Day #21

Sermon - Audio
Gen 27-29 - Audio
Gen 27-29 - Daily Reading

Daily Insights - Please Comment

27:1 = Keep in mind that Isaac is old and blind. It will be an important fact.

27:1-4 = Again we see some desire to bless or "favor" Esau. This blessing was of utmost importance. We have a hard time understanding this as we don't have an equivalent in our culture. A "will" is probably the closest thing we have. It seems like the reason for Esau's favor is the same as it was originally in 25:28. Isaac wanted to give the blessing to Esau, but Rebekah has other plans. This desire by Isaac to give Esau the blessing is in direct opposition to what God wants.

27:3-4 - Some sages/rabbis point out that the word “game” appears 8 times in this story and the word “tasty” six times. The idea is that Isaac is overwhelmed by his desire for good things rather than "God things," and so he tries to bless Esau instead of Jacob.

27:6-35 - The Great Deceit - Rebekah remembers what the Lord has said to her. Rebekah uses Jacob to trick Isaac into giving the blessing to him. Through deception and lies the blessing comes to Jacob. This blessing has now been passed from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob. This blessing does fulfill the passage in 25:23 when God speaks to Rebekah about Jacob.

27:20 - the way Jacob and Esau speak is different—this is not just a matter of tone of voice, rather, Esau speaks with few words, a kind of grunting way of speaking (this is clear from the Hebrew), while Jacob speaks eloquently and invokes God’s name. Again Esau is presented as boorish, Jacob as refined.

27:39-40 - A "blessing" is now given to Esau which includes serving his brother and playing "second fiddle."

27:41 - Esau feels like he was cheated out of his birthright and blessing. This is hard to argue. Now he will wait for his father to die so he can kill Jacob.

27:46-28:7 - Rebekah is concerned that Jacob will take a Hittite wife like Esau. She can't let this happen (See 26:34-35). Isaac then instructs Jacob to go to Labans family and take a wife. We see Jacob's journey begin in the next chapter.

28:10-28:22 - On his way to Canaan Jacob has a dream where God speaks the promises given to Abraham and Isaac to him. Jacob is now aware of the covenant promise being with him.

28:18 - ESV Study Bible - "Although Jacob commemorates this special event by setting up a pillar and consecrating it with oil, it is noteworthy that he does not build an altar. This is a further indication that he has not yet fully accepted the Lord as his God. While the practice of setting up pillars was common in Canaanite worship, Deut. 16:22 prohibits it. Years later, after his faith-transforming encounter with God at Penuel (Gen. 32:22–32), Jacob returns to Bethel in order to construct an altar (35:1–7)"

28:20-21 - Again we see that Jacob is putting terms on his relationship with God. God takes care of that later on in another encounter.

28:22 - The 10% Tithe begins, unless you count Melchizedek with Abraham as a tithe (14:20). Later on in Leviticus we get the actual law, but its interesting to see that this just happened prior to the law being given.

Q. = How many of you knew where the 10% idea originated from?

29 - Jacob gets a taste of his own medicine. Jacob is deceived by Laban and pays with 14 years of his life. 7 years that he did not want any part of.

29:18 - Jacob loves Rachel and is willing to work off his debt owed to Laban for her. There was a custom in that day to pay the bride's father for his daughters hand in marriage. Jacob "loving" Rachel is a theme throughout this chapter and the next.

29:26 - This is kind of an ironic pointing to the "firstborn" status of Esau. It's interesting how this gets turned on Jacob.

29:31 - We know that Jacob loved Rachel (v18), this led to him not loving Leah with the same vigor. Leah is favored, at least for a time, by the Lord because of her "hated" status and is given a child. This is a great picture of the Lord acting in defense of the weak and unloved. We have seen this now in particular with Hagar (ch 21) and Leah.

Q. = What does this tell us about God?

29:32-35 - Leah seems to keep believing that Jacob will love her more with each child, however this doesn't seem to be the case. Rachel is still loved by Jacob.