Daily reading
Today’s reading is: Gen. 25:27-28:5
Video
Genesis Chapter Twenty-Five
(Outline continues from yesterday)
- The twin brothers, Esau & Jacob, were like night and day (Gen. 25:26-28).
- They were physically different, in hair and voice (v.26; cf. Gen. 27:22).
- Esau was the outdoorsman (v.27a).
- Jacob was the indoorsman (v.27b).
- They were especially loved by their two parents for temporal-life reasons (v.28).
- Esau sells his birthright to Jacob (Gen. 25:28-34).
- The hunter experienced failure in his temporal-life area of expertise (v.29).
- The godless man thought only of his own bodily appetite (v.30,34; Heb. 12:16; Phil. 3:19).
- Jacob sought to achieve by human effort what God promised to give by grace (vv.31,33).
Genesis Chapter Twenty-Six
- Isaac remains obedient to the geographic will of God, and dwells where YHWH tells him to (Gen. 26:1-6).
- 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).
- 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).
- The Lord blessed Isaac with agricultural profits of miraculous proportions, prompting mental attitude sin on the part of the Philistines (Gen. 26:12-17).
- 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).
- Abimelech and Phicol realize that their only source for Divine blessing will come from their righteous dealings with Isaac (Gen. 26:26-33).
- Godless Esau makes marital decisions apart from the will of his parents (Gen. 26:34,35).
- He chooses a polygamous life, following the troubled example of his grandfather Abraham, and his uncle Ishmael.
- He chooses Canaanite women, rejecting the example of his grandfather Abraham.
Genesis Chapter Twenty-Seven
- Isaac grows old, and becomes physically and spiritually blind (Gen. 27:1-4).
- He becomes preoccupied with a physical death that will not occur for another 43 years!
- He allows his temporal-life love of Esau cloud his spiritual judgment in attempting to bless him over Jacob.
- Rebekah devises a scheme to thwart Isaac’s intentions (Gen. 27:5-17).
- It is a scheme of deceit.
- She fails to inquire of the Lord, or remind Isaac of the Lord’s previously revealed Will.
- She is willing to accept any curse, and pay any price for accomplishing her will in the matter (v.13).
- Like Isaac, parental love blinds Rebekah to spiritual-life issues (see also Bathsheba to David regarding Solomon, 1st Kgs. 1:17).
- Jacob must lie to his father repeatedly in his theft of Isaac’s blessing (Gen. 27:18-30).
- The initial lie (v.19).
- The blasphemous explanatory lie (v.20).
- The supplementary lie of contrived physical evidence (vv.22,23,27).
- The repeated lie (v.24).
- Isaac prophetically blesses Jacob with God’s intended blessing, even though Isaac intended to bless Esau (Gen. 27:28,29).
- When Esau returns from hunting, the treachery is revealed (Gen. 27:30-40).
- Esau’s great and bitter cry was not motivated by any spiritual repentance (v.34; Heb. 12:17).
- Esau blames Jacob for doing him wrong, and fails to recognize the Sovereignty of God (v.36).
- 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).
- Isaac recognizes God’s sovereignty, and repents of his evil (v.33).
- 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).
- Esau finds comfort in his murderous intentions (Gen. 27:41,42).
- 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
- 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)