Genesis 27: 6-10: “And Rebekah spake unto Jacob her son, saying, Behold, I heard thy father speak unto Esau thy brother, saying, Bring me venison, and make me savoury meat, that I may eat, and bless thee before the LORD before my death. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command thee. Go now to the flock, and fetch me from thence two good kids of the goats; and I will make them savoury meat for thy father, such as he loveth: And thou shalt bring it to thy father, that he may eat, and that he may bless thee before his death.
At first sight we see that there is evidence of a huge family conflict here as the mother preferred one son while the father preferred the other son. However, Rebekah remembered the promise which, the Lord made to her while she was still carrying the twins while Isaac, it seems, was more concerned about the food than he was about the word of the Lord. In Gen 25: 23 the Lord told Rebekah “And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.” Isaac wanted to bless Esau in spite of the fact that the Lord said that the blessing should go to Jacob. It would seem as though Isaac would have blessed the wrong son without Rebekah’s involvement. We know that Jacob desired the blessing but probably not for pure reasons. He had spent his life, to date, trying to get ahead of his older brother anyway. Rebekah knew exactly what Isaac liked and she prepared everything just the way he desired. This plan may have gone very wrong for both Rebekah and Jacob but the Lord was involved and the plan prospered in the long term. Eventually this led to the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. The other issue that we can remember when we consider this section is the fact that at the end of chapter 26 we read that Esau’s marriage brought grief of mind to his parents so we should question if he was worthy of the blessing anyway.
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
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