{"id":16157,"date":"2021-06-11T22:00:50","date_gmt":"2021-06-12T05:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/genesis_27_15-29-copy\/"},"modified":"2021-06-06T17:05:01","modified_gmt":"2021-06-07T00:05:01","slug":"genesis_27_30-46","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/genesis_27_30-46\/","title":{"rendered":"The Way The Father Blesses You"},"content":{"rendered":"

Genesis 27:30-46 Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Genesis 27:30-46.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Genesis 27:30-33 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n30\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0After Isaac finished blessing him and Jacob had scarcely left his father’s presence, his brother Esau came in from hunting.
\n31\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He 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.”
\n32\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0His father Isaac asked him, “Who are you?” “I am your son,” he answered, “your firstborn, Esau.”
\n33\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Isaac 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!”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 30-33:\u00a0\u00a0Esau comes in to present his meal to his father and to receive his father\u2019s blessing, but he is seconds too late, as Jacob has just finished impersonating him and has taken his father\u2019s blessing in his place.\u00a0\u00a0Why couldn\u2019t Isaac just revoke his previous blessing on Jacob and bless Esau instead?\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s because the kind of blessing at issue was, in Isaac\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Thankfully,\u00a0the way our Heavenly Father blesses is different from the way Isaac blessed<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0For example:<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Unlike Isaac, who wasn\u2019t sure who he was blessing, God never blesses you by mistake.\u00a0\u00a0Whenever God blesses, He always does so purposefully, knowing full well whom He is blessing.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Unlike Isaac, who couldn\u2019t revoke his blessing to Jacob, when God gives a blessing to a person, with many of the blessings God gives God retains discretion either to let that person keep the blessing or to take that blessing away (Job 1:20).<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Unlike Isaac, who couldn\u2019t conjure up another blessing for Esau because he had already given it to Jacob, God\u2019s blessings \u2013 in particular the blessing that Jesus Christ \u201cthe firstborn of all creation\u201d deserved \u2013 is made available to all who are willing to trust in Him.\u00a0\u00a0God\u2019s blessings are not limited and irrevocable the way that Isaac\u2019s blessing was.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Unlike Isaac, who couldn\u2019t give Esau another chance to receive his fatherly blessing, your Heavenly Father gives us chance after chance to receive His Fatherly blessing.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Unlike Isaac who couldn\u2019t do anything after a deceiver stole the blessing from his intended recipient, when Satan the deceiver stole the blessing that God originally intended for humankind, God found a way to bless us anyways and to an even greater extent through Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

Genesis 27:34-40 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n34\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When Esau heard his father’s words, he burst out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me–me too, my father!”
\n35\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But he said, “Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing.”
\n36\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Esau said, “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob? He has deceived me these two times: He took my birthright, and now he’s taken my blessing!” Then he asked, “Haven’t you reserved any blessing for me?”
\n37\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Isaac answered Esau, “I have made him lord over you and have made all his relatives his servants, and I have sustained him with grain and new wine. So what can I possibly do for you, my son?”
\n38\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Esau said to his father, “Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father!” Then Esau wept aloud.
\n39\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0His father Isaac answered him, “Your dwelling will be away from the earth’s richness, away from the dew of heaven above.
\n40\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0You will live by the sword and you will serve your brother. But when you grow restless, you will throw his yoke from off your neck.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 34-40:\u00a0\u00a0To me Esau\u2019s weeping aloud at missing his father\u2019s blessing is a reminder that when we live apart from the blessing our Heavenly Father wants to give us, it is an empty and miserable life, one that is \u201caway from the earth\u2019s richness, away from the dew of heaven above\u201d (v39) where we begrudgingly serve those we don\u2019t want to serve (v40).<\/p>\n

What does it mean that \u201cwhen you grow restless, you will throw his yoke off your neck\u201d (verse 40b)?\u00a0\u00a0Scholars have suggested various interpretations.\u00a0\u00a0One interpretation is that this is referring to the future conflict between Jacob\u2019s descendants the Israelites and Esau\u2019s descendants the Edomites (and later the Idumeans), as these two nations would be enemies for centuries.\u00a0\u00a0Another interpretation, suggested by Pastor Jon Courson in his application commentary, is that the anti-Christ who will rise up in the end times to attack Christ\u2019s kingdom will descend from the line of Esau.\u00a0\u00a0Thus \u201cthrow his yoke off your neck\u201d, Courson suggests, is a reference to the anti-Christ rising up to attack Christ\u2019s kingdom and is the reason God would later say \u201cJacob I loved, but Esau I hated\u201d (Romans 9:13).\u00a0\u00a0Still another interpretation that may be worth considering is that \u201c\u201dthrow his yoke off you neck\u201d is speaking of Esau\u2019s own personal growth, the idea being that Esau would not always be angry and vengeful against his brother Jacob but that later in life Esau would set himself free by learning to forgive and extend grace to his brother (Genesis 33:4-9).<\/p>\n

Genesis 27:41-45 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n41\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. He said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
\n42\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When Rebekah was told what her older son Esau had said, she sent for her younger son Jacob and said to him, “Your brother Esau is consoling himself with the thought of killing you.
\n43\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Now then, my son, do what I say: Flee at once to my brother Laban in Haran.
\n44\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Stay with him for a while until your brother’s fury subsides.
\n45\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When your brother is no longer angry with you and forgets what you did to him, I’ll send word for you to come back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 41-45:\u00a0\u00a0Upon hearing that Esau planned to kill Jacob, Rebekah warns her son Jacob and tells him to flee to her brother Laban\u2019s house in Haran.\u00a0\u00a0Jacob would follow his mom\u2019s advice.\u00a0\u00a0Rebekah\u2019s hope was that when Esau\u2019s fury had subsided, she would send word for Jacob to come back.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0However, this would be the last time Rebekah and Jacob would see each other.\u00a0\u00a0As I mentioned when talking about Genesis 27:1-14, though Rebekah meant well by trying to protect her son Jacob and his destiny, Rebekah took a deceitful and wrong shortcut to get what she wanted.\u00a0\u00a0As a result, she would unwittingly end up losing the very son she was trying to protect, and in the process also severely damaging her relationships with her husband Isaac and her other son Esau as well as her reputation.\u00a0\u00a0When we do things our way instead of God\u2019s way, the result is usually short-term gain at the price of long-term pain.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Genesis 27:46 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n46\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I’m disgusted with living because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes a wife from among the women of this land, from Hittite women like these, my life will not be worth living.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 46:\u00a0\u00a0Rebekah says this to Isaac so that Isaac would recommend that Jacob go live with Rebekah\u2019s brother Laban.\u00a0\u00a0Little did Isaac know that this plan was something that Rebekah herself had already decided should be done.\u00a0\u00a0Rebekah certainly had her sly, clever way of getting what she wanted.\u00a0\u00a0However, the ordeal with Rebekah helping Jacob get Isaac\u2019s blessing should teach us an important lesson:\u00a0\u00a0if you are a driven go-getter who is smart and effective at getting your way,\u00a0be careful that your driven-ness, initiative, desires and smarts do not lead you to do things which are manipulative or dishonest<\/strong>, lest you find yourself in situations that you will later regret.<\/p>\n

Heavenly Father, thank You that You never bless by mistake, but always with a purpose knowing full well whom You are blessing.\u00a0\u00a0Thank You that even when Satan the deceiver tried to steal away the blessing You originally wanted to give people, You found another way to give us Your blessing through Jesus Christ.\u00a0\u00a0Since You are the best at blessing, may I trust You, Your ways, and Your timing, and not rely on my own smarts and understanding alone.\u00a0\u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Genesis 27:30-46.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!\u00a0<\/p>\n

Genesis 27:30-33 (NIV)
\n30\u00a0\u00a0After Isaac finished blessing him and Jacob had scarcely left his father’s presence, his brother Esau came in from hunting.
\n31\u00a0\u00a0He 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.”
\n32\u00a0\u00a0His father Isaac asked him, “Who are you?” “I am your son,” he answered, “your firstborn, Esau.”
\n33\u00a0\u00a0Isaac 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!”<\/p>\n

On verses 30-33:\u00a0\u00a0Esau comes in to present his meal to his father and to receive his father\u2019s blessing, but he is seconds too late, as Jacob has just finished impersonating him and has taken his father\u2019s blessing in his place.\u00a0\u00a0Why couldn\u2019t Isaac just revoke his previous blessing on Jacob and bless Esau instead?\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s because the kind of blessing at issue was, in Isaac\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16159,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16157","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\/16157","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=16157"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16158,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16157\/revisions\/16158"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}