Story 46 The Blessing
Isaac was getting older. His eyes were becoming so weak that he was almost blind. He was a hundred, and his aging heart and limbs could not move about as they used to. He feared that the time of his death was coming. Before he was gone, he was determined to speak a blessing to Esau, his firstborn son.
Normally, this would be a great, public event for any family. But for the children of Abraham, the honored prince, it should have been a royal affair! It was a celebration of the passing of the great abundance of Isaac’s life onto his firstborn son. But Jacob had already convinced Esau to give up his birthright as the first son born of Isaac and Rebekah. In those days, this birthright meant that the firstborn son inherited twice as much as any other son in flocks and herds and land and silver and gold. Jacob had purchased all of that from Esau with a bowl of soup. Esau freely and foolishly gave it to him.
There was one more thing that a father would give to his firstborn son. It was supposed to go with the birthright. It was a blessing, and it came in the form of a prayer. This was an intensely powerful, spiritually potent gift that a righteous father bestowed on his son. Isaac described it as something that came from his innermost parts. It flowed from the depths of his energy, vitality, and strength as the father and patriarch of the family. This blessing would give the firstborn son divinely empowered authority over the rest of the family, including the other sons. It was one of God’s appointed ways to give a family prosperity and abundance. This son would lead the whole family and define the future of its heritage.
The other sons would be obligated to honor his decisions and obey his commands. They would have the pain of submission, but also the goodness of a strong family structure, the security of a defined system of authority, and they would have a leader to follow and pray for. The passing on of this role from father to son was a cause for great celebration. Normally, families would throw huge feasts as the firstborn son officially received his birthright and his blessing from his father.
But Isaac moved in secrets. He was going to bless Esau quietly, in a way that nobody would know about. Perhaps it was because his firstborn son had already foolishly sold his birthright to Jacob. Perhaps the blessing and the birthright were meant to go together, and Isaac wanted to separate them so he could bless his favorite son. Perhaps he gave it in secret so that Jacob and his mother could not interfere. Perhaps he was trying to get around God’s word to Rebekah that the older would serve the younger.
We can’t be certain about Isaac’s motives. What the Bible tells us is that Isaac called for his oldest boy to come to his tent. He told him about his plan to bless him that very day, and sent him to hunt for some meat. He was in a hurry to get this done. Esau took his bow and arrow and went. He was to bring back an animal to cook for a banquet that would take place secretly between the father and son alone, in a tent. The sharing of the feast would be a sealing of the blessing, but what a strange banquet!
The power of the father to bless his children was understood far more deeply in the days of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob than they are understood today. They believed in the power that God gives to righteous parents to pass on blessings, and they understood that when a curse was brought into a family, it was something to be deeply feared. Isaac’s blessing on his son would have a powerful effect on how Esau understood his life and future. Isaac’s blessing would also be heard by God, and it would have a powerful effect on the movement of God’s hand over the circumstances of Esau’s life. We in modern times have lost our eyes to see the strength and empowerment that are truly there, but Esau knew the magnificent gift that Isaac was determined to give him.
Everything might have gone according to plan except for one thing. Rebekah was listening in on the conversation that Isaac had his son. She understood the power and importance of Isaac’s plans to bless Esau. But Jacob was her favorite son, and she wanted Isaac’s blessing to come on him. Esau had married those awful Canaanite women! How unworthy he as of the promise! And she had words from God on her side. He said that the older would serve the younger!
Would Rebekah trust the Lord to make that happen, or would she try to make it happen on her own? Isaac was trying to hide his plans from his wife, but Rebekah was sneaky, too. She had a few deceptive plans of her own.
How different Rebekah and Isaac were from Abraham and Sarah! So divided with competition and games! Where Sarah turned lovingly to her husband and responded with honor, even when he was terribly wrong, Rebekah schemed and planned against her husband to get her way.
Rebekah went to Jacob with her idea. She told him what his father was about to do for Esau. Then she told Jacob to go into Isaac’s tent and get the blessing for himself. They would use Isaac’s blindness to trick him. Jacob would pretend to be Esau, and take Isaac’s blessings before Esau returned from his hunt! Would Jacob agree to trick his father? Would the plans of Rebekah work? Would Isaac figure out their game? What would happen to the family of God’s covenant?