Daily Devotions
Genesis
"A brother offended is harder to win than a strong city, And contentions are like the bars of a castle." Proverbs 18:19
Text: Genesis 27:1-46
A BROTHER OFFENDED
Esau had not forgotten how Jacob had taken advantage of him and took away his birthright! This new act of deceit suddenly brought back a memory that had lain dormant all these years!
“And Esau said, ‘Is he not rightly named Jacob?
For he has supplanted me these two times.
He took away my birthright, and now look,
he has taken away my blessing!'”GENESIS 27:36a
The anger that boiled over reflected the resentment that Esau had nursed against his younger twin brother all these years! How would the fences ever be mended between these two brothers! Sin had taken over Isaac’s household more than he dared admit!
A DESPERATE CRY
If ever Esau felt a need for a blessing from his father, it was to be found at this moment! The sense of anger was overwhelming. The sense of emptiness and desolation in his heart must have made matters ever worse! Was it not within Isaac to call upon the Lord to give him another blessing?
“And he said, ‘Have you not reserved a blessing for me?'”
GENESIS 27:36b
How could there be only one blessing? Would his father not search and see if he had another blessing that he could give to him? Wasn’t there something that Isaac could do to impart a word of blessing to him?
A SEEMINGLY HOPELESS SITUATION
Isaac felt a great sense of sorrow for his favourite son. But what could he do? He could not retract what he had said in prayer! He had invoked the Lord’s Name when he gave Jacob the blessing of the firstborn!
“Then Isaac answered and said to Esau,
‘Indeed I have made him your master, and all his brethren
I have given to him as servants; with grain and wine
I have sustained him. What shall I do now for you, my son?'”GENESIS 27:37
The implications of Jacob having the rights of Esau’s birthright, and now Isaac’s blessing meant that he was the master! Esau would have to live off the generosity of his brother! Jacob would be the lord and master of all that Isaac owned! He would now enjoy all the wealth, influence, name and power that his inheritance afforded him!
Isaac must have regretted not checking out Jacob’s identity more clearly! But what good were regrets now? What could he do for his beloved son, Esau?