V. 20.— By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come, Isaac blessed Jacob concerning things to come. — The Apostle does not speak of the deceit which Jacob practiced in order to obtain the blessing. He simply refers to the blessing which each of them received. The blessing of Abraham, viz., of being the father of Christ, was given to Jacob contrary to Isaac’ s intention; but it was given him according to the Divine purpose, of which Isaac was afterwards fully aware, and said, “ I have blessed him, and he shall be blessed.” Nothing is said of the impropriety of Jacob’ s conduct in deceiving his father. He acted under the direction of his mother, to whom it had been revealed before the birth of the children that the elder should serve the younger, Genesis 25:23, by which the Apostle illustrates the doctrine of election, Romans 9:11-12. At the same time, Jacob seems to have suffered much during his lifetime. He says to Pharaoh, “ The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage,” Genesis 47:9; and he thus describes the twenty years he served Laban, “ This twenty years have I been with thee; thy ewes and thy she goats have not cast their young, and the rams of thy flock have I not eaten. That which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee; I bare the loss of it; of my hand didst thou require it, whether stolen by day, or stolen by night. Thus I was; in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes. Thus have I been twenty years in thy house; I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy cattle; and thou hast changed my wages ten times,” Genesis 31:38-41. (Psalms 99:8.) Into these things, however, the Apostle does not enter; he simply states that Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come, and that he did so by faith, and he did so according to the description given of faith, chap. 11:21.