<p>11:20 <i>By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even concerning things to come</i>- Yet the record of this in Gen. 27 doesn't paint Isaac in a very positive light. &ldquo;Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison: but&nbsp; Rebekah loved Jacob&quot; (Gen. 25:28). The AVmg. seems to bring out Isaac's superficiality: &quot;Isaac loved Esau, because venison was in his mouth&quot;. This seems to connect with the way Esau threw away his birthright for the sake of food in his mouth. Esau was evidently of the flesh, whilst Jacob had at least some potential spirituality. Yet Isaac preferred Esau. He chose to live in Gerar (Gen. 26:6), right on the border of Egypt- as close as he could get to the world, without crossing the line. And he thought nothing of denying his marriage to Rebekah, just to save his own skin (Gen. 26:7). So it seems Isaac had some marriage problems; the record speaks of &quot;Esau his son&quot; and &quot;Jacob (Rebekah's) son&quot; (Gen. 27:5,6). The way Jacob gave Isaac wine &quot;and he drank&quot; just before giving the blessings is another hint at some unspirituality (Gen. 27:25). Isaac seems not to have accepted the Divine prophecy concerning his sons: &ldquo;the elder shall serve the younger&quot; (Gen. 25:23), seeing that it was his intention to give Esau the blessings of the firstborn, and thinking that he was speaking to Esau, he gave him the blessing of his younger brothers (i.e. Jacob) serving him (Gen. 27:29 cp. 15). Isaac didn't accept the sale of the birthright, and yet God did (Heb. 12:16,17). A<i>nd yet</i>, and this is my point, Isaac's blessing of the two boys is described as an act of faith; even though it was done with an element of disbelief in God's word of prophecy concerning the elder serving the younger, and perhaps under the influence of alcohol, and even though at the time Isaac thought he was blessing Esau when in fact it was Jacob. Yet according to Heb. 11:20, this blessing of Esau <i>and</i> Jacob (therefore Hebrews doesn't refer to the later blessing) was done with faith; <i>at that very point in time</i>, Isaac had faith. So God's piercing eye saw through Isaac's liking for the good life, through Isaac's unspiritual liking for Esau, through his marriage problem, through his lack of faith that the elder must serve the younger, and discerned that there was some faith in that man Isaac; and then holds this up as a stimulant for our faith, centuries later Not only should we be exhorted to see the good side in our present brethren; but we can take comfort that this God is our God, and views our Christian hypocrisy in the same way as He viewed theirs.</p>