GENESIS: Week 4
Last week, Resound Children’s Church did some of the story of Isaac, Jacob and Esau. You might have sampled one of the delicious hairy/non-hairy biscuits.
As I ate my third iced biscuit, I began to reflect on what an odd story it is – Jacob deceives his father and yet is still blessed, whilst Esau has to go without!
You could read this story and take away that God still blesses liars and tricksters, or that people are to be rewarded for seemingly bad behaviours. But that isn’t really what’s going on here.
Well, in a sense, no one is acting entirely morally here. Everyone is scheming against everyone else!
Isaac secretly plans to bless Esau.
Rebekah deceives Isaac.
Jacob deceives his father.
Esau previously despised his birthright (Genesis 25:34).
So, for what is meant to be a family of extreme importance in the story of the ancient Israelites, the message we get is that even they are far from perfect.
Takeaway 1: God still wants to use and bless those who are imperfect.
This is perhaps one of the most common recurring themes of the Hebrew Bible, our Old Testament. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Solomon... the list goes on and on. Imperfect, morally flawed individuals who are at the centre of God’s story.
Then we encounter Jesus, who is portrayed as perfect, standing apart from and above these others.
But, back to the animosity.
We saw last week the use of immorality to make a point about the origins of the Ammonites and Moabites. Well, this story becomes another chapter in the ongoing theme of conflict within Israel’s history. We start early with the story of Cain and Abel, brother killing brother. Then, though there is no direct conflict, there is a division between Ishmael and Isaac, the two first sons of Abraham. (Esau eventually goes and marries into Ishmael’s family!)
And now, just one generation later, Esau and Jacob become rivals.
What doesn’t help is that their parents each have their own favourite;
"Isaac loved Esau... but Rebekah loved Jacob" (25:28)
And then this pattern repeats again before too long, when Jacobs sons turn against one of their own brothers, Joseph.
So, perhaps there is some etiology happening here, with origins being explained for tensions among different tribes, communities and nations. But when there is a pattern, that points us more towards theological point being made intentionally.
Takeaway 2: Even the family of the covenant are deeply dysfunctional. Yet this is the family through whom God will bless the nations.
Now, that’s all well and good, but the mechanics of this story are also important, aside from the people involved. How are we to understand what a blessing is and what it does?
Well, in the time and place this story is set in, blessing someone was more than just a gesture after someone sneezes. The spoken word was immensely important to them and they seemed to have believed that words shaped reality.
We see this across Genesis – God speaks creation into being, covenants are spoken, Kings made spoken decrees. When these things were spoken, they happened. It is decisive and definitive.
This is why Isaac cannot simply take back his blessing. Esau is clearly frustrated that Isaac won’t just give him another blessing, but Isaac understands his spoken blessing over Jacob, though given by mistake, as a legal and binding act.
It’s like if you sign a document without reading the terms and conditions. You have committed yourself to that, even if you weren’t fully mindful in making that commitment.
But the blessing of Isaac on Jacob isn’t just a typical birthright transfer (that happens in chapter 25) and so whilst some legal things might have been able to have been reversed, this is bigger than that. This ties Jacob into God’s plan.
Takeaway 3: God often chooses the unexpected person.
God had already said;
"The older shall serve the younger" (Genesis 25:23)
So, God seems to be choosing Jacob, and when Isaac wants to bless Esau, that would be in direct opposition to what God said. All the deceit and tricks, though not a typical roadmap, end up with God’s will being done. Jacob was blessed.
This is another pattern we can identify in the Hebrew Bible narratives – God often chooses the unexpected person. Often it contravenes the birthright of the firstborn
Abel over Cain
Isaac over Ishmael
Jacob over Esau
Joseph over his brothers
Ephraim over Manasseh
David over his brothers
One final reflection.
Genesis doesn’t appear to question whether the blessing ‘works’. It is far more concerned with who receives it, who becomes the bearer of God’s promise.
Even when this is done illicitly, there is a bigger plan in action.
Takeaway 4; Genesis 27 is not about the triumph of a righteous man but about the persistence of God's promise through a family that is incapable of embodying that promise faithfully.