Isaac’s Blessing

Genesis 25:27-28:5 (The Message)

Today we get deeper in the life of Isaac.  First we read about Jacob and Esau and how Esau gave up his birthright for a bowl of stew. It occurs to us early on that Esau isn’t the brightest kid on earth.

Next we see that there is a famine and Isaac and Rebekah went to Gerar. God instructs them NOT to go to Egypt. There was a verse here that struck a cord with me:

^2-5 God appeared to him and said, “Don’t go down to Egypt; stay where I tell you. Stay here in this land and I’ll be with you and bless you. I’m giving you and your children all these lands, fulfilling the oath that I swore to your father Abraham. I’ll make your descendants as many as the stars in the sky and give them all these lands. All the nations of the Earth will get a blessing for themselves through your descendants. And why? Because Abraham obeyed my summons and kept my charge—my commands, my guidelines, my teachings.”

I attended a church with my family my whole life. Many of the people who attended that church attended with their families. Most of us were brought up by parents who walked with God.

Then I attended a church were most of the people came to know God at a point in their life. I felt silly for not having this great salvation story. It seemed the deeper you were in sin, the more amazing and revered your story was.  The first church like this I encountered I told the truth, that I had been brought up in church, attended Sunday School my whole life. They insisted that I was not a real Christian until I asked Jesus in my heart. I felt I always had Christ in my heart, since I was little.  They insisted that it wasn’t real unless I remembered it. This sent me on a very destructive spiral. I started a very bad rebellious streak against my family and friends.

When I encountered this type of thinking agian I was able to tell them that I was a run away who did drugs. In truth the farthest I ever ran was to a K-Mart two miles away, and I tried marijuana only once and decided it was stupid. But that story did the trick. Everyone there was jumping for joy that I was saved from Satan’s clutches and rejoiced with me that God delivered me from my sinful path. I thought they were all silly because I really had my faith, a faith my parents, my grandparents, my aunts, my uncles, my cousins all shared since I was a child. I just wasted a whole lot of years and hurt those who loved me so this church would believe I was “really” a Christian.

In the passage above we see that God is fulfilling an Oath, a Promise he made to Abraham and he is doing it through Abraham’s son, Isaac. How awesome as a parent to know that God’s promises to us are for our children as well.

Finally we come to the story of how Jacob steals Esau’s blessing. I have to admit I struggle with this story pretty hard. The blessing goes to Jacob as a result of a lie that Jacob tells.

^23-24 But as he was about to bless him he pressed him, “You’re sure? You are my son Esau?”"Yes. I am.”

Jacob gets the blessing, not Esau. Jacob gets the inheritence, not Esau. We follow Jacob’s descendents, not Esau’s.  And he lied to get it!!!

Any thoughts or ideas why this is acceptable? I thought we weren’t supposed to lie.

Finally, in the end Rebekah orders Jacob to her brother Laban who lived where Abraham was born. He asks him to find a wife there among her brother’s family. Rebekah didn’t care for the Hittite wives that Esau had.

What struck a cord with you today? Anything in particular?