1. “THE BLESSING” Genesis 27:30 - 28:9 02/21/2010 Dr. Dane Boyles

2. “THE BLESSING” Esau’s life serves as a severe warning on how to fall short of the blessing.  Esau-Isaac Dynamics: Affection without Righteousness (27:30-41). Esau’s entrance: Confident expectation (27:30-31).

3. Genesis 27:30 30 After Isaac finished blessing him and Jacob had scarcely left his father’s presence, his brother Esau came in from hunting.

4. Genesis 27:31 31 He too prepared some tasty food and brought it to his father. Then he said to him, "My father, sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your blessing.”

5. “THE BLESSING” –A volcano of emotion erupts in a father and a son (27:32-34). 32 His father Isaac asked him, “Who are you?” “I am your son,” he answered, “your firstborn, Esau.” (Gen. 27:32)

6. Genesis 27:33 33 Isaac trembled violently and said, “Who was it, then, that hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it just before you came and I blessed him— and indeed he will be blessed!”

7. Genesis 27:34 34 When Esau heard his father’s words, he burst out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me—me too, my father!”

8. “THE BLESSING” –Isaac can’t believe it’s actually Esau. “Bless me—me too, my father!” (v. 34) –The ache of irrevocable loss (27:35-38). 35 But he said, “Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing.” (Gen. 27:35)

9. Genesis 27:36 36 Esau said, “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob? He has deceived me these two times: He took my birthright, and now he's taken my blessing!” Then he asked, “Haven’t you reserved any blessing for me?”

10. Genesis 27:37 37 Isaac answered Esau, “I have made him lord over you and have made all his relatives his servants, and I have sustained him with grain and new wine. So what can I possibly do for you, my son?”

11. Genesis 27:3 8 38 Esau said to his father, “Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father!” Then Esau wept aloud.

12. “THE BLESSING” –The Hebrew expresses the powerful turn of his destiny with a play on the verb “to bless” (barak). –Esau the firstborn (haberakah) who longs for Isaac to bless (barak) him, is now reduced to weeping (yebek). The anti-blessing (27:39-40).

13. Genesis 27:39 39 His father Isaac answered him, “Your dwelling will be away from the earth’s richness, away from the dew of heaven above.

14. Genesis 27:40 40 You will live by the sword and you will serve your brother. But when you grow restless, you will throw his yoke from off your neck.”

15. “THE BLESSING” –A vow of revenge (27:41) 41 Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. He said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.” (Gen. 27:41)

16. “THE BLESSING”  Rebekah Counters Esau’s Hate (Gen 27:42-45). –Rebekah manipulates Jacob (27:42-45).

17. Genesis 27:42 42 When Rebekah was told what her older son Esau had said, she sent for her younger son Jacob and said to him, “Your brother Esau is consoling himself with the thought of killing you.

18. Genesis 27:43-44 43 Now then, my son, do what I say: Flee at once to my brother Laban in Haran. 44 Stay with him for a while until your brother’s fury subsides.

19. Genesis 27:45 45 When your brother is no longer angry with you and forgets what you did to him, I’ll send word for you to come back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?”

20. “THE BLESSING” –Rebekah manipulates Isaac (27:46). 46 Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I’m disgusted with living because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes a wife from among the women of this land, from Hittite women like these, my life will not be worth living.” (Gen. 27:46)

21. “THE BLESSING”  Isaac and Jacob Dynamic (28:1-9). –Jacob sent away and blessed (28:1-5). 1 So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him and commanded him: “Do not marry a Canaanite woman. (Gen. 27:1)

22. Genesis 28:2 2 Go at once to Paddan Aram, to the house of your mother's father Bethuel. Take a wife for yourself there, from among the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother.

23. Genesis 28:3 3 May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples.

24. Genesis 28:4 4 May he give you and your descendants the blessing given to Abraham, so that you may take possession of the land where you now live as an alien, the land God gave to Abraham.”

25. Genesis 28:5 5 Then Isaac sent Jacob on his way, and he went to Paddan Aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, who was the mother of Jacob and Esau.

26. “THE BLESSING” –Esau imitates the “chosen” brother (28:6- 9). 6 Now Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had sent him to Paddan Aram to take a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he commanded him, “Do not marry a Canaanite woman,”

27. “THE BLESSING” 7 and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and had gone to Paddan Aram. 8 Esau then realized how displeasing the Canaanite women were to his father Isaac; (Gen. 28:7-8)

28. Genesis 28:9 9 so he went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Ishmael son of Abraham, in addition to the wives he already had.

29. “THE BLESSING”  How to Fall Short of the Blessing. –There is pathos in this text. It lies in the awareness that nobody wants to live a life that’s unblessed.

30. Hebrews 12:14-15 14 Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.

31. Hebrews 12:16 16 See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son.

32. Hebrews 28:17 17 Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears.

33. “THE BLESSING” –Seek peace without holiness. We are to seek peace—not peace at all costs, but peace shaped in holiness, not deception and manipulation. 17 The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable (James 3:17).

34. “THE BLESSING” –Sell out for a price. If you want to lose the blessing, forsake what you cannot see for what’s present and real.

35. “THE BLESSING” –Believe that your choices don’t matter. When Esau sold out, he thought his choices didn’t matter.

36. “THE BLESSING” –Live to please your parents. Esau’s life is a warning that we cannot have God’s blessing if we make pleasing our parents primary.

37. “THE BLESSING” 26 “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26).

38. “THE BLESSING” –The text leaves us with the haunting question: Which one are you?

39. “THE BLESSING” Genesis 27:30 - 28:9 02/21/2010 Dr. Dane Boyles