Genesis 27:25-29: a reflection

25He said, “Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son’s venison, that my soul may bless you.” He brought it near to him, and he ate. He brought him wine, and he drank. 26His father Isaac said to him, “Come near now, and kiss me, my son.” 27He came near, and kissed him. He smelled the smell of his clothing, and blessed him, and said, “Behold, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the LORD has blessed. 28God give you of the dew of the sky, of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and new wine. 29Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers. Let your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you. Blessed be everyone who blesses you.”

Isaac, old and blind, is deceived into laying his blessing on Jacob instead of Esau, and the blessing itself is lavish: the dew of heaven, the fatness of the earth, plenty of grain and wine, nations bowing down. What strikes you, reading it, is how much this blessing mattered, so much that a mother and son would risk everything, deceive a dying father, to obtain it. In that world, a father's spoken blessing was treasure, and Jacob hungered for it desperately.

That hunger is worth understanding, because it is in us too. Underneath a great deal of human striving is a longing to be blessed, to hear that we are favored, approved, wanted, to receive from someone the words that say you are mine and I bless you. Jacob's deception was wrong, but the hunger driving it, to be blessed, is a real and deep human ache.

Here is where the gospel speaks to that ache. In Christ, God offers a blessing you do not have to scheme or deceive your way into. He blesses you freely, calls you his own, favors you in his Son, not because you tricked your way to the front of the line, but because he gives it. If you have spent your life grasping and maneuvering to be blessed, to earn approval, hear that the deepest blessing is not stolen but given. Stop scheming for it, and receive the blessing God freely holds out to you in Christ.

Lord, underneath so much of my striving is a hunger to be blessed, to be favored and wanted. Thank you that in Christ you bless me freely, not because I schemed my way to it but because you give it. Free me from grasping for approval, and let me receive the blessing you hold out.