{"id":16153,"date":"2021-06-10T22:00:12","date_gmt":"2021-06-11T05:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/genesis_27_1-14-copy\/"},"modified":"2021-06-06T16:57:15","modified_gmt":"2021-06-06T23:57:15","slug":"genesis_27_15-29","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/genesis_27_15-29\/","title":{"rendered":"Receive the Father\u2019s Highest Blessing"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"flex_column av_one_full  flex_column_div av-zero-column-padding first  avia-builder-el-0  avia-builder-el-no-sibling  \" style='border-radius:0px; '><section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/BlogPosting\" itemprop=\"blogPost\" ><div class='avia_textblock  '   itemprop=\"text\" ><p>Genesis 27:15-29 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Genesis+27%3A15-29&amp;version=NIV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-16155 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/21-0611.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/21-0611.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/21-0611-300x150.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s passage is Genesis 27:15-29.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Genesis 27:15-29 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong><br \/>\n<em><sup>15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then Rebekah took the best clothes of Esau her older son, which she had in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob.<br \/>\n<sup>16\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0She also covered his hands and the smooth part of his neck with the goatskins.<br \/>\n<sup>17\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then she handed to her son Jacob the tasty food and the bread she had made.<br \/>\n<sup>18\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He went to his father and said, &#8220;My father.&#8221; &#8220;Yes, my son,&#8221; he answered. &#8220;Who is it?&#8221;<br \/>\n<sup>19\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Jacob said to his father, &#8220;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.&#8221;<br \/>\n<sup>20\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Isaac asked his son, &#8220;How did you find it so quickly, my son?&#8221; &#8220;The\u00a0LORD\u00a0your God gave me success,&#8221; he replied.<br \/>\n<sup>21\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then Isaac said to Jacob, &#8220;Come near so I can touch you, my son, to know whether you really are my son Esau or not.&#8221;<br \/>\n<sup>22\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Jacob went close to his father Isaac, who touched him and said, &#8220;The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.&#8221;<br \/>\n<sup>23\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He did not recognize him, for his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau; so he blessed him.<br \/>\n<sup>24\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0&#8220;Are you really my son Esau?&#8221; he asked. &#8220;I am,&#8221; he replied.<br \/>\n<sup>25\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then he said, &#8220;My son, bring me some of your game to eat, so that I may give you my blessing.&#8221; Jacob brought it to him and he ate; and he brought some wine and he drank.<br \/>\n<sup>26\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then his father Isaac said to him, &#8220;Come here, my son, and kiss me.&#8221;<br \/>\n<sup>27\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So he went to him and kissed him. When Isaac caught the smell of his clothes, he blessed him and said, &#8220;Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the\u00a0LORD\u00a0has blessed.<br \/>\n<sup>28\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0May God give you of heaven&#8217;s dew and of earth&#8217;s richness&#8211; an abundance of grain and new wine.<br \/>\n<sup>29\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0May nations serve you and peoples bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may the sons of your mother bow down to you. May those who curse you be cursed and those who bless you be blessed.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>On verses 15-29:\u00a0\u00a0Rebekah dresses Jacob in Esau\u2019s clothes (v15) and places goatskins on his hands and neck to mimic Esau\u2019s hairiness (v16).\u00a0\u00a0Carrying his father\u2019s favourite meal (v17), Jacob then approaches his father Isaac in hopes of getting the blessing that was meant for Esau (v18-19).\u00a0\u00a0Isaac is put off by two things.\u00a0\u00a0First is the fact that the meal he requested was prepared so quickly (v20).\u00a0\u00a0Second, the person approaching him sounds like Jacob but his hands feel like those of Esau (v21-22).\u00a0\u00a0After 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.\u00a0\u00a0Thinking he is blessing Esau, Isaac prays over Jacob a blessing of prosperity (v28), lordship over his brothers (v29) and protection.<\/p>\n<p>What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0When I see the way Jacob received Isaac\u2019s blessing, a blessing that was meant for Isaac\u2019s firstborn son Esau, I am reminded of the way that we received our Heavenly Father\u2019s blessing, a blessing that was meant for His Son Jesus.\u00a0\u00a0For example:<\/p>\n<p>Just as God allowed a deceitful sinner like Jacob to get the blessing even though he did not deserve it, so God allows deceitful sinners like us to get the blessing even though we don\u2019t deserve it.<\/p>\n<p>Just as Rebekah covered Jacob in the best clothes of Esau so that Jacob could receive his father\u2019s best blessing, God covered us in the best clothes of our \u201colder brother\u201d Jesus Christ, the robes of His righteousness, so that we could receive the\u00a0Father\u2019s best blessing.<\/p>\n<p>Just as Isaac could only smell Esau when Jacob approached him, God doesn\u2019t smell the stench of our sin but instead He smells the aroma of Christ on our lives when we receive Christ into our lives.<\/p>\n<p>Just as Jacob, clothed in his brother\u2019s clothing, could approach his father and give him a kiss, so we, clothed in Christ\u2019s righteousness, can approach our Heavenly Father and enjoy a close and intimate relationship with Him.\u00a0\u00a0(By the way, I find it interesting that Isaac\u2019s favourite meal from his son was a meal of \u201cgame\u201d (v19); it\u2019s a reminder that whenever I have my GAME time (my God And Me Experience time) with God each day and draw close to God with a sincere and humble heart, I\u2019m offering to God a meal that He enjoys.)<\/p>\n<p>Just as Isaac blessed Jacob as if he were Esau, so our Heavenly Father blessed us as if we were Jesus.<\/p>\n<p>Just as Isaac\u2019s firstborn Esau suffered in order for Jacob to be blessed instead, so Jesus Christ, who is called the firstborn over all creation (Colossians 1:15), suffered so that we could be blessed instead.<\/p>\n<p>Just as Isaac\u2019s blessing on Jacob was full and without limit, so God\u2019s blessing on our lives is full and without limit.\u00a0\u00a0Praise God!\u00a0\u00a0Whether you are an older child, a middle child, a younger child, or an only child in your family, because of Jesus Christ we all get\u00a0the Father\u2019s fullest blessing.<\/p>\n<p>As Ephesians 1:3 says, \u201cPraise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite all the similarities between the way Jacob received his father\u2019s blessing and the way we received our Heavenly Father\u2019s blessing, there is at least one major difference:\u00a0\u00a0whereas Isaac honestly thought he was blessing Esau and not Jacob, our Heavenly Father knew all along that He was blessing us in place of His Son Jesus.\u00a0\u00a0We did not pull off a rouse on God.\u00a0\u00a0Rather, God poured out His grace on us.<\/p>\n<p>How do you receive the Father\u2019s fullest blessing?\u00a0\u00a0You receive it by faith, by believing that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins and that He rose again from the grave and is alive today.\u00a0\u00a0By faith, the Father\u2019s highest blessing is yours.<\/p>\n<p><em>Heavenly Father, thank You for giving me heaven\u2019s highest blessing, not because I earned it or deserved it, but because You placed Your Son Jesus\u2019 robes of righteousness on me, You covered me in His blood, and You sprinkled His scent on me, so that I can approach You and be blessed by You.\u00a0\u00a0I receive Your blessing today and I thank You.\u00a0\u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s passage is Genesis 27:15-29.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n<p>Genesis 27:15-29 (NIV)<br \/>\n15\u00a0\u00a0Then Rebekah took the best clothes of Esau her older son, which she had in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob.<br \/>\n16\u00a0\u00a0She also covered his hands and the smooth part of his neck with the goatskins.<br \/>\n17\u00a0\u00a0Then she handed to her son Jacob the tasty food and the bread she had made.<br \/>\n18\u00a0\u00a0He went to his father and said, &#8220;My father.&#8221; &#8220;Yes, my son,&#8221; he answered. &#8220;Who is it?&#8221;<br \/>\n19\u00a0\u00a0Jacob said to his father, &#8220;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.&#8221;&#8230;&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>On verses 15-29:\u00a0\u00a0Rebekah dresses Jacob in Esau\u2019s clothes (v15) and places goatskins on his hands and neck to mimic Esau\u2019s hairiness (v16).\u00a0\u00a0Carrying his father\u2019s favourite meal (v17), Jacob then approaches his father Isaac in hopes of getting the blessing that was meant for Esau (v18-19).\u00a0\u00a0Isaac is put off by two things.\u00a0\u00a0First is the fact that the meal he requested was prepared so quickly (v20).\u00a0\u00a0Second, the person approaching him sounds like Jacob but his hands feel like those of Esau (v21-22).\u00a0\u00a0After 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.\u00a0\u00a0Thinking he is blessing Esau, Isaac prays over Jacob a blessing of prosperity (v28), lordship over his brothers (v29) and protection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16155,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16153"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16154,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16153\/revisions\/16154"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}