The title refers to Jacob stealing Esau's blessing, but we'll come back to that in a second. The first part of this reading was about Isaac. In 26:2 it says, "The Lord appeared to Isaac". I've noted in previous entries when God has actually appeared to people in the Bible. I will continue to do this, as I sort of wonder when did he stop doing that? Did he stop doing that?
Like father like son?
While living in Gerar, Isaac told everyone that Rebekah was his sister rather than his wife so that he wouldn't get killed on account of her. And the king got mad when he found out. Incidentally, this was King Abimelech, the same king who took Sarah as a wife before he found out she was Abraham's wife, not his sister. No wonder he was mad! He probably thought, "Geesh! What is it with this family?!?! Trying to get us all to commit adultery!"Now, would you please look at Genesis 26:34? No really. Go look, I'll wait. Is just me, or does this come out of nowhere? We're reading all about Isaac and Abimelech and then BAM! "When Esau was 40 years old...." Esau? What? That comes out of nowhere, right? Odd.
So then there is the story of Jacob stealing Esau's blessing at Rebekah's urging. When Jacob asks Rebekah, "what if my father touches me?" (because Esau was a very hairy man), she covers his hands and the smooth part of his neck with goat skins. You see, Isaac was blind. Isaac recognizes Jacob's voice as being Jacob's voice, but he touches the goat skins and thinks it must be Esau after all. Hence my question: Is this where the phrase "pull the wool over his eyes" comes from? Not according to the websites that come up if you Google this phrase, but I think I might be onto something here....
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