King James Version, with Nii Okai's journal notes · 29 notes
1And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son, and said unto him, My son: and he said unto him, Behold, here am I.
How long was the time frame from when Esau sold his birthright to when the blessing was given?
2And he said, Behold now, I am old, I know not the day of my death:
3Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison;
4And make me savoury meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat; that my soul may bless thee before I die.
We have no record of Abraham blessing Isaac. Most likely he did but because he Isaac was the only child there was no contention so it was not dramatic enough to be recorded.
Again we see that the blessings of Isaac were very spiritual and backed by Power.
How and who trained Isaac in such matters of the spirit. We see that it was Abraham’s for we have examples of Isaac building altars, going for meditation 🧘♂️ walks hearing from God etc.
He had been well trained and dabbled well in matters of the spirit.
5And Rebekah heard when Isaac spake to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it.
6And Rebekah spake unto Jacob her son, saying, Behold, I heard thy father speak unto Esau thy brother, saying,
Such mischief. It is worth noting that, Rebekah still had a strong influence over her son even at this stage of his life.
All this trickery and fight over the years had just been for “a blessing”. What is there in a blessing we ought to ask ourselves for an entire family to go to such extent to get it? Rebekah as a mother risked tearing apart her family with such devices.
I know this story, yeah... Isaac will end up blessing Jacob but a thought 💭 came to mind. Did same thing happen to Abraham?
Because it is not recorded that Abraham blessed Isaac.
Either ways Isaac might have learnt this from somewhere or one.
Who did he learn from?
7Bring me venison, and make me savoury meat, that I may eat, and bless thee before the LORD before my death.
8Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command thee.
Our women, what at all prompted her to think of swindling both Esau and Isaac in this way.
The thought 💭 of giving out the blessings to Jacob was bad enough but to think of trickery.
She did not consider that Isaac was in his prophetic elements and out of honor and respect for that she should not involve deception in the game.
Yes she might have been facilitating the word of God that came to her earlier but not this way.
Hmm this gender
And Jacob also joined in the scheming.
However, doctor 😷 Otabil makes a notable point that God was willing to make a nation out of Jacob despite this trait.
Indeed, he Doc sees it as a positive and desirable trait.
The trait of seizing the moment, not letting destiny and opportunity pass you by.
9Go now to the flock, and fetch me from thence two good kids of the goats; and I will make them savoury meat for thy father, such as he loveth:
10And thou shalt bring it to thy father, that he may eat, and that he may bless thee before his death.
Such trickery, Isaac was a great man 👨 and with greatness comes all manner of scheming around you.
It is wisdom therefore to be aware that with rank comes these games around you and to avoid them as much as possible 🙆.
Though as one rises in greatness one may have to blink an eye to some of them.
11And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man:
12My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing.
The deceiver doesn't want to be deceived and found out.
It thus is very difficult to spot deception. We must therefore be very self aware and be quick to pause when something just seems off. We just might be victims of deception.
13And his mother said unto him, Upon me be thy curse, my son: only obey my voice, and go fetch me them.
Such scheming between mother and child 🧒. It almost destroyed the family 👪 bond forever.
Two ✌ tricksters, how then could they even trust one another after this shrewd act.
I’m trying to guess the age of Rebekah. In the previous chapter Esau was 40 years making Isaac 100.
Now in this chapter give or take Isaac was 100 plus a few years.
Isaac is sick from old age but Rebekah is strong likely about 20 to 25 years younger.
So 80 or 75
I’m just presuming she married Isaac as a young girl 15 to 20 years.
14And he went, and fetched, and brought them to his mother: and his mother made savoury meat, such as his father loved.
15And Rebekah took goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them upon Jacob her younger son:
16And she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck:
17And she gave the savoury meat and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.
Interesting, Rebecca at this time knew the nature of her husband’s sickness well.
His sense of smell and touch were spot on because of the blindness.
Now the only challenge was his hearing which from the story was good.
So now two senses against one.
Isaac heard the voice that it was Jacob, but smelt and touched and it was Esau.
Now he had to decide. Bear in mind he had spoken to Esau alone he presumed so that added to the evidence that this was truly Esau.
Also he did not expect nor suspect that Jacob would dare go to the extent of deceiving his own father.
Indeed, at a point Isaac was uncomfortable and asked if this was truly Esau to which Jacob affirmed.
Maybe Isaac's hearing was beginning to fail him as well, he might have thought 💭.
18And he came unto his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I; who art thou, my son?
19And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau thy firstborn; I have done according as thou badest me: arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me.
20And Isaac said unto his son, How is it that thou hast found it so quickly, my son? And he said, Because the LORD thy God brought it to me.
Such a lie in the name of God. Yet God did not annul the blessing despite the trickery involved in obtaining it.
This terrible lie did not undo the blessing. Ei so good can come out of wrong.
Blessing out of deceptions - of course this is not a blanket statement we have to look at context.
21And Isaac said unto Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee, my son, whether thou be my very son Esau or not.
22And Jacob went near unto Isaac his father; and he felt him, and said, The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.
Interesting conclusion by Isaac. So now the million dollar question is this, which is stronger evidence, the voice or the flesh (hairy skin)?
Why did Isaac fall for it? Well, probably he thought, my ears might be failing me just as my sight, but my sense of feeling is still strong.
He must have been really hairy for the feel of his hair to be like sheep wool.
Who knows if they went back and forth over this matter, despite just one verse being dedicated to it.
Maybe Isaac reckoned that his hearing was being affected by his age as well.
23And he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy, as his brother Esau’s hands: so he blessed him.
24And he said, Art thou my very son Esau? And he said, I am.
25And he said, Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son’s venison, that my soul may bless thee. And he brought it near to him, and he did eat: and he brought him wine, and he drank.
26And his father Isaac said unto him, Come near now, and kiss me, my son.
27And he came near, and kissed him: and he smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him, and said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the LORD hath blessed:
And the anointing came upon him to bless despite the deceptions. Of course we have to take cognizance of the fact that heaven had already chosen Jacob, and the birthright had been legally exchanged between Esau and Jacob, so indeed Jacob was only outwitting the man who tried to steal from him, i.e. Esau.
Scripture doesn’t condone wrong so Jacob was the better man.
Esau was the cheat.
28Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine:
29Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother’s sons bow down to thee: cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee.
30And it came to pass, as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob was yet scarce gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting.
31And he also had made savoury meat, and brought it unto his father, and said unto his father, Let my father arise, and eat of his son’s venison, that thy soul may bless me.
32And Isaac his father said unto him, Who art thou? And he said, I am thy son, thy firstborn Esau.
33And Isaac trembled very exceedingly, and said, Who? where is he that hath taken venison, and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed him? yea, and he shall be blessed.
Damn!!! Isaac was so damn sure of this. Where did he get this insight from?
I mean he uttered words and he said he couldn’t take it back. Wow 🤯 🤯🤯.
A fair exchange had taken place: the person had met the requirements, brought venison, and Isaac had eaten all.
And the law or rule, it seems, is that the one whose venison you eat qualifies for the blessings; and once that is done, the legal requirement has been met, and could not be reversed once the cycle 🚴 is complete.
It was the eternal nature of things, i.e. the birthright and blessings, that Jacob saw, that made him follow everything within the books to legally obtain it, and he did.
It could not be said that he stole the blessing and did not have the birthright.
He had the birthright; it was Esau who was stealing the blessing after he had sold all rights to it.
How that Esau sold the rights to the blessings, and did that by swearing before a king 👑, none other than the monarch 👑 of the universe 🌌, yet still thought he would play smart and steal the blessing when he had relinquished all rights to it.
No wonder the universe conspired against him to thwart his plans and give it to the one who had his eyes on it the whole time.
I can imagine how many years Jacob had been planning and scheming to get the opportunity for the birthright.
He missed it just because he came out second in natural twin ✨ birth.
Yet he knew on the inside that he deserved this blessing and would handle it better than his wild, uncultured and unrestrained brother.
Jacob waited and bided his time until the situation was favourable, and then he bought the rights.
He knew what it was worth more than the profane Esau who got it at zero cost. He got it just by being born.
Same thing we see today, among chiefs and royals 👑 who sell lands for peanuts 🥜 only to become paupers decades later, and their children without any inheritance.
Because all they did to acquire such massive assets was to be born.
We see the same for many young beautiful ladies who sell their bodies and future 🔮 for pimps and cash.
Sometimes because of life’s challenges, but also because all they did to have their beauty was to be born with it.
We must be wise in our dealings, especially for things we got by just being born or for doing little.
We must be careful.
I suspect as he blessed Jacob after he had eaten and was full, he might have felt something move in his bowels towards Jacob.
And he knew the person had received. Now that something was not something you could just call back to you.
Isaac knew then that indeed he, Jacob, shall indeed be blessed without fail. And truly see how Jacob’s life turned out.
Nothing in this life could stop him from coming atop. Nothing, no matter how difficult or overwhelming.
He indeed was blessed.
I wonder where Isaac learnt how to bless from. We don’t have a record of Abraham doing this, or maybe he did but it wasn’t recorded.
Israel also did — maybe it was dependent on the depth of relationship the person had with God.
34And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father.
35And he said, Thy brother came with subtilty, and hath taken away thy blessing.
There was only one blessing for the first born and it couldn’t be given twice. What a law.
Couldn’t Isaac have simply said that he reverses the blessing on Jacob because he stole it? But no.
Isaac understood spiritual law and knew that Jacob followed the rules, which thus rightly qualified him.
And Esau confirmed himself that Jacob had taken the birthright again by fair exchange 💱, and through the same he had the blessing.
And 4000+ years on, the children of Jacob are here because of that blessing.
What a thing for Esau to forfeit — he could not replace it. Isaac understood the implications of what had happened; no wonder the Bible says he trembled, which is bad enough, but not only did he tremble,
But he trembled very much. And not just very much but very exceedingly.
He saw through the sands of time and knew what had happened.
Yes, Esau in his time became great and a nation ahead of Israel, but that is the short-sighted view which Esau probably used to console himself that he had become greater than Jacob in his lifetime.
The part he did not see was the eternal covenant — timelessness ⌚ — which Jacob had won for himself.
We should not be fornicators like Esau and throw away eternal things for the mundane.
36And he said, Is not he rightly named Jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright; and, behold, now he hath taken away my blessing. And he said, Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me?
Esau paa... What is a birthright if no blessing is attached to it?
Jacob followed all the legal processes of obtaining the birthright, which then qualified him for the blessing automatically, but even then he had to fight and use subtlety to take what was rightly his.
This goes to show the mind of Esau. He wanted to sell the birthright, which is the right to the blessings, and then eat the bean soup, and now, after many decades, with his hands 👐 cleaned and his mouth 👄 wiped, would come and take the blessings.
When his evil 😈 schemes failed, he rather became bitter and vengeful.
Jacob did well to have run away, and his father to have blessed him.
Ohhh, so Esau knew he did not have the birthrights.
37And Isaac answered and said unto Esau, Behold, I have made him thy lord, and all his brethren have I given to him for servants; and with corn and wine have I sustained him: and what shall I do now unto thee, my son?
See the statement of Isaac not too long after he had spoken the blessing. He claims that he had already given all of Jacob’s brethren into his hands and had given him corn and wine. Queer line of thinking, in that to Isaac, he had already given to Jacob corn and wine and servants when all he had done was to have just spoken. Yet to Isaac he reckoned it done and was immediately walking in that reality. This belief and reality was so strong and entrenched that Isaac did not see how it was possible to release those same blessings to Esau since he had just given them away.
Wow, wow, the thinking of the ancients, these patriarchs and men of faith and of the spirit.
38And Esau said unto his father, Hast thou but one blessing, my father? bless me, even me also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice, and wept.
39And Isaac his father answered and said unto him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above;
40And by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck.
But Esau never served Jacob in his life, and indeed he did have dominion, so in that wise the blessings on him worked: it was conditional.
Fast forward, their descendants had dominion over each other, but eventually Jacob, aka Israel, prevailed.
41And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him: and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then will I slay my brother Jacob.
Esau hated the blessing because it was going to take a hard life of struggle and being quick and witty to take advantage of opportunities.
He would need to have the dominion in order to break Jacob’s yoke over him.
His breakthrough and success was not going to come on a silver 🥈 platter, so he hated it.
But it served him well, as we later on see.
Actually it wasn’t the blessing necessarily he hated, but Jacob, for causing him to inherit a hard blessing.
Or maybe it’s the same thing — hating Jacob equals hating the blessing.
42And these words of Esau her elder son were told to Rebekah: and she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said unto him, Behold, thy brother Esau, as touching thee, doth comfort himself, purposing to kill thee.
43Now therefore, my son, obey my voice; and arise, flee thou to Laban my brother to Haran;
44And tarry with him a few days, until thy brother’s fury turn away;
45Until thy brother’s anger turn away from thee, and he forget that which thou hast done to him: then I will send, and fetch thee from thence: why should I be deprived also of you both in one day?
46And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth: if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these which are of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me?
So the thing runs in families. Rebekah knew that in her home they train their women well for marriage and thus she wanted Jacob to get a wife from her home.