Genesis 27-28
Posted by Allen Chapel AME Church at 7/17/2007 9:32 AM and is filed under uncategorized 
Last week we talked about the deceit involved in stealing the blessing from Esau--and not only from Esau, but also from the father, Isaac. Jacob was assisted in this by someone who was particularly critical, his mother. That Rebekah would set her sons against one another in this way . . . what might have been the reason? See if this scripture helps explain why she might have been upset with Esau and better disposed to Jacob.
This sets up the whole exchange. You might have wondered why Jacob went at the time he did to get the blessings. But, as it turns out, Isaac has set it up. It's because Isaac is anticipating: He wants to get his house in order before he goes. Despite his best effort, what he manages to do is make it worse, to derange the house. In his own mind, he wants to bring his life to a proper closure. He wants to give each of his sons what he thinks each of them is owed.
Something interesting happens when Esau discovers that Jacob has gone to the father before him to steal his blessing: He's upset with Jacob twice. But before we look at that, let's see how the mother helps Jacob in carrying through this deceit of his father.
There's the blessing! The blessing has stages.
Now check this out:
The problem is that he's already blessed the brother, "and blessed he shall be!" If you give two of your sons a gift, one a baseball bat and the other a glove, and one takes the gift from the other, what do you do? You tell the one to go get it back. But what's going on here? Isaac can't take it back. The blessing cannot be revoked. Why not? Words, once you've pronounced them, are hard to take back. They're out there, and you did it! You can say different words, but that doesn't take away the first ones. Here, it's the spoken word of the sort that something is going to transpire on your behalf. If you invoke God, you cannot take it back. It's irrevocable.
So a blessing is both invaluable and irrevocable.
Realizing the mistake, Isaac goes on to explain exactly what he's done.
Because what will Jacob do? He runs away because he thinks his brother's going to kill him. In fact, he stays away so long--and when he comes home, he's running away again because he's afraid someone else is going to kill him. He'll have even greater reason to think Laban will kill him. On his way back home, he's filled with trepidation, afraid that Esau will kill him.
Look at the very next verse.
The very nature of the blessing contains the seed of reconciliation.
He stole that man's blessing. But what he stole contains a blessing for the one from whom he stole it. Because all Esau has to do is to bless Jacob and he is blessed. And in order to bless Jacob, he'll have to do what? Forgive him.
Do you see a pattern? When the disciples ask Jesus, "How often must I forgive my brother?" He tells them they must do so "seventy times seventy." Over and over again, we ask, "Why Lord?" Because the Lord makes himself present to sinners to redeem and to restore, which is a blessing unto them of grace. If you bless the sinner, you yourself will be blessed. This is so difficult for us to do. But the narrative sketch for that is right here.
So Rebekah says,
Keep in mind that Isaac was the son of Sarah, who had given her husband, Abraham, a maidservant so that he could produce offspring with someone else, since she thought herself barren. Now, when they did conceive, and Isaac was born, Sarah asked Abraham to put the maidservant and her son out, into the wilderness. So then how could Isaac get himself upset with Jacob when he, himself, had not been firstborn but was given the birthright?! This displacement of the maidservant and her children is perhaps one of the cruelest things to be read in all of scripture. We're just as wrong as we can be! And the whole time, God is watching all of it. And still he honors his promises to us no matter what we do.
Also notice that what the scripture tells us is that these fights--between sons with a common father--the conflict between Jews and Muslims (descendents of Ishmael)--are family conflicts. It's a mess! The only way it can be fixed is if God intervenes. If each of them insists upon their own perogatives and their own blessings, then it's lossed. If they don't read the part that says, "Bless those, and you will be blessed; curese them and you will be cursed."
So now we have Isaac agreeing with his wife: Jacob will go away, and he's to go to Laban and get some wives. And at the same time, he tells Esau, "We don't like your wives." Now what about all the children Esau will have by the wives that Isaac and Rebekah don't like? Everything is generational. Blessings are received intergenerationally; curses are received intergenerationally. Not only that, but we pass along the best of ourselves and the worst of ourselves. And scripture reminds us over and over again that's what we do. "The sins of the fathers are visited upon the children unto the third generation."
Take a look at what happens next.
Jacob is running away, in the middle of his sin, when God promises never to leave him, to restore him, to bring him back home. Does that mean there are no consequences? No. Have we even heard Jacob say, "Thank you," or "Forgive me"? No, he's still in the midst of his sin. The career of sin is not over: "As often as I can get for me at someone else's expense, that's exactly what I'm going to do." This guy is a classic example of "looking out for number one." And the thing that's so striking is that God won't leave him.
So that's what's perplexing: When he gets this amazing promise for God, he responds with what? "I'm going to give you a tenth." And a tenth of what? Only what God gives to him. What kind of deal is that? In fact, that tenth sure isn't going to hurt Jacob. It's more like a token. Here's what Christine calls it: a tip. People are "tipping God." And people think they're doing something. Which suggests something to us: If you think this is cheesy of Jacob, then when you read it, you're not supposed to be saying to yourself, "That Jacob's a miserable fellow." You're supposed to be looking at who? Yourself. If you think that he's pitiful . . . what about you, if you don't give a care? And if God has made the promise to Jacob, what makes you think he hasn't made the promise to you? After all, the promise includes you, anyway, because he says, "All people's will be blessed through you." Everybody. And surely that includes us.
It's a miraculous vision! It's an angelic, heavenly visitation in the middle of the night! And he pours the oil on the rock and names it . . . it's wonderful! People can go a whole lifetime without having a vision like this. This is a grand vision. And yet, at the end of the transaction with God, he's giving him what? A tenth! Here's a stingy brother!
But, now. Didn't you know someone in school who was a bully? And you just could not wait for what to happen? You couldn't wait for the comeuppance. Because if you couldn't do something about the bully, you knew there had to be somebody somewhere who could.
When Rev. Scott was a boy, there was a fellow named John Taylor. He had a handsome, almost sweet face. So his face didn't say he was tough. He was tall and rangy and athletically gifted. As boys, they used to watch him play flag football on this hard field (no grass with stones everywhere). This other fellow who had grown up and left the neighborhood, joined the service and come back--he had a reputation. And he was a loudmouth. And they were playing on opposite teams once, and John kept getting the better of this guy, with this sweet-looking face. And this guy, who had a rough-looking face and a mouth that was even worse--"you don't want to mess with me." Now, the boys knew that John was kind of rough, too, because at school he had punched a teacher who'd grabbed him in tenth grade.
Anyway, this fellow kept mouthing off and saying if John touched him again, he was going to do this and that. John didn't say a word except, "Come on, man, let's play." Finally on one play, he had his excuse--this guy had been looking for a fight the whole game--and all the little boys watching just knew something was going to happen. The game stopped. He ran up to John and was all up in his face, shouting. John just stood there, looking at the guy. Never said a word. And this guy said something, and it was about the last thing he should have said to John, and before anyone knew it, he clocked this guy straight in the face, and the guy collapsed like a bag of leaves. Just laid out. Once punch. And everyone was shocked! And still John hadn't said a word. But the foul-mouthed bully had been silenced with one punch.
After all these years, Rev. Scott admitted, he had the deepest sense of satisfaction. "Bet you won't say that to someone else!" None of us was bad enough to shut him up, but when John laid him out . . . ooooooooh. Of course, John's reputation just shot through the roof, so much so that people from other neighborhoods would come into John's just to see if they could take him. And no one ever did.
There's something in us that makes us desire to see someone get theirs. And boy, Jacob is crusing for a bruising! Is he going to meet his match? Can he be deceived? Sure! Will he be mad? Sure! What's funny is, if anybody has less right than to be mad at being deceived it's Jacob. This guy deserves what he gets.
Yet what outstrips all of it is the promise of God to stay with him. Even when he gets his just desserts, is that the dessert he gets from God? The blessing trumps everything. A blessing is what Esau deserves by rights. Yet it's delivered to the undeserving: Jacob. It isn't grace if people deserve it. Got it? There's no grace if people deserve it. Grace by its very definition is given to those who do not deserve it, in spite of what it may appear they deserve.
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Genesis 26It's just two verses, and that's all it says. It's the end of chapter 26 of Genesis. Sometimes in the Bible, it has a title for the two verses, "Esau's Hittite Wives." Of course, what these verses suggest is that the wives are not children of Israel, but they're somehow related. Take a look, too, at the end of chapter 27:
34 When Esau was forty years old, he married Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite; 35and they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah.
Genesis 27She is really distressed. Here's the thing: Esau is married to two wives before Jacob has married even one. As long as he's not married, he kind of belongs to his mama. So she's looking after him in a way she wouldn't look after Esau, because Esau's married. She's taking care of baby boy.
46 Then Rebekah said to Isaac, ‘I am weary of my life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women such as these, one of the women of the land, what good will my life be to me?’
Genesis 27
27When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called his elder son Esau and said to him, ‘My son’; and he answered, ‘Here I am.’ 2He said, ‘See, I am old; I do not know the day of my death. 3Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field, and hunt game for me. 4Then prepare for me savoury food, such as I like, and bring it to me to eat, so that I may bless you before I die.’
This sets up the whole exchange. You might have wondered why Jacob went at the time he did to get the blessings. But, as it turns out, Isaac has set it up. It's because Isaac is anticipating: He wants to get his house in order before he goes. Despite his best effort, what he manages to do is make it worse, to derange the house. In his own mind, he wants to bring his life to a proper closure. He wants to give each of his sons what he thinks each of them is owed.
Something interesting happens when Esau discovers that Jacob has gone to the father before him to steal his blessing: He's upset with Jacob twice. But before we look at that, let's see how the mother helps Jacob in carrying through this deceit of his father.
5 Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it, 6Rebekah said to her son Jacob, ‘I heard your father say to your brother Esau, 7“Bring me game, and prepare for me savoury food to eat, that I may bless you before the Lord8Now therefore, my son, obey my word as I command you. 9Go to the flock, and get me two choice kids, so that I may prepare from them savoury food for your father, such as he likes; 10and you shall take it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.’ 11But Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, ‘Look, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a man of smooth skin. 12Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him, and bring a curse on myself and not a blessing.’ 13His mother said to him, ‘Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my word, and go, get them for me.’This woman is willing to bear her son's curse for him to have this blessing. If it is the Hittite women, they must be some horrible women that she can't abide them and she would be willing to do this rather than live with more Hittite women!
before I die.”
14So he went and got them and brought them to his mother; and his mother prepared savoury food, such as his father loved. 15Then Rebekah took the best garments of her elder son Esau,Now, before you starting that maybe they weren't brothers, notice that it says, "her elder son Esau," and that she goes to get his clothes that were presumably there in her house. So she has these things, which she gets for Jacob, and then says, "Here, put these on."
. . . which were with her in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob; 16and she put the skins of the kids on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. 17Then she handed the savoury food, and the bread that she had prepared, to her son Jacob. 18 So he went in to his father, and said, ‘My father’; and he said, ‘Here I am; who are you, my son?’ 19Jacob said to his father, ‘I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, so that you may bless me.’One almost has the sense that he's in a hurry!
20But Isaac said to his son, ‘How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?’ He answered, ‘Because the Lord your God granted me success.’Uh oh! It's a deepening of the treachery. Now, not only has he relied on the assistance of his mother in his treachery, but now he's also insulting the name of God!
21Then Isaac said to Jacob, ‘Come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.’Which suggests that he knows something's up! He's not altogether certain he should trust the word of this person. But it's also because he knows and understands the blessing he's going to give. The blessing is invaluable. It's beyond earthly value. It's not replaceable.
Perhaps he's suspecting that his ears, like his eyes, are betraying him. Of all the senses you have, which do you trust the most? Which would you least want to lose? It's easy to fool someone through touch, perhaps also through sound, perhaps also through sight. None of the senses are completely trustworthy! In this case, Isaac decides to trust his feeling. Then he says,
22So Jacob went up to his father Isaac, who felt him and said, ‘The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.’ 23He did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands; so he blessed him.
24He said, ‘Are you really my son Esau?’Isn't it too late to ask this question after he's blessed him?
He answered, ‘I am.’ 25Then he said, ‘Bring it to me, that I may eat of my son’s game and bless you.’ So he brought it to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank. 26Then his father Isaac said to him, ‘Come near and kiss me, my son.’ 27So he came near and kissed him; and he smelled the smell of his garments, and blessed him, and said,
‘Ah, the smell of my son
is like the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed.
28May God give you of the dew of heaven,
and of the fatness of the earth,
and plenty of grain and wine.
29Let peoples serve you,
and nations bow down to you.
Be lord over your brothers,
and may your mother’s sons bow down to you.
Cursed be everyone who curses you,
and blessed be everyone who blesses you!’
There's the blessing! The blessing has stages.
- The first one has to do with what God will be able to do for him.
- The second stage has to do with his relationships with other people, political authority.
- The third stage has to do with his relationships with his own family, his brothers bowing down to him.
Now check this out:
It says that Isaac trembled violently. Why did he do that? He's upset because he suspects . . . when he says, "Who are you?" does he really not know who it is? No! Now he knows he's got the right son before him. There's the smell of him, the voice of him, all of it is there, and it's all done in a way that seems to resonate with the instruction that Isaac gave to him earlier.
30 As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of his father Isaac, his brother Esau came in from his hunting. 31He also prepared savoury food, and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, ‘Let my father sit up and eat of his son’s game, so that you may bless me.’ 32His father Isaac said to him, ‘Who are you?’ He answered, ‘I am your firstborn son, Esau.’ 33Then Isaac trembled violently, and said, ‘Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate it all before you came, and I have blessed him?—yes, and blessed he shall be!’
The problem is that he's already blessed the brother, "and blessed he shall be!" If you give two of your sons a gift, one a baseball bat and the other a glove, and one takes the gift from the other, what do you do? You tell the one to go get it back. But what's going on here? Isaac can't take it back. The blessing cannot be revoked. Why not? Words, once you've pronounced them, are hard to take back. They're out there, and you did it! You can say different words, but that doesn't take away the first ones. Here, it's the spoken word of the sort that something is going to transpire on your behalf. If you invoke God, you cannot take it back. It's irrevocable.
So a blessing is both invaluable and irrevocable.
Realizing the mistake, Isaac goes on to explain exactly what he's done.
34When Esau heard his father’s words, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, ‘Bless me, me also, father!’ 35But he said, ‘Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing.’ 36Esau said, ‘Is he not rightly named Jacob?Jacob, the name, literally means "the supplanter."
For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright;Wait a minute! Esau gave it to him, right?
and look, now he has taken away my blessing.’What's the difference? How often have you heard this story and taken both the birthright and the blessing as one and the same? But they aren't. Esau gave away the birthright, and his father gave away the blessing. But surely they're related: Birthright has to do with Esau being the firstborn and what he's supposed to receive, the material things. And the blessing is spiritual, although it involves material things, as well as a certain position, bearing and station among others. According to Esau, Jacob has taken both things.
Then he said, ‘Have you not reserved a blessing for me?’ 37Isaac answered Esau, ‘I have already made him your lord, and I have given him all his brothers as servants, and with grain and wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son?’ 38Esau said to his father, ‘Have you only one blessing, father? Bless me, me also, father!’ And Esau lifted up his voice and wept. 39 Then his father Isaac answered him:What does that suggest to you? The enemies of his brother shall be his enemies, and he'll use his sword to kill them. But his own brother has made himself an enemy of Esau. Doesn't it look as if the enmity that has been sown is inevitable? Isaac can't do anything about it? And then he's put a sword in his hand. We need to think that the relationship is so ruptured that murder is a real possibility. People, when they tear up families, they tear them up so completely that the only way to put them back together is by the work of God. And I think the story will confirm that.
‘See, away from the fatness of the earth shall your home be,
and away from the dew of heaven on high.
40By your sword you shall live,
and you shall serve your brother;
but when you break loose,
you shall break his yoke from your neck.’
Because what will Jacob do? He runs away because he thinks his brother's going to kill him. In fact, he stays away so long--and when he comes home, he's running away again because he's afraid someone else is going to kill him. He'll have even greater reason to think Laban will kill him. On his way back home, he's filled with trepidation, afraid that Esau will kill him.
Look at the very next verse.
41 Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, ‘The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.’ 42But the words of her elder son Esau were told to Rebekah; so she sent and called her younger son Jacob and said to him, ‘Your brother Esau is consoling himself by planning to kill you. 43Now therefore, my son, obey my voice; flee at once to my brother Laban in Haran, 44and stay with him for a while, until your brother’s fury turns away— 45until your brother’s anger against you turns away, and he forgets what you have done to him;Is that likely? Both the birthright and the blessing . . . and the blessing involved this: "Those who bless you shall be blessed; those who curse you will be cursed." Nothing's going to help Esau. If he decides to follow through with killing Jacob, he's cursed as he can be. The only thing he can do according to the blessing is to bless Jacob. That's all he can do. Because if he blesses Jacob, he'll be blessed.
The very nature of the blessing contains the seed of reconciliation.
He stole that man's blessing. But what he stole contains a blessing for the one from whom he stole it. Because all Esau has to do is to bless Jacob and he is blessed. And in order to bless Jacob, he'll have to do what? Forgive him.
Do you see a pattern? When the disciples ask Jesus, "How often must I forgive my brother?" He tells them they must do so "seventy times seventy." Over and over again, we ask, "Why Lord?" Because the Lord makes himself present to sinners to redeem and to restore, which is a blessing unto them of grace. If you bless the sinner, you yourself will be blessed. This is so difficult for us to do. But the narrative sketch for that is right here.
So Rebekah says,
. . . then I will send, and bring you back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?’Both of whom? Both sons. Jacob has to go away. And if Esau curses his brother, he'll be cursed. Plus Esau has done something: She cannot abide her daughters-in-law. Their ways are not her ways, they don't speak the way she speaks--no telling what they do. She simply can't stand these women who are married to her son. And see, the end to this chapter, as pointed out earlier, like the end to the previous chapter, belongs to Rebekah:
46 Then Rebekah said to Isaac, ‘I am weary of my life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women such as these, one of the women of the land, what good will my life be to me?’Wait a minute! Didn't he already bless him? And the way he went on, it was as if he had only one blessing to give! When Esau was distressed, all Isaac did was lament with him. But now it seems that once you've been blessed, you just keep on being blessed.Genesis 28
28Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him,
. . . and charged him, ‘You shall not marry one of the Canaanite women. 2Go at once to Paddan-aram to the house of Bethuel, your mother’s father; and take as wife from there one of the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. 3May God Almighty* bless you and make you fruitful and numerous, that you may become a company of peoples. 4May he give to you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your offspring with you, so that you may take possession of the land where you now live as an alien—land that God gave to Abraham.’ 5Thus Isaac sent Jacob away; and he went to Paddan-aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob’s and Esau’s mother.It's all still in the family. Jacob is to marry his cousin. The blessing to be received now is not just the blessing that a father gives to his son, but now he extends to him the very blessing that was made to Abraham by God himself: "May your numbers multiply."
6 Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram to take a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he charged him, ‘You shall not marry one of the Canaanite women’, 7and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and gone to Paddan-aram. 8So when Esau saw that the Canaanite women did not please his father Isaac, 9Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath daughter of Abraham’s son Ishmael, and sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife in addition to the wives he had.The Hittite women are out of the family, that is to say out of the house of Israel. But Ishmael is part of the lineage of Abraham, and in the family. Notice how the scripture works with this. He has seen what his father has done, and he has heard what his father has said. And he has drawn the proper conclusion: "So you don't like my wives? I can't have these wives?" He wants to please his father, if not his mother. So he goes on to Ishmael to get another wife.
Keep in mind that Isaac was the son of Sarah, who had given her husband, Abraham, a maidservant so that he could produce offspring with someone else, since she thought herself barren. Now, when they did conceive, and Isaac was born, Sarah asked Abraham to put the maidservant and her son out, into the wilderness. So then how could Isaac get himself upset with Jacob when he, himself, had not been firstborn but was given the birthright?! This displacement of the maidservant and her children is perhaps one of the cruelest things to be read in all of scripture. We're just as wrong as we can be! And the whole time, God is watching all of it. And still he honors his promises to us no matter what we do.
Also notice that what the scripture tells us is that these fights--between sons with a common father--the conflict between Jews and Muslims (descendents of Ishmael)--are family conflicts. It's a mess! The only way it can be fixed is if God intervenes. If each of them insists upon their own perogatives and their own blessings, then it's lossed. If they don't read the part that says, "Bless those, and you will be blessed; curese them and you will be cursed."
So now we have Isaac agreeing with his wife: Jacob will go away, and he's to go to Laban and get some wives. And at the same time, he tells Esau, "We don't like your wives." Now what about all the children Esau will have by the wives that Isaac and Rebekah don't like? Everything is generational. Blessings are received intergenerationally; curses are received intergenerationally. Not only that, but we pass along the best of ourselves and the worst of ourselves. And scripture reminds us over and over again that's what we do. "The sins of the fathers are visited upon the children unto the third generation."
Take a look at what happens next.
10 Jacob left Beer-sheba and went towards Haran. 11He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. 12And he dreamed that there was a ladder* set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13And the Lord* and said, ‘I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; 14and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. 15Know that I am with you and will keep you . . .What have we concluded about Jacob already? He's a sinner.
stood beside him
. . . wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.’ 16Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!’ 17And he was afraid, and said, ‘How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.’18 So Jacob rose early in the morning, and he took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. 19He called that place Bethel; but the name of the city was Luz at the first. 20Then Jacob made a vow, saying, ‘If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, 21so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, 22and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house; and of all that you give me I will surely give one-tenth to you.’
This tenth that Jacob vows to give becomes a kind of staple in the expression of response of our faith to the promise of God. God has made a solemn promise, and in response, Jacob has made an expression of his faith: "I'll give you one-tenth of everything."
The problem here is this: How did Jacob choose a tenth? Why not a fifteenth? Why not a twentieth? Or a fifth? Or any other number?Jacob is running away, in the middle of his sin, when God promises never to leave him, to restore him, to bring him back home. Does that mean there are no consequences? No. Have we even heard Jacob say, "Thank you," or "Forgive me"? No, he's still in the midst of his sin. The career of sin is not over: "As often as I can get for me at someone else's expense, that's exactly what I'm going to do." This guy is a classic example of "looking out for number one." And the thing that's so striking is that God won't leave him.
So that's what's perplexing: When he gets this amazing promise for God, he responds with what? "I'm going to give you a tenth." And a tenth of what? Only what God gives to him. What kind of deal is that? In fact, that tenth sure isn't going to hurt Jacob. It's more like a token. Here's what Christine calls it: a tip. People are "tipping God." And people think they're doing something. Which suggests something to us: If you think this is cheesy of Jacob, then when you read it, you're not supposed to be saying to yourself, "That Jacob's a miserable fellow." You're supposed to be looking at who? Yourself. If you think that he's pitiful . . . what about you, if you don't give a care? And if God has made the promise to Jacob, what makes you think he hasn't made the promise to you? After all, the promise includes you, anyway, because he says, "All people's will be blessed through you." Everybody. And surely that includes us.
It's a miraculous vision! It's an angelic, heavenly visitation in the middle of the night! And he pours the oil on the rock and names it . . . it's wonderful! People can go a whole lifetime without having a vision like this. This is a grand vision. And yet, at the end of the transaction with God, he's giving him what? A tenth! Here's a stingy brother!
But, now. Didn't you know someone in school who was a bully? And you just could not wait for what to happen? You couldn't wait for the comeuppance. Because if you couldn't do something about the bully, you knew there had to be somebody somewhere who could.
When Rev. Scott was a boy, there was a fellow named John Taylor. He had a handsome, almost sweet face. So his face didn't say he was tough. He was tall and rangy and athletically gifted. As boys, they used to watch him play flag football on this hard field (no grass with stones everywhere). This other fellow who had grown up and left the neighborhood, joined the service and come back--he had a reputation. And he was a loudmouth. And they were playing on opposite teams once, and John kept getting the better of this guy, with this sweet-looking face. And this guy, who had a rough-looking face and a mouth that was even worse--"you don't want to mess with me." Now, the boys knew that John was kind of rough, too, because at school he had punched a teacher who'd grabbed him in tenth grade.
Anyway, this fellow kept mouthing off and saying if John touched him again, he was going to do this and that. John didn't say a word except, "Come on, man, let's play." Finally on one play, he had his excuse--this guy had been looking for a fight the whole game--and all the little boys watching just knew something was going to happen. The game stopped. He ran up to John and was all up in his face, shouting. John just stood there, looking at the guy. Never said a word. And this guy said something, and it was about the last thing he should have said to John, and before anyone knew it, he clocked this guy straight in the face, and the guy collapsed like a bag of leaves. Just laid out. Once punch. And everyone was shocked! And still John hadn't said a word. But the foul-mouthed bully had been silenced with one punch.
After all these years, Rev. Scott admitted, he had the deepest sense of satisfaction. "Bet you won't say that to someone else!" None of us was bad enough to shut him up, but when John laid him out . . . ooooooooh. Of course, John's reputation just shot through the roof, so much so that people from other neighborhoods would come into John's just to see if they could take him. And no one ever did.
There's something in us that makes us desire to see someone get theirs. And boy, Jacob is crusing for a bruising! Is he going to meet his match? Can he be deceived? Sure! Will he be mad? Sure! What's funny is, if anybody has less right than to be mad at being deceived it's Jacob. This guy deserves what he gets.
Yet what outstrips all of it is the promise of God to stay with him. Even when he gets his just desserts, is that the dessert he gets from God? The blessing trumps everything. A blessing is what Esau deserves by rights. Yet it's delivered to the undeserving: Jacob. It isn't grace if people deserve it. Got it? There's no grace if people deserve it. Grace by its very definition is given to those who do not deserve it, in spite of what it may appear they deserve.
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