Today we read the very well-known story of how Jacob, by trickery, drew from his father Isaac the blessing that by human laws "belonged" to the older son, Esau. It continues the still better-known account by the Genesis narrator of...
Today we read the very well-known story of how Jacob, by trickery, drew from his father Isaac the blessing that by human laws "belonged" to the older son, Esau. It continues the still better-known account by the Genesis narrator of the sale of the birthright for lentil stew. Jacob deceives his father in order to receive his blessing, in order to become heir to the covenant with God.
Addressing Moses, the Lord names Himself: "I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." But according to the laws, at least according to human laws, it should have sounded: "the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Esau"... What is going on? Does God really approve the deception of one's own old, half-blind father, as a result of which Jacob becomes heir to the covenant? Really?..
Disturbing questions of this kind arise for most people who read this story. But God cannot approve untruth, and it must be supposed that it is not deception in Jacob's actions that receives God's blessing. The most reasonable explanation is that there is a chief quality in Jacob that distinguishes him from Esau: Jacob needs this covenant desperately. Esau, as far as one can judge from the Genesis narrator's account, is in essence indifferent to God and the covenant. The benefits due under the covenant can still interest him; he approaches the covenant pragmatically. Jacob, however, even resolves on deception, if only he will not be cut off from the covenant with God.
Perhaps we are called to imitate not the way Jacob obtains the blessing, but how strongly he needs it. After all, "by right" we, of course, are to be considered participants in the New Covenant, by right of baptism or by some other right. But by including this passage among the readings of Great Lent, the Church may be offering us the simple thought that if we rely on what belongs to us by human right, we can lose everything. God does not welcome those like Esau! He takes pleasure in Jacob, with the correction, of course, that falsehood is hateful to Him. Need for God is the main thing we can learn here.
And one more thing draws attention to itself: a certain strangeness in the logic of the Genesis narrator. Could not both brothers have inherited the blessing? Could Isaac not have blessed both? In the end, could God not have blessed both through Isaac? One can answer all these questions affirmatively.
But Isaac is not a machine. His ideas about the covenant and the inheritance of the blessing cannot be changed by a wave of the hand. He is not a passive link in the transmission of the blessing, and God stoops to take this into account. From another point of view, Isaac's position may appear "too narrow." But God adapts Himself to it as much as possible. This is a striking fact that must be remembered so as not to exaggerate the role of one's own ideas.
27 We have here,
27:1 Here is Isaac's design to declare Esau his heir. The promise of the Messiah and the land of Canaan was a great trust first committed to Abraham, inclusive and typical of spiritual and eternal blessings; this by divine direction he transmitted to Isaac.Isaac being now old, and either not knowing, or not duly considering the divine oracle concerning his two sons, that the elder should serve the younger, resolves to entail all the honour and power that was wrapt up in the promise upon Esau, his eldest son. He called Esau - Tho' Esau, had greatly grieved his parents by his marriage, yet they had not expelled him, but it seems were pretty well reconciled to him.
27:2 I am old, and know not the day of my death - How soon I may die.
27:3 Take me some venison that I may; bless thee - Esau must go a hunting and bring some venison. In this he designed not so much the refreshment of his own spirits, as the receiving a fresh instance of his son's, filial duty and affection to him, before he bestowed this favour upon him. That my soul may bless thee before I die - Prayer is the work of the soul, and not of the lips only; as the soul must be employed in blessing God, Psa 103:1, so it must be in blessing ourselves and others: the blessing will not go to the heart, if it do not come from the heart.