In the stories of Abraham and his offspring, we have seen two intertwined threads appear and continue throughout the generations. The first thread is the golden thread of God’s sovereignty and covenant faithfulness and love. He continues to be faithful to the promises he made to Abraham and to his choice of him and his offspring as the means by which he will bless the whole world. But the second thread weaving its way through these stories is the black thread of human sin and foolishness and its consequences. God promises Abraham that he and Sarah will have a child in their old age, the child of promise. But they get impatient and try to help God along. Sarah gives her Egyptian handmaid Hagar to Abraham and he has a child with her, his firstborn Ishmael. But God reiterates that it is not through Ishmael that the promise will come. Thirteen years later, Isaac is born to Sarah just as God promised. But the subsequent division and conflict in the family caused by the rivalry between Sarah and Hagar threatened the fulfilment of the promises. Then Abraham is tested by being asked to sacrifice Isaac. And when God sees his faith in the promise survive this ultimate test, he substitutes a ram for the sacrifice, something that looks forward to the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus, who dies in our place on the cross. We also see in these stories how three times Abraham and Isaac jeopardise the promise by passing off their wives as their sister and running the risk of having pagan kings take them into their harems. And three times God rescues them through unbelievers who are more morally upright than the patriarchs are. In fact if there is one thing these chapters of Genesis teach more clearly than anything, it is that God’s choice of his people is purely by grace and mercy alone, on the basis of their trust in his promise, and not on the basis of anything they do or are. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, not to mention their wives and concubines, all show very clearly that they are thoroughly self-centred, sinful individuals just like you or me. They are not saintly spiritual super humans.

Nowhere does this truth come out more than in the sorry episode we read about last week in chapter 27, where two sides of the family conspire against one another for the birthright and blessing that goes with it. Isaac believed God’s promises, it’s just that he disagreed with God over which child should be the heir and the one through whom the promise would continue. He favoured Isaac, but God had told Rebekah before the twins were born that the older would serve the younger. It was Jacob who would be the promised ruler of the descendants of Abraham, not Esau. Just as Isaac and not Ishmael was the chosen one. Rebekah on her part believed God’s word to her about Jacob, but she and Jacob used sneaky and unjust means to secure the promised blessing for Jacob and not Esau, tricking Isaac into giving the blessing to Jacob instead. They all acted unrighteously. And yet out of all that ungodly mess, God’s purposes and plan still come through intact. Man proposes, but God disposes. In the end the unrighteous acts of men and women redound to his glory and praise. As the scripture says elsewhere, “Let God be true, though every man a liar.” God’s righteousness and faithfulness do not depend on us. And isn’t that a great relief?!

27:41-45 Esau’s Envy & Rebekah’s Choice

But now the sad story continues in verse 41 of chapter 27. And although God’s promise to the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, is unscathed in all of this, we see once again the earthly consequences of their sin working out in the lives of this family. It says “Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him.” Now that could mean because of the blessing Isaac gave Jacob, or because of the leftover, second rate blessing Isaac gave Esau. It’s a bit unclear who the ‘him’ in the sentence is referring back to. I suspect it’s mainly the blessing that Esau himself received that has made him so angry. Listen again to what Isaac said “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.” Apart from that small consolation of occasionally being able to break away from serving his brother, there is nothing of any comfort whatsoever to Esau in that blessing. In fact he would have been better not to have asked Isaac for a further blessing at all, wouldn’t he? No blessing would have been better than this one. And so Esau is bitter and angry towards Jacob.

Now where have we heard this before? Doesn’t it sound vaguely ? Does this situation and this behaviour remind you of someone else in the story of Genesis? Isn’t it rather reminiscent of Cain, who killed his brother Abel? And notice how similar the attitude of the two is. It was because Cain’s sacrifice and heart attitude to God were not good that God looked with favour on Abel and his sacrifice. But Cain became jealous, transferring the fault in his mind from himself to Abel and so he killed him. Here, Esau does the same. It is his fault, not Jacob’s, that he despised the promises of God and thought so lightly of his birthright that he swore an oath to sell it to Jacob for a pot of stew. And he should have realised that with the birthright went the blessing of the elder son. But he blames Jacob for the whole sorry state of affairs, and like Cain, he plans to kill his brother.

One of the things these chapters, 27 and 28 show us is just how canny and influential Rebekah is. Not only is she clearly the neck that moves the head when it comes to manipulating her husband’s authority, but like most mothers, she always knows what’s happening. She overheard Isaac’s plot to bless Esau. And now she hears what Esau has said about his desire to kill Jacob. Again we see the consistent personality differences between these two fraternal twins. If it had been Jacob plotting to kill his brother, there’s no way he would have blurted it out for anyone to hear. He would have done it quietly and secretly. But Esau is one of those hotheaded outgoing extroverts who wears his emotions on his sleeve. He is impetuous and hot blooded and shares whatever is on his mind with whoever is listening to him. The text doesn’t say who it was that heard his words and told Rebekah, but some well meaning servant or family member goes to her because they know she will know what to do about it. It’s interesting that they don’t go to Isaac with the information, isn’t it? And Rebekah does act and act swiftly.

Rebekah is one of the most tragic figures in this story. She is a great example of the self-sacrificial love of a mother for her children. But of course she is also a great example of the folly of having favourites among your children. There is a tragic sadness in her situation. She tells Jacob to flee to her brother Laban in Paddan Aram, and she says “why should I lose both of you in one day.” But the sad irony is, she does lose both of them by sending Jacob away. She has already lost Esau, as his marriage to the Canaanite women shows. He is going to dwell away from the promised land and his children will become the enemies of the children of Jacob. And already his relationship with his mother must have suffered irretrievable loss. How could he trust her again when she had so clearly on every occasion sided with Jacob? And despite what she says here – “when your brother is no longer angry with you and forgets what you have done to him, I will send word for you to come back here” – in fact she never sees her favourite son again. Not that we know of. We are not told when and where Rebekah died, except right at the end of Genesis we are told that she was buried in the cave of Machpelah with Abraham and Sarah and Isaac. But she is not there when Jacob and Esau bury their father, and must have died before him. At the end of chapter thirty five we are told that Jacob came to his father at Mamre, just before Isaac dies. But not to his mother. Never again would they meet. Rebekah has paid a heavy price for her devotion to her son Jacob and to God’s promises through him.

27:46; 28:6-9 Esau Unlucky in Love

In verse 46 and also chapter 28 verses 6 to 9, we see that Esau too continues to suffer. Marital bliss eludes him and he discovers too late just how much his parents have been grieved by his choice of unbelieving wives from amongst the Canaanites who do not worship the Lord. He ends up a sad and marginalized figure, living a semi-pagan life on the edges of the land, estranged from his mother and brother and even in the end from the father he loves because of his bad choices. But he has no one to blame but himself, and as we saw last week the New Testament urges us not to be like Esau, but rather to regard the promise of God as being of more worth than gratifying the desires of the flesh and pursuing sensory satisfaction in this life. Esau is the great example of the unspiritual man.

27:46-28:5 Jacob’s Future Life Mapped Out for Him

But in verse 46 and on into chapter 28 we see Jacob’s future life mapped out for him. Notice how cleverly Rebekah handles the situation, making it appear to Isaac that it is his idea to send Jacob away so that he can get a wife, when her primary aim is to get him away from Esau where he will be safe. Unfortunately, at the same time she is rubbing salt into Esau’s wounds by indirectly bringing up the matter of his ungodly wives.  She says “I’m disgusted with living because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes a wife from among the women of this land, from Hittite women like these, my life will not be worth living.” And any husband with half a brain knows that when a wife says her life will not be worth living the implication is that neither will yours mate! So Isaac sends Jacob away to get a wife from amongst Rebekah’s relatives. And because the directive has come from Isaac, there is nothing Esau can do about it. Furthermore, Isaac gives Jacob ANOTHER blessing. And what this shows is that Isaac has now completely surrendered to the will of God for his children. He has finally and completely acknowledged that Jacob really is the one, not Esau. And so he prophesies over him, saying  “May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful...” I’ll say a bit more about this blessing in just a moment. But first, what are the lessons we can learn from this passage and the story of Isaac and his two sons?

Lessons from this passage

1. First there are negative lessons, aren’t there? One of those is how Esau’s envy led him to ruin the whole family life of Isaac’s clan. Pride & Envy must be put behind us.

NT texts...Rom 12:14-21; 1 Cor 3:3

The New Testament puts it this way, in Romans 12, reading from verse 14 it says: “Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be conceited. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honourable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “If you enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by doing so you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Unfortunately those kind of sentiments found no place in Esau’s heart and it ruined him and those he loved.

2. Rebekah paid a hefty price for her conspiracy with Jacob – she never saw him again. Whilst this exemplifies the self-sacrificing love of a mother for her favourite son, and also her faith in believing God’s promise, it simultaneously highlights that she acted hastily without consulting God and paid the price at an earthly level for her sinful deceit. If we use ungodly means to try to bring about God’s purposes, we too will pay the price. The apostle Paul says “but we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s Word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.” [2 Cor 4:2 ESV]

3. We see in these stories of Esau and Jacob a theme resurfacing that first appeared back in Genesis 4 with Cain and Abel. That is, the theme of the righteous remnant according to God’s sovereign choice. Cain, the elder child, killed his brother Abel and forfeited his right to be the one through whom the righteous line would come that would lead in the end to the promised saviour of the world. Abel was replaced with Seth, and through him God’s plan continued. At the time of Noah, after the flood, Shem was chosen over Ham and Japheth. God chose one man, Abraham, and gave him more specific promises that foretold how God would bring about a return to the situation in the garden of Eden, where God’s people were living in God’s place under his rule and care. But the promise again passed, not to his older son Ishmael, but to the younger son Isaac, the child of the promise. And again in this generation, it is the younger son Jacob and not the older son Esau through whom the chosen remnant continues. The New Testament tells us that we who are in Christ are the Remnant that God’s choice of Jacob over Esau foreshadows. Because in the end, the Remnant is narrowed down again to just one man, the true Seed of Abraham, the Lord Jesus Christ. And by faith in him, we are united with him as the Remnant of God, his chosen one.

4. Despite all of their best efforts to wreck the process, God’s plan of salvation still stands. He speaks to Jacob through Isaac’s further blessing of him, which amounts to a prophetic utterance. “May God Almighty bless you and keep you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples [ESV ‘company of peoples’ – first mention of the congregation of God’s people, the Church, which begins at Sinai]. May He give you and your descendants the blessing given to Abraham, so that you may take possession of the land where you now live as an alien, the land God gave to Abraham.” God’s purposes stood, and still stand. He has promised us, in the person of his Son, that we will be a great people, a community of peoples, in God’s place under God’s rule. That rule is seen now on earth in the church and will be seen perfectly in heaven. And God’s perfect ruler is our saviour, a descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Seed of Abraham, the one through whom all peoples on earth have been blessed.