Devotion:
For an audio version of this devotion, click here.
Read Genesis 27:15-24.
Today, we read the story of Jacob stealing the blessing that his father Isaac wanted to give to his brother Esau. To understand what is happening, we need to step back in time a few years. Esau was the firstborn of Isaac and Rebecca. Jacob was Esau’s fraternal twin. As parents will sometimes have favorites, we find that Isaac preferred Esau and Rebecca preferred Jacob. In an earlier story, we find that Esau had given up his birthright to Jacob in exchange for a tasty stew (Esau must have really been famished). The birthright was important because it gave preference to the firstborn son in matters of wealth and inheritance.
In today’s text, the elderly, blind, Isaac tells Esau that he will bless him if he goes hunting and prepares a meal of wild game for him. Esau leaves to do his father’s bidding, while Rebecca urges Jacob to deceive his father so that he may receive his father’s blessing instead. You read in today’s text how the deception was enacted. The bottom line is that Jacob receives Isaac’s blessing and Esau does not. Through this deception, Isaac eventually became the father of the Twelve Tribes of Israel through his wives and concubines. But he also suffers through deceptions perpetrated upon him throughout his own life.
While we don’t condone the methods that Jacob used to cheat his brother Esau of what was rightfully his, we see that God used Jacob to fulfill God’s purpose for his chosen people.
Personal Worship Option:
Meditate on how God continues to use persons who we might not consider worthy of blessing to do God’s work today.
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