Summary of passage: Isaac, now old and blind, asks Esau to hunt him some wild game and prepare him a meal at which he will give him his blessing. Rebekah overheard Isaac tell Esau this so she told Jacob to go and bring her some young goats to prepare for him so that Jacob can go and receive Isaac’s blessing. Jacob wonders though if Isaac touches him what to do because Esau is hairy and he is not. His mother said not to worry.
Rebekah prepared the food and then dressed up Jacob in Esau’s clothes. She covered his hands and neck with goatskins and sent him in to Isaac. Jacob says he is Esau and bids his father to eat. Isaac wonders how he found the game so quickly. Jacob says the Lord granted him success.
Isaac suspects a trick and asks to touch Jacob. He knows Jacob’s voice but falls for the goatskin trick. Isaac blessed Jacob but is still unsure if he is Esau or not. Jacob lies again, saying he is. Isaac ate of the game and then kissed his son. He smelled Esau’s clothes and concluded this was Esau.
Isaac blessed Jacob, asking God to give him abundance and have the nations serve him and bow to him, have him be lord over his brothers and have those who curse him be cursed and those who bless him be blessed.
Esau returned from hunting and brought in the food to Isaac. Isaac realizes he had been tricked by Jacob. But it was too late. Isaac cannot bless both. He did not reserve another blessing. Esau wept and held a grudge against Jacob and planned to kill him once Isaac died.
Rebekah hears Esau’s plans and sends Jacob to live with her brother Laban in Haran until Esau’s temper cools. She tells Isaac she doesn’t want Jacob to marry a Hittite woman so Isaac blesses him and commands him to go to Paddan Aram to the house of his mother’s father Bethuel and take a wife from the daughters of Laban. He blessed him again with fruitfulness and with the blessing given to Abraham.
Esau learned what had happened and he took a wife from Ishmael’s line in an effort to please his father.
Questions:
11) When God told Rebekah that two nations were in her womb and the older will serve the younger.
12a) He called Esau to him privately and was going to bless him without others around or tell anyone else.
b) Isaac knew Jacob was the chosen one but he was going to bless Esau instead (his favorite). But once he was tricked, he blessed Jacob willingly. He realized that God’s will would prevail, not his.
13a) Isaac definitely had a heart for God. He willingly submitted to being a sacrifice. He trusted God to bring him Rebekah as his wife. He dealt kindly with Abimelech when the disputes arose over the wells. The Lord appeared to him (Genesis 26:24) to reassure him of his covenant. His weakness was that he favored Esau over Jacob and tried to circumvent God’s will with the blessing. But God prevented that as well. He played favorites with his kids. In the end, Isaac does bless Jacob for he realizes God’s will after the trick.
Isaac is like most Christians I think. Has a heart for God but is human with faults and mistakes. But eventually he corrects them and comes back to God.
b) Personal Question. My answer: To always seek and trust God. He is in control. He will bless those who follow Him. To deal kindly with unbelievers. To not judge. To shine Christ as best as humanly possible. Even when you fall, Isaac showed you get right back on God’s path.
c) Personal Question. My answer: To not play favorites (which is hard with multiple kids). To treat all equally. To pray and follow God. It is useless to fight God for He will win every time. His will not mine.
Conclusions: God’s will prevails no matter what man does to circumvent it. So why do we fight it so?
End Note: Interestingly, even if Esau had received Isaac’s blessing, it wouldn’t have mattered. Only God can truly bestow the blessing and in God’s eyes it would have been invalid.
Did Esau take a wife to please his father? (Paragraph 7)
12b – ,”he blessed Isaac willingly” – did you mean Jacob?
Thanks for your blog – I so enjoy your insight.
Yes, I did! Thanks for the correction!