There are lessons to be learned from being deceived!
Dispensation = Promise
Opening Event = God calls Abraham and gives him promises -- Gen 12:1-7; 13:14-17; 15:5; Repeats these promises to Isaac and Jacob -- Gen 26:1-5; 28:10-15.
Man's Responsibility = Believe and obey - Rom 15:6; Rom 4:3.
Man's failure = Promised blessings pursued by fleshly means; Abraham Gen 16:2--Jacob; Gen 27:19; Moses Acts 7:22-29.
Man's Tendency = Away from God - God's promises also were disregarded by Lot --- Gen 13:10-13; Esau --Gen 25:31-34; sons of Israel --- Gen 37:18-20.
When God identifies Himself to those who lived in the dispensation of Promise, He identifies Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as in Exo 3:6; Mat 22:32; Mar 12:26; Act 7:32.
Peaceful = "tam" - pious, gentle or dear man. He lived in tents with his mother or as one writer says at this time he was a momma's boy.
The children were loved on the basis of how they pleased their parents or how they possessed the same interest as their parents.
The mother fell in love with Jacob because he was like she was.
He was gentle and sweet and like to stay at home with mommy in the tent.
The father fell in love with Esau because he was like he was, he liked to go out hunting.
Isaac was about 100 years old when Esau married Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite, GEN 26:34.
PRO 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go, when he is old he will not depart from it.
Until then for Isaac it had been hit or miss, grow a little and then retreat, and then reach a stage of spiritual growth and then back off.....just like many believers.
Rebecca loved Jacob and had it all figured out because, by this time, Isaac was blind and the only way he could tell which son was which was by feeling.
Isaac is 137 years old according to Gen 47:9, 41:46, 31:38, 25:26.
The word for listen is a Qal imperative of shama which is shema meaning to obey.
Jacob is 77 years old and not married and still taking orders from mom.
The word for smooth is the adjective chalaq which although it refers to his skin, it's basic meaning is to be smooth with the tongue.
Here is the true nature of Jacob, he doesn't care about doing something wrong and deceiving his father, he's just concerned about what will happen if he gets caught.
Jacob, another individual who God made promises to.
All three verbs here on in the imperative mood, obey go and get them. - She says "shema beqoli welekh qach-li" obey me and go and get them.
Once again we learn the lesson that human plans do no aid divine plans but merely complicate matters even more.
He could of overruled and changed his mind but doctrine resident in the soul wouldn't allow him to, By means of doctrine resident in the soul Isaac blessed Jacob.
HEB 11:20 By faith [by means of doctrine] Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even regarding things to come.
The reason why he trembled violently is because he realized the serious mistake he was going to make by blessing Esau and not Jacob.
Esau obeys his father, goes out hunting and brings back a delicious meal like Isaac loves. He speaks the truth and he does not lie.
Jacob never leaves the house, willfully lies and deceives his father,
substitutes a goat for the venison, lies to his father and even uses the Lord's name to do so, and yet Jacob receives the blessing.
ROM 9:13 Just as it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.".....says the Lord.
HEB 11:20 By faith [by means of doctrine] Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even regarding things to come.
His spiritual eyes were now opened to the fact that God had overruled and Esau was not God's choice.
Through doctrine resident in the soul he recognized that giving the blessing to Jacob was the will of God.
It takes a great man to learn from being deceived that something was the will of God and not to get bitter about it.
He could have gotten bitter toward his wife Rebecca and his son Jacob, but he did not.
Isaac learned the lesson that the apostle gives in ROM 9:16 So then it does not depend on the man who wills [Isaac] or the man who runs [Esau], but on God who has mercy.
This is a prophecy from Isaac that Esau would not participate in the blessing of the earth's richness and the dew of heaven as Jacob would.
HEB 11:20 By means of doctrine resident in the soul Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even regarding things to come.
- In Isaac's acceptance of the disappointment of Jacob getting the blessing over his favorite son Esau, Isaac shows us the way in which we ought to bear the consequences of making wrong decisions.
- Many times the Lord will allow people who are close to us to hurt us even if it's unintentionally on their part, but to guide us into the correct path.
PSA 23:3 He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name's sake.
- The Lord can turn the curse of deception and the wrath of man into praise toward Himself, PSA 76:10 For the wrath of man shall praise Thee;
2CO 13:8 For we can do nothing against the truth, but only for the truth.
Isa 54:17 "No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper; And every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, And their vindication is from Me," declares the Lord.
EXO 1:12 "But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out."
- Esau only saw the deceiver Jacob and vowed to be revenged, Isaac saw God in the matter and trembled because he almost made the wrong decision.
- We should be able can bear the pain inflicted upon us by others when we see that they are merely the instruments of a divine blessing or divine chastisement.