GENESIS 27:41-28:9
THE WAGES OF SIN
The first part of Genesis 27 paints a disappointing picture of a dysfunctional family. This is doubly
disappointing because this family is the line of promise through which the covenant promises made to
Abraham and his descendants are to be fulfilled. One would have hoped for more from this family, but
this passage reminds us that God fulfils his purposes of redemption through ordinary, fallible human
vessels. Tonight we will see that while Jacob and Rebekah were able to gain Isaac’s blessing by deceit
their sin produced all sorts of unintended evil consequences.
THE WAGES OF SIN (27:41-46)
We see at least six results of Jacob and Rebekah’s sin:
1. Isaac was dishonoured.
Rebekah and Jacob could have sat down with Isaac and discussed the blessing he wanted to give
because he was old and blind and on his death bed. Instead Rebekah and Jacob conspired together
and deceived Isaac into blessing Jacob when he thought he was blessing Esau. This showed little
respect for the husband and father who should have been honoured as the head of the family.
2. Rebecca would never see Jacob, her favourite son, again.
She told him to flee to Haran saying, “stay with him a while. “ (27:44) She expected that it would
all blow over in a short time and she would be reunited with her favourite son, but never saw her
favourite son again on this earth. In fact she lost both her sons, Jacob fled to northern Mesopotamia
and Esau went off to live in the hill country of Mount Seir to the south east of the Dead Sea.
3. Jacob earned the hatred of Esau.
When Esau realised that he was not going to receive the birthright he became very, very angry.
Martin Luther commented, “He is angry not only with his brother but also with his parents and
with God himself, whose blessing, as he knows, it is and from whom alone it was also to be
expected.”
4. Jacob, who deceived his brother, went off to Paddan-aram to be deceived by his uncle.
He would learn the truth of the adage, “as you sow, so shall you reap.” He sowed a life of
deceiving and he reaped a life of being deceived.
5. Jacob, the heir of the Promised Land, was reduced to the position of a landless labourer.
Though Jacob had purchased the birthright to the land of Canaan, he was forced to flee from for his
life and ended up working as a shepherd for his unscrupulous uncle.
6. Jacob, who had defeated his brother, would bow to that brother (out of fear).
When Jacob returned to Canaan after a self-enforced exile of twenty years he feared that Esau was
still determined to kill him, and so he sent his brother wave after wave of presents, hoping to
appease his wrath, and then bowed before him seeking forgiveness and mercy (Genesis 33:6).
Jacob’s deceitful ways meant that the prophecy given to his mother was temporarily turned on its
head.
All these things remind us of the truth of Numbers 32:23, “be sure your sin will find you out.”
A BELATED BLESSING (28:1-5)
Isaac had been won over to Jacob’s side by Rebekah’s comments about Esau’s Canaanite wives and
the real possibility that Jacob could take such a wife. Therefore he took the initiative and called Jacob
in for a serious father-to-son talk. By this Jacob was doing three things:
1. He was acknowledging the legitimacy of the blessing he had given to Jacob. By repeating his
blessing of Jacob, Isaac was acknowledging that he had been wrong and that though their methods
had been unworthy, Jacob and Rebekah had been right in seeking the blessing for Jacob.
2. By repeating the blessing publically Jacob was implicitly telling Esau not to interfere with Jacob or
with his mother, but to accept that the blessing now and forever belonged to Jacob.
3. By repeating the blessing Isaac was assuring Jacob that God would indeed be with him through
whatever might lie ahead. He was assuring him that the promises were indeed his.
We see in these verses:
1. A caring charge (verses 1&2)
“You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women.” Jacob was not motivated by racial
snobbery; his concern was for the spiritual safety of his son.
2. A believing blessing (verses 3&4)
This blessing is even more fulsome that the one he had given him just a short while earlier. He
invoked the name God Almighty (El Shaddai) as if to remind Jacob of the great power of the God
with whom they had to do and hence that he had obtained his blessing not by deceit, but by divine
design. The prophecy that Jacob would become a great “company of peoples” also goes beyond his
earlier blessing. The word translated ‘company’ in this blessing comes from the root word for
‘church’ in Hebrew, the ‘assembly of God.’ It is the first time it is ever used in the Bible. God is
telling Jacob that his family through the covenant of grace is going to be an abode, an assembly for
all those from every nation who come to worship the true God. Then Isaac called upon God to give
Jacob the blessing of Abraham. This confirmed Jacob as the true recipient of the promises first
given to Abraham.
3. A sad separation (verse 5)
Isaac left for Paddan-aram and he was to remain there for twenty long years.
AN ILLEGITIMATE OBEDIENCE (28:6-9)
When Esau realised that his father was dismayed that he had married two Canaanite wives and that he
had sent Jacob off to obtain a wife from his family he made an ill conceived attempt to correct his own
failure. He married one of Abraham’s descendants. In Derek Kidner’s words Esau’s, “attempt to do the
approved thing was, like most religious efforts of the natural man, superficial and ill-judged. To take
as third wife, even though an Ishmaelite was better than a Hittite, was hardly the way back to
blessing.”