The Stolen Blessing

Genesis 27

We have been studying the book of Genesis for about a year now, and yes we are more than half way through. Remember that Genesis is a book of beginnings. Genesis is the beginning of the Bible, the beginning of the universe, the beginning of life, and the beginning of history. We have learned how God created the heavens and the earth and all things. We saw how God made mankind in His image to rule over the earth. We read about Adam and Eve, and how sin and death entered the world. We discovered God’s grace in His promise of a savior, the seed of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent. We saw God drowned the earth in a flood, because of wickedness and how by grace God saved one family and repopulated the world through Noah. But mankind was still plagued by sin. Then God chose and called one man, Abraham, and through him God’s plan to save and to bless the world was set into motion.

Beginning with Abraham, a unique birthright was given by God. Birthrights, inheritances, and legacies already existed in the time of Abraham, but Abraham’s legacy was distinct. While other inheritances were temporal and worldly, Abraham’s blessing was not only physical but spiritual. The blessing that Abraham passed down included God’s covenant blessings. As we saw in Genesis 26, the covenant passed down to the one whom God had chosen, Isaac, who now had the responsibility to hand it down to the next generation.

Remember from Genesis 25 that Isaac had two sons, and although they were twins, they were as different as they could be. The older was Esau, his father’s favorite. The younger was Jacob, his mother Rebekah’s favorite. Before they were born God had indicated that these boys would be separated and that the older would serve the younger (Gen. 25:23). Then we saw how Jacob had snatched the birthright from Esau, purchasing it from his worldly-minded brother for a bowl of stew.

What we have in Genesis 27 is a wretched story of a dysfunctional and divided family. The family through whom all the world will be blessed is a mess—full of secrecy, deception, mistrust, and selfishness. Kent Hughes writes, “Everyone in the family sought the blessings of God without bending the knee to God. This little family was fraught with ambition, jealousy, envy, lying, deceit, coveting, malice, manipulation, stubbornness, and stupidity” (Genesis: Beginning and Blessing, Crossway, p.354).

Isaac tries to thwart the purpose of God to fulfill His covenant through Jacob. Rebekah and Jacob are going to sully God’s word with their scheming and lying. Esau tries to take back what he had already sold to his brother Jacob. Yet in spite of the sinful maneuvering of men, God will accomplish His sovereign purpose. Ligon Duncan comments, “Everybody, every single major player in this story comes out looking bad—Isaac, Rebekah, Esau and Jacob. Their sins are found out, as God reveals this whole incident in His word. But He uses even this to magnify His sovereignty and His grace.”

Genesis 27 is a drama with four characters. First (Gen. 27:1-4), Isaac comes on the stage with his selfish desire, based on his appetite, to give the blessing to Esau, who goes off to comply with Isaac’s secret plan. In scene two (Gen. 27:5-17), Rebekah hatches her own plot to deceive Isaac and get the blessing for Jacob. In the third scene (Gen. 27:18-29), Jacob successfully deceived his father and gets the blessing. In the fourth scene (Gen. 27:30-40), Isaac and Esau discover they have been deceived and Esau is left with the lesser blessing. Finally (Gen. 27:41-46), we see the consequences: Esau plans to kill Jacob, while Rebekah plots how to divert that crisis. (Steven Cole).

1. Isaac acts on his preferences (Gen. 27:1-4)

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

This episode in Isaac’s family is disappointing and a little surprising considering the hype about the birth of Isaac and the promises God made to him. Isaac was the chosen one, the son of promise. God had said to Abraham, “in Isaac your seed shall be called” (Gen. 21:12). As we saw in Genesis 26, the LORD was with Isaac.

Yet what we see here is a premeditated plot on Isaac’s part to overthrow the revealed purpose of God. Bob Deffinbaugh points out several undercurrents that are introduced in these first four verses that run through the whole chapter. One is urgency. Isaac is old, blind and is in a hurry to bless Esau before it’s too late. Everything has to be done in haste “before I die”. The truth is, Isaac is far from death’s door. He will live another 43 years.

Another undercurrent is secrecy. Normally the blessing would have been given before the entire family because it was, in reality, an oral will. Distribution of family wealth and headship would best be carried out in the presence of all who were concerned. Later in Genesis Jacob will give his blessings in the presence of all his sons (Genesis 49). But here, neither Jacob nor Rebekah were present, and this was hardly an oversight. Isaac planned a “clandestine feast to convey his blessings upon Esau to the exclusion of Jacob altogether. This is why Isaac had no blessing left to convey upon Esau (Gen. 27:37-38)” (Deffinbaugh).

A third undercurrent in this story is mistrust (Cole). Isaac didn’t trust Rebekah or Jacob or he wouldn’t have excluded them in the plan to give his blessing. It was a family riddled with mistrust because it operated on the basis of deception and secrecy instead of honesty and openness.

Isaac surely was aware of the prophecy about Jacob becoming greater than his older brother. Yet Isaac sought to overrule the verdict of God that the elder serve the younger. Nor is it likely that Isaac was ignorant Esau callously selling his birthright to Jacob. Yet Isaac secretly intends to give it back to Esau.

Besides this, Esau had already demonstrated his lack of spiritual headship by marrying two Hittite wives:

34 When Esau was forty years old, he took as wives Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite. 35 And they were a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebekah. (Gen. 26:34-35).

Abraham had been emphatic that his son Isaac should not take a wife from the Canaanites (Gen. 24:3-9). He knew that those pagan women would pollute God’s plan to bless all nations through his descendants. Isaac knew the importance of the heir having a godly wife. In Genesis 28:1 he will charge to Jacob not to take a wife from the Canaanites. Yet he set aside that requirement when he made up his mind to give the blessing to Esau.

Isaac is acting on his preferences. He liked Esau and his game over Jacob. Like Esau with the red stew in Genesis 25, Isaac also seems to be driven by his appetite. No matter that Esau was a godless man, that he had despised his birthright, that he had married Canaanite wives. Isaac liked him, so he planned to give everything to Esau.

2. Rebekah maneuvers by plotting (Gen. 27:5-17)

⁵ Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt game and to bring it. ⁶ So Rebekah spoke to Jacob her son, saying, “Indeed I heard your father speak to Esau your brother, saying, ⁷ ‘Bring me game and make savory food for me, that I may eat it and bless you in the presence of the LORD before my death.’ ⁸ Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to what I command you. ⁹ Go now to the flock and bring me from there two choice kids of the goats, and I will make savory food from them for your father, such as he loves. ¹⁰ Then you shall take it to your father, that he may eat it, and that he may bless you before his death.” ¹¹ And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Look, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth-skinned man.¹² Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be a deceiver to him; and I shall bring a curse on myself and not a blessing.” ¹³ But his mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, get them for me.” ¹⁴ And he went and got them and brought them to his mother, and his mother made savory food, such as his father loved. ¹⁵ Then Rebekah took the choice clothes of her elder son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son. ¹⁶ And she put the skins of the kids of the goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck.¹⁷ Then she gave the savory food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.

Rebekah did not just happen to overhear the whisperings of Isaac and Esau as they plotted the diversion of divine promises to the elder son. The text tells us that she “was listening.” The Hebrew form of that verb suggests that this was a habit, a pattern of behavior, not a happenstance.

Esau had hardly left the tent before Rebekah had the wheels in motion to overthrow this Isaac’s conspiracy with a bigger one of her own. Rebekah wanted God’s choice (Jacob), but for selfish reasons. He was her favorite. Rebekah was right to want the blessing to fall upon Jacob, but her method in bringing it about was all wrong. Rebekah was deceptive, dishonoring and manipulative towards her husband. She should have honored him, despite his faults and failures, and trusted that the Lord would sort it out in the end.

It was a bold, detailed plan that she concocted. Everything was designed to deceive. And again, everything was done in a hurry. No one questions whether this is the right thing, the moral thing to do. Jacob only objects that he might get caught in the lie and end up being cursed instead of blessed. Situational ethics always seem to boil down to the premise that emergencies overrule ethics. It poses a false dilemma, then tells you that you have no choice except to violate God’s moral absolutes. How desperately wicked such thinking is. There is always a way not to sin.

Rebekah maneuvers to get her way. She schemes and carries out the devious plot down to the last detail. Although she will succeed in getting Jacob the blessing that God intended for him, God was not honored in her attitude and actions. Deffinbaugh comments, “If God is God, then let Him act on His own behalf, particularly in those times when we are unable to act in a way that is consistent with His Word.”

3. Jacob attains through pretense (Gen. 27:18-29)

¹⁸ So he went 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 just as you told me; please arise, sit 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?” And he said, “Because the LORD your God brought it to me.” ²¹ Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not.” ²² So 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.” ²³ And he did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands; so he blessed him. ²⁴ Then he said, “Are you really my son Esau?” He said, “I am.” ²⁵ He said, “Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son’s game, so that my soul may 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 now and kiss me, my son.” ²⁷ And he came near and kissed him; and he smelled the smell of his clothing, and blessed him and said: “Surely, the smell of my son Is like the smell of a field Which the LORD has blessed. ²⁸ Therefore may God give you Of the dew of heaven, Of the fatness of the earth, And plenty of grain and wine. ²⁹ Let peoples serve you, And nations bow down to you. Be master over your brethren, And let your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, And blessed be those who bless you!”

Clearly, in this chapter Jacob is not a spiritually-minded man. He does not fear God or His moral law. He wanted the wealth and advantage which went along with the blessing and he would stoop to deceptive extremes to take what he wanted. When his blind old father asks, “Who are you, my son?” Jacob flatly lies, “I am Esau your firstborn; I have done just as you told me” (Gen. 27:18-19). When Isaac questions how he could have returned so quickly, Jacob crassly gives God the credit, “Because the LORD your God brought it to me” (Gen. 27:20). This is the epitome of taking the LORD’s name in vain. Don’t you expect a bolt of lightning to come from heaven with a zap and remove this deceiver at once?

Before we come down too quickly on Jacob, how many of us have done same thing? Jacob excused his sin by invoking the name of God. Have you ever heard yourself or others say, “The Lord led me to …” or “The Lord has blessed us by …” when you might just be doing what you want, rather than what God has directed in His word? Be careful with such statements. Sometimes people conceal their sin with pious words.

The blessing that Isaac gives to Jacob, which he had intended for Esau included the covenant blessings of God:

Therefore may God give you Of the dew of heaven, Of the fatness of the earth, And plenty of grain and wine. ²⁹ Let peoples serve you, And nations bow down to you. Be master over your brethren, And let your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, And blessed be those who bless you! (Gen. 27:28-29).

The blessing ends up on the son of God’s choosing, but the narrator by no means justifies Rebekah and Jacob’s actions. God can turn evil into good, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t consequences for evil. Both Rebekah and Jacob will pay a price.

4. Esau driven by his passions (Ge. 27:30-46)

³⁰ Now it happened, as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting. ³¹ He also had made savory food, and brought it to his father, and said to his father, “Let my father arise and eat of his son’s game, that your soul may bless me.” ³² And his father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?” So he said, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.” ³³ Then Isaac trembled exceedingly, and said, “Who? Where is the one who hunted game and brought it to me? I ate all of it before you came, and I have blessed him–and indeed he shall be blessed.” ³⁴ When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, “Bless me–me also, O my father!” ³⁵ But he said, “Your brother came with deceit and has taken away your blessing.” ³⁶ And Esau said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright, and now look, he has taken away my blessing!” And he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?” ³⁷ Then Isaac answered and said to Esau, “Indeed I have made him your master, and all his brethren I have given to him as servants; with grain and wine I have sustained him. What shall I do now for you, my son?” ³⁸ And Esau said to his father, “Have you only one blessing, my father? Bless me–me also, O my father!” And Esau lifted up his voice and wept. ³⁹ Then Isaac his father answered and said to him: “Behold, your dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth, And of the dew of heaven from above. ⁴⁰ By your sword you shall live, And you shall serve your brother; And it shall come to pass, when you become restless, That you shall break his yoke from your neck.”

⁴¹ 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.” ⁴² And the words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah. So she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said to him, “Surely your brother Esau comforts himself concerning you by intending to kill you. ⁴³ Now therefore, my son, obey my voice: arise, flee to my brother Laban in Haran. ⁴⁴ And stay with him a few days, 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 bereaved also of you both in one day?” ⁴⁶ And Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth; if Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth, like these who are the daughters of the land, what good will my life be to me?”

While we may sympathize with poor Esau, he is not innocent either. Granted, he was the older brother, so the birthright and blessing should have been his. But he had made a legal agreement with his brother to sell his birthright. It was not true, as Esau laments, that Jacob took away his birthright (Gen. 27:36). Esau gave it up, he despised his birthright. His tears (Gen. 27:34, 38) may make us feel sorry for him. But remember, Esau wasn’t truly repentant, ready to turn from his self-seeking ways to follow God’s ways. He was just sorry for himself. Esau wasn’t truly repentant toward God; he was just sorry his scheme hadn’t worked.

Esau ended up getting more of a curse than a blessing. The name of God is never mentioned in his blessing. He became the father of the Edomites, who lived to the east of the Dead Sea and were later subjected by several kings of Israel. They finally succeeded in casting off Israel’s rule, even as Isaac prophesied (Gen. 27:40) when they sided with Nebuchadnezzar in his overthrow of Jerusalem (587 B.C.) and were overjoyed at its destruction (Ps. 137:7; Lam. 4:21, 22; Obadiah 10-16).

Isaac had sought to give all to his favorite son Esau at Jacob’s expense. Instead, he gave all to Jacob at Esau’s expense. Isaac set his heart on that which was contrary to the revealed will of God, and because of this his world came crashing down upon him when God’s purposes prevailed. When he found out “Isaac trembled exceedingly.” Both Isaac and Esau paid the price for going against the revealed will of God.

But so did Rebekah and Jacob. For Rebekah and Jacob the price tag for their success was as costly as that of Isaac and Esau for their defeat. Rebekah loved Jacob more than life itself and, seemingly, more than Isaac. She sought his success by any means, even deception and deceit. The price she paid was separation from her son, which appears to have lasted for the rest of her life.

Jacob paid the inevitable price of sin also. He must have felt an alienation from his father, whom he had deceived. Now his brother hated him and planned to kill him (Gen. 27:41). And worst of all, he had to leave home and the mother he loved. All the material wealth he had gained he had to leave behind to flee for his life.

You have probably noticed several biblical doctrines which are illustrated in this chapter. One is the sovereignty of God. Man cannot override the decrees of God. “A man’s heart plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.” (Pro. 16:9). “There are many plans in a man’s heart, Nevertheless the LORD’s counsel–that will stand.” (Pro. 19:21). So often we think that God’s will can’t be fulfilled unless we help Him out. And in this passage we are reminded that God’s will is fulfilled in spite of man’s will, even in spite of man’s sin. Deffinbaugh, “The sins of Isaac and Esau and Rebekah and Jacob did not in any way thwart God’s will from being done. In fact, their sins were employed by God in such a way as to achieve the will of God. God’s sovereignty is never thwarted by man’s sin.”

We also learn about sin. Sin always produces separation. It separates men from men, and men from God (John 15:18ff; 2 Thess. 1:5-10). Sin has terrible consequences.

Finally, we learn something about God’s grace. Surely these four deceptive, conniving sinners deserved God’s wrath. Apart from the grace and mercy of God none of them would have made it to the next chapter. And neither would you or me. Surely, you saw a mirror of yourself in at least one of these characters. None of us is deserving of the blessing of God, only the curse of God because of our sin.

But here is the good news. God worked through this sinful family to bring about a chosen nation through whom would come the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ. It is only through Him that you may be blessed. Jesus took the curse for us on the cross to reconcile you to the holy God. Paul writes, “But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 5:20-21).

Come to Jesus with your sin. Repent and believe on Him to save you. Confess His name: Jesus Christ is Lord. For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.” (Rom. 10:13).