Hello, this is Father Paul and I'm glad we're taking this journey together to read the Bible
in a year.
Yesterday we heard about the death of Sarah and the marriage of Isaac and how Abraham
charged his servant to find a wife for his son not from the daughters of the Canaanites
brought from his own people and sent him and how the servant brought back Rebekah.
Today we're going to hear about the children of Isaac and how one steals the birthright
of the other.
Alright, let's begin.
Today's reading is Genesis chapters 25, 26, and 27.
Let's begin.
Chapter 25.
Abraham again took a wife and her name was Keturah.
And she bore him, Zimran, Jokshan, Midan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuwa.
Jokshan begot Sheba and Didan.
And the sons of Didan were Ashurim, Letushim, and Lumim.
And the sons of Midian were Effah, Efer, Hanuk, Abida, and Eldah.
All these were the children of Keturah.
And Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac, but Abraham gave gifts to the sons of the
concubines which Abraham had.
And while he was still living, he sent them eastward, away from Isaac his son, to the
country of the east.
This is the sum of the years of Abraham's life which he lived, 175 years.
Then Abraham breathed his last and died, in a good old age, an old man and full of years,
and was gathered to his people.
And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Makphela, which is before Mamre,
in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, the field which Abraham purchased
from the sons of Heth.
There Abraham was buried and Sarah his wife, and it came to pass, after the death of Abraham,
that God blessed his son Isaac, and Isaac dwelt at Bir-l-Hai-Ruy.
Now this is the genealogy of Ishmael, Abraham's son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's maidservant,
bore to Abraham.
And these were the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names, according to their generations.
The first born of Ishmael, Nebadros, then Kedar, Abdeel, Mipsaam, Mishma, Duma, Massa,
Hadar, Tema, Jator, Nafish, and Kidema.
These were the sons of Ishmael, and these were their names by their towns and their
settlements, twelve princes according to their nations.
These were the years of the life of Ishmael, one hundred and thirty-seven years, and he
breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people.
They dwelt from Havela as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt, as you go toward Assyria.
He died in the presence of all his brethren.
This is the genealogy of Isaac, Abraham's son.
Abraham begot Isaac.
Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah as wife, the daughter of Bethuel, the Syrian
Ophedon Aram, the sister of Laban Nasirian.
Now Isaac pleaded with the Lord for his wife, because she was barren, and the Lord granted
his plea, and Rebekah, his wife, conceived.
But the children struggled together within her, and she said, If all is well, why am
I like this?
So she went to inquire of the Lord, and the Lord said to her, Two nations are in your
womb.
Two peoples shall be separated from your body.
One people shall be stronger than the other, and the older shall serve the younger.
So when her days were fulfilled for her to give birth, indeed there were twins in her
womb.
And the first came out red.
He was like a hairy garment all over.
So they called his name Esau.
Afterward his brother came out, and his hand took hold of Esau's heel.
So his name was called Jacob.
Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.
So the boys grew, and Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field.
But Jacob was a mild man, dwelling in tents.
And Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game.
But Rebekah loved Jacob.
Now Jacob cooked a stew, and Esau came in from the field, and he was weary.
And Esau said to Jacob, Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am weary.
Therefore his name was called Edom.
But Jacob said, Sell me your birthright as of this day.
And Esau said, Look, I am about to die, so what is this birthright to me?
Then Jacob said, Swear to me as of this day.
So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob.
And Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils.
Then he ate and drank, arose and went his way.
Thus Esau despised his birthright.
Chapter 26
There was a famine in the land besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham.
And Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines in Gerar.
Then the Lord appeared to him and said, Do not go down to Egypt.
Live in the land of which I shall tell you.
Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you.
For to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which
I swore to Abraham your father.
And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven.
I will gift your descendants all these lands, and in your seed all the nations of the earth
shall be blessed.
Because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes and my
laws.
So Abraham dwelt in Gerar, and the men of the place asked about his wife.
And he said, She is my sister.
For he was afraid to say she is my wife, because he thought, Lest the men of the place kill
me for Rebekah, because she is beautiful to behold.
Now it came to pass when he had been there a long time that Abimelech king of the Philistines
looked through a window and saw, and there was Isaac showing endearment to Rebekah his
wife.
Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, Quite obviously she is your wife.
So how could you say she is my sister?
Isaac said to him, Because I said, Lest I die on her account.
And Abimelech said, What is this you have done to us?
One of the people might soon have lain with your wife, and you would have broad guilt
on us.
So Abimelech charged all his people saying, He who touches this man or his wife shall
surely be put to death.
Then Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold.
And the Lord blessed him.
The man began to prosper and continued prospering until he became very prosperous.
For he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great number of servants.
So the Philistines envied him.
Now the Philistines had stopped up all the wells which his father's servants had dug
in the days of Abraham his father.
And they had filled them with earth.
And Abimelech said to Isaac, Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.
Then Isaac departed from there and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar and dwelt
there.
And Isaac dug again the wells of water which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father.
For the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham.
He called them by the names which his father had called them.
And Isaac's servants dug in the valley and found a well of running water there.
But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac's herdsmen saying the water is ours.
So he called the name of the well Essek because they quarreled with him.
Then they dug another well and they quarreled over that one also.
So he called its name Sitna.
Then he moved from there and dug another well and they did not quarrel over it.
So he called its name Rehoboth because he said for now the Lord has made room for us
and we shall be fruitful in the land.
Then he went up from there to Beersheba and the Lord appeared to him the same night and
said, I am the God of your father Abraham.
Do not fear for I am with you.
I will bless you and multiply your descendants for my servant Abraham's sake.
So he built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord and he pitched his tent there.
And there Isaac's servants dug a well.
Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzad, one of his friends, and he called
the commander of his army.
And Isaac said to them, Why have you come to me since you hate me and have sent me away
from you?
But they said, We have certainly seen that the Lord is with you.
So he said, Let there now be an oath between us, between you and us, and let us make a
covenant with you, that you will do us no harm, since we have not touched you, and since
we have done nothing to you but good, and have sent you away in peace.
You are now the blessed of the Lord.
So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank.
Then they arose early in the morning and swore an oath with one another.
And Isaac sent them away and they departed from him in peace.
It came to pass the same day that Isaac's servants came and told him about the well
which they had dug, and said to him, We have found water.
So he called it Sheba.
Therefore the name of the city is Beer Sheba to this day.
When Esau was forty years old, he took as wives Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite,
and Basimat the daughter of Elan the Hittite.
And they were a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebekah.
Chapter 27
Now it came to pass, when Isaac was old and his eyes were so dim that he could not see
that he called Esau his older son and said to him, My son.
And he answered him, Here I am.
Then he said, Behold now I am old, I do not know the day of my death.
Now therefore please take your weapons, your quiver and your bowl, and go out to the field
and hunt game for me, and make me savoury food such as I love, and bring it to me that
I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die.
Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to Esau his son, and Esau went to the field
to hunt game and to bring it.
So Rebekah spoke to Jacob her son saying, Indeed I heard your father speak to Esau your
brother, saying, Bring me game and make savoury food for me, that I may eat it and bless you
in the presence of the Lord before my death.
Now therefore my son, obey my voice according to what I command you.
Go now to the flock and bring me from there two choice kids of the goats, and I will make
savoury food from them for your father, such as he loves.
Then you shall take it to your father, that he may eat it, and that he may bless you before
his death.
And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Look Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a
smooth skinned man.
Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be a deceiver to him, and I shall
bring the curse on myself and not a blessing.
But his mother said to him, Let your curse be on me, my son.
Only obey my voice, and go get them for me.
Then he went and got them and brought them to his mother, and his mother made savoury
food such as his father loved.
Then Rebekah took the choice cloth of her elder son Esau, which were with her in the
house, and put them on Jacob her younger son.
And she put the skins of the kids of the goats on his hands and on a smooth part of his neck.
Then she gave the savoury food and the bread, which she had prepared into the hands of her
son Jacob.
So he went to his father and said, My father, and he said, Here I am, who are you, my son?
Jacob said to his father, I am Esau your first born, I have done just as you told me, please
arise, sit and eat of my game, that your soul may bless me.
But Isaac said to his son, How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?
And he said, Because the Lord your God brought it to me.
Isaac said to Jacob, Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, whether you are really
my son Esau or not.
So Jacob went near to Isaac his father, and he felt him and said, The voice is Jacob's
voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.
And he did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's
hands, so he blessed him.
Then he said, Are you really my son Esau?
He said, I am.
He said, Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son's game, so that my soul may bless
you.
So he brought it near to him, and he ate, and he brought him wine, and he drank.
Then his father Isaac said to him, Come near now and kiss me, my son.
And he came near and kissed him, and he smelt the smell of his clothing, and blessed him,
and said, Surely the smell of my son is like the smell of a field which the Lord has blessed.
Therefore, may God give you of the dew of heaven, of the fatness of the earth, and plenty
of grain and wine.
Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you, be master over your brethren, and
let your mother's sons bow down to you.
Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be those who bless you.
Now it happened as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had scarcely gone
out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting.
He also had made savory food, and brought it to his father, and said to his father,
Let my father arise, and eat of his son's game, that your soul may bless me.
And his father Isaac said to him, Who are you?
So he said, I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.
Then Isaac trembled exceedingly, and said, Who?
Where is the one who hunted game, and brought it to me?
I ate all of it before you came, and I have blessed him, and indeed he shall be blessed.
When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with an exceedingly great and bitter
cry, and said to his father, Bless me, me also, O my father.
But he said, Your brother came with deceit, and has taken away your blessing.
And Esau said, Is he not rightly named Jacob?
For he has supplanted me these two times.
He took away my birthright, and now look, he has taken away my blessing.
And he said, Have you not reserved a blessing for me?
Then Isaac answered and said to Esau, Indeed I have made him your master, and all his brother
I have given to him as servants.
With grain and wine I have sustained him.
What shall I do now for you, my son?
And Esau said to his father, Have you only one blessing, my father?
Bless me, me also, my father.
And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.
Then Isaac his father answered and said to him, Behold, your dwelling shall be of the
fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above.
By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother.
And it shall come to pass, when you become restless, that you shall break his yoke from
your neck.
So Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him.
And Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand.
Then I will kill my brother Jacob.
In the words of Esau, her older son, were told to Rebekah.
So she sent and called Jacob her younger son and said to him, Surely your brother Esau
comforts himself concerning you by intending to kill you.
Now therefore my son obey my voice, arise, flee to my brother Laban in Haran, and stay
with him a few days until your brother's fury turns away, until your brother's anger turns
away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him.
Then I will send and bring you from there.
Why should I be bereaved also of you both in one day?
And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth.
If Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth, like these who are the daughters of
the land, what good will my life be to me?
I hope you enjoyed today's reading as much as I did, and I look forward to seeing you
again tomorrow to continue on our journey.
God bless you and have a great day.