Isaac gets older and his eyesight starts going. One day he calls Esau, his favourite son and Esau comes. Then Isaac says “I’m old now and my death is approaching, although I don’t know when it will be. So get your weapons – your bow and arrows – and go out into the wild places and catch something for me. Then cook my favourite dish with it and bring it to me to eat; then I will give you my blessing so that I will not die without giving it to you.”
Rebekah is near the tent when Isaac is speaking though and her favourite son is Jacob so she doesn’t want to see Esau get the blessing. So when Esau has gone hunting she runs to Jacob and tells him everything that’s gone on and what Isaac has asked Esau to do. Then she explains her plan: “listen carefully my son, do exactly what I say. Go out to our flocks and get me two of our best goats. I will cook them just the way your father likes. Then you can take it into your father and he will bless you instead.”
But Jacob sees a problem is like: “Woa, mum! Esau is hairier than a goat – I have smooth skin. If dad figures out that I’m not Esau he’ll curse me and I’ll be cursed instead of blessed. It’s not worth the risk.”
Rebekah says “Don’t worry about that. If he curses you then let it come onto me instead, just do what I say! Time is short.”
So Jacob does as his mum says and he gets the goats. Rebekah cooks them exactly the way Isaac likes and then goes and gets some of Esau’s best clothes, which she has handily in the house. She puts them on Jacob. Then she takes the goatskin of the goats which were now chunks of cook meat and covers Jacob’s hands and neck to make them hairy. Then she quickly gives him the meal she has cooked and points him towards his father’s room.
Jacob goes to his father and announces his arrival by saying “Dad.” Isaac says, “Yes, my son? Which one of you is it?”
“I am Esau, your firstborn,” says Jacob. “And I have done as you asked. Sit up and eat some of the meat I have caught for you so that you may bless me.” Isaac was a little suspicious, because he says “How did you ever find it so quickly?” To which Jacob has the right answer: “The Lord who is your God gave me success.” Isaac accepts this but is still unsure and says, “Come closer. I cannot see you but let me touch you so that I may know whether you are really Esau or not.” Jacob must have been pretty scared as he came forward, but he does come forward and Isaac touches the hair of the goatskin and says, “Your voice is like Jacob’s but your hands are of Esau, so he gives him a blessing, a small one it seems. Because he still has some doubts.
These doubts are shown because he asks again “are you really my son Esau?” and Jacob says “Yes.” So Isaac says, “Right then if you would just bring me some of the meat you have caught and cooked for me to eat and I will give you my full blessing.”
Jacob brings it forward, probably thinking ‘come on, hold it together just a bit longer Jacob and we can get out of here with the blessing before Esau returns.’ So Isaac eats and drinks then says “Come near to me my son and kiss me on the forehead.” So Jacob goes forward and respectfully kisses his father’s forhead. But Isaac was cunning because he uses the last of the senses he has: smell. He has heard the voice, he has touched the arm, he has tasted the food, he can’t see, so smell is the last test to see whether this is really his son Esau. But Jacob was wearing esau’s clothes so Isaac smells Esau and so he gives him his full blessing, saying…
“You smell like a field that the Lord has blessed. May God give you the dew that will keep the plants growing, and may he give you a rich earth so that your crops may grow lots. May you get lots of grain and wine. May other countries serve you, and the people in those countries bow down to you. Be the lord over your brothers and may the sons of your mother bow down to you. May anyone who curses you be cursed and may anyone who blesses you be blessed.”
Isaac finishes his blessing and Jacob gets out of his father’s room quickly. It was a good thing too, because not long after Jacob had left Esau comes back from hunting. He cooks his food and takes it to his father and he says, “Dad, sit up and eat this food I have caught for you and then you can give me your blessing.” But Isaac is confused and asks, “Who are you?” Then it is Esau’s time to be confused, because he says, “I am your son… Esau…”
Then Isaac begins to think “oh no, I’ve given his blessing to someone other than Esau, please God don’t let this be happening to me,” and he trembles. He says “Who was it then that already brought me food? I ate it JUST before you came and I blessed him. And he will definitely be blessed, I cannot take it back now.” Esau hears his father’s words and breaks down into tears. And he says “Bless me too dad! Please!!” But Isaac realises now who it was who had come before and says “your brother cane and tricked me and he has your blessing.” And Esau says “My brother has now tricked me TWO times! He has taken my birthright and NOW he has taken my blessing!” But before he left he asked his father, “Have you reserved any of your blessing for me?”
Isaac says, “I have made him lord over you and have made all his relatives his servants. I have given him grain and wine. What else could I possibly do for you?” Esaus says, “Do you only have one blessing dad? Bless me too dad, PLEASE!!” But Isaac is quiet and Esau cries loudly. But Isaac isn’t finished, he speaks again. “You will live away from earth which is good for gorwing things, you will not get the dew from the sky which will help plants grow. You will always be fighting and you will serve your brother Jacob. BUT when you grow restless you will throw off his rule over you.”
Esau leaves but he holds a grudge against Jacob from then on. He says to himself “Soon dad will die and then I’ll kill Jacob.” Rebekah hears this, however, and she tells Jacob. So she says to him “Do exactly what I say: Go at once to this place called Haran. It is where I lived before I married your father. I have a brother there. Stay with him for a while until Esau’s anger has gone. When he has calmed down I will send a message and tell you to come back.”
So Rebekah goes to Isaac and says, “It’s horrible living here with these foreign women. They are Hittite women. If Jacob gets a Hittite wife (basically a wife who is from this land) and not from our own homeland then I may as well be dead because my life will not be worth living.”
Isaac agrees with this (remember how they did not like how Esau had married two Hittite and they had caused Isaac and Rebekah grief?) and so he sends for Jacob. He gives him a command: “Do NOT marry a women from this land, which is called Canaan. Any women who is from Canaan is not good for you. Go to your uncle and find a wife from amongst his daughters. May God be good to you and make you have lots of stuff until your family is enough to become a community of its own. May you be the one who continues under the blessing of Abraham after me, so that you may one day take this land (Canaan) as your own land. God gave Abraham this land, one day it will be yours (for I am to old for it to be mine now). So Isaac sends Jacob away to Laban (who was Rebekah’s brother)
Esau hears about this and he hears that Isaac has commanded Jacob not to marry a women from the land of Canaan, including the Hittite women. And then Esau realises how annoyed Isaac is that he, Esau, has married two Hittite women and so Esau goes to Ishamel (Isaac’s brother) and he marries a women called Mahalath, one of Ishmael’s daughters.
But Jacob in the meanwhile leaves his father’s house and he travels toward the place where Laban lives. He stops for the night at one place because it is dark. It is a stony place so Isaac takes a stone and uses it as a pillow. Then he goes to sleep. As he sleeps he gets a dream and it is something llike this:
There is a stairway which is resting on the earth. Its top stretches up to heave. On the stairs there are angels going up and down it. Above the stair God stands. God looks at Jacob and says “I am the LORD! I am the God who is the God of Abraham and Isaac. I will give you and your children and your children’s children and you children’s children’s children and ALL of your descendents, the land that you are sleeping on. Your descendants will be like dust there will be so many of them! You will spread everywhere, to the west and the east and the south and the north. Everyone will be blessed because of your descendents. I want you to know that I’m with you and will look after you. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised.”
When Jacob eventually wakes up he thinks “Surely the LORD is in this place and I did not know!” He was so afraid that he said “How AMAZING is this place!!!! It has to be the house of God! This has to be the gate of heaven!
When it was morning Jacob takes the stone he had used as a pillow and stands it upright to be a pillar and a marker. Then he puts oil on it to make it godly and holy and he calls it Bethel (which means house of God)
Then Jacob says “If God is with me always and if he will watch over me on this journey to my uncle that I am on, and if God will give me food and drink and clothes and if god will return me at some time to my father’s house then this God will be MY God also. And this pillar will be God’s house and of everything that this God gives me I will give him a tenth!”
Matthew 10:32-11:15
Jesus continued instructing his disciples on how to use the power he had given them…
“If you tell other people about me then I will tell my father (God) about you. But if you don’t tell people about me, then I will not tell my father (God) about you. And please don’t think that I have come to bring peace ON EARTH! I did not! I came to bring wars! For I have come to turn… (he quotes a passage of the old testament, Micah 6:7) …
“a man against his father,
A daughter against her mother,
A daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law
A man’s enemies will be members of his own household”
(the disciples were probably like: wow, never saw that bit of the bible like THAT before. To think that that actually applies to Jesus!!) But Jesus continued…
“If you love your dad or your mum or your daughter or your son MORE than me you are NOT worthy of me. If you do not willingly suffer for me then you are NOT worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will find that he’s actually lost it. But if you lose your life because of me then you wil find that you have actually just FOUND your life!
If you believe in me then anyone who is kind to you, is kind to me. And anyone who is kind to me is kind to the one who put me on this earth: my father (God). It makes sense because if you are kind to a prophet then a prophet will give you what reward he can give you. And if you are kind to a godly man then you will get the reward of a godly man. Makes sense? But if you give even a cup of cool refreshing water to a man because he is my disciple then that person will most definitely NOT lose his reward!”
And that was the end of his instruction to his disciples. He went on from there and began to teach and preach things in the towns of this place called Galilee.
John the Baptist heard about this, but at the time he was in prison so he couldn’t go to see Jesus. Instead John got some of his own disciples to go to Jesus and ask him a question. (John was in prison he must have been pretty low so even he was beginning to wonder if Jesus actually WAS the messiah. His disciples come to Jesus and they said “Are you definitely the Messiah, or is it going to be someone else?”
Jesus’ reply goes like this: “Tell John to make up his own mind, but tell him what’s going on: the blind are seeing, the lame are walking, those who have ungodly diseases are being cured, the deaf are hearing, the dead are being raised and THE good news is being preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.”
So John’s disciples left with this answer and as they did Jesus began teaching about John the Baptist. He said “Why did you go out into the desert where John was? To see nothing? If not then why did you go out there? To see a rich man dressed in fine clothes? No, those people live in palaces. Then what did you go to see? A prophet? Yes. You know what? I say that you went out to see more than a prophet. Because John is the one about whom the old testament says ‘I will send my messenger ahead of you, and he will prepare your way before you.’ You know what the truth is? The truth is that there is no one who has ever been born who is greater than John the Baptist, yet even the person who is the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than John! From the days of John the Baptist until NOW the kingdom of Heaven has been pushing forward and coming into this world. Men who are forceful and push forward and grab hold of it will become part of it. All the prophets and the Law prophesied until John. If you are willing to accept it this is Elijah! For it is said that Elijah would come back to Earth to make a way for the Messiah. John is that Elijah! He who is wise, remember this.
Psalm 9:1-6
I will sing songs to you with ALL of my heart, God
I will tell people about all the amazing things you have done
I will be happy and will celebrate in you
I will sing songs to your name O God above everything else
My enemies cannot face you
They stumble and run away from you
For you have chosen my side
You have sat on your throne and you judge perfectly
You have warned nations – told them off and destroyed the wicked
You have killed them and made it so that no one remembers them
The enemy is ALWAYS ruined
You have pulled up their cities like a weed
Even the memory of the cities are completely gone!
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