Genesis 27:29, commentary and pictures

Isaac's blessing promised wide dominion and divine favor, that peoples and nations would serve and bow down, that the receiver would rule over his brothers, and that blessing or cursing him would return upon the speaker. It was meant by Isaac for his firstborn Esau, yet by God's declared purpose it already rightly belonged to Jacob as heir of the promise. Jacob seized it by deceiving his father about his identity, an act of unbelief that forced God's promise by human scheming instead of trusting God to fulfill it in His own time and way. The stolen blessing did not secure God's favor or remove the guilt, for prosperity turned on the receiver's course toward God, and the fraud brought hatred, exile, retribution in kind, and anguish of conscience. Only through sincere repentance was Jacob pardoned and heard in his distress, and God will never advance His plans by such fraud, rivalry, or lordship over brethren.

Blessing's Words and Setting

The blessing pronounced servitude and homage from peoples and nations, lordship over brethren with the mother's sons bowing down, and reciprocal favor and disfavor in which everyone blessing the recipient would be blessed and everyone cursing him would be cursed. It embodied the foretold reversal in which the elder would serve the younger. Spoken as Isaac's blessing, it conferred dominion over peoples and brothers together with that promise of blessing and cursing in return.

It was meant by Isaac for his firstborn Esau, and Isaac's preference moved him to attempt to bestow it on Esau even though he knew God's purpose that Jacob should carry the promise through which the Redeemer would come. By God's promise the blessing and birthright already belonged by right to Jacob, as Isaac afterward recognized. The blessing was thus intended for Esau yet rightfully Jacob's, holding out prosperity and rule over brothers without by itself guaranteeing God's favor or prosperity.

Jacob, joined by Rebekah, obtained it by deceiving Isaac concerning his identity, acting as supplanter and deceiver through fraud. He did so although he knew God had promised him the blessing, and his resort to his own efforts to bring about what God would have accomplished showed lack of faith and trust in God's power to fulfill His purposes. God had not prompted the deception, but was fully able to provide for Jacob by His own methods in His own time and way. Its fulfillment should have been left to God rather than forced by fraud and human effort, for he would have received it as his right had he trusted God instead of using deception.

Sin, Consequence, and Pardon

Possession of the spoken blessing did not by itself secure divine favor or prosperity, for prosperity comes from God and turns on the recipient's course. One who loves and reveres God is accepted and blessed, while one who rejects God and His commandments is rejected, so Jacob could receive God's blessing through righteousness even without the privileges ordinarily given to the firstborn. Getting the blessing by fraud was a wrong that required repentance, and obtaining it did not erase the wrong done.

That deceptive means brought grief and lasting consequences rather than good. It reaped Esau's hatred and deadly threats and forced flight for life from home. It led to twenty years of exile as a fugitive in Padan-aram, where Jacob himself was wronged and defrauded and at last was forced to find safety in flight, and to a second harvest when the evils of his own character cropped out in his sons. When in obedience to divine direction he retraced the road to his native land, the memory of that sin was ever before him with an accusing conscience, bringing misgivings and sadness at the sight of his homeland even amid remembrance of divine favor and promises of help and guidance, and facing Esau's approach he recognized that his own sin had brought him into danger.

The sin was clearly set before him in his night of wrestling, where guilt was forced upon him and he was reminded of his supplanting fraud committed because he did not trust God to bring about in His own time and way what He had promised. That fraud gave ground to accuse him before the angels of God and to claim the right to destroy him. He had previously repented of that sin, and in distress he cast himself on God's mercy, pointed back to his repentance, and pleaded for deliverance from Esau. He was then pardoned, so that doubt, perplexity and remorse were replaced by the peace of reconciliation with God.

Because he had repented beforehand, God heard his later prayer for preservation of life and mercifully saved and preserved him in distress. His sins had gone beforehand to judgment and been blotted out, so they could not be brought to remembrance to overwhelm his faith. Without that prior repentance, fear and anguish over unconfessed sin would have cut off faith and confidence to plead with God for deliverance, and God could not have heard him.

Principles for Human Conduct

The blessing and birthright already belonged to Jacob by God's promise, yet he resorted to fraud to gain them. That fraud reaped its own harvest in his brother's hatred, in twenty years of exile in which he himself was wronged and defrauded and at last forced to find safety in flight, and in a second harvest when the evils of his own character cropped out in his sons. What a person does is the result of what he is, and every deed reacts upon the doer. Hope remains because God will not contend forever but will heal and restore.

The blessing spoken over Jacob declared that peoples and nations and his brethren would serve and bow to him, yet Jacob with Rebekah obtained it by deceiving Isaac about his identity. God did not prompt that deception, for He was fully able to provide for Jacob by His own methods in His own time and way. He will not work with any devising or planning after that example, and He will not connive at selfishness, rivalry, covetousness, unfair methods, pretense, fraud, and underhand dealing to gain advantage over brethren in order to carry out His plans. Those who follow that example for supposed gain gain only as Adam and Eve gained, and such unholy work will hurt and finally ruin every soul who engages in it.

The same deception of gaining by fraud a place to be lord over brethren, with people serving and nations bowing, is repeated when men in high trust use deceptive reasoning to bind the freedom of fellow men. They handle them as machinery to be harnessed and driven, and rule as lords over God's heritage in order to be lord over their brethren. God does not tolerate this perversion of right principles by selfishness and covetousness. He will in no case justify turning man from his rights or grasping all that can be gotten irrespective of agreements and the wrong done to those disappointed and wronged. He will call such rulers to account, because man by creation and by redemption belongs to God.