A Daily Genesis

Genesis 27:14-25

Rate this Entry
[FONT=Verdana]-
[B][COLOR=#ff0000]†.[/COLOR] Gen 27:14-15 . . He got them and brought them to his mother, and his mother prepared a dish such as his father liked. Rebecca then took the best clothes of her older son Esau, which were there in the house, and had her younger son Jacob put them on;[/B]

The word for "house" is from [I]bayith[/I] (bah'-yith) which means: a dwelling (in the greatest variation of applications), including family.

Does that mean Rebecca lived in a permanent structure? I don't think so. Bayith doesn't always mean what we think. In Gen 6:14 it implicates the interior of the ark. At Gen 7:1 it implicates Noah's family, and quite possibly even all their belongings-- a regular Noah's Family Robinson. At Gen 15:2, bayith implicates Abraham's entire estate: his tents, his livestock, and his servants.

Some have proposed that Esau's best clothes were special-- for religious observances --like the garments that priests might wear. But that certainly doesn't fit Esau's character. I think it was just a nice outfit of some sort, maybe even the one he got married in. But anyway, they sure didn't get washed often because his clothes usually smelled like the outdoors-- and that could mean anything from plain old dirt to wild flowers and meadow grass.

But why were those clothes (viz: his cleanest dirty shirts) in Rebecca's home? I believe it was because Rebecca anticipated this very day and kept them right there handy so she could put them on Jacob when the time came. And that is why she never washed the smell out of them. Jacob of course was very likely a tidy sort of guy and kept his clothes clean. But Esau was a rugged outdoor type who's clothes you would expect to have an odor.
[B]
[COLOR=#ff0000]†.[/COLOR] Gen 27:16 . . and she covered his hands and the hairless part of his neck with the skins of the kids.[/B]

Those hides would still be raw and untreated. So Rebecca had to scrub and scrape to get all the fat and blood off so they wouldn't have a visceral smell to them. Yuck! That's reminiscent of scenes from Silence Of The Lambs.

[B][COLOR=#ff0000]†.[/COLOR] Gen 27:17 . .Then she put in the hands of her son Jacob the dish and the bread that she had prepared.[/B]

Yummy. From the kitchen of Becky Crocker; with biscuits and gravy too. Well, this is as far as Rebecca can go. Now it's all up to Mr. Jacob to pull this off. Good luck dude. Don't chicken out now. HWUAH! (Navy SEAL cheer)

[B][COLOR=#ff0000]†.[/COLOR] Gen 27:18-19a . . He went to his father and said: Father. And he said: Yes, which of my sons are you? Jacob said to his father: I am Esau, your first-born; I have done as you told me.[/B]

That boy makes me proud. No mumbling, no stuttering, no hesitation-- right to it. Yes; he is a big fat liar. But I love it. You watch. Any day now he'll get a letter in the mail from CIA recruiters praising his moral flexibility.

[B][SIZE=2]NOTE[/SIZE]:[/B] When Jacob called out to his dad; he used what is known as a "vocative" which Webster's defines as: of, relating to, or being a grammatical case marking out the one addressed. In other words: a vocative is intended to get the attention of a specific person in a room rather than everybody in the room.

This may seem superfluous, and I guess it isn't germane to the study of Genesis; but the principle has an important application in Christianity. Compare Rom 8:15 and Gal 4:6 where the Aramaic vocative [I]Abba[/I] indicates that the Father's children don't call out to Him as merely a clan's paterfamilias, but rather, like Jacob did with Isaac: as one's very own papa.

[B][COLOR=#ff0000]†.[/COLOR] Gen 27:19b-20 . . Pray sit up and eat of my game, that you may give me your innermost blessing. Isaac said to his son: How did you succeed so quickly, my son? And he said: Because the Lord your God granted me good fortune.[/B]

What did he say!? My golly that man had chutzpah! He actually dragged the name of God into the lie. Now Jacob will be condemned to the lower regions for sure; or will he?

"I say unto you: that many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven." (Matt 8:11)
[B]
[COLOR=#ff0000]†.[/COLOR] Gen 27:21-23 . . Isaac said to Jacob: Come closer that I may feel you, my son-- whether you are really my son Esau or not. So Jacob drew close to his father Isaac, who felt him and wondered: The voice is the voice of Jacob, yet the hands are the hands of Esau. He did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau; and so he blessed him.[/B]

So then, in spite of their twin-ness, there was enough of a difference in the brothers' voices to be discernable. However, Rebecca somehow attached size-cut pieces of young goat skin on the backs of Jacob's hands and fingers with some sort of toupee adhesive so it would feel to Isaac as if it were a man's natural hairs. That was a pretty good trick; and would probably land her a job as a Hollywood make-up artist.

[B][COLOR=#ff0000]†. [/COLOR]Gen 27:24 . . He asked: Are you truly my son Esau? And when he said: I am,[/B]

Some people are of the opinion that Jacob was a mama's boy. Well, maybe he was. But one thing he had that most mama's boys don't; and it's a level head under stress. Jacob was as calm and calculating as a test pilot all during this incident.

I tell you, that man amazes me. I bet Rebecca was just outside the door sweating bullets while all this was going on; hoping and praying that Jacob not lose his cool and bolt out of the room in a panic. This is just the kind of cool under fire that the Secret Service looks for; but then, you need a pretty high IQ to work with those guys.

[B][COLOR=#ff0000]†.[/COLOR] Gen 27:25 . . he said: Serve me and let me eat of my son's game that I may give you my innermost blessing. So he served him and he ate, and he brought him wine and he drank.[/B]

The wine was probably out in the kitchen. When Jacob went back to get it, don't you think Rebecca hugged him and gave him a great big thumbs up? I do. Those two were a team! The original Mission Impossible task force.

While Isaac was eating, he and Jacob probably chatted. About what; I don't have a clue. But Jacob managed to pull it off like a pro. Isaac really thought he was talking with Esau.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=[/FONT]
Tags: None Add / Edit Tags
Categories
Uncategorized
You can avoid major, expensive repair costs with an extended service plan for your Porsche. Many vehicle repairs can cost thousands of dollars in surprise expense, now may be the time to consider an extended service plan for your vehicle.