Genesis 27:28-30

I hope you all enjoyed a restful Memorial Day as you gave thanks for all who have served and continue to serve this nation with great sacrifice! Today I am celebrating the 36th birthday of my firstborn, Molly! I remember the day of her birth with such clarity, it seems impossible that all this time has passed!! Happy Birthday, angel child!

Today we are just going to look at the blessing that Isaac gave to Jacob, thinking he was giving it to Esau:

“May God give you heaven’s dew 
   and earth’s richness— 
   an abundance of grain and new wine. 
May nations serve you 
   and peoples bow down to you. 
Be lord over your brothers, 
   and may the sons of your mother bow down to you. 
May those who curse you be cursed 
   and those who bless you be blessed.” (Gen 27:28-29)

Once a blessing was given, it was impossible to take it back. Here, thinking he’s blessing Esau, Isaac prophecies that “Esau” would be lord over his brothers, that they would bow down to him. Yet, he certainly knew that God had already pronounced that Jacob would be over Esau (Gen 25:23). Here we see an interesting thing about the Hebrew culture - words are not spoken lightly! Beth Moore writes the following on this passage:

“Words are powerful. . . We speak words hastily and think we can simply take them back at a moment’s notice without consequences. Sometimes there are simply no ‘take backs.’ Genesis 27 is one of those times.

“Our consolation is the sovereignty of God. Though the players in these. . . scenes proved manipulative, hasty, deceptive, and foolish, a sovereign purpose trumped every play. In a very real sense, Isaac couldn’t take back his blessing because it really wasn’t his to give in the first place.” (The Patriarchs, P. 121)

God did not fulfill this blessing out of obligation to the words spoken by Isaac here, but because He Himself had already spoken them - this was part of his sovereign plan for this family and for the line of the Messiah. There were definite consequences to this family because of the way they had behaved here. We’ll see how Rebekah and Jacob suffered due to their deception. No, God had this all covered, and in His grace and sovereignty, He overcame the folly and sin of this family for their ultimate good and ours (Romans 8:28).

How easily we speak the multitude of words that flow from our mouths! So often we give our words very little thought. In fact, this is my biggest weakness! I have struggled all my life with the ability to say exactly the wrong thing at the wrong time. When we speak reactively, we are bound to say something that has terrible ramifications. I want to be an encourager, and, yet, often my careless words can discourage. It’s why I ask God to control my tongue EVERY day! Anyone else struggle with this? :)

Finally, Jacob makes a quick departure after this blessing, and in fact escapes just in the nick of time:

After Isaac finished blessing him, and Jacob had scarcely left his father’s presence, his brother Esau came in from hunting. (Gen 27:30)

Here’s an amazing picture! Jacob has just barely left the room, dressed in his brother’s clothing, when here comes Esau! They just missed each other! Isn’t this something out of “Days of Our Lives?” Esau is about to explode! Tomorrow we are going to look at the response of Esau, and the ramifications of his own choices. Stay tuned, it just gets better!

 

Genesis 27:14-29

Having entered into a scheme to deceive Isaac, Rebekah and Jacob now carry it out. Jacob gets the goats and Rebekah starts preparing a great meal. She dresses Jacob in Esau’s best clothes and covers his hands and neck in goat fur, so he’ll feel as hairy as his brother, which gives you a better understanding of what Esau must have looked like! :) Finally, she sends Jacob in to see his father.

He went to his father and said, “My father.”

“Yes, my son,” he answered. “Who is it?”

 Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your blessing.”

 Isaac asked his son, “How did you find it so quickly, my son?”

“The LORD your God gave me success,” he replied.

Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come near so I can touch you, my son, to know whether you really are my son Esau or not.”

Jacob went close to his father Isaac, who touched him and said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” He did not recognize him, for his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau; so he proceeded to bless him. “Are you really my son Esau?” he asked.

“I am,” he replied.

Then he said, “My son, bring me some of your game to eat, so that I may give you my blessing.”
Jacob brought it to him and he ate; and he brought some wine and he drank. Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come here, my son, and kiss me.”

So he went to him and kissed him. When Isaac caught the smell of his clothes, he blessed him . . . (Gen 27:18-27)

I’ve included the whole scene here, because it is such a great lesson in discernment. You can see from this exchange that Isaac is suspicious from the start. First, he is surprised by the speedy return from the hunt. Then, the voice doesn’t sound like Esau, so the skeptical Isaac has his son come closer so he can feel him. The hands feel like Esau, but Isaac is still unconvinced. He has his son move closer and asks him outright, “Are you really my son Esau?” It isn’t until Jacob moves close enough to kiss his father that Isaac is finally convinced by the smell of Esau’s clothing.

Isaac had plenty of warning signs that something was amiss - I’m sure his spiritual antennae were twitching! Yet, he ignored the clear warning signs and gave in to what he could understand with his physical sense of smell. Isaac should have slowed down and thought this through. He could have asked some probing questions. I’m sure, since Esau was his favorite, that Isaac had some shared memories with Esau that only he and Esau would know that he could have used as a further test, like, “Retell the story of our first hunt together.” Instead, Isaac plows ahead with the giving of the blessing.

Beth Moore writes, “The moral of the story thus far might be this: pay attention to your suspicions . . . even if everything smells right.”(The Patriarchs, P. 121)

And did you catch how Jacob invoked God’s name in this deception? “The LORD your God gave me success.” Hmm. . . it wasn’t “The LORD my God” but “your God.” I wonder if those words pricked Jacob’s heart. To boldly lie using God’s name is a scary thing to do! Yet, how many schemes are promoted in God’s name? The television is full of those who use God’s name to further their own. How careful we have to be when we attempt to serve God that we are truly doing it in His name and not our own.

The whole ugly truth about this family is included in God’s Word for a reason. Not because God didn’t love these people - He commends them for their faith in the New Testament. But, He wants us to see our sinful nature for what it is. If we don’t understand our need for a Savior, we will miss the point of Jesus’s work on the cross. He came to save ALL of us, including this particular dysfunctional family, from our sins! And they are many!

We’ll look at the blessing specifically next time. Have a restful Memorial Day weekend!

Genesis 27:11-13

Today as we continue with the “soap opera” that is Genesis 27, we return to the plotting between Jacob and Rebekah.

Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “But my brother Esau is a hairy man while I have smooth skin. What if my father touches me? I would appear to be tricking him and would bring down a curse on myself rather than a blessing.”

His mother said to him, “My son, let the curse fall on me. Just do what I say; go and get them for me.” (Gen 27:11-13)

Rebekah’s willingness to take on a curse astounded me when I first read it. Possibly, she just meant, “I’ll take the wrath of your father if I need to, just to be sure that you get that blessing that God promised!” But the really telling phrase here is “Just do what I say!” Oh, my goodness! Here is the heart of the problem - what EVERY woman utters at one time or another - Just do what I say! Isn’t this the picture of the woman who wants to control every outcome in her household? This is such a “motherly” tendency! We are so sure that we know what is best for our husbands and our children, that we don’t think twice about manipulating circumstances in order to get our own way. We even dress that desire up as selfless. “I’ll do whatever it takes to help my family!” It could be something as simple as what everyone will wear to church on Sunday, or what car we’ll buy, or something more consequential, like where the children will go to college and whom they’ll marry.

Beth Moore points out that she also uses the phrase, “...go and get them for me.” Again, the Bible is almost brutal in opening up our sinful hearts! There is nothing to wink at with sin! Our primary problem is that “I” is in the middle of S-I-N! Rebekah knows that God has declared that “the older will serve the younger.” No doubt this has colored the way she viewed these boys from the beginning. And she knows without a doubt that this IS God’s will. However, her mistake here is in not letting God be God. She feels the need to help Him out. And because Jacob is the one she loves, this is as much about her as it is about Jacob’s destiny.

No matter how much we want the best for our children, there is always a little bit about us in there... I don’t think we can fully separate that self-interest on this side of heaven, but we certainly must be aware of it and guard against it, and be prayerful about letting God have HIS way in us. One of the things I pray every morning as I get out of bed is Psalm 19:14:

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.

I so don’t trust my thoughts and I so desperately need to control my tongue, so I try to give them to God every morning. The Bible tells me that my heart is desperately wicked, so I need to give it to God, or I will be following my own self-interest all day long! I’m feeling much more empathetic with Rebekah now. But the ramifications of this deception will be long-lasting. LORD, help us learn these lessons deep within our hearts!!!

Genesis 27:1-12

Who needs soap operas when we have the Bible?? This chapter of Genesis is filled with intrigue and deception and betrayal - and is reminiscent of an episode of “Dallas,” in which Bobby and JR fight over the rights to the Ewing fortune (and if you understand that analogy, you are old)!

When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see, he called for Esau his older son and said to him, “My son.”
“Here I am,” he answered.
Isaac said, “I am now an old man and don’t know the day of my death. Now then, get your equipment—your quiver and bow—and go out to the open country to hunt some wild game for me. Prepare me the kind of tasty food I like and bring it to me to eat, so that I may give you my blessing before I die.” (Gen.27:1-4)

Certainly Isaac is failing in health here, at the age of about 137, but the reality is he lived 43 more years! However, he knows how to manipulate his son into getting him his favorite meal! And Esau? According to Jon Courson’s commentary he was about 77 years old at this point. I think in those days, “seventy was the new twenty!” So Isaac is ready to give his deathbed blessing to his favorite son, Esau. Rebekah, in the meantime, who prefers Jacob over Esau, hears this conversation and comes up with a way to change the outcome.

Now Rebekah was listening as Isaac spoke to his son Esau. When Esau left for the open country to hunt game and bring it back, Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Look, I overheard your father say to your brother Esau, ‘Bring me some game and prepare me some tasty food to eat, so that I may give you my blessing in the presence of the LORD before I die.’ Now, my son, listen carefully and do what I tell you: Go out to the flock and bring me two choice young goats, so I can prepare some tasty food for your father, just the way he likes it. Then take it to your father to eat, so that he may give you his blessing before he dies.” (vs. 5-10)

In fairness to Rebekah, God had told her while she was still pregnant that Jacob would be the son of blessing (Gen. 25:23), so she may have just been trying to help God out here. Courson points out that she knew God’s Word, and may have thought she was doing God’s work. But you’ll notice that she does not pray and seek God’s will or help. She goes full steam ahead with her plot. How many times do we do this? We are anxious to do something “for God,” so we plow right on with our plans, not seeking anything more than God’s name attached to the project - “LORD, please bless this ministry I’m devoting to You,” instead of “LORD, show me what You want me to do, even if it means waiting and just being still.” Could the sovereign LORD of the universe have somehow intervened or turned around the situation? Of course He could have! But in a panic, Rebekah proceeds with her plan. Note that she invoked God’s name when she misquoted Isaac! Isaac had not said, “in the presence of the LORD...” - Rebekah added that. Let’s look at how Jacob reacts:

Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “But my brother Esau is a hairy man while I have smooth skin. What if my father touches me? I would appear to be tricking him and would bring down a curse on myself rather than a blessing.” (vs. 11-12)

At first glance it may seem that Jacob is attempting to stop his mother here. But Jon Courson points out that Jacob is really more concerned with his reputation rather than his actual character here. He doesn’t want his father to believe he’s deceptive, even though he clearly is deceptive, because he quickly goes along with her without any further objections. He’s not worried about what God will know about him - he’s worried about what man will think about him! Ouch! LORD, show us where we have that same mindset!

And I’m just going to be cogitating on that one for the rest of the day!

 

Genesis 26:23-35

Yesterday we saw how Isaac increasingly showed the faith of his father as he continued to move from well to well, until finally he found a spot where he could settle in peace.

From there he went up to Beersheba. That night the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bless you and will increase the number of your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham.”


Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the LORD. There he pitched his tent, and there his servants dug a well. (Gen 26:23-25)

Of all of the things that Abraham handed down to Isaac, it was his relationship with his God that was the most important. Even though Abraham was not the perfect example, he relied on the Perfect God! So, Abraham’s God confirms the promise to Isaac that He made with Abraham. God would be with Isaac, and He would bless him! And this not only happened, but God made sure that others noticed it! Abimelech and his top advisor and his military commander paid Isaac a visit. When Isaac asked them why they had come, they answered:

“We saw clearly that the LORD was with you; so we said, ‘There ought to be a sworn agreement between us’—between us and you. Let us make a treaty with you that you will do us no harm, just as we did not harm you but always treated you well and sent you away peacefully. And now you are blessed by the LORD.” (vs. 28-29)

Even though Isaac had not been a good witness to these men earlier, God vindicated Isaac before them to show His power and His goodness. In spite of Isaac’s weakness, they could see that the LORD was with him! I love how God can overcome our times of blowing it!! He does this for HIS name’s sake, so that HE will be glorified. In our weakness, He is made strong! (2 Cor 12:5-10) So, after celebrating their pledge of peace, the men went on their way, and immediately God gave Isaac another blessing - his men found another well, which he named Beersheba, which means well of the oath.

The last two verses of this chapter could be easy to overlook, but they tell a sad story:

When Esau was forty years old, he married Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and also Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite. They were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah. (vs. 34-35)

It should not surprise us that Esau impulsively took TWO pagan wives from the Hittiites. A man used to instant gratification would give little thought to such an important decision! What a heartache this was for Isaac and Rebekah, who had entered into their own marriage with the guidance of God and a commitment to His choice in their lives. They had experienced the best God had for them in marriage, so it would have broken their hearts to see Esau so casually throw aside any thought to God’s perfect plan. I would imagine that everything about these women (their laughter, their cooking, their language, their clothing, their housekeeping) drove Rebekah crazy. But worse would have been the worship of idols that they would have brought with them!

We aren’t told what Rebekah and Isaac had done, if anything, prior to Esau’s 40th birthday to lead him in the right direction. I’m guessing they tried to do all of the right things, including pray. But sometimes, in spite of our best efforts, our children will choose to rebel. So, what do you do if your child marries outside the faith? You bathe that relationship in prayer and do your best to show God’s love to the unbelieving spouse, so that you might somehow show them the truth! Tomorrow we come to a pivotal chapter in the life of this family, where we’ll see some strange family dynamics!

Have a wonderful day!

 

Genesis 26:10-22

Then Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the men might well have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.” (Gen 26:10)

After rereading this morning about Isaac repeating the exact deception that Abraham had used, I wondered if Isaac had a big “Aha!” moment when Abimelech chastised him for nearly bringing ruin on his people, just as Abraham had done with Abimelech’s father. I wonder if Isaac thought to himself, “Oh no! I’ve become my father!”

Have you ever thought that? One of the things that I want to talk about this morning is that while we certainly need to guard against repeating the sins of our parents, we also need to learn to reject the specific sins, without rejecting the person. We can become so angry with some of the failures of our parents, that we become blind to the good traits that we would want to inherit, and inevitably we will fall back on those very traits we despise! There are surely many good traits we can find in our parents that we want to emulate. And in today’s passage, we’ll see Isaac moving beyond the negative to capitalize on the blessings of Abraham.

So Abimelech gave orders to all the people: “Anyone who harms this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”


Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the LORD blessed him. The man became rich, and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy. He had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him. (vs. 11-14)

I find it astounding that Abimelech, the pagan, is so fair with Isaac. He orders his people to leave Isaac in peace. I’m certain Isaac was humbled by this experience, for the LORD blessed him in the same way He had blessed Abraham: he became so wealthy that those around him took notice and even envied him - to the point that Abimelech asks him to move away.

So Isaac moved away from there and encamped in the Valley of Gerar, where he settled. Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died, and he gave them the same names his father had given them. (vs. 17-18)

Isaac didn’t argue with Abimelech, but humbly obeyed his request. And then we see Isaac reopening the wells of blessing that his father had used. Now that’s the right thing to do! Unfortunately, the herdsmen around him did not like that idea, so they hassled Isaac, stopping up wells. Each time that happened, instead of demanding his rights to the water, Isaac quietly moved on until he finally came to a spot where they left him alone, according to verse 22:

He moved on from there and dug another well, and no one quarreled over it. He named it Rehoboth saying, “Now the LORD has given us room and we will flourish in the land.


Do you remember what Abraham had done when his herdsmen quarreled with Lot’s herdsmen over the land in chapter 13? He let Lot choose first which land he would take. Here Isaac is showing that same generosity and humility of his father, which is a by product of the faith he had also inherited from his father. He was trusting God to bring them to a land of blessing and provision. He knew that if he would just let go of what he had, God would give him so much more. This is such an important principle of the Bible - letting go instead of clinging to worldly possessions- losing to gain. This was something great that Abraham had modeled over and over to his son. And to make sure that Isaac didn’t miss this quality of his father, we’ll see tomorrow that God confirms it to Isaac.

If you have been hurt or angered by the failures of your parents - maybe nearly destroyed by some big sins in their lives - don’t hang on to that hurt. Give it up to God and ask Him to heal you. Then acknowledge something good that your parent passed on and focus on that! Unfortunately, we all seem to hand off some kind of baggage. In speaking of what she and her husband passed down to her girls, Beth Moore writes, “If we managed not to pass down an oversized suitcase, we at least handed them a carry-on.” That cracks me up! Sorry, Molly and Emmy! I know your father and I have given you enough that you would have trouble getting it into the overhead bin on a plane!

 

Genesis 26:1-9

Right in the middle of learning about Jacob and Esau, the Bible turns back to Isaac. Talk about a “chip off the old block!” Today’s story about Isaac is a great warning about the legacy a parent passes on to his children, both for good and for bad. If you didn’t pay attention, you would think you had just somehow wandered back to chapters 12 and 20 with Abraham.

In verses 1-6 we see there is famine in the land, so Isaac heads toward Egypt, stopping in the border town of Gerar, just outside of Egypt. The LORD warns him not to go “down to Egypt,” because Egypt is the symbol of everything worldly and pagan. He reminds Isaac of the promise that He made to Abraham, and confirms that Isaac is heir to this same promise:

I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because Abraham obeyed me and did everything I required of him, keeping my commands, my decrees and my instructions.” So Isaac stayed in Gerar. (vs 4-6)

Now, he obeyed and did not go into Egypt, but he certainly camped just outside of it! Isn’t that typical of us, too? We know God has forbidden certain things - for our own good - but we will get as close as possible without crossing the line! With teens it might be that they are not actually having sex, but they are doing everything but the actual act. How close can we get without crossing that boundary? I’ll just have two drinks, and that’s my limit... I’ll just flirt with my co-worker, but nothing more... Do you see how that is just playing with fire, and actually shows an attitude of disobedience? So Isaac stayed in Gerar.

Well, then in verses 7-9 we see a very familiar scene:

When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” because he was afraid to say, “She is my wife.” He thought, “The men of this place might kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is beautiful.”


When Isaac had been there a long time, Abimelek king of the Philistines looked down from a window and saw Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah. So Abimelek summoned Isaac and said, “She is really your wife! Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’?”


Isaac answered him, “Because I thought I might lose my life on account of her.”

Oh, for heaven’s sake!!! Why is it that we don’t learn the lesson by just watching others suffer and we, instead, have to actually touch the stove to see for ourselves if it’s hot??? Here Isaac demonstrates the same cowardice and deception that his father had shown - in the same town, even! The name, Abimilech, is a dynasty name, so this is most likely the son of the Abimelech that Abraham deceived. Jon Courson, in his commentary on this chapter, points out that Isaac admits he was afraid he’d lose his life on account of Rebekah, which is the total opposite commitment he should have toward protecting her, even at the risk of his own life. In Ephesians 5:25, Paul exhorts men to love their wives as Christ loved the church, to the point of dying for her! Instead, both Abraham and Isaac hid behind their wives’ skirts!

I can’t really judge here, because several years ago, when I was working with a teaching partner, Lisa, who was the same age as my younger daughter, she and I were attacked by a dog who came on our school campus after school (he actually bit me, drew blood, and caused me to have to get a tetanus shot). Anyway, instead of protecting Lisa, by pushing her behind me, I grabbed her and pushed her in front!!! Lisa, being deathly afraid of spiders, was only too happy to push me behind her, because there was a spider web behind us!!! Both of us totally went into self-preservation mode. Afterwards we howled over that humbling picture, because, as teachers, we should have gone into an automatic protector role! :) Good thing Lisa was not one of my students!!!

Back to Isaac! The thing that is so scary about this passage is that Isaac had totally picked up his father’s traits - both good and bad. We’ll see tomorrow that he also showed his father’s faith in God after this, but he definitely had inherited some weak genes as well. I love what Beth Moore says about this :

Parents were meant to impact their children’s lives, otherwise their job would be finished in the delivery room. Instead, their impact powerfully reaches past their funerals and grows faster than the grass on their graves... Let’s put it this way: sometimes our parents leave us more than a china cabinet... One reason we want to be careful and deliberate about what we agree to inherit is that we too will pass on multiple characteristics and much character. Or lack of it. We don’t want to judge our parents lest God and the next generation judge us by the scorecard we kept. (The Patriarchs, page 113).

We know what our parents’ good and bad traits are. We need to be so careful what we continue to pass on! It’s bad enough that Emmy has my curly hair (which I received from my father), and that I have passed to both girls my family’s sarcastic sense of humor! They don’t need anything more in the negative from my side of the family!!!

More on Isaac next week! Have a terrific weekend!