Reading for March 8th

Read Genesis Jacob steals Esau's blessing.
Jacob deceives his old and blind father Isaac.
Jacob pretends to be his older brother Esau so that he can receive the blessing and
inheritance that belong to the firstborn son.
In verses 26.34-35 Esau marries two Hittite or native Canaanite women who bring
trouble to the family.
This comment places Esau in a negative light.
In verses 27.34-38 the grief and anger of Isaac and Esau presuppose that the words
and power of a blessing cannot be taken back once they have been spoken.
In verse 39 Esau can only receive the opposite of what Jacob already received.
Jacob will recive of (the Hebrew preposition "min") the fatness of the earth (v. 28)
while Esau will live away from (the same preposition "min") the fatness of the earth.
The land of Edom was not an agriculturally rich area.
In verse 41 I will kill my brother Jacob: these are the last words we hear from Esau
concerning Jacob until they meet many years later in ch. 33.
In verse 46 Rebekah's excuse to Isaac for sending Jacob away is to avoid Jacob's
marrying one of the Hittite or Canaanite women of the land as Esau had done (26.34-35).
Her real reason is to stop Esau from murdering his brother Jacob (vv. 42-45).
In verses 28.1-5 Isaac instructs Jacob to return to the original homeland of Abraham and of his mother Rebekah in Mesopotamia to obtain a wife as Isaac had done (ch. 24; 25.20).
Comments or Questions...