Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph each had amazing, adventurous, colorful (sometimes literally) lives. If I were reducing their lives down to one sentence, I’d have a tough time choosing. But that’s precisely what the author of Hebrews did. In Hebrews 11, he took these sprawling stories and boiled them down to just one thing—one moment that typified faith in God.
I guarantee you and I wouldn’t have chosen what he did. Here’s Hebrews on Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph:
By faith, Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. By faith, Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff. By faith, Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones. (Hebrews 11:20-22 ESV)
Of all the events in their lives, why choose these? How obscure and mundane can you get?
Just look at Joseph’s life, for instance. It was crazy! Even after being sold into slavery, unjustly accused of rape, Imprisoned, and forgotten about, he never lost his confidence that God was at work. At the end of his life, he said, “Everything that you meant for evil, God meant for good.” It’s one of the most extraordinary stories of faith in all of Scripture. But does the author of Hebrews pick up on any of that? Nope. Instead, he chooses the blessing of his sons and instructions about his burial. Why?
To get to the answer, we have to get our minds around the story of Jacob.
Genesis 27 tells us that Jacob and his brother Esau were fraternal twins, and about as opposite as two brothers could be. The author presents Esau as an “outdoors-y” kind of guy, sort of a man’s man—he liked to hunt, ate lots of red meat. His name, Esau, literally meant “red and hairy.” Which is kind of funny when you consider that he was given this name at birth. Evidently, he came out of the womb like a chia pet. They basically named their kid “Fuzzy.”
Jacob, on the other hand, was more of an indoor cat. We know he had soft skin and he liked to cook; he probably used a loofah and he knew not to wear white after Labor Day. He had great hair and was a fabulous dresser.
Esau was the oldest, by just a few seconds, so that meant he got “the blessing.” “Blessing” in those days meant more than some kind of general “well-wishing”—it was the official bestowal of the family inheritance. You became the executor of the estate and the head of the family clan. And for Abraham’s descendants, it also meant your line would inherit the specific promises given to Abraham—that one of his offspring would bring salvation to the world. Not a small thing.
In the case of Esau and Jacob, the tradition of the firstborn being blessed would have worked out well. Esau completely embodied the stereotype of a national leader. He was a big, manly, and aggressive warrior. The author of Genesis makes it clear that because of this, Esau was his daddy’s favorite. In his commentary, John Calvin points out that even the narrator of Genesis prefers Esau. Bottom line: Isaac was excited to give the blessing to Esau, and everybody expected that. Esau was the preferred heir; Jacob was the spare.
But just before their birth, something strange had happened. Rebekah (Isaac’s wive, Jacob and Esau’s mom), went to see a prophet because she was having a really rough pregnancy. I guess in those days, you didn’t go to see an OB-GYN, you went to see a prophet. (I’m very grateful we’re not in those days anymore, by the way.) She said to this prophet, “Look, I don’t know what’s going on in there, but I feel like I’m going to give birth to a couple of ultimate fighters—like Conor McGregor and Jon Jones are in there.”
And the prophet of God said, “That’s because two warring nations are in your womb …” which is what every mother of twins wants to hear. The prophet went on to say that in this case, the younger, Jacob, is the one who will prevail and to whom God will give the blessing (see Genesis 25:23). Completely upside-down.
Lest you think that God was choosing Jacob because he was, perhaps, the more virtuous of the two, the story immediately proves otherwise. Jacob turns out to be not only less manly than Esau, but he also turns out to be somewhat of a dirtbag. We first see this, somewhat symbolically, in something that happened as these little boys were coming out of the womb. Esau came out first, and just as he did, this little hand came out after him and grabbed hold of his heel, as if to pull him back and say, “Oh no you don’t! I want to be first.”
For that reason, they gave the name to this second son, “Yacob,” which literally means “the heel grabber.” But it also means “the deceiver.” One commentator says, “The Trickster.” “Mr. Sneaky.” (When I played soccer in high school, we used to have to run this three-mile course as part of the warm-up. The last two miles of the course made a big loop through the woods, and one of the guys on the team would sometimes duck into the trees when we got into the woods and then join us when we came back out. That would have been Jacob. “Mr. Sneaky.”) You may think “Mr. Sneaky” is an odd name to give a baby, but that name turns out to capture Jacob’s entire approach to life. He’s a cheat. And this all comes to a head when it is time for Isaac, their dad, to officially bestow the blessing on Esau.
Genesis tells us that when Isaac was old, he called for Esau and told him to hunt and prepare some wild game for a feast of blessing. So Esau grabbed his crossbow and his hunting knife and headed out into the woods. Rebekah, overhearing the conversation and preferring Jacob, tells him to get some goats so she can prepare the feast before Esau returns. She’s angling for Jacob to get the blessing instead.
I imagine Jacob must have replied something like, “But mom, he wants to bless Esau, not me. I can’t just walk in there pretending to be Esau. His voice is deeper, his skin is hairier, and his smell is … stronger. I know Dad’s almost blind, but he’s not an idiot.” Well, she convinces him otherwise, making the feast and using the goatskin for a hairy covering for Jacob’s hands and neck.
I’ll be honest: I’m into the man’s man bit as much as the next guy, but when it comes to impersonating you, someone feels the need to cover themselves with a dead goat, that’s a bit much for me.
Jacob approached his father with the feast, and Isaac said to himself, “The voice is Jacob’s, but the hands are Esau’s.” Then Isaac pronounced his blessing on Jacob. As soon as he did, Esau returned and brought Isaac his feast. But by then it was too late. When Isaac realized what he had done, Genesis says that he trembled uncontrollably, and Esau wept loudly and bitterly, vowing to kill Jacob.
Here’s the thing: Jacob didn’t need to do any of this. The irony is that Jacob had already been given the blessing by word of prophecy. Had Jacob just believed what God said and trusted him with it, he could have saved himself so much heartache.
Jacob’s search for blessing sounds like the opposite of faith, scheming to get what God had promised him instead of trusting him for it, which is what makes Jacob’s dying act so significant. Hebrews 11:21 says that by faith, Jacob blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff.
Not familiar with that story? I’ll catch you up. It’s quick, I promise.
Back in Genesis 48, Joseph, Jacob’s son, has gone through all that he’s gone through and rules over Egypt. Joseph brings his two boys before Jacob to bless them, and as he does, he crosses his arms, indicating that he intends to bless the younger, Ephraim, over the older, Manasseh. Joseph objects, but Jacob says, “I know, son, but God wants to bless Ephraim, the younger one. Who is older or who is more worthy is not the basis of God’s choice. Grace is.”
In the end, Jacob, who had spent his whole life trying to become worthy of blessing, accepted blessing as a gift of grace, and that is the essence of the gospel. The real blessing that God would give was not property rights in the Middle East or the position of head clansman of a nomadic tribe. The real blessing was God’s favor, his forgiveness, a place in his family and his kingdom, and it’s not given to those who earn it or strive for it. God’s inheritance is given by grace and has to be received that way.
One day, God would reach out his hands of blessing, where his right hand of blessing should have rested upon the head of Jesus. But instead, God crossed his arms, laying the right hand of blessing on us, and the hand of cursing on Jesus. God made him who knew no sin to become sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
Photo Credit: SWN Design
Pastor J.D. completed his Ph.D. in Theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Chick-fil-A, serves as a Council member for The Gospel Coalition, and recently served as the 62nd president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Pastor J.D. and his wife Veronica are raising four awesome kids.
"Editor's Note: Pastor JD Greear's "Ask the Pastor" column regularly appears at Christianity.com, providing biblical, relatable, and reliable answers to your everyday questions about faith and life. Email him your questions at [email protected]."
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