Read Genesis 27 here or at Bible Gateway.
The Hebrew paragraphs:
27:1-28:9 {s} …
Why was Esau so upset when he discovered he did not receive the blessing of the firstborn? We saw a few days ago that he had despised his birthright with barely a second thought. Let’s see if we can answer that question …
The word that is Repeated often in these two chapters is bless and blessing.
To bless, from the Hebrew Root Words, is Strong’s H1288 ברך barak, a primitive root. The ancient pictographs are bet + resh + kaph:
bet ב = the house, thus house, household, family, in, within
resh ר = the head of man, thus head, first, top, beginning, man
kaph ך , כ = the open palm, thus bend, open, allow, tame
The parable is of the family (bet) of heads (resh), an idiom for ripened grain. We still call the top of a ripened stalk of wheat a seed head. By extension the meaning is to fill, to make fat, and also to slaughter (as cattle were fattened for slaughter by taking them off grass and feeding them on grain). To bless, then, is to fill (bet + resh) the palm (kaph). The blessing fills the palm, the upturned hands, of the one being blessed, with good things; and also, the father filled his palm with his sons’ heads when conferring the blessing.
Esau thought, because he had missed his father’s blessing, that he would miss his palms being filled with good things for his future. Now his anguish makes sense … his grief was all about his own needs and wants.
If we think back in the Bible that we have read so far, who pronounced the first father’s blessing? It was God Himself, when He blessed His children, Adam and Eve! His blessing spoken over them (Gen 1:28-29) filled their upturned palms with good things. The next record of the father’s blessing is in Gen 9:1-3, YHVH again blessing Noah and his sons when they emerged from the ark. Later in that same chapter, Noah is the first human father (that we have record of) to pronounce a blessing over his sons (Gen 9:25-27), as well as a curse, for Canaan and his seed, the Canaanites, were virtually wiped out as a nation by the command of YHVH.
Noah blessed YHVH, the God of Shem, thereby establishing YHVH as God for Shem and his seed throughout their generations, Japheth dwelling in Shem’s tents. Shem is the father of the Hebrews, and Japheth is the father of the peoples who gave us Western Civilization. We see that Japheth has indeed dwelt in the tents of Shem, for Western Civilization is not called Judeo-Christian for nothing. Look at the power of a father’s words in blessing or in cursing! The history of the entire world can be seen played out in fulfilling the blessing Noah pronounced over his sons.
The blessing is in the mouth of God, next, over Abram, and then over Isaac. Isaac’s blessing of his sons is the first record we have of the father’s blessing since Noah.
In this chapter we have a second instance of Abraham’s family trying to fulfill the promise out of the flesh. Abraham and Sarah were the first, who sought to get the Promised Seed by Hagar instead of by Sarah. It was not God’s idea, and God fulfilled His promise anyway bypassing the flesh. Rebekah had been told by God that the elder would serve the younger (Gen 25:23), but she orchestrated Jacob’s blessing out of the flesh. It was not God’s idea. We don’t know how God would have conferred the blessing onto Jacob otherwise, but assuredly He would have.
If there are questions, these are good resources:
Gen 27 and 28, The birthright and the blessing – Christine Miller
Fathers: The Blessing and the Curse – Bill Delvaux
Jacob, The Righteous Deceiver – Zachary Garris
The above author has a different take on why Rebekah and Jacob perpetrated a deception on Isaac. It is well thought out. I am not sure that deceiving is a righteous act, as this is the sin of the serpent in the Garden. But there is much to chew on here.
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