Daily reading

Today’s reading is: Gen. 25:27-28:5

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Genesis Chapter Twenty-Five

(Outline continues from yesterday)

  1. The twin brothers, Esau & Jacob, were like night and day (Gen. 25:26-28).
    1. They were physically different, in hair and voice (v.26; cf. Gen. 27:22).
    2. Esau was the outdoorsman (v.27a).
    3. Jacob was the indoorsman (v.27b).
    4. They were especially loved by their two parents for temporal-life reasons (v.28).
  2. Esau sells his birthright to Jacob (Gen. 25:28-34).
    1. The hunter experienced failure in his temporal-life area of expertise (v.29).
    2. The godless man thought only of his own bodily appetite (v.30,34; Heb. 12:16; Phil. 3:19).
    3. Jacob sought to achieve by human effort what God promised to give by grace (vv.31,33).

Genesis Chapter Twenty-Six

  1. Isaac remains obedient to the geographic will of God, and dwells where YHWH tells him to (Gen. 26:1-6).
  2. The Lord confirms the Abrahamic Covenant to Isaac (Gen. 26:3,4), henceforth becoming known as the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac (Gen. 28:13; 32:9).
  3. Isaac failed the personal-safety test, and lied about his wife, in the exact same manner that Abraham failed (Gen. 26:7-11; 20:1-18).
  4. The Lord blessed Isaac with agricultural profits of miraculous proportions, prompting mental attitude sin on the part of the Philistines (Gen. 26:12-17).
  5. Isaac was also blessed with abundant water resources, and repeatedly suffered loss in the course of his life (Gen. 26:18-22; Phil. 3:7,8; 1st Cor. 6:7), and yet the Lord was continually with him (Gen. 26:23-25).
  6. Abimelech and Phicol realize that their only source for Divine blessing will come from their righteous dealings with Isaac (Gen. 26:26-33).
  7. Godless Esau makes marital decisions apart from the will of his parents (Gen. 26:34,35).
    1. He chooses a polygamous life, following the troubled example of his grandfather Abraham, and his uncle Ishmael.
    2. He chooses Canaanite women, rejecting the example of his grandfather Abraham.

Genesis Chapter Twenty-Seven

  1. Isaac grows old, and becomes physically and spiritually blind (Gen. 27:1-4).
    1. He becomes preoccupied with a physical death that will not occur for another 43 years!
    2. He allows his temporal-life love of Esau cloud his spiritual judgment in attempting to bless him over Jacob.
  2. Rebekah devises a scheme to thwart Isaac’s intentions (Gen. 27:5-17).
    1. It is a scheme of deceit.
    2. She fails to inquire of the Lord, or remind Isaac of the Lord’s previously revealed Will.
    3. She is willing to accept any curse, and pay any price for accomplishing her will in the matter (v.13).
    4. Like Isaac, parental love blinds Rebekah to spiritual-life issues (see also Bathsheba to David regarding Solomon, 1st Kgs. 1:17).
  3. Jacob must lie to his father repeatedly in his theft of Isaac’s blessing (Gen. 27:18-30).
    1. The initial lie (v.19).
    2. The blasphemous explanatory lie (v.20).
    3. The supplementary lie of contrived physical evidence (vv.22,23,27).
    4. The repeated lie (v.24).
  4. Isaac prophetically blesses Jacob with God’s intended blessing, even though Isaac intended to bless Esau (Gen. 27:28,29).
  5. When Esau returns from hunting, the treachery is revealed (Gen. 27:30-40).
    1. Esau’s great and bitter cry was not motivated by any spiritual repentance (v.34; Heb. 12:17).
    2. Esau blames Jacob for doing him wrong, and fails to recognize the Sovereignty of God (v.36).
    3. Esau fails to recognize that the blessing is not from Isaac, but from the Lord; and he also fails to recognize that there are not any additional blessings beyond what the Lord has blessed (v.38).
    4. Isaac recognizes God’s sovereignty, and repents of his evil (v.33).
    5. Isaac’s prophetic announcement to Esau is in fact a prophetic curse in declaring what the future doom of Edom will be (vv.39,40).
  6. Esau finds comfort in his murderous intentions (Gen. 27:41,42).
  7. Once again, Rebekah develops a scheme of human effort to preserve Jacob, and implements that scheme through deceit (Gen. 27:43-46).

Genesis Chapter Twenty-Eight

  1. Isaac charges Jacob to be mindful of his spiritual inheritance, as the heir of the Abrahamic Covenant (Gen. 28:1-5).

(Chapter Twenty-Eight outline continues tomorrow)