Genesis 27:part 2 vv. 18ff - The Paraclete's Hammer

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Indeed. Now that Jacob is ready, here comes the next part

¹⁸Then he came to his father and said, “My father.” And he said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?”

¹⁹Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn; I have done as you told me. (L)Get up, please, sit and eat of my game, that (M)you may bless me.”

Again, Jacob here is deceiving. Esau was not deceived in the birthright. The cunning hunter went for the quick and easy route. He wanted the bowl of lentils, rather than the work of venison, which was tasty, and so reaped what he sowed. Am I saying what Jacob did here was right or in any way justifiable. Hardly. Those of you who are ready to assume so, are missing something about the LORD himself. His ways are higher, as one of my colleagues eagerly pointed out. However, He does find ways to use the evil that we do, to bring about His purposes. God and His character not once condones this. In fact, the proof, as they say is in the pudding, and Jacob will spend the rest of His life reaping the consequences of his sin, like David, year after year. His life, though he did receive the blessing of Isaac, was full of heartache, separation from family, and from children, because he played favorites, even into his old age, and even with the children of his favorite wife, Rachel, much in the same way Rebekah played favorites with him. He learned this negative mechanism from his mother, who probably learned it from Laban, who will illustrate this attitude in a fuller light in a few chapters. This attitude cost him, as we will see in the concluding chapters of Genesis.

In other words, those who think God was in on this need to read this request for blessing in the context of, 1) Jacob’s deception of Isaac and 2) Jacob’s life after this point. God was not in on Jacob receiving a blessing by deception. God said Jacob would receive the blessing and to an extent the inheritance, but when God chooses to do something, He always does it above board and without trickery of any sort. This is the part where Jacob is about to sow some mixed seed. Had Rebekah waited, she could have had a blessed son and seen him grow into old age. Instead, she short-circuited that God-ordered design and resulted to trickery in order to supplant Esau. There is such a thing as legitimate supplantation. But instead of waiting, she rushed in with an imperfect plan. Yet, somehow, God still ended up being glorified in this plan, and His ends were still met, and He still knew what was in Esau and Jacob’s innermost hearts, which is why he wrote in Malachi “Jacob I loved, and Esau I hated.”

²⁰Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have it so quickly, my son?” And he said, “(N)Because the LORD your God caused it to happen to me.”

Lie number 2

²¹Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come close, that (O)I may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not.”

²²So Jacob came close to Isaac his father, and he felt him and said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”

Lie number 3.

²³He did not recognize him, because his hands were (P)hairy like his brother Esau’s hands; so he blessed him.

²⁴And he said, “Are you really my son Esau?” And he said, “I am.”

Lie number 4.

²⁵So he said, “Bring it to me, and I will eat of my son’s game, that (Q)I may bless you.” And he brought it to him, and he ate; he also brought him wine and he drank.

²⁶Then his father Isaac said to him, “Please come close and kiss me, my son.”

I would argue that, from the text here at this point, Isaac still had his doubts about whether or not this really was his firstborn son. “Please come close,…my son” (repeat of verse 21).

²⁷So he came close and kissed him; and when he smelled the smell of his garments, he (R)blessed him and said,
 “See, (S)the smell of my son
 Is like the smell of a field (T)which the LORD has blessed;
 ²⁸Now may (U)God give you of the dew of heaven,
 And of the (V)fatness of the earth,
 And an abundance of grain and new wine;
 ²⁹(W)May peoples serve you,
 And nations bow down to you;
 (X)Be master of your brothers,
 (Y)And may your mother’s sons bow down to you
 (Z)Cursed be those who curse you,
 And blessed be those who bless you.”

The last two lines of the prophetic blessing,

“Cursed be those who curse you,

And blessed be those who bless you.”,

are a carbon-copy verbatim retelling of the Abrahamic covenant given to God. In this blessing we see the prophecy beginning to come to pass, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.”

Though the name of the people chosen by God was to be Israel, it was, according to Genesis 21:12, that we see that Isaac was the life-giver and guardian of this promise given by God to Abraham, and only whom Isaac said would carry the blessing, would be the one whom carried the blessing. the problem with Jacob is that he did not gain it by honest means, and so reaped a whirlwind. Isaac’s words carried a lot of weight and influence because he was the one given by God to continue the covenant made to Abraham. Nothing could stop that.

Thoughts?

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