These next two days we are going to look at the world of the text for Genesis 27: 1-40.  Today we are going to look deeper at the first part of this text, verses 1-29.

I want to be very honest with you, I struggled to wrap my head around exactly what was happening in this passage.  Not so much the dynamic at play between Issac, Rebekah, Jacob, and Esau, we get the layers of that dysfunction, and we’ll talk more about it through this week.  But what I want to talk about is the concept of blessing as found in this passage.

I wanted to better understand exactly what was happening with the blessing. What was so significant about it that would raise to the level of Issac (and his mama!) tricking his brother and his dad to get something that was not his.  So, here is what is happening.

You have to go back a little and remember what happened before with Jacob stealing Esau’s birthright for a bowl of soon.  This is basically “the will” of the family if you will.  In that culture, the firstborn son was in charge after the father’s death and received the most of the inheritance, not all of it, but the “double portion.”  But, Esau, the oldest, sold his birthright to Jacob, the younger.  Now, Jacob would receive this.

Once this was done, this was done.  We see in the passage that Issac fully intended to give to Esau the blessing that Jacob received, almost as an “undoing” of what happened. Yes, Jacbod would receive the double portion still, but now Esau would have his own authority and place. This blessing would have done to things.  First, it would have bestowed the earthly father’s authority and approval, and it had a prophetic part to it, telling all that would happen.   Now, part of the unknown was what would the prophecy have been for Esau if he had not been tricked?  We don’t know, but we do know that he seemed to be his father’s favorite and Issac was trying to undo what had happened in the stealing of the birthright.

What happened now was that not only did Jacob have the birthright and all that came with it, but now he had cemented that by gaining his father’s blessing.  He had an inheritance, authority, and the prophecy of God.

That is what the blessing was so significant, it confirmed and cemented what happened with his gaining fo the birthright.  What happened then now in no way, could be undone.

Jacob, along with his mother, tricked his father and stole from his brother.  And this is one who God uses. Wow.  Never think you’ve gone too for that God cannot use you.

Tomorrow we’ll finish looking at the world of the text of this passage.

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