Genesis 27 Study – “Isaac Blesses Jacob” – “Esau’s Lost Blessing” – “Jacob Sent to Laban”
Isaac Blesses Jacob
27 Now it came to pass, when Isaac was old and his eyes were so dim that he could not see, that he called Esau his older son and said to him, “My son.”
And he answered him, “Here I am.”
2 Then he said, “Behold now, I am old. I do not know the day of my death. 3 Now therefore, please take your weapons, your quiver, and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me. 4 And make me [a]savory food, such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die.”
5 Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt game and to bring it. 6 So Rebekah spoke to Jacob her son, saying, “Indeed I heard your father speak to Esau your brother, saying, 7 ‘Bring me game and make [b]savory food for me, that I may eat it and bless you in the presence of the Lord before my death.’ 8 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to what I command you. 9 Go now to the flock and bring me from there two choice kids of the goats, and I will make savory food from them for your father, such as he loves. 10 Then you shall take it to your father, that he may eat it, and that he may bless you before his death.”
11 And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Look, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth-skinned man. 12 Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be a deceiver to him; and I shall bring a curse on myself and not a blessing.”
13 But his mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, get them for me.” 14 And he went and got them and brought them to his mother, and his mother made [c]savory food, such as his father loved. 15 Then Rebekah took the choice clothes of her elder son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son. 16 And she put the skins of the kids of the goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. 17 Then she gave the savory food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.
18 So he went to his father and said, “My father.”
And he said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?”
19 Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn; I have done just as you told me; please arise, sit and eat of my game, that your soul may bless me.”
20 But Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?”
And he said, “Because the Lord your God brought it to me.”
21 Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not.” 22 So Jacob went near to Isaac his father, and he felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” 23 And he did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands; so he blessed him.
24 Then he said, “Are you really my son Esau?”
He said, “I am.”
25 He said, “Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son’s game, so that my soul may bless you.” So, he brought it near to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank. 26 Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come near now and kiss me, my son.” 27 And he came near and kissed him; and he smelled the smell of his clothing, and blessed him and said:
“Surely, the smell of my son Is like the smell of a field Which the Lord has blessed. 28 Therefore may God give you Of the dew of heaven, Of the fatness of the earth, And plenty of grain and wine. 29 Let peoples serve you, And nations bow down to you. Be master over your brethren, And let your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, And blessed be those who bless you!”
Esau’s Lost Hope
30 Now it happened, as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting. 31 He also had made [d]savory food, and brought it to his father, and said to his father, “Let my father arise and eat of his son’s game, that your soul may bless me.”
32 And his father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?”
So, he said, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.”
33 Then Isaac trembled exceedingly, and said, “Who? Where is the one who hunted game and brought it to me? I ate all of it before you came, and I have blessed him—and indeed he shall be blessed.”
34 When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, “Bless me—me also, O my father!”
35 But he said, “Your brother came with deceit and has taken away you’re blessing.”
36 And Esau said, “Is he not rightly named [e]Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright, and now look, he has taken away my blessing!” And he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?”
37 Then Isaac answered and said to Esau, “Indeed I have made him your master, and all his brethren I have given to him as servants; with grain and wine I have [f]sustained him. What shall I do now for you, my son?”
38 And Esau said to his father, “Have you only one blessing, my father? Bless me—me also, O my father!” And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.
39 Then Isaac his father answered and said to him:
“Behold, your dwelling shall be of the [g]fatness of the earth, And of the dew of heaven from above. 40 By your sword you shall live, And you shall serve your brother; And it shall come to pass, when you become restless, That you shall break his yoke from your neck.”
Jacob Escapes from Esau
41 So Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him, and Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father [h]are at hand; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
42 And the words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah. So, she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said to him, “Surely your brother Esau comforts himself concerning you by intending to kill you. 43 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice: arise, flee to my brother Laban in Haran. 44 And stay with him a few days, until your brother’s fury turns away, 45 until your brother’s anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him; then I will send and bring you from there. Why should I be bereaved also of you both in one day?”
46 And Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth; if Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth, like these who are the daughters of the land, what good will my life be to me?”
Notes Genesis 27 Study – (vv. 1-46)
27:2: Isaac did not know the day he would die, nor does any man … But he was a man of faith, and he looked to the day he would die … He faced this reality by faith and prepared himself for it …
27:7: The Lord is present everywhere and fills all things … So, Isaac would give the blessing of the firstborn in His presence … The blessing of the firstborn gave the eldest son a double portion of his father’s inheritance … He would also become the ruler over his brethren upon his father’s death, and be responsible for the welfare and administration of the family … All of this foreshadowed the Lord’s Incarnation as the Firstborn of the Father and the ruler and head over the Church … Through His Incarnation, He would secure the Church’s eternal inheritance – (Romans 4:13; and Romans 8:29; Galatians 3;3, 18, & v. 29 – and Galatians 4:7; Ephesians 1:11, v. 14, v. 18; and Ephesians 3:6; Colossians 1:12. 15, & v. 18; & Colossians 3:24; Titus 3:7; Hebrews 1:2, 4, 6; Hebrews 6:17; Hebrews 9:15; and Hebrews 11:7-9; and Hebrews 12:23; James 2:5; 1Peter 1:4; and 1Peter 3:7; and lastly Revelation 1:5) …
27:34: The blessing of the firstborn was denied to Esau because he despised the faith of Abraham … Because of this, he could find no place of repentance to inherit the blessing of the firstborn son – (Hebrews 12:16-17) … Likewise, in the Day of Judgement, people who in this life reject the offer of the future inheritance will be unable to find repentance in that day, so always chose the right path …
Hebrews 12:16-17
16 lest there be any fornicator or [a]profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. 17 For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.
Genesis 28 Study – “Isaac Sends Jacob to Mesopotamia” – “Jacob’s Ladder”
Jacob Sent to His Uncle Laban
28 Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him, and [a]charged him, and said to him: “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. 2 Arise, go to Padan Aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father; and take yourself a wife from there of the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother.
3 “May God Almighty bless you, And make you fruitful and multiply you, That you may be an assembly of peoples; 4 And give you the blessing of Abraham, To you and your descendants with you, That you may inherit the land In[b] which you are a stranger, Which God gave to Abraham.”
5 So Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Padan Aram, to Laban the son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.
Esau Marries Mahalath
6 Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Padan Aram to take himself a wife from there, and that as he blessed him, he gave him a charge, saying, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,” 7 and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and had gone to Padan Aram. 8 Also Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan did not please his father, Isaac. 9 So Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife in addition to the wives he had.
Jacob’s Vow at Bethel
10 Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. 11 So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. 12 Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
13 And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: “I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. 14 Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. 15 Behold, I am with you and will keep[c] you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.”
16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” 17 And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!”
18 Then Jacob rose early in the morning and took the stone that he had put at his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it. 19 And he called the name of that place [d]Bethel; but the name of that city had been Luz previously. 20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, 21 so that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God. 22 And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a [e]tenth to You.”
Notes Genesis 28 Study – (vv. 1-22)
28:4: THE BLESSING OF ABRAHAM was given to Jacob, as noted in (v. 3) … THE SEED is first Christ, the His Offspring, the Church – (Galatians 3) … THE LAND is a type of the world that is to come, which will be this present world redeemed and transformed – (Romans 8) … This present world is THE LAND OF YOUR SOJOURNING … In the world to come, it will be the permanent home of those who INHERIT it …
28:12: THE LADDER THAT REACHED TO HEAVEN speaks of the Mother of God and of the Son of God born of her … The ICON in the apse of the Church is called “The Platytera, which means wide, broad, spacious … It reveals Christ in her womb, and she connects heaven and earth through Him for our salvation …
28:10-17: This passage is read on the Feasts of the Theotokos – (Mother of God): The Annunciation – (March 25); the Dormition – (August 15); and the Nativity – (September 8) …
28:17: THE HOUSE OF GOD speaks of the Church, and THE GATE OF HEAVEN is the Mother of God – (Kairon and Akathist Services) … Because the Son was conceived in her womb, she opened the gate of heaven to those who embrace the faith of Abraham …
28:18: THE STONE is Christ, the foundation stone of the Church – (Matthew 21:42-44; Mark 12:10; Luke 20:17-18; Acts 4:11; Romans 9:23-33; 1Corinthians 3:10-11; 1Peter 2:4-8) … THE OIL signifies Christ, whose human nature was anointed by the Holy Spirit – (Matthew 1:18; and Matthew 3:16; and Hebrews 1:9) …
28:22: GOD’S HOUSE speaks of the Church … Jacob gave a tithe of all God gave him … A tithe is ten percent given to the Church …