Latest / Reformed Thinking / Dim Eyes, Clear Promise: Revelation vs. Preference (Genesis 27:1–4)

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Dim Eyes, Clear Promise: Revelation vs. Preference (Genesis 27:1–4) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed thinking. This is the place where we take
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a stack of serious theological sources, commentaries, the
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Westminster Confession, sermon notes, and try to get to the
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bottom of what they actually mean for your life.
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Yeah, good to be here. We are interested in skimming
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the surface today. We want to open the text, see
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what is inside and figure out why it matters, right?
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We always say our goal is to take high level theology and
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make it accessible without watering it down.
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We want to see how the Bible confronts you in your daily
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walk. That is the goal and today we
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are opening up the book of Genesis, specifically chapter 27
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verses one through 4. Now I have to admit, when I
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first read through the outline for this deep dive, I thought,
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well Isaac is old, he wants some food.
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But looking at the sources we gathered, there is so much more
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bubbling under the surface here. Oh, it is a volcano waiting to
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erupt. Yeah, it looks like a quiet
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domestic scene on the outside. But underneath, the tectonic
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plates of redemptive history are grinding against each other.
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Let's set the scene for the listener.
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We are not on a battlefield. We are not in a palace, we are
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in a tent. It is the ancient Near East.
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It is very intimate. You have to imagine the sensory
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details here. It probably smells like dust,
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old wool, maybe the lingering scent of a campfire.
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And sitting right in the middle of it is Isaac.
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This is the patriarch, the son of Abraham.
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But he isn't the young man we remember from the story of the
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sacrifice on Mount Moriah. He isn't carrying wood up a hill
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anymore. No, the text is ruthless in its
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description. He is old, he is frail, and
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right out of the gate we are told his eyes are dim.
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That sets a mood, doesn't it? Yeah.
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There's a shadow hanging over this conversation.
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It feels like the end of an era. Isaac thinks he is dying.
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And in that heavy atmosphere, he makes a decision that, if it
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worked, would completely wreck the Covenant promise.
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Those are the stakes. This isn't just a story about a
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family argument or a trick. I think we often hear it that
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way in Sunday school, You know, Jacob tricks Isaac, ha ha.
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But if we look closer, this is a collision.
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It is a collision between human flesh and God's eternal decree.
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That brings us to the mission of this deep dive.
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We are looking at a specific conflict revelation versus
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preference. That is the core issue.
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Revelation is what God has said, preference is what I want, and
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we are going to watch a hero of the faith try to override what
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God said because of what He wants.
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It is a little terrifying when you put it that way.
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How does a man like Isaac, who was raised by Abraham, who spoke
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with God, get it so wrong? It is the question we have to
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answer. We are looking at a patriarch
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attempting to weaponize a holy blessing to satisfy a carnal
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appetite. To help us figure this out, we
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are leaning on some heavy sources today.
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We have exegetical commentaries that breakdown the Hebrew, and
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we have some Reformed systematic theology to help us see the big
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picture. So let's get right into it.
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Section 1 is all about context, because you cannot understand
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Genesis 27 if you don't know what happened back in Genesis
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25. Context is king.
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If you just drop into this chapter, you might feel sorry
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for Isaac. You might think, here's a nice
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old dad trying to do a nice thing for his outdoorsy son, but
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the reader is supposed to know better.
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We have information that Isaac is completely ignoring.
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You are talking about the Oracle.
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The Oracle from Genesis 25 verse 23.
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This is the key that unlocks the door.
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Before the twins Jacob and Esau were even born, while they were
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fighting inside Rebecca's womb, God gave a clear word.
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What did he say? He told Rebecca that the older
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will be subservient to the younger.
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That is not a Riddle, that is pretty straightforward.
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It is a revelatory word. It established the direction of
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the covenant line before the boys did anything, good or bad.
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This is where we get the Reformed doctrine of election.
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God chose the younger Jacob to carry the promise.
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It wasn't based on merit. It was based on God's free
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choice. So this wasn't a vague horoscope
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prediction, this was a decree from the creator.
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A divine decree, Yeah. And here's the thing.
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Isaac knows this. He isn't ignorant of the
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prophecy. He lived through it.
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So when we see him in Chapter 27 preparing to bless Esau, the
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older son, he is acting directly against this prior revelation.
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That is the irony. He is trying to bless the one
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God rejected for the covenant line.
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He's trying to force God's hand to match his social
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expectations. And it isn't just the prophecy,
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it is the character of Esau himself.
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The reader knows who Esau is. We recall the story of the
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birthright in Genesis 25. The famous bull of Stew
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incident, Esau, came in from the field starving, and Jacob
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offered him soup in exchange for the birthright.
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And Esau took the soup. He took the soup, the text says.
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He despised his birthright. He traded the long term
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spiritual value of the covenant, being the priest of the family,
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the ancestor of the Messiah, for a belly full of red lentils.
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The New Testament calls him profane for that.
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Yes, Hebrews 12 uses that word. It means he was a man of the
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earth. He had no spiritual horizon.
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He only cared about what he could touch, taste, and.
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Kill. And this is the guy Isaac wants
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to bless. That is the tragedy.
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Isaac wants to bless the very Son who has already shown
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contempt for the covenant. It highlights Isaac's spiritual
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blindness. He values Esau's field skills,
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his ability to hunt, his masculinity, his ruggedness over
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Esau's spiritual state. It sounds like he is impressed
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by the wrong things. He looks at Esau and sees a
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capable provider, a man's man. He is dazzled by worldly
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competence. He is thinking, look at my boy,
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he can survive in the wild. But he ignores the fact that his
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boy has no interest in the God of Abraham.
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And the atmosphere in the house reflects this tension.
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It is a house divided. Genesis 25 verse 28 says it
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plainly. Isaac loved Esau, but Rebecca
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loved Jacob. Partiality has turned the home
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into a rivalry. It is Team Esau versus Team
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Jacob. And there's one more detail
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about Esau that makes Isaac's plan even more baffling.
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Genesis 26 tells us about his marriages.
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Right Esau married 2 Hittite women.
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These were Canaanites. The text says.
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These marriages were a bitterness of spirit to Isaac
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and Rebecca. They were a grief.
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So Isaac knows Esau is unequally yoked.
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He knows Esau sold the birthright.
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He knows the Oracle said the younger would rule.
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And yet he still leans toward Esau.
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He pushes past all the warning signs.
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That is the context. Now let's look at the text
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itself first. One when Isaac was old and his
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eyes were dim so that he could not see dim eyes.
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That is the headline. Obviously on a physical level,
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he's going blind. He has cataracts or something
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similar. Yes, strictly speaking it is a
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medical condition. The Hebrew word is watihena, but
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in the Bible physical details are almost always doing double
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duty. They are metaphors.
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So the physical blindness points to something else.
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It points to a spiritual reality.
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Think about Eli and First Samuel.
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The text says he was old and his eyes were dim and what was
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happening? The priesthood was corrupt and
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he couldn't see it. He was spiritually asleep.
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And here's Isaac, physically blind, but also spiritually
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blind to God's plan. He cannot see clearly.
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He is operating in the dark. He's acting as if he cannot see
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the Oracle or the character of his son.
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And from that darkness he speaks.
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He calls Esau my son. And Esau answers.
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Here I am. It is a tender moment, isn't?
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It it is. It sounds like a sweet father
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son interaction. And that is the danger.
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We expect sin or rebellion to look ugly.
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We expect it to sound like a scream or a curse.
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But here, treason against God's decree comes wrapped in warm,
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familiar language. My son, here I am.
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It looks like love. But it is a disordered love.
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It is. It is loving the wrong thing in
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the wrong way. And I noticed the text
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explicitly calls Esau his older son.
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The narrator is nudging us there by calling him the older son.
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The text highlights the conflict.
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This signals that Isaac is operating by natural law.
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The custom of the day was primogeniture.
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The first born gets the double portion.
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So Isaac is following culture. He is following tradition.
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The world says bless the first born.
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God said the younger is the chosen one.
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Isaac is choosing the path of least resistance.
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He is going with the flow of his culture rather than the hard
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word of revelation. That brings us to verse 2.
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This is what drives the whole plot forward.
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He says, Behold, I am old. I do not know the day of my
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death. This is the engine of urgency.
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It sounds valid. He is old.
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He feels like he could go at any moment.
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It sounds prudent, but here is a fascinating fact from our notes.
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Isaac actually lives for many years after this event.
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Really. I always assumed he died the
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next day or something. No, he lives for decades.
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He is nowhere near death's door in reality, but he feels that
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death is imminent. So the fear of death is driving
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the plan. Urgency is a powerful drug.
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When we feel like time is running out, we panic and
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urgency often becomes an excuse to bypass consultation with God.
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I see that when we are in a rush, we stop praying and start
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doing. Notice what Isaac does not do in
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verse 2. He doesn't say Lord I am dying.
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Confirm to me who should get the blessing.
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He doesn't gather the family. No, he doesn't call Rebecca.
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He doesn't call Jacob. He panics and plans.
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It is a secret operation. It is the illusion of control.
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He is trying to settle the estate before he dies.
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He treats the covenant blessing like a last will and testament
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that he can manage. He forgets that it is a divine
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gift he must submit to. He is worried about what he
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doesn't know the day of his death, so he ignores what he
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doesn't know. God's word regarding Jacob.
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That is a great point. He obsesses over the unknown and
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ignores the gnome. It is the psychology of urgency.
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I have to do this now. And that pressure pushes him to
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act in the flesh. So he has the motive, which is
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urgency. Now he sets up the mechanism.
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This is where it gets really earthy.
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Verses 3 and four, he tells Esau.
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Take your weapons, your quiver in your bow and go out to the
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field and hunt. Game for me.
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The equipment here is symbolic. Isaac links the holy blessing to
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Esau's rugged masculinity. Get your weapons.
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He is emphasizing Esau as the man of the field.
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It is the world's logic again. The Son who can deliver, who can
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bring home the meat, is the Son who deserves the blessing.
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It is performance based. Esau is the provider.
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He is the strong one. Isaac loves that strength.
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And then the request prepare for me savory food such as I love.
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That phrase is key savory food. The Hebrew word is matamim.
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Matamim. It means tasty delicacies.
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It is a rare word. It highlights the distinct
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pleasure or craving. He doesn't just want food, he
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wants that specific. Dish.
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He wants his comfort. Food he wants his pellet
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satisfied. And look at the sequence he sets
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up. It is a liturgy.
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Hunt. Prepare, bring, eat.
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Bless the blessing is the caboose on the train of
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appetite. The blessing is tied to a
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sensual conduit. Isaac needs his belly filled and
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his taste buds satisfied before he will perform a spiritual
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duty. We call this the Liturgy of
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Appetite. That is disturbing when you
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think about it. He can't just bless him, he has
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to eat first. It seems he needs the sensory
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experience to get into the mood to bless.
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And compare this to the earlier chapter.
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Esau sold his birthright for a meal.
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Now Isaac tries to give the blessing for a meal.
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The stomach is playing a dangerous role in this family's
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theology. It is the idol of the belly.
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Paul talks about those whose God is their belly.
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Here the appetite is steering the ship.
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And he says, such as I love. There it is.
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Preference is theology. Isaac is letting his preference,
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what tastes good to him, the son he likes, override revelation.
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We do this all the time, don't we?
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We think we're doing the right thing, but we're really just
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doing what we like. We call it prudence, but it's
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really just preference. Preference.
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Masquerading is wisdom. I prefer Esau, therefore Esau
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must be the right choice. I prefer this food, therefore I
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will bless you after I eat it. So he sends Esau out, and then
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he gives the purpose clause in verse 4.
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Bring it to me so that I may eat, that my soul may bless you.
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The grammar is strict here. The blessing is conditional on
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the eating, so that I may eat, that my soul may bless you.
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No meal, no blessing. It certainly sounds that way.
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The transaction is explicit. But he uses that word soul
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nefesh, that my soul may bless you.
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This tells us Isaac is not being flippant.
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He frames this as a deep, heartfelt act from the depths of
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who I am. He is sincere.
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That is the scary part. He is sincere.
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He is incredibly sincere. He feels deep emotion about
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this, but he is sincerely wrong. We often think that if we feel
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something in our soul, that must be from God.
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Sincerity is not the same as obedience.
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You can have a peace about a sinful decision.
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You can feel led to do something that contradicts scripture.
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Isaac feels in his soul that he should bless Esau, but his soul
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is misinformed by his flesh. And again the before I die echo.
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The finality adds weight. He wants to secure this
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transaction now. And it is private.
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Yes, note the secrecy. This isn't a public ceremony.
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He didn't call the elders of the tribe.
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He didn't call Rebecca or Jacob. It is a private deal between the
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father and the favorite son. He's trying to bypass the rest
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of the family. And implicitly, he is trying to
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bypass God. He knows what God said about the
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younger son. If he makes this public, Rebecca
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might object. She might quote the Oracle.
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So he does it in the shadows. So we have walked through the
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text. We see the dim eyes, the
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urgency, the weapons, the food, the soul.
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Now let's go a level deeper. Let's put on our theologian
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hats. Let's do it.
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This scene is basically a collision between the blindness
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of the flesh and the sovereignty of grace.
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That is the perfect way to frame it.
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We adhere to the Westminster Confession of Faith.
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How does that document help us understand what is happening
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here? Well, the confession talks about
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God's eternal decrees. It says that God from all
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eternity did freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever
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comes to pass. So God ordained that Jacob would
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receive the blessing. Correct.
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That was the decree. The older will bow to the
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younger. So Isaac's plan, it never had a
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chance, did it? It was doomed from the start.
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Isaac's plan cannot succeed because God has already spoken.
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You cannot outmaneuver the decree of God.
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Isaac could have eaten all the gazelle and the Nageb and he
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still wouldn't have been able to make Esau the air of the
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promise. But God uses secondary causes.
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Yes, God's Providence is fascinating here.
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He doesn't strike Isaac with lightning to stop him.
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He uses the very circumstances the secondary causes to fulfill
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his plan oh so well. Consider Isaac's blindness.
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If Isaac wasn't blind, the deception by Jacob which comes
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later wouldn't have worked. Consider Isaac's hunger.
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If he hadn't demanded a meal, there wouldn't have been a delay
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allowing Rebecca to intervene. Whoa.
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So Isaac's fleshly appetites, in his physical weakness are the
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stage on which God's plan unfolds.
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That is right. God uses the sin and weakness of
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the Patriarch to accomplish His holy purpose.
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Isaac's blindness, his hunger, his error.
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God incorporates these into the fulfillment of the Oracle.
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That is a mystery of Providence. But does that get Isaac off the
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hook? Can he say, well, God used it so
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it's fine? Absolutely not.
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The confession is also clear on human responsibility.
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Isaac is not a puppet. He acts freely according to his
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nature. He wanted the food, he wanted to
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bless Esau. He is responsible for his carnal
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planning. The text does not excuse him
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because God worked it out. It portrays his actions as a
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spiritual failure. It really shows that the
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Covenant does not rest on the shoulders of human heroes.
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That is the comfort. If the Primus depended on
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Isaac's scene, clearly it would have failed.
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If it depended on Isaac being a perfect theologian, the line of
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Christ would have ended there. But it depends on God's scene,
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clearly. God's vision saves us from our
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blindness. To that.
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Now, Speaking of the line of Christ, we try to preach Christ
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from all of scripture. How do we see Jesus in this
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messy tent scene? We see him by contrast.
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My Isaac versus Jesus. Think about it, Isaac says my
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will be done. He seeks his own savory food to
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satisfy his flesh. He says feed me that I will
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bless. And Jesus.
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Jesus is the true Son in the Garden of Gethsemane facing
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death. Just let Isaac thought he was
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facing death. Jesus prays and he says not my
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will, but yours be done. Isaac tries to control the hour
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of death. Jesus submits to his hour.
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Precisely. Isaac demands a meal to bless.
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Jesus provides a meal to bless. Lord's Supper.
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Yes, Isaac says bring me meat so my soul can bless you.
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Jesus says take, eat. This is my body given for you.
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He feeds us to bless us. He doesn't demand we feed him.
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That is beautiful. We don't need to hunt or perform
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to get the blessing. No, Esau had to go out and hunt,
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he had to work for it. We received the blessing by
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faith in the true first born Jesus.
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We don't bring the savory food, we come hungry and He feeds us.
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That completely flips the script.
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It destroys the logic of works righteousness.
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Isaac's scheme was works based. Do this.
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Get that the gospel is grace based.
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It is done. Receive this.
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So what does this hall mean for us today?
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I mean, most of us aren't aging patriarchs living in tents, but
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we fall into the same traps. We do.
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The first application is the idol of preference.
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Expand on that. Challenge yourself.
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Where do you let what I love override what God said?
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Like in church? Absolutely.
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Think about worship wars. I need the music to sound like
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this for me to worship. I need the pastor to be funny.
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I need the atmosphere to be just right.
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Make me savory foods such as I love so that my soul may bless
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the Lord. That is it.
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We condition our obedience and our worship on our preferences
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being met. We are acting like Isaac.
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Feed my taste, then I will engage.
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That hits home. We treat the church like a
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restaurant. And we use pragmatism, That is
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the hunt. We use worldly methods to try to
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achieve spiritual results. If we just have the right
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marketing, the right lights, the right savory food, then God will
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bless our church. But God bless is His word, not
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our recipes. That is spot on.
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What about parenting? We saw the favoritism here.
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It is a massive warning to families.
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Favoritism creates long term estrangement.
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Esau and Jacob's conflict lasts for generations.
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It creates nations that hate each other.
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And notice why Isaac favored Esau.
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Because Esau fed him. Isaac loved Esau because he ate
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of his. Game do not value a child based
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on how they feed your ego or needs.
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That is the trap. We love the kid who is good at
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sports because it makes us look good.
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We love the kid who is compliant because they make our life easy.
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We love the kid who shares our hobbies.
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That is savory food parenting. We need to love them based on
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the covenant, not their utility to us.
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Impartially, like God loves. They're the urgency trap.
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This is big for our culture. We are obsessed with time.
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I am 30 and I am not married. I AM 50 and I haven't reached my
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career. Goal.
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I do not know the day of my death.
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Panic. And when we panic, we scheme, we
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compromise, we take shortcuts. Isaac felt time running out, so
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he sinned. We must trust God's timing.
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Urgency is never an exposed to bypass God's command.
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If you have to sin to get it done in time, then it is not
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God's time. That is a hard word, but a good
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one. And finally, we have to offer
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hope. Because Isaac really messed up
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here. He failed spectacularly.
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He was blind, carnal, and disobedient.
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And yet look at Hebrews 11, the Hall of Faith.
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By faith, Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau.
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He is still in the Hall of Faith.
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He is because his standing didn't depend on his perfection,
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it depended on God's promise. And eventually, after this
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chapter, Isaac submits, he realizes God beat him.
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So for the listener who feels like I have messed up my family,
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I have acted on preference, I have been blind.
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God's purposes for you are stronger than your stumbling.
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Your sin is real and you should repent, but God's grace is
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greater. He used even Isaac's mess to
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bring about the Messiah. That is the gospel.
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That is the only hope we have. So to recap, we have a demide
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father, a savory meal, a secret plan.
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And we have a God who says man proposes, but I dispose.
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Isaac thought he needed a meal to give a blessing, but the
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gospel tells us we need a meal to receive the blessing.
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That is the take away. I want to leave you with this
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thought. We spend so much of our lives
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hunting. Hunting for satisfaction,
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hunting for security, hunting for that savory food that will
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make us feel whole. And we think that once we get
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it, then we can be spiritual. Then we can bless.
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Then we can rest. But Jesus stands there and says
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I am the bread of life. Are you hungry for the savory
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food of the world or the bread of life?
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Are you trying to cook up your own blessing or are you willing
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to receive the one God has prepared for you?
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That is the question. Thank you for joining us on this
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deep dive. It has been a pleasure.
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Until next time, keep thinking, keep reading, and keep looking
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to the true Son who did the Father's will perfectly.
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Grace and peace to you. We will see you next time on
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reformed thinking.