Genesis 27:5 Commentary and Bible Study

‘Rebekah heard.’ Immediately, the critics says, ‘Sly Rebekah, lurking in the shadows, eavesdropping!’ No, she is the guardian of her husband. That is her role: to take care of him. Of course she is listening to what he promises to give to all and sundry. She is going to be the one who carries out these things. So yes, she hears. What follows is in many ways very sad; it is certainly sad for Jacob and Rebekah because, on the good side, they know that the prophecy of God and the decree of God is that Jacob should get the blessing, and the headship of the church is about to be passed to a renegade and an unbeliever, and this cannot be. So in a good cause for a good objective, they intervene to avert the disaster by craft and lies. They are in a panic. They do something in the interests of truth, but they go about it in the wrong way. But let us be clear: Rebekah does not act because of her own favouritism towards Jacob, and her own selfish ends, as some people suggest. She acts because this is what God has said must be so. The church is at risk; the succession for the seed royal is at risk; everything is going to be put into the hands of irresponsible Esau. This must be averted. But yes, it is not right what they do, what Rebekah and Jacob do. They go about it the wrong way, and God will duly punish them for it, but bear in mind that they are the believers. They sought the right end, but that does not excuse the way they did it. Rebekah has overheard Isaac’s conversion with Esau and is deeply interested and alarmed by what she hears. She knows that no amount of gentle reasoning with Isaac is going to change his mind. There has been a long established and unhealthy favouritism on his part towards Esau, and she has tried and failed in the past to change this. Because of the prophecy given her during her pregnancy, she is prompted to act immediately. A plan forms very quickly in her mind. She is going to use deception, but she perhaps justifies her deception on the basis that it is in harmony with the will of God. In fact she is about to bring about the fulfilment the will of God in the most extraordinary way. Rebekah’s action cannot be justified by the outcome that follows, even though it helps fulfil prophecy. Deceit is always wrong and we must trust God to bring about his own purposes without having to receive help through our dissimulation. Nevertheless this was a very significant event in the life of Jacob. It was about to result in his flight to a place where God would provide him with a family and from which he would come back a different man.Esau has gone out to hunt game as requested by his father and Rebekah quickly calls in Jacob. She explains the situation and tells him her plan, requesting his cooperation. Jacob is made to understand that he is about to lose the blessing of his father and of God himself. A hasty act of partiality on the part of his father is about to take away from him all that he values. What should he do about it? Should he simply wait passively or should he take matters into his own hands. His mother urges him forward, but the plan seems wild to him and fraught with severe risk.