Good evening Alan. I am sure you have heard this story many times, so I will be quick till we get to some key insights. Issac is about to die,, to be gathered to his people. Rebekah overhears his instruction to Esau to go hunt some bushmeat so his last meal can be a tasty one, so she spices some goat meat to taste like wild game, dresses Jacob to look like and feel like Esau and counts on Issac's blindness to make it work. It shouldn't, but it does. Issac passes his blessing to Jacob.
“See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed! 28 May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine. 29 Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you!” Genesis 27:27b - 29 ESV
Issac who is exceedingly rich and will be passing the bulk of his estate to Jacob now, wishes him even greater prosperity and authority. He sets Jacob over Esau and the repeats the blessing God gave Abraham in Genesis 12, (though in reverse order).
Now the mastermind of this subterfuge is Rebekah, and she orders Jacob to obey her voice. To be sure this is deception, but is Rebekah committing a sin so directing Jacob? What do you think Alan?
< = = = I have no idea sir? They each had their favorite child and they were both parents. Jacob lied, but our Rabbi teaches if you lie for the right reasons it is not a sin.
John Comfort smiled, his student had a good mind. "I read a midrash once that said what Rebekah did was an act of obedience. Remember, we just learned Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren. The Lord granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived. The children struggled together within her, and she said, why is this happening to me? So she went to inquire of the Lord. And the Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.”
The Lord said "the older shall serve the younger.”, John repeated that for emphasis. She was being obedient to the word of the Lord and because she knew this was going to happen long before it did, many rabbis consider her to be a prophet. God's will would still have been carried out. How? We don't know. But Rebekah would have lost her chance to help, to play a part. Obedience. I'll let you ponder that and we will pick up with a very angry Esau.
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