Then Isaac trembled with exceeding great trembling, and said, Who was he, then, that hunted venison and brought [it] to me? And I have eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed him; also blessed he shall be.
Esau comes back with his father's meal, but the blessing is already gone. Isaac had meant it for him all along. What made the old man shake so hard? And why did he seal the blessing on the son who had tricked him instead of taking it back?
Isaac was not just shocked at being fooled. One writer names what he thinks lay behind the trembling.
I have no doubt that the thought of God's coming in to thwart his flesh had much to do with Isaac's trembling.
Another writer follows what happened inside Isaac at that moment.
His eye is opened. He discovers what he had been doing, and how Jacob had got the blessing he had prepared for Esau. It confronts him to his face: he had been resisting God, and could not win. His soul seems to wake as from sleep. The moral sense of the place he was filling startles him. He trembles inside. The flesh he had been feeding could not support him at such a moment.
Isaac's blindness was more than physical. One writer asks how so weak a trick worked, and answers from the state of Isaac's soul.
How did such a clumsy trick deceive Isaac? He knew the voice. Were the neck and wrists, covered with the skin of a young goat, a surer test than the voice? The trick fooled Isaac as it would never have fooled a man of the world with common sense. How did that happen? He was not in communion with God, and the crudest means can deceive a believer who is out of communion. His thoughts were fleshly; his soul loved venison, and the tasty food blinded his mind.
God did not leave Isaac's appetite alone. One writer traces what God did with it.
But God will subdue nature, unjudged nature, in Isaac too. And more than this — so perfect and complete are God's ways! That very indulgence had twisted Isaac's mind and judgement. God will use it as the direct instrument to discipline him. God allows him to be deceived. The tasty food turned his mind away from sound judgement, and the same tasty food forces him, without knowing it, to act according to the will of God.
Isaac's response is the surprise of the chapter. He confirms the blessing he has already given. One writer marks this as the turning point.
But we rejoice at the turning point of grace in Isaac's soul. He bowed to God's overturning of his effort to please the son who had catered to his appetite. He had forgotten the already declared will of the Lord about Jacob. When God's overruling broke in on him, he did not attack his wife and younger son. He bowed in self-judgment and trembled with a very great trembling. In faith he sealed what his lips had said without knowing, yet under God: "Yes, and he shall be blessed." He felt that, however others were to blame, the error was his own. God was only securing now what He had said before the sons were born. Faith now worked, no longer hindered by the flesh which had lately darkened his eyes. And so says the Spirit in Hebrews 11. It was not in line with his natural leanings, but against them.
Why should a blessing won by lying stand? Writers do not excuse Jacob.
Jacob deserved to lose the blessing. By his mean, lying conduct he forfeited the place given by promise. Where would he have been, and the nation named after him, if grace had not covered his sin at the very start?
Isaac's words also settle Esau's case. One writer weighs the loud, bitter cry that follows.
Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of stew. He despised it. Present ease and relief were everything to him at that moment... Though he longed for his father's blessing, seeking it with tears, he could never regain what he had lost. He had forfeited it, and Isaac acknowledged that when he said of Jacob, "Yes, and he shall be blessed." ... But there was no word of confession of what he had done. He showed no penitent spirit.
- Appetite blinds. Isaac's love of a favourite meal, not old age, left him open to a trick a stranger would have spotted. The crudest means can fool a believer who is out of fellowship with God.
- God thwarts. Isaac shook when he saw that he had been resisting God's declared will — and had lost.
- Discipline fits. The same indulgence that misled him became the instrument God used to correct him and to carry out His purpose despite him.
- Faith seals. Isaac blamed no one else. He judged himself and confirmed the blessing — the act Hebrews 11 records as his faith.
- Tears are not repentance. Esau's bitter cry begged for the lost blessing. It confessed nothing about the birthright he had despised.
When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said to his father, Bless me -- me also, my father!
Isaac has already blessed Jacob. Esau arrives too late, and his father cannot take the words back. His cry is loud and bitter — yet what he wants back is the very thing he had earlier thrown away.
Everything here turns on timing. Esau is not refused a hearing. He arrives after he has already lost what he wanted.
When Esau knew what Jacob had done, he cried aloud. But it was too late! He had not valued his birthright, and had lost his blessing. All who despise the gift of eternal life which God gives will certainly lose their blessing. Though Isaac gave Esau another blessing, he still lost the blessing of Abraham, and he never had another chance to get it.
Writers are careful about what Esau's tears were seeking. He wept over the loss, not over what caused it.
We are told that "he found no place for repentance, though he sought it with tears." He was not seeking repentance. He sought the blessing, but without repentance. He ought to have repented for despising his birthright, but he found no place to repent.
Notice what is missing from his words. He asks for the blessing, but he names no fault of his own.
Esau's desire for a blessing comes out in his great and bitter cry: "Bless me, even me also, O my father!" But there was no word of confession about what he had done. He showed no repentant spirit. He found no place for repentance. He could not undo what he had done.
One writer explains the word "profane." It describes a settled attitude, not a single outburst — and a common one.
So we learn what a profane person is: someone who would like to hold both worlds. He wants to enjoy the present without giving up his claim to the future. This is not at all a rare case. It describes the person who is nothing more than a worldly believer in name. His conscience has never felt divine truth at work, and his heart has never felt the influence of divine grace.
Esau's plea is aimed at his father's feelings. But the reason the words stand is not stubbornness.
There came a time when Esau wanted a change of mind from his father. He wanted to change Isaac's mind, but he found no place for it, though he sought it with tears. He said, "Bless me, even me also, O my father!" But he could not change his father's mind, because his father had spoken the mind of God in the matter.
Commentators differ here. Some take the repentance Esau failed to find as his own change of heart. Others take it as the change of mind he could not get from Isaac.
There was still a blessing left for Esau. One writer shows how well it matched the man who received it.
Still there was a blessing for Esau, and one far more suited to his nature than the one reserved for Jacob. What did Esau care for the promises or the covenant? What relish had he for Messiah's kingdom? The fatness of the earth was more to his taste, and the dew of heaven from above. Heaven itself was only a sentiment he gladly left for others to enjoy.
It is easy to read this chapter as villain and victim. One writer spreads the blame far wider — and puts the pity in a surprising place.
Isaac's sin threw everything into confusion, and serious evil followed on the part of Rebekah and Jacob. The tangle was so great that Esau, ungodly as he was, seemed at this sad and shameful moment more an object of pity than anyone else involved. Meanwhile those who really cared for the Lord's will and blessing brought dishonour on His name by the deceitful means they used to gain it.
One writer turns the scene on the reader. Esau stands for people who will also come too late.
How does Esau stand before you? He is a picture of the generation who will one day say, "Lord, Lord, open to us." But their tears will be as useless as Esau's beside the bed of his dying father. He came too late.
- Despised first. Esau lost the blessing long before this verse, at the moment he traded away what he did not value.
- Cried second. The great and bitter cry is real grief, but grief over consequences is not the same as sorrow over sin.
- Tears, not turning. He asked for the blessing and never asked to repent — no confession appears anywhere in his words.
- The word stood. Isaac could not reverse himself, because what he had spoken was the mind of God.
- Too late is real. Esau beside his father's bed pictures those who will one day cry "Lord, Lord, open to us." The time to value the gift is now.
And he said, Thy brother came with subtilty, and has taken away thy blessing.
Isaac names what has just happened in his tent. The younger son came in disguise, and the blessing is gone. Two questions follow. How could a blessing won by lying still stand? And what did the lie cost the man who told it?
One writer traces the plan back past Jacob to his mother, and marks it off from his earlier bargain over the birthright:
Rebekah knew what God's purpose was. But she was anxious for her favourite to have the blessing, so she took up a calculated course of deceit to trick her blind husband. She set the deceit going and Jacob carried it out successfully. Later episodes in Jacob's life show him to us as a man who was a master of clever and even underhand schemes. It is a solemn thought that he got the earliest recorded lesson in this kind of thing from his mother. His bargaining with Esau over the stew and the birthright was sharp practice, but it had no element of deceit in it.
Isaac speaks here as the wronged man, but the record is honest about him too:
The Scriptures do not spare us the lesson we need about what man is, even chosen man. It is painful reading, and meant to be, but full of profit; for many believers are slow to admit that the flesh is no better in them than in this family. Every one of them showed at this point the bad moral state each was in. Isaac was usually blameless. Here he was so overcome by self-indulgence in his appetite that he lost sight of two things: how little the elder son cared for holy things, and Jehovah's will and choice of Jacob. Rebekah was right about the end in view, but she had no scruples at all about the means. Jacob was not without conscience and fear about the deceit he was to practise on his blind father, and about his lying impersonation of Esau. He dreaded a curse instead of the blessing he valued.
Isaac does not try to take his words back. One writer sets Jacob's guilt beside God's unchanging purpose:
Jacob's history now begins. Heir of the promises, and valuing them, he uses means to get them — means that are evil and low in character. God answers his faith, and chastens his evil and unbelief. God could have brought the blessing about in His own way. He could have made Isaac cross his hands, as He later did with Jacob. But Jacob, led by his mother, followed his own way and did not wait for God. But the blessing was prophetic, and not to be recalled. The ways of God and His purpose were not to be changed. Isaac was guilty, and Jacob more so: it was all overruled to answer faith and to chasten evil in the believer.
Esau lost the blessing here, but one writer points back to a choice Esau had already made, and to how Hebrews reads his tears:
Esau deeply felt the pain of losing the blessing of the firstborn, and cried with a great and bitter cry, begging his father to bless him too. Hebrews 12:16-17 refers to this occasion. It speaks of Esau as an unholy man who sold his birthright for one meal. Then, when he expected the blessing, he was rejected. We are told that "he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears." He was not looking for repentance. He wanted the blessing, but without repentance. He should have repented for despising his birthright, but he found no place to repent.
Jacob kept the blessing. Years later his own sons played the same trick on him:
In Genesis 27 we read how Jacob deceived his blind father, Isaac, by wearing Esau's garment. Esau's garment is called "best clothes," and as he was the elder it may have been something very like Joseph's coat of many colours. By fine clothing Jacob deceived his father; by fine clothing his sons deceived him. He got back the measure he gave. God's government of His people works with great precision.
One writer puts God's grace next to His dealing with faults in His own people:
Grace alone secures salvation for sinful man, yet only for those who believe. But God has always carried on, as He still does, a righteous government, dealing with every fault among His own... What sorrows and shame people make for themselves! They forget that God cannot fail to carry out His own purpose. In their hurry for a good end, they do not hesitate to use wicked means.
- Deceit — Isaac names it exactly. The plan was Rebekah's, the lie was Jacob's, and it went past his earlier bargain over the birthright.
- Purpose — the blessing stood because it was prophecy, and no one could take it back. God's word, not Jacob's cleverness, held it in place.
- Grace — the sin in that tent did not change God's purpose; He overruled it all to answer faith and to chasten evil in His own.
- Government — the same God who gave the blessing measured the deceit back: his own sons deceived him with fine clothing, just as he had deceived his father.
- Warning — a right end never excuses wrong means. Those who will not wait for God make sorrow and shame for themselves.
And he said, Is it not therefore he was named Jacob, for he has supplanted me now twice? He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing. And he said, Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me?
Esau comes back from the hunt and finds the blessing already given to his brother. His reply turns on the meaning of Jacob's name, and it raises two questions: was the charge fair, and what had Esau already thrown away?
Esau is not inventing an insult. He is reading back the name given at birth, when the younger twin came out gripping his brother's heel. The ESV's "cheated" is "supplanted" in older translations — he took his brother's place.
The second son, Jacob, followed closely, his hand holding the heel of Esau. This is recorded to show what would be true of Jacob in his life. His name means "he will take by the heel." Esau referred to this later, when Jacob had deceived his father by taking Esau's place. His hand grasped for the blessing meant for Esau. This tells us what Jacob was in the flesh. But God later changed his name to Israel, "a prince with God." God's purposes would stand, and He did a work in Jacob's soul that made a glorious change in the man.
The name fits, but it is only half the man. Jacob wanted God's blessing. His fault was the way he went after it.
Here he fully lives up to the name that Esau angrily throws at him. Jacob values the blessing of God, but he seeks it in cunning and worldly ways, completely opposed to faith.
Esau counts two losses as if both were thefts. But he sold one of them himself.
Esau reminds his father that Jacob's name means supplanter, and that he has been true to his name in taking away both Esau's birthright and his blessing. Did Esau forget that he had willingly sold his birthright to Jacob? Since he had, Jacob had a right to the blessing too. But Esau wanted the blessing, though he had despised the birthright. He begs his father to tell him if he has kept at least some blessing for him. This is a common problem among people. They have no interest in what God gives in a spiritual way, and the birthright stands for this. Yet they are most insistent when it comes to their material prosperity and blessings.
Esau's grief was real and loud. But the New Testament points to what was missing in it.
Esau felt deeply the pain of losing the blessing of the firstborn. He cried out with a great and bitter cry, begging his father to bless him too. Hebrews 12:16-17 refers to this moment. It calls Esau a profane person who sold his birthright for one meal, and who was then rejected when he expected the blessing. We are told that "he found no place for repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears." He was not seeking repentance. He sought the blessing, but without repentance.
The word "profane" here does not mean bad language. It describes what a man wants.
So we learn what a profane person is. He is someone who would like to hold both worlds. He would like to enjoy the present without giving up his claim to the future. This is by no means an uncommon case.
Every person here comes off badly. Yet something changes in Isaac when God crosses his plan.
We are angry at the underhand course of Jacob and Rebekah. We feel for the old man of faith, mistaken and deceived. We pity the bitter disappointment of Esau, worthless as he was and ungodly as he had already proved. But we rejoice at the turning point of grace in Isaac's soul. He bowed when God blocked his effort to please the son who had fed his appetite… He felt that, however others were to blame, the error was his own. God was simply securing now what He had said before the sons were born.
Jacob keeps the blessing. He does not escape the consequences of how he got it.
First, for his comfort, he will learn that all his failures will not alter God's purpose to bless him in sovereign grace. Second, for his correction, he will learn something more. God's sovereign grace will not hold back God's chastening hand when he fails… He has to reap what he has sown. Jacob deceives his father with the skins of goats. In the years to come his own sons will deceive him with the blood of a goat.
- Name. Jacob means "he will take by the heel." Esau's taunt is accurate. God renames him Israel only after working on his soul.
- Sale. Esau sold the birthright himself. He despised the spiritual gift and fought hard for the material one.
- Tears. He wept for the blessing, not for his sin — the mark of the profane person who wants to keep both worlds.
- Purpose. The whole family fails. Yet Isaac bows to God, and God secures what He had said before the twins were born.
- Harvest. Grace kept Jacob's blessing, but God's chastening hand still fell. He deceived with goatskins; his sons later deceived him with goat's blood.
And Isaac answered and said to Esau, Behold, I have made him lord over thee, and all his brethren have I given to him for servants, and with corn and new wine have I supplied him -- and what can I do now for thee, my son?
Isaac has already given the family blessing to Jacob, and now Esau stands before him asking for one too. Isaac's answer raises the hard question of this chapter. How can a blessing given by mistake, and gained by fraud, still stand?
Jacob has just tricked him, yet Isaac's words carry no hesitation. He talks like a man who owns what he is giving away.
Nature showed extreme weakness at the opening of Genesis 27. Even so, it is very interesting to see how Isaac maintains by faith the dignity God had given him. He blesses as a man who knows God has given him power to bless! He says, "I have blessed him; yes, and he shall be blessed… and with grain and wine I have sustained him." He speaks as one who, by faith, had all the treasures of earth at his disposal. There is no false humility, no taking low ground because nature has shown itself. It is the proper work of faith to rise above all our own failure and its consequences, into the place where God's grace has set us.
Isaac cannot undo what he said, and he does not try. What looks like a father trapped by his own mistake is really God's purpose holding firm.
Can anyone thwart God? Can anyone hinder His purposes? Never! Isaac did not know what he was doing at the time. Yet with the full sense of authority he gives the fullest blessing to Jacob, though he thought it was Esau. That was faith. Not faith in his own intention, for God ruled that. It was faith in giving the blessing, and in seeing afterwards that it would stand as the act of God, and that he could not reverse it.
The shock of verse 33 changed him. Instead of blaming his wife and younger son, he took the blame himself and sealed what he had said.
We rejoice at the turning point of grace in Isaac's soul. He had tried to please the son who had satisfied his appetite, forgetting the will of Jehovah already declared about Jacob. God overturned that, and Isaac bowed to it. When God's overruling broke in on him, he did not attack his wife and younger son. He bowed in self-judgment and trembled greatly. In faith he sealed what his lips had said without knowing it, but under God: "he shall be blessed." He felt that, however others were to blame, the error was his own. God was only securing now what He had said before the sons were born.
The deception itself was crude. The explanation is not clever trickery but a heart drifting from God.
How did Isaac fall for such a clumsy trick? He knew the voice. Were the neck and wrists, covered with the skin of a young goat, a surer test than the voice? Isaac fell for a trick that no man of the world with common sense would have fallen for. How did it happen? He was not in communion with God, and the crudest means can fool a believer who is out of communion. His thoughts were on the pleasures of the body; his soul loved venison, and the tasty food blinded his mind.
Isaac has nothing left to give. Esau's plea exposes a common instinct.
Esau had willingly sold his birthright to Jacob. Since that was so, Jacob was entitled to the blessing too. But Esau wanted the blessing, though he had despised the birthright. He begs his father to say whether he had not at least kept back some blessing for him (v.36). This is a common affliction among human beings. They have no interest in what God gives in a spiritual way, and that is what the birthright stands for. But the moment it becomes a matter of their own prosperity and blessing, they press hard. It is wanting every blessing God may give while ignoring the Giver Himself.
The promise stood. The method cost the schemer dearly.
The Lord had promised him the blessing with no conditions: "The older shall serve the younger." But he could not wait in the patience of faith. He could not leave it to the Lord to make His own promise good in His own time and way. So the promise becomes loaded with reservations, difficulties and burdens. The Lord will surely make it good… But now Jacob's own unbelief and scheming have a price: the older will give the younger some trouble. The younger chose to handle the promise with his own craft and skill. So he will reach it only after delay, sorrow and shame.
- Appetite blinds. Isaac loved a favourite meal and had drifted from God. So a crude disguise fooled a man who still knew the voice.
- Faith recovers. Trembling, he judged himself instead of others. Then he confirmed the blessing he never meant to give.
- The word stands. Isaac knew the blessing was now God's act, and that he could not reverse it.
- Birthright first. Esau despised the spiritual place first, then begged for the benefits. He wanted God's gifts and ignored the Giver.
- Scheming costs. Jacob received what God promised. His own craft made him reach it through delay, sorrow and shame.
And Esau said to his father, Hast thou then but one blessing, my father? bless me -- me also, my father! And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.
Isaac has already spoken the blessing over Jacob. Esau now asks whether his father has anything left for him, and then breaks down in tears. It is one of Scripture's sharpest pictures of grief that comes too late.
Esau's grief was real. But notice what he asks for: the thing he threw away, not a new heart.
Esau felt the pain of losing the blessing of the firstborn. He cried with a great and bitter cry, begging his father to bless him too… We are told that "he found no place for repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears." Not that he sought repentance: he sought the blessing, but without repentance. He ought to have repented for despising his birthright, but he found no place to repent.
One writer repeats an older comment on those tears.
It is a good comment that Augustine makes on Esau's tears (Hebrews 12): "He wept that he lost the blessing, not that he sold it."
Scripture's word for Esau is "profane," and one writer draws its definition straight out of this moment.
The apostle calls Esau "a profane person, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright." So we learn what a profane person is — one who would like to hold both worlds; one who would like to enjoy the present without forfeiting his title to the future.
A man named Balaam wanted the same thing, and the comparison shows why Esau's longing could never be met.
Yet he could desire the blessing, and sought it earnestly after he had lost it. Balaam was the same: he could desire to die the death of the righteous, while he had no thought of living their life. So Esau found no place for repentance. His seeking had only to do with the lost blessing. It involved no judgment of his ways before God. He valued the gain of godliness without the godliness. God's nature would have had to change to give him the one thing he wanted.
Esau's question assumes his father has another blessing in hand. But Isaac had spoken the mind of God.
There came a time when Esau wanted repentance on his father's part. He wanted to change Isaac's mind, but he found no place for it, though he sought it carefully with tears. He said, "Bless me, even me also, O my father." But he could not change his father's mind. His father had expressed the mind of God in the matter.
The outcome never rested on what father or sons preferred.
Esau would have been glad to get or regain the blessing. But God had given it elsewhere, and Esau had forfeited it himself. It was all arranged beforehand. Neither Isaac's favouritism nor Jacob's deceit could turn the blessing aside.
Commentators differ over whose repentance was out of reach. Some hold that it was Isaac's mind Esau could not move.
Though he sought carefully with tears to change his father's mind, he found no place for a change of mind in Isaac… We know that, despite his urgent pleading, Isaac could not change his mind. He could not take back the blessing he had given to Jacob, which God approved of.
Others read it of Esau himself, and point to what is missing from the whole scene.
What Esau sought so hard to get with tears was the blessing he wanted. To say he sought repentance with tears makes no good sense… But it was not a change of his father's mind that he could not find. It was a change of his own. There was no real looking to God about his sins.
One writer turns the story on the reader.
Do not forget this — in a certain sense every sinner has a birthright. You have been born into a world to which the Saviour has come, and that Saviour came to save sinners. Suppose you do not receive that Saviour. Suppose you hold on in the ways of the world, deluded by Satan, caring only for the things of this life. Then you simply follow the footsteps of Esau. You despise your birthright for a bowl of soup — for the things that serve the body and give you comfort while you pass through this world, which you will soon have to leave.
- The sale — Esau traded his birthright for one meal. That single act exposed a man who wanted this world and the next at once.
- The cry — Here he asks for the blessing back, not for a new heart; his tears mourn what he lost, not what he did.
- The refusal — Isaac has no second blessing to give. The words he had spoken were God's mind, not just a father's preference.
- The debate — Was the repentance Esau could not find his father's change of mind, or his own? Commentators differ. Either way, he never really looked to God about his sins.
- The warning — Anyone who wants the gain of godliness without the godliness is walking Esau's road. Crying over the loss is not turning back.
And Isaac his father answered and said to him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth, And of the dew of heaven from above;
Esau comes in with his own dish and his own hopes, only to find that the blessing he wanted has already gone to his brother. What Isaac says next is still called a blessing, yet it names only earth and sky — the portion, commentators say, of a man who let go of the promise.
A note on wording. The older translations these writers used say Esau's home would be of the fatness of the earth and of the dew of heaven. The ESV says away from both. The comments below follow the older reading.
Esau's tears did move his father to speak. But what came out was a different kind of gift — and, one writer says, a prophecy.
Esau was now a pitiful sight. He wept. His tears could not undo the past or recover the birthright, but they did draw out a blessing from Isaac, though not the blessing. And in saying what he did in verses 39 and 40, he doubtless spoke as a prophet.
Esau's blessing was generous. What it lacked was not size but kind.
Jacob is now openly his heir, and Isaac confirms the choice God had made. But God is full of pity as well as holy. He would not go back on His own election. Yet He strengthens Isaac to pronounce a second blessing on Esau. By faith Isaac blessed him too, concerning things to come. A rich and ample promise was the portion of the firstborn. But it was a material blessing only.
The same two gifts appear in both blessings, but not in the same order. For Esau the earth comes first.
Poor Esau was promised these blessings in reverse order. Earthly things would be first for him. Look at his descendants and relatives today. The fatness of the earth has generally been their lot. Where are all the oil wells being fought over today? Esau's descendants have been blessed with the fatness of the earth. But their life has been miserable, full of wars and fighting. The dew of heaven has also fallen on them, but they have hardly noticed.
Esau was not cheated. He got the kind of thing he had always wanted.
Still there was a blessing for Esau, and one far better suited to his nature than the one reserved for Jacob. What did Esau care for the promises or the covenant? What taste had he for Messiah's kingdom? What reverence or readiness to submit to Messiah Himself? The fatness of the earth was more to his taste, and the dew of heaven from above. Heaven itself was only a sentiment that he gladly left for others to enjoy. He was, he flattered himself, a practical man; and the present world was to him a scene of enjoyable pleasures.
Isaac's words reached past Esau to a whole nation. One writer finds Edom's later character in them.
The outstanding trait of Edom was envious dislike of the people of God... There can be no question that the character of Edom matches what the Lord lets us know through Isaac. It would be hard to imagine a prediction of this kind where every word was more truly verified in the whole history of man than in the life and changes of Edom and Israel.
The blessing came true in Esau's line, and it came true early.
The chapter shows us that Esau was prospered in earthly things, so that his father's blessing was fulfilled to him (27:39-40). He occupied his own territory and became quite independent of Jacob. His descendants multiplied, and they became chiefs and notorious. They became not only "dukes" but even "kings," and that before any king appeared in Israel's line. In earthly greatness and power the children of this world have always come ahead of the children of God.
It can seem strange that Isaac blessed Esau at all. One writer sees in it how God deals with those who refused His terms. He then points to a very different yoke.
I do not doubt that it represents God allowing the blessings of this world to come to those who refused blessing in God's way. Esau had to live by his sword. It was all his own energy... This is totally different from a Christian; his blessing lies in taking Christ's yoke. Esau's blessing would have lain in being subject to Jacob, the heir of promise.
- Cause. Esau's tears could not undo what he had already let go; they drew out a blessing, but not the blessing.
- Gift. What he received was rich and ample — and material only, with no promise or covenant in it.
- Order. Isaac promised dew and fatness to both sons. Esau got them in reverse order, and earthly things have stayed first with his line.
- Fit. Esau got what suited him. He had no taste for Messiah's kingdom, and gladly left heaven to others.
- Result. The words came true. Edom had chiefs and kings before Israel had any. The world can outrun God's people in present greatness — but the real blessing lay in the yoke Esau would not take.
And by thy sword shalt thou live; And thou shalt serve thy brother; And it shall come to pass when thou rovest about, That thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck.
Isaac has already given the covenant blessing to Jacob. What is left for Esau is half gift and half sentence: the sword, service under his brother, and a day when the yoke comes off.
The portion Isaac names is no mere leftover. It fits what Esau wanted. Older translations read the last clause as "when you shall have the dominion"; the picture is of Esau shaking loose.
There was still a blessing for Esau, and one that suited his nature far better than the one kept for Jacob. What did Esau care for the promises or the covenant? What taste did he have for Messiah's kingdom? The richness of the earth suited him better, and the dew of heaven above. Heaven itself was only a nice idea, and he was happy to leave it to others... And what a fine thing to live by the sword when men stood against him! It was true that the word said he, Esau, would serve his brother. That was an unwelcome sentence, one that still had to prove true, and he would do all he could to stop it. Meanwhile the same sentence said that one day he would get loose, roam free, and break the yoke off his neck. Well, this would be a joy indeed: let his brother have the rest.
Isaac had meant the covenant blessing for Esau all along. These words come from a man who has just discovered that God overruled him.
When it broke on him that God had overruled him, he did not turn on his wife and his younger son. He bowed in self-judgment and trembled violently. In faith he sealed what his lips had said without knowing it, yet under God: "Yes, and he shall be blessed." He felt that, whoever else was to blame, the error was his own. God was only securing now what He had said before the sons were born.
Both halves of the verse came true, and in that order.
All this comes true. David, who came from Jacob, puts troops in Edom, and the Edomites become his servants and bring gifts. Jehoram, who also came from Jacob, later loses the Edomites as servants who paid him tribute. They revolt, and remain in revolt to this day. 2 Sam. 8:14; 2 Chr. 21:8.
Every word held. One writer also sets a limit on what "by your sword" predicts.
In all of human history it would be hard to find a prediction of this kind more exactly fulfilled. Every word came true in the life and changes of Edom and of Israel. Yet nothing in it hints at Edom's spite and vengeful hate. Living by the sword does not have to mean hatred. Ambitious drive often leads to a career of conquest where no particular hatred is at work.
God had already said the elder would serve the younger. One writer weighs what Jacob's impatience cost.
Had Jacob waited patiently, no conditions would have burdened the promise. (Chap. 27:40.)
Another writer counts the cost in centuries of delay.
But ever since the days of Jehoram — son of Jehoshaphat, of the house of David, of the line of Jacob — Esau, or Edom, has been in revolt. So the promise is delayed, complicated and burdened in ways God's grace and the gift by grace never designed. Jacob would never have gone through any of this, had his faith been simpler.
The picture reaches past Edom. One writer takes Esau as a figure of the flesh, the nature in us that will not live before God.
Esau is a picture of the flesh, which will not live before God. It must be brought into subjection... But Isaac tells Esau he will live by his sword. The flesh is always at war, just as the troubled sea cannot rest. The flesh thinks it must fight for its rights. Esau would serve his brother, yet he would break Jacob's yoke off his neck. Though he stayed in subjection, nothing could tame his rebellious character, just as the flesh keeps breaking out in rebellion.
The broken yoke is not the end of the story. Two later prophets take the promise up again.
But still, "the elder shall serve the younger." That promise is yes and amen. Amos bears witness to it when he says that Israel will possess Edom. (Chap. 9) And Obadiah is another witness to the same thing. He tells us that in due time saviours will come to Zion and judge the mount of Esau.
- Blessing — Esau gets a real gift, but one shaped to his own taste: the earth's richness, the sword, the present world.
- Faith — Isaac speaks the blessing against his own wishes, bowing to a word God gave before the twins were born.
- Fulfilment — Service under David, revolt under Jehoram: Edom's history proved every clause true.
- Burden — Jacob's impatience did not cancel the promise. It left it delayed and complicated in ways grace never designed.
- Yoke — The flesh stays subject but untamed, and keeps breaking loose. Still the older word stands: saviours will come to Zion.