Genesis 26:34 - 28:9
The Blessing of Jacob

Imagine yourself as the original audience of this text - the nation of Israel in the wilderness. You remember that Jacob is the father of your nation, the one who will be renamed Israel. And here you have the moment where he gains the blessings and the promises of God. Is this the sort of history you expected? Are these the proud beginnings of the mighty nation of the people of God?

Who do you root for in a story like this? We want to look at the Old Testament as a series of stories about "Great Heroes of the Faith." There are no heroes here. We look for a struggle between the righteous and the wicked. But for 57 verses there is none righteous. Not even one. This is a story of unrighteousness on every side. Obstinate, worldly, and blindly stupid unrighteousness for Isaac. Faithless and murderous unrighteousness for Esau. Devious unrighteousness for Rebekah. And spineless, deceptive, thieving, even blasphemous unrighteousness for Jacob, the ancestor of Israel and of Christ.

What is God trying to tell us?

  1. The Unrighteousness of All Involved
    (Note: Every step of the way, I want you to see yourself in this.)
    1. Esau the Promise Despiser and Isaac the World Lover (26:34-27:4)
      1. Esau marries two Hittite women
      2. He does this when he is 40
        1. The same age Isaac was when he married Rebekah
        2. This comparison is a rebuke to Isaac and Esau
      3. A rebuke to Isaac
        1. Remember how Abraham had provided a wife for Isaac.
        2. He sent his servant back to his former country to find her.
        3. He told the servant two things
          1. On no account take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites. (That would deny faith in the promise: this land was to be taken from the Canaanites and given to Abraham's seed.)
          2. On no account take my son outside the Promised Land to my former country. (That would deny faith in the promise: this land was to be given to Abraham's seed. He must dwell there in faith.)
          3. He made his servant swear a solemn oath not to do these things.
        4. When Isaac's sons turn forty (they're twins, remember?), what has he done to imitate his father's faith in this regard?
          1. Nothing!
          2. So at the beginning of the story Esau has married not one but two Canaanite women.
          3. And by the end Jacob has been sent out of the Promised Land to the very place Abraham's servant swore never to take Isaac.
          4. And Esau has added a daughter of Ishmael, son of Abraham's flesh, to his harem.
        5. Isaac has failed to keep this promise of God before him.
        6. And he has failed to impart this faith to his sons.
        7. Do you see yourself here? Given the promise of heaven, how often you falter and look rather at what this world offers as having more promise.
      4. A rebuke to Esau
        1. Esau, the firstborn, ought to have inherited God's promise to Abraham.
        2. He has already despised that birthright, selling it to Isaac for a bowl of lentil stew.
        3. Now he further despises the promise by taking two Canaanite women as wives.
        4. The children of the Canaanites must one day be destroyed by the children of Abraham. That's part of God's promise to Abraham to give him this land.
        5. But Esau goes and mixes up the two lines, grieving his parents (who at least had sense enough to be upset.)
        6. Do you see yourself here? Are you tempted to find companionship from the people of this world more precious than fellowship with the people of God?
      5. Isaac proves just as worldly in the end
        1. Esau sold his birthright for a pot of stew
        2. Isaac is willing to bless him anyway for another pot.
        3. Go get me some food "such as I love … that my soul may bless you before I die" (27:4)
        4. Like son, like father.
        5. Do you see yourself here? Are you tempted by even such simple things as the taste of good food to forget what lies ahead in the marriage feast of the Lamb? How easily distracted are we all!
      6. Isaac is also being devious, like Rebekah and Jacob
        1. Normal situation: A man is ready to die. He calls all his sons before him to bless them all, with special blessing going to the firstborn.
        2. But Isaac intends to give the whole blessing to Esau and leave none for Jacob.
        3. So he does this on the sly, calling only Esau into his presence.
        4. Thus, by deceitfulness, he sets up his own and Esau's downfall later in the chapter. (How could Jacob have pulled off his stunt if Esau had been standing right next to him?)
      7. And Isaac is Defying God
        1. God had said, "The older will serve the younger."
        2. God had chosen Jacob, that the blessing of Abraham should come to him.
        3. How foolish is Isaac, to think he can thwart the plan of God?
        4. How wicked is he to want to?
        5. Oh children of God! It is good for us that Isaac should seem so foolish and sinful!
          1. See now the folly and sin of our own flesh when we would thwart the plan of God.
          2. How often are we frustrated by what his Providence brings!
          3. How often do we treat God with suspicion as though he does not desire our good?
          4. How we fear his discipline and the trials he sends and would escape them if we could!
          5. How foolish! For God is powerful.
          6. How wrong! For God is righteous.
    2. Rebekah the Devious and Jacob the Spineless (27:5-17)
      1. Rebekah discovers Isaac's intentions.
      2. So what does she do?
        1. Does she cry out to God in prayer as she did in ch. 25 when the children struggled within her?
        2. Does she remind him of the promise he made in response to her prayer: "The older shall serve the younger."?
        3. Does she rely on him by faith to fulfill that which he has spoken?
        4. No! She seeks by trickery to accomplish the plan of God.
        5. And she does so not because it is God's desire, but because it happens to coincide with her own.
      3. Jacob doesn't stand up to her
        1. He ought to gently rebuke his mother and remind her of God's promise.
        2. This is the father of the nation of Israel, here. Surely he will make a good showing and do his descendants proud.
        3. Nope. His only objection is practical: I'm smooth; Esau's hairy. The old man will catch on and I'll get cursed instead of blessed.
        4. And Rebekah says let the curse come on me if we don't pull this off. She blasphemes, as her son will later blaspheme.
      4. Then Rebekah gets busy
        1. Remember the last time we saw her busy like this?
          1. She was an answer to the prayer of Abraham's servant
          2. He prayed for a woman who would answer his request for a drink by saying, "Drink, and I will also give your camels a drink."
          3. And so she answered. And she quickly let down her pitcher, and quickly empty the rest of it into the trough for the camels, and she ran to get more.
          4. She was a whirlwind of activity. And we thought, "What a perfect wife for Isaac."
        2. So she is a whirlwind of activity again (13ff.)
          1. She's busy fixing up a stew and dressing Jacob in Esau's clothes and putting the skins of the little goats on his hands and neck.
          2. She's busy being a deceiving wife for Isaac.
      5. Ah, child of God! We are like this.
        1. We avoid the trap Isaac fell into - opposing God - only to fall into another - relying on our intelligence and strength to accomplish what God desires.
        2. Even when we seek what God seeks, how often do we do it in the energy of our flesh.
        3. We seek growth for the church or a happy marriage or our own growth in righteousness.
        4. So we exhaust ourselves, rising up early, staying up late. We will get this done.
        5. Like Rebekah, we forget the way of faith by which we rely on God for all things and work according to the strength he provides.
    3. Jacob the Blaspheming Liar and Isaac the Blind God Defier (27:18-29)
      1. So Jacob goes in and lies to Isaac, calling himself "Esau your firstborn."
      2. Isaac may be blind, but he's not stupid. He wants to know how "Esau" got back so fast.
      3. So Jacob blasphemes: "Because the Lord your God brought it to me."
        1. Oh what wickedness!
        2. He invokes the name of the God of heaven and earth, the God of Abraham and Isaac who had made covenant with Abraham and confirmed it with Isaac, the God who had made such promises and offered such blessings. This is the God that Jacob involves in his petty deception.
      4. Isaac falls for it
        1. The world deceives him.
        2. He loved Esau so much because Esau brought him wild game
        3. Yet in the end he cannot tell the difference between that and a home-bred goat.
        4. He loved Esau for his hairy manliness. Yet in the end, a little trick mimics that.
        5. He is blind, and not just physically.
        6. He is blind to what is truly good and right and to be desired.
      5. So, smelling the smell of Esau's clothing, Isaac blesses Jacob, thinking he is blessing Esau
        1. "Surely the smell of my son is like the smell of a field which the Lord has blessed. Therefore may God give you…."
        2. Did you hear that? Therefore! Because, Esau, you smell like this world and remind me of this world which is passing away, may the heavenly and eternal blessing of God come upon you!
        3. May God give you material blessings such as dew and cattle (fatness of the earth) and grain and wine.
          1. These things were a mere outward expression of God's blessing to Isaac.
          2. Yet Isaac, the worldly one, counts them as of first importance and mentions them first in his blessing.
          3. He's giving away the Promised Land, but he sees it only in terms of physical blessing.
        4. "Let peoples serve you and nations bow down to you"
          1. God had promised this to Abraham, that his descendants would triumph over their enemies
          2. Isaac is giving this promise to Esau (he thinks)
        5. "Be master over your brethren, and let your mother's sons bow down to you."
          1. He directly defies God!
          2. God had said, "The older shall serve the younger," Esau shall serve Jacob.
          3. Isaac says Let Jacob serve Esau.
          4. Does he really think he can get away with this!
        6. "Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be those who bless you."
          1. Again, this is the promise God gave to Abraham and to his offspring.
          2. It should come to Jacob, God's chosen one.
          3. And so it does, but no thanks to Isaac!
        7. He has tried to give away the whole Abrahamic blessing, the land and the power, to Esau, whom God hated.
        8. And Jacob receives it, humanly speaking, only because of his despicable deceit and blasphemy.
    4. Isaac the God Defier and Esau the Promise Despiser Are Punished (30-40)
      1. Now Isaac and Esau receive the penalty for these sins. They discover the truth in an agonizing scene. (30ff.)
        1. "Isaac trembled exceedingly" for he cannot take back the blessing. It is his plans that have been thwarted, not God's. (33)
        2. Esau "cried with an exceedingly great and bitter cry," begging to be blessed as well (34)
        3. It is a fearful scene. We can even feel pity for them as we realize how completely their sins have found them out.
        4. They curse Jacob, naturally, but there is no undoing the harm.
          1. Esau remembers how Jacob took away his birthright.
          2. But wait. Esau gave it away. He despised it.
          3. This is what happens to those who turn their backs on the blessings of heaven.
          4. Let us learn from Esau and cry out to God for a more constant heart to seek the blessings that are above.
      2. Esau asks pitifully "Have you not reserved a blessing for me?
        1. Oh the irony!
        2. In normal circumstances, the father would have brought both sons in together.
          1. He would have blessed the firstborn more.
          2. But he would have reserved some blessing for the other.
          3. Isaac has not done so. He's given it all to Jacob.
          4. For Esau there is nothing left.
          5. "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?" (37)
      3. So Jacob has no blessing left, but a curse for Esau
        1. Away from (proper translation; don't believe NKJV) the fatness of the earth shall be your dwelling. (Jacob gets it all.)
        2. Away from the dew of heaven from above.
        3. By your sword you shall live and you shall serve your brother.
        4. (Here's the best I can do) When you become restless, you shall break his yoke from your neck.
    5. Esau the Cain-like Brother-Hater (41)
      1. So Esau begins immediately to fulfill this prophecy.
      2. Why does he not throw himself at Jacob's feet and plead for mercy and a participation in Jacob's blessing?
      3. He is wicked and immoral, a hater of God.
      4. He wanted the blessing even though he didn't understand what it was.
      5. So like Cain with Abel, he hates this brother because God loves him.
      6. And he makes plans to become a man of the sword, to murder his brother.
    6. Rebekah the Schemer and Jacob the Spineless Are Punished (42-46)
      1. So Rebekah must now scheme to send Jacob away.
        1. Her beloved son must now leave her presence.
        2. She will never see him again while she lives.
        3. She does not want to lose both her children in one day (45)
          1. Yet she is about to send Jacob away
          2. And will Esau be likely ever to view her with favor again?
      2. This banishment from the promised land will be Jacob's punishment as well.
      3. Rebekah must scheme with Isaac as well
        1. She can't tell him his favorite son is waiting for his death to murder her favorite son. Isaac wouldn't believe it.
        2. So she instead reminds him of something they can agree on: Esau's Hittite wives are a grief to them both (46)
        3. So she persuades Isaac to send Jacob to get a wife from her home country.
    7. Isaac Forced by Circumstances to Do Right (28:1-5)
      1. Isaac should have thought of providing a wife for Jacob a long time ago.
      2. His heart was hard and his eyes were set on Esau whom God hated. So he did not.
      3. Now, finally, he is goaded into doing what is right.
      4. And even in this he does wrong, sending Jacob out of the Promised Land. (Remember Abraham's instructions.) But at least he is seeking a non-Canaanite wife.
      5. More importantly, he finally recognizes Jacob as the child of the promise.
      6. He gives him the full blessing of Abraham
        1. May God Almighty bless you
          1. this is the name God used when he spoke to Abraham in Genesis 17 and made a covenant with him
          2. Jacob, thus, is recognized as the child of the covenant
        2. May he make you fruitful and multiply you that you may be an assembly of peoples (definitely language from God's promise to Abraham)
        3. And give you the blessing of Abraham (28:4) - There. It's Explicit
        4. To you and your descendants … that you may inherit the land in which you are a stranger, which God gave to Abraham.
      7. Finally, God's chosen one has received the full blessing of Abraham!
    8. Esau Faithless and Foolish Even in Repentance (28:6-9)
      1. Esau sees how Isaac blessed Jacob and is jealous.
      2. He realizes that his Hittite wives fly in the face of the Abrahamic promise and therefore don't please his father.
        1. But does he put them away? No.
        2. He seeks to add a non-Canaanite wife to his harem
        3. As though if one of his wives doesn't represent his friendship with the world, all will be well.
      3. And who does he pick? An Ishmaelite.
        1. He still doesn't get it.
        2. He's still so fleshly he figures any descendant of Abraham is fine.
        3. But if that were so, he'd be fine simply because he's descended from Abraham.
        4. As things are, it's not the children of the flesh (like Ishmael and Esau) who are counted as Abraham's offspring.
        5. It's the children of the promise (like Isaac and Jacob … and you and me.)

What should we make of all this? What is God trying to say? What can the children of Israel understand from this ugly tale of their beginnings? What can we?

  1. Why Is This Passage Here?
    1. To Exalt the Sovereign Lord
      1. The humans in this passage are out of control
        1. Isaac thinks he can thwart God's plan by sneaking around to bless Jacob. He relies on his sneakiness.
        2. Esau thinks he can gain this blessing when he has already despised the birthright to which the blessing must be attached. He is a mighty hunter, a capable man. He relies on that.
        3. Rebekah thinks she's sneakier than Isaac. And she is. But does she get what she wants?
          1. Sure, Jacob is blessed.
          2. But now one son wants to murder the other
          3. So she must send her precious Jacob away. She will never see him again.
          4. How much in control is she?
        4. Jacob thinks he can gain God's blessing by deceit and blasphemy
          1. And he does.
          2. Does that make him in control?
          3. Hardly! Again, things end with his brother wanting to murder him and he has to go underground until things are safe.
          4. Jacob was not a hunter and a wanderer like Esau. He's a stay at home kind of guy. Yet it is Jacob who must travel far away and live in a foreign land. Is he really in control?
          5. He wanted the birthright of this land and the blessing attached to it. He got those things in name and now he's being chased away from the land of which those things speak. Is that the best he can do?
      2. Only God is in control
        1. Only God gets exactly what he planned.
        2. Jacob is blessed, just as God had planned.
        3. Esau is cursed, just as God had planned.
        4. Jacob is protected from marrying a Canaanite as his brother Esau did.
        5. Rather, Jacob is sent back to the household of Laban, Rebekah's household, to find a bride fitting for the heir of the covenant and the promises of God.
        6. Out of all the scheming and planning and double crossing, God has done exactly what his predetermined plan had ordained.
        7. It's a good thing God is in control, is it not?
        8. These people are incompetent to get the job done.
        9. So it is to this day.
          1. It's a good thing God's in control of building the church of Christ
          2. It's a good thing God's in control of conforming you to the image of Christ and enabling you to persevere to the end.
          3. Your purposes may fail. But God is never frustrated.
      3. The humans in this passage are full of sin
        1. That was point I. We've seen this in detail
        2. Look at Isaac and Esau, loving the world
        3. Look at Isaac, foolishly despising God's choice of Jacob.
        4. Look at Rebekah, scheming, insubordinate, desiring what God wants for Jacob, but not because her will is attuned to God's
        5. Look at Jacob, devious, blaspheming, a thief. Even though he wants the blessing, which God wants to give him, he feels he must sin to get it. What a debased understanding of his Lord!
        6. Is there any of them that does good? Not even one.
        7. Is there any one who speaks the truth? Not even one.
        8. Is there a single human action that is motivated by the love of God and the desire to do his will? Not even one.
      4. Only God is without sin
        1. God's righteousness shines forth against this backdrop of human wickedness.
        2. Our own consciences testify to us that the actions of these people are wicked and therefore are unlike God.
        3. Only God has the right motives in doing what he does in this chapter
        4. Only God can claim I have brought all this about this day for my own glory and for the good of those I love.
        5. Even the sins of his people cannot frustrate his purpose. Indeed, he has worked in and through the sins of Isaac and Esau and Rebekah and Jacob to
        6. So he did through the sins of those who crucified Jesus
        7. So he will do with us
          1. Wherever you are in life right now, God is not out of control.
          2. You are exactly where God planned for you to be even if you sinned to get there!
      5. The humans in this passage deserve no glory or praise
      6. To God belongs all glory and praise
    2. To Humble the People of God
      1. To humble Israel
        1. This is your origin of children of Israel!
        2. This is how you inherited the covenant and the blessings, oh descendants of Jacob!
        3. You have no proud history to point to.
        4. You cannot say, See? This is why God loved us and chose us.
        5. Rather they must confess God chose us in Jacob in spite of Jacob's sins and in spite of ours.
      2. To humble us
        1. It's not that this family is unusually sinful.
        2. It's not that Jacob is unusually bad.
        3. If God could have found a decent, upstanding human to give his blessing to, wouldn't he have done that?
        4. But there was no such thing.
        5. And so the blessings of God came to a scoundrel, a liar, and a blasphemer.
          1. I'm not talking about Jacob anymore
          2. I'm talking about you.
          3. Jacob was no better than Esau. You were no better than your neighbor.
          4. Yet God has loved you and that must humble you.
          5. Who are you that God should regard you in this way, with love?
          6. Who are you that you should receive his blessing?
          7. Who are you that the he should give his Son?
          8. Who are you that the Son should die for you and be raised and exalted to heaven for you?
    3. To Point All People to Christ
      1. How can God pass over these sins?
        1. Why doesn't he just come down in anger and wipe out this miserable lot? Isaac. Esau. Rebekah. Jacob. Doesn't his justice demand that?
        2. It's like the days of Noah … only without Noah. Everyone is unrighteous. Wipe them out!
        3. How can he be just and still withhold his hand?
        4. How can these blessings come to Jacob who has not earned them?
      2. Psalm 15 -
        1 The earth is the LORD's, and all its fullness,
        The world and those who dwell therein.
        2 For He has founded it upon the seas,
        And established it upon the waters.
        3 Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD?
        Or who may stand in His holy place?
        4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
        Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol,
        Nor sworn deceitfully.
        5 He shall receive blessing from the LORD,
        And righteousness from the God of his salvation.
        6 This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him,
        Who seek Your face.
      3. Oh really?
        1. This is Jacob who has clean hands and a pure heart.
        2. Jacob who never swore deceitfully?
        3. That's not the Jacob we read about in Genesis 27.
        4. Yet that's the Jacob - and that Jacob alone - who will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
        5. We read of Jacob receiving this blessing and realize that somehow he must be accounted as one who is clean and pure and has never sworn deceitfully.
        6. There must be another Jacob of whom these things are true, a greater Jacob.
        7. Oh God! If there is not a Jacob who can earn this blessing then all is lost and the blessing is a sham!
      4. 7 Lift up your heads, O you gates!
        And be lifted up, you everlasting doors!
        And the King of glory shall come in.
        8 Who is this King of glory?
        The LORD strong and mighty,
        The LORD mighty in battle.
        9 Lift up your heads, O you gates!
        Lift up, you everlasting doors!
        And the King of glory shall come in.
        10 Who is this King of glory?
        The LORD of hosts,
        He is the King of glory.
      5. This is Jacob, the true Jacob, the Israel of God.
      6. This is Christ Jesus, the king of glory.
      7. We are called by his name, a better name than Israel.
      8. Let us then endeavor to walk worthy of that name as those who have inherited incomparable blessings.

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