The Blessing Stands

THE BLESSING STANDS

An Exposition of Genesis 26:34-27:40

By Pastor Brian Wilbur

Date: July 9, 2023

Series: The Book of Genesis

Note: Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

THE SCRIPTURAL TEXT

Holy Scripture says:

³⁴ When Esau was forty years old, he took Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite to be his wife, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite, ³⁵ and they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah.

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

⁵ Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it, ⁶ Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “I heard your father speak to your brother Esau, ⁷ ‘Bring me game and prepare for me delicious food, that I may eat it and bless you before the LORD before I die.’ ⁸ Now therefore, my son, obey my voice as I command you. ⁹ Go to the flock and bring me two good young goats, so that I may prepare from them delicious food for your father, such as he loves. ¹⁰ And you shall bring it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.” ¹¹ But Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. ¹² Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing.” ¹³ His mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, bring them to me.”

¹⁴ So he went and took them and brought them to his mother, and his mother prepared delicious food, such as his father loved. ¹⁵ Then Rebekah took the best garments of Esau her older son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son. ¹⁶ And the skins of the young goats she put on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck.¹⁷ And she put the delicious food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.

¹⁸ So he went in 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 as you told me; now sit up 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?” He answered, “Because the LORD your God granted me success.” ²¹ Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.” ²² So Jacob went near to Isaac his father, who 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 He said, “Are you really my son Esau?” He answered, “I am.” ²⁵ Then he said, “Bring it near to me, that I may eat of my son's game and 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 and kiss me, my son.” ²⁷ So he came near and kissed him. And Isaac smelled the smell of his garments and blessed him and said,

“See, the smell of my son
    is as the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed!
²⁸ May God give you of the dew of heaven
    and of the fatness of the earth
    and plenty of grain and wine.
²⁹ Let peoples serve you,
    and nations bow down to you.
Be lord over your brothers,
    and may your mother's sons bow down to you.
Cursed be everyone who curses you,
    and blessed be everyone who blesses you!”

³⁰ As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, Esau his brother came in from his hunting. ³¹ He also prepared delicious food and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, “Let my father arise and eat of his son's game, that you may bless me.” ³² His father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?” He answered, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.” ³³ Then Isaac trembled very violently and said, “Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate it all before you came, and I have blessed him? Yes, and he shall be blessed.”³⁴ As soon as Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me, even me also, O my father!” ³⁵ But he said, “Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing.” ³⁶ Esau said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has cheated me these two times. He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing.” Then he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?”³⁷ Isaac answered and said to Esau, “Behold, I have made him lord over you, and all his brothers I have given to him for servants, and with grain and wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son?” ³⁸ Esau said to his father, “Have you but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father.” aAnd Esau lifted up his voice and wept.

³⁹ Then Isaac his father answered and said to him:

“Behold, away from the fatness of the earth shall your dwelling be,
    and away from the dew of heaven on high.
⁴⁰ By your sword you shall live,
    and you shall serve your brother;
but when you grow restless
    you shall break his yoke from your neck.” (Genesis 26:34-27:40)

THE BLESSING STANDS

The blessing stands! The divine blessing stands in spite of human weakness and human wickedness. God’s blessing upon His redeemed people stands in spite of their severe imperfections and serious failings. As long as you think that the blessing is given to those who deserve it, to those who are squeaky clean, to those who are good enough for it, you don’t understand grace. If you are attempting to make sure that every “i” is dotted and every “t” is crossed in order to win God over to your side, then you are involved in futility and chasing after the wind. God bestows His blessing upon those who don’t deserve it – and sometimes those who receive God’s blessing make it spectacularly clear that they don’t deserve it. But the blessing still comes!

We often want our real-life heroes – and especially our heroes of the faith – to be perfect. We know they aren’t, but we like them to appear perfect. We don’t want our heroes to have major flaws, and yet all of our heroes have some flaws, and some of our heroes have egregious flaws. When we live in the illusion that our heroes must be perfect but eventually discover that they are deeply flawed, we might be tempted to belittle them or, to use a contemporary phrase, cancel them. But we need to be careful, because Scripture reveals that all of us are deeply flawed. There is, in fact, only one perfect hero: Jesus the Righteous One. Everyone else is a mixed bag in terms of character and moral conduct. This doesn’t mean that things are so complex that we cannot differentiate the faithful from the unfaithful. Scripturally, that distinction exists and it must shape how we view people. In terms of Genesis 26-28, Jacob is fundamentally a faithful man, whereas Esau is fundamentally an unfaithful man. Their parents, Isaac and Rebekah, are faithful people. And yet, in this passage, no one comes off looking good.

We would have wanted a courageous and resilient Isaac, with eyes wide open and everything above board, to give the covenant blessing to the son for whom it was intended, namely, Jacob. And we would have wanted Jacob to be a man in whom there was no deceit, and for him to obtain the blessing honestly and honorably. That would have been a glorious scene. Instead there is blindness, deceit, hesitation, and confusion. The right man gets the blessing, but by accident – except accident is too weak of a word. The right man gets the blessing, but by deceit, trickery, and lies. But for all that, the right man did get the blessing, and the blessing stands: “Yes, and he shall be blessed.”

WALKING THROUGH THE PASSAGE

Now we are ready to walk through the passage, which unfolds in six parts.

Esau makes a poor choice in wives

First, Esau makes a poor choice in wives (26:34-35). We’ll have to put to the side the fact that he had multiple wives (two wives in this passage, and a third wife in Genesis 28:8-9). Maybe someday we’ll unpack a biblical view of polygamy. But for now, what we need to understand is that the reason Esau’s two Hittite wives “made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah” is because they were Hittites, which was one branch of Canaanites. The primary issue here is that it was important to Isaac and Rebekah that their sons find wives within their kinship group. You can see this by looking at the end of Chapter 27 and beginning of Chapter 28:

“Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I loathe my life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women like these, one of the women of the land, what good will my life be to me?” Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and directed him, “You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women. Arise, go to Paddan-aram to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father, and take as your wife from there one of the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother.” (Genesis 27:46-28:2)

Remember, Abraham married his half-sister Sarah (Genesis 20:12). In due course, Abraham took initiative to find a wife for his son Isaac. Abraham gave instructions to his servant, “[You] will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell, but [you] will go to my country and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son Isaac.” (Genesis 24:3-4) Thus Isaac entered into marriage with Rebekah, his first cousin once removed. Eventually, Jacob would marry his cousins Leah and Rachel. Esau, however, broke with family tradition and did his own thing. And this gets to the heart of Esau’s problem. As I mentioned a few sermons ago, Esau walked away from his family’s heritage and mission, whereas Jacob proved to be a faithful steward of his family’s legacy. Esau was a wayward son, and it brought grief upon his parents.

By way of application, it should be noted that the New Testament does not require Christian believers to marry within their own ethnic clan or tribe. The New Testament does require that a Christian man must marry a Christian woman, and that a Christian woman must marry a Christian man. Both the Old and New Testament also require that a Christian must strive to honor his or her parents. Mature and thoughtful Christians are very slow to enter into marriage against the wishes of their parents, especially if their parents are also Christians.

Isaac is on the cusp of giving the covenant blessing to the wrong son

Second, Isaac is on the cusp of giving the covenant blessing to the wrong son (27:1-4). Although Isaac lived for another few decades after the events of Chapter 27, to the ripe age of 180 years, his was in declining health, his eyesight was failing, he was advanced in years, and he felt like death could visit him at any time. So, he wanted to fulfill his responsibility to pass on the covenant blessing to one of his sons before he died. That is all good and well, but the fact that he was prepared to give the covenant blessing to the wrong son is a huge problem. It is unthinkable that the covenant blessing should be solemnly entrusted to the wrong son. For some reason, Isaac is not in proper alignment with the Lord’s will. Why so? It is difficult to say for sure, but consider a few things.

We know, first of all, that the Lord had revealed to Rebekah that the younger son would hold a position of honor and strength over his older brother (Genesis 25:23). Therefore, Rebekah knew that Jacob was the honored son, the son and proper heir of the covenant. This reality is in the background of Genesis 25:28, which says, “Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.” (Genesis 25:28) As I mentioned a few weeks ago, that passage is not about Parenting 101. Instead, it reveals that Rebekah was in sync with the Lord’s plan to bless Jacob, but that Isaac was out of sync with the Lord’s plan. Part of Isaac’s problem may have been that he had a weakness for eating wild game: “Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game” (Genesis 25:28). Then later: “[Go] out to the field and hunt game for me, and prepare for me delicious food, such as I love, and bring it to me so that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die.” (Genesis 27:3-4) It seems that both Isaac and Esau had a weakness for food, for Esau had traded his privileged birthright for a meal of lentil stew (Genesis 25:29-34). There is nothing wrong with the enjoyment of food, but when our love for food or other physical comforts clouds our judgment and dulls our perception, then we have a problem.

Isaac really should have known better than to proceed with a plan to bless Esau. First, it seems unlikely that Rebekah never shared with Isaac the word that she heard from the Lord about how the younger son would be blessed. Second, it should have been obvious to Isaac that Esau was not fit to be a steward of the family’s special God-given mission. He definitely knew about Esau’s choice in wives, which grieved Isaac. He probably knew that Esau had sold his birthright to Jacob. Aside from those obvious character defects, the fact of the matter is that a person’s character is revealed throughout every aspect of life. Esau was an immoral and unholy man according to Hebrews 12:16, and that should have been evident to Isaac. I suspect that when Genesis 27:1 tells us that Isaac’s “eyes were dim”, his physical eyes aren’t the only eyes in view. There are distortions and blind spots in Isaac’s spiritual perception. Faithful Isaac is a flawed hero.

The bottom line is that Genesis 27:1-4 introduces a serious tension into the narrative. We know that the Lord has revealed that Jacob is the blessed son, and we know that Rebekah knows that Jacob is the blessed son, and yet Isaac is not properly aligned with God’s will and is on the verge of transacting official covenant business with the wrong man. How is this tension going to be resolved?

While Isaac’s eyes were failing, Rebekah’s ears were not failing – and this brings us to the next section.

Rebekah initiates a deceptive scheme to get the right son blessed

Third, Rebekah initiates a deceptive scheme to get the right son blessed (27:5-17). After Esau began his hunting expedition, Rebekah was urgent and earnest in devising a plan to get Jacob blessed instead of Esau. Esau was going to get wild game; Jacob was to bring young goats from the flock. Esau was going to prepare a delicious meal; Rebekah would take the young goats and prepare a delicious meal. Esau was going to take the meal he had made to his father; Jacob would take the meal that his mother had made to his father. Esau was to receive his father’s blessing; Jacob would beat Esau to the punch, pretend to be Esau, and obtain the blessing in Esau’s place. In order to play the part, Jacob put on Esau’s clothing. Moreover, Rebekah put “the skins of the young goats on [Jacob’s] hands and on the smooth part of [Jacob’s] neck” so that Jacob the smooth-skinned man would feel like Esau the hairy man. 

How shall we evaluate Rebekah’s scheme? Well, Rebekah’s end goal to get Jacob blessed is right, but Rebekah’s tactics to achieve this goal are wrong. We are familiar with the question, “Do the ends justify the means?” In fact, the ends don’t justify the means. But we need to be honest about the fact that Rebekah has the right ends, but the wrong means. Deceit is not a good way to obtain the promised blessing. Deceiving your aging blind husband, leading your son to deceive his aging blind father, and getting this aging blind patriarch to execute official business under false pretenses, is not good. Spiritually speaking, it is not good. In some legal contexts, similar conduct might land you in jail.

It would have been much better for Rebekah to speak frankly, openly, and honestly with Isaac about the serious mistake that Isaac was about to make. Many years later, a certain Queen Esther would approach the king on behalf of the Lord’s covenant people. In this context, Rebekah would have done well to plead with her husband on behalf of the covenant heir that the Lord had chosen. She should have done so prayerfully and trusting the Lord for a good outcome. But alas, she resorted to trickery, and she drew her son into it. The words that Rebekah speaks to Jacob – “obey my voice as I command you” (v. 8) and “only obey my voice” (v. 13) – are sobering and troubling words in this context. Generally speaking, of course, it is right for children to obey the voice of their parents. But Jacob is a grown man – perhaps around 70-years old – and he ought to think carefully before obliging his mother’s voice. Abraham was recently commended for obeying God’s voice (Genesis 26:5, Genesis 22:18), but Adam got in trouble because he didn’t heed God’s voice but listened to his wife’s voice instead (Genesis 3:17). Jacob’s conscience is uneasy as he contemplates the possibility that the scheme will be exposed – “and I shall seem to be mocking him [my father] and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing” (v. 12). But Rebekah is undeterred and is resolved to ‘save her son’ even if it proves costly: “Let your curse be on me, my son” (v. 13).

We may honor Rebekah for pursuing the right ends: she is seeking to put Jacob in the place of blessing, which is his rightful place according to God’s promise, and she is keeping her husband from making a grave error. At the same time, we do not honor her for her underhanded methods. Faithful Rebekah is a flawed hero.

Jacob implements the deceptive scheme to get himself blessed

Fourth, Jacob implements the deceptive scheme to get himself blessed (27:18-25). As Rebekah has commanded, so Jacob performs. In verses 14-17, he had already taken the young goats to Rebekah (v. 14), allowed himself to be clothed with deceptive apparel (v. 15-16), and received “the delicious food and the bread” that his mother had prepared (v. 17). Now he implements the plan and actually goes to his father (v. 18). Much of what we said about Rebekah could also be said about Jacob: he is pursuing the right ends, but in the wrong way. Jacob probably knows about the promise spoken to Rebekah, that he would be the covenant son. Furthermore, he had previously purchased the right of the firstborn from Esau (Genesis 25:29-34). Beyond that, after seven decades of life, it must have been rather obvious to Jacob that he was being fitted to receive the mantle of leadership, whereas Esau was pursuing an unruly manner of life. So when his mother came to him with her plan, he was primed to pursue the right ends. Unfortunately, he was willing to lie and mislead in order to obtain the prize.

The lies are on full display in verse 19, when Jacob says to his father: “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, that your soul may bless me.” While Jacob has obtained the right of the firstborn, he is not Esau, and he has not done as his father told him (since his father hadn’t given him any instruction at all). In fact, Jacob is doing as his mother told him.

Then in verse 20 Jacob adds spiritual decorations to his lie. Isaac wonders how it is that his son had found the wild game so quickly. Jacob says, “Because the LORD your God granted me success.” There is nothing quite like bringing pious God-talk into the picture of your fleshly plans.

In verses 21-23, Isaac is hesitant and uncertain. Isaac detects that the voice speaking to him is Jacob’s voice, but he also feels the goat skins that were covering Jacob’s hands and infers that the hands are Esau’s hands. Even so, the goat skins on Jacob’s hands did the trick: “And he did not recognize him,” that is, Isaac didn’t recognize that the man in front of him was Jacob, but was persuaded that the man in front of him was Esau on account of the hairy hands, “because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands. So he blessed him.” (v. 23)

In verse 24, Jacob reaffirms the earlier lie: Isaac asked him, “Are you really my son Esau?” and Jacob replied, “I am.” Then in verse 25, Isaac invites his son to serve him the food and drink. Isaac eats and drinks, and is now ready to bless his son. Like his father and mother, faithful Jacob is a flawed hero.

Isaac unintentionally blesses the right son under a cloud of deception

Fifth, Isaac unintentionally blesses the right son under a cloud of deception (27:26-29). Isaac, not recognizing Jacob and thinking that the son before him was Esau, proceed to bless the son whom he thought was Esau. It would have been a sweet moment between father and son, if it hadn’t been tainted by deception. At his father’s invitation, Jacob comes near to his father and kisses him. Then “Isaac smelled the smell of his garments and blessed him" (v. 27). Remember, Jacob was wearing Esau’s garments, and Isaac thought that the man who was wearing Esau’s garments was Esau. Therefore, Isaac made this observation: “See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field that the LORD has blessed!” Then Isaac blessed his son in three particular ways. First, Isaac granted this son abundant provision and plentiful sustenance: “May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine.” Second, Isaac exalted this son as lord over his brothers and as lord over many peoples: “Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother’s sons bow down to you.” Third, Isaac bestowed on this son the mantle of Abraham: “Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you!” Back in Genesis 12, the Lord had told Abraham: “I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse” (Genesis 12:3). God appointed Abraham to be His special representative: if you bless and honor God’s appointed leader, then you stand in the path of blessing; but if you curse or dishonor God’s appointed leader, then you are on the path to rejection and condemnation. Now this son that Isaac is blessing in Genesis 27:29 will function as God’s special representative on earth. Isaac thought that he was conferring these three blessings upon Esau, when in fact he was conferring these three blessings upon Jacob. But as we learned earlier in Genesis 25:22-28, it was indeed God’s sovereign will to confer these blessings upon Jacob. And so, Isaac unintentionally blessed the right son under a cloud of deception.

Esau seeks the blessing with tears, but to no avail

Sixth, Esau seeks the blessing with tears, but to no avail (27:30-40). These verses are sobering and saturated with great emotion. By the time that “Isaac had finished blessing Jacob” (v. 30) and Jacob had departed from his father’s presence, Esau “came in from his hunting” (v. 30) and proceeded to “[prepare] delicious food and [bring] it to his father” (v. 31). This is not going to go well! Isaac had only instructed one son to hunt game, prepare him a meal, and receive a blessing, but now a second son shows up! Esau says, “Let my father arise and eat of his son’s game, that you may bless me.” (v. 31) Isaac asked, “Who are you?” (v. 32) Esau replied, “I am your son, your firstborn son, Esau.” (v. 32) Isaac is shaken to the core when he starts to realize that the real Esau is now standing before him and that he had been duped into giving the blessing to someone other than Esau. The emotion in verses 33-38 reaches a fever pitch:

“Then Isaac trembled very violently and said, “Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate it all before you came, and I have blessed him. Yes, and he shall be blessed.” As soon as Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me, even me also, O my father!” But he said, “Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing.” Esau said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has cheated me these two times. He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing.” Then he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?” Isaac answered and said to Esau, “Behold, I have made him lord over you, and all his brothers I have given to him for servants, and with grain and wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son?” Esau said to his father, “Have you but one blessing my father?” Bless me, even me also, O my father.” And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.” (Genesis 27:33-38).

You can hear the desperation in Esau’s words and tears. Esau is desperate for the blessing of his father, but there is no blessing that remains for Isaac to give.

It is important, when we ponder a passage like this, not to speculate beyond what God has chosen to reveal. For example, we might ask: Why did Isaac have only one blessing to give? The only way to answer the question is to lean on God’s sovereign determination to choose Jacob and not Esau (Genesis 25:23, Romans 9:10-13).

We might also wonder why a blessing that is obtained under false pretenses is valid. The fact of the matter is that Jacob was nothing less than a defrauder and swindler in his actions in Genesis 27:14-25. In some legal contexts, official business transacted fraudulently could presumably be annulled. Why shouldn’t the deceit have effectively voided the transaction? All we can say is that in this particular context, Isaac had the immediate understanding that the blessing he had spoken over Jacob – Jacob’s deception notwithstanding – carried the force of reality and could not be altered or undone: “Yes, and he shall be blessed.” (v. 33) Moreover, we know that in the larger Scriptural context, Jacob was the chosen son, and it was right and necessary for him to receive the blessing.

Esau sought the blessing with repeated pleas and tears, but that proved to be a dead end. Hebrews 12 reflects on this situation in light of Esau’s wayward heart:

“[See to it] that on one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.” (Hebrews 12:16-17)

As Genesis 27:33-38 makes clear, Esau “desired to inherit the blessing” and “he sought it [the blessing] with tears”. But his lack of fellowship with God, his immorality and unholiness, his worldliness and waywardness, his careless handling of his own birthright and his foolish choice in wives – all these things showed that he was on the path to ruin, and for such things he was unable to repent. If he had found a place for repentance, he would have had access to blessing – not the blessing bestowed on Jacob directly, but the blessing promised through Jacob to everyone who blesses Jacob. In terms of Genesis 27:29, you can serve Jacob and bow down to him, and still be blessed, because everyone who blesses Jacob is blessed. In other words, you can be blessed in the Blessed One. Or to put it another way: the blessing of God overflows from the Blessed One to all who humbly and willingly place themselves under the Blessed One. This sounds rather underwhelming when the Blessed One is Jacob, but when we understand the overarching storyline that leads to Jesus (the ultimate Blessed One), then we are getting a glimpse of the truth of the gospel: those who gladly bow down to the Messiah and become faithful servants of the Messiah are blessed forever. As Psalm 2 says, “Blessed are all who take refuge in him.” (Psalm 2:12)

As for Esau, his lack of repentance sealed his rejection: “he was rejected”, as Hebrews 12:17 says. Isaac had to deliver this bad news:

“Behold, away from the fatness of the earth shall your dwelling be, and away from the dew of heaven on high. By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother; but when you grow restless you shall break his yoke from your neck.” (Genesis 27:39-40)

First, Esau will live away from abundant provision and plentiful sustenance. Second, Esau will live by the sword. He will have to use force in order to make it through this world. But remember the words of Jesus: “all who take the sword will perish by the sword” (Matthew 26:52). Third, Esau will serve his brother. As I suggested above, such service would be a good thing for a servant who undertook it humbly and willingly; such service would be a good thing for a servant who took a master’s gentle yoke upon him. But what is in view in verse 40 is an unwilling and increasingly restless form of service that results in the cessation of relationship. It is not good to “break his yoke from your neck” when his yoke is your only opportunity to receive blessing. But in terms of political and military dynamics in this present world, Esau’s descendants would eventually break free from the power of Israel.[1] Keep in mind that the words spoken to Esau apply not only to Esau, but to the nation that he fathered, namely, Edom. Likewise, the words spoken to Jacob apply not only to Jacob, but to the nation that he fathered, namely, Israel, and especially to the tribes of Joseph and Judah.

LESSON: GOD ACCOMPLISHES HIS PERFECT WILL THROUGH IMPERFECT PEOPLE

I want you to take away one simple, profound, and glorious lesson from this passage: God accomplishes His perfect will through the imperfections of human beings. God worked through a dull and misguided Isaac, a scheming and underhanded Rebekah, and a lying and deceitful Jacob, in order to fulfill His perfect will to pour out His blessing on Jacob and to bring blessing to the whole world through Jacob.

All this provides an important window into a robust understanding of God’s providential ordering of everything that happens in this world. Listen to the following paragraph from The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith:

“The almighty power, unsearchable wisdom, and infinite goodness of God are so thoroughly demonstrated in His providence, that His sovereign plan includes even the first fall and every other sinful action both of angels and humans. God’s providence over sinful actions does not occur by simple permission. Instead, God most wisely and powerfully limits and in other ways arranges and governs sinful actions. Though a complex arrangement of methods He governs sinful actions to accomplish His perfectly holy purposes. Yet He does this in such a way that the sinfulness of their acts arises only from the creatures and not from God. Because God is altogether holy and righteous, He can neither originate nor approve of sin.”[2]

Although God neither originates nor approves of sin, “He governs sinful actions to accomplish His perfectly holy purposes.” This truth is taught throughout the Bible, and the events of Genesis 27:1-40 illustrate God’s sovereign orchestration of all things, including sinful actions.

Don’t think for a single moment that God’s perfect will is in jeopardy because of all the nonsense in our world. This present sinful world is characteristically dull and misguided, scheming and underhanded, lying and deceitful. What Isaac, Rebekah, and Jacob did in one of their worst moments, the world is always doing as a matter of course. And God is working through it to accomplish His purposes: to advance the gospel, save sinners, bless His people, judge nations, and bring the ungodly to ruin.

The most remarkable instance of God accomplishing His perfect will through convoluted wickedness is what He accomplished at the cross. As the Christians prayed in Acts 4:27-28, “[For] truly in this city [Jerusalem] there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.” God’s predestined plan governed their sinful actions – and what they meant for evil, God meant for good! Jacob had been concerned about mocking his father and bringing a curse upon himself (Genesis 27:12). At the cross, the whole world mocked the Son of God and should have brought a curse upon itself, and yet the Son of God – unstained by sin, no deceit in his mouth, no underhanded dealings – the Son of God took the curse upon himself, so that all who turn to Him and bless Him might receive the blessing of salvation from Him. What Jesus did, He didn’t do by accident – He did it with eyes wide open, and with a heart wide open – that He might bring God’s blessing to you, even though you don’t deserve it. The blessing stands, all human folly notwithstanding, for those who trust Jesus Christ, God’s faithful Son, the only unflawed Hero.

ENDNOTES

[1] Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, The Book of Genesis (Ariel’s Bible Commentary). Fourth Edition. San Antonio: Ariel Ministries, 2020: p. 393.

[2] The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith: In Modern English by Stan Reeves. Cape Coral: Founders Press, 2017: p. 19-20.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Fruchtenbaum, Arnold G. The Book of Genesis (Ariel’s Bible Commentary). Fourth Edition. San Antonio: Ariel Ministries, 2020.

Steinmann, Andrew E. Genesis (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries). Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2019.