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"Lest We Miss
the Point: It is Grace" Text Comment v. 34 The narrative picks up where it left off at 25:34 with the tension between Isaac's twin sons. The interlude of peace and prosperity in chapter 26, which described Isaac and Rebekah's life before the twins were born is forgotten. v. 4 The blessing, along with the birthright, according to the customs of that time, made the son the primary carrier of the family's heritage: economic, social, and religious. He would define the family's understanding of itself. [Waltke] v. 23 This is a weaker use of the word "blessing." Here it means just "welcome". The blessing that Jacob is seeking comes in v. 27. v. 37 This was the sacred custom of those times, the blessing of the patriarch. And we see God using its inviolable laws to accomplish his will. v. 38 In a proper patriarchal blessing, both sons would have been present to receive appropriate blessing. But Esau had been summoned alone because Isaac intended to confer a blessing only on him. Esau went along with this scheme and now is left with nothing. v. 40 Throughout the OT Edom, the descendants of Esau, appears as a warlike nation, often hostile to Israel. This is one of the most dramatic accounts in the Bible. As one commentator describes the dramatic tension: "Will Isaac [see through] Jacob's disguise, as he blindly gropes over the goatskins draped round his neck? Will Esau arrive back from the hunt before Isaac has eaten the special stew and blessed Jacob? We wait to discover whether Rebekah and Jacob will get away with their daring ruse." [Wenham, 214] And the chapter is a most powerful presentation of fundamental religious truth, both in itself, and as part of its larger context. We will have to return to this same text again to cull from it still other primary lessons. But, there is no doubt about the great lesson here -- though it may be missed, if we do not pay attention to the details. For what is so striking and so important about this piece of Isaac's family history is that everyone of the principal players is profoundly sinful. If you want to know the lesson of Genesis 27, it is this. That salvation is of the Lord. We do not deserve or earn it. Indeed, it must be given to us and kept in our hands despite ourselves, in defiance of our unworthiness. If left to ourselves, we would perish. If it depended upon us, our goodness, our faithfulness, even our acting on the strength of God's promises, we would lose everything. God must give us his grace in spite of ourselves. Gordon Wenham, in his excellent commentary on Genesis [p. 216], summarizes the lesson of the vv. 1-40 this way:
Because the demonstration of this is so thoroughgoing in the chapter, because it is the obvious and powerful lesson of the chapter, I want to be sure you hear the text speaking as loudly as it does, so let me elaborate the sense of the text in respect to each of the principle players. We begin with Esau as the chapter itself does, assuming that the chapter division should really be between 26:33 and 26:34. Indeed, Esau's marrying outside the faith, adding to the family women who had no interest in God's covenant with Abraham, is the frame for this entire account. It is a more important fact than might otherwise appear, as is indicated by the fact that it begins the narrative here in 26:34, with reference to the grief these women brought to Isaac and Rebekah and it ends this particular episode in 27:46, the last verse of the chapter. And in the opening verses of the next chapter, Jacob is explicitly told not to marry a woman from the surrounding peoples, in other words, not to do what Esau his brother had done. We have already learned, in chapter 25, that Esau was not a man of faith, that he was a sensual man, a shortsighted man, a man for this world, on one occasion when he was hungry, willing to sell his birthright for a bowl of stew. Esau is a co-conspirator in his father's plot to give the blessing to him, -- and in that he is almost certainly guilty of having broken the oath he made to his brother, selling his birthright to Jacob for the stew (26:33) -- but, because he has already been identified as a man without faith, he is the least significant of the players in this drama. Isaac, on the other hand, is clearly the one most at fault. All are at fault, but Isaac chief among them. We might not see this at first glance as it appears that he is the one who is deceived, but, in fact, Isaac's behavior is clearly reprehensible and at a far deeper level of rebellion against God than, say, his wife Rebekah's. This is not only because, as the head of his house, Isaac was responsible for its spiritual life. The fact is, Isaac is revealed here in this episode as a man at war both with the will of God and his own conscience. Remember, Isaac had faith -- the Bible tells us that, tells us that he will be in heaven -- but it is not on display here, at the critical moment. Apparently, it had not been on display for some time before. We read in 26:34 that Esau was 40 years of age when he married his first wife, a Hittite woman. Now Isaac as well had been 40 when he married, though that was an usually long time to wait for marriage in that time and culture. But, in Isaac's case, his father Abraham had not left the matter to a venture; he had been assiduously careful to ensure that his son would not intermarry with the daughters of the land, but would have a wife who was amenable to the spiritual convictions of the family. Abraham had nothing of the spirit of too many modern parents, even Christian parents, who leave very important decisions to be made by sons and daughters, even when they are quite young. But where was Isaac's influence in Esau's life? Where was Isaac's effort to ensure that Esau married "in the Lord"? Isaac was wrapped up in other things besides the spiritual life of his sons. He was providing no direction for them. His patience, his passivity, which we may see as a natural trait, and as a virtue in the previous chapter, where he preferred to move rather than fight, has become a vice -- spiritual lethargy and inactivity. It is special temptation for the patient and the passive personality. [Wenham, 215] Indeed, in 28:8 we learn that Esau discovered how displeasing his choice of wives was to his father only after Jacob had been sent away to Paddan Aram. Isaac was an absent, disinterested, spiritually unfaithful father. He betrayed his children and God's interests in his children. But, he still had a very soft spot in his heart for Esau. Esau was clearly his favorite son. Notice how in v. 5 Esau is called Isaac's son, while Jacob is called Rebekah's son in v. 6. Esau was a man's man and Isaac loved to eat the game he brought home. Isaac was a man who was making all his decisions at this time on the basis of sensual considerations. And so, we read in 2-4 that he told Esau to hunt some wild game and prepare it for him, for he had in mind to give Esau his blessing. But there are problems here. This plan smells to high heaven. First, Isaac wasn't about to die in any obvious way. No one else detected it. As a matter of fact, we learn later, Isaac lived many years longer. Indeed, he was still alive when Jacob returned from Paddan Aram some 20 years later, as you will read in 35:28-29. This appeal to his soon coming death sounds like a ploy. What is more, in any proper ceremony of patriarchal blessing in that culture, both of the sons would have been summoned and each given the blessing appropriate to each. What is more, the ceremony itself would be public, not private, an extended family affair. Why the secrecy? The whole family will be gathered and present when Jacob blesses his sons (49:1). Israel will be present by tribes when Moses blesses them. But here we have a plan that Isaac and Esau alone know about, or, at least, they think no one knows but they. The fact is, Isaac knows that what he is doing is controversial. His conscience indeed tells him that what he is doing is not right. He knows that his son has profoundly violated the covenant by marrying Hittite wives. He knows Esau has no taste for the things of God. Esau's wives were a source of grief to him. Still, much more important, Isaac knows that God prefers Jacob, for this was revealed to Isaac and Rebekah before the twins were born. When he blesses Jacob, thinking him Esau, he as much as seeks to use God's power - the patriarchal blessing - to overturn God's will for he says of Esau, in v. 29, what God had already said would be true of Jacob. But, Esau is his favorite. The test for Isaac is whether he would follow his conscience or his appetites and worldly preferences. And, unfortunately, Isaac puts "appetite before theology" [Waltke]. Or as Gordon Wenham says, "Isaac's sensuality is more powerful than his theology." The only reason given for Isaac calling Esau alone to give him his blessing is that Esau can prepare for Isaac, "the kind of tasty food that I like." That is the great emphasis of the narrator and it places Isaac's motivations in the most unfavorable light. This man really did make the most important decisions of his life according to the direction of his taste buds. That is the point being made here. The word "game" is found seven times in this narrative; the word for "tasty food" is found six times! Isaac knows that what he is doing is not right, but he does it anyway. His secrecy condemns him! And all of that, of course, presumes a terrible development in Isaac's marriage. This marriage that was made in heaven and that once was so full of strong feeling, is now deeply dysfunctional, as we would say today. Isaac and Rebekah did not live happily ever after. They aren't even talking about the most important and precious things in their lives. We have a portrait here of Isaac that is thoroughly disagreeable. He is a man of his senses here, not a man of faith. And, of course, it will be his senses that let him down. He counted on his senses instead of on the Word of God and look what happened to him and to his plan! Here is a man "following the promptings of his palate and seeking inspiration through -- of all things -- his nose (27)." [Kidner] As Dr. Waltke points out, we Christians are people of the ear -- we listen to the voice of our Shepherd -- not people of the eye. When we become people of the eye, or the taste buds, as Isaac did, we betray our life and our Shepherd -- who gives us all the direction we need, but does not yet come to us that we might see him with our eyes. Among the four players in this drama, Isaac is clearly the one who fails most profoundly and who betrays the covenant God made with him most completely. And, then, there is Rebekah. She overheard her husband hatching his plot and she promptly made her own plans to overturn his plans and seize the blessing for her son, that is, her favorite son, Jacob. Now, it was right that Jacob should have the blessing. Both parents knew that. And Rebekah could be seen here as staking her life on convictions that she had taken directly from the Word that God had spoken to her before her sons were born:
After all, we hear her, in v. 12, willing to be cursed if her plan fails. But her methods were deplorable, and not the methods of faith in God at all. Indeed, they are despicable. Deceiving a blind man is something everyone regards as despicable. And no conscience about it all on display. We see her hatching her plot, giving Jacob his instructions, preparing him to feel like and smell like Esau, and cooking the food just as she knows Isaac will like it. And then, after it all worked like a charm, she has to get busy again to save Jacob from Esau's wrath, spinning another lie to her husband, as we will read in 27:46. She's smarter than her husband -- at least in the way of worldly wisdom -- and she plays him for a fool. So much for love. Notice, when she is speaking to Jacob, the way she refers to Isaac as "your father" rather than "my husband." She isn't going to let her do-nothing husband stand in the way of her getting what she wants for Jacob. And, finally, there is Jacob, who is to be, of course, the main character of the next section of the history of salvation and the one who will carry forward the covenant with God and carry the seed of the covenant -- from which Christ will eventually come -- forward to the next generation. Jacob enters the story when his mother tells him of her plan to steal the blessing from Esau. He objects, but his objection is not a moral or spiritual one. He doesn't ask whether it would be right to do such a thing to his father and to his brother. He only expresses his reservations concerning the likelihood that his mother's plan will work. "But my brother Esau is a hairy man..." And, what is more, if the plan doesn't work, he is afraid of what his father might do to him. Nothing suggests here any concern for the honor of God, for the love of his father, for the integrity of his own character. As soon as his mother convinces him that she has an answer for the problems he raises, he is willing to practice the deception. And he pulls it off with gusto. But, that is not the worst part of his behavior, disgusting as all of that was. The worst part comes in v. 20 when, needing to convince his father that he could have found and killed the game, brought it home, prepared it, and got it to his father's table in so short a time, Jacob says, "The Lord your God gave me success..." This is one of the most egregious and blasphemous betrayals of God's name in all the Bible. Here is Jacob taking the Lord's name into this deceit, this lie. Covering his own utter lack of faith in and loyalty to God with God's own name. He should have been struck dead where he stood! So much for the covenant family and the people that God had favored with the knowledge of himself, his grace, his forgiveness, and the promise of eternal life. They descend here into one bitter, selfish, cruel struggle to end up on top! There isn't an admirable one among them, not an admirable act, not an admirable attitude. And this is the bunch -- at least three of them -- whom God will not only bless with eternal life but use to save the world! And what does all of that prove but this:
We are broken people, sinful, selfish people. We all are in all these ways on display here and many others. Did you notice? They all sin in different ways: some are strong personalities (Esau and Rebekah) and some weak (Isaac and Jacob). Some plot and others just go along; some sin most by omission and some by commission. It makes no difference. And, what is even worse and more striking. Here the believers look even worse than the unbelievers! I've been reading recently Stephen Ambrose's history of the Lewis and Clark expedition, Undaunted Courage -- I'm on a Stephen Ambrose kick, these days, the third book I've read by him in a month -- and have been struck by how different from one another the Indian tribes they encountered were in terms of moral character: honesty, generosity, kindness and so on. Some were terribly cruel, dishonest, hard-hearted. But others were strikingly honest in their dealings and kind. In actual fact, the Nez Pearce Indians and the Walla Wallas were more honest than Lewis and Clark and their men were to the Indians, and more generous, hospitable, and more kind. [349] And here Esau still looks better in certain respects than Jacob does. This is the truth of the matter with all the bark on. Here is proof that Christians don't get favors from God because they are better than non-Christians! God granting his salvation in spite of us, in defiance of what seems to be virtually our daring him to judge and condemn us! And still he loves and still he saves. This is not the world's doctrine. But it is the Bible's doctrine. No one deserves anything but punishment from God. If anyone is to be saved, it is by his grace alone. A grace that gives us his blessing and then refuses to take it away even when we spit on his gift times without number. That discovery, that conviction, taken deep into the heart and kept there as a living thing is the secret to all of life and truth and the secret to all of happiness. Ask yourself: do I see myself in these people -- I certainly do; you certainly should; you are kidding yourself if you don't? And do I see God and his grace as this mighty thing that makes possible the salvation of folk who don't even seem to want to be saved -- at least don't seem to show such a desire by their actions? To say "yes" to both those questions, and to say it from the heart, is what it means to be a Christian, is how one comes to be saved, and how one comes to live forever with God in heaven. This is the truth that sets men free! |
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