Isaac is old and blind, and he means to give the covenant blessing to Esau — the son God had already passed over, the son who sold his birthright and married Hittite women. Rebekah moves to stop him with a disguise: goatskins, a borrowed coat, a plate of goat dressed as venison. The blessing lands on the right son by the wrong means, and it cannot be called back. Everyone in the tent loses something that day.
A study in Genesis 27 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 9 min read
That My Soul May Bless Thee Before I Die
“And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son… And make me savoury meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat; that my soul may bless thee before I die.”
Genesis 27:1-4
Isaac is determined to bless Esau, and he has been told plainly not to. Back in Genesis 25 the LORD said “the elder shall serve the younger,” and Esau has since sold his birthright over a bowl of stew and married two Hittite women who were “a grief of mind” to both parents. Isaac knows all of this. He calls for Esau anyway, in private, and asks for a last meal first — a small ceremony to mark a decision he has no business making.
Upon Me Be Thy Curse
Rebekah overhears, and she is right about the stakes — the blessing is about to go to the wrong son. But her response is to lie her way to the correct outcome. She sends Jacob for two goat kids and starts cooking.
“Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man: My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing. And his mother said unto him, Upon me be thy curse, my son: only obey my voice.”
Genesis 27:11-13
Jacob’s objection is not that the plan is wrong. It is that he might get caught — “I shall seem to him as a deceiver,” which is precisely what he would be. Rebekah does not argue the ethics. She simply takes any curse onto herself and repeats the order.
“Jacob did not readily consent to the plan that she proposed. The thought of deceiving his father caused him great distress. He felt that such a sin would bring a curse rather than a blessing. But his scruples were overborne, and he proceeded to carry out his mother’s suggestions.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 180
The Skins Of The Kids
“And Rebekah took goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them upon Jacob her younger son: And she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck.”
Genesis 27:15-16
The deception is assembled with care: the older brother’s best clothes, the smell of the outdoors on them, goatskin on the hands and the back of the neck for a blind man to feel. This is not a lie told in a panicked moment. It is dressed, rehearsed, and carried in on a plate.
The Voice Is Jacob’s Voice
“And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau thy firstborn; I have done according as thou badest me: arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me.”
Genesis 27:19
Three lies in one breath: I am Esau, thy firstborn, I have done as you asked. And when Isaac wonders how the hunt went so fast, Jacob reaches for the worst possible cover — “Because the LORD thy God brought it to me.” The name of God is pressed into the service of the fraud.
“The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau. And he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy, as his brother Esau’s hands: so he blessed him.”
Genesis 27:22-23
Isaac hears the truth — the voice is Jacob’s — and lets the touch of goatskin talk him out of it. He wanted Esau, and the evidence he preferred was the evidence he could feel.
“It was not his intention to utter a direct falsehood, but once in the presence of his father he seemed to have gone too far to retreat, and he obtained by fraud the coveted blessing.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 180
The Smell Of A Field
“See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the LORD hath blessed: Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine: Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethren.”
Genesis 27:27-29
This is the covenant blessing — the land’s plenty, dominion over the brothers, the curse-and-bless clause first spoken to Abraham in Genesis 12. It is real, and it is binding, and it is being pronounced over a disguised man by a father who thinks he is someone else. The words are right. The whole scene around them is a fraud.
Hast Thou But One Blessing?
“And Isaac trembled very exceedingly, and said, Who? where is he that hath taken venison, and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed him? yea, and he shall be blessed.”
Genesis 27:33
“Yea, and he shall be blessed” is the hinge of the chapter. Isaac has every reason to rage — he has been tricked in his own tent — and instead he confirms it. Something in that trembling tells him he had been fighting God’s stated will, and that the deception, for all its sin, had landed the blessing where it was always meant to go.
“Trembling with astonishment and distress, the blind old father learned the deception that had been practiced upon him… Yet the conviction flashed upon him that it was God’s providence which had defeated his purpose and brought about the very thing he had determined to prevent.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 181
“Is not he rightly named Jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright; and, behold, now he hath taken away my blessing… Hast thou but one blessing, my father? bless me, even me also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice, and wept.”
Genesis 27:36-38
The name Jacob means he grasps the heel, or he supplants — and Esau finally hears it as the accusation it always was. His grief is loud and real. But the New Testament is careful about what it was grief for: Esau “found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears” (Hebrews 12:17). He wept for the lost inheritance, not for the appetite that had made him sell it in the first place.
The Days Of Mourning For My Father
“And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him: and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then will I slay my brother Jacob.”
Genesis 27:41
Rebekah hears of the threat and sends Jacob away to her brother Laban — “tarry with him a few days, until thy brother’s fury turn away.” The few days will become twenty years. Her own words give away what she fears: “why should I be deprived also of you both in one day?” — Jacob murdered, Esau executed for it.
“Rebekah bitterly repented the wrong counsel she had given her son; it was the means of separating him from her, and she never saw his face again.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 180
What The Blessing Cost
The blessing was already Jacob’s. God had said so before he was born, and God did not need a plate of disguised goat meat to keep His word. Rebekah and Jacob decided the promise needed their help, and the help is what did the damage.
“God had declared that Jacob should receive the birthright, and His word would have been fulfilled in His own time had they waited in faith for Him to work for them. But like many who now profess to be children of God, they were unwilling to leave the matter in His hands.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 180
Count the cost of one afternoon: a father deceived on his deathbed, a brother turned murderous, a mother who would die without seeing her favourite son again, and Jacob himself sent into exile with the blessing in his hands and nothing else — no wife, no wealth, no home to go back to. He leaves for Haran on foot, alone. The next night he sleeps in the open with a stone for a pillow, and God meets him there anyway.
