Genesis 27 shows us Rebekah to be one sneaky woman. She overhears her husband's conversation with Esau and devises her own little plan. Isaac knows he's gonna die soon and he wants to eat some of the wild game his son hunts and serves up ... and he also wants to bless him before he dies. Rebekah tells Jacob to get some fine goats and bring them to her to cook. She puts some of Esau's best clothes on him and goat skin on his hands to fool Isaac into thinking it's Esau. When Jacob shows up for this, Isaac is skeptical. He asks him who he is (lie #1); he asks him how he caught the game so quickly (lie #2); he tells him that he sounds like Jacob, but his skin feels like Esau's, and he asks him if he really is Esau (lie #3). He asked him to come over and kiss him, where Isaac smelled the scent of the field (lie #4). Isaac spoke a blessing that started off with how his son smelled like a field and went on to speak blessing to him. Isn't it odd that this was done before God? It's like stealing from a church. Jacob took it all in (lie #5), receiving the sworn blessing/covenant.
As soon as Esau really arrived, Isaac knew he'd been fooled. For Esau it was a case of "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me;" because Jacob had talked him into forfeiting the rights as the first-born son. His dad was upset, too. It's interesting that God nor His angels intervened, letting this play out on earth below. Isaac had no other blessings to give Esau, even though the son begged.
Esau planned to kill Jacob for this as soon as Isaac died. Rebekah overhead this and sent Jacob away. "Why should I lose two sons in one day?" Chapter 27 ends with another comment about Esau's wives. She tells Isaac, "Those Hittite wives of Esau are making my life miserable! If Jacob marries a Hittite woman, I'd be better off dead."
This deadline has been weird. Instead of working long-hour days at the office, I've been working long-hour days at home on my notebook. The Austin area had "Ice Storm 2007" this week and I've stayed away from the office, getting all I need to get done here without risking the trip and/or getting stranded. I plan on going in today and hopefully wrapping up this issue's editorial. I'll probably have to send the files to the printer from my office computer, but this handy notebook will to the rest.
Posted by Doug Van Pelt at January 18, 2007 09:05 AM