Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #7 of Genesis, chapter 27, and we are going to read Genesis 27:28-29:

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.

We have been looking at this in a different way, a spiritual way.  Even when we understood that this was God choosing Jacob over Esau, with Jacob being a type of elect and Esau being a type of unsaved mankind, that is understanding in a spiritual way.  So this is a slight improvement to the understanding of the historical situation and what it is teaching spiritually regarding God giving the blessing to His elect.  And, again, Isaac is a figure of God who will bless his son, the firstborn.  But there was a problem with the actual firstborn son because he had despised his birthright, and that signaled the problem with the first creature man – the “first Adam” – that had despised his birthright through sinning and rebelling against God and serving Satan over God.

God had developed a program of salvation wherein He would satisfy the Law’s demand for certain ones, His chosen people, the elect.  In order to do that, He became a man, and the sins of these selected individuals (predestinated before the foundation of the world) were laid upon Him, and He bore their sins and died for their sins at the foundation of the world.  He rose again, declared to be the Son of God, having shed His blood.  Now the blood was available to cover sin.  Then the world was created, and time began to unfold, and the history of the world took place, and in every generation, God sent forth His Word.  The Word was the applicator, as it were, dipping into that blood shed at the foundation of the world, and then applying it to this one and that one, but bypassing many that were not selected or not elect.  But the elect always had the blood applied and, thereby, their sins were cleansed, and they were forgiven.  God accomplished that until the last one to be saved became saved, and then God shut the door to heaven.

That is basically an overview of the whole history of the world as God’s salvation program unfolded until we came to (the time of) the end, and then the door was shut.  Now we are living on the earth at a time when the application of the blood is no longer taking place because everyone to have the blood applied has had the blood applied.  Everyone to be saved has been saved, and that is the reason that the Gospel is no longer going forth unto salvation, because it is a finished work.  It has been accomplished and it is complete, and that is where we are at in time.

Here, we have the interesting historical situation in which Jacob is feigning to be his brother, with the help of his mother Rebekah.  It was an elaborate fakery.  He wore his brother’s raiment so he would have the same smell.  He put on skin of the goats, so he would have hairy hands.  He had knowledge concerning the blessing because his mother had overheard that Isaac intended to bless Esau that day.  So he possessed the knowledge, and he did go to his father “in costume,” in a sense, pretending to be his brother Esau.  He was convincing.  And after testing him, Isaac determined, “He is my son Esau.”

And this all points to the testing program of God when the Lord Jesus Christ entered into the world.  And Jesus was tested in a similar way as Adam by Satan, just as when the Serpent came to the testing ground of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  So, too, the Lord Jesus was tempted of the Devil in the wilderness for forty days.

So Christ entered into the human race, and He had taken the form of a servant and in the fashion of a man.  This is what Esau’s raiment, and the “smell” and “feel” all point to.

So what we are seeing is that Jacob is not solely a picture of the elect, or all those that are saved.  And we know we are saved by the grace of God.  We are saved because God has chosen us to salvation, and He has done all the work.  It was through the faith and work of Christ that all the elect were saved.  It was not through anything we have done on our own.

And that is the problem when we look at this historical account and, necessarily, we have to use the words and the circumstances to apply to the spiritual (realm).  And, yet, when we try to make that application, and if Jacob is only a picture of the elect, and Christ is not in view, then through deception, he obtained the blessing.  Do you see how that is a problem on the spiritual level?  The Bible teaches that man cannot force his way and enter into heaven by being deceitful.  That is what all the false religions and false gospels are trying to do, and none of them are successful.  You cannot mishandle the Word of God and abuse and pervert it, and turn it from grace into works, and expect that you are going to enter into heaven.  Yet, historically, the situation we have is that there were very underhanded dealings and deceitful workings going on between Rebekah and her son Jacob, and it worked!  Jacob, indeed, did obtain the blessing, but we have already seen that the blessing is pointing to salvation.  So how can that work?  How is that possible? 

You see, that is what leads us to go a little deeper into the spiritual picture, and then we do find that the Lord Jesus is called God’s “elect” in the Bible.  And, in this instance, Jacob is a type and figure of the Lord Jesus Christ, for all the reasons I just said, because it was Christ that made an appearance as a man.  It is Christ who is God, but He became man, just as Jacob became his brother Esau.  And, again, Esau is Edom, and there is a close relationship to “Adam” or “man.”  That is the idea.  That is the picture, and it is really Jesus doing the work in making Himself to be a man.  He became an actual man to bear the sins of man, and through His work of faith, salvation was accomplished and imputed to all those He had died for, and there is blessing and life for evermore through the work of Christ.  And the father Isaac, who will bless Jacob, historically, instead of Esau, is a picture of God giving the blessing to the Son.  So now the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, will bless all those that were in Him.  It is a similar principle to His being the “seed,” singular, but there is a great multitude that are counted for the seed in Him because He had paid for our sins.  So that is the spiritual picture.

Then we saw it said in Genesis 27:28:

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

The “dew of heaven” has to do with the Gospel, and it was God giving the Gospel to Christ, and the result would be fruit, and the fruit would be in the proper season.  The rains fell in their proper seasons, producing the crops, pointing to those that are saved.

That is why in this blessing given to Jacob, a great type of Christ, it goes on to say in Genesis 27:29:

Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee…

Now we can see it much more clearly, can we not?  Who is it that the people will serve?  Jesus.  But this is Isaac speaking to who he thinks is Esau, but it is actually Jacob.  And, yet, on the spiritual level, it is God speaking to Christ: “Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee.”  This was what was in view in the language when God spoke to Rebekah when she was pregnant, in Genesis 25.  The children struggled in her womb.   It says in Genesis 25:22-23:

And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of JEHOVAH. And JEHOVAH said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.

Again, in the first instance, it is pointing to Christ.  Christ would be the “younger” in the sense that the “first Adam” was on the (earthly) scene before He was, but he was rejected, and he was unable to obtain the blessing.  Then came the “second Adam” or “second man,” and that second man, the Lord Jesus Christ, obtained the blessing on behalf of His people.  So the statement here is, “Let people serve thee,” and all of His people will serve Him.

Remember what we read later in Genesis 37 where we find that Joseph was given dreams.  It says in Genesis 37:5-7:

And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more. And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed: For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf.

The word “obeisance” is the same word translated as “bow down” that we are reading in Genesis 27:29: “Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee.”  It is making obeisance.  It is the same Hebrew word.

Then it says in Genesis 37:8:

And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words.

If they were to bow down to him, then it would mean he was reigning and had dominion over them.  It goes on tot say in Genesis 37:9-11:

And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying.

The sun, moon and stars made obeisance – his father Jacob , his mother, and his brethren, and we know the brethren became the tribes of Israel.  They were the people of God that bowed down to Joseph, who was a great type of Christ. 

And that is what is in view here with the giving of the blessing to Jacob from his father Isaac: “Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethren…”  Now we can see how well it fits.  And remember, it is not Esau.  It is not the “first man,” but it is the “second man,”  It is Christ whom people would serve and nations would bow to, and He would be Lord over the brethren.  It is just like when God created the “first man,” and he was given dominion over the earth, but then he lost the dominion.  And now the Lord Jesus Christ is the one that has regained the authority, the power and the rule from God, and it has to do with people serving Him and nations bowing down to Him.

Now it is a little difficult to determine exactly who is in view regarding the “nations” that bow down to Jacob.  And we can understand that to mean the Lord Jesus, because we are all too familiar with Scriptures such as Philippians 2:8-11:

And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

This certainly is true of all God’s elect, and all God’s elect are the “nations of them which are saved.”  We read that statement in the book of Revelation.  And, remember, that was the information the Lord revealed to Rebekah when the twins were in her womb.  They were two nations: the nations of the world and the “nations of them which are saved.”  And when God made the statement in Genesis 27 that nations would bow down to him, then we have to determine if it is all people, saved and unsaved, or is it exclusively the saved?  And I am not completely sure.  We know that here it is speaking of the elect when it says, “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord…” 

If we go to Romans 14, we find similar language in an unusual setting because it is the setting of Judgment Day.  It says in Romans 14:10:

But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

This has to do with all the elect making their appearance before the judgment throne, except  in this case the word “stand” has to do with abiding.  All of God’s people will abide or endure to the end as we make our appearance before the judgment seat.  It goes on to say in Romans 14:11-12:

For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.

There is no mistaking it.  We might think that Romans 14:10 is telling us one thing and that Romans 14:11 is telling us a different thing that might be unrelated, but when God also gives verse 12, “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God,” that is the language of judgment.  And we can show from other Scriptures that it is a time of reckoning and seeing whether the things done in the body are good or bad.  So that means that Judgment Day especially has to do with that time when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess.  And, once again, we can understand that every one of God’s elect will bow the knee and confess He is Lord.  There will be confession and action of obedience and submission to the Lord who is ruling the earth in the Day of Judgment.

On the other hand, I do not see anything in the Bible that would indicate that the unsaved people that are being punished in this day of the wrath of God are going to come to a realization of that.  They know it through the experiencing of it, but they do not know it intellectually, to where they would bow down.  But, perhaps, God has in view that through the punishment they are experiencing, it could identify with bowing down and confessing Him, but at this time, as far as my understanding, it is a statement that identifies with those God has saved and given a humble and submissive heart wherein we will bow to Him and confess to Him.

But as far as our study back in Genesis 27, it goes on to say in Genesis 27:29:

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…

It is just as Joseph’s brethren.  Well, they had a different mother, but it is a similar idea.

Again, it says in Genesis 27:29:

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.

And that is the Word of God.  It is the same thing God said to Abraham when He called him out of the land of the Chaldees, in Genesis 12:2-3:

And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

And, again, this is, as it were, being spoken to the Lord Jesus Christ on the spiritual level, so God is saying to Christ, “Cursed be everyone that curseth thee, or that curseth the Word of God.”  For those that would curse the Word of God, they will be cursed.  Blessed are those that would bless Christ, the Word of God, and they will be blessed.  God controls what each man does – who will hear and who will reject and despise Him (and His Word).  Ultimately, He is in control of bestowing the blessing upon those whom He had determined would receive it.  In cursing the rest (of mankind) that would not receive the blessing because they are not His people, this is all worked out and done by the will of God.