Disobey Your Mother

The deed was done, but it did not stay undiscovered for long. Esau returned because he was a good hunter and prepared the food and walked in for the meal with his father and for the blessing. Immediately, the two men discover they have been deceived. How did it go?

We have two specific phrases which tell us how it went.

Verse 33 tells us, “Isaac trembled very violently.” The picture we get from this word is a mountain torn in two by an earthquake. Apply that to a person and I can imagine Isaac’s cries of anger and shame and sadness could be heard for miles.

The other phrase that tells us how it went occurs in verse 34 describing Esau: “he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry.” Esau is enraged with bitterness and mirrors his father’s reaction. I have to tell you, I would not have wanted to be there. A father and son are torn apart in a moment. They were torn apart on purpose by a wife and mother and by a son and brother.

Isaac doubles down in these verses that his prayerful blessing on Jacob is binding, but Esau asks for a blessing. In the midst of his tears, he asks his father to bless him as well. Isaac blesses Esau and it is a binding prayer blessing that is harsh, but also hopeful:

Esau is blessed with a hard life without many easy material things (verse 39).

Esau is blessed with success by the sword (verse 40).

Esau is blessed with eventual freedom from his brother (verse 40).

TRANSITION: The narrative continues.

NARRATIVE: THE RESULTS OF THE DEED (VERSES 41-45)

READ GENESIS 27:41-45 (ESV)

Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.” 42 But the words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah. So she sent and called Jacob her younger son and said to him, “Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by planning to kill you. 43 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise, flee to Laban my brother in Haran 44 and stay with him a while, until your brother's fury turns away— 45 until your brother's anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send and bring you from there. Why should I be bereft of you both in one day?”

The end results of the lying and cheating and deception go about how you think. Esau is livid. We are told in the last part of chapter 27 that Esau is so angry that he has plans to kill his brother. This is not a crime of thoughtless anger, but rather Esau decides that as soon as his father dies that he will kill Jacob.

The end result of the favoritism of parents, the deception of a wife and mother, the obedience of a son to sin, and the complete dysfunction of a family is that one son wants to kill another. We have seen this before with Adam and Eve. It was a little bit different situation, but envy and a broken relationship led to one son killing another. We are heading down that same path here.

Rebekah hears what Esau plans to do and again comes to Jacob and for the second time in this passage she invokes her authority as a mother and tells her son to run away. She wants him to run away to her family which, as a side note, are where she learned to be sneaky and a liar. Rebekah tells Jacob to run away from the anger and the problems and the issues they created at home.