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.