30 DECEPTION COMPLETED

Jacob experienced some difficulty to receive Isaac’s blessing and was barely successful. As the second son approached his father pretending to be the first, Isaac was dissatisfied, not sure the son who approached him was really Esau. He said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau” (22). Isaac’s ears were better than his eyes. Each person has his or her own face and voice. Under normal circumstances this means that we cannot pretend to be someone we are not. In this curious and unique conversation the voice is Jacob’s, but the hands are Esau’s. Jacob speaks the language of a saint, but does the work of a sinner. In the normal flow of life what we do with our hands is a truer indication who we are and what our character is than what we say with our mouths. We will be judged by what we do regardless of what we say. Hypocrites pretend to be something they are not and even if our earthly fathers cannot always discern accurately which son he is talking to, this is never true of our heavenly father. He knows who are His and loves each one dearly and heaps upon them a rich inheritance. No imposter, fraud or pretender will ever receive from Him anything but justice and fairness. If there is a reward God will give it. This story may be referred to to illustrate the character of a hypocrite. Isaac may, but God will not be fooled. Be genuine, my friend.

Jacob became a true cheater. It was relatively easy to put a hairy animal skin over his wrists and Jacob did it well. But notice how cleverly he carried on his act also in the things he did and said. He puts so  called “venison” before his father and waits at the table. There is only one factor that may in part excuse Rebekah and Jacob or perhaps reduce the degree of the evil they commit. The deceit is done not so much to speed up the fulfillment of God’s promise that Jacob would receive the inheritance, as to stop Esau’s intention to take the inheritance which he had already thought little of and carelessly sold. God had spoken to Rebekah that Jacob, the second son, would be blessed and it appeared that the blessing was about to be placed on the wrong head. Rebekah and Jacob were just helping to fulfill God’s plan. Yet, in determining what is the will of God in situations where it is difficult to determine what is right and what is wrong we must not only be careful to do right but also do it in the right way. The Holy Spirit can help us know how to do that.

Isaac asked for a kiss from the son he thought was Esau. It would be hard to explain why Isaac did not respond to this kiss with a hug or other affectionate physical action. Let us assume that he embraced Jacob (thinking he was Esau). Isaac embraced him showing him affection. In contrast to Isaac’s misguided kisses, those that are blessed by God are kissed with genuine and correctly guided kisses. Did Jacob resent those sign of affection because he knew they were intended for his brother, not for himself? Maybe.

Isaac praised Jacob (thinking he was Esau). “Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed. May God give you heaven’s dew and earth’s richness— an abundance of grain and new wine” (27 & 28).  This was as though to say “the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed, that is, like that of the most fragrant flowers and spices.” It appeared that God had blessed him, and therefore Isaac too would bless him. Isaac prayed for Jacob (thinking he was Esau), and therein prophesied good things for him. Did Jacob inwardly grieve that his father was showing so much attention and affection towards himself only because he thought he was Esau? How bitter those blessings and affectionate signs might have been to the son that was not loved so much by his father as his older brother had been. He was the son who valued the godly inheritance and birthright and yet was not loved by his father as much as the son who did not value the godly inheritance or birthright. Was this the first time Jacob had received such a warm hug from his father? Perhaps. Sad!

Yes, it is the duty of parents to pray for their children, and to bless them in the name of the Lord, but would it not be just a bitter pill for the child to think that when he or she was being blessed by his or her parent that the parent was really expressing love for another?

This was an extraordinary blessing; and Providence so ordered it that Isaac should bestow it on Jacob ignorantly and by mistake. Was this so that Jacob would be encouraged to lie and cheat the rest of his life? Probably not. Was this to show Esau that he had made a great mistake in discarding his birthright? Yes, quite possibly. Was this so that Jacob would be thankful to God, not to his father. His father made a mistake, but God did not. And it might appear that he was responsible to God for it, not to Isaac.

God through Isaac blessed Jacob in three ways. 1. Plenty  Three things Jacob is here blessed with:—“May God give you heaven’s dew and earth’s richness—an abundance of grain and new wine” (28), Heaven and earth would work together to make him rich. 2. Power  “May nations serve you and peoples bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may the sons of your mother bow down to you. May those who curse you be cursed and those who bless you be blessed” (29).This would include particularly dominion over his brethren, namely, Esau and his posterity. 3. Position with God, and a great interest in it. “May those who curse you be cursed and those who bless you be blessed” (30). ‘Let God be a friend to all your friends, and an enemy to all your enemies.’ More is certainly included in this blessing than appears at first sight. It must include the promise of the Messiah, and of the church; this was, in the patriarchal dialect, the blessing: something spiritual, doubtless, is included in it. First, That from him should come the Messiah, who should have a sovereign dominion on earth. It was that top-branch of his family which people should serve and nations bow down to. “A ruler will come out of Jacob and destroy the survivors of the city” (Numbers 24:19). Even the greedy Balaam saw it and said, “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel. He will crush the foreheads of Moab, the skulls of all the people of Sheth” (Numbers 24:17). And Genesis 49:10 says, “The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his.”

The blessing of Isaac given to Jacob extended to another age—the church age—which should be particularly respected and favored by Heaven. It was part of the blessing of Abraham, when he was first called to be the father of the faithful. In Genesis 12:3 we have a record of the original blessing God gave to Abram much the same as what Isaac gave to Jacob. “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:3). I will bless those that bless you; therefore, when Isaac afterwards confirmed the blessing to Jacob, he called it the blessing of Abraham, (Genesis 28:4). Balaam explains this too, “Like a lion they crouch and lie down, like a lioness—who dares to rouse them?  “May those who bless you be blessed and those who curse you be cursed!” (Numbers 24:9) It is the best and most desirable of blessings to have favor with Christ, His power and His Church.

In all these blessings it becomes clear that the covenant-blessing is being denied to Esau. He that made so light of the birthright now wanted to inherit the blessing, but he was rejected and found no room for him to change his mind in his father,  “Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done” (Hebrews 12:17).

We can see how carefully Esau now sought the blessing. He prepared the savory meat, as his father had directed him, and then begged the blessing which his father had encouraged him to expect. “He too prepared some tasty food and brought it to his father. Then he said to him, ‘My father, please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your blessing’” (31). When he understood that Jacob had obtained it surreptitiously, we see this spiritually dull man who could frivolously sell his valuable spiritual inheritance cry with a loud and bitter voice. “When Esau heard his father’s words, he burst out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, ‘Bless me—me too, my father!’” (34) Could anyone have laid the disappointment more to heart than Esau did; he made his father’s tent ring with his grief, again and again.

When Isaac realized how he had been deceived he “trembled violently” (33). If we follow the choice of our own affections, rather than the dictates of God’s will, we may well face perplexities like this one Isaac experienced. Jacob may have been deceitful, but Isaac also had made a mistake and now suffered for it. To his credit, Isaac soon recovers and confirms the blessing he had given to Jacob: I have blessed him, and he shall be blessed; he might, for very believable reasons, have recalled it, but now, at last, he is sensible that he was in an error when he designed it for Esau. Either he himself recollecting on the divine word, or rather having found himself more than ordinarily filled with the Holy Ghost when he gave the blessing to Jacob, he perceived that God, as it were, said Amen to it.

Jacob was confirmed in his possession of the blessing, and abundantly satisfied with its validity, even though he obtained it fraudulently. Therefore he felt he had reason to hope that God graciously overlooked and pardoned his misconduct. Isaac hereby adjusted himself to the will of God, even though it contradicted his own expectations and affection. He had a mind to give Esau the blessing, but, when he perceived the will of God was otherwise, he submitted; and this he did by faith Hebrews 11:20 says, “By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.” May not God do what He will with his own?

Esau hereby was cut off from the expectation of that special blessing which he thought to have preserved to himself when he sold his birthright. We, by this instance, are taught, “It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.” (Romans 9:16). Paul seems to allude to this story. Anyone who undervalues their spiritual birthright, and can afford to sell it for a morsel of meat, forfeits spiritual blessings, and it is just with God to deny them those favors they don’t value. Those that will part with their wisdom and grace, their faith and good conscience, for the honors, wealth, or pleasures, of this world, however they may pretend to be zealous for the blessing, have already judged themselves unworthy of it. Anyone who lifts up hands in anger against God, lifts them up in vain. Esau, instead of repenting of his own folly, criticized his brother, unjustly charging him with taking away the birthright which he himself had fairly, yet unwisely, sold to him.

Anyone is not likely to do well in prayer who puts quilt on their brothers, a guilt which they should put on themselves. They lay the blame of their mistakes on others, when they should take shame for those mistakes on themselves. Any who don’t seek until it is too late will be rejected. This was the ruin of Esau, he did not acknowledge his error in time. There is an accepted time, a time when God will be found, and there is a time when He will not answer those that call on him, because they neglected opportunities during the appointed season. “Then they will call to me but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me,” (Proverbs 1:28). The time of God’s patience and our testing will not last always; the day of grace will come to an end, and the door will be shut. Then many that now despise the blessing will seek it carefully; for then they will know how to value it, and yet will see themselves forever undone as Esau’s experience illustrates.

Jacob won. Esau lost. Jacob valued the valuable; Esau did not. Let us think wisely, serve eagerly, and work zealously while there is time.