Isaac has just unwittingly given his blessing to Jacob instead of his older son Esau.30 After Isaac finished blessing him, and Jacob had scarcely left his father’s presence, his brother Esau came in from hunting. 31 He too prepared some tasty food and brought it to his father. Then he said to him, “My father, please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your blessing.”32 His father Isaac asked him, “Who are you?”“I am your son,” he answered, “your firstborn, Esau.”33 Isaac trembled violently and said, “Who was it, then, that hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it just before you came and I blessed him—and indeed he will be blessed!”34 When Esau heard his father’s words, he burst out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me—me too, my father!”35 But he said, “Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing.”36 Esau said, “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob? This is the second time he has taken advantage of me: He took my birthright, and now he’s taken my blessing!” Then he asked, “Haven’t you reserved any blessing for me?”37 Isaac answered Esau, “I have made him lord over you and have made all his relatives his servants, and I have sustained him with grain and new wine. So what can I possibly do for you, my son?”38 Esau said to his father, “Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father!” Then Esau wept aloud.39 His father Isaac answered him,“Your dwelling will be away from the earth’s richness, away from the dew of heaven above.40 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.”REFLECTIONSWritten by Gus CameronBack at the end of chapter 25 Esau sold his birthright to his brother for a bowl of soup, and the chapter concludes by saying that “Esau despised his birthright”. He did not value the privileged place he had in the family. Here we now see Esau also lose his father’s blessing. When he begs for even just a little blessing, what his father offers reads more like a curse with only the faintest hint that one day he will have to fight his brother’s family for their freedoms.Reading yesterday’s passage I was reminded of the joy of having God’s blessing, but today we must contemplate the devastation of being excluded from it. I don’t know why Isaac couldn’t bless both his sons, but perhaps God did it this way for our benefit, so that we would see the pain of a life cursed, so that we will treasure even more the blessing God gives to his people in Christ Jesus.Pray that God would never let you forget how bad it would be to be without his blessing. Pray for someone you know who does not yet know God’s blessing, pray fervently that God would show them his blessing in Christ Jesus.ABOUT THE AUTHORGus is an assistant minister with our Fairfield Congregations.