Genesis 27:1-46

Jacob by Subtilty obtains the Blessing

Urged on by his mother, Jacob attempts by unworthy means to secure the blessing of the firstborn with all the privileges it involved. But the wrongdoing of the actors in the story was soon followed by the suffering which assuredly waits on sin. To quote Delitzsch: '(a) Isaac suffers for his preference for Esau, which was not determined by the will of God but by his weak affection: (b) Esau suffers for despising the blessing of the firstborn: (c) Rebekah suffers for her connivance, by separation from her favourite son whom she never saw again, (d) Jacob, from the time when he confirmed himself in the possession of the sinfully acquired birthright by sinfully acquiring the blessing, had to endure a long strain of hardship and disappointments which made him feel how he had sinned against his father and brother. Yet these were at the same time the means of his education by which his ignoble nature was to be done away, and himself made worthy of being one in the line of those who inherited the promises.' This chapter belongs to the Primitive narrative.