What I Noticed Today (Genesis 25-27)
Genesis 25
In verses 1-6, Abraham took another wife after Sarah’s death named Keturah.
- Keturah bore him six sons.
- Abraham gave everything he owned to his son Isaac.
- Abraham gave gifts to the sons of his concubines (including Keturah).
- Abraham sent Keturah and her sons away to the east (the Arabian Peninsula).
Note: Keturah was a concubine, so she and her sons had a lower status than Sarah, his wife, and their son Isaac. Abraham was over 140 years old when these sons were born to Keturah.
In verses 7-11, Abraham’s death is recorded:
- Abraham died when he was 175 years old.
- His sons Isaac (now 75) and Ishmael (now 89) buried him in the cave of Machpelah near Mamre in the field of Ephron the Hittite that Abraham had purchased as a burial site for Sarah.
- After Abraham’s death, God blessed Isaac, who lived near Beer-lahai-roi.
In verses 12-18, the records of Ishmael’s family:
- Ishmael had 12 sons, each of whom became tribal leaders.
- They lived from Havilah (north-central Arabia) west to Shur (opposite the modern-day Suez Canal from Egypt).
- Ishmael lived 137 years, in opposition to all his brothers (Genesis 16:12).
Genesis 25:19-35:29
These 10-1/2 chapters cover the life of Isaac and his children, Jacob and Esau.
In verses 19-26, Isaac prayed for his wife Rebekah because she was childless:
- Isaac was 40 years old when Rebekah became his wife.
- He prayed to the Lord for her because she was childless.
- The Lord answered his prayers, and Rebekah conceived twins, but they struggled within her.
- Rebekah asked the Lord about this, and the Lord told her she had two nations struggling in her womb; one will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.
- When it was time to give birth, the first boy came out red and hairy, and they named him Esau. The second boy came out, grasping his brother’s heel, so they named him Jacob.
- Isaac was 60 years old when they were born.
In verses 27-34, Esau sells his birthright:
- As they grew up, Esau became a hunter, but Jacob stayed at home.
- Isaac loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
- One day when Jacob was cooking stew, his brother Esau came in from the field exhausted, asking Jacob for some of his “red stuff.”
- Jacob said first sell me your birthright, and Esau swore an oath is giving Jacob his birthright as the first-born son. In that way, Esau had despised his birthright.
Note: Esau asked for some “red stuff.” “Red” in Hebrew is the word Edom (ʾĕdōwm), which is why Esau was also known as Edom.
Genesis 26
In verses 1-6, God confirms His promise to Isaac:
- There was another famine in the land.
- The Lord appeared to Isaac and told him not to go to Egypt, but to stay in the land of Gerar as a foreigner.
- God promised to bless him there and confirmed the oath that He made with Abraham to make Isaac’s offspring as numerous as the stars, and to give him all this land because Abraham had listened and kept My mandates, My commands, My statutes, and My instructions.
Note: The Abimelech of Genesis 26:1 is probably not the same Abimelech as in Genesis 20 since the events were about 90 years apart.
In verses 7-11, Isaac deceives Abimelech about Rebekah:
- When men in the land asked about Rebekah, Isaac said she was his sister because he was afraid the men would kill him so that they could take her.
- Abimelech looked out his window one day and saw Isaac caressing Rebekah, so he sent for Isaac and accused him of the deception.
- Isaac answered he believed he would be killed on account of her.
- Abimelech scolded Isaac for the deception and warned all the people under penalty of death; no one was to harm this man or his wife.
Note: Isaac used the same defense for his deception as his father Abraham had used (Genesis 12:13).
In verses 12-22, Isaac’s prosperity causes strife among the Philistines:
- Because the Lord blessed him, Isaac enjoyed enormous yields on his crops.
- He became richer and richer with flocks of sheep, herds of cattle, and many slaves. And the Philistines were envious of him.
- The Philistines filled up the wells with dirt his father Abraham had dug, and Abimelech told him to leave because Isaac was too powerful for them.
- So Isaac moved to the Valley of Gerar and reopened wells the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham had died.
- The herdsmen of Gerar claimed the wells, so Isaac named the well Esek (“Quarrel”). He dug another well, and they claimed that as well, so he named it Sitnah (“Hostility”).
- Isaac moved even further away, and the Philistines did not quarrel over that well, so he named it Rehoboth (“Open Spaces”).
Note: Isaac refused to fight over the wells but kept moving until he ended up in a place where the Philistines left him alone, and the Lord would bless him there.
In verses 23-25, The Lord appears to Isaac:
- Isaac moved from there to Beer-sheba.
- The Lord appeared to him that night and assured him that He would bless him and multiply his offspring because of Abraham.
- Isaac called on the name of the Lord, Yahweh, built an altar, pitched his tents, and his slaves dug a well there.
Note: Beer-sheba was about 25 miles southwest of where Abraham had once lived (Genesis 21:31).
In verses 26-33, Isaac makes a covenant with Abimelech:
- Abimelech came from Gerar with Ahuzzath, his advisor, and Phicol, the commander of his army, to meet with Isaac.
- Isaac asked what they wanted since they hated him and had sent him away.
- Abimelech recognized how the Lord had blessed Isaac and wanted to make a covenant with him (a treaty), that one would not harm the other.
- So Isaac prepared a banquet, and the next morning they swore an oath to each other, and Abimelech and his men returned home.
- That same day Isaac’s slaves came and told him they had dug a well and found water, and Isaac named the well “Sheba” (which means “oath”).
Note: This is similar to the treaty Abimelech made with Abraham (Genesis 21:22), in which he recognized Abraham was blessed by God.
In verses 34-35, Esau marries Hittite women:
- When Esau was 40 years old, he married Judith, a Hittite, and Basemath, also a Hittite. They made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah.
Note: Esau married pagan women, a demonstration of his nature, and why he was not deserving of God’s blessing.
Genesis 27
Chapter 27 reads like a modern-day soap opera with Jacob deceiving his father Isaac, to attain the blessing of the first-born.
In verses 1-29, Jacob steals Esau’s blessing:
- Isaac was old, and his eyes were weak so that he could not see. He called his son Esau to him and told him to prepare a meal of wild game so that he could bless him.
Note: Isaac was at least 100 years old at this point. He was 60 years old when the boys were born (Genesis 25:26), and Esau was 40 years old when he married the Hittite women (Genesis 26:34). Isaac died at 180 (Genesis 35:28), so this event occurred sometime in those 80 years.
- Rebekah was listening when Isaac gave the instructions to Esau, so she instructed Jacob to kill two goats, and she would prepare them, so Jacob could take it to Abraham and secure his blessing.
- Jacob was concerned about deceiving his father and being discovered, which would then be a curse, but Rebekah assured him the curse would be on her.
- So Jacob went out and got the goats, and Rebekah prepared them. Then she had Jacob dress in Esau’s clothes and covered Jacobs's arms with goat skins to simulate Esau’s hairy arms.
- Jacob took the stew and the bread into his father and lied to his father, saying he was Esau and was there to get the blessing as promised.
- Jacob lied again, saying the Lord had provided the game.
- He lied a third time when Isaac asked him again if he was Esau.
- Isaac said the voice was Jacob’s voice, but the hairy hands were Esau’s.
- Jacob lied a fourth time when Isaac asked him again if he really was his son Esau.
- Isaac ate and drank and then called Esau to him. He smelled the clothes, and the clothes smelled like Esau.
- So Isaac blessed Jacob, thinking it was Esau, saying he would have the richness of the land, abundance of grain and wine, people would serve and nations bow down to him, he would be master over his brother, and those who curse you will be cursed and those who bless you will be blessed.
In verses 30-46, Esau discovers Jacob’s treachery:
- As soon as Isaac finished blessing Jacob, in came Esau saying he had prepared food for his father to eat and then bless him.
- Isaac trembled, realizing he had been deceived and that he had blessed the wrong son, but the blessing must stand, it cannot be reversed.
- Angry, Esau insisted Isaac bless him as well, but Isaac replied he could not because his brother had deceitfully taken his blessing.
- Esau had given up in rights as the firstborn to Jacob, and now Jacob had taken his blessing as well.
- Finally, Isaac blessed Esau saying his dwelling place would be away from the rich land, he would live by the sword, he would serve his brother, but someday he would break Jacob’s yoke from his neck.
- Esau held a grudge against Jacob and swore to himself that after his father died, he would kill Jacob.
- When Rebekah found out about Esau’s plan, she sent Jacob away to her brother Laban’s house in Haran to stay with him until Esau’s anger subsided.
- Rebekah said to Isaac she was sick of the Hittite women (that Esau had married), and she didn’t want Jacob to marry one.
Note: The distance from Beer-sheba to Haran was about 517 miles.
Note: This is the second time Rebekah interceded with deception to secure Jacob’s future.
Some thoughts for additional consideration:
- Going against God’s will almost always set up situations that go from bad to worse. Deceit, lies, and cover-ups are used to get our way. Life is so much easier and pleasant if we just follow God’s plan and TRUST Him!
- Jacob’s main concern with his mother’s plan in attaining Esau’s blessing is not the lies to his father, or incurring the wrath of God, but that he might get caught in his deception, and thus receive a curse instead of a blessing.
What did you notice in your study today? Feel free to visit the website and leave a question or a comment.
