Latest / Reformed Thinking / Blessing by Deception: Pragmatic Unbelief and God’s Unthwarted Purpose (Genesis 27:5–17)

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Blessing by Deception: Pragmatic Unbelief and God’s Unthwarted Purpose (Genesis 27:5–17) · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome back to the show you were listening to, Reformed
• 0:02
  Thinking. Good to be here.
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  Yeah, I am your host, the guy who usually sits in the back of
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  the seminary class, raising his hand to ask.
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  I was interrupting. Right asking, you know, OK, but
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  how does this actually work in real life?
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  I'm here to bridge the gap between high theology and the
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  messy reality of our daily walk. And I'm here to help build that
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  bridge. We are looking at the
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  architectural structure of the Bible, the covenants, the
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  history, the systematic theology, the big stuff.
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  Yeah, big stuff. And most significantly, what the
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  text is screaming at us about the nature of God and the nature
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  of man. It is.
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  It is good to be back with you. We have a a massive topic on the
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  table today, and I mean massive. We are looking at Genesis
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  chapter 27, verses 5 through 17. A classic.
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  It really is. Now, if you grew up in the
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  church, you know this story. It is the stolen blessing.
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  It is Jacob Esau, the hairy arms, the savory Stew.
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  Oh yeah, it is a staple of Sunday School flannel graphs
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  everywhere. It is.
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  And that is, that is a significant problem because when
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  we relegate this to a children's story or a simple morality tale
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  about how cheaters sometimes win.
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  We miss the point entirely. We miss the tectonic plates
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  shifting underneath the narrative.
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  This is not a story about a clever trick.
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  This is a head on collision between human scheming and God's
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  sovereign decree. We have brought 2 heavy hitting
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  sources to the table for this deep dive.
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  Two really good ones. Yeah, we have a detailed
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  literary analysis titled Blessing by Deception, Pragmatic
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  Unbelief and God's Unforted Purpose, and we are pairing that
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  with a systematic theological breakdown called the Sovereign
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  Decree and the Sinner's Deceit. Which is a great title by the
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  way. It is both of these are reading
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  the text through the lens of the Westminster Confession and
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  Reformed theology. Which is absolutely essential
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  here, because without that theological framework, you look
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  at this chapter and you just see a dysfunctional family
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  destroying itself. It reads like a soap opera.
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  It does, but with the lens of the confession, specifically
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  regarding God's decree in Providence, you see how God is
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  working through that dysfunction.
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  So the mission for today's deep dive is pretty clear.
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  We need to figure out how God's purposes stand firm even when
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  human beings, specifically the covenant family, are doing their
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  absolute best to wreck everything with sin.
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  And we are going to draw a hard line between what the sources
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  call a fraudulent covering, which was Jacob's method, and a
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  righteous covering, which brings us straight to Christ.
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  And we need to issue a warning right up front for you
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  listening. We are going to dismantle a very
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  popular, very dangerous idea. The ends justify the means.
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  Right. The sources call this
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  evangelical pragmatism, and they absolutely shred.
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  It let's get into the text. We can't just drop into verse 5
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  without setting the scene. The sources describe Isaac's
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  household at this point as a house divided.
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  It is a mess. Paint the picture for us.
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  What is the spiritual state of the patriarch Isaac?
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  It is grim. At this point in the narrative,
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  Isaac is old. The text explicitly says his
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  eyes were dim so that he could not see.
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  Now, historically, Isaac actually lives for decades after
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  this event. Wait, really?
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  He thinks he is dying here. He does.
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  He thinks death is at the door, but he isn't dying anytime soon.
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  The urgency he feels is entirely self-imposed, but the sources
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  point out something fascinating here.
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  His physical blindness is a metaphor for his spiritual
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  condition. That is a strong claim, a
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  patriarch of the faith, spiritually blind.
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  Look at his motivation, he calls Esau and says go hunt some game
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  for me so I can bless you. Just because he wants a good
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  meal. Because he loves the game, the
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  source material notes that his spiritual perception has been
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  dulled by fleshly appetite. The entire covenant destiny of
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  this family, the promise given to Abraham, is being driven by
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  Isaac's stomach. That is wild when you put it
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  that way. Yeah, he is prioritizing his
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  palate over the prophecy because he knows the prophecy right back
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  in Genesis 25. He knows it well.
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  Before the twins were born, God gave a direct Oracle to Rebecca.
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  He said. The older will be subjected to
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  the younger. God chose Jacob, so by trying to
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  bless Esau, the first born, Isaac is actively engaging in
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  rebellion. He is trying to subvert God's
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  revealed will because he prefers the cultural tradition of the
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  first born, and frankly, he prefers the venison Esau brings
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  home. So this is not just a confused
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  old man making an honest mistake, This is an act of
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  defiance. Precisely, it is rebellion
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  against the decree of God. Notice the secrecy in the text.
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  A patriarchal blessing was usually a public event, a
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  ceremony. With a whole family gathered
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  around. Yeah, but Isaac whispers this to
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  Esau. He says do this secretly, bring
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  it to me. He knows what he is doing is
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  controversial within the family and he knows it goes against
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  God's intent. Which creates this toxic
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  atmosphere. If the head of the house is
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  sneaking around, everyone else starts sneaking around.
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  And that brings us to Rebecca. The text says she was listening.
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  She was eavesdropping. The Hebrew implies she was
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  lurking, and this signals the shift our sources highlight.
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  We have moved from a covenantal home to a political battlefield.
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  Husband and wife aren't even talking.
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  No, they are maneuvering. It is a Plan B mentality.
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  Plan B mentality break that down for us.
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  It is the mindset that God's promise is fragile.
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  They act as though if they do not intervene with their own
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  human schemes, God's plan will fail.
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  It is the essence of unbelief cloaked in religious language.
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  So Rebecca, here's the plan. Esau leaves to hunt, and Rebecca
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  immediately moves from listener to commander swiftly.
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  I want to drill down on this because the way she talks to
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  Jacob, it is intense. She does not suggest a plan.
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  She orders one. It is military in its precision,
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  but look at how she manipulates the narrative.
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  She repounts what Isaac said to Esau, but our literary source
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  catches a detail she adds. Oh, the addition in verse 7.
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  Right. She tells Jacob that Isaac wants
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  to bless Esau before the Lord. Wait, let me look at the text,
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  Isaac didn't say before the Lord to Esau.
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  No, he did not. Rebecca adds that phrase when
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  speaking to Jacob. It raises the stakes.
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  She is theological, izing the deception.
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  Wow. She is essentially saying we're
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  going to do this high and holy thing involving Yahweh name and
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  we're going to do it by lying. And then she drops the command.
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  Obey my voice. That is the crucial pivot.
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  The Hebrew idiom is Shama Bakul. It translates to listen to the
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  voice of. In the Old Testament you usually
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  see this phrase used for obeying God or a prophet or a king.
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  So it's a phrase of ultimate authority.
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  Yes, and Rebecca is usurping that authority.
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  She is demanding that Jacob obey her scheme rather than trusting
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  in divine Providence. She is basically taking the
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  place of God for Jacob in that moment, saying do what I say and
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  I will ensure the outcome. That is a very fair assessment,
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  and this is what the sources label pragmatic unbelief.
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  It is a specific type of sin. Pragmatic unbelief.
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  She believes the theology. She believes Jacob should get
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  the blessing, but she practices like an atheist.
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  She acts as if God is incapable of delivering that blessing
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  without her sinful help. That hits hard.
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  You believe the theology, but you practice like it is all up
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  to you. I think a lot of us can see
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  ourselves in that mirror. Absolutely.
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  It is the fixer mentality. We think we have to fix it and
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  notice the speed in the text. The passage is breathless with
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  verbs go, get, bring, prepare is.
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  Rapid fire. There is no pause, no time to
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  think, no time to pray. The sources point out that
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  urgency is often the enemy of faith.
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  When you feel like you have to act right now or everything
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  falls apart, you are usually stepping out of the Spirit and
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  into the flesh. So she lays out the plan.
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  Go get 2 goats. She will cook them to taste like
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  venison. Jacob takes them to Dad.
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  It is a counterfeit miracle. It is completely counterfeit.
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  Isaac asked for game, she substitutes goats.
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  Isaac asked for Esau, she substitutes Jacob.
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  It's a dark mirror of what was asked for.
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  Her logic is simple. God intends a good end, so any
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  method is acceptable. Now let's talk about Jacob.
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  Because if my mother told me to go trick my blind, dying father,
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  I would like to think I would have some moral objections.
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  You'd hope so. And Jacob does object in verses
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  11 and 12. Yeah, but the sources are not
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  impressed with his objection. Why?
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  Because his objection is is devoid of morality.
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  Look closely at what he says. He does not say a mother.
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  This is a lie. This is a sin against God and.
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  Father no, he says. Esau is a hairy man and I am a
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  smooth man. He is focused entirely on the
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  mechanics of the trick. He's worried about detection,
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  not sin. He says.
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  Perhaps my father will feel me. His fear is I shall seem to be
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  mocking him and bring upon myself a curse.
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  He is not afraid of doing evil. He's afraid of getting caught.
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  That is it. It is a whisk assessment.
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  He is calculating the odds. If I get caught, I lose the
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  inheritance. The source material calls this a
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  cold, cowardly calculation of self preservation.
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  It really exposes the human heart.
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  Think about it. How often do we avoid doing
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  things just because we don't want the consequences, not
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  because we actually love righteousness?
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  That is the difference between true integrity and mere
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  compliance. Jacob was just trying to survive
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  the situation, but he is wavering because the risk feels
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  too high and this is where Rebecca shuts him down with a
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  guarantee. That chills me to the bone.
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  Verse 13. Upon me be thy curse, my son,
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  she. Offers to be his substitute.
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  She does, She says I will take the heat.
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  You just do what I say. Theologically, this is
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  impossible. A sinful human being can and not
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  bear the covenant curse for another person.
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  Right. She has no ability to actually
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  shield him from God's judgement. None at all.
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  She is making a promise she has absolutely no capability to
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  keep. But it works on Jacob.
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  Why? Because it silences his fear.
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  She insulates him from the risk so he can sin comfortably.
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  That is a brilliant way to put it.
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  Once the fear of consequences is removed, Jacob has no other
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  objection. He does not care about the lie,
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  he cares about the cost. Once the cost is shifted to his
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  mother, he switches into robot mode.
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  And that leads us into to the actual execution.
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  The sources describe what happens next as a multi sensory
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  deception. They are building a virtual
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  reality for Isaac. They really are, and it is
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  meticulous work. Think about the senses involved
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  here first. Taste right?
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  Rebecca prepares the food. She knows Isaac's palate
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  perfectly. She knows how to spice goat meat
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  to make it taste like wild gazelle.
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  She exploits his appetite against him.
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  Then smell. She gets Esau's best garments,
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  which were kept in the house. Right, these aren't freshly
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  laundered robes, these are his hunting clothes.
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  They smell like the field, like earth and sweat.
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  Smell is one of the strongest triggers from memory and trust.
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  She is hacking Isaacs brain. And then touch.
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  This is the part that always seemed cartoonish to me in
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  Sunday School, but the sources take it very seriously.
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  The skins of the goats on his hands and neck.
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  It is grotesque but effective, and I want you to notice the
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  irony of the goats here. One source points out that the
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  goats provide both the food and the disguise.
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  Oh wow. Yeah, the meat becomes the
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  venison and the skin becomes the hairy brother.
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  It is an efficient, ruthless use of resources.
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  One animal fuels the entire lie. And finally, sight.
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  Even though Isaac is blind, the presentation matters.
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  Jacob is standing there in Esau's clothes.
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  The source is called this identity transfer.
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  That is a key theological turn here.
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  Jacob is not presenting himself as a better version of Jacob.
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  He is presenting himself as a different person entirely.
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  He's stealing an identity. He is borrowing presents to
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  secure an inheritance that does not belong to his identity.
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  It is a lot of work. The source notes that sin is
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  often meticulous and crafty. We think of sin as losing
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  control, but sometimes sin is highly disciplined.
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  Oh absolutely. Lies are high maintenance.
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  You have to build them, sustain them, and defend them.
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  Look at the narrative speed again.
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  Once Jacob accepts the plan, the verbs are mechanical, went,
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  took, brought. The conscience is gone.
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  Now it is just execution. So we have this disaster of a
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  family. The dad is in rebellion.
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  The mom is a manipulative, pragmatic atheist.
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  The Sun is a lying coward wearing goat skins.
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  It is a mess, a total mess. But this show is called Reformed
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  Thinking, and we promised to look at this through the lens of
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  the Westminster Confession. How do we make sense of this
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  without concluding that God just lost control of the situation
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  This is? Where we have to put on our
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  theological lenses. The central tension here is
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  between sovereignty and human responsibility.
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  OK. Bring that down for us, Phil.
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  Listener trying to piece this together.
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  The core Reformed doctrine is that God's decree is unforted.
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  God said the older will be subjected to the younger, and in
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  the end, Jacob does get the blessing.
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  God's plan succeeds. But they sin to get it.
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  That is the sticking point for a lot of people.
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  That is the paradox. God's plan succeeds, yet the
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  human actors Rebecca and Jacob are fully guilty of their sin.
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  This is where we have to reject the error of Arminianism.
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  For the listener who might not be deep in the theological
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  weeds, explain why that distinction matters here.
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  Arminianism generally teaches that human free will is the
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  deciding factor in history, that humans can, at the end of the
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  day, block God's purpose. Right that God is just.
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  Reacting to us? Exactly.
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  If that were true, Rebecca's panic would be justified.
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  She would be right to think if I do not sin, God fails.
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  But our sources explicitly argue against this.
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  They show that God uses secondary causes.
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  Secondary causes, meaning God works through other things.
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  Yes, God is the first 'cause but He works through the free
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  actions of his creatures, even their sinful actions, to
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  accomplish His holy ends. Now be careful here.
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  God is not the author of sin. Right, James tells us, God
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  tempts no one. Correct.
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  He does not tempt anyone to evil, but in His infinite wisdom
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  He governs all creatures so that even their sin works to
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  accomplish His purpose. So if Rebecca had sat still,
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  made a cup of tea, and trusted God, Jacob still would have
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  received the blessing. Absolutely.
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  We do not know how God would have done it.
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  Maybe Isaac has a change of heart.
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  Maybe God intervenes directly, but the result was guaranteed by
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  the Word of God. God does not need our sin to
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  help Him. He doesn't need us to play dirty
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  to get his will done. No, that is why Rebecca's action
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  is pragmatic unbelief. She did not believe God could do
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  it without her help. This connects directly to Romans
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  9, does it not? One of our sources brings up
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  Paul's argument in the New Testament.
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  It is the definitive commentary on this story.
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  Paul looks back at this event and says God loved Jacob and
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  rejected Esau. But when?
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  Before they were born? Before they had done anything
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  good or bad. Ted is such a crucial
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  distinction for election. It changes everything.
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  Jacob did not become the chosen one because he was clever enough
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  to steal the blessing. He did not earn it by wearing
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  goat skins. He was already the chosen 1.
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  The decision was already made and eternity passed.
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  Yes, this story does not tell us how Jacob became elect.
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  It shows us the messy, sinful pipeline through which the elect
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  line passed. And it highlights the doctrine
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  of total depravity beautifully. Or maybe, tragically, is a
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  better. Word.
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  Exhibit A. Look at the tent.
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  Who is righteous? Is Isaac?
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  No, he's rebelling against the Oracle.
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  Rebecca. No, she's manipulating Jacob.
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  No, he's a deceiver. Esau.
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  Definitely not. The New Testament calls him
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  profane. Everyone is sinning.
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  If God only worked through perfect people, the story of
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  redemption would have ended right here in Genesis 27.
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  Grace is the only reason the line of Promise survives this
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  family. That is actually really
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  comforting because if God can work through that dysfunctional,
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  lying, scheming tent, maybe there is hope for my house.
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  That is the point. It is not about the quality of
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  the people, it is about the faithfulness of the God.
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  I want to pivot now to what I think is the most striking
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  insight from our sources, the Christological connection you
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  mentioned earlier, the fraudulent covering versus the
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  righteous covering. Let's unpack that, because this
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  is where the theology hits the heart for the believer.
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  This is the heart of the gospel application.
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  Think about what Jacob does. He seeks a blessing from his
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  father, but he knows, He knows deep down, that he is not worthy
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  of it as he is. If he walks in as Jacob, he gets
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  nothing. Right, so he covers himself.
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  He puts on the goat skins. He puts on the stolen clothes.
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  He hides who he is to get the prize.
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  He uses a disguise. He deceives his earthly father
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  to get a temporary blessing. He fears the curse, but he tries
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  to dodge it by trickery. And the source contrasts this
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  with Christ and the believer. Yes, think about our situation.
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  We, like Jacob, need a blessing from the Father.
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  We need the inheritance of eternal life.
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  But like Jacob, we are not worthy of it in ourselves.
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  If we stand before God in our own skins, our own identity, our
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  own record, we do not get the blessing.
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  We get judgment. We get the curse.
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  So we need a covering just like Jacob did.
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  We do. But unlike Jacob, we do not put
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  on a Halloween costume to fool God.
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  We are clothed in what theologians call alien
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  righteousness, the righteousness of Christ.
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  This is the doctrine of imputation.
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  Christ's righteousness is put on us.
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  So when God looks at us, he sees the elder brother, He sees
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  Christ. Yes, but with a massive
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  difference from the Genesis story.
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  Isaac was blind. He was fooled.
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  He did not know it was Jacob. God the Father is not blind and
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  He is not fooled. He sees right through us.
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  He knows exactly who we are. He knows our sins, our failures,
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  our Jacobness, but He accepts us because we are truly united to
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  the Son. It is not a trick, it is a gift
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  of truth. Christ's covering is a legal
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  reality, not a prop of lies. That is beautiful.
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  We do not have to sneak in. We do not have to change our
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  voice or pretend to be someone else.
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  We were invited in wearing the King's robes.
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  Spot on. And think about the curse,
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  Rebecca said. Let your curse be on me.
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  It was a brave thing to say, maybe, but as we said, she could
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  not do it. She could not bear the weight of
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  covenant judgement. Look, Christ could.
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  And he did. Galatians 3.3 says Christ
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  redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for
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  us. He did not just dodge the curse,
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  he absorbed it. Wow.
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  Jacob got the blessing by trickery.
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  Christ got the blessing by obedience.
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  And because Christ took the curse we deserved, we get the
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  blessing he deserved. That really changes how you read
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  the story. It stops being about Be Like
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  Jacob, which is frankly terrible advice, and starts being look at
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  how much better Jesus is. That is the goal of all biblical
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  interpretation. It should always lead us to
• 18:10
  worship. If your reading of the Old
• 18:11
  Testament does not get you to Christ, you have not finished
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  reading. So what does this all mean for
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  us today? We have analyzed the text, we
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  have done the systematic theology.
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  We have gone to the cross. Now we have to apply it to the
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  listener's life. The sources are pretty strong on
• 18:26
  this. They talk about killing
• 18:27
  pragmatism. This is the So what moment we
• 18:30
  have to identify the idol of control in our own lives.
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  Rebecca and Jacob represent practical atheism.
• 18:37
  Acting like God does not exist or is not strong enough to
• 18:40
  handle my job, my relationships, my church.
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  Precisely, it is the belief that we must manage outcomes because
• 18:46
  God might fail, and the sources give a sharp warning to the
• 18:50
  Church specifically. Yeah, they talk about marketing
• 18:52
  driven growth in the local church.
• 18:54
  Right. Whatever work strategies, if we
• 18:56
  think well, if we just soften the hard truths of the Bible a
• 18:58
  little bit, or if we just use this manipulative emotional
• 19:01
  technique, we will get more people saved.
• 19:03
  We are doing a Rebecca. We're cooking goat and calling
• 19:06
  it venison. That's right, we are trying to
• 19:09
  help God's promise with our deception.
• 19:12
  The ends justify the means mentality creeps right into the
• 19:15
  sanctuary. And in the Kingdom of God, the
• 19:17
  means matter. God cares about how we do
• 19:19
  things, not just the result. He would rather have a small
• 19:22
  faithful church than a massive church built on goat skins and
• 19:26
  trickery. It also speaks heavily to
• 19:28
  families. The sources highlight the danger
• 19:31
  of favoritism and secrecy in the home.
• 19:33
  This household is destroyed by secrets.
• 19:36
  Isaac loved Esau, Rebecca loved Jacob.
• 19:38
  They stopped talking to each other and started plotting.
• 19:41
  It trains children to be deceitful.
• 19:43
  It sets the culture of the home. If you create an environment
• 19:46
  where the only way to get what you need is to manipulate, you
• 19:49
  are raising little Jacobs. So the call for the believer is
• 19:51
  to repentance. It is we should not admire
• 19:55
  Jacob's cleverness. We should repent of our own
• 19:57
  shortcuts. The source mentions the third
• 20:00
  use of the law. Which is the guide for our life,
• 20:03
  right? How we ought to live now that we
• 20:05
  are saved? Yes.
• 20:07
  For the believer, this text guides us to walk in truth.
• 20:10
  We need to trust that God can handle the consequences of our
• 20:13
  honesty. If telling the truth means you
• 20:15
  lose the sale, or you lose the promotion, or you have a hard
• 20:18
  conversation, you trust God with that.
• 20:21
  You do not try to save God's plan with your sin.
• 20:24
  You don't prop up the ark. Trusting Providence?
• 20:26
  Yeah, that is the key take away. We must rest in the fact that
• 20:29
  God's decree is safe. And there is hope for sinners
• 20:33
  here too. That is the final piece of
• 20:34
  application. Despite the mess, the promise
• 20:37
  continued. God did not abandon the line of
• 20:39
  Jacob because of the sin. That is the assurance we need.
• 20:42
  Our standing rests on God's faithfulness, not our moral
• 20:45
  performance. If it depended on Jacob being a
• 20:47
  good guy, the covenant would have ended that day.
• 20:50
  Amen. And if it depended on us being
• 20:52
  good guys, we would be totally lost.
• 20:54
  But it depends on God. I want to leave you listening
• 20:56
  with a final thought, something to chew on, and this is
• 20:59
  something the sources allude to, but I think is worth really
• 21:01
  sitting with. What is that?
• 21:03
  Consider the cost. Jacob got the blessing.
• 21:07
  He got what he wanted. But read the next chapter.
• 21:09
  He had to flee his home immediately.
• 21:11
  He ran for his life. Because Esau wanted to kill him.
• 21:14
  Right. And he never saw his mother
• 21:16
  again. She died before he came back.
• 21:17
  That is a heavy reality. Sin works in the short term.
• 21:21
  He got the blessing, but it brings massive sorrow.
• 21:24
  He spent the next 20 years being deceived by his uncle Laban.
• 21:28
  It is like he reaped what he sowed over and over again.
• 21:32
  It is true God's plan stands, but sin still leaves a scar.
• 21:37
  It is a call to look away from self-reliance and look to the
• 21:40
  sovereign God who restores. Well, we have covered a lot of
• 21:43
  ground today on this deep dive from goatskins to the
• 21:45
  Westminster Confession, the cross of Christ.
• 21:48
  It has been quite a ride. It certainly has, and I hope it
• 21:51
  helps you see that the Bible is far more honest about human
• 21:53
  nature and far more glorious about God's nature than we often
• 21:57
  give it credit for. Absolutely.
• 21:59
  Thank you for listening to Reformed Thinking.
• 22:01
  Until next time, keep thinking. Goodbye.