Esau Shows Up to Claim His Blessing -- Genesis 27:30-33

Now it came about, as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had hardly gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting. Then he also made savory food, and brought it to his father; and he said to his father, "Let my father arise and eat of his son's game, that you may bless me." Isaac his father said to him, "Who are you?" And he said, "I am your son, your firstborn, Esau." Then Isaac trembled violently, and said, "Who was he then that hunted game and brought it to me, so that I ate of all {of it} before you came, and blessed him? Yes, and he shall be blessed."

Jacob, with the help of his mother, manages to literally rob his brother Esau of his “eldest son blessing” from his father Isaac. No sooner had the deed been accomplished and the parties began to be found out. Esau returns from his hunting, makes a tasty dish for Isaac as he had intended and brings it to him so that he may get blessed.

As expected, old, almost totally blind Isaac asks, “Who are you?” Esau, perhaps a little surprised at the question, replies, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.” Then, the Bible says, Isaac “trembled violently”. Out and out shock in response to what had happened. He had been duped big time. He failed to go with his inkling. He still did not put it all together as he asks Esau, “Who was he then that I blessed?” It is difficult to imagine that Isaac did not know it was Jacob who did this, at this point.

But here’s the last phrase of this section, “Yes, and he will be blessed.” There was no undoing it. Jacob was blessed in error, but he will be blessed. What was said was said, and it will come to pass for several reasons. First, the eldest son’s blessing was an integral part of the life of those that believed in, and worshipped, the God of Abraham and Isaac. It really made a difference. Secondly, Isaac had no intention of withdrawing or denouncing his blessing, as he himself was a man of his word. Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, Jacob had a tremendous role to play in the covenant that God had established with his grand-father Abraham, and he would need that blessing to accomplish it, regardless of how he God.

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