In Genesis 27:1-41 we read the story of the aging Isaac who as he is approaching death decides it is time to bless his elder son Esau. So he tells Esau to go out and capture some game and then to cook his father’s favorite meal, after which Isaac promises to bless Esau.
Meanwhile the scheming Rebekahk, Esau’s mother, obviously playing favorites with her younger son, Jacob, contrives a plan by which Jacob can get Isaac’s blessing instead of Esau. The plan involves deception and lying and carries with it the risk that Isaac will discover the fraud and curse his younger son. Jacob however obeys his mother and the plan goes off without a hitch and Jacob gets the blessing his mother sought for him, stealing it from his older brother.
While Rebekah and Jacob certainly are co-conspirators in the deception and in the theft of the sole blessing Isaac has to give to establish his heir as lord over the rest of Isaac’s descendents, one has to wonder about Isaac himself. Why didn’t he bless his older son as soon as he thought about it? Why did Isaac send Esau away on the chase of wild game and put all of these hurdles in his path to get the blessing? Not only does Esau have to catch the game, he has to prepare it and cook it just the way his father likes. It’s as if Isaac was setting up a chance for Esau’s failure. Why didn’t Isaac bless his son and then send him off on the errand for food? Isaac’s own hunger created the scenario which caused Esau to lose his rightful blessing.
Besides all this, it will literally take Isaac one minute to pronounce the much sought after blessing, but he sends his son Esau on an open ended quest to get that one minute blessing. For Esau has to be gone as long as it takes to find the game. Something is amiss.
And when Jacob immediately shows up with Isaac’s favorite food, he asks the charlatan, “how was it you found it so quickly?” Was he disappointed? Had he hoped Esau would be gone a long time? Or maybe, Isaac was actually part of the Ruse, and he simply is playing his part, feigning surprise. Of course the text suggests his aged eyes had gone blind, and perhaps his mind was not as sharp as it used to be. But then one wonders again, why did he send Esau on this open ended quest for food before he would give him the one minute blessing? Why did Esau have to prepare the food, rather than Isaac’s wife Rebekah? Why was this food so important to Isaac?
In Orthodoxy, this lesson from Genesis is read during the Fifth Week of Great Lent, a time when many Orthodox are already weary of the fasting and looking forward to the Feast of Pascha, the Resurrection of Christ. It is another reminder of how food and hunger cause bad decision making for humans and lead to further effects of sin. Certainly the story of Eve and then Adam eating the forbidden fruit is the original sin story. But Isaac’s hunger causes him to place being fed ahead of giving a blessing to his son. Esau will suffer the effects of his father’s appetite and lose his blessing. Orthodox spirituality makes much of how our appetites often lead to sin and human failing. Of course God’s own plan is not thwarted by human appetites or human sin. But the story no doubt ends up in the Orthodox lectionary during Great Lent as a reminder that catering to one’s own appetites can have very negative consequences on the road to God’s kingdom. Self denial, fasting, abstinence, can allow us to seek first the kingdom of God, and then to take care of feeding our selves.
