Isaac grows old and blind and thinks his time is growing short. So he calls his favorite son Esau over and asks him to go hunting and make him a home cooked meal. In exchange for this, he will bless him.
Rebekah overhears this. As soon as Esau is out the door, she calls Jacob over and whispers to him, "Hey... your dad told Esau to get him some dinner and he'll get a blessing. But I think you should get that blessing. So go get a couple of goats and I'll make him some dinner. You bring it in to him and he'll bless you because he can't see at all anymore anyway."
Jacob says, "But mom, Esau is hairy and I'm not. If he reaches out and touches me, he'll know we scammed him and then he'll curse me instead of blessing me."
"Not problem, Jacob. I have a plan. Go get goats."
 |
| "Oh, Esau... It's ewe." |
Rebekah cooks up the goats. She dresses Jacob in Esau's clothes, and takes the hairy goat hide and puts it on the back of Jacob's hands and on his neck. She puts the tray of food in his hands and pushes him into his father's room.
"Hey dad."
"Who's there?"
"It's... Esau... I brought you some food, just like you asked."
"Esau? You just left! How'd you find food so quickly?"
"Um. Yeah. God knew you wanted food so there was game like right outside the camp."
"You expect me to believe that? Come here so I can touch you."
Jacob moves close enough for Isaac to touch him.
"You sound like Jacob, but you're hairy as a goat, just like Esau. And you smell like Esau, too. And goat..."
Isaac blesses Jacob and eats the home cooked meal that Rebekah made.
As soon as the blessing is done, Esau comes home. Esau cooks the game that he caught, and brings it in to his father.
"Hey dad, here's your dinner!"
"WHAT? I just ate! Who are you?"
"Uh, it's Esau. Don't you remember? You said you wanted dinner."
"Ahhh! Someone else came in here and fed me and I blessed him! CRAP! I gave that blessing to someone else!"
Esau cries out, "NOOOOOO!!! That was mine! Bless me anyway!"
Isaac says, "I only had one blessing! Sorry! I gave it to Jacob!"
"ARGH! He cheated me again! Ok, maybe the stew thing was my fault for being overly dramatic and saying I would die of hunger when really I could have waited until dinner time, but this just takes the cake." Esau starts to cry, "You don't have a blessing for me at all?"
Isaac tells him that he's his brother's servant but when he grows restless he'll break the yoke from his neck.
Esau is furious and vows to kill Jacob. Rebekah catches wind of this and warns Jacob and sends him back to live with her brother in Haran until Esau cools off a bit. Then she goes in to Isaac and says she hates her life because of the Hittite women and that her life will be totally worthless if Jacob marries one of them.
Hittite women? Esau's wives? They weren't even involved. Surprisingly, there's not a lot written about them, especially since Rebekah's rant about them seems to comes totally out of the blue. One site says it's a warning about not marrying ungodly nonbelievers. But Rebekah was the one that set up this whole scam, tricking Isaac to bless her favorite kid Jacob instead of his favorite kid Esau. How is that godly? It's a stretch to blame this on the stress that comes from living with Esau and his ungodly Hittite wives. But sending Jacob back to Haran will ensure that he picks a nice wife from their own people.
Esau sees that Isaac and Rebekah told Jacob not to marry foreigners, so Esau marries a third woman, one of Ishmael's daughters. The poor guy just tries to make his parents happy but can't seem to do anything right in the eyes of his mother.
On the way to Haran, Jacob has a dream. In this dream, angels are walking up and down a ladder that stretches to heaven. God is standing on the top of this ladder and reaffirms to Jacob that he and his descendants will inherit the land he is in. He says he will be with him wherever he goes and says he will not leave him until he has done what he promised.
Jacob wakes up and say, "I didn't know God was in this place!" (So much for him being the godly one.) He sets up the rock he'd been using as a pillow and promises that if God will be with him and provide for him and see him safely back home, then he will accept the Lord as his God. Again... Jacob was supposed to be the godly one, but here he is, making a deal that he'll accept the lord as his god only if he gets him home safely. And then he'll give him 10% of everything.
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