By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their
future. By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of
Joseph’s sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff. By
faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites
from Egypt and gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones. (Hebrews 11:20-22)
The
author of Hebrews skims over Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph with honorable mentions:
three portraits in three verses. In each, one of the patriarchs shows faith through
his words. Isaac and Jacob are both described as blessing. The word “blessing”
isn’t used for what Joseph says, but he was blessing with with a vision of a
positive future after a difficult time.
But do you notice something odd in these verses? In the first sentence, the author of Hebrews says that Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau. If you remember the story, Esau sells Jacob his birthright, and then Jacob steals the blessing that Isaac was planning to give to Esau. When Esau gets back, he begs Isaac to bless him, too, but Isaac says there is no blessing left for him. And then, Isaac prophesies, saying, “Your dwelling will be away from the earth’s richness, away from the dew of heaven above. You will live by the sword and you will serve your brother. But when you grow restless, you will throw his yoke from off your neck.” (Genesis 36:39-40)
Did Isaac bless Esau? I think that in his culture, there was a custom with regard to blessing, and according to that definition, Isaac had no blessing left to give Esau, but that doesn’t mean that Isaac didn’t bless Esau. I think that Joseph’s speaking about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt was also a blessing that didn’t fit the cultural pattern.
All three spoke of a positive future, but not a future without difficulties. They exercised faith not only in speaking positively, but they also spoke positively about something that was not possible for them to influence. If the positive was to happen, it was up to God.
That’s what faith is all about, isn’t it? So how do we do the same? It’s not about predicting some pie-in-the-sky outcome, adding an “Amen” and thinking “Now God has to come through.” There’s more to it, and I want to understand that more, because I’m looking at goals for the next six months, and being blessed and blessing would be nice. But so would having faith that speaks of a positive future.
For me, that’s a huge challenge. It’s difficult to think in terms of a positive future. It’s more difficult to hold on to that vision when things don’t seem to be lining up with it. That brings my spiritual goals up to three: to have faith in God for a positive future, to grow in prayer, and to learn to pay attention to God (and then to others.) It looks like I’m going to have an interesting winter.
But do you notice something odd in these verses? In the first sentence, the author of Hebrews says that Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau. If you remember the story, Esau sells Jacob his birthright, and then Jacob steals the blessing that Isaac was planning to give to Esau. When Esau gets back, he begs Isaac to bless him, too, but Isaac says there is no blessing left for him. And then, Isaac prophesies, saying, “Your dwelling will be away from the earth’s richness, away from the dew of heaven above. You will live by the sword and you will serve your brother. But when you grow restless, you will throw his yoke from off your neck.” (Genesis 36:39-40)
Did Isaac bless Esau? I think that in his culture, there was a custom with regard to blessing, and according to that definition, Isaac had no blessing left to give Esau, but that doesn’t mean that Isaac didn’t bless Esau. I think that Joseph’s speaking about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt was also a blessing that didn’t fit the cultural pattern.
All three spoke of a positive future, but not a future without difficulties. They exercised faith not only in speaking positively, but they also spoke positively about something that was not possible for them to influence. If the positive was to happen, it was up to God.
That’s what faith is all about, isn’t it? So how do we do the same? It’s not about predicting some pie-in-the-sky outcome, adding an “Amen” and thinking “Now God has to come through.” There’s more to it, and I want to understand that more, because I’m looking at goals for the next six months, and being blessed and blessing would be nice. But so would having faith that speaks of a positive future.
For me, that’s a huge challenge. It’s difficult to think in terms of a positive future. It’s more difficult to hold on to that vision when things don’t seem to be lining up with it. That brings my spiritual goals up to three: to have faith in God for a positive future, to grow in prayer, and to learn to pay attention to God (and then to others.) It looks like I’m going to have an interesting winter.
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