CHAPTER 27

(1760 B.C.)

THE STOLEN BLESSING

¹And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see (as the physical dimness, there was spiritual dimness as well), he called Esau his oldest son (older than Jacob by just a few minutes; in fact, they were twins, but totally dissimilar in both appearance and character), and said unto him, My son: and he said unto him, Behold, here am I.

²And he said, Behold now, I am old, I know not the day of my death (in fact, it would be many years before Isaac would die):

³Now therefore take, I pray you, your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison (Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage; his father was prepared to sell it for a dish of venison! Williams says: Humbling picture of a man of God under the power of his lower sensual nature!);

⁴And make me savoury meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat; that my soul may bless you before I die. (This was to be the blessing of the birthright; Isaac had been told by God at the time of Jacobs birth that Jacob was to possess the birthright. But yet he ignores this Word from the Lord, and proceeds in his determination to give the birthright to Esau, despite the fact that Esau knew the Lord not at all!)

⁵And Rebekah heard when Isaac spoke to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it. (Rebekah, overhearing the intentions of Isaac, proceeds now to manage the affairs herself; therefore, she steps outside the path of Faith.)

⁶And Rebekah spoke unto Jacob her son, saying, Behold, I heard your father speak unto Esau your brother, saying (the history of Jacob is a treasure house of spiritual instruction for the people of God; Jacob as no other man symbolizes the Sanctification process; Jacob symbolizes it so well, because he is a sad illustration of the destructive power of fallen human nature),

⁷Bring me venison, and make me savoury meat, that I may eat, and bless you before the LORD before my death.

⁸Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command you (Rebekah schemes in order to get Jacob the birthright, exactly as Sarah schemed to give Abraham a son; both were on the path of self-will).

⁹Go now to the flock, and fetch me from thence two good kids of the goats; and I will make them savoury meat for your father, such as he loves (Jacobs history, as we shall see, teaches the lesson which the natural will is so unwilling to learn, that planning for self instead of resting in the Hand of God brings sorrow):

¹⁰And you shall bring it to your father, that he may eat, and that he may bless you before his death (to obtain the birthright by subterfuge).

¹¹And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man (now the deception begins in earnest):

¹²My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing. (As shown here, Jacob was the most unlovely member of the family; yet Grace chose him to be the head of all the nations of the Earth.)

¹³And his mother said unto him, Upon me be your curse, my son: only obey my voice, and go fetch me them. (Abraham and Sarah attempted to deceive Pharaoh; Isaac and Rebekah attempted to deceive Abimelech; Jacob and Rebekah attempted to deceive Isaac. Such is the path of self-will.)

¹⁴And he went, and fetched, and brought them (two kids of the goats) to his mother: and his mother made savoury meat, such as his father loved.

¹⁵And Rebekah took goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them upon Jacob her younger son:

¹⁶And she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck:

¹⁷And she gave the savoury meat and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob (all of this which we observe is a perfect description of resorting to the flesh; such never pleases God [Rom. 8:8]).

¹⁸And he came unto his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I; who are you, my son?

¹⁹And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau your firstborn; I have done according as you bade me: arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison, that your soul may bless me (Jacob lies to his father, which God can never condone).

²⁰And Isaac said unto his son, How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son? And he said, Because the LORD your God brought it to me (a Believers sin is worse than the sin of an unbeliever, simply because it makes the Lord, in essence, a part of the sin; thus, blasphemy is added to disobedience).

²¹And Isaac said unto Jacob, Come near, I pray you, that I may feel you, my son, whether you be my very son Esau or not. (Henry says, It was one of those crooked measures which have too often been adopted to accomplish the Divine Promises; as if the end would justify, or at least excuse, the means.)

²²And Jacob went near unto Isaac his father; and he (Isaac) felt him (Jacob), and said, The voice is Jacobs voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau (the entirety of this transaction speaks of fraud).

²³And he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy, as his brother Esaus hands: so he blessed him. (Isaac was wrong; Rebekah was wrong; and Jacob was wrong.)

²⁴And he said, Are you my very son Esau? And he said, I am.

²⁵And he said, Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my sons venison, that my soul may bless you. And he brought it near to him, and he did eat: and he brought him wine, and he drank.

²⁶And his father Isaac said unto him, Come near now, and kiss me, my son.

²⁷And 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 has blessed:

²⁸Therefore God give you of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the Earth, and plenty of corn and wine: (There are two grand points brought out in Jacobs history Gods purpose of Grace, on the one hand; and on the other, self-will plotting and scheming to reach what that purpose would have infallibly brought about without any plot or scheme at all.)

²⁹Let people serve you, and nations bow down to you: be lord over your brethren, and let your mothers sons bow down to you: cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be he who blesses you. (This part of the Blessing points to Christ, Who would be in the lineage of Jacob. God did not need the aid of such elements as Rebekahs cunning and Jacobs gross deceit in order to accomplish His Purpose. He had said, The elder shall serve the younger. This was enough enough for Faith, but not enough for self-will, which must ever adopt its own ways and, as stated, know nothing of what it is to wait on God.)

DECEPTION DISCOVERED

³⁰And it came to pass, as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob was yet scarce gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting.

³¹And he also had made savoury meat, and brought it unto his father, and said unto his father, Let my father arise, and eat of his sons venison, that your soul may bless me (even though Jacob had tried to obtain the birthright by having Esau sell it to him, it is obvious here that Esau did not recognize what had transpired [25:27-34]).

³²And Isaac his father said unto him, Who are you? And he said, I am your son, your firstborn Esau. (Esau represents those in the Church who would walk the path of self-will. Jacob represents those who know the path of Faith, but would leave that path and suffer greatly. Isaac represents those who are in positions of leadership, and know so little of the Mind of God that they would give the birthright to the Devil instead of to Christ.)

³³And Isaac trembled very exceedingly (he trembled exceedingly at what he had almost done in giving the birthright to Esau, considering that he had been told by God at the time of Jacobs birth that he [Jacob] was to possess the birthright; he trembles exceedingly under a just fear; this fear brings him back into the path of Faith, and directly he returns to that path, he steps from self-will to dignity), and said, Who? where 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 (the will of the flesh made Isaac wish to bless Esau, but Faith in the end conquered [Heb. 11:20], and he cries respecting Jacob: I have blessed him, and he shall be blessed).

ESAUS REMORSE

³⁴And 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 wanted the material part of the blessing, but had no regard whatsoever for the spiritual part; unfortunately, far too many in the modern Church follow the same path of material possessions; Jesus said so [Rev. 3:17]).

³⁵And he (Isaac) said, Your brother came with subtilty, and has taken away your blessing (the birthright normally belonged to the firstborn, which Esau here claims; however, it had been promised to Jacob by the Lord [25:23]; however, this gave Jacob no right whatsoever to practice deceit).

³⁶And he (Esau) said, Is not he rightly named Jacob? for he has supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright; and, behold, now he has taken away my blessing. And he said, Have you not reserved a blessing for me? (First of all, the blessing went with the birthright. As well, only one son could inherit the spiritual prerogatives of the birthright, and the temporal lordship which accompanied it.)

³⁷And Isaac answered and said unto Esau, Behold, I have made him your 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 you, my son? (In other words, there is no more blessing, and rightly so! All Blessing comes in and through Christ and what He did at the Cross, and Esau had no regard for that. Millions want the blessing, but not Christ! Such cannot be.)

³⁸And Esau said unto 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 (however, once again we reiterate, his remorse was not for the true blessing, but only for the material benefits).

³⁹And Isaac his father answered and said unto him, Behold, your dwelling shall be the fatness of the Earth, and of the dew of heaven from above (most Expositors consider that the preposition of should be translated from; thus, it would read, Behold, your dwelling shall be away from the fat places of the Earth, and away from the dew of heaven from above, and by your sword you shall live);

⁴⁰And by your sword shall you live (they have been, and are, a violent people), and you shall serve your brother (the Edomites were the descendants of Esau, and they served Israel for nearly 900 years); and it shall come to pass when you shall have the dominion, that you shall break his yoke from off your neck (in the first days of Joram, and then of Ahaz, Edom revolted, and recovered its freedom, exactly as Isaac had prophesied; so, in reality, there was no blessing for Esau, as there can be no blessing for those who demean Christ and the price that He has paid for mans redemption).

JACOB FLEES FROM ESAU

⁴¹And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him (despite the deception, Esau had no cause to hate Jacob; he knew that the prophecy had given the birthright to Jacob; as well, he knew that his profligate lifestyle did not warrant such; he had no desire to be the Priest of the family, in fact, no desire for the things of God whatsoever; so his hatred was fueled by ungodliness, not by any imagined wrong): and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then will I kill my brother Jacob (the flesh always tries to kill that which is of the Spirit).

⁴²And 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, your brother Esau, as touching you, does comfort himself, purposing to kill you. (Jacob himself was a sad illustration of the destructive power of fallen human nature. But yet, he truly loved the Lord, and truly wanted the things of the Lord. He just tried to obtain them in the wrong way.)

⁴³Now therefore, my son, obey my voice; and arise, flee thou to Laban my brother to Haran (now, the bitter fruits of sin rise to the surface);

⁴⁴And tarry with him a few days, until your brothers fury turn away (that few days would turn into twenty years; in fact, Jacob would never see his mother again);

⁴⁵Until your brothers anger turn away from you, and he forget that which you have done to him: then I will send, and fetch you from thence: why should I be deprived also of you both in one day?

⁴⁶And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth: if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these which are of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me? (There is no doubt that Rebekah was concerned about the daughters of the land, and none of them being a suitable wife for Jacob; however, her real reason at this time for sending Jacob away was not that which she told Isaac, but rather because she feared for his life as it regards the anger of Esau.

From this Chapter, we learn what a profane person actually is, even as the Holy Spirit describes Esau [Heb. 12:16]. It is one who would like to hold both worlds, one who would like to enjoy the present without forfeiting his title to the future. It is the person who attempts to use God, instead of God using him.)