The Terrible Blessing and the Bitter Tears Text: Genesis 27:30-40
Introduction: The Collision of Providence and Perfidy
We come now to one of the most uncomfortable and emotionally raw scenes in all of Genesis. It is a tangled knot of human sin, pathetic carnality, and yet, underneath it all, the inexorable, steamrolling sovereignty of God. If you want a story where all the good guys wear white hats and all the bad guys wear black hats, you had best close your Bible and pick up a children's storybook. The Scriptures show us the undiluted reality of God working His perfect will through the most imperfect and broken of vessels. This is not a story about how to get your father's blessing. It is a story about how God gives His blessing, and it is a terrifying and glorious thing to watch.
The stage is set. Isaac, old and blind, has attempted to subvert the declared will of God. God had told Rebekah before the twins were ever born that "the older shall serve the younger" (Gen. 25:23). But Isaac loved Esau because Esau was a man's man, a hunter, and he brought home savory venison. Isaac's affections were governed by his stomach. He wanted to give the covenant blessing to the son of his own carnal preference, not the son of God's declared purpose. So he sets up a secret scheme. Rebekah overhears it and cooks up a deceitful scheme of her own, using her preferred son, Jacob, as the instrument. Jacob, the quiet mama's boy, goes along with it, lying baldly to his blind father's face. The whole affair is a sorry mess, a domestic disaster steeped in lies, manipulation, and sensory deception.
And yet, God's will is accomplished. The blessing is diverted to the chosen son. Our text picks up at the very moment the curtain falls on Jacob's deception and rises on Esau's discovery. It is a moment of high drama, of violent trembling, bitter tears, and irrevocable words. What we are about to witness is the collision of God's sovereign decree with the consequences of human sin. And in this collision, we learn profound truths about the nature of God's blessing, the seriousness of despising it, and the unchangeable reality of God's electing grace.
The Text
Now it happened that as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had hardly gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting. Then he also made a savory dish and brought it to his father; and he said to his father, "Let my father arise and eat of his son's game, that your soul may bless me." And Isaac his father said to him, "Who are you?" And he said, "I am your son, your firstborn, Esau." Then Isaac trembled exceedingly violently and said, "Who was he then that hunted game and brought it to me, so that I ate of all of it before you came and blessed him? Indeed, he shall be blessed." 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, me also, O my father!" And he said, "Your brother came deceitfully and has taken away your blessing." Then he said, "Is he not rightly named Jacob, for he has supplanted me these two times? He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing." And he said, "Have you not reserved a blessing for me?" But Isaac answered and said to Esau, "Behold, I have made him your master, and all his fellow brothers I have given to him as servants; and with grain and new wine I have sustained him. Now as for you then, what can do, my son?" And Esau said to his father, "Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father." So Esau lifted his voice and wept. Then Isaac his father answered and said to him, "Behold, away from the fatness of the earth shall be your habitation, And away from the dew of heaven from above. By your sword you shall live, And your brother you shall serve; But it shall be when you become restless, That you will break his yoke from your neck."
(Genesis 27:30-40 LSB)
The Terrible Realization (v. 30-33)
The timing here is razor-thin, orchestrated by a divine playwright. Jacob exits stage left just as Esau enters stage right.
"Now it happened that as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had hardly gone out... that Esau his brother came in from his hunting... And Isaac his father said to him, 'Who are you?' And he said, 'I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.'" (Genesis 27:30-32)
Esau comes in, confident and expectant. He has fulfilled his father's request. He has brought the savory meat. He is ready to receive what he believes is rightfully his. But Isaac's question, "Who are you?" is filled with confusion and dawning horror. The answer, "I am your son, your firstborn, Esau," lands like a thunderclap.
And look at Isaac's reaction. It is not mere surprise or anger. "Then Isaac trembled exceedingly violently." The Hebrew is emphatic. He shook, he quaked, he was seized with a great shuddering. Why? This is not just the trembling of an old man who has been tricked. This is the terror of a man who has just realized he has been fighting against God and has lost spectacularly. He had tried to bless Esau, to force God's hand, to make his own will supreme. And in that very act, he was used as the instrument to bless Jacob instead. He has been outmaneuvered not just by his wife and son, but by the Almighty. He was trying to steer the ship of the covenant onto the rocks of his own preference, and God grabbed the tiller and steered it right back on course, using Isaac's own hands to do it. This is the holy terror that comes from realizing that your sinful rebellion was the very tool God used to accomplish His righteous purpose. It is the fear of the Lord.
And in that moment of terror, Isaac submits. "Who was he then... and I blessed him? Indeed, he shall be blessed." This is the pivot point of the entire story. Isaac understands. The blessing was not just a string of nice words; it was a prophetic, covenantal ordinance. Once spoken, it was spoken. It was a bullet fired from a gun; you cannot call it back. He realizes that the words he spoke were not his own, but were given by God, and God directed them to the right target despite Isaac's blind aim. He bows to the sovereignty of God. He affirms the blessing. "He shall be blessed." The deceiver has received the promise, and the patriarch who tried to thwart the promise is the one who now ratifies it.
The Bitter Tears of the Profane (v. 34-38)
Esau's reaction is one of profound, worldly grief. It is a sorrow that we must carefully dissect.
"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, me also, O my father!'" (Genesis 27:34 LSB)
This is not the cry of godly repentance. This is the cry of profound loss. This is the shriek of a man who has just seen the winning lottery ticket snatched from his hand. The book of Hebrews gives us the inspired commentary on this moment: "that no one be immoral or profane like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. For you know that even afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears" (Hebrews 12:16-17). He sought for the blessing with tears, not for repentance. He was sorry he lost the prize, not sorry for the sin that led to the loss.
Esau was a profane man. The word means common, secular, unholy. He lived for the moment, for the tangible, for the immediate gratification of his appetites. He despised his birthright, the spiritual inheritance, and sold it for a bowl of lentil stew. He treated the covenant promises like a trinket to be bartered for a snack. Now, he wants the material benefits of the blessing he so casually despised. He wants the fatness of the earth and the dew of heaven, but he has no regard for the God who gives them.
He rightly accuses Jacob: "Is he not rightly named Jacob, for he has supplanted me these two times?" The name Jacob means "supplanter" or "heel-grabber." And yes, Jacob's actions were deceitful. The Bible does not whitewash the sins of its heroes. But Esau fails to see his own culpability. He blames Jacob entirely, forgetting that the first time, with the birthright, he willingly sold his inheritance. He despised it. Now he weeps for the consequences of a choice he himself made.
Isaac's response is stark. "Behold, I have made him your master... what can I do, my son?" The blessing is a package deal. It is an office, a position. Isaac has installed Jacob as the head of the clan. He has given him the dominion. He cannot now give that same dominion to Esau. There is only one covenant head. There is only one firstborn blessing. Esau's desperate plea, "Do you have only one blessing, my father?" reveals his tragic misunderstanding. He thinks of blessings as divisible commodities, like handing out pieces of candy. But the covenant blessing is singular and indivisible. It is the promise of Abraham. It is the line of the Messiah. And it belongs to one man.
The Leftover Blessing (v. 39-40)
Isaac, moved by his son's weeping, gives him what is left. It is a blessing, of a sort, but it is a shadow, a pale and terrible reflection of what was given to Jacob.
"Behold, away from the fatness of the earth shall be your habitation, And away from the dew of heaven from above. By your sword you shall live, And your brother you shall serve; But it shall be when you become restless, That you will break his yoke from your neck." (Genesis 27:39-40 LSB)
Notice the structure. This is a direct inversion of Jacob's blessing. Jacob was given the fatness of the earth and the dew of heaven. Esau is told his dwelling will be away from it. His descendants, the Edomites, would inhabit the harsh, arid lands south and east of the Dead Sea. It would be a life of scarcity, not abundance.
Jacob was given dominion. Esau is given a life of violence and servitude. "By your sword you shall live." This is a prophecy of a people who live by plunder, by conflict, by the sword. And ultimately, "your brother you shall serve." The divine oracle given to Rebekah is here confirmed by the patriarch. The older shall serve the younger. This is the fixed, covenantal reality.
But there is a glimmer of something else. "But it shall be when you become restless, That you will break his yoke from your neck." This is a prophecy of future rebellion. The history of Israel and Edom is one of constant conflict. The Edomites were subjugated by David, but they constantly chafed under the yoke and eventually broke free in the reign of Jehoram (2 Kings 8:20-22). This is not a promise of ultimate triumph, but of perpetual strife. It is a hard and bitter inheritance.
Conclusion: Two Kinds of Tears
This story sets before us two ways of approaching God, two kinds of sorrow, two destinies. Esau wept, but his were the tears of worldly sorrow. He mourned his loss, not his sin. He wanted the gifts of God without God Himself. His tears were bitter because he was profane, and he found no place for repentance. This is the sorrow that leads to death (2 Corinthians 7:10). It is the sorrow of the man who is caught, not the sorrow of the man who is contrite.
Jacob, for all his sin and deceit, was a man who wrestled with God. He was a heel-grabber, a supplanter, but he valued the blessing. He wanted the spiritual inheritance, even if he went about getting it in all the wrong ways. His life would be one of hardship and discipline. He would be deceived by Laban, his wages changed ten times. He would wrestle with the angel at Peniel and walk with a limp for the rest of his days. God would spend a lifetime breaking this man of his scheming self-reliance and teaching him to rely on grace alone. Jacob's tears, when he wept, were the tears of a man being broken and remade by the God of the covenant.
The central lesson is this: God's sovereign election is not thwarted by our sin. In fact, He weaves our sins, our pathetic schemes, and our carnal desires into the tapestry of His perfect plan. He did not approve of Isaac's favoritism, or Rebekah's manipulation, or Jacob's lies, or Esau's profanity. But He governed it all. He overruled it all to ensure that His promise, given to Abraham, would flow through the line of His choosing.
And that promise culminates in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the true firstborn, the one who truly deserved the blessing. And yet, He was treated like the profane one. He was despised and rejected. He cried out with a loud voice from the cross. He was cast "away from the fatness of the earth," into the outer darkness of God's judgment. And why? So that we, who like Esau had despised our birthright and sold it for the slop of sin, could be brought near. So that we, who like Jacob are nothing but schemers and heel-grabbers, could receive the blessing not through our own pathetic conniving, but through His perfect righteousness.
Do not be like Esau, weeping for the consequences of your sin while still loving the sin itself. Rather, come to God as a Jacob, a supplanter who has been supplanted by grace. Acknowledge your sin, your deceit, your unworthiness. And lay hold of the blessing that cannot be stolen and can never be lost, the blessing that is found in the Son, Jesus Christ, who is blessed forever.