And he said, Behold now, I am old, I know not the day of my death:
Isaac is over a hundred years old, infirm with age, with dim and blind sight, declaring he does not know the day of his death and believing his death is near. Feeling urgency from that uncertainty, he decides to bestow the firstborn's blessing at once without delay upon his elder son Esau. He calls Esau privately and asks him to prepare venison and food for him first, in keeping with the custom of making a feast on such an occasion.
In so deciding he favors his favorite son Esau and goes contrary to God's known purpose that the elder should serve the younger, intending to give the final and irrevocable benediction to his firstborn. That secret plan to bless Esau creates the urgency and occasion for Rebekah and Jacob to act on the promise about the elder serving the younger by using stratagem and deceiving Isaac to obtain for Jacob what God had promised. The blessing is associated with the firstborn, but its benefits ultimately depend on God, who can grant prosperity or adversity according to conduct, so that Jacob would be blessed if he loved and feared God even without the privileges usually given to the firstborn.
The deception by which Jacob obtains the blessing and birthright intended for Esau is sin and wrong — marked by partiality, hypocrisy, and deceptive reasoning to gain advantage — done despite knowing God's promise and showing lack of faith that God could fulfill His purpose. God did not prompt it, and Rebekah and Jacob should have trusted God to fulfill His purposes in His own way and time, since He was fully able to provide for Jacob without fraud and will not work with such devising and rivalry. That wrong brought distress, gave Satan a claim to destroy Jacob, required repentance, and forced Jacob to flee for his life from Esau's anger and threat.
Jacob did repent of the fraud beforehand and learned that God is merciful, and when wrestling in distress he pointed back to that repentance and cast himself on mercy and pleaded for deliverance, so God heard his later prayer and mercifully saved and preserved his life from Esau. Without that prior repentance God could not and would not have heard him, so repentance and the blotting out of sin by the atoning blood of Christ, leaving no concealed wrongs, must come beforehand in order to have confidence to plead with God for deliverance when faith, perseverance, and confidence are tested. The same spirit of deception and rivalry must be put away, with commandment-keeping people cleansing mind and heart from conniving at evil, underhand dealing, and desire to gain advantage over brethren in any business deal, since such unholy work hurts and finally ruins the soul. It is the same kind of wrong practiced when men handle others as machinery, bind their freedom, and grasp all they can irrespective of agreements and of the wrong to those disappointed.
Isaac is over a hundred years old, infirm with age, with dim and blind sight, declaring he does not know the day of his death and believing his death is near. Feeling urgency from that uncertainty, he decides to bestow the firstborn's blessing at once without delay upon his elder son Esau. He calls Esau privately and asks him to prepare venison and food for him first, in keeping with the custom of making a feast on such an occasion.
In so deciding he favors his favorite son Esau and goes contrary to God's known purpose that the elder should serve the younger, intending to give the final and irrevocable benediction to his firstborn. That secret plan to bless Esau creates the urgency and occasion for Rebekah and Jacob to act on the promise about the elder serving the younger by using stratagem and deceiving Isaac to obtain for Jacob what God had promised. The blessing is associated with the firstborn, but its benefits ultimately depend on God, who can grant prosperity or adversity according to conduct, so that Jacob would be blessed if he loved and feared God even without the privileges usually given to the firstborn.
The deception by which Jacob obtains the blessing and birthright intended for Esau is sin and wrong — marked by partiality, hypocrisy, and deceptive reasoning to gain advantage — done despite knowing God's promise and showing lack of faith that God could fulfill His purpose. God did not prompt it, and Rebekah and Jacob should have trusted God to fulfill His purposes in His own way and time, since He was fully able to provide for Jacob without fraud and will not work with such devising and rivalry. That wrong brought distress, gave Satan a claim to destroy Jacob, required repentance, and forced Jacob to flee for his life from Esau's anger and threat.
Jacob did repent of the fraud beforehand and learned that God is merciful, and when wrestling in distress he pointed back to that repentance and cast himself on mercy and pleaded for deliverance, so God heard his later prayer and mercifully saved and preserved his life from Esau. Without that prior repentance God could not and would not have heard him, so repentance and the blotting out of sin by the atoning blood of Christ, leaving no concealed wrongs, must come beforehand in order to have confidence to plead with God for deliverance when faith, perseverance, and confidence are tested. The same spirit of deception and rivalry must be put away, with commandment-keeping people cleansing mind and heart from conniving at evil, underhand dealing, and desire to gain advantage over brethren in any business deal, since such unholy work hurts and finally ruins the soul. It is the same kind of wrong practiced when men handle others as machinery, bind their freedom, and grasp all they can irrespective of agreements and of the wrong to those disappointed.