January 9: Genesis 25:27 – Genesis 28:5

Esau Sells His Birthright – Genesis 25:27–34

• Jacob and Esau grow up. Esau becomes a skilled hunter, while Jacob prefers staying at home. Jacob loves Esau, while Rebekah loves Jacob.
• Esau arrives home from hunting, very hungry, while Jacob is cooking stew. He asks Jacob for some stew, and Jacob agrees if Esau will give him his birthright.
• Esau agrees, and trades his birthright for bread and lentil stew, showing contempt for his rights as firstborn. He then leaves the tent.

God's Promise to Isaac – Genesis 26

• A famine strikes the land where Isaac is living, so he moves to Gerar, where Abimelech, the king of the Philistines, lives.
• The Lord appears to Isaac and tells him not to go to Egypt, but to stay as a foreigner in Gerar, and He will bless him and give him the lands for him and his descendants.
• Isaac stays in Gerar, and when people ask him about his wife, Rebekah, he tells them that she is his sister, because he is afraid they will kill him if he admits that she is his wife.
• One day Abimelech sees Jacob caressing Rebekah, and calls Jacob to him, asking him why he has lied, since she is obviously his wife and not his sister.
• Jacob admits that he was afraid, and Abimelech questions how he could have lied and put Abimelech or another man at risk for great sin if they'd taken his wife and slept with her. Abimelech issues a public proclamation that any man who touches Rebekah will be put to death.

Isaac and Abimelech

• Isaac plants his crops and then harvests a hundred times more than he planted because the Lord blessed him. He becomes a very rich man, and acquires many flocks of sheep and goats, herds of cattle, and servants.
• The Philistines become jealous of him and fill his wells, which had been dug by the servants of Abraham, with dirt. Finally, Abimelech orders Isaac to leave because he has become to powerful for them.
• Isaac moves to the Gerar Valley. He has his servants reopen his wells, and the servants also open a well in the Gerar Valley. Shepherds from Gerar claim the well belongs to them, and Isaac has his men dig another well, but the shepherds again dispute the well. Isaac's servants dig another well, and this time the shepherds don't dispute the well.
• Isaac moves to Beersheba, and God appears to him that night. He tells Jacob he will be with him and bless him because of his promise to Abraham. Isaac builds and altar there and worships the Lord. His servants dig another well.

A Treaty with Abimelech

• One day Abimelech, his adviser Ahuzzath, and his army commander Phicol visit Isaac.
• Isaac asks why they have come there since they have removed him from his land in Gerar and obviously hate him.
• They respond that they can see the Lord is with him and they want to make a covenant with him. They ask that Jacob will not cause them any harm, pointing out that they sent him away in peace and God has blessed him.
• Isaac prepares a covenant feast, and the next morning they take an oath not to interfere with each other. The men then leave Jacob in peace.
• The next morning, Isaac's servants return to him with word that they have dug another well (called Beersheba) and found water.
• At the age of forty, Esau marries two Hittite wives, Judith and Basemath. Esau's wives make life difficult for Isaac and Rebekah.

Isaac Blesses Jacob – Genesis 27

• Isaac, who is old and becoming blind, calls for Esau and tells him to go and hunt some wild game and prepare his favorite dish for him. Isaac will then bless Esau.
• Rebekah overhears them. She has Jacob go and get two young goats from their herds so she can prepare Isaac's favorite dish, then has him take the food to his father so Isaac will bless him instead.
• Rebekah dresses Jacob in Esau's clothes and covers Jacob's arms and neck with the skin of the young goats (so he will feel like Esau) and has him take the food to his father.
• Isaac asks which son he is, and Jacob claims he is Esau. Though Jacob doesn't sound like Esau, when Isaac feels his arms and smells his clothes, he believes he is Esau.
• Isaac blesses Jacob, and soon after Jacob leaves his father, Esau returns from his hunt and learns his father, who was deceived, has blessed Jacob instead. Esau asks that Jacob bless him as well, but Isaac cannot because he has nothing left to give Esau. 
• Esau is upset that Jacob has stolen both his birthright and his blessing.

Jacob Sent to Laban – Genesis 27:41 to Genesis 28:5

• Esau plans to kill Jacob, but Rebekah overhears his plan. She tells Jacob to flee to her brother Laban and stay there until Esau's rage has waned and she calls him back to them.
• Rebekah tells Isaac that she doesn't want Jacob to marry a local Hittite woman, and Isaac calls Jacob to him and tells him to go to Paddan-Aram, to the house of his grandfather, and marry one of his uncle Laban's daughters.
• Jacob goes to Paddan-Aram to live with Laban.