July 13, 2006

• I just finished spell checking this, and noticed that even common Bible names and Books of the Bible do not seem to be in Xanga’s spell checker. Hmmmm.

  
  

  I will keep answering questions but do not want to stop with my Genesis study either. We are in Genesis 27, when we last left, Rebekah had Jacob covered in goat skins, tricking Issac into believing that he was Esau. Isaac, despite his suspicions, decides that by his smell, he must be Esau – Esau must have had SOME distinctive aroma if you ask me.

  
  

  You can’t make this stuff up – soap operas of today pale in comparison.

  
  

  Here is Isaac’s blessing to Jacob (remember this is the blessing God wanted Jacob to have, and Isaac was thinking that he was giving the blessing to Esau).

  
  

  Genesis 27: 27-29 Surely, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field which the LORD has blessed. Therefore may God give you of the dew of heaven, of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine, 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.

  
  

  If you look back at Genesis 12, you see that this is the blessing God gave Abram – being a great nation, and that God will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse them. And in Abram, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

  
  

  Now God had promised this to Abram and told him that it would be through Jacob that this blessing would happen. Esau had sold off the blessing for a bowl of lentils, at that time it meant nothing to him. By receiving this blessing from Isaac, Jacob is a supplanter twice, once over the bowl of lentils, and now the blessing.

  
  

  Well now the dramatic tension. Just imagine Esau’s face if he caught sight of Jacob in the hairy costume. Jacob had scarcely left the room when Esau rushed in with the food. Esau by now probably realized his mistake in selling the birthright so cheaply, and saw this as an opportunity to get it back. Imagine his surprise, when Isaac tells him that one claiming to be Esau already had received the blessing. 

  
  

  Verse 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.”

  
  

  I wonder if Isaac trembled because he remembered God’s prophesy. Blessings were serious business, once blessed the blessing stuck.

  
  

  Esau gives an exceedingly great and bitter cry and asks his father to bless him also. Isaac says, verse 35 “Your brother came with deceit and has taken away your blessing.”

  
  

  I don’t know about this, but in real life having three kids, this may not have been the best thing to say, for it pits one child against another. Isaac might have thought this, but it has to add fuel to Esau’s wrath to hear his father talk about Jacob’s deceit. Perhaps flames could have been lessened had Isaac said that God had told him to bless Jacob in this way. (But this is my inference, not necessarily the way it could have happened).

  
  

  Esau then protests and says, verse 36 “Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright, and now look, he has taken away my blessing!” and hoping not to fully lose out, he asks his dad if there isn’t a blessing for him.

  
  

  Wait a minute, isn’t Esau a bit like us, selective remembering. Yes, Jacob did not go about claiming the birthright and blessing in the correct way. But who was it that cared so little about the birthright in the first place and sold it for a bowl of lentils? With hindsight, we can see that Esau got the blessing God wanted him to get, and Jacob got the blessing God wanted him to get. But Jacob’s methods leave much to be desired. Jacob will soon see what it is like to be on the receiving end of someone who is as conniving as him.

  
  

  Isaac informs Esau that Jacob is now made his master as all the brethren were given as servants. Esau lifts up his voice and weeps. We do that too when things go wrong, when we have made impulsive decisions, wrong choices, and then we see the fruit of them. We weep and cry, and at times try to put the blame on someone else. What a mirror for me this family is.

  
  

  Isaac was able to pull a blessing out for Esau, but it is not the blessing that Esau wanted. Esau will later become Edom and the Edomites will be a thorn in Israel’s side for a long time. Jacob’s duplicity will bear fruit that he and his descendants will have to deal with.

  
  

  Here is Esau’s blessing. Genesis 27:39-40 “Behold your dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above. 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.

  
  

  This shows that Esau is not in a place of permanence, even in the land or in serving his brother. The yoke will be broken from Esau’s neck. Of course the Edomites were not people beloved of God, perhaps it would have been better to have maintained Jacob’s yoke, for Jacob was the line from which the Messiah would be born. How we strive to break free, thinking that we will do well in freedom, only to become slave to something far worse. We know the end of the story, God wins, satan loses. Esau has chosen the wrong team.

  
  

  Also, when we make a wrong choice and end up with those consequences, don’t we end up hating the one we blame, the one we perceive wronged us. This happens with Esau, who ends up hating Jacob. (For what it is worth, Jacob will carry guilt about this, and in his future dealings with Esau he will give away some of what he gained by his ruse, but had he done it God’s way, he would not have had the same challenges).

  
  

  Esau hates Jacob and says in his heart, verse 41 “The days of my mourning for my father are at hand; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”

  
  

  Jesus will have something to say about words said in one’s heart, Matthew 12:33-37 “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgement. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

  
  

  I can just imagine the mutterings that Esau made. An impulsive man would probably spout off these thoughts to anyone and everyone in his circle. Rebekah hears about these thoughts of Esau through her servants. Rebekah will now face a few of the consequences of her plotting – she will have to send her beloved Jacob into exile, and will never see him again.  She realizes that Esau comforts himself by plotting Jacob’s death. So Rebekah tells him to flee to her brother Laban in Haran. At the hands of Laban, Jacob will have met his match in conniving.

  
  

  Remember how Isaac gained his wife, it was from this family, and Laban was very aware of the wealth of Abraham, and knew that this wealth would pass down to Isaac. Rebekah thinks that Jacob needs to stay with Laban only a few days, a few days will stretch out to 20 years. Rebekah is also weary of the daughters of Heth that Esau married, so she is hoping that Jacob will marry someone from her relatives.

  
  

  Sir Walter Scott said, “Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.” We will now see that tangled web.

  
  

  We will see in later books of the Bible that Edomites will end up serving David, and then in 2 Chronicles 21:8 they will rebel against Judah’s authority, and become a kingdom unto themselves. They will break the yoke in that day. Remember that God told Rebekah that she had two nations in her womb, one would be stronger and the elder would serve the younger. This was God’s plan from the start.

  
  

  In Hebrews 11 God recounts the highpoints of Isaac’s faith, that Abraham was tested and offered up Isaac, and Hebrews 11:20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.

  
  

  I take comfort in those words, because Genesis showed us that Isaac had planned to give Jacob’s blessing to Esau, and it was only by conniving that the blessing went the way God wanted (although I think God would have somehow made the blessing right if Rebekah and Jacob hadn’t plotted). But it blesses me to see how when God remembers the scene, he does not focus on the mistakes or wrong intentions, but on what went right.

  
  

  We need to remember Romans 2:1 when we look at the mistakes of those in the Old Testament – for when we judge another we condemn ourselves because we do the same things that we are judging.

  
  

  A reading of Malachi 1 will let you see how God felt about Esau and Jacob.

  
  

  There are a few lessons we can learn from Genesis 27

  
  

  1. Esau was guilty of bartering away his blessing for carnal gratification. We have to be careful that we do not barter our blessings from God for momentary satisfaction.
  2. Doing evil that good may come out does not justify Rebekah’s actions. The end does not justify the means.
  3. We need to be careful that we don’t do what Isaac did and be blind to God’s will, and substitute our natural affections and desires for what God wants.
  4. Rebekah’s plot ends up sending Jacob into exile for 20 years.
  5. Our manipulations are no match for God’s will, when God tells us something we have to trust that He can make it come to pass.
  6. Jacob did not earn this blessing of God, in fact, his cheating and conniving should have cost him the blessing, but God blessed him anyway. It is not what we do that merits the blessing, it is who God is.

  
  

  I want to share with you an insight that Beth Moore found about this section of scripture, from her study called The Patriarchs. This is on page 123.

  
  

  Beth uses the NIV Bible and in verse 41 (shown above) her translation states that Esau “held a grudge against”. “The English phrase is a translation of only one Hebrew word: satam. The New International Commentary footnotes the English translation with the following interesting words: (Keep in mind the Hebrew alphabet doesn’t include vowels). “stm, apparently a by-form of stn, the root from which Satan derives.” The Complete Word Study Dictionary of the Old Testament lists three Hebrew transliterations in a row that I’d like you to consider and compare with a portion of their definitions. Remember these Old Testament words and uses:

  
  

  7852 satam (*The word used in today’s text) A verb meaning to hate; to bear a grudge against, to harass. It means to nurse hostility and bitterness toward someone; or even to attack or harass a person physically.

  
  

  7853 satam” A verb meaning to accuse, to slander, and to harbor animosity toward. The verb is used only six times and presents a negative attitude or bias toward something. (The Old Testament Lexical Aids priortize the important English definition “to attack”)

  
  

  7854 satan: A masculine noun meaning an adversary, Satan, an accuser. This noun is used twenty seven times [in OT]. In Job it is found fourteen times meaning (the) satan, the accuser.

  
  

  Please note that the first two Hebrew words are verbs and the third is a masculine noun.

  
  

  She then had us read Zechariah 3:1 and mark the  word that is the masculine noun and the verb based on the previous words. “Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him.” the words in question are satan and accuse.

  
  

  On page 124 she continues by letting us see the close connections between the Hebrew words for hate/hold a grudge (verb: satam); attack/accuse/slander (verb satan), and Satan (noun: satan). “Malachai 1:2-3 tells us something that can seem disturbing without deeper consideration: “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” the LORD says, “Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated.”"
     Beth continues, “Those are strong words! God’s Word tells us He is kind and compassionate, merciful and just. But did Esau ever have a chance? Did God have it out for Esau from the very beginning? Was Esau simply a victim of God’s partiality? I believe some meditation on the connections of these Hebrew words might quiet our concerns enough to rest the remaining mystery in divine sovereignty.

  
  

  She had us draw diagram of the path that Esau went in his thinking and feelings after finding out he lost the blessing. Here is Beth’s path:

  
  

  cried ….held a grudge….premeditated murder….consoled  himself.

  
  

  Beth feels that, since not everyone who suffers loss or feels cheated premeditates murder that maybe Esau had a psychopathic personality.

  
  

  Beth continues on page 125 talking about satan. “Don’t think for a moment the devil wasn’t alive and active during the period of the patriarchs. Furthermore, don’t think for a moment he wasn’t focused on Jacob’s life as a link in the chain of God’s people. The holocaust of God’s people has been the enemy’s plan all along. “He was a murderer from the beginning.” Can you think of a more effective way to kill a people than to kill the individual from whom the promised line would come?”

  
  

  I hadn’t thought about that angle before, but it is so true, satan has been trying to muck up the line that lead to Jesus from the time of Eve. And he is still trying to muck up the line until the return of Christ.

  
  

  Beth reminds us that the train of thoughts that lead to murderous thoughts started with a grudge. We have to be careful in our lives that we do not hold onto grudges for they can lead to worse actions.

  
  

  Beth then continues on page 126 “Esau missed the grace of God. Yes, grace was available to people in the Old Testament. Grace is kneaded irrevocably into the concept of hesed, God’s loyal covenant love. In fact, hesed is translated “grace” in Jonah 2:8. “Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.”

  
  

  “Esau’s own misguided sense of entitlement became his idol, and he forfeited the grace that could have been his. Yes, we could argue that missing the grace of God seemed Esau’s destiny in the mystery of divine sovereignty, but murderous people such as Esau and Judas aren’t helpless victims. They are humans whose hearts resemble the heart of their spiritual father, satan.”

  
  

  “God offers us the grace to avoid bitterness in every challenge. But if we don’t allow God to apply grace like balm to our broken hearts, a “bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.”

  
  

  I think that is why forgiveness is so important. Forgiveness is not absolution of what a person did, only God can do that, but forgiveness frees us from being defiled by the bitter root of unforgiveness.

  
  

  Hoping you have a blessed day. Tomorrow I get to visit with Pastor Don’s mom in the morning – she just turned 89. Then in the afternoon I promised the kids an activity for fun. After that I will try to answer another of the questions.

  
  

  Heather

  • 12:26 am
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