Our word for today is a word we have also already looked it when we were way back in Genesis chapter 3. So why are we looking at it again? Well for a similar reason we looked at blessed yesterday because it is repeated in our chapter we are currently in Genesis chapter 27. And for another reason because of the 4 times the English word appears 2 times it is the word we already looked at but the other 2 times it is a different Hebrew word. I find that interesting. Our word for today is אָרַר which we have already looked at and קְלָלָה which is a new one for us. So let’s start with this one. קְלָלָה curse formula, curse, imprecation, something causing misery or death. It is used 33 times in the Old Testament. A good example is in Deuteronomy 28:45 All these קְלָלָה curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you till you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you. So God is pronouncing these consequences over them that would cause them misery or death if they reject his commandments. This is how we see it used in our chapter. Genesis 27:11-13 But Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him and bring a קְלָלָה curse upon myself and not a blessing.” His mother said to him, “Let your קְלָלָה curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, bring them to me.”
Now let’s look at our other word translated curse in our chapter that we looked at a long time ago when we were back in Genesis 3. אָרַר curse. It is used 63 times in the Hebrew Bible, our Old Testament. The basic idea of this word is that it is something that is placed over you that is heavy. If you remember we definitely saw in chapter three of Genesis that life becomes a whole lot heavier than it was before Adam and Eve’s sin and rebellion against God. And let’s not forget ourselves because we have contributed to making life here heavier than God wants it to be. This is the sense of the word that we find in our chapter today and Esau is a good example of making life harder than it is because of his own sin. We already looked at how he made life bitter for his parents a couple of days ago. And we also saw how he despised his birthright back in Genesis chapter 25. And how he went along with his dad to be the one to receive the blessing when God had already decided that it would go to his younger brother Jacob. So when we look at our word in our chapter today let’s not falsely assume that Esau is an innocent victim of Jacob and his mother’s deceit. Genesis 27:36-37 Then he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?” Isaac answered and said to Esau, “Behold, I have made him lord over you...What then can I do for you, my son?” We find our word curse in Jacob’s blessing that Isaac thought he was giving to Esau. Genesis 27:29 אָרַר Cursed be everyone who אָרַר curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you! Life now is a whole lot heavier than it was before Adam and Eve’s sin and rebellion against God. It is important that we remember this because this life can make you do what Adam did and blame God for his gift of Eve. Instead of remembering that he was the problem. Which is exactly what Esau does in our chapter. Genesis 27:36 Esau said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has cheated me these two times. He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing.” We will look at Jacob’s name in a few days. But for now we have to remember that we do this same thing as Adam and Esau we blame others for our own sin. We need to recognize we all have contributed to making this life more of a curse than a blessing. But the good news is that Jesus is the solution to the curse because he became the curse for us so that we can have eternal life through his death in our place.
