Genesis 27:1-5 "And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son, and said unto him, My son: and he said unto him, Behold, here am I. {2} And he said, Behold now, I am old, I know not the day of my death: {3} Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison; {4} And make me savoury meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat; that my soul may bless thee before I die." {5} And Rebekah heard when Isaac spake to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it."

Genesis 27:6-8 "And Rebekah spake unto Jacob her son, saying, Behold, I heard thy father speak unto Esau thy brother, saying, {7} Bring me venison, and make me savoury meat, that I may eat, and bless thee before the LORD before my death. {8} Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command thee."

Genesis 27:9-12 "Go now to the flock, and fetch me from thence two good kids of the goats; and I will make them savoury meat for thy father, such as he loveth: {10} And thou shalt bring it to thy father, that he may eat, and that he may bless thee before his death. {11} And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man: {12} My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing."

Genesis 27:13 "And his mother said unto him, Upon me be thy curse, my son: only obey my voice, and go fetch me them."

Genesis 27:15-18 "And Rebekah took goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them upon Jacob her younger son: {16} And she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck: {17} And she gave the savoury meat and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob. {18} And he came unto his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I; who art thou, my son?"

Genesis 27:19-27 "And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau thy firstborn; I have done according as thou badest me: arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me. {20} And Isaac said unto his son, How is it that thou hast found it so quickly, my son? And he said, Because the LORD thy God brought it to me. {21} And Isaac said unto Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee, my son, whether thou be my very son Esau or not. {22} And Jacob went near unto Isaac his father; and he felt him, and said, The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau. {23} And he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy, as his brother Esau's hands: so he blessed him. {24} And he said, Art thou my very son Esau? And he said, I am. {25} And he said, Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son's venison, that my soul may bless thee. And he brought it near to him, and he did eat: and he brought him wine, and he drank. {26} And his father Isaac said unto him, Come near now, and kiss me, my son. {27} And he came near, and kissed him: and he smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him, and said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the LORD hath blessed:"

Genesis 27:28 "Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine:"

Isaac prophesied correctly that the blessings, power, and revelations of God would be Jacob's. Jacob would be a rich man. This proved true. Jacob would have plenty to eat and drink. God would take core of all his needs.

Jacob's progeny would be national leaders. Joseph led Egypt, David and Solomon ruled over many. Jacob's brother would submit to Jacob. Isaac repeated the blessing that his father gave him. Any who cursed Jacob would be cursed; any who blessed him would be blessed. That still applies. Jacob (Israel) would be a leader among nations.

Genesis 27:30-33 "And it came to pass, as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob was yet scarce gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting. {31} And he also had made savoury meat, and brought it unto his father, and said unto his father, Let my father arise, and eat of his son's venison, that thy soul may bless me. {32} And Isaac his father said unto him, Who art thou? And he said, I am thy son, thy firstborn Esau. {33} And Isaac trembled very exceedingly, and said, Who? where is he that hath taken venison, and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed him? yea, and he shall be blessed."

Jacob completed his mission just in the nick of time. Then the deception is discovered. Though physically disturbed, Isaac stated the blessing still stood and Jacob received both the birthright and the blessing. Esau lost out. Jacob received the blessing and birthright by trickery.

Esau was distraught. He had been promised this blessing. He had been hunting and looking forward to the blessing. It was a shock to him that he had been duped by his brother. He still wanted a blessing. Isaac did bless him but not with his inheritance.

Subtlety? It was outright deception! But that is what the Hebrew means, deception or craftiness. (The serpent was crafty!) Now, here I must defend Jacob. He did not supplant Esau's birthright. Esau willing gave it up to Jacob. But the blessing was definitely supplanted. Isaac still had something to bless Esau with.

Esau would have the same comforts and substance as Jacob, but his life would be much different.

Esau would be a fighter, but would serve Jacob. When he grew restless of serving Jacob, he would get out from under Jacob's thumb. When Jacob returned from Laban's service, he was very afraid of his brother Esau because Esau was a warrior and Jacob was not. But Esau welcomed him. Then Esau departed company with Jacob, returning to Seir while Jacob went on the Succoth and latter to Shechem.

While Jacob was in Haran Esau cooled off.

Those few days turned into years; twenty to be exact.

Though Rebekah really did want a wife for Jacob from her own people, she was using tat as an excuse yet again to deceive Isaac. She actually wanted Jacob to flee for his life but she told her husband this partial truth. She kept quiet about the fleeing for his life part. This is indeed just how Satan works. He will tell a partial truth with the remainder being a lie.

Isaac was in complete agreement with Rebekah that Jacob need a wife form his own people, so he sent him away. Doubtless Isaac remembered how his father had sent Eliezer to Padan Arma to find Rebekah. He could have bid Jacob stay and sent one of his trusted servants as well, but he allow Jacob to go by himself. Perhaps he had not liked the idea that Eliezer went for a wife for him while he stayed behind and decided not to make that mistake with his son. At any rate, this was the will of God and that is why it happened that way.

Laban was Rebekah's brother and would provide a wife for Jacob just as his father, Bethuel, provided a wife for Isaac. This would keep the racial purity of the Hebrews in the line of Christ.

Isaac wished for Jacob the same blessings of God that Abraham had wished on him. He basically repeated God's promise that he, Isaac, and his son Jacob, would be fruitful and would become many nations. Isaac invoked the blessing of Abraham upon his son Jacob. Jacob would receive the covenant God had made with his father and grandfather later at Bethel when he wrestled with God.

Remember that this is a long journey was one of about 350 miles. At 25 miles per day such a journey takes at least two weeks. It is possible to make forty miles in ten hours if one keeps up a gait of four miles per hour without any stopping. But that is keeping up a brisk pace without stops for eating, drinking, relieving, or resting. Of course in the winter there are only about 11-12 hours of daylight at that latitude. In the summer there is plenty of light for about fourteen hours. It is a fair bet to say that during 11 hours of daylight, one can only travel for about eight hours and keeping a pace of three miles per hour is an average walking speed. Remember there were others with him--a complete entourage of servants and beasts of burden. All of them must be fed and waters. Twenty-five miles is about all one can make in a day. Some days might see 35 miles in the summer time and only 20 miles in winter, but 25 is a good average.

Now one might begin to wonder if Esau was a bit hard headed. It was a fact that Isaac and Rebekah did not like Esau's wives. But it seems probable on the surface of it that they never expressed their displeasure to Esau. Rebekah probably had little to do with Esau because he was always with his father and Isaac seems to have spoiled him a bit. Isaac doted on him and probably did not express his displeasure with Esau in order not to hurt his feelings. I have a small dog (a Yorkie) that I just cannot get angry with no matter what he does. He chewed a corner off of my good leather briefcase and I could not bring myself to scold him. This is the same way it seems that Isaac was with Esau.

But it appears that Esau got the message when they sent Jacob off to Padan Aram. Then, to make amends, Esau went and married one of Ishmael's daughters. Now that was a good move and would have been pleasing to Isaac and Rebekah. After all, Ishmael was Isaac's own brother.

Most translations I have looked at say that Jacob took of the stones there and selected one for his pillow. These stones would be naturally occurring stones and not dressed stones. Rabbi Rashi, a Torah commentator says that he took stones and set them up in a way that would help to protect him from wild animals. But the stones were placed at his head as a pillow. How would that protect his entire body from predators?

It seems unusual that Jacob would need more than one pillow. A stone makes a very hard pillow. The word rendered pillow, mera', more nearly means "(1) place at the head, dominion, head place (noun feminine), and (2) at head place (adverb). (Brown-Driver-Briggs). So to rephrase the verse: "So Jacob took stones and placed them at the place for his head". This shows that he did not necessarily lay his head directly upon the stone or stones, but that they were set at the head of his camp bed. Does it make any difference? Perhaps. Because he did not have any relationship with God at this point, he felt the need to protect himself with stones, instead of calling on God to protect him.. Perhaps Rashi is correct. Perhaps he was planning to use these stones as a weapon of defense. A large stone would equal the odds with a predator somewhat. This interpretation surely fits the context of the stairway to Heaven.

The ladder could also be called a staircase. The Hebrew allows for either. More translations call it a ladder than staircase. Out of context the ladder could be said to extend into the sky since the word for heaven also means sky, much as it does in English. But the fact that there were angels using it, and the fact that God's stood above and his voice was heard above, it places it in Heaven, the place God resides.

This is the same promise God made to Abraham and Isaac, now passed down to Jacob, THE patriarch of the nation of Israel. The nation has Jacob's God-given name.

It is the dream that awakens you that is the most vivid. But Jacob knew that this was a real message form God. Perhaps we today should be more discerning towards our dreams. If God is the same always, then why would He stop using dreams to give messages? I had a very vivid dream and I believe it was a message from God. It was not a Word of Knowledge or a Word of Prophecy. It just reiterates what scripture says. God wanted to reinforce this in my mind. In fact, I wrote it down the next morning. Ten months later I revisited it and made some comments Here it is reprinted without changes:

The point is that this was a vivid dream and I have attempted to make sense of it. I have not yet gotten the truth out of it, but I believe it will eventually be revealed to me. Jacob had just such a dream. It was so vivid that he set up an altar, worshipped God, and recorded it for history.

A vivid dream, especially an awe-inspiring dream, leaves a vivid impression. He called it dreadful, or fearful. It brings to mind Psalm 111:10 and Proverbs 1:7, "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom." The fear here was that of the LORD. That fear is a positive thing. It is giving God his due respect.

Here the translators used the singular "stone". Of course, when we see a pile of stones it could also be called a pile of stone. Either is correct. He could have used several stones for this altar or he could have used one. The context does seem to indicate it was one stone. He poured an offering of olive oil upon it. This type of offering, in the Law, is one of voluntary worship. Jacob did this to worship God. Luz, meaning almond tree, became Bethel, House (beth) of God (el).

Many claim this stone is the Stone of Scone. It is the stone that the ancient kings of Scotland were crowned upon, as well as modern kings and queens of England (like Elizabeth II and George VI and Edward VII). Edward I took the stone from Robert the Bruce of Scotland in 1296. It was returned to Scotland in 1996.

The account goes like this.

It seems like Jacob made a bargain with God (if God will . . . then I will . . .). But the word translated "if" in the first phrase is the Hebrew word 'im (Strong's 518), which can mean if, since, seeing that, hence, when, whereas, while, and many other similar conditional words. I submit that it should have been translated "since". That would make more sense and would fit better with the idea that God does not need to bargain with men. God doesn't bargain with men for He is Sovereign. Instead of Jacob telling God, "If you will bless me then I will follow you," it is far better if Jacob said, "Since God will be with me . . . then shall the LORD be my God."

Note that Jacob did not say, "The stone shall remain at Bethel". Rather he said, "[the stone] shall be God's House". He was saying the stone was not to be located at God's house, but the stone is God's house. It seems as if Jacob named the stone Bethel. And it is know by some as the Bethel Stone because of this verse.

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