteen years praying to overcome anger, or rather, more significantly, to be delivered from it.”[7] This is a worthy goal, for anger, if not combatted and rejected, will lead us to kill. Jesus, in Matthew 5, said:

²¹ “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ ²² But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.

Ah, church! Beware anger! Anger corrodes. Anger causes us to lose perspective. Anger combined with blindness to reality is a dangerous combination indeed. Anger will lead us to ruin as well as those around us.

Yes, cracked vessels. Are not we all? And yes, “For God so loved the world…”

The sinfulness and foolishness of man makes the love of God that much more spectacular, does it not? Is it not humbling to think that God used these people…that God uses you…that God uses me!

See in the sins of our forefathers and foremothers a warning.

But see in the continuation of God’s great covenant promises of hope.

The greatness of God is brighter than the sins of man, which are dark.

Do not shrink from His forgiving, purging love.

He has a plan for you.

Call on the name of Jesus and live.

 

[1] R.R. Reno, Genesis. Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible. (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2010), p.227.

[2] Ian Morgan Cron. Chasing Francis: A Pilgrim’s Tale (pp. 71-72). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

[3] R.R. Reno, p.228.

[4] Crossway Bibles. ESV Study Bible (Kindle Locations 17269-17271). Good News Publishers/Crossway Books. Kindle Edition.

[5] John H. Walton, “Genesis.” Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary. Old Testament, vol.1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009), p.106.

[6] Eszterhas, Joe. Heaven and Mel (Kindle Single) (Kindle Locations 1517-1520). Kindle Edition.

[7] Thomas Merton, The Way of the Desert (New York, NY:  New Directions), p.19.