Today’s passage: Genesis 27:30-46

Helpful thoughts:

• In the previous passage, it was evident Isaac had every intention to bless Esau.  Today, we see Esau had every intention of receiving the blessing (Though, he had already sold his birthright)!
• From Esau’s perspective, Jacob was a deceiver and a cheater.  The birthright and the blessing we Esau’s to have and he had been unjustly deprived of both.
  • This wasn’t exactly true (25:23), but Jacob’s decision to take it upon himself to get these things God had already promised sure didn’t help.
• Rebekah has one more trick up her sleeve.  Her desire to see Jacob marry from within their people becomes a scheme to have Jacob sent away for his safety.
  • Man continues to plot and scheme…all the while God is accomplishing His every purpose.

Questions to consider:

1. What kinds of emotions are conveyed in this passage?  What would the interaction between Isaac and Esau have looked like (And sounded like)?
2. How did Esau intend to “break his brother’s yoke” from his neck?  How do Esau and Jacob both continue to try to bring about their desired ends through their own methods?  What methods do you tend toward when you desire to see God act?
3. Why didn’t Esau inherit the promise (It wasn’t because he was a sinner, because Jacob was too)?  Why did Jacob inherit the promise (It wasn’t because he was righteous, because he wasn’t)?  To whom do we owe our praise and thanksgiving for our inheritance of the promise of eternal life in Christ (Romans 9:6-18)?

Today’s passage: Genesis 27:1-29

Helpful thoughts:

• Isaac intended to give the blessing to Esau, his firstborn and favorite son.
  • The language of the blessing was intended to carry on the Abrahamic promises (Peoples and nations bowing down, blessings and cursings).
  • The blessing was intended to make Esau the leader of the family.
• Rebekah hears Isaac’s intent, devises a scheme, and executes the plan.  Jacob is not the only deceiver in this narrative.
  • There are parallels in the actions and character of Isaac and Esau, as well as Rebekah and Jacob.
• Isaac wanted this blessing to go to Esau.  But God had already determined and chosen Jacob.

Questions to consider:

1. What similarities can we find between Isaac and Esau?  How did they make decisions?  How were they driven by desires like food?
2. What similarities can we find between Rachel and Jacob?  How did they problem solve?  How did they use their loved ones shortcomings to get what they wanted?
3. Who now has the birthright and the blessing (Both of which normally given to the first born)?  Did Jacob have to do what he did to get them if God had already decreed the promise was his?

Today’s passage: Genesis 26:1-35

Helpful thoughts:

• God personally commits Abraham’s promised inheritance to Isaac.
  • Isaac has more than just Abraham’s promise.  He also copied his father’s sinful practice of calling his wife his sister…
• The difficulties in verses 6-22 are surrounded on both sides by the promises of God’s blessing on Isaac.  Even Abimelech and his people can’t help but notice this is true and make a treaty with him.
• Isaac had been 40 years old when Abraham provided his wife (Rebekah).  Esau evidently chose not to wait any longer.  He “took” for himself two women from the land Abraham had commanded that Isaac not marry.

Questions to consider:

1. How has Esau continued to act in an impetuous way?  What would Isaac have been ready to do for his favorite son at this time?  What might the fact that Esau got himself not one, but two wives also indicate?
2. Given what we read in this chapter, to whom does the credit belong for Isaac’s blessing and growing wealth?  Who does Abimelech and his people even acknowledge as the one who is blessing Isaac?
3. What does Isaac’s lie and self-protection remind us of concerning God’s grace?  Are God’s people perfect?  Why are we counted as righteous before God (2 Corinthians 5:21)?

Today’s passage: Genesis 25:19-34

Helpful thoughts:

• With the phrase, “These are the generations of” the book of Genesis moves on to the next chapter.
• Once again, the wife in the line of the people of God is barren for a time.  Unlike in the previous generation, conception came within one verse!  We don’t know exactly when Isaac prayed to the Lord for Rebekah to conceive (Or how many times he prayed).
  • We do know they had been married for 20 years.  Verse 26 tells us Isaac was 60 when Jacob and Esau were born.  He was 40 when they married.
• From the womb, Rebekah knew that the younger child among her twins would be the one who carried on the promise.  God made this clear from the beginning.
• Esau’s name refers to his rugged red features.  Jacob was named after his heal grabbing.  Grabbing someone’s heal was a figure of speech referring to deception.
• Many years later, and for a single warm meal, Esau willingly gave up his firstborn status.

Questions to consider:

1. What have we learned so far about Jacob and Esau?  What characteristics are already on display in this first passage about their lives?
2. Esau and Edom are both tied to the word for “Red.”  But, if Esau started being called Edom after the event of selling his birthright, what would he have always thought of whenever people called him Edom?  What all did the name “Edom” remind him of?  What would Jacob be reminding him of every time he used this name?
3. What all did Esau despise when we despised his birthright?  What was tied to the birthright of the son of Isaac, the grandson of Abraham (Hebrews 12:15-17)?

Today’s passage: Genesis 25:1-18

Helpful thoughts:

• In our reading today, Abraham’s journey on this earth comes to an end.
• Abraham had other children with Keturah, a woman he presumably joined together with after Sarah’s death (She is regarded as a concubine, as Hagar had been).  Sarah maintained her status as “Abraham’s wife.”
  • Though we see genealogies from all of Abraham’s other sons, it is made clear to the reader, Isaac remained the inheritor of Abraham’s estate and the promise from God (Verses 5 and 11).
• God keeps every one of His promises.  Verses 12-18 prove that again (See 17:20).

Questions to consider:

1. Which name from the list of Abraham’s other sons jumps out from the rest?  What name have we heard before from other places in Scripture (Here’s a short article with the answer)?
2. In world history (And religious history) why is this passage so important?  Who does it claim as God’s chosen people, the inheritors of His promise?  Given the location of where these other families settled, who would be their descendants today?  What religion would they likely represent?
3. Though we continue to see so much division and hatred in that part of the world today, what (Who) could unite them?  Regardless of whether they are descended from Isaac, Ishmael or any of Keturah’s sons (Or anyone else), who must they look to for their salvation?

Today’s passage: Genesis 24:52-67

Helpful thoughts:

• When Abraham’s servant heard Rebekah would be allowed to come, he put his praise where it ultimately belonged, to the Lord.  God had blessed his journey.
• The family’s blessing of Rebekah fit right into the promised blessing of God for Abraham’s descendants.
• “It was customary for a woman to cover her face with a veil during the period of betrothal.” – Desmond Alexander (ESV Study Bible)

Questions to consider:

1. How might the effort to have Abraham’s servant stay longer foreshadow Laban’s later deceitful actions with Jacob (Genesis 29:23-25)?  Who was involved in asking this question?  How might this have also carried forward to Rebekah’s own relationship with Jacob?
2. In what way does the blessing of Rebekah’s family correlate to God’s promise to Abraham?  In what way would this blessing come true for Israel?  How is it ultimately fulfilled through the offspring, Jesus Christ?

Today’s passage: Genesis 24:29-51

Helpful thoughts:

• Rebekah is the daughter of Bethuel.  Laban is her brother.  It appears (Perhaps due to Bethuel’s old age) that Laban is increasingly becoming the leader of the family.
  • Laban goes out and meets Abraham’s servant and officially invites him to receive the hospitality of their household.  Bethuel becomes involved once everyone enters the house.
• There is a possibility of foreshadowing here where Laban sees the ring and the gold bracelets and embraces the idea quickly of welcoming this visitor into their home.  Rebekah’s son (Jacob) would later experience Laban’s greed.
• Once Bethuel and Laban hear the account of the servant’s mission, they will not deny it is best for Rebekah to go and be married to Isaac.  They believe it is the Lord’s decreed will.

Questions to consider:

1. In what way did Abraham’s servant continue to show faithfulness to Abraham and the Lord through this mission?  How did he show this was his primary concern?
2. How did the servant convey what he believed to be true of Rebekah in verse 49?  What was his proposal there and what was he going to do if they rejected it?
3. Why couldn’t Bethuel and Laban speak “either bad or good” when it came to being aware of what God was doing?  In what ways do we sometimes get caught up in rating God’s actions (As if we were responsible to approve or disapprove of them)?  What is the right thing to do when we see what God is doing?

Today’s passage: Genesis 24:1-28

Helpful thoughts:

• The servant’s journey would have taken about three weeks (And three additional weeks to return).  This was quite a task!
• When the servant put his hand under Abraham’s thigh, he was committing his submission to Abraham’s wishes.  He was making an oath to follow through with the plan as long as the Lord would provide the right woman.
• The way Abraham’s servant discerned whether the Lord would help him find a wife for Isaac is descriptive rather than prescriptive.  We should not read this passage and then set up similar tests to go find spouses for our children!  The completed scriptures give us everything we need to know to follow the Lord obediently (2 Timothy 3:16-17, 2 Peter 1:3).
  • God wanted Abraham’s descendants to marry others who would also worship the Lord.  To marry someone who worships other gods (Or worships no god at all) would draw them away from Him (Deuteronomy 7:3-4, 2 Corinthians 6:14, The end of 1 Corinthians 7:39).

Questions to consider:

1. Why would this servant have been so compelled to ask God for these conditions in his prayer?  Did he know the area or the people among whom he was looking?  Did he know what/who he was looking for?  Even though we wouldn’t encourage this kind of searching for God’s will today, why can we empathize with the servant’s prayer?  What did God graciously do with it?
2. It’s really hard to imagine this kind of thing happening in our culture in the 21st century!  But, how would you have felt if you were Rebekah in this moment?  What did she know so far?  Why do you think she ran to tell her family?
3. How can Abraham’s willingness to go to such lengths to find the right kind of wife for Isaac encourage a person hoping to find a spouse today?  How important is it to have a spouse who loves the Lord and follows Christ the same way you do?