Jacob and Esau - Part 3

Genesis 27

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 weapons – 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.”

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.”

Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “But my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I’m a man with 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.”

So he went and got them and brought them to his mother, and she prepared some tasty food, just the way his father liked it. Then Rebekah took the best clothes of Esau her older son, which she had in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob. She also covered his hands and the smooth part of this neck with the goatskins. Then she handed to her son Jacob the tasty food nd the bread she had made.

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 blessed him. “Are you really my son Esau?”

“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 and said, “Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the LORD has blessed. May God give you of heaven’s dew and of 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.”

After Isaac finished blessing him and Jacob had scarcely left his father’s presence, his brother Esau came in from hunting. He too prepared some tasty food and brought it to his father. Then he said to him, “My father, sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your blessing.”

His father Isaac asked him, “Who are you?”

“I am your son,” he answered, “your firstborn, Esau.”

Isaac trembled violently and said, “Who was it, then, that hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it just before you came and I blessed him – and indeed he will be blessed!”

When Esau heard his father’s words, he burst out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me – me too, my father!”

But he said, “Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing.”

Esau said, “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob?* He has deceived me these two times. He took my birthright, and now he’s taken my blessing!” Then he asked, “Haven’t you reserved any blessing for me?”

Isaac answered Esau, “I have made him lord over you and have made all his relatives his servants, and I have sustained him with grain and new wine. So what can I possible do for you, my son?”

Esau said to his father, “Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father!” Then Esau wept aloud.

*Note: When Esau asks “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob?” he is referring to his father’s words that Jacob was deceitful in tricking Isaac into blessing him rather than Esau. In Hebrew, the name Jacob means he grasps the heel, which is what Jacob was doing to Esau when the boys were born. Picture someone grabbing the heel of another to trip them up and cause them to stumble, and you can feel the pain Esau is feeling over the deception of his brother.

Jacob and Esau receiving their inheritance is very similar to what we do today when we draft a Last Will and Testament; in the days of Jacob and Esau, however, there was no “get it in writing.” A father’s spoken blessing upon his son became the agreement, or binding contract, that guaranteed the inheritance. So there is good reason for Rebekah and Jacob to panic when they learn that Isaac is about to pronounce his blessing upon Esau. Even though Esau already swore on oath to Jacob to exchange his birthright for a bowl of stew, the rights that Jacob has to the birthright aren’t binding unless the blessing is given to him.

The blessing technically belongs to Jacob, and Esau should no longer be entitled to the rights associated with it, including being appointed to the position of leader in his family/clan and receiving double the inheritance Jacob will receive (as the younger son, Jacob is not entitled to as much as Esau). Any time prior to the ceremony being performed and the blessing being spoken, the father can take the birthright away from the eldest son and give it to any of the other children that he chooses. It is still Isaac’s decision, as the father, to choose which son should receive this blessing. He does not have to give the birthright to Esau, he can choose Jacob. But we already know that Esau is his favorite son, that he loves Esau. We also know that he doesn’t have knowledge of the prophecy Rebekah received because he would not go against God’s plan and give the blessing to Esau if he is aware that God clearly wants it to be given to Jacob.

There are many ways Rebekah and Jacob could handle this situation without resorting to deception and lies to accomplish their goal. Instead of being jealous and fearful of the favoritism Isaac feels toward Esau, they could bring their case before Isaac and ask him to do right by the oath Esau has already sworn. It would then be up to Isaac to break a covenant that has been established between the two brothers. Instead of keeping Isaac and Esau in the dark regarding the prophecy she received, Rebekah could use this opportunity to speak up for Jacob and explain to Isaac what God revealed to her before the twin boys were born. Isaac could then go before the LORD, ask Him if Rebekah’s account is true, and follow God’s plan by giving the blessing to Jacob. Rebekah and Jacob also have the option of calling on God and asking Him to intervene on behalf of Jacob since they already know the prophecy Rebekah was given.

The last option, and probably the hardest, is for Rebekah and Jacob to simply trust God and be patient. That’s the hardest option for many of us. I speak from personal experience. There have been many times in my life when I saw something I wanted, or a situation I knew should go a certain way and it didn’t seem to be heading down that path, and instead of allowing God to work it out the way He wanted according to His plan, I manipulated and tried to steer things to go in my favor. If God created the universe, our world, and everything in it including every individual human on earth, I’m positive He is capable of fulfilling His own plans for my life and was just as capable of doing the same for Jacob. It’s when we really want something, though, that we tend to try and take control from God and things get skewed and messed up.

Rebekah obviously wants Jacob to be the rightful heir of the Jewish nation and receive the inheritance God promised. But instead of trusting God, even up until the last possible moment for Him to act, she is scared and decides to make things happen that God never intended. Jacob isn’t innocent in this process. Obviously he has a heart for God which is why God chose him in the womb to be the future leader for his people. And Jacob must have known about the prophecy because not only did he look for a way to make Esau give up his birthright, he also never questions his mother when she suggests he deceive Isaac by pretending to be Esau in order to receive his blessing. Jacob is afraid of getting caught in the act, and so he and his mother devise a plan to disguise his identity from Isaac, but Jacob isn’t afraid to try and take the blessing his father was prepared to give to Esau. That’s a bold and brash move for a young man who knows he is not his father’s favorite son and that he has no right to claim the birthright since he’s the youngest, unless you consider that he is most likely aware of the prophecy and assumes he can do no wrong in taking the blessing.

There are several opportunities for Rebekah and Jacob to repent of their deception and follow God’s way instead of their own. Jacob tries to explain to his mother that if he is found out, he will be cursed rather than blessed. Rebekah doesn’t take that opportunity to weigh the consequences of their actions. She simply says, “let the curse fall on me.” She is so wrapped up in thinking God is not going to work on behalf of Jacob to bless him, that it’s the final curtain call and they must do something to make sure God’s plan works out, that she devises a plan to deceive her husband and involves her son in the manipulation. Jacob is just as guilty. It may be his mother’s plan, but it takes a lot of time to find the goats, butcher them, prepare the meat, cook the food to Isaac’s taste, and then dress in Esau’s clothes and apply a costume of goat hair in order to fool his father. But he never looks back, his mind is set on lying and stealing to gain what he knows is rightfully his according to God’s revelation to his mother and Esau’s oath. Isaac attempts to figure out who is in his presence as he can no longer see clearly, and in trying to deduce the individual presented before him, Isaac gives Jacob five chances to repent and confess his crime of deception:

1. When Jacob enters the tent and announces himself to Isaac, Isaac asks “Who is it?” Jacob may have entered pretending to be Esau, but his voice has already given him away. Isaac was expecting Esau, and it clearly doesn’t sound like his firstborn son. This is Jacob’s first chance to admit his identity. But he lies and asserts that he is Esau.

2. Remember Esau is a very skilled hunter and has a close relationship with his father. Isaac would know approximately how long it should take Esau to go out in the open country, find and kill wild game, and then come back to camp and prepare a meal for his father. It hasn’t been long enough for Isaac’s taste, so he asks, “How did you find it so quickly, my son?” Again, Jacob lies and tries to make sure Isaac doesn’t question the lie by answering that God gave him success in the hunt. At this point he has compounded his deceit by falsely using God as an accomplice.

3. Isaac, still wary, bids Jacob to come close to him so he can touch him and know whether or not this person in his presence is Esau. Jacob obliges and allows his father to touch the goat hair on his hands, thereby deceiving him into believing the hands belong to Esau.

4. Isaac feels the hands, but he still hears the voice clearly, and it does not belong to Esau. It sounds like Jacob. Isaac states this anomaly out loud, and then asks, “Are you really my son Esau?” Again, Jacob lies and answers, “I am.”

5. Finally, Isaac prepares to go through with the ceremony and asks for his son to bring him the food he’s prepared. After he has eaten, Isaac asks Jacob to come close to him and kiss him. Jacob again obliges, and in so doing the deceptive costume he is wearing, made up of Esau’s clothes and not his own, takes effect and Isaac smells the scent of Esau.

During any one of these moments, Jacob could have turned away from his lying and manipulation and confessed his sin. This example is just as relevant today as it was in Jacob’s day. How often do you start down a path of lies and deceit, and along the way you are given opportunities to confess and tell the truth? Even though Jacob was technically right to receive Isaac’s blessing on two counts (God had already foretold that he would rule over Esau, and Esau had previously sold his birthright to Jacob), he went about receiving the blessing by tricking his father into believing a lie. His attitude was not one of trust in God but rather of feeling entitled, and God has revealed to us throughout the Bible that arrogance, pride, and lies are destructive sins that He cannot stand.

Esau was foolish to sell his birthright, and if he had a heart focused on God and on doing what is right and good in God’s eyes, he never would have been tempted to sell his birthright in the first place. Also, once he had sold it, if he were an honest man he would have confessed this to his father and allowed Jacob to receive the blessing.

In the end, neither son understood that you have to face the consequences of your decisions, and God’s law of “you reap what you sow” is always in effect. Esau wept bitterly because he had failed to desire the things of God and instead wanted temporary things that felt good to him; as a consequence, he lost the blessing of his father. When the story continues, Jacob will end up feeling the effects of his deceit for years as he is forced to flee to his uncle’s territory because Esau threatens to kill him, he falls in love with a woman but is tricked into marrying her sister, he is denied the rightful wages he has earned working for his uncle and is shortchanged, and his brother ends up founding a nation that becomes the enemy of Israel (the nation Jacob’s 12 sons create).

It is always wise, even though it’s difficult, to wait on God and let Him accomplish His plans in His time and in His way. When we take control and do the things we want to do, the things contrary to God and His character, we suffer from it.