Or, Four Deceiving Angles on Divine Blessing
Scripture: Genesis 27:1-29
Date: September 25, 2016
Speaker: Sean Higgins
What happens when four people in the same family take sides and try to deceive each other? You get exactly what God planned for each one. It’s also true that a house divided against itself can’t stand.
The deceit in Genesis 27 is almost at presidential levels. Do they really think this will work? Isn’t someone going to notice a problem? Yet this is a true story with consequences that reach millennia into the future.
Up for grabs is blessing, the father’s blessing, and, in this case, the LORD’s blessing on Abraham’s offspring. Isaac was the son of promise, the chosen heir. The son of Abraham through Hagar as well as Abraham’s sons through Keturah got gifts and then they got the boot; they got none of the inheritance, Isaac was the only one. Genesis 26 revealed that the LORD personally reaffirmed the promises to Isaac and demonstrated the sort of protection and fruitfulness that comes with His blessing. Divine blessing is desirable.
But Isaac and Rebekah have twin sons. Esau was a little older by minutes, but he and Jacob shared a womb. Both boys should receive a portion, with the bigger portion going to the firstborn.
We also know that Esau sold his firstborn birthright to Jacob for some stew. It was impulsive and foolish on Esau’s part, and opportunistic and cunning on Jacob’s part. But it was still done. Stupid doesn’t make something unlawful. Their deal was not nullified or modified.
The brothers were different, the parents each had a favorite, the birthright transfer was nagging, and the LORD already revealed the eventual priority of one over the other (25:23). All this leads to Genesis 27.
The section is bookended with details about Esau’s wives. He took two Hittite wives in Genesis 26:34-35 and he takes another wife in Genesis 28:6-9. He seems unaware, or he simply doesn’t care, that Judith and Basemath “made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah.” This bitterness makes Isaac’s intentions to bless Esau anyway at the beginning of the chapter less understandable, and it makes Rebekah’s argument to send Jacob away at the end of the chapter more plausible. Esau’s selfishness sets the scene and his misdirected efforts close it, but he is not the only selfish one in the family.
As men are in the habit of doing, Isaac wanted a couple things before he would be gathered to his people.
Moses said, When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, and Isaac said about himself, ”Behold, I am old; I do not know the day of my death.” He was around 137 years old. The death bell tolls for everyone, but the ringing in his ears was a little louder. He wanted a couple things ”before I die.” We also know that he didn’t die for around 43 more years.
What he wanted was a final meal and to give a father’s blessing. That could be okay, but his intentions were not pure.
He called Esau his older son, his favored son, not the son who held the legal birthright. But even if Isaac thought that “older” was sufficient, he should have called for Esau and Jacob anyway. The blessing was usually a more public ceremony, or at least a family ceremony. When a will is read, all the potential beneficiaries should be present. Jacob wasn’t called at all though he deserved something as a rightful heir. He actually deserved the blessing of the firstborn due to his deal with Esau. And he deserved priority according to the LORD’s word to Rebekah. Isaac intends to ignore all of that.
He really wanted his ”delicious food, such as I love”. That phrase is used in verse 4, and in verses 7, 9, 14, 17, and 31. Isaac apparently wants this game more than harmony in his house. He overlooks his annoying daughter-in-laws as long as his son will bring him this “savory meat” (KJV). Isaac’s belly drives him. He intends to exclude Jacob. He didn’t think that he’d have another four decades to live and to give account for that.
Esau agrees. He doesn’t argue; “But, dad….” He’s complicit in the deceit. He sold his birthright.
Esau went to the field to hunt for game and the secret plan is put in motion. Except it wasn’t so secret. Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau, note that it was ”his” son, not their son. Moses already told us that father and mother each had their favorites (25:28).
She waited until Esau had closed the gate behind him—so to speak—and went to her son Jacob to tell him not just what she heard, but what he should do.
Rebekah mostly quotes her husband and then:
“Now therefore, my son, obey my voice as I command you. 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. And you shall bring it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.” (Genesis 27:8–10)
Rebekah doesn’t say everything; she assumes Jacob understands her intentions. He is going to have to impersonate Esau. She doesn’t say, “you’re going to have to lie to your father,” but that’s what she means. One wonders if she was irritated that her husband “loved” Esau’s “delicious food.”
Rebekah had not the slightest doubt that she could reproduce Esau’s gastronomic masterpiece—had she often smarted under this?—in a fraction of Esau’s time. (Kidner)
Did Isaac never compliment her dinners?
Jacob is unsure, not if it’s right or not, but if it will work or not. He’s okay with lying, he just wonders if he can do it convincingly enough. He’s especially concerned about the fact that ”my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. Perhaps my father will feel me.” He’s not concerned about sight or sound or taste, just touch. And he’s fearful that if he’s caught, he’ll bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing.
Rebekah has an answer for both problems. She sooths her son by saying, ”Let your curse be on me, my son.” That sounds nice, but neither blessings or cursing are transferable, otherwise Isaac could have transferred his blessing back to Esau when he found out he’d been tricked. Rebekah would be responsible for her own part in the conspiracy, but she couldn’t actually be the substitute curse target.
As for the hairy situation, the goat skins could be a substitute. Jacob got the goats, Rebekah got some of Esau’s best garments, and got to work in the kitchen. She prepared the food and the skins of the young goats she put on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. She dresses him up in a costume and sends him with supper to lie for his blessing.
Isaac conspired with Esau to deceive Jacob out of any blessing. Rebekah conspired with Jacob to deceive Isaac out of Esau’s blessing. Now it’s Jacob’s turn to live up to his name.
The interaction is awkward, the scene is tense. Will Isaac buy it? Will Esau, or someone else, interrupt and ruin the plan? If Isaac had not intended to keep Jacob excluded, this would not have even been possible.
Jacob said, ”My father.” Isaac said, ”Here am I. Who are you, my son?” That’s not a good start. Jacob’s response is too much. ”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.” The description of himself is like he’s trying to convince himself. The direction to his father is overly eager as well. He’s in a hurry to get this over with.
But Isaac wonders, ”How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?” In other words, “That’s amazing, son. Didn’t we just finish talking?”
Jacob replies that it’s not surprising, it’s supernatural. ”Because the LORD your God granted me success.” There isn’t any way to shine positive light on this. Jacob is blaspheming God, saying that God did something that He didn’t do. And Jacob said it to get the blessing of God. Jacob uses the God who never lies to cover for his lies.
Isaac is still not convinced. ”Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.” ”The voice is Jacob’s voice,” but the goat skins did the trick, ”the hands are the hands of Esau.”
But he’s still not totally convinced, like pulling down hard on the rope swing to check if it will hold your weight before jumping over the edge. He asks Jacob point blank, ”Are you really my son Esau?” And when Jacob answered yes, Isaac asked him to come closer. Jacob brought him the food and wine and Isaac ate, then had one more test, the Sniff Test.
Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come near and kiss me, my son.” 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!
May God give you of the dew of heaven
and of the fatness of the earth
and plenty of grain and wine.
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!”
(Genesis 27:26–29)
Isaac finally believed that it was Esau. The taste of the food, the feel of the hands, the smell of the clothes convinced him; three out of four senses—since his sight didn’t work—satisfied him. He believed it was Esau, and he believed that God would bless Esau.
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 (Calvin)
This is not standard Abrahamic covenant promises, not like in Genesis 28:4. It must be because Isaac knew that Esau didn’t really care about all of it. This blessing is still good, just this-worldly.
Dew of heaven was water necessary for crops when it wasn’t raining. Fatness of the earth meant the best, plenty of grain and wine meant a lot. Physical prosperity is given by God, or not. “The last part of Isaac’s blessing over Jacob shifts from agricultural fertility (v.28) to political supremacy (v.29)” (Hamilton).
“Esau” would have power. Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. His authority would be international, and also domestic. Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother’s sons bow down to you. He only had one other brother that we know about, but this may be extended to cover generations.
The final part of the blessing is the gravity clause. If a man fights gravity, he will lose. If he remembers and honors gravity, he will do better. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you! “Esau” is to be the centerpiece, the one around whom other’s actions should rotate.
Isaac saw divine blessing as something that he could give to whomever he wanted. He saw it as a way to get another good meal. He also really believed that it mattered and that God would do it. His intentions were mixed.
Esau saw divine blessing as something profitable. All he had to do was hunt and cook, he didn’t have to depend on God or live in according to the family way. He didn’t want God’s blessing no matter what he had to do, he wanted God to bless what he wanted to do. If God could make that happen, great, he’d take it. His intentions were mixed.
Rebekah and Jacob saw divine blessing as desirable, transferable, and worth lying for. They believed that God would listen to Isaac as he pronounced the blessing, otherwise they wouldn’t have gone to such extremes. But did they not think God would be listening while Jacob was lying to Isaac? Their intentions were mixed.
Not one of these four characters should be imitated without qualification, though God is working out His intentions through all of them. We’ll see what happens next in Genesis 27:30-28:9.