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Sermon preached on Genesis 26:34-27:46 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 1/14/2024 in Petaluma, CA.
Sermon Manuscript
Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
As we study today’s passage, let me remind you that, back in chapter 25, a prophecy was given to Rebekah about Jacob and Esau, that not only would they grow into two separate nations, but that the older would serve the younger. That prophecy ultimately became public knowledge, but by now surely at least Isaac would have also known about it, if not the whole family. And so, the nation of Edom would come from Esau, and the nation of Israel would come from Jacob. The Edomites would ultimately serve the Israelites. This was the predestined plan of God that he revealed before Jacob and Esau were even born.
When we talk about God’s sovereignty in matters of predestination, we also like to talk about man’s responsibility. While God’s sovereign plans are being worked out in history, humans are simultaneously living out their lives with all their pursuits. Humans have a responsibility before God for their actions, even though God’s sovereign plans have already accounted for those actions. That’s why God might do a good thing through a person’s evil action, so that God’s good will is fulfilled even while that person is still accountable for their evil. Our passage today gives us an opportunity to consider these ideas. God had revealed that Jacob was to be blessed over Esau, that through Jacob the covenant promises given to Abraham and then Isaac would be fulfilled. How would this family respond to this revelation? Unfortunately, not one of the people in our passage gives us a perfect example to follow. But as we study the actions of Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, and Esau, we’ll be able to glean the good and bad from how they each conduct themselves here in light of this prophecy in conjunction with their own ambitions.
Let us begin first by considering how Rebekah and Isaac conspire together to deceive Isaac to secure the blessing for Jacob instead of Esau. Here, we see the parent’s favoritism mentioned back in chapter 25 on display in contending for this blessing. Isaac, apparently either disregarding or forgetting the prophecy, plans to bestow a blessing upon his favorite son, Esau. Rebekah overhears these plans and incites her favorite son Jacob to deceive his father.
We might call Rebekah’s actions here as some hasty zeal. Her goal of having Jacob be blessed over Esau was in keeping with the divine prophecy, but that cannot excuse her sinful way she pursues that goal. She is the mastermind here, coming up with the plan and literally ordering her son to obey it (verses 8, 13). Jacob essentially acknowledges the evil of it in verse 12, and how it could backfire and bring a curse upon him, but that doesn’t deter Rebekah. She herself is a central actor in this deception, both in planning and executing. She does the cooking. She gets Esau’s clothes for Jacob to wear. She gets the goatskins to cover Jacob. Afterwards, she leads in the cleanup to protect Jacob from Esau’s murderous fury.
And so, make no mistake, this was sinful of Rebekah, especially in sinning like this against her husband. The complicating factor here is that her end goal lined up with divine revelation. She was pursuing what Isaac should have pursued. If Isaac had, there wouldn’t be any need for Rebekah to mastermind this ruse. But Isaac’s actions can’t be an excuse for her sin. But I do like to point out her commendable sentiment in verse 13. When Jacob raises the concern that this whole plan might result in him receiving a curse instead, she says, “Let your curse be on me, my son.” That specific action is very much a picture of Christ, who took on the curse we deserve in order to receive divine blessing. Indeed, Rebekah would have to endure some curse through all of this, for when the dust clears, she has to send her favorite son far away. There is no record they ever saw each other again.
But let us not excuse Jacob here. Yes, Rebekah masterminded this and as his mother demanded her son to obey. Yet, this was clearly what Jacob wanted. We’ve already seen his personal ambition when he bought his brother’s birthright, and now he clearly wants the blessing too. And it’s hard to excuse Jacob by saying he was just honoring his mother, because by doing so he was dishonoring his father. And when Jacob had to think on the spot how to respond to an unexpected question by his father, he thought up a lie and he thought it up quick, and his lie sadly used the name of the LORD in vain, verse 20. As soon as Jacob said that, the heinousness of his sin just went up even more, invoking God’s name in his lie to his father.
Again, I am tempted to be sympathetic to Rebekah and Jacob here because we know God said that Jacob was to be blessed over Esau. And it sure looked like Isaac was going to bless Esau over Jacob. They felt they needed to do something to intervene. But the end does not justify the means. And if indeed the blessing was to be conveyed through Isaac, could he have possibly blessed Esau? Let me remind you of how later the evil prophet Balaam tried to curse Israel, but God prevented him from doing that and instead turned his curse into a blessing. Rebekah and Jacob didn’t need to do this. One way or another, God would have blessed him, and so they didn’t need to deceive Isaac. Frankly, Jacob is graciously blessed here despite this deception, not because of it.
Let us now turn in our second point to see how things unfold after Esau returns and Isaac realizes he unknowingly blessed Jacob instead. Let’s start with verse 33. Isaac realizes what happened and it says he trembled very violently. The Hebrew is very emphatic. He is immediately shaken with great fear. Last chapter God had told Isaac, “Fear not for I am with you.” But here, Isaac is rightly struck with fear and I believe it’s because he realized he tried to oppose God’s plan and he found that God would not be thwarted. As I said, I believe Isaac would have known the prophecy that Jacob was to be over Esau. Isaac’s reaction after he realized he unintentionally blessed Jacob seems to confirm this.
You see, Isaac goes on to affirm emphatically in verse 33 that Jacob would indeed be blessed, and that nothing could change that. Isaac explains he had set Jacob as lord over Esau. One might wonder, if Jacob deceptively received this, why couldn’t Isaac just revoke it and give the blessing to Esau instead? But you see, I believe what is going on here is that Isaac has come to realize that he couldn’t oppose God. I believe Isaac recognizes God’s plan unfolding. Isaac may have been tempted to try to thwart that before out of his personal preference for Esau, but no more. Isaac now boldly affirms that the blessing given to Jacob would indeed remain, and that he would not be able to give to Esau anything that God had not promised.
This interpretation has the benefit of fitting with Hebrews 11:20. There it says, “By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau.” It was not by faith when Isaac tried to bless Esau over Jacob. It was only after Isaac came to his senses when he trembled with awareness that his tone changed. That is when we see Jacob affirm what the original prophecy said, that Esau the older would serve Jacob the younger. Next chapter we’ll even see Isaac again bless Jacob in a similar way, this time without any deception being needed. So, while this passage shows Isaac starting off badly, his actions end well here, as he seeks to live in a way consistent to the divine revelation they had received.
As for Esau, we find him in a rather sad estate. In verse 34, he has this huge emotional outburst. The language there is also very emphatic over his bitter tears. Before, when it came to the birthright, he didn’t value that birthright and quickly sold it in disregard. But now his attitude had changed. Now, he laments not only losing this blessing, but also mentions how he had lost the birthright to Jacob too, verse 36. Again, Hebrews offers commentary on this, in Hebrews 12:16 it describes how by the time he finally tried to repent, it was too late, and even though he had tears, he could not receive the blessing or the birthright.
Let me develop that point a little further about how we are given a glimpse of how Esau’s actions did contribute to where things ended up. We’ve already said that he despised his birthright, and his devaluing is what led him to discard it for a bowl of soup. But the other thing we can point to is how our passage started out with him marrying two of the local Canaanite women. You might remember that when Abraham was looking for a wife for his son Isaac he was adamant that Isaac not marry one of those women. Remember, he sent his servant back to Paddan-aram to find a wife for him. When we studied that passage, we mentioned multiple reasons why a Canaanite wife would not be suitable for the one through whom the Abrahamic promises would be fulfilled. That was true for Isaac, and it would be true for the son of Isaac through whom the promises would continue. Just as Esau despised the birthright and thus forfeited it, so also he made his family an unsuitable candidate for the blessing when he married those women. So, while God’s plans were working themselves out, Esau’s actions confirmed he was not to be the chosen one.
Esau nonetheless begs his father, “Have you but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also.” Isaac responds with the blessing of verses 39-40. But then we see Esau ends this chapter full of hatred and murderous plans towards Jacob. This serves at least two functions in our passage. One, it is part of the chastening that Jacob will have to endure because of his sin here. But it also reveals the wrong attitude that Esau here harbored against Jacob. While it is very understandable for Esau right then to hate Jacob, it’s not what is best for Esau. Since the Abrahamic promises are going to be fulfilled through Jacob, the best thing Esau could do right now would be to follow Jacob and look to bless Jacob. I will help make that all the more clear in our final point for today.
So, let’s turn then in our third point to consider the two blessings that Isaac gives Jacob and Esau here respectively. I refer, of course, to verses 27-29 and verses 39-40. May you note that the pew Bible sets them apart as poetic language, showing their significance and also suggesting they are prophetic since prophecies often came in such a poetic form. Considering these verses will help to summarize the big picture of what will ultimately be going on from here forward.
Looking at the blessing to Jacob, we see that his smell of his garments evoked an agricultural blessing, describing how the LORD would bless with a bounty of things such as grain and wine. So, we can think of this part of the blessing connected with that promised land of Canaan God swore to Abraham’s seed. Since that promise will be fulfilled specifically through Jacob, these blessings of agricultural bounty reminds us of the Abrahamic promise of a land.
But then the blessing continues in verse 29 to speak how peoples and nations will serve Jacob. It goes on to add that also his brothers would serve him, which of course right now would literally be just one brother Esau. But surely the reason it says brothers in the plural is the same reason it speaks of peoples and nations serving him. This refers not just to that current generation that all those people would serve just Jacob himself, as if he were king over them all. It has in view Jacob becoming a mighty nation, the nation of Israel, and Isaac prophesies how then the nations would become subservient to Israel, even as Esau’s descendants, the nation of Edom, Israel’s brothers, would also serve Israel. In other words, when it speaks here of Jacob’s leadership among the nations, it really implies and envisions the great people that would come from Jacob, a people that would be a powerful kingdom over all. So, then this part of the blessing reminds us of the Abrahamic promise of a people.
The blessing ends with the familiar words in verse 29, “Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you.” These words are a direct quote of what God promised to Abraham. As the Abrahamic covenant had been passed on to Isaac, now it gets passed on to Jacob via Isaac.
So then, look at the blessing given to Esau starting in verse 39. The English translations interpret away some of the ambiguity in the text. The language of starts out sounding somewhat similar to what was said to Jacob, speaking in reverse order of the fatness of the earth and of the dew of heaven. The words are identical in both, but scholars usually interpret that in Jacob’s case it was meant to positively describe the great bounty of such, but for Esau it was meant to negatively describe a great lack of such. Thus, the ESV translates “away from the fatness of the earth.” I think that interpretation is right in terms of what ultimately comes to pass, but I think the ambiguity is intentional, and caused Esau to hold out at least some potential for a hopeful future.
But then the blessing turns to speak of how Esau and his descendants will live by the sword. That makes you think of war and maybe pillaging. That makes you think they will not be a people who enjoy much peace. As a comparison and contrast, think forward in Israel’s history. King David would be a man who lived by the sword, God having raised him up as a military victor over Israel’s enemies. That was wonderful to have all that military success, but it wasn’t until late in his life that he was described as finally having rest from all his enemies. His son King Solomon then enjoyed a blessed period of peace. But here, Isaac foretells how Esau will not a people that generally knows peace but instead the sword.
The final part of this blessing upon Esau is that he will serve his brother Jacob, that is, until he grows restless and breaks his yoke from his neck. Going forward into history, we will see various periods of conflict between Israel and Edom. But for a good part of the history, Israel will subdue Edom and make them a subjugated people. Yet, every so often, they would grow restless and for a time revolt and regain their freedom. That dynamic is prophesied here and it clearly and repeatedly comes to pass going forward in history.
So then, my question is this. Was this actually a blessing for Edom, or really a curse? Let me explain. I noted the ambiguity of the agricultural blessing at the beginning. And I think it then ends with more ambiguity when it talks about Esau ultimately breaking free from Jacob’s rule. If you are Esau and you hear that one day you will finally overthrow Jacob’s reign and get your freedom, that probably sounds like a blessing. But I would submit to you it would actually be a curse for him. Why? Remember how the blessing to Jacob ended. Those who bless you will be blessed. Those who curse you will be cursed. If Esau’s descendants would bless Jacob’s, they would be blessed. They would share with them in the blessings of agricultural bounty and much more. But if Esau’s descendants would curse Israel by rejecting their rule, while they might gain then a measure of temporal freedom, that will ultimately bring divine curse upon them.
We might understand why the future Edomites would want to revolt from the future Israelites. It speaks here of wanting to break their yoke. Surely at times fallible Israel put too hard of a yoke upon Edom. But that wasn’t the end of the story. The full trajectory of these promises was that the promised seed of Jacob would be Jesus. King Jesus. If the future Edomites would submit to King Jesus, they would know blessing and not curse. And Jesus has called them and all of us to come to him, saying that his yoke is easy, and his burden is light. Sadly, King Herod, an Edomite, would not submit to King Jesus.
But may none of us make that mistake. Let us all gladly call ourselves servants and slaves of Jesus and his kingdom of God’s chosen people. And the wonderful news is he offers each of us to not only be his servants, but also his friends, and even his brothers and sisters.
This is the revelation we’ve been given about the future. Let us learn from the people in today’s passage of how to live in light of such a revelation. Let us see the value in being both a brother and a servant of Jesus. Let us look to serve him with joy. Let us be content with the place God has called each of us, recognizing how it is better to be a servant in the house of the Lord than to dwell in the tents of wickedness (Ps 84:10). Let us pursue what God has promised for us, not through deceit and other forms of wickedness, but in righteousness and in faith.
Amen.
Copyright © 2022 Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
All Rights Reserved.
