And it came to pass when Isaac had become old, and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, that he called Esau his elder son, and said to him, My son! And he said to him, Here am I.
Genesis 27 opens with an old man who cannot see. Isaac calls for Esau, though God had already said the older son would serve the younger. The verse reads like a simple note about age. Commentators treat it as the doorway into a chapter where a whole family works against God's stated will.
The physical detail carries a spiritual one. One writer ties Isaac's blindness directly to what he had let rule him:
Despite Esau's wrong marriages, and despite God's word that Isaac's older son would serve the younger (Gen. 25:23), Isaac was ready to give his chief blessing to Esau. Verse 1 tells us that his eyes were dim. No doubt his spiritual eyes were dim also. The reason is clear: he allowed his natural appetite to take priority over the revealed will of God.
Isaac is near the end of his life, and his mind is on food. The older wording "savoury meat" appears as "delicious food" in the ESV:
Here we find the aged Isaac standing, as it were, at the very door of eternity. Earth and nature are fast fading from his view. Yet he is taken up with "savoury meat," and about to act in direct opposition to God's counsel by blessing the elder instead of the younger. This was nature, and nature with its "eyes dim." If Esau had sold his birthright for a bowl of stew, Isaac was about to give away the blessing for a plate of venison. How very humiliating!
God had already announced who would carry the blessing. Isaac was not the only one in that house who ignored it:
Here was ample room for the discernment and intelligence of faith. But it is the complete absence of both these qualities that marked Isaac at the beginning. The eye of faith was as blind as the eye of nature. Whatever Isaac's blindness on the one hand, or Jacob's deceit on the other, God's will is done. But this in no way lessened their responsibility and sin. Indeed the whole family were joined in sin at that moment, though on opposite sides — Isaac with Esau, and Rebekah with Jacob. … Esau, already called a godless man for selling his birthright, backs his blind father and agrees with him to frustrate, if possible, the counsel of God. No doubt Esau knew that God had said, "the older shall serve the younger," and he hoped to regain the blessing.
Rebekah overheard this call to Esau. Her answer to her husband's plan was craft, not prayer:
For the time being Isaac's heart was blinder than his eyes. His foolish favouritism led him to thwart the declared mind of God. Rebekah overheard this and tried to counter it with a woman's craft and quick invention. Had she looked to God instead of her weak husband and her favourite son, how different everything would have been! … But she did not ask Jehovah now, as she once had. She gave in to a low deceit. It was as sinful before God as it was dishonouring to her husband and to herself.
The meal Isaac craved became the tool of his correction:
But God will subdue nature, unjudged nature, and in Isaac too! And not only this. God's ways are perfect and complete. He will use that very indulgence as the direct instrument to discipline him — the same indulgence that had twisted Isaac's mind and judgement. God allows him to be deceived. The "savoury meat" turned his mind away from sound judgement, and the same "savoury meat" now forces him, without knowing it, to act according to the will of God. He carries out the will of God almost against his own will, with no real communion with Him — the sad result of nature left unjudged.
Scripture does not soften the picture:
God has completely washed away the blots, the failures and the errors of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob… But their history remains on the page of inspiration. It displays God's grace and warns God's people in all ages. It also shows us that God has not been dealing with perfect men and women, but with people "of like passions as we are." He has walked with and borne with the same failures, the same weaknesses, the same errors that we mourn over every day.
- Appetite first. Isaac let his taste for Esau's game outrank God's spoken word. That choice shapes the whole chapter.
- Then dimness. The failing eyes of verse 1 picture a deeper loss: the eye of faith had gone as blind as the eye of nature.
- Then scheming. Rebekah once asked God directly. Now she meets her husband's plan with deceit — the whole household split, and every side of it wrong.
- Then discipline. God used the very dish Isaac craved as the tool to humble him; the indulgence became the correction.
- Yet the purpose stood. Human blindness and cunning changed nothing about God's will. The record of the failure remains to display His grace and to warn us.
And he said, Behold now, I am become old; I know not the day of my death.
Isaac is old, his sight has failed, and he believes death is near. So he moves to settle the family blessing. The strange thing is where he aims it: at Esau, the son who had sold his birthright and whom God had already passed over.
Isaac speaks as a man with little time left. One writer measures the gap between what he expected and what happened:
He went blind many years earlier and expected to die soon (27:2). In fact he did not die until he had lived 180 years.
Another gives the exact number of years, and says what they held:
Isaac lives after this event 43 years longer, but with this he passes from the page of history. Of his death and burial by Esau and Jacob we hear later. Patient endurance and suffering marked his life. His faith consisted in quietness and waiting.
Isaac's eyesight had failed. One writer sees a deeper failure behind it:
Verse 1 tells us that his eyes were dim. No doubt his spiritual eyes were dim also. Clearly this was because he allowed his natural appetite to come before the revealed will of God.
Isaac speaks of dying and in the same breath orders a meal. One writer sets that contrast beside Esau's own bargain:
Here we find the aged Isaac standing, as it were, at the very door of eternity. The earth and nature were fast fading from his view. Yet he was taken up with tasty food, and about to act in direct opposition to God's counsel by blessing the elder instead of the younger. Truly this was nature — nature with its "eyes dim." Esau had sold his birthright for a bowl of stew; Isaac was about to give away the blessing for a plate of venison. How very humbling!
The blessing was a priestly act, and the last one of Isaac's life. Notice what he called for to prepare himself:
He was about to do the last religious act of a patriarchal priest. Yet he calls for his meal as if for wine and strong drink — the food of mere animal life — to lift him up and equip him for the service!
Isaac's affection for Esau survived everything that should have ended it.
Esau had not only disposed of his birthright; by marrying a Canaanite woman he had also lost his social right to be heir. Isaac knew this, and it was a grief of mind to him. Yet even this did not remove Esau from the place in his father's affection that he had held for so many years… To the last, Isaac clings to the son he loved. In the strength of his natural affection he overlooked every divine hint and every act of Esau's that should have moved him to a different course. Here he comes before us in a truly humbling light, as the believer always does when uncontrolled nature rules the day.
Isaac is deceived, and God's will is done anyway. One writer shows how God dealt with him through the very thing he had indulged:
But God will subdue nature, unjudged nature, and in Isaac too! And not only this — so perfect and complete are God's ways! He will use that very indulgence as the direct instrument to discipline him. It was the indulgence that had twisted Isaac's mind and judgment. He is allowed to be deceived. The tasty meal turned his mind away from sound judgment; and the same tasty meal forces him, without knowing it, to act according to the will of God.
Scripture's own verdict on this scene is surprising:
The crisis of his ways came when his foot had nearly slipped in the matter of his two sons (Gen. 27). Grace overruled here; and he was saved, yet only as through fire. How striking that such a scene should be singled out to his praise in Hebrews 11:20! "By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau." Isaac lived many years after this. Scripture records only his death and burial.
- Wrong day. Isaac said he did not know the day of his death, and acted as if it were near. He lived another forty-three years, reaching 180.
- Dim sight. His weak eyes matched weak judgment. The cause was an appetite he put before God's revealed will.
- Wrong aim. At the door of eternity a meal filled his mind. He was ready to hand the blessing to the son who had already sold his birthright.
- Wrong love. Isaac overlooked every warning about Esau. This is what unjudged nature does in a believer.
- Right outcome. God used the very indulgence that had blinded Isaac to correct him. His purpose stood, and Hebrews 11:20 remembers the scene as an act of faith.
And now, I pray thee, take thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field and hunt me venison,
Isaac is old, and his eyes have failed. He sends his elder son out to hunt game and cook his favourite meal before he gives the family blessing — and commentators trace his failure to that meal.
Isaac names a hunter's kit. A quiver is "the receptacle for arrows" (Morrish Bible Dictionary). But why did Isaac want the hunt at all? He had reasons to hold back:
Esau had not only disposed of his birthright, he had also socially disqualified himself from heirship by marrying a Canaanite. Isaac knew this, and it was, as we read, a "grief of mind" to him. Yet even this did not remove Esau from the place he had held in his father's affections for so many years… So, right to the end, Isaac clings to the son he loved. His natural affection was so strong that he overlooked every divine hint, and every act of Esau's that should have moved him to a different course. Here he comes before us in a truly humbling light, as a believer always does when nature runs unchecked.
Both parents had a favourite, and each choice had a reason.
Sadly, it was not something new that Isaac loved Esau. He loved him not simply as his son, because of his natural boldness, but because venison suited his taste. Rebekah, meanwhile, loved Jacob. His character had the same traits of the flesh as hers — Syrian craft and selfishness. But neither of them was lukewarm about the divine promise.
Willis weighs the words Isaac added — "such as I love":
Isaac was a very wealthy man. He had never "endured hardness" as his father had done. He was what we call a "soft" man. He had slipped into the habit of luxury and self-indulgence. "Savoury meat, such as I love" are words completely unworthy of a saint of God. Like Noah, his son's fall was largely due to his own self-indulgence.
Verse 1 tells us Isaac's sight had failed. Commentators link that to a deeper blindness:
Despite Esau's wrong marriages, and despite God's word that Isaac's older son would serve the younger (Gen. 25:23), Isaac was ready to give his chief blessing to Esau. We are told in verse 1 that his eyes were dim. No doubt his spiritual eyes were dim too, because he let his natural appetite take precedence over the revealed will of God.
Mackintosh sets father and son side by side:
Here we find the aged patriarch Isaac standing, as it were, at the very door of eternity. The earth and nature are fast fading from his view. Yet he is taken up with "savoury meat," and about to act in direct opposition to the divine counsel by blessing the elder instead of the younger… If Esau had sold his birthright for a bowl of stew, Isaac was about to give away the blessing for a dish of venison. How very humbling!
Bellett weighs what Isaac was about to do — and what he called for first:
He was about to perform the last religious act of a patriarchal priest. And he calls for wine and strong drink — the food of mere nature — to stir him up and fill him for the service of the temple! Terrible abomination!… We may all be aware how much of nature stains our holy things. We can mistake the excitement of the flesh for the easy, strong current of the Spirit. We may notice this in times of fellowship. But that should be our sorrow. We confess it as evil and weakness, and we watch against it.
The story does not end with Isaac's failure. The very appetite that misled him becomes the tool that corrects him:
But God will subdue nature, unjudged nature, and in Isaac too! And more than that. God's ways are so perfect and complete that He will use the very indulgence that had twisted Isaac's mind and judgement as the direct tool to discipline him. God lets him be deceived. The "savoury meat" turned his mind from sound judgement; and the same "savoury meat" makes him act, without knowing it, according to the will of God.
Kelly turns to how God dealt with the whole family:
Let us delight in the wisdom of His ways. He overruled a partiality of the flesh that would have made His Word void, and He secured His purpose, however faulty the people were who remembered it. They turned to unworthy tricks to correct the wrong and secure His promise. So each of them came under His righteous chastening for their crooked scheming. God loves dearly, but He rebukes and chastises.
- Taste. Isaac loved Esau because venison suited his taste — a preference built on appetite, not on God's word.
- Blindness. The taste dimmed the inner eye: dim sight in verse 1 matched dim judgement about God's revealed will.
- Misuse. Isaac carried that appetite into a sacred act, calling for the food of mere nature to fuel the last service of a patriarchal priest.
- Discipline. God used the same savoury meat to deceive and humble Isaac. He did God's will almost against himself.
- Faithfulness. Both the favouritism and the scheming came under chastening, yet the promise stood. God rebukes those He loves, and His Word holds.
and prepare me a savoury dish such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, in order that my soul may bless thee before I die.
Isaac is old and blind. He is about to do the most solemn act of his life — passing on the blessing. Yet the scene opens with him asking for a favourite dish. And the son he means to bless is the one God had already set aside.
(Where the writers quote "savoury meat," the ESV reads "delicious food.")
The words "such as I love" show what was driving Isaac. One writer sets the two brothers' bargains side by side.
Here we find the aged Isaac standing, as it were, at the very door of eternity. The earth and nature were fast fading from his view. Yet he was taken up with "savoury meat," and about to act in direct opposition to God's counsel by blessing the elder instead of the younger. Truly this was nature, and nature with its "eyes dim." If Esau had sold his birthright for a bowl of stew, Isaac was about to give away the blessing for a plate of venison. How very humiliating!
The chapter opens by telling us Isaac could not see. One writer reads that detail as a sign of something deeper.
In spite of Esau's wrong marriages, and in spite of God's word that Isaac's older son would serve the younger (Gen. 25:23), Isaac was ready to give his chief blessing to Esau. Verse 1 tells us his eyes were dim. No doubt his spiritual eyes were dim also. This was clearly because he let his natural appetite take priority over the revealed will of God (Gen. 25:28). But to bless Esau, he first wanted him to take his bow and quiver of arrows, hunt deer, and bring him cooked venison — "such as I love," he adds (v. 4).
Blessing his sons was Isaac's last act as priest of the family. That is what makes the menu so jarring.
He was about to do the last religious act of a father who served as priest for his family. And he calls for wine and strong drink — the food of mere nature — to stir him up and fill him for the service of the temple! … We may all be conscious how much of nature stains our holy things. We may see how much of the excitement of the flesh we may mistake for the easy, strong current of the Spirit. We may know this in the places of communion, but it is to be our sorrow; we confess it as evil and weakness, and we watch against it. But think of preparing for it. To mix the wine and the strong drink with such care, and to take a hearty drink in this deliberate way — surely this is a shameful thing.
Later in the chapter a thin disguise fools Isaac. One writer blames this not on his eyes but on his broken communion with God. The same writer reads "that my soul may bless you" as simply handing over the blessing.
How did Isaac fall for such a clumsy trick? He knew the voice. Were the neck and wrists covered with goatskin a surer test than the voice? No man of the world with common sense would have fallen for it. How did it happen? He was not in communion with God, and the crudest tricks can fool a believer who is out of communion. His thoughts were fleshly; his soul loved venison, and the savoury meat blinded his mind. "Bring me savoury meat, that my soul may bless you" — give you the blessing — "before I die."
The dish Isaac asked for becomes the very thing God uses to correct him.
But God will subdue nature, unjudged nature, and in Isaac too! And not only this — so perfect and complete are God's ways! That very indulgence had twisted Isaac's mind and judgment. Now God will use it as the direct instrument to discipline him. God lets him be deceived. The "savoury meat" turned his mind away from sound judgment. And by the "savoury meat" he is made, without knowing it, to act according to the will of God.
Isaac says "before I die." He was not near the end at all, and the New Testament's verdict on this scene is a surprise.
Here is the crisis of his ways, when his foot had nearly slipped in the matter of his two sons (Gen. 27). Grace overruled here; and he was saved, yet so as through fire. How striking that such a scene should be singled out to his praise in Hebrews 11:20! "By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau even concerning things to come." Isaac lived many years after this; but Scripture records only his death and burial.
- Appetite. "Such as I love" exposes the motive: Isaac was about to give away the blessing for a plate of venison.
- Blindness. His dim eyes matched a dim judgment. Appetite mattered more to him than God's word that the elder would serve the younger.
- Deception. The crudest trick can fool a believer who is out of communion. The savoury meat blinded Isaac's mind before the goatskin ever touched his hands.
- Discipline. God used the very indulgence that twisted Isaac's judgment as the tool to correct him. Isaac carried out God's will without knowing it.
- Blessing. Grace overruled Isaac's failure, and Hebrews 11:20 singles out this very scene as his praise.
And Rebecca heard when Isaac spoke to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt venison, to bring it.
Isaac is old and blind. He calls Esau in to arrange a blessing that God had already promised to the younger son. One small detail changes everything: Rebekah is listening. What she overhears starts a scheme that follows Jacob for the rest of his life.
Isaac's blindness is stated plainly in the chapter, but commentators see a deeper failure behind the plan he was making. He was about to hand the chief blessing to the son God had already passed over.
Despite Esau's wrong marriages, and despite God's word that Isaac's older son would serve the younger (Gen. 25:23), Isaac was ready to give his chief blessing to Esau. Verse 1 tells us that his eyes were dim, and no doubt his spiritual eyes were dim also. This was evidently because he let his natural appetite come before the revealed will of God (Gen. 25:28).
Isaac had every reason to know better. Esau had already shown what he thought of his place in the family.
Then again, did not Esau, when he was old enough to know better, sell his birthright for one meal? And was this profane act not made worse by his indifference? The chosen family were bound to stay separate before Jehovah, among the doomed races who held the land. His Hittite wives were a bitterness of spirit to both parents: how sad that the father should now treat it so lightly!
What she overheard alarmed her, and the alarm was not unreasonable. The problem was what she did with it.
But, if we look ahead, Isaac's words filled Rebekah with alarm. She no longer asked Jehovah, as she had in days when her faith was more alive. She listened instead to plan her own wretched deceit, and so defeat the wrong her husband had in mind.
Another road was open to her: a straight appeal to her husband.
Had she looked to God instead of to her feeble husband and her favourite son, how different everything would have been! Even Abraham listened to Sarah's voice when he was deeply moved about Ishmael. How much more should Rebekah have counted on an appeal to Isaac's conscience! God's own word, given before the twins were born, stood behind her: "the older shall serve the younger."
The whole scheme rests on an assumption — that unless somebody acted, God's word would fail.
Jacob's history brings out two great points. On one side is God's purpose of grace. On the other is nature plotting and scheming to reach what that purpose would have brought about for certain, without any plot or scheme at all... God did not need the help of such things as Rebekah's cunning and Jacob's gross deceit to carry out His purpose. He had said, "the older shall serve the younger." This was enough — enough for faith, but not enough for nature.
What would faith have done instead?
If they had acted in faith and depended on God, they might have seen a miraculous answer to the problem. Then they would have had reason for the deepest thanksgiving, instead of troubled consciences.
The years after the blessing show what the scheme cost Jacob.
Anyone who looks at Jacob's life after he obtained his father's blessing by stealth will see that he enjoyed very little worldly happiness. His brother planned to murder him, so he had to flee from his father's house. His uncle Laban deceived him, as he had deceived his father, and treated him harshly... Next he had to grieve over the treachery and cruelty of Simeon and Levi towards the Shechemites. Then he lost his beloved wife. Then his own sons deceived him, and he had to mourn Joseph's supposed early death.
Scripture records the failure of every person in the room, and it does so on purpose.
The Scriptures do not spare us the needed lesson of what man is, even elect man. It is painful reading, and meant to be, but full of profit. Many believers are slow to admit that flesh is no better in them than in the patriarchal family... But what a God we have to do with! His purpose of grace is unmoved — otherwise it could never stand. His righteousness never changes, and it chastened every one of them for good even now, yet with pain because of their sins, so that they might not be condemned with the world.
- Dim sight. Isaac's failing eyes matched a failing grip on God's word. Appetite, not the promise, was steering the blessing.
- Overheard. Rebekah had reason to be alarmed; her answer to it had none. She listened to plan, when she could have prayed or appealed to her husband.
- Unneeded help. God had already said the older would serve the younger. Faith would have waited; nature schemed for what the promise guaranteed anyway.
- Same result, worse road. Jacob got the blessing either way. The scheme added only a troubled conscience where thanksgiving could have been.
- Reaped for years. Flight, Laban's deceit, family treachery and grief followed. Yet God's purpose stood unmoved, and He chastened each of them for good.
And Rebecca spoke to Jacob her son, saying, Behold, I heard thy father speak to Esau thy brother, saying,
Isaac has just told Esau to hunt game, so that he can eat and then bless him. Rebekah overheard it. What she does next raises a hard question: when someone is about to act against God's word, may you step in and fix it yourself?
The blessing Isaac planned to give was already promised to Jacob. Before the twins' birth, God had said the older would serve the younger. Isaac was setting that aside out of favouritism for Esau. One commentator weighs the husband's blindness and the wife's answer to it:
For the time, Isaac was blind in the eyes of his heart — worse than in his physical sight. His foolish favouritism went so far as to thwart the declared mind of God. And this Rebekah overheard and sought to counteract with a woman's craft and quick ability to find a way. Had she looked to God instead of her feeble husband and her fond son, how different everything would have been!
Years earlier, troubled about the twins, Rebekah had gone and asked the Lord. This time she did not.
We may assume that Rebekah acted on impulse. She was working against her husband's forgetfulness of the Lord's word, and against Esau's profane and evil character. Who can suppose that she "went to enquire of Jehovah," as she did when the signs troubled her before the twins were born? … But even if her judgment was right, how sad that she spoiled it! She spoiled it by the means she used. She spoiled it also by drawing her beloved child, the object of divine promise, into conduct so unworthy of faith!
An honest word to her husband was the road she did not take:
She of all people best knew Isaac's piety. And she surely remembered, more vividly than anyone, God's own sentence that the older should serve the younger. So her failure was the more serious. She would not be open with her husband in Jehovah's name — and He would have blessed everyone around, instead of having to chastise.
Rebekah read God's purpose right. Her method was the failure.
Rebekah was just as determined that Jacob should have the blessing. But her way of getting it was not of faith. Faith would have quietly trusted God. The One who had promised was faithful, and able to do it. Yet she favoured Jacob out of mere nature, just as Isaac favoured Esau.
Another writer sets faith and nature side by side:
God did not need help from things like Rebekah's cunning and Jacob's gross deceit to carry out His purpose. He had said, "the elder shall serve the younger." That was enough — enough for faith. It was not enough for nature. Nature must always take its own way, and knows nothing of waiting on God.
In this verse Rebekah brings the plan to Jacob. What she taught him outlasted that day:
Rebekah knew what God's purpose was. But she was anxious for her favourite son to have the blessing, so she took up a planned course of deceit to trick her blind husband. She instigated the deceit and Jacob practised it with success. Later events in Jacob's life show him to be a master of clever and even underhand schemes. It is a sobering thought that his earliest recorded lesson in it came from his mother.
The scheme worked. Both mother and son then lived with what it cost:
She was the prime mover in taking a wrong way to gain a right end. So she had most to feel the chastening of God's unfailing moral government. Soon after what is recorded here, Jacob left for the land of the sons of the east, and his mother never saw her beloved child again. He too suffered for sorrowful years under the crafty cheating schemes of his mother's brother, his own father-in-law.
- Overheard. Rebekah heard Isaac about to give Jacob's promised blessing to Esau. She was right that something was wrong.
- Unasked. She had once asked the Lord about these very sons. This time she schemed instead of praying, and never appealed to Isaac's conscience with God's word.
- Unneeded. God had already said the older would serve the younger. That promise would stand, so her scheming added nothing.
- Passed on. Her scheme gave Jacob his first lesson in deceit, and he became a master of it.
- Repaid. The one who moved first felt the chastening most. Rebekah never saw her son again, and he spent years under her brother's cheating.
Bring me venison, and prepare me a savoury dish, that I may eat, and bless thee before Jehovah, before my death.
Rebekah has just overheard Isaac promise the family blessing to Esau, over a meal, before he dies. That blessing was a solemn act before God — and it was about to fall on the wrong son.
The blessing Isaac planned was not a fond farewell speech. A father then spoke over his children in two offices at once.
Blessing the children was an act done in the combined virtues of a prophet and a priest, and, as we see, the fathers of the families held both in their own persons. They received the mind of God, and then spoke it out as "oracles of God." And, being set apart as priestly representatives of God to their children, they pronounced His blessing, God's blessing, on them.
Rebekah's report puts God's own name in Isaac's mouth. "The LORD" here stands for the name Jehovah. One writer asks whether Isaac really said it, or whether Moses just wrote a later name into an old story.
Granted that Moses uses the name Jehovah throughout the book of Genesis, are we to suppose that he put it into the mouth of Abram in Genesis 14:22, or his servant in 24:12, or Isaac in 27:7, or Jacob in 28:16? Above all, did Moses put it into the mouth of God Himself? Genesis 15:7. That is enough to correct the claim.
God had already said the older would serve the younger, and Esau had already traded his birthright away. Isaac's plan ignores both.
Here we find aged Isaac standing at the very door of eternity. The earth and nature are fast fading from his view. Yet he is taken up with "tasty food," and is about to act in direct opposition to God's counsel by blessing the elder instead of the younger. This was nature, and nature with its "eyes dim." Esau had sold his birthright for a bowl of stew; now Isaac was about to give away the blessing for a dish of game. How very humiliating!
She was right about the danger. Everything she did next was wrong.
For the time, Isaac was blind in the eyes of his heart, worse than in his physical sight. His foolish favouritism would thwart the declared mind of God. Rebekah overheard this and set out to block it with a woman's craft and quick invention. Had she looked to God instead of her feeble husband and the son she doted on, how different everything would have been! ... But this time she did not ask the LORD, as she had done before. She gave way to a low deceit. It was as sinful before God as it was dishonouring to her husband and to herself, and she took no thought of how it would corrupt the very heir of the promise.
The whole plan rests on one assumption: that unless somebody acts, God's word will fail.
God did not need help from things like Rebekah's cunning and Jacob's gross deceit to carry out His purpose. He had said, "the older shall serve the younger." That was enough. It was enough for faith, but not enough for nature. Nature must always take its own way, and knows nothing of what it is to wait on God.
The blessing did go to Jacob. The wrong road still had to be paid for.
Isaac had no curse to call down on Rebekah. But she was the prime mover in the wrong way to gain a right end, so she had most to feel the discipline of God's unfailing moral government. Soon after what is recorded here, Jacob left for the land of the sons of the east, and his mother never saw her beloved child again. He too had years of sorrow, suffering under the cunning cheating schemes of his mother's brother, his own father-in-law. No human being shall or can boast. The only boast left is in the LORD. He never fails. When everyone else failed, as here, He alone carried out His purpose in mercy and wisdom.
- Word. God had already spoken: the older would serve the younger. Everything in this chapter is a reaction to a word that was never in danger.
- Appetite. Isaac's mind was on a good meal. He was about to trade the blessing away for a dish of game.
- Overheard. Rebekah heard right and judged right. Her failure was where she took it: to her own scheming, not to God.
- Help. God needed no help. Their cunning did not move His purpose one inch. It only brought sin and dishonour on the people who used it.
- Harvest. A right end reached by a wrong road still costs. Rebekah never saw Jacob again, and Jacob was later cheated by his own father-in-law — yet God's purpose stood.
And now, my son, hearken to my voice in that which I command thee.
Rebekah has overheard Isaac's plan to bless Esau. Her answer is a set of instructions for Jacob, and a command to follow her voice — which raises the question the whole story turns on: whose word do you trust when God has already promised the blessing?
God told Rebekah before the twins were born that the older would serve the younger. Now, facing Isaac's plan, she did not go back to Him. One writer notes the change:
We may assume that Rebekah acted on impulse in getting round her husband's forgetfulness of the Lord's word, and Esau's profane and evil character. Who can suppose that she "went to inquire of the LORD," as she did when troubled by appearances before the twins were born? The sly Syrian character of her family asserted itself, in the assurance that Isaac was altogether in the wrong. But if she was right in her judgment, how sad to spoil it! She spoiled it by her own way of carrying it out, and by drawing her beloved child, the child of God's promise, into conduct so unworthy of faith.
Rebekah wanted what God wanted. The goal was right; the way she took was not:
But God's purpose must stand, and He will do all His pleasure. Faith knows this; and, knowing it, can wait for God's time. Nature never can do this, but must set about gaining its own ends by its own inventions... God did not need the aid of such things as Rebekah's cunning and Jacob's gross deceit to carry out His purpose. He had said, "the older shall serve the younger." This was enough — enough for faith, but not enough for nature.
Jacob walked away with the blessing, so it looks as if the trick worked. One writer sees it the other way round:
Jacob's deceit is not what gets him the blessing. It gets him nothing but twenty years of toil and sorrow, banishment from his father's house, and life under the will of others. The blessing could not be Esau's. Were Isaac or Esau greater than God, that they could change His purpose? Or did He need Jacob's feeble hand to hold up His throne? Sadly, he is neither the first nor the last to act as if it were so. And this is what restlessness and impatience mean. Either there is some desire of the heart we must have whether He wills it or not, or there is some doubt whether God is truly God. It is rank unbelief or rank self-will, and these are close companions.
Rebekah gave the order. Does that take the blame off Jacob?
One writer defends Jacob in this whole matter, saying that Jacob was responsible to obey his mother, so no blame could attach to him! But Jacob was a grown man, not a little child. In fact, even a little child is wrong to tell a lie, whether his mother tells him to or not.
Jacob did hesitate. But his worry was the outcome, not the sin:
Even Jacob felt and voiced his misgivings. He feared that his mother's deceit, which he was about to carry out, would bring a curse from his father instead of a blessing. But Rebekah's will was set too firmly on her plan, and she showed real skill in guarding her son from the danger he expected. In neither of them do we find conscience at work.
Rebekah told Jacob to let any curse fall on her instead:
Isaac certainly had no curse to call down on Rebekah. But as she was the prime mover in the wrong way to gain a right end, she had most to feel the chastening of God's unfailing moral government. For soon after the events recorded here, Jacob left for the land of the sons of the east; and the mother never saw her beloved child again. He too had to smart through sorrowful years under the crafty cheating schemes of his mother's brother, his own father-in-law. No one will boast; no one can... He never fails; and when everyone else failed, as here, He alone carries out His purpose in mercy and wisdom.
The promise survived. It arrived weighed down:
"The older shall serve the younger" was God's word in Jacob's favour, before the children were born. But Jacob did not wait in the patience of faith until the Lord made His promise good in His own time and way. So the promise gets loaded with reservations, difficulties and burdens. It will certainly be made good in the end; but because of this way of Jacob's, his unbelief and scheming, the older will give the younger much trouble.
- Promise. God had already settled it: the older would serve the younger. Rebekah schemed for what He had guaranteed.
- Impulse. She had once asked the Lord. This time she acted on her own judgment — right about Isaac's error, wrong about the cure.
- Excuse. A mother's instruction does not make a lie lawful; Jacob was a grown man, and his hesitation shows he knew it.
- Emptiness. The deceit won nothing the promise had not already won. It cost Jacob twenty years of exile and hard work.
- Government. The promise stood, but came loaded with burdens. Rebekah never saw her son again. God kept His word and still chastened the shortcut.
Go, I pray thee, to the flock, and fetch me thence two good kids of the goats. And I will make of them a savoury dish for thy father, such as he loves.
Isaac has asked Esau to hunt him a meal of wild game, after which he will bless him. Rebekah overhears, and sends Jacob to the flock instead — which raises the question of the whole chapter: what happens when someone who knows God's promise tries to secure it herself?
Why goats, when Isaac had asked for wild game?
Rebekah had Jacob kill two young goats. Their meat would be young and tender (v. 9), and she could prepare it so well that Isaac never suspected it was not venison. So much for our preconceived ideas of what we like the best!
The same animal had a place in Israel's worship:
A kid of the goats is constantly mentioned for the sin offering. Numbers 7:16-87, and so on. As food, the kid counts as a delicacy. Rebekah used kids to prepare the tasty dish that passed for venison, and with it Jacob deceived his father. Genesis 27:9.
Rebekah was not wrong about the outcome. God had said the older would serve the younger, and Isaac was working against that word. Her fault lay somewhere else.
Isaac knew the Word of God, "the older shall serve the younger," yet he wanted to bless Esau. This was failure on his side. Yet he blessed Jacob by faith (Hebrews 11:20). Rebekah wants to fall in line with what God had declared, but she uses sinful means. She tries to help God fulfil His Word by her own schemes. Jacob obeys his mother and makes use of the deception. Esau deceives too, for he claimed a blessing to which he had no right before God and man. This chapter shows the flesh and its sinful ways in full. Still, God carried out His will.
She had another way open to her.
When Rebekah overheard these instructions, she saw an emergency coming. The Lord had told her that Jacob would have the chief place. But instead of going to Him in prayer, she took the only way she saw to change things. Her plan did work the way she wanted, and no doubt God was over this. But we still cannot defend her cunning scheme to deceive her husband. God could have worked the matter out another way, without drawing Rebekah and Jacob into deception. If they had acted in faith and depended on God, they might have seen a miraculous answer to the problem. Then they would have had reason for the deepest thanksgiving, instead of troubled consciences.
She could also have spoken to Isaac himself:
She of all people knew best how devoted to God Isaac was. She surely remembered God's own decree, that the older should serve the younger. That made it a graver failure in her not to be open with her husband in Jehovah's name. He would have blessed them all, instead of having to discipline them.
The command in this verse is given to a son who later became famous for exactly this kind of manoeuvring.
Rebekah, on the other hand, knew what God's purpose was, but in her anxiety for the blessing of her favourite she resorted to a calculated course of deceit in order to trick her blind husband. She instigated the deceit and Jacob practised it with success. Later episodes in Jacob's life reveal him to us as a man who was a master of artful and even underhand designs. It is a solemn thought that he got the earliest recorded lesson in this kind of thing from his mother.
The goats gave more than a meal. Their skins had a use too — and years later the same trick found Jacob again.
Jacob deceives his father with the skins of goats, and in the years to come his own sons will deceive him with the blood of a goat. The sovereign grace by which we are blessed does not alter that memorable law: "Whatever one sows, that will he also reap" (Galatians 6:7).
Rebekah paid too, and she paid for the rest of her life:
As she was the prime mover in the wrong way to gain a right end, so she had most to feel the discipline of God's unfailing moral government. Soon after the events recorded here, Jacob left for the land of the sons of the east. His mother never saw her beloved child again.
- Promise. Rebekah had God's word that the older would serve the younger. She was not chasing something God had refused her.
- Panic. She heard the threat, and instead of praying or speaking openly to Isaac, she reached for the flock and a recipe.
- Plot. Two young goats served twice over: the meat passed for game, and the skins helped fool a blind father.
- Price. Jacob deceived his father, and his own sons later deceived him with a goat. Rebekah never saw him again.
- Purpose. The flesh fills this chapter, and God still carried out His will — through discipline, not because the scheming helped.
And thou shalt bring [it] to thy father, that he may eat, in order that he may bless thee before his death.
Rebekah's plan ends here. Jacob is to carry the dish in, let his blind father eat, and walk out with the blessing meant for his brother. The plan worked. But the verse leaves a question hanging: if God had already promised the blessing, why grab it by a trick?
Rebekah was right about who should be blessed. God had said the older would serve the younger, and Isaac was moving against it. Her fault was the method, and what it cost the son she loved.
We may assume that Rebekah acted on impulse. She was working around her husband's forgetfulness of the Lord's word, and around Esau's profane and evil character. Who can suppose that she "went to inquire of the LORD," as she did when she was troubled before the twins were born? Her family's crafty Syrian streak showed itself: she was sure Isaac was completely in the wrong. But even if her judgment was right, how sad to spoil it! She spoiled it by the means she used, and even more by drawing her beloved child, the child of God's promise, into conduct so unworthy of faith!
One course was open to her that cost nothing, and she never took it.
When Rebekah overheard these instructions, she saw an emergency coming. The Lord had told her that Jacob would have the chief place. But instead of going to Him in prayer, she took the only way she could see to change things. Her plan did work out as she wanted, and no doubt God was over this. Still, we cannot defend her cunning scheme to deceive her husband... If they had acted in faith and leaned on God, they might have seen a miraculous answer to the problem. Then they would have had reason for deepest thanksgiving, instead of troubled consciences.
The scheme was not only wrong. It was also unnecessary.
God did not need help from Rebekah's cunning or Jacob's gross deceit to carry out His purpose. He had said, "The older shall serve the younger." That was enough — enough for faith, but not enough for nature. Nature must always take its own way, and knows nothing of waiting on God.
His mother's coaching does not excuse Jacob. He wanted the blessing and believed in it, and that made his sin worse, not lighter.
Jacob behaved badly under his mother's crooked advice, doing evil so that good might come. Yet he truly valued what the Almighty had done and promised in words that could not lie. That made the sin all the greater. Son and mother alike distrusted Him, and they did so while Isaac was making his unworthy attempt to indulge his favourite against the Lord's purpose.
Rebekah did not foresee that this dish would be the last meal she ever cooked for her son.
Rebekah was the prime mover in taking a wrong way to gain a right end, so she had most to feel the chastening of God's unfailing moral government. Soon after the events recorded here, Jacob left for the land of the sons of the east, and his mother never saw her beloved child again. Jacob too had to suffer through sorrowful years under the crafty cheating schemes of his mother's brother, who was his own father-in-law.
No one in the household escaped the fallout of that afternoon.
As a result of all this corruption and deceit, Isaac has to send Jacob away from home... Esau becomes a sorrow to his parents. And Jacob, for twenty years, becomes a wanderer in a strange land, shut out from his father's home and from the Land of Promise.
The chapter is ugly, and Scripture does not soften it.
Genesis 27 shows us a deeply humbling picture of sensuality, deceit, and cunning... Yet how true and faithful is the Holy Spirit! He must tell the whole story. He cannot give us half a picture. If He gives us a history of man, He must describe man as he is, and not as he is not.
Jacob still ended up with the blessing. The reason lies outside anything he or his mother did.
It is by grace Jacob comes in, because he had no title... Jacob did value the promise, though the means by which he got it were evil.
- Promise — God's word had already pledged the blessing. The meal and the lie added nothing to it.
- Panic — Rebekah heard a threat and acted. She never tried prayer, the one way that could not fail.
- Pressure — she deceived her husband, and she drew her son into the deceit with her. She taught him to reach for God's gift by man's trick.
- Price — she won the blessing for Jacob and lost Jacob. Her own brother later cheated the cheat, and the home broke up for twenty years.
- Purpose — Scripture records the sin instead of hiding it, and God's choice still stood. Jacob held the blessing by grace, never by title.