Page 24 - STMT 2nd Edition

Then trouble from Esau arose. Esau took two women as his wives. “And

they were a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebekah” (Genesis 26:34-35). In this

matter, Isaac and Rebekah were of the same mind and opinion. Abraham

had not wanted a Canaanite wife for his son Isaac, and Isaac and Rebekah

did not want Canaanite wives for their sons. Canaanites believed in

different gods.

Now time passed. Isaac became old and his eyesight dim, and he wanted

to confer his blessing on his oldest son, Esau. Rebekah knew this was

about to happen, and so she went and told Jacob what Isaac planned to

do. Rebekah conceived a daring plan to deceive Isaac that Jacob was Esau.

One might ask: Why did Rebekah resort to deceiving her husband in order

for the blessing to come upon Jacob? She knew that Isaac’s mind was set

on conferring the greater blessing of national prominence on his firstborn,

Esau. She probably remembered what God had once told her, that the

elder would serve the younger.

So, instead of inquiring of God at this time, she motivated her son Jacob

to deceive Isaac and grab the blessing. It was not the right thing to do—

to deceive. Sometimes the human mind comes up with a quick plan of

human devising to try to achieve our ends.

Esau was furious with Jacob for taking his birthright and wanted to kill him.

So Rebekah encouraged Jacob to flee back to her family to escape any

death attempts from Esau.

Rebekah approached Isaac with the following words: “I am weary of my

life because of the daughters of Heth; if Jacob takes a wife of the

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