A Tale of Two Blessings: Jacob's Quest, Part I

Introduction:  

It's time Jacob got his due--and I don't mean his punishment. We view his life from the viewpoint of the brother he outsmarted, when that's not the way he should be viewed at all. Esau is not the victim, and Esau's point of view is not a godly one in Scripture. It never was, and Scripture says almost nothing positive about him. On the contrary, Esau is held up as the perfect negative example of one who lived entirely for his flesh and despised eternal values. That is not to say that Jacob is without blame, but all too seldom do we consider what Jacob did right, and this is the tale of his two blessings.

Backstory:

First, it must be noted that in the sovereignty of God, Jacob was indeed blessed--not once, not twice, but multiple times. Isaac's blessing of him came true and Jacob became the father of the entire nation of Israel. Furthermore, as the grandson of Abraham, whose descendants God had promised to bless, Jacob already had the blessing of God upon his life from before he was even born. But Jacob's own special blessing the Lord made clear to Rebekah when the twins struggled in her womb. We can be sure that Jacob had not only grown up hearing the story of his rightful blessing but that he had absorbed his grandfather's blessing from his boyhood days, even before he could walk. We can picture him sitting on Abraham's knee, stroking his long white beard while gazing into the eyes of this grizzled, kindly man. Jacob was fifteen years old when Abraham died, and, if we consider that Jacob's son Joseph was only seventeen when he was sold into Egypt, we realize that age fifteen is not too young to begin thinking like a man. And we can be sure Jacob was thinking long and deep, every time he heard a story of Abraham's God. In short, Jacob's inclusion in the blessing of Abraham became the sole quest of his life.

The Birthright:

When Abraham died, we can sense that a light went out for Jacob because his own father Isaac was apparently always too busy for him, preferring his blustery, active son Esau who had strange tastes and even stranger distastes. Jacob knew long before he bought Esau's birthright that Esau despised it. How he knew it he didn't know, but he knew it. And he was bound to get it.  Long before Rebekah cooks up a scheme for Jacob to obtain his own blessing, we know that Jacob had cooked up a pot of lentils just waiting for Esau to discard his birthright. Tradition says this event happened shortly after the death of Abraham when the boys were fifteen years old.

If we marvel at Jacob's cunning, we also marvel at Esau's weakness. That Jacob had his brother at a disadvantage is clear, but Esau's preference for his appetite over his birthright is difficult to believe under any circumstances. That Jacob had long sensed Esau's carelessness with spiritual things is obvious from his desire to gain the upper hand. The birthright would not only have granted Esau a double portion of Isaac's inheritance, it would have made him the new family leader--a priest of sorts--with an entitlement to the spiritual blessing.

Even as a young man, Jacob knew this would spell disaster. It would be like pouring the priceless blessing of Abraham down the proverbial rathole or, as Christ Himself said centuries later, like giving that which is holy to the dogs. Jacob proves his theory correct by the ease with which he wrestles Esau's birthright away from him. Esau is too callous even to know what he has lost. Rather than grieving for his own moment of weakness, he "despises" his birthright, as if to say, "If Jacob wanted it, it wasn't worth having in the first place." Esau actually regards himself as superior to Jacob without the birthright, as any entitled favorite child might feel who thinks he is above reproach and beyond rebuke.

Isaac's Blessing:

We know that things were badly out of alignment long before Isaac threatened to die, triggering the blessing charade.  To set things right from the outset, we need to make the point that Jacob did not cheat Esau out of a blessing; he tricked him out of a blessing.  It was Jacob's blessing to be had. If anything, Isaac would have cheated Jacob out of his blessing, and it says more about Isaac than it does Jacob that Jacob had to use trickery to obtain his own blessing, in much the same way he had to outsmart Laban who would have cheated him out of his own flocks and wages. It must be emphasized that, not only had the Lord told Rebekah that Esau would serve Jacob, Esau had also sold his birthright to Jacob, thus forfeiting his right to the blessing. The blessing was the sequel to the birthright, and Esau had no right to the blessing, even before Jacob tricked him out of it.

Esau assumes that his aged father will grant him the family blessing without his birthright, and he is right. This is exactly what Isaac intends to do. But this is certainly not what Rebekah has in mind. We can sense that she has never forgotten the thrill that ran through her heart and soul when her own family gave her the blessing--the very blessing God had also given to Abraham and then to Isaac. For this blessing, she had cut off every tie from her former life, living with the uncertainty of years of barrenness before carrying twins that struggled for supremacy within her womb. Rebekah clung to Jacob's promise from God with the same tenacity that Jacob had clung to Esau's baby heel, and she is not about to let Jacob be cheated.

Esau also was living a lifestyle in direct contradiction to his upbringing, and Isaac should not have overlooked this. Esau had married two Hittite women, which made Rebekah very weary--her excuse for later sending Jacob away. Abraham even in his very advanced years was adamant that Isaac not take a wife from the Canaanite women, and yet Isaac allowed his son Esau to take two. Why is this? Isaac was blind in more ways than one. If Isaac had blessed Esau, he would have been putting his own personal preference ahead of the prophetic promises of God.  It is Rebekah who seems to have spiritual sight.

Rebekah stakes her all on ensuring that the blessing will be conferred upon the right son. Without this blessing, all is lost. Her selfless spirit shows even in her readiness to take the punishment if Jacob's deception is discovered. She seems to pay dearly for this trickery, for, after sending Jacob on his way, she never sees his face again, and we never hear of her again. Her helpful spirit does cross over into manipulation, but we must also remember that Isaac was just as wrong as she was, maybe more, because he ignored the Lord's word that Jacob would be blessed, whereas Rebekah believed it. Are we to judge her because her faith was imperfect, while excusing Isaac for not showing faith at all?

The chief irony is that Jacob himself did not exercise faith to obtain either a birthright or a blessing obtainable only by faith. And yet God overrules Jacob's blind spots by indeed granting him the blessing--not merely once, while disguised as Esau, but yet again with deliberation, once Isaac has discovered his grave mistake. We might say that Isaac realizes that his greatest mistake is not in blessing Jacob over Esau but in wanting to bless Esau over Jacob in the first place. This was a close call on all accounts, for Isaac makes clear to Esau that Jacob will indeed be blessed. The blessing cannot be revoked. Can we even imagine what would have happened if Esau had obtained Jacob's blessing?

Our culture today tends to characterize a father's blessing as his approval, and much has been said about the significance of such a blessing psychologically upon a child's self-esteem. But we cannot put such a colloquial view of blessing in the same category as the blessing Jacob coveted, to the point of essentially risking his life. A close look at the blessing Isaac gave Jacob will show us that this blessing reaches all the way back to the dawn of civilization and stretches into eternity. First, Isaac gave Jacob dominion over nature (Genesis 27:28), echoing the blessing God gave Adam and Eve in Creation. Second, he gave him rule over his brethren and over other nations (Genesis 27:29a). Third--and, most important of all--Isaac gave Jacob the blessing of Abraham (Genesis 27:29b), from whose seed the promised Savior of the world would one day come.

After receiving his father's second and, this time, intentional blessing (Genesis 28:1-4), Jacob leaves his home in Beersheba to head for Rebekah's kindred in Paddan-Aram, in search of a suitable wife. In reality, he is ultimately fleeing from Esau's overheard plot to kill him. On his way, he inadvertently spends the night in the same place where Abraham had built two altars four generations earlier. Not knowing that the Lord is in this place, Jacob dreams of a ladder reaching to heaven, with the angels of God ascending and descending on it. "And, behold, the LORD stood above it" (Genesis 28:13), and here the Lord Himself gives Jacob the blessing of Abraham, adding, "And, behold, I am with you, and will keep you wherever you go" (Genesis 28:15). The Lord not only promises to give Jacob this land; He promises also to bring him back to it. But, most of all, He promises not to leave Jacob until He has accomplished His purpose. In this, we see that God Himself sees to it that Jacob is blessed, and Jacob goes as a blessed man into his new life. Even so, Jacob will struggle many years before he receives the greatest blessing of all, a face-to-face confrontation with the Angel of the Lord.