Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #4 of Genesis, chapter 27, and we are going to read Genesis 27:15-23:

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: And she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck: And she gave the savoury meat and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob. And he came unto his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I; who art thou, my son?  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. And Isaac said unto his son, How is it that thou hast found it so quickly, my son? And he said, Because JEHOVAH thy God brought it to me. 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. 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. And he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy, as his brother Esau's hands: so he blessed him.

As we continue to read this passage…and it is one of the reasons it is a good practice to read, reread and to read again a passage as we are going along in our study.  We often see things that maybe we did not see before.  And now in another reading of the same Scripture, God happens to give us another bit of understanding.  In reading this account, we suspect that this has something to do with the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Why would we suspect that?  It is because this involves the giving of the blessing to Jacob by Isaac.  We know Isaac is a type of Christ, and we know Jacob is a picture of the elect.  And we know that in the Bible, blessing identifies with everlasting life. 

So knowing all those things, when we read this true historical account and we look for the deeper spiritual meaning, we realize that Jacob cannot receive the blessing based on his own work and merit, and that it has to be through Christ that he receives the blessing.  So we wonder how the Lord Jesus Christ is in view in what is going on here.  And we are helped.  I really did not have that good of an understanding of what is going on here.  I could see the outline of things, and, as I mentioned, it especially has to do with the end of time or the fulness of time when God will finally make his blessing of salvation known to His elect.  And those that are not elect, as represented by Esau, will also realize that they have not gotten the blessing, and that is what we have seen in our day regarding the hostile reaction toward the idea that the door is shut.  “What do you mean?”  This is what Esau represented when he found out that the blessing had been given to another, and not to him.

We are helped in seeing how Jesus fits into this picture, and we do know the Lord Jesus is in view.  Remember what was said in Luke 24 when Christ came along side a couple of disciples that were on the road to Emmaus.  We read in Luke 24:25-27:

Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

We are currently reading Genesis, and the Lord moved Moses to write the first five books.  We have seen Jesus in earlier chapters we have gone through, and we are also seeing Him now, although we may not have been aware that we were seeing Him.  But, again, God has helped us to better perceive that Christ is in view here through Rebekah’s actions in Genesis 27:15:

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:

She made Jacob go get them, in verse 14, like your typical mother.  [Laughter]   Jacob went and fetched them and brought them to his mother, but it was her idea: “Go get his clothes, and you put them on.”  But we wonder why it would be necessary for Jacob to put on his brother Esau’s clothing.  After all, Jacob was practically blind – if not actually blind – so he would not have seen what Jacob would be wearing.  So why go so far as to get Esau’s clothes?  Well, we know why, because a little further on this account, we read in Genesis 27:24-29:

And he said, Art thou my very son Esau? And he said, I am. 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. And his father Isaac said unto him, Come near now, and kiss me, my son. 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 JEHOVAH hath blessed: Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine: Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee: cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee.

Isaac blessed Jacob, who was saying he was Esau, but the voice did not sound right, so Isaac said, “Come near, my son,” and he felt his hands.  He passed that test, but Isaac was not a fool, and he probably knew the character of Jacob and, perhaps, he had heard that Jacob had purchased his brother’s birthright, so Isaac may not have put it past Jacob to try to misrepresent himself and feign himself to be Esau.  So there was not only the test of feeling his hands.  “His voice does not sound right, so I want to make sure.”  What do you do if you cannot see?  Your eyesight is bad, but what tends to happen to people that are blind?  Their other senses are being relied on more and become more acute and more in tune, so Isaac is going to rely on his sense of smell.  He smelled his son, and he knew what Jacob smelled like, and he knew what Esau smelled like.  So he told him to come near, and while he was kissing him, he smelled of his raiment, and he blessed him, because it was the smell of his raiment that convinced father Isaac that it was, indeed, Esau, as it goes on to say in Genesis 27:27:

...See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which JEHOVAH hath blessed:

Esau was a man of the field.  Remember we read that Jacob was a plain man, and Esau was a man of the field, which represents the world, and that is in view here, also.  But now there was confirmation.  Rebekah, being a smart woman that knew that her husband would not just quickly think this was Esau, especially when he would hear the voice, she took goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau that was with her in the house and put them upon Jacob, her younger son.  What is going on?  What do we have here, if we were to step back and look at this? 

Of course, the historical situation speaks for itself.  We can see what is going on, but we want to look at the underlying, deeper spiritual situation.  You know, I have always wondered, “Why did Isaac request that his son go find him some venison from the field?”  Then the venison was given to him and he ate of it, and then he blessed his son.  What does the venison resulting from the hunting of an animal or the sacrifice of an animal have to do with the blessing?  That is the way we have to look at it.  The venison was like a sacrificial offering.  It is pointing to the shed blood, and then partaking of that animal that had shed its life through this savory meal. 

But more than that (and we are jumping ahead), we are helped by verse 27 where it says that “he smelled the smell of is raiment.”  When we look up the words “smelled” and “smell,” they are two different words.  The Hebrew word that is translated as “smelled” is Strong’s #7306, and the Hebrew word translated as “smell” is Strong’s #7381, and #7381 is used fifty-eight times in the Old Testament.  And forty-three times out of the fifty-eight times, it is used in this way.  Let us go back to Genesis 8:21:

And JEHOVAH smelled a sweet savour; and JEHOVAH said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.

What was JEHOVAH smelling?  If we back up, it says in Genesis 8:20:

And Noah builded an altar unto JEHOVAH; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

Then it says, “And JEHOVAH smelled,” and that is the word Strong’s #7306 that was used when Isaac “smelled.”  The word that is Strong’s #7381 is the word translated as “savour” in Genesis 8:21.  So JEHOVAH smelled a sweet savour or a sweet smell.  So both words used in Genesis 8:21 are found in that verse that speaks of Isaac, in Genesis 27:27, “and he smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him.”  That is, it was an acceptable smell.  If he had smelled the smell of the raiment and it did not smell of the field, he would not have accepted it.  It would not have been as a sweet smell or an acceptable aroma.  But it was acceptable.  It did smell like his eldest son Esau, the man of the field. 

So this word “smell,” which is found in Genesis 8:21 is also the word we find in Exodus 29, where it is found about three times in this chapter.  I will just read Exodus 29:18:

And thou shalt burn the whole ram upon the altar: it is a burnt offering unto JEHOVAH: it is a sweet savour, an offering made by fire unto JEHOVAH.

It is the same idea in Leviticus, and it is used over seventeen times in that book, but we will just turn to Leviticus 1.  It says in Leviticus 1:9:

But his inwards and his legs shall he wash in water: and the priest shall burn all on the altar, to be a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto JEHOVAH.

And it says in Leviticus 1:13:

…it is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto JEHOVAH.

Then it says in Leviticus 1:17:

…an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto JEHOVAH.

It is this word “smell,” and forty-three times that is how you will find it used in Leviticus, Exodus, Numbers and Ezekiel.  You will find it has to do with the sacrifice, and we know that all animal sacrifices pointed to the one sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ performed at the foundation of the world for the sins of His people.

So now we are getting somewhere.  Isaac is a figure of God, and God is the only One that can give the blessing of eternal life.  God has, as it were, two manners of people or two nations, and He must determine which one to bless.  The problem with the eldest son Esau is that he had despised his birthright, just as the man God first created despised the birthright of having been made in the image and likeness of God by disobeying God and eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and, thereby, falling out of the grace of God.

But because God had determined to have a people for Himself and to save the few out of the whole, as typified by Jacob, but when we read of Jacob putting off his own raiment and putting on Esau’s clothes, he would have had to take off his own clothes first, and then put on his brother’s clothes.  In that action, we are seeing a picture of the “elect,” who is the Lord Jesus Christ, in the first instance.  Look up the word “elect,” and you will find a few verses like what we find in Isaiah 42:1-4:

Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.

And, of course, that can only be language referring to the Lord Jesus Christ.  He is God’s “elect,” just as He is the promised “seed,” singular.  But we are counted for the seed in Him, according to Galatians 3:29.  We are “elect” in Him.  As He is the “elect” of God, so, too, are we – all those whose sins He took upon Himself and paid for them.  We are counted for the elect in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ.  The spiritual picture of Jacob putting off his clothes and putting on his brother’s clothes can be seen in Leviticus 6:9-11:

Command Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the law of the burnt offering: It is the burnt offering, because of the burning upon the altar all night unto the morning, and the fire of the altar shall be burning in it. And the priest shall put on his linen garment, and his linen breeches shall he put upon his flesh, and take up the ashes which the fire hath consumed with the burnt offering on the altar, and he shall put them beside the altar. And he shall put off his garments, and put on other garments, and carry forth the ashes without the camp unto a clean place.

This is getting close to the idea of Jesus putting off His garment and putting on other garments in order to bring the acceptable sacrifice, the venison, to his father, and the father smelled the smell of his son’s raiment or the garments to make sure it was Esau, the son of the field (the world).  Remember that Esau was given the name “Edom,” which is the name for “man.”  So as Jacob is putting on the garments of Esau or Edom or man, we now can see how Christ is spoken of in Moses in this chapter.  Jesus is in view.  Christ is the One who will get the blessing for all those typified by Jacob who represents God’s elect, and He will do so through this substitutionary method.  We have always understood that God’s wrath was against man, but there was the Intercessor who stood in our place to receive the wrath of God on our behalf.  To do that, he had to “look like man.”  He had to be “man.”  And that is the wonderful and beautiful picture here.

You know, it is much like the whole idea that some theologians and many pastors run with – that Jonah was this rebellious and disobedient prophet.  But when we look at the account, we see that it had to be that way because God wanted those things to happen in that manner so that Jonah could be a great type and picture of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Likewise, when we look here at this account, yes, we see the deceitfulness and there is no getting around it.  Historically, it is true.  Rebekah and Jacob were being very deceitful.  And, yet, through it, God is painting a beautiful picture that really helps us now to understand something we read in Isaiah 63:1:

Who is this that cometh from Edom…

And remember that “Edom” is another name for “Esau,” and it is Strong’s #123.  It identifies with man.  It has the same consonants as “man” and “red,” because it comes from the word “red,” as he ate that red pottage and, therefore, was his name was called Edom, identifying with red, but also identifying with “man.”

Again, it says in Isaiah 63:1-2:

Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat?

You see, this is a Messianic reference to the Lord Jesus Christ.  Why is He coming from Edom?  Why is He in dyed garments that are dyed red.  It is as though His garments were of another color, but they were made to be “red.”  They are changed, and that is exactly what we are seeing in this very interesting account in Genesis 27.  Jacob changed his apparel.  He took on the garments of his brother, Esau or Edom.  And, of course, Edom is “red.”  Then we read in Isaiah 63:3:

I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment.

When I used to read in verse 2, “Why art thou red in thine apparel,” I thought it had to do with “blood,” but it does not.  It is just an identifying statement or mark that Jesus is coming from Edom or from “man,” in order to satisfactorily present Himself as the sacrifice that would pay for the sins of the world (His elect), and the Lord Jesus Christ did this when He took the form of a man – He became man, and He had to have a man’s body at the foundation of the world.  The Bible tells us that He bore our sins in His own body on the tree, when He was accursed at the point of the foundation of the world, and He was the Lamb slain, and these verses had their fulfilment.