Genesis 27.41-46-Rebekah's Plan to Send Jacob Away to Avoid Esau's Plot to Kill Him
Tuesday June 6, 2006
Genesis: Genesis 27:41-46-Rebekah’s Plan to Send Jacob Away to Avoid Esau’s Plot to Kill Him
Lesson # 157
Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 27:41.
This evening we will complete our study of Genesis 27.
Thus far, we studied Genesis 27:1-4, which records the conspiracy of Isaac and Esau to secretly secure the blessing of the birthright for Esau rather than Jacob, which was against the will of God.
Genesis 27:5-17 records for us the conspiracy of Rebekah and Jacob to deceive Isaac and secure the blessing of the birthright for Jacob, which would thwart the conspiracy of Isaac and Esau from succeeding.
Genesis 27:18-29 records the success of Rebekah’s plan where Jacob successfully deceived his father Isaac into thinking he was Esau so that Isaac unknowingly bestowed upon him the family blessing rather than Esau.
On Sunday morning we studied Genesis 27:30-40, which records Isaac learning that he had been deceived by Jacob and Esau attempting in vain to secure a blessing from Isaac but instead his father pronounces an antiblessing upon Esau.
This evening we will study Genesis 27:41-46, which records Rebekah learning of Esau’s plot to kill Jacob once Isaac has died and as a result advising Jacob to leave home.
Genesis 27:41, “So Esau bore a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him; and Esau said to himself, ‘The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.’”
“Bore a grudge” is the verb satam (sf^c*) (saw-tam), which means, “to hate.”
Love and hate are absolutes meaning you either love your fellow human being by obeying the Lord’s command to love one another or you hate your fellow human being by disobeying this command.
Therefore, when love is absent, hate is present and love unexpressed is not love at all.
Hate is expressed in both an “active” and a “passive” sense.
Hate in the “active” sense refers to unjustifiable hostility and antagonism towards one’s fellow human being, which expresses itself in malicious words and actions.
Hate in the “passive” sense is manifested by coldness, by isolation, by exclusion, unconcern for your fellow believer.
Esau hated his brother Jacob in both an “active” and “passive” sense for stealing the blessing of the birthright.
1 John 2:9, “The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now.”
1 John 2:10, “The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him.”
1 John 2:11, “But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.”
The old Adamic sin nature, which was imputed to every human being at the moment of physical birth, is one of the reasons why people hate one another.
Romans 5:19a, “For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners.”
By plotting to kill Jacob when his father died, Esau was being governed by his old Adamic sin nature.
The sin nature produces personal sins when we give in to it.
Galatians 5:19, “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality.”
Galatians 5:20, “idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions.”
Galatians 5:21, “envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
James rebukes “believers” giving into the lusts of their sin nature, which produced quarrels and conflicts among them.
James 4:1, “What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?”
James 4:2, “You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.”
James 4:3, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.”
The second reason why people hate one another is that Satan and his world system can deceive them.
By plotting to kill Jacob, Esau was being deceived by the kingdom of darkness.
James 4:4, “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
James 4:5, “Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: "He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us?”
James 4:6, “But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, ‘GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.’”
James 4:7, “Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”
Saul’s hatred of David is an example of the active form of hate that is possible among believers (1 Sam. 18-20).
The Lord Jesus Christ was the object of the passive form of hate in that He was deserted by His disciples and friends at the most difficult moment in His life.
What hurt our Lord most was not the active enmity of those who were trying to accomplish His death, but the coldness and indifference of those who once followed Him yet turned aside from Him and idly stood by as He was put to death.
John 16:32, “Behold, an hour is coming, and has already come, for you to be scattered, each to his own home, and to leave Me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.”
Paul experienced being the object of both the passive and active form of hate from other believers (See 2 Timothy 4:9-18).
The believer who fails to forgive, hates whereas the believer who forgives as God in Christ has forgiven him, loves.
By plotting to kill Jacob for stealing the blessing of the inheritance, Esau was not forgiving his brother.
Colossians 3:12, “So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”
Colossians 3:13, “bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.”
Colossians 3:14, “Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.”
This attitude of hate led to Esau plotting to murder his brother, which is one of the sins that God hates.
Proverbs 6:16, “There are six things which the LORD hates, yes, seven which are an abomination to Him.”
Proverbs 6:17, “Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood.”
Proverbs 6:18, “A heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil.”
Proverbs 6:19, “A false witness {who} utters lies, and one who spreads strife among brothers.”
Just as Cain killed his brother Abel in a jealous rage, so Esau plans to kill his brother Jacob because of jealousy.
Proverbs 6:34, “For jealousy enrages a man, and he will not spare in the day of vengeance.”
Like Cain, Esau was an emotional person who was governed by his emotions.
Genesis 27:41, “So Esau bore a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him; and Esau said to himself, ‘The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.’”
Esau’s statement “the days of mourning for my father are near” indicates that he anticipates that his father will not live much longer but as it turns out, Isaac lived for another eighty years.
His statement “the days of mourning for my father are near, then I will kill my brother Jacob” also indicates that love for his father and fear that his father would curse him and disinherit him constrained him from murdering Jacob immediately.
Genesis 27:42, “Now when the words of her elder son Esau were reported to Rebekah, she sent and called her younger son Jacob, and said to him, ‘Behold your brother Esau is consoling himself concerning you by planning to kill you.’”
Rebekah received this information that Esau was plotting to kill Jacob by divine revelation since Genesis 27:41 records that Esau divulged this plan to no one but in fact was stating this intention to kill Jacob only to himself.
Genesis 27:43, “Now therefore, my son, obey my voice, and arise, flee to Haran, to my brother Laban!”
Just as Rebekah commanded Jacob to deceive his father into giving him the blessing of the birthright so she commands him again to flee from Esau.
The name “Laban” (/bl) (Hebrew: lavan) means, “white” and is used elsewhere in the Bible (Isa. 24:23; 30:26; cf. Song. 6:10) as a poetic metonym for the moon.
Laban’s grandfather was Nahor, Abraham’s brother, and of course his sister was Rebekah.
Laban lived in the city of Nahor near Haran along one of the tributaries of the Euphrates River in what is now modern Syria and his occupation was a sheep and goat herder.
Haran still exists in and is located in northern Mesopotamian, a commercial city on the Balikh River, sixty miles from its entrance into the Euphrates.
The city was on the busy caravan road connecting with Nineveh, Asshur, and Babylon in Mesopotamia, and with Damascus, Tyre, and Egyptian cities in the west and south and was a center of the moon god cult.
Genesis 27:44-45, “Stay with him a few days, until your brother's fury subsides, until your brother's anger against you subsides and he forgets what you did to him. Then I will send and get you from there. Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day?”
Unknown to Rebekah was that she thought she would see Jacob again in just a few days, but she never saw him again.
She never thought that Jacob’s exile would be for twenty years as it turned out to be (See Genesis 31:41).
Rebekah not only destroyed her relationship with Esau after conspiring with Jacob to steal the blessing of the birthright but in the end she also lost Jacob.
Genesis 27:46, “Rebekah said to Isaac, ‘I am tired of living because of the daughters of Heth; if Jacob takes a wife from the daughters of Heth, like these, from the daughters of the land, what good will my life be to me?’”
Just as Sarah took the initiative to provide for Isaac by driving out Hagar and Ishmael (See Genesis 21:10) so Rebekah acts for Jacob by providing for his get away with a cover of legitimacy.
Rebekah’s desire to get a wife for Jacob among her relatives was not her real motivation for sending Jacob to her relatives.
But rather, it was to spare Jacob from Esau’s wrath.
Rebekah uses Esau’s Hittite wives as a pretext for sending Jacob away to her relatives.
Esau’s Hittite wives brought grief not only to Rebekah but also Isaac according to Genesis 26:34-35.
Therefore, by appealing to Isaac’s dislike for Esau’s Hittite wives, Rebekah knows that Isaac will consent to her sending Jacob away to her relatives in Paddan Aram.
The Hittites were the descendants of Heth who was the son of Canaan (See Genesis 10:15) and as a result were under a curse according to the prophecy of Noah, which is recorded in Genesis 9:24-27.
At times the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, were called “Canaanites” but strictly speaking the nations who dwelt on the coasts or river lowlands were called “Canaanite” (Nm. 13:29).
Against the will of the Lord, Esau married Hittite women, who were Canaanites according to Genesis 26:34-35.
Therefore, Rebekah had a legitimate reason for sending Jacob away.
The Aramean women embrace the faith of their husbands, unlike the Canaanite women who seduce their husbands to join their lifestyles (See Genesis 24:4; 26:34-35; 31:50).
Again, we see Rebekah manipulating her husband and whining at him, which manifests how bad Rebekah and Isaac’s relationship had gotten.
As a wife to Isaac, Rebekah is not conducting herself according to the Word of God.
Colossians 3:18, “Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.”
Rebekah has become a contentious woman as a result of her disobedience.
Proverbs 19:13, “And the contentions of a wife are a constant dripping.”
Proverbs 21:9, “It is better to live in a corner of a roof than in a house shared with a contentious woman.”
Proverbs 21:19, “It is better to live in a desert land than with a contentious and vexing woman.”
Proverbs 25:24, “It is better to live in a corner of the roof than in a house shared with a contentious woman.”
Proverbs 27:15, “A constant dripping on a day of steady rain and a contentious woman are alike.”
Proverbs 27:16, “He who would restrain her restrains the wind, and grasps oil with his right hand.”
Rebekah is lying about her true motivation for sending Jacob to her relatives, indicating that her and Isaac were not communicating on important spiritual matters.
Also, Rebekah is pouring salt on the open wound of Isaac who knew full well that Esau disobeyed the Lord and betrayed the Abrahamic Covenant by marrying Hittite women rather than an Aramean woman.