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Romans 11:25-26 Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: The Book of Genesis tells us the story of Isaac, a father blinded to his son’s wickedness. Isaac could have been fooled by Jacob’s ruse but Rebecca his wife had been given a prophecy about the future of her two children. Did Isaac know about this? And how could Isaac be oblivious to Esau’s marriages with several Canaanite women? It seems also that Isaac was unaware of the birthright-for-‘red-stuff’ (that it how the dish was called in the Hebrew text) deal between Esau and Jacob. Many Talmudic commentators attribute Isaac’s blindness to an act of God’s mercy to spare him the distress of seeing his son Esau’s wicked behavior. Some also suggest that it was due to Esau’s smoke-screen of hypocrisy, pretending to be so righteous in front of his father. It could also simply be that he was old and had cataracts. Interesting elements are unveiled when we look at this story as the prophetic foreshadow of a future situation, as the microcosm of a larger concept. Not only was Isaac blinded to Esau’s wickedness, but so was he to Jacob’s righteousness. Here we have Isaac, the promised seed of Abraham, blinded to the righteousness of he who in essence would carry the seed of Messiah in him, which caused him to leave his mother’s tent for exile. We must remember also that Rebecca lived in Sarah’s tent which was in the eyes of the sages compared to Jerusalem. Jacob therefore is exiled from ‘Jerusalem’, and we never hear of Rebecca again. Jacob later returns to the Land with an angelic escort (Genesis 34). Two thousand years ago, Hashem ‘blinded’ the eyes of Israel to the early messianic movement (Romans 11:7, 25). The apostle Paul also started out blinded to the fulfillment of the promises made to the fathers. This forced the Messianic believers of Israel, which were mostly a Temple sect of Jerusalem found gathering by Solomon’s Portico, to leave the Land and go into exile. Today, as Jacob escorted by angels (Genesis 32:1) that seed is returning to the Promised Land as a growing Messianic movement. Though they face many ‘Esau’s, angels also escort them and will see them to destination in conquering the Land until, as in the story of old, The Messiah who is also called David (Hoseah 3:5) arrives and establishes his Kingdom in Jerusalem from where the whole world will learn to live by the Torah of God. May it be soon Abba, even in our days!
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Israel, Messianic, Jacob, Esau,
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