Isaac and Rebekah : “Double Trouble”
Last week we left the newlyweds.
Many years passed and Rebekah did not become pregnant. Isaac knowing the faith his father and mother had regarding his own birth, prayed for her.
Isaac prayed hard to God for his wife because she was barren. God answered his prayer and Rebekah became pregnant. But the children tumbled and kicked inside her so much that she said, “If this is the way it’s going to be, why go on living?” She went to God to find out what was going on. God told her,
Two nations are in your womb,
two peoples butting heads while still in your body.
One people will overpower the other,
and the older will serve the younger.
Rebekah became pregnant and got more than the normal amount of movements. She became distressed. As a wise woman she was learning to take all things to God in prayer. God showed her the meaning of this. There would be conflict between the brothers. God foresaw that the younger would eventually follow his plan and be blessed.
Rebekah would never forget this.
Favourites
The babies were born, the first had lots of red hair, they called him Esau. The second came out with his fist around the others heel They called him Jacob.
As they grew Isaac favoured Esau, He was proud of this strong, hairy, sporting man who loved hunting.
He would kill an animal for food, cook it and present it to his father. He was a champion of the outdoors. Jacob on the other hand was a quiet thinker who stayed at home- a ‘plain’ man.
This “insignificant” man was the one who would carry on the promises given to Abraham.
Rebekah felt for Jacob, she remembered what the Lord God has said before the children were born. No doubt Rebekah had told Isaac but Isaac favoured Esau.
Isaac’s birth and his whole life were the fulfilment of the promises of God.
The fact Rebekah was chosen over all the daughters in the land, was an example of this.
29-30 One day Jacob was cooking a stew. Esau came in from the field, starved. Esau said to Jacob, “Give me some of that red stew—I’m starved!” That’s how he came to be called Edom (Red).
31 Jacob said, “Make me a trade: my stew for your rights as the firstborn.”
32 Esau said, “I’m starving! What good is a birthright if I’m dead?”
33-34 Jacob said, “First, swear to me.” And he did it. On oath Esau traded away his rights as the firstborn. Jacob gave him bread and the stew of lentils. He ate and drank, got up and left. That’s how Esau shrugged off his rights as the firstborn.
It is really strange that Esau was ready to agree to bargain his birthright for the small satisfaction of a meal of lentils which would only satisfy for the moment.
The importance of the inheritance didn’t seem to enter his thoughts, he was prepared to give way all his rights just for the greed of the moment.
Jacob, however, is serious. He asked Esau to swear before God.
Esau was a man who lived for the moment. He did what he wanted; married the daughters of the land against his Mother and Fathers wishes. He did not value the things of God.
Jacob certainly valued the birthright. As a person with the birthright the line would carry through him, however all his methods cannot be justified.
Isaac’s Blindness
Isaacs’s eyes had grown weak and he could not see clearly.
However it was not his physical blindness that caused the problem.
It was the blindness of his love for Esau.
Had Isaac seen things as God saw them, then he would have seen Esau’s heart.
Esau had no heart or interest in the things of God, and was a man who trusted in his own self and strength.
Surely Isaac remembered how God chose him over his brother Ishmael.
Surely he could have trusted God to see who was more suited to become father of the 12 tribes which were to come.
Sometimes when we don’t understand we must trust.
Right Desires but Wrong Methods
Isaac was getting old and he desired to bless Esau.
He told Esau to go hunting and make a “Stew” for him and he would then give him the blessing.
He did not care that God had said the younger son should have the blessing.
He loved Esau so much.
Rebekah, however really wanted to see the thing which God had told her would happen take place.
Jacob had never had his father’s love, yet was chosen by God.
She heard Isaac and Esau talking. What could she do? Rebekah worked out a plan to trick Isaac into blessing Jacob.
She dressed him up in Esau’s clothes, put the skin of a young goat on his hand so he would appear hairy to the blind Isaac.
It was like a drama:
Rebekah was the director and makeup artist. Jacob had the star role and Isaac fell for the plot.
Who was the bad guy? Jacob? Esau? Or Isaac, for not having taken notice of the Word from God years earlier ?
No-one was innocent.
The only genuine thing was the blessing which could not be taken back.
Rebekah had tried the only way she could think of to bring to pass what she believed was right,but her methods were questionable.
I am sure all of us at some time know what is right, yet have taken things into our own hands and gone about it in the wrong way.
Jacob was right to desire God’s best for his life, but for the rest of his life, he paid for his cheating.
He was cheated in marriage; He worked like a slave for Laban who cheated his wages over and over. His own son’s later cheated him.
Despite all this Jacob’s heart was toward God.
However, there is no excuse, God is patient with a heart who seeks him, sees his error, and turns away from it.
Esau was sorry he missed out, but never found it in his heart to repent.
We can be sorry about the results of our sin, but not sorry in our heart toward God.
Esau was sorry for himself.
Jacob with his faults went on to seek after God.
Jacob had to flee to his mother’s family. There we will hear of the next women in this family, Leah and Rachel.
Genesis 27:1 When Isaac had become an old man and was nearly blind, he called his eldest son, Esau, and said, “My son.”
“Yes, Father?”
2-4 “I’m an old man,” he said; “I might die any day now. Do me a favor: Get your quiver of arrows and your bow and go out in the country and hunt me some game. Then fix me a hearty meal, the kind that you know I like, and bring it to me to eat so that I can give you my personal blessing before I die.”
5-7 Rebekah was eavesdropping as Isaac spoke to his son Esau. As soon as Esau had gone off to the country to hunt game for his father, Rebekah spoke to her son Jacob. “I just overheard your father talking with your brother, Esau. He said, ‘Bring me some game and fix me a hearty meal so that I can eat and bless you with God’s blessing before I die.’
8-10 “Now, my son, listen to me. Do what I tell you. Go to the flock and get me two young goats. Pick the best; I’ll prepare them into a hearty meal, the kind that your father loves. Then you’ll take it to your father, he’ll eat and bless you before he dies.”
11-12 “But Mother,” Jacob said, “my brother Esau is a hairy man and I have smooth skin. What happens if my father touches me? He’ll think I’m playing games with him. I’ll bring down a curse on myself instead of a blessing.”
13 “If it comes to that,” said his mother, “I’ll take the curse on myself. Now, just do what I say. Go and get the goats.”
14 So he went and got them and brought them to his mother and she cooked a hearty meal, the kind his father loved so much.
15-17 Rebekah took the dress-up clothes of her older son Esau and put them on her younger son Jacob. She took the goatskins and covered his hands and the smooth nape of his neck. Then she placed the hearty meal she had fixed and fresh bread she’d baked into the hands of her son Jacob.
18 He went to his father and said, “My father!”
“Yes?” he said. “Which son are you?”
19 Jacob answered his father, “I’m your firstborn son Esau. I did what you told me. Come now; sit up and eat of my game so you can give me your personal blessing.”
20 Isaac said, “So soon? How did you get it so quickly?”
“Because your God cleared the way for me.”
21 Isaac said, “Come close, son; let me touch you—are you really my son Esau?”
22-23 So Jacob moved close to his father Isaac. Isaac felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice but the hands are the hands of Esau.” He didn’t recognize him because his hands were hairy, like his brother Esau’s.
23-24 But as he was about to bless him he pressed him, “You’re sure? You are my son Esau?”
“Yes. I am.”
25 Isaac said, “Bring the food so I can eat of my son’s game and give you my personal blessing.” Jacob brought it to him and he ate. He also brought him wine and he drank.
26 Then Isaac said, “Come close, son, and kiss me.”
27-29 He came close and kissed him and Isaac smelled the smell of his clothes. Finally, he blessed him,
Ahhh. The smell of my son
is like the smell of the open country
blessed by God.
May God give you
of Heaven’s dew
and Earth’s bounty of grain and wine.
May peoples serve you
and nations honor you.
You will master your brothers,
and your mother’s sons will honor you.
Those who curse you will be cursed,
those who bless you will be blessed.
30-31 And then right after Isaac had blessed Jacob and Jacob had left, Esau showed up from the hunt. He also had prepared a hearty meal. He came to his father and said, “Let my father get up and eat of his son’s game, that he may give me his personal blessing.”
32 His father Isaac said, “And who are you?”
“I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.”
33 Isaac started to tremble, shaking violently. He said, “Then who hunted game and brought it to me? I finished the meal just now, before you walked in. And I blessed him—he’s blessed for good!”
34 Esau, hearing his father’s words, sobbed violently and most bitterly, and cried to his father, “My father! Can’t you also bless me?”
35 “Your brother,” he said, “came here falsely and took your blessing.”
36 Esau said, “Not for nothing was he named Jacob, the Heel. Twice now he’s tricked me: first he took my birthright and now he’s taken my blessing.”
He begged, “Haven’t you kept back any blessing for me?”
37 Isaac answered Esau, “I’ve made him your master, and all his brothers his servants, and lavished grain and wine on him. I’ve given it all away. What’s left for you, my son?”
38 “But don’t you have just one blessing for me, Father? Oh, bless me my father! Bless me!” Esau sobbed inconsolably.
39-40 Isaac said to him,
You’ll live far from Earth’s bounty,
remote from Heaven’s dew.
You’ll live by your sword, hand-to-mouth,
and you’ll serve your brother.
But when you can’t take it any more
you’ll break loose and run free.
41 Esau seethed in anger against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him; he brooded, “The time for mourning my father’s death is close. And then I’ll kill my brother Jacob.”
42-45 When these words of her older son Esau were reported to Rebekah, she called her younger son Jacob and said, “Your brother Esau is plotting vengeance against you. He’s going to kill you. Son, listen to me. Get out of here. Run for your life to Haran, to my brother Laban. Live with him for a while until your brother cools down, until his anger subsides and he forgets what you did to him. I’ll then send for you and bring you back. Why should I lose both of you the same day?”
46 Rebekah spoke to Isaac, “I’m sick to death of these Hittite women. If Jacob also marries a native Hittite woman, why live?”