Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob & Esau - Genesis 23 - 28:5

Teacher: Rusty Kennedy
​Series: Bible Stories

Rusty's Notes

Review:

• Genesis 1 – Creation
• Genesis 2 – Adam & Eve
• Genesis 3 – Fall of Man
• Genesis 4 – Cain killed Abel
• Genesis 5 – Seth
• 1 This is the document containing the family records of Adam. On the day that God created man, he made him in the likeness of God; 2 he created them male and female. When they were created, he blessed them and called them mankind.
• 3 Adam was 130 years old when he fathered a son in his likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth. 4 Adam lived 800 years after he fathered Seth, and he fathered other sons and daughters. 5 So Adam’s life lasted 930 years; then he died. [1]
• Genesis 6-9 – Noah’s Ark
• Genesis 11 – Tower of Babylon
• Genesis 12-15 – Abraham and Covenant
• Genesis 16 – Abraham, Hagar and Ishmael
• Genesis 17 – Circumcision covenant
• Genesis 18 – Abraham & Sarah told about birth
• Genesis 19 – Sodom & Gomorah destruction
• Genesis 21 – Birth of Isaac to Abraham & Sarah
• Genesis 22 – Sacrifice of Isaac

 
GENESIS 23
1 Now Sarah lived 127 years; these were all the years of her life. 2 Sarah died in Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. [2]

• Sarah is the only woman whose age at death ("127 years" old) the Scriptures record.
• She is also the only woman whose name God changed (17:15).
• Abraham buys land in Mamre to bury Sarah there.

 
A WIFE FOR ISAAC
GENESIS 24

• Covenant between Abraham & servant
• The thigh, being close to the reproductive organs, represented the continuation of Abraham's lineage and the seriousness of the promise related to his descendants.[3]
• This act of placing the hand under the thigh was a way to signify the gravity and sacredness of the oath, emphasizing the importance of the task at hand.
• Putting a hand under another's thigh was a solemn way of signifying that if the oath were violated, the children, yet unborn, would avenge the act of disloyalty.
• Abraham’s servant retrieves Rebekah as Isaac’s wife.
• Rebekah's name means "Ensnaring Beauty," and Moses commented on her beauty.
• She was Isaac's second cousin.
• Her grandfather was Abraham's brother.

62 Now Isaac was returning from Beer-lahai-roi, for he was living in the Negev region. 63 In the early evening Isaac went out to walk in the field, and looking up he saw camels coming. 64 Rebekah looked up, and when she saw Isaac, she got down from her camel 65 and asked the servant, “Who is that man in the field coming to meet us?”
The servant answered, “It is my master.” So she took her veil and covered herself. 66 Then the servant told Isaac everything he had done.
67 And Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah and took Rebekah to be his wife. Isaac loved her, and he was comforted after his mother’s death.[4]
 
ABRAHAM’S DEATH
GENESIS 25
7 This is the length of Abraham’s life: 175 years. 8 He took his last breath and died at a good old age, old and contented, and he was gathered to his people. 9 His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah near Mamre, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hethite. 10 This was the field that Abraham bought from the Hethites. Abraham was buried there with his wife Sarah. 11 After Abraham’s death, God blessed his son Isaac, who lived near Beer-lahai-roi.[5]

• Isaac would have been 75 years old, and Jacob 15, when Abraham died (v. 7; cf. 21:5; 25:26).
• Abraham lived 100 years in the Promised Land (cf. 12:4).

 
…
THE BIRTH OF JACOB AND ESAU
19 These are the family records of Isaac son of Abraham. Abraham fathered Isaac. 20 Isaac was forty years old when he took as his wife Rebekah daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan-aram and sister of Laban the Aramean. 21 Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was childless. The Lord was receptive to his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived. 22 But the children inside her struggled with each other, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord. 23 And the Lord said to her:
Two nations are in your womb;
two peoples will come from you and be separated.
One people will be stronger than the other,
and the older will serve the younger.
24 When her time came to give birth, there were indeed twins in her womb. 25 The first one came out red-looking, covered with hair like a fur coat, and they named him Esau (hairy one). 26 After this, his brother came out grasping Esau’s heel with his hand. So he was named Jacob (El will protect). Isaac was sixty years old when they were born.

• It took 20 years for Rebekah to give birth.

 
ESAU SELLS HIS BIRTHRIGHT
27 When the boys grew up, Esau became an expert hunter, an outdoorsman, but Jacob was a quiet man who stayed at home.

• Abraham died when the twins were 15 years old.

28 Isaac loved Esau because he had a taste for wild game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.

• When one parent is partial to one child and the other parent is partial to the other child, you have trouble.
• That is exactly what took place here.

29 Once when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau came in from the field exhausted. 30 He said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stuff, because I’m exhausted.” That is why he was also named Edom.
31 Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.”

• The "birthright" was the privilege of being chief of the tribe and head of the family (27:29).
• In Isaac's family, it entitled the bearer to the blessing of Yahweh's promises (27:4, 27-29), which included the possession of Canaan and covenant fellowship with God (28:4).

32 “Look,” said Esau, “I’m about to die, so what good is a birthright to me?”
33 Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore to Jacob and sold his birthright to him. 34 Then Jacob gave bread and lentil stew to Esau; he ate, drank, got up, and went away. So Esau despised his birthright.[6]

• The writer showed that the natures of the two sons were very different: they were not identical twins, obviously.
• Esau cared only for physical and material things, whereas Jacob valued the spiritual.
• Esau gave priority to the immediate satisfaction of his sensual desires, but Jacob was willing to wait for something better that God had promised for the future (cf. Heb. 12:16).

 
GENESIS 26
1 There was another famine in the land in addition to the one that had occurred in Abraham’s time. And Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, at Gerar. 2 The Lord appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt. Live in the land that I tell you about; 3 stay in this land as an alien, and I will be with you and bless you. For I will give all these lands to you and your offspring, and I will confirm the oath that I swore to your father Abraham. 4 I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky, I will give your offspring all these lands, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring, 5 because Abraham listened to me and kept my mandate, my commands, my statutes, and my instructions.” 6 So Isaac settled in Gerar.[7]

• Isaac’s deception to Abimelech was similar to Abraham’s concerning Sarah… famine and all.
• Isaac kept digging wells and was blessed.

 
THE STOLEN BLESSING
GENESIS 27
1 When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could not see, he called his older son Esau and said to him, “My son.”
And he answered, “Here I am.”
2 He said, “Look, I am old and do not know the day of my death. 3 So now take your hunting gear, your quiver and bow, and go out in the field to hunt some game for me. 4 Then make me a delicious meal that I love and bring it to me to eat, so that I can bless you before I die.”
5 Now Rebekah was listening to what Isaac said to his son Esau. So while Esau went to the field to hunt some game to bring in, 6 Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Listen! I heard your father talking with your brother Esau. He said, 7 ‘Bring me game and make a delicious meal for me to eat so that I can bless you in the Lord’s presence before I die.’ 8 Now, my son, listen to me and do what I tell you. 9 Go to the flock and bring me two choice young goats, and I will make them into a delicious meal for your father—the kind he loves. 10 Then take it to your father to eat so that he may bless you before he dies.”
11 Jacob answered Rebekah his mother, “Look, my brother Esau is a hairy man, but I am a man with smooth skin. 12 Suppose my father touches me. Then I will be revealed to him as a deceiver and bring a curse rather than a blessing on myself.”
13 His mother said to him, “Your curse be on me, my son. Just obey me and go get them for me.”
14 So he went and got the goats and brought them to his mother, and his mother made the delicious food his father loved. 15 Then Rebekah took the best clothes of her older son Esau, which were in the house, and had her younger son Jacob wear them. 16 She put the skins of the young goats on his hands and the smooth part of his neck.

• People used the black, silk-like hair of the camel-goat of the East ("young goats," v. 16) as a substitute for human hair as late as the Roman period.

17 Then she handed the delicious food and the bread she had made to her son Jacob.
18 When he came to his father, he said, “My father.”
And he answered, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?”
19 Jacob replied to his father, “I am Esau, your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game so that you may bless me.”
20 But Isaac said to his son, “How did you ever find it so quickly, my son?”
He replied, “Because the Lord your God made it happen for me.”
21 Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come closer so I can touch you, my son. Are you really my son Esau or not?”
22 So Jacob came closer to his father Isaac. When he touched him, he said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” 23 He did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau; so he blessed him. 24 Again he asked, “Are you really my son Esau?”
And he replied, “I am.”
25 Then he said, “Bring it closer to me, and let me eat some of my son’s game so that I can bless you.” Jacob brought it closer to him, and he ate; he brought him wine, and he drank.
26 Then his father Isaac said to him, “Please come closer and kiss me, my son.” 27 So he came closer and kissed him. When Isaac smelled his clothes, he blessed him and said:
Ah, the smell of my son
is like the smell of a field
that the Lord has blessed.
28 May God give to you--
from the dew of the sky
and from the richness of the land--
an abundance of grain and new wine.
29 May peoples serve you
and nations bow in worship to you.
Be master over your relatives;
may your mother’s sons bow in worship to you.
Those who curse you will be cursed,
and those who bless you will be blessed.
30 As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob and Jacob had left the presence of his father Isaac, his brother Esau arrived from his hunting. 31 He had also made some delicious food and brought it to his father. He said to his father, “Let my father get up and eat some of his son’s game, so that you may bless me.”
32 But his father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?”
He answered, “I am Esau your firstborn son.”
33 Isaac began to tremble uncontrollably. “Who was it then,” he said, “who hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it all before you came in, and I blessed him. Indeed, he will be blessed!”
34 When Esau heard his father’s words, he cried out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me too, my father!”
35 But he replied, “Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing.”
36 So he said, “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob? For he has cheated me twice now. He took my birthright, and look, now he has taken my blessing.” Then he asked, “Haven’t you saved a blessing for me?”
37 But Isaac answered Esau, “Look, I have made him a master over you, have given him all of his relatives as his servants, and have sustained him with grain and new wine. What then can I do for you, my son?”
38 Esau said to his father, “Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father!” And Esau wept loudly.
39 His father Isaac answered him,
Look, your dwelling place will be
away from the richness of the land,
away from the dew of the sky above.
40 You will live by your sword,
and you will serve your brother.
But when you rebel,
you will break his yoke from your neck.
 
ESAU’S ANGER
41 Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. And Esau determined in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
42 When the words of her older son Esau were reported to Rebekah, she summoned her younger son Jacob and said to him, “Listen, your brother Esau is consoling himself by planning to kill you. 43 So now, my son, listen to me. Flee at once to my brother Laban in Haran, 44 and stay with him for a few days until your brother’s anger subsides--45 until your brother’s rage turns away from you and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send for you and bring you back from there. Why should I lose you both in one day?”
46 So Rebekah said to Isaac, “I’m sick of my life because of these Hethite girls. If Jacob marries someone from around here, like these Hethite girls, what good is my life?”[8]
 
GENESIS 28
1 So Isaac summoned Jacob, blessed him, and commanded him, “Do not marry a Canaanite girl. 2 Go at once to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel, your mother’s father. Marry one of the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. 3 May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you so that you become an assembly of peoples. 4 May God give you and your offspring the blessing of Abraham so that you may possess the land where you live as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham.” 5 So Isaac sent Jacob to Paddan-aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau. [9]

• Jacob ended up staying with Laban 20 years.
• As far as Genesis records, Rebekah never saw him again.
• This great story of Jacob's deception teaches that, when God's people know His will, they should not resort to deceptive, manipulative schemes to attain spiritual success, but should pursue God's will righteously.
• Every member of Isaac's family behaved in a self-centered and unprincipled manner, yet God graciously overcame their sins.
• This reminds us that His mercy is the ultimate ground of salvation (cf. Romans 5:20 - 20 The law came along to multiply the trespass. But where sin multiplied, grace multiplied even more[10]).

[1] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Ge 5:1–5.
[2] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Ge 23:1–2.
[3] https://www.planobiblechapel.org/tcon/notes/html/ot/genesis/genesis.htm
[4] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Ge 24:62–67.
[5] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Ge 25:7–11.
[6] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Ge 25:19–34.
[7] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Ge 26:1–6.
[8] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Ge 27:1–46.
[9] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Ge 28:1–5.
[10] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Ro 5:20.