Jacob deceives Isaac, gets his blessing
27
📚And it came about that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were so dim that he could not see, he called his older son Esau and said to him, “My son”, and he said to him, “See, here I am”.2 📚And he said, “Look now, I am old, and I do not know the day of my death. 3 📚Please take your weapons now, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field, and get me some venison, 4 📚and prepare for me the kind of tasty food I love, and bring it to me, so that I can eat, that my soul may bless you before I die”.
27:1-4 Did Isaac understand that God had rejected Esau and chosen Jacob? Or, even having understood, did he decide to put his own will above God’s and give the chief blessing, the blessing of the firstborn, to Esau anyway? We are not told what was in his mind and heart, but it seems he had no intention of blessing Jacob at all. This favoritism had its roots in an unspiritual motive – see Gen 25:28. Isaac had a sinful nature, as all men have. Compare Gen 9:21; 12:13; Rom 3:9-20.⚜
5 And Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. And Esau went to the field to hunt for venison and bring it. 6 📚And Rebekah spoke to Jacob her son, saying, “Look, I heard your father speaking to your brother Esau, saying, 7 📚‘Bring me venison and prepare for me tasty food, so that I may eat, and bless you in the LORD’s presence before my death.’ 8 📚Therefore, my son, now obey my voice in what I command you. 9 📚Go now to the flock, and bring me from there two choice young goats, and with them I will prepare for your father the kind of tasty food he loves, 10 and you shall take it to your father, so that he may eat, and so that he may bless you before his death”.
11 📚And Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, “Look, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a man with smooth skin. 12 📚Perhaps my father will touch me, and then I will seem like a deceiver to him, and I will bring a curse on myself, and not a blessing”.
13 📚And his mother said to him, “Your curse be on me, my son. Just 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 prepared the kind of tasty food that his father loved. 15 📚And Rebekah took the best clothes of her older 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 young goats on his hands and on the smooth skin of his neck, 17 and she placed the tasty food and the bread, which she had prepared, in the hand of her son Jacob.
27:5-17 Rebekah determined to get the blessing of Isaac for Jacob (and through Isaac the blessing of God), even though it meant deceiving her husband. Evidently she regarded God’s promises as something of great value. But she also was guilty of favoritism (Gen 25:28).⚜
18 And he came to his father and said, “My father”, and he said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?”
19 📚And Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please get up, sit and eat some of my venison, so that your soul may bless me”.
20 📚And 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 📚And Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, so that I can touch you, my son, to see whether you are really my son Esau or not”.
22 And Jacob went near to Isaac his father. And he touched 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 📚And he said, “Are you really my son Esau?” And he said, “I am”.
25 📚And he said, “Bring it near me and I will eat of my son’s venison, so that my soul may bless you”. And he brought it near him, and he ate, and he brought him wine and he drank.
26 And his father Isaac said to him, “Come near now, and kiss me, my son”.
27:18-26 Jacob too was willing to lie and deceive in order to get God’s blessing. In all this, though both Jacob and his mother sinned, they showed their faith in God’s promises. And faith, even weak faith, is very important in God’s dealings with men (references at Gen 25:34). God rewarded their faith but He punished their deception. Jacob indeed got the blessing but later he himself was deceived and suffered much at the hands of his father-in-law (Gen 29:25; 31:7, 40, 41). And Rebekah no doubt suffered because she was separated from Jacob and may never have seen him again (Gen 28:5. After chapter 27 Rebecca no longer appears in Genesis). God hates lying and deception and will certainly punish it (Prov 6:16-19; 12:22; 19:5, 9; Gal 6:7; Eph 4:15, 25; Col 3:9).
It was not only sinful for Jacob to deceive his father, it was also quite unnecessary. Before Esau and Jacob were born God had already chosen Jacob and said that the elder (Esau) would serve the younger (Jacob). See Gen 25:23; Rom 9:10-13. God would have fulfilled His word without the scheming and lying of Jacob and his mother. It is never necessary for men to use tricks, lies and deception to get God to fulfill His will toward them. God will do it in His time and way if men will trust Him and leave matters in His hands. Notes at Gen 12:13; Josh 2:5; 1 Sam 27:10; 2 Sam 15:34.⚜
27 📚And he came near and kissed him. And he smelled the odor of his clothes, and blessed him, and said,
“See, 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,
and of the fatness of the earth,
and an abundance of grain
and wine.
29 📚Let people serve you,
and nations bow down
to you.
Be lord over your brothers,
and let your mother’s sons
bow down to you.
Cursed be every one
who curses you,
and blessed be he who
blesses you”.
27:27-29 This was the blessing God gave to Abraham in different words (Gen 12:1-3), and what the Lord had already told Rebekah in Gen 25:23.⚜
Esau’s loss and anger
30 And it came about that, as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob and Jacob had hardly gone away from the presence of his father Isaac, Esau his brother came in from his hunting. 31 📚And he too had prepared tasty food, and now he brought it to his father, and said to his father, “Let my father get up and eat of his son’s venison, so that your soul may bless me”.
27:31 Verse 4. Was Isaac unable to give a blessing without eating a tasty meal?⚜
32 📚And his father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?” And he said, “I am your son, your firstborn Esau”.
33 📚And Isaac trembled violently and said, “Who? Where is the one who got venison and brought it to me? And I ate all of it before you came, and blessed him. Yes, and he will be blessed 📖”.
34 📚And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with a very great and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me, me too, O my father”.
27:34 Esau thought of what he had lost too late (Gen 25:33-34). Now he could not change his father’s mind. See Heb 12:15-17.⚜
35 📚And he said, “Your brother came deceitfully and took away your blessing”.
36 📚And he said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob 📖? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright, and, see, now he has taken away my blessing”. And he said, “Haven’t you reserved a blessing for me?”
37 📚And Isaac answered and said to Esau, “Look, I have made him your lord, and I have given all his brothers to him for servants, and I have sustained him with corn and wine. And now what will I do for you, my son?”
38 📚And Esau said to his father, “Have you only one blessing, my father? Bless me, me too, O my father”. And Esau raised his voice and wept.
39 📚And his father Isaac answered and said to him,
“See, your dwelling will be
away from the fatness 📖 of the earth,
and from the dew of heaven
from above.
27:39 The land of the Edomites, which was south of the Dead Sea, was rocky and barren.⚜
40 📚And you will live by
your sword,
and will serve your brother.
And it will come about when
you grow restless 📖,
that you will break his yoke
from off your neck 📖”.
41 📚And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had 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 these words of her elder son Esau were told to Rebekah, and she sent word and called her younger son Jacob and said to him, “Look, your brother Esau is consoling himself about you, by planning to kill you. 43 📚Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. Get up and flee to Haran to Laban my brother, 44 📚and stay with him a few days, until your brother’s fury subsides; 45 📚just until your brother’s anger against you subsides, and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send and get you from there. Why should I be deprived 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, such as these who are of the daughters of the land, what good will my life be to me?”
27:46 See Gen 26:34-35. This was Rebekah’s way of getting Isaac to send Jacob away out of danger.⚜