Hope for Esau
Hope for Esau
Genesis 27:34a
As soon as Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me, even me also, O my father!”
No matter what we make of Esau’s character in the grander scheme of Redemptive history (he certainly represents a theological conundrum), he’s clearly a victim in Genesis 27 and not a villain, and it’s hard not to feel heartbroken for him. Honestly, he’s actually doing a good thing here. He’s spent the entire day ‘honoring his father’ by hunting, preparing the game, and cooking a feast for Isaac, but Jacob takes advantage of both Esau’s kindness and Isaac’s weakness. So we need to recognize the bewilderment of this scene. Feel this old, dying patriarch tremble in horror at Jacob’s betrayal. Feel this gruff, manly outdoorsman cry like a baby. And remember that just because God is wise enough to weave Jacob’s deception into His plan, that doesn’t make what Jacob does right.
Friend, I love to think that although father Isaac is powerless to right this wrong, Father God isn’t! And I’m still holding out hope that we’ll see Isaac, Jacob, and Esau reunited again in heaven, finally partaking in the Father’s blessing together.