Genesis 28 Commentary
Now Isaac says it: Jacob is blessed! No persuasion; no deception. No scheming. Isaac says it all by himself!
But Isaac’s words are a prayer to the LORD God. The LORD God is the one who blesses Jacob – with the same blessing that Isaac received from the LORD God.
“May God Almighty bless you…, May he give you and your descendants the blessing given to Abraham…, may take possession of the land where you now reside as a foreigner”.
The key word is “may”. Isaac looks to the LORD God for this blessing on Jacob!
The LORD answers Isaac’s prayer. He appears to Jacob and blesses Jacob. Now Jacob is blessed! Jacob encounters the God of his fathers for the first time.
But Jacob is Jacob – the schemer. He feels he has to work for everything. He gives God an offer. In chapter 17, the LORD God drew up a contract and gave it to Abraham as follows:-
“I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless…, As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations…, I will make you very fruitful…, I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.”
In this chapter, Jacob does it. He has his own terms and he presents them to the LORD God.
“If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father’s household, then the Lord will be my God and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.”
Then you know we have trouble! Jacob – a very interesting character!
Check the two contracts again and see the differences. Of course, the obvious one is that the first one is done by the LORD God while Jacob writes the second one! Jacob’s contract is performance-based. God must perform to earn the status and a tithe from Jacob.
But Jacob forgot that the LORD God didn’t look at his performance (performance indeed) to bestow His blessing on Jacob!
Jacob perfectly represents humanity. Our love for God is more conditional than we want to admit. We draw up contracts for God daily. The word “if” may not always come out but it defines our relationship with our God.
We may not have the courage of Jacob to say it straight, but we have it Jacob’s way each time we doubt God because of negative happenings around us. We ask this question each time we suspect bad performance on the part of the LORD.
Jacob has played religion. His pledge to the LORD is only an upgrade from the transaction that saw him buy the birthright. The story of Jacob is interestingly shocking but it tells the story of humanity. We are shockingly short of real love for the LORD God.
Maturity comes when we begin to move away from contracts like Jacob’s contract. But for Jacob, it’s a long way from this point. We have many more issues to cover for Jacob, but let’s keep one finger on these items.
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