A Grief of Mind

Genesis 27 is a difficult story to understand. We certainly wish we had JST references for this chapter, but there are none. The current text describes how Jacob obtained the birthright blessing from Jacob by pretending to be Esau through the help of his mother Rebekah who orchestrated the deception. The student manual says this, “The story of how Jacob obtained the birthright blessing from Isaac with the help of his mother is a troubling one in many respects…. Can a person deceive a patriarch and get a blessing that belongs to someone else? Was Jacob a deceitful and crafty man? Was Isaac blindly favorable to certain children? Can one be dishonest and still get a valid patriarchal blessing?” It points out four things that might help in understanding what happened. First, the record may be incomplete or inaccurate and we might not have the right details to really understand what happened. Second, Rebekah knew by revelation that Jacob was supposed to be the son of the covenant as described in Genesis 25:22-23. Third, the early patriarchs were not perfect and Isaac may have been shortsighted in favoring Esau and “Rebekah may have had insufficient faith in the Lord to let Him work His will.” Lastly, and perhaps most importantly,  Isaac in the end did not revoke the blessing that he unknowingly gave to Jacob when he found out what had happened: “Once Isaac learned of the deception, he could have revoked the blessing and given it to Esau. Instead, he told Esau, ‘Yea, and he shall be blessed’ (Genesis 27:33). Later, when Jacob was preparing to leave for Padan-aram to escape Esau’s wrath, Isaac clearly gave him the blessing of Abraham (see Genesis 28:3–4), an additional proof that Jacob received the blessing meant for him and that Isaac confirmed it upon him.” It may be that the experience, as deceitful as it appears, helped Isaac to see that it was indeed Jacob who was supposed to receive the promised blessings.

               I think it is also important to see the context in which the story was placed. This is the text immediately preceding the story: “And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite: Which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah” (Genesis 26:34-35). He married unbelievers outside the covenant which devasted his parents. And then this is the verse immediately following the story: “And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth: if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these which are of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me?” (Genesis 27:46) After everything that happened in Genesis 27, Rebekah was still focused on the marriage of Esau to Canaanite women who did not worship Jehovah. That was clearly the reason for what she did to deceive Jacob. And so, I believe that the author of the story wanted us to see what happened in the context of Esau marrying outside the covenant. As I consider it, I have to wonder if this event which was a “grief of mind” to both Isaac and Rebekah did not cause friction between the two, at least temporarily. To Rebekah it was almost enough for her to want to lose her own life, and it was surely the final evidence for her that Esau could not receive the promised blessings of the firstborn. But Isaac may not have seen it the same way and may have told Rebekah how he still planned to give the birthright blessing to Esau even though he too was saddened by what Esau had done. And so in her despair, this led Rebekah to carry on the deceit to try to make sure Jacob received the blessings. Once Isaac found out what had happened, rather than get angry with Rebekah he may have finally realized that she was right and the blessings did need to go to Jacob. If nothing else, the story shows how the bad choices of children can negatively impact their parents and cause a rift between them. This story highlights that it is important for those parents to stay united, which Isaac and Rebekah eventually became as they focused together on helping Jacob to marry in the covenant as they sent him off to Rebekah’s family.