Genesis 27-28

In chapter 27 we are approaching the end of Isaac and Rebekah's life. Isaac was old, and his eyes failing, and before he died, he wanted to select his primary heir, and choose which of his two sons would be the recipient of the Covenant, and its blessings, made with Abraham and Isaac.

The Lord had already made His choice of Isaac's heir known. Years earlier, when Rebekah asked God why she was feeling a struggle within her womb, the Lord spoke to her, and communicated that she would have twins. Each child would become a nation. The child who was born first, who normally would be the principle heir, and the superior, would be weaker than the younger brother, and would serve the younger brother. Jacob, the younger, and the father of the Jewish people, would be chosen to continue the covenant which provided salvation and blessing for the world.

While they were still in the womb, before they had done anything good or bad, the Lord exercised His supreme will, which He the right to do, and chose the younger, Jacob, to be the one through whom the Abrahamic Covenant would continue.

But, even though the Lord had chosen Jacob, and favored Jacob, Isaac favored Esav, and wanted to choose Esav. Why did Isaac favor Esav? Perhaps because Esav was the firstborn son, and normally the firstborn would be the principle heir, and the spiritual leader of the family. Maybe Isaac felt he was doing what was right by traditional standards. But, the Lord will must always be preferred over tradition. In addition, Isaac favored Esav because he liked the taste of the game that Esav, who was a skillful hunter, brought home.

Isaac called Esav, told him to hunt game, and prepare a tasty meal, so that Isaac could eat this delicious meal, and bestow his blessing to Esav. Why did Isaac want to eat delicious food before he blessed his son? I think for the same reason that Elisha told the king to bring him a musician, and when the musician played, the hand of the Lord came upon him, and he was able to hear the word of the Lord. Eating or drinking a special food that we like can help us draw closer to God. To help him get "in the Spirit," Isaac wanted to eat a savory, tasty dish, caught and prepared by his son. Out of gratitude for this delicious food, his soul would be even more inclined toward God and his son, and he would be better able to bless him with this very important blessing.

I love drinking hot, steaming coffee or tea. It gives me a warm, comforting, stimulating feeling, and when I see the steam rising, is reminds me that my life is like a vapor, and I will soon see God face to face, enter into His presence, and encounter His reality. When I drink coffee or tea, my soul is drawn closer to God.

Now, Rebekah overhead Isaac's conversation with Esav, and didn't want Isaac to make Esav his primary heir, and the inheritor of the Abrahamic Covenant. She favored Jacob. No doubt she remembered the Lord's word to her, and His choice of Jacob. Perhaps she felt that when Esav sold his birthright to Jacob, that contract should be honored. No doubt she had told Jacob what the Lord had promised him while he was still in the womb.

So, she and Jacob decided to outmaneuver Isaac. Rebekah prepared a delicious meal for Isaac, dressed Jacob in Esav's clothes, and put hairy goatskins on Jacob's neck and hands, so that he would appear like his hairier brother.

Jacob brought the food to his father, and lied to him. He identified himself as Esav, and asked for his father's blessing. Jacob was suspicious that something wasn't right. The one speaking to him sounded like Jacob. So, he asked his son to come closer, so that he could employ other senses, and feel him, and he felt like Esav. He was still suspicious, and asked him a second time if he was Esav. And Jacob lied again, and said he was. A second time Isaac asked him to come close, and kiss him, and when he did, Isaac smelled him, and he smelled like Esav. Two senses indicated it was Esav, while only one sense indicated it was Jacob.

One lesson we can learn from this is that before making a major decision, we should wait until all of our senses, and our inner sense, tells us that this is the right thing to do.

Now Isaac was ready to give his blessing, and what a beautiful and powerful blessing it was! It included the blessings of abundant water - the dew of Heaven, and abundant water is crucially important in a hot, dry land. The blessing included abundance that would come from the Earth, especially plenty of grain for food and wine for joy. The blessing included superiority over other nations, even over his brother. If anyone dared to try and harm him, Isaac's heir, Abraham's heir, God would make sure that they would be harmed, but if anyone blessed him, doing good things to him, God would do good things to him in return.

God heard and honored this powerful and true and prophetic blessing of his servant Isaac. The Lord had chosen Jacob to receive this blessing before he was born. Esav had despised his birthright, and forfeited it, when he sold it to his brother.

Fathers, you are in a position of authority in your families, and you can bless your children. I encourage you to exercise your spiritual authority, and bless them at the right times, and with the right blessings.

Isaac had just finished blessing Jacob, who left, when Esav returned from hunting. He prepared a delicious dish of food for his father, came to him, and asked for the blessing he had been promised.

Isaac realized that even though he had been deceived by Jacob, his blessing would be honored by God. What he had prayed was God's will. He could not give the same blessing to Esav, even though Esav cried loudly and bitterly, and pleaded with his father for the special blessing reserved for the firstborn.

The book written to the Messianic Jews comments on this incident. "See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God ... that there be no immoral or godless person like Esav, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.

Adoph Saphir, a wonderful Messianic Jewish teacher commenting on this writes that "even though Esav was brought up in the family of one of the fathers of the Jewish people, he was devoid of any spiritual life. He was godless. There was no room for God in his life, there was no place where God could dwell. His body was not the Temple of the Holy Spirit. He treated spiritual things as being of little importance, and he proved it by selling his birthright for the immediate gratification of his appetite.

The Messianic Jews are then reminded of what Esav desired later - the blessing. But by then it was too late. Too late he realized the value of what he had thrown away so lightly. Esav discovered that Isaac had given the blessing to Jacob, and though Esav pleaded with Isaac to reverse his action and give the blessing to him, it was all in vain. Esav was forever the loser, because he so lightly valued spiritual realities and threw them away in a brief moment's physical comfort.

The principle still holds true: the child of God who throws away golden opportunities in order to indulge some carnal desire will pay for it in the end. We must not trade spiritual things for earthly things, as Esav did, because if we do, we will surely live to regret it."

In verse 36, Esav says that Jacob is rightly named "Ya'akov" - "he will heel," because "he heeled me" - he went behind my back, twice, taking my birthright and my blessing.

Esav continued asking for another blessing, and so Isaac gave him a blessing of sorts: he would live in a land that was not rich and fertile, and did not have abundant water. He would live by his sword - by conquering others and taking their spoil. He would serve his brother Jacob, but eventually become free. And, over the centuries, that's exactly what happened. They were conquered by David (2 Samuel 8:14) and afterwards by Amaziah (2 Chronicles 25:11-12). But they regained again their independence (2 Kings 8:20-22), and in later years, made war against Israel. They took part with the Babylonians when Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem.

This was not the kind of blessing that Esav had in mind, and he blamed Jacob, and held a grudge against him, and planned on killing him after his father Isaac died, so as not to grieve the father he loved.

Rebekah found out that Esav was intent on killing Jacob, and instructed Jacob to flee to a place of safety, to her brother's home, for a few days, until Esav's anger subsided and the memory of what Jacob did to him was diminished.

This is a good lesson on dealing with anger. When we respond to someone and our anger is still fresh and still burning, we are much more likely to over-react and say something or do something that we will regret. Putting some distance and time between you is a good way of dealing with anger. When you are angry with someone who has hurt you, put some distance between you. Go for a walk, take a drive in the car, go to the workshop, do something. Put some time between you, and wait until your anger subsides, before dealing with the situation.

Even though Rebekah intended Jacob to stay with her brother for a few days, he wound up staying with him for many years, and Rebekah never again, in this life, saw the son she loved so much. But I'm sure, like all good mothers, she thought the sacrifice was worth it.

Rebekah had another reason for sending Jacob away to her relatives - she didn't want him to married one of the women of the land, like Esav had. She wanted him to marry well, someone who would help him accomplish the great tasks God was calling him to. And so, Isaac commanded Jacob not to marry one of the women who lived in Canaan, but instead to marry someone from a good Semitic family, from his mother's family.

And Jacob responded, "no my father. I won't obey your command. Who I marry is my business. It's none of your business. I will marry anyone I please." Of course he did not respond to his father in that way! He honored his father, and listened to his mother, whom God had given wisdom in this matter.

And Isaac also blessed Jacob, asking El Shaddai, The Mightiest One, who is able to continuously sustain, nourish and satisfy His people, and take care of all their needs, to do good things for Jacob, and make him increase in number, and become an assembly of peoples, which he did through his twelve sons, who became twelve great tribes; Isaac asked the Lord to give the blessing of Abraham to Jacob, including the Land of Israel, and the great covenant that Lord made with him.

Now, Esav heard that Isaac had again blessed Jacob, and this time, Jacob hadn't received a blessing by deceiving his father, but because Isaac was genuinely pleased with him. Esav also understood that his marriage to his Hittite wives displeased his father, and so he decide that he too would go to a relative, and take a wife from among his relatives. But, he didn't go to his mother's family, perhaps because he wasn't close to his mother, but rather to his father's side of the family, to his uncle Ishmael. And, Esav married a daughter of Ishmael. So, the Edomites are also part Ishmaelite.

Now, back to Jacob. Jacob left Beersheva, and headed north and east toward Haran. Some 50 miles north, Jacob arrived at a certain place, and spent the night there. He used a stone for a pillow, and went to sleep.

That night, Jacob had a dream: a ladder was standing on the Earth, and the top of the ladder reached up to Heaven. And, there were angels going up and down on it. And, Adonai, the eternal Lord, stood above.

The meaning of the vision? God is real. He is in a real place - Heaven. Human beings, like Jacob, are on Earth. And, there is a gap between Heaven and Earth, between God and man, that only God can bridge. The Lord has servants, angels, whom He sends from Heaven to Earth and back, who will help human beings on their journey to Heaven. "Jacob may have been without human friends; but unseen, there had been angels by his side to protect and encourage him" (Hertz).

And, essential to this journey to Heaven is the Abrahamic Covenant, which goes from Abraham, to Isaac - not Ishmael or the Sons of Keturah, to Jacob - not Esav. This Covenant includes a special people - Israel, and a special Land - the Land of Israel. Through this special people, and in this special Land, blessings - good things would flow to the families of the Earth - good things like the knowledge of the one true and living God, who alone can save us, and the principles of having faith in Him, and the need to draw near to Him with the blood of a sacrifice, so that we can be reconciled to the Creator, from whom the whole world is estranged; and finally the greatest blessing - the Son of Jacob, who is also the Son of God, and mankind's only Savior, He would come, offering salvation and blessing and more good things to the nations of the world.

Messiah Yeshua is the fulfillment of Jacob's Ladder. John tells us that when Yeshua's first disciples were starting to follow Him, Philip found Nathan'el and said to him, "We have found Him of whom Moses in the Torah and also the Prophets wrote, Yeshua of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." This is He Nathan'el! The Messiah has finally come! The one who Moses predicted in the Torah, and all the prophets prophesied would come, has finally arrive! He's right here! It's Yeshua, who is from the Galilee, like us, the son of Joseph. You know, the carpenter from Nazareth!

Now, Nathan'el was somewhat skeptical about Philip's astounding claim, for Nazareth hadn't supplied any prophets, and I don't think many great sages, let alone the Messiah. And so Nathan'el said to him, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" The Messiah? From Nazareth? That doesn't sound right Philip.

So Philip said to him, "Come and see." I understand your skepticism Nathan'el, but all you need to do is come and see. Investigate further.

And isn't that what we need to do when we are met by the skeptical responses of the people that we share the Good News about the Messiah with? "You believe in the Bible, that it is the Word of God? You believe in Yeshua? Miracles? His resurrection? I don't think so."

What should be our response? "Come and see! Won't you find out more about Him? Won't you read the Bible for yourself before you make up your mind and dismiss it? Read the Torah and the Prophets and see how they amazingly predict many of the events and the circumstances surrounding Yeshua the Messiah, and they were written centuries before He came. Surely God gave us those prophecies. Read the whole Bible, especially the New Testament, with an open mind, and pray that God would show you the truth about Yeshua. Come, and see!"

Yeshua saw Nathan'el coming to Him, and said of him, "Behold, an Israeli indeed, in whom there is no deceit!" Yeshua, before He had ever met Nathan'el, knew that he was a good and honest man. So, Nathan'el said to Him, "How do You know me?" We've never met. How do you know anything about me. But Yeshua answered and said to him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." Nathan'el, I do know you! I have supernatural knowledge about you. I was able to see you and know you while you were over there, under the fig tree, that you are a good and honest man.

And Nathan'el was under the fig tree, and he was a good and honest man, and he knew it. And so, Nathan'el answered Him, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel." Teacher, You are from God. You are God's Son. You are Israel's King - the long awaited Messiah, the Savior, the Redeemer, the Deliverer. I believe!" That's faith! That's belief; that's confidence. That's receiving Yeshua, and believing in His name, that results in life - eternal life.

Yeshua answered and said to him, "Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these." Nathan'el, that little display of supernatural foreknowledge, that word of knowledge, that shows that I am closely connected to the All-Knowing God, impresses you? On a scale of 1 to 10, Nathan'el, that was a 1.

And He said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the Heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man." Nathan'el, you keep on following Me, and believing in Me, and you will see a glimpse of Heaven itself! God's Heavens will become visible to you, and you will see and understand that I am the fulfillment of Jacob's Ladder. I am able to bridge the gap between Heaven and Earth. I am the stairway to Heaven, the bridge, the one and only mediator, the High Priest, between God and Man. God's blessed messengers will be able to bring the blessing of Heaven to Earth through Me, and then return back to God to bring some more. Through faith in Me, the way to Heaven will be made available to the sons of Earth!

In Jacobs's dream, the Lord made another promise to Jacob. Verse 15 records God's promise to be with Jacob, and when God is with us, He protects us and makes us successful. In this case, the Lord promised to be with Jacob, and protect him on his journey, and bring him back to the Promised Land. The Lord promised that He would not leave him until He accomplished what He promised him. And, we have that same promise! He who began a good work in us will see it through to completion. Messiah will be with us always. God is with us, watching over us, keeping us from evil, so that nothing truly evil will be able to harm us, or thwart God's plan for our life.

Jacob woke up and was afraid. He believe that this spot was a very special, holy place - the gate to Heaven, and a place where the presence of God was especially manifested, and so he called the place, "Bethel" - the House of God, a place where God resides on Earth. I wonder if Jacob knew that "every spot on Earth may be for man ‘the gate of Heaven'" (Hertz).

He also turned that spot into a special memorial. He took the stone that had been under his head, and set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on it - oil a symbol associated with the presence of God. When oil was poured on a person, they were sanctified - set apart to accomplish special purposes. This stone Jacob set apart to remember his encounter with the Living God. Stones continued to be used as memorials among the Jewish people, and are still used as memorials. If you visit the grave of a Jewish person, in addition to gravestones, you may find little stones on the grave-site, which serve to help us remember the life of the departed.

Jacob also made a vow, which is a solemn promise made to God. Jacob vowed that if the Lord would protect him on his journey, and provide food and clothing for him, and get him back safely home, then Adonai would be his God. Jacob would serve Him, and obey him and worship him. He would also tithe - give ten percent of what he had, back to God. And, I recommend that all who follow the God of Jacob do likewise, and give back ten percent to the God who gives us all the good things that we enjoy.

It's a very serious thing to make a vow. Better to not make a vow than to make one and break it. God will hold us to our vows, and punish us if we don't keep them. In general, rather than making a vow, just say what you mean, and then do it. Be a person of your word. If you say yes, I'll do this, then do it. If you say, No, I won't do that, then don't do it. But if you make a vow to the Holy God, you had better do everything in your power to keep that sacred promise. Righteous Jacob, who had a heart for God, and zeal for God, kept this vow.

I'm sure that Jacob had heard about the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, all his life; and how God had appeared to them, and spoke to them, and protected them, and made promises to them, and entered into a covenant with them, and asked them to obey Him, and show that they were part of this Covenant, by being circumcised.

Up until this point, Jacob may have only known about the Lord, or he may have known the Lord in a personal way; but now, he knew the Lord on his own, and was more serious about God than ever before. Jacob is to be admired because when Jacob found out more about God, he followed God. He put into practice what he learned.

You may have heard about God all your life. You have may grown up in a family where your parents told you about God. Like Jacob, each one of us needs a Bethel Experience - a personal encounter with God. We have heard about God, but it's crucial to really come to know the Lord personally, and decide to make the Lord our God. Won't you pray to Him, seek Him, ask Him to reveal Himself to you in such a way that you really know Him on your own, and you can say, "The Lord is my God?"