Archive for month: June, 2021

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Genesis 28:1-22.  Let’s go!

Genesis 28:1-10 (NIV)
1  So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him and commanded him: “Do not marry a Canaanite woman.
2  Go at once to Paddan Aram, to the house of your mother’s father Bethuel. Take a wife for yourself there, from among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother.
3  May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples.
4  May he give you and your descendants the blessing given to Abraham, so that you may take possession of the land where you now live as an alien, the land God gave to Abraham.”……

On verses 1-10:  Pursuant to his father Isaac’s advice, Jacob heads to Paddan Aram for his uncle Laban’s house with the prospect of possibility finding a wife among Laban’s daughters.  Meanwhile, contrary to his father Isaac’s wishes, Esau intentionally marries a Canaanite woman to spite his parents.  Here we see the two brothers, Jacob and Esau, going in very different directions both geographically as well as in marriage.

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Genesis 27:30-46.  Let’s go! 

Genesis 27:30-33 (NIV)
30  After Isaac finished blessing him and Jacob had scarcely left his father’s presence, his brother Esau came in from hunting.
31  He too prepared some tasty food and brought it to his father. Then he said to him, “My father, sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your blessing.”
32  His father Isaac asked him, “Who are you?” “I am your son,” he answered, “your firstborn, Esau.”
33  Isaac trembled violently and said, “Who was it, then, that hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it just before you came and I blessed him–and indeed he will be blessed!”

On verses 30-33:  Esau comes in to present his meal to his father and to receive his father’s blessing, but he is seconds too late, as Jacob has just finished impersonating him and has taken his father’s blessing in his place.  Why couldn’t Isaac just revoke his previous blessing on Jacob and bless Esau instead?  It’s because the kind of blessing at issue was, in Isaac’s culture, not just any blessing, but a special, irrevocable, once in a lifetime blessing from a father to a favoured son that could not be reversed, whether Isaac and Esau liked it or not.

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Genesis 27:15-29.  Let’s go!

Genesis 27:15-29 (NIV)
15  Then Rebekah took the best clothes of Esau her older son, which she had in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob.
16  She also covered his hands and the smooth part of his neck with the goatskins.
17  Then she handed to her son Jacob the tasty food and the bread she had made.
18  He went to his father and said, “My father.” “Yes, my son,” he answered. “Who is it?”
19  Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game so that you may give me your blessing.”……

On verses 15-29:  Rebekah dresses Jacob in Esau’s clothes (v15) and places goatskins on his hands and neck to mimic Esau’s hairiness (v16).  Carrying his father’s favourite meal (v17), Jacob then approaches his father Isaac in hopes of getting the blessing that was meant for Esau (v18-19).  Isaac is put off by two things.  First is the fact that the meal he requested was prepared so quickly (v20).  Second, the person approaching him sounds like Jacob but his hands feel like those of Esau (v21-22).  After being reassured by Jacob that the son before him is indeed Esau, Isaac eats the meal presented to him, asks the son before him to give him a kiss, and then blesses him.  Thinking he is blessing Esau, Isaac prays over Jacob a blessing of prosperity (v28), lordship over his brothers (v29) and protection.

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Genesis 27:1-14.  Let’s go!

Genesis 27:1-14 (NIV)
1  When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see, he called for Esau his older son and said to him, “My son.” “Here I am,” he answered.
2  Isaac said, “I am now an old man and don’t know the day of my death.
3  Now then, get your weapons–your quiver and bow–and go out to the open country to hunt some wild game for me.
4  Prepare me the kind of tasty food I like and bring it to me to eat, so that I may give you my blessing before I die.”……

On verses 1-14:  Isaac, up in years and eager to give his blessing to his firstborn son Esau before he dies, tells Esau to prepare his favourite meal so that he can give Esau his blessing.  Rebekah overhears Isaac’s plan, thinks about the fact that the older twin Esau was always meant to serve the younger twin Jacob.  So Rebekah decides to take matters into her own hands.  Instead of trying to reason with her husband Isaac as to why their firstborn Esau should not get the blessing, Rebekah chooses a dishonest, deceitful shortcut approach to trying to secure the blessing for her younger son Jacob. She thought, “I’ll just go behind Isaac’s back and trick Isaac into giving Jacob the blessing instead of Esau.” While it is true that in the short-term Rebekah would get what she wanted, her plan also led to several painful long-term consequences that Rebecca never intended:

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Genesis 26:23-35.  Let’s go!

Genesis 26:23-25 (NIV)
23  From there he went up to Beersheba.
24  That night the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bless you and will increase the number of your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham.”
25  Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the LORD. There he pitched his tent, and there his servants dug a well.

On verses 23-25:  One thing Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, three generations of men, had in common was that after hearing God speak, each of them would build an altar to God and call on His name.  It’s a reminder to me that:

1. God wants to personally speak to people in every generation.  You were made not simply to hear about God from the generation before you.  You were made to personally hear from God yourself and to worship Him. 

2. Just as Isaac pitched his tent and dug a well in the same place where he worshiped God and heard from God, so may you choose to live near God’s presence every day, make worship your priority, and seek to add more blessings and prosperity to the place where you worship and hear from God.