I N D E X
184
PERFECTION
PERDITION
184
OR
(1) Isaac most pointedly intended to bless Esau.
(2) Rebekah as definitely intended Jacob to be blessed.
Rebekah's methods are to be condemned, but at least she sought, even by questionable means, that the revealed
purpose of God at the birth of Esau and Jacob should be carried out. We cannot suppose that Isaac had lived in
ignorance of this prophecy given at the birth of the children, and therefore his direct choice of Esau can scarcely be
called `the obedience of faith'.
(3) When Esau returned we read, `And Isaac trembled very exceedingly, and said, Who? where is he?' etc. This
trembling and questioning are no evidence of faith. Yet it still stands written, `By faith Isaac blessed Jacob
and Esau concerning things to come'.
The turning point of the narrative where faith begins to operate appears to be at the moment when Isaac realized
the deception that had been practised upon him. The words `And Isaac trembled with a great trembling greatly'
(Gen. 27:33 margin) appear too strong if they simply indicate Isaac's fear of Esau's anger. May they not rather
indicate that with the revelation of Jacob's deception came also the consciousness of his own failure to seek first the
will of the Lord? And so at the end of the very same verse that sees him `trembling greatly', we find him suddenly
resolute: `Yea, and he shall be blessed'. So we find the vacillating Pilate suddenly adamant, when the purpose of
God shall so require: `What I have written, I have written'.
The blessing intended in unbelief for Esau is confirmed to Jacob `by faith'. Strange overruling, yet can we not
see some parallels in our own wayward wanderings? Esau was blessed concerning things to come, and the blessing
is recorded in verses 39 and 40. Jacob's full blessing, freely and by faith, however, is not given until the 28 chapter:
`And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him' (Gen. 28:1). There is no deception now, no compulsion; faith sees clearly
the path to tread. The blessing evidently has intimate relation to the great promise of God to Abraham concerning a
Seed and a land, for Isaac immediately adds: `Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan'. Here Jacob
follows in line with Isaac, as Isaac with Abraham (see Gen. 24:37). Then follows that blessing which Rebekah had
schemed in vain to hear, and Jacob had deceived in vain to receive:
`And God Almighty (El Shaddai, as in 17:1) bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a
multitude of people' (Gen. 28:3).
The margin renders `multitude' by `assembly'. The LXX translates the word kahal by sunagoge, `synagogue'.
This also is a peculiar item in the great promise to Abraham, for it reappears as the change of Jacob's name to Israel:
`I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company (kahal, LXX sunagoge) of nations shall be of
thee' (Gen. 35:11).
It occurs yet again in the passage where Jacob blesses Ephraim and Manasseh (Gen. 48:4). We do not know
whether the note to the word `multitude' (Gen. 48:19) in The Companion Bible has been or will be corrected in later
editions, but the student should remember that in this verse the word is quite different from the above, being the
Hebrew melo, and involves a different idea. This is but an expansion of the original promise:'In thee shall all
families of the earth be blessed' (Gen. 12:3).
Genesis 28:4 continues:
`And give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein
thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham'.
Here, without the shadow of doubt, is the promise of Abraham, and given by faith to Jacob by Isaac. If we
contrast the blessing of Genesis 28:1-4 with that of 27:28,29 we shall find that the former blessing, received by
deception, was the firstborn's blessing, while the latter, given freely and by faith, was the one for which Jacob had
seized the chance of birthright, and Rebekah had plotted in vain; for this promise was by grace, and did not
necessarily descend to the natural firstborn. This lesson is repeated in the second instance given in Hebrews 11.
When the moment came for the two sons of Joseph to be blessed, Joseph placed the firstborn at the right hand of
Jacob: