Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

27 Isaac had become old. His eyes were so weak he couldn’t see anymore. One day he called for his older son Esau. He said to him, “My son.”

“Here I am,” he answered.

² Isaac said, “I’m an old man now. And I don’t know when I’ll die. ³ Now then, get your weapons. Get your bow and arrows. Go out to the open country. Hunt some wild animals for me. ⁴ Prepare for me the kind of tasty food I like. Bring it to me to eat. Then I’ll give you my blessing before I die.”

⁵ Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. Esau left for the open country. He went to hunt for a wild animal and bring it back. ⁶ Then Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Look, I heard your father speaking to your brother Esau. ⁷ He said, ‘Bring me a wild animal. Prepare some tasty food for me to eat. Then I’ll give you my blessing before I die. The Lord will be my witness.’ ” ⁸ Rebekah continued, “My son, listen carefully. Do what I tell you. ⁹ Go out to the flock. Bring me two of the finest young goats. I will prepare tasty food for your father. I’ll make it just the way he likes it. ¹⁰ I want you to take it to your father to eat. Then he’ll give you his blessing before he dies.”

¹¹ Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, “My brother Esau’s body is covered with hair. But my skin is smooth. ¹² What if my father touches me? He would know I was trying to trick him. He would curse me instead of giving me a blessing.”

¹³ His mother said to him, “My son, let the curse be on me. Just do what I say. Go and get the goats for me.”

¹⁴ So he went and got the goats. He brought them to his mother. And she prepared some tasty food. She made it just the way his father liked it. ¹⁵ The clothes of her older son Esau were in her house. She took Esau’s best clothes and put them on her younger son Jacob. ¹⁶ She covered his hands with the skins of the goats. She also covered the smooth part of his neck with them. ¹⁷ Then she handed to her son Jacob the tasty food and the bread she had made.

The Law and Sin

⁷ What should we say then? That the law is sinful? Not at all! Yet I wouldn’t have known what sin was unless the law had told me. The law says, “Do not want what belongs to other people.” (Exodus 20:17; Deuteronomy 5:21) If the law hadn’t said that, I would not have known what it was like to want what belongs to others. ⁸ But the commandment gave sin an opportunity. Sin caused me to want all kinds of things that belong to others. A person can’t sin by breaking a law if that law doesn’t exist. ⁹ Before I knew about the law, I was alive. But then the commandment came. Sin came to life, and I died. ¹⁰ I found that the commandment that was supposed to bring life actually brought death. ¹¹ When the commandment gave sin the opportunity, sin tricked me. It used the commandment to put me to death. ¹² So the law is holy. The commandment also is holy and right and good.

¹³ Did what is good cause me to die? Not at all! Sin had to be recognized for what it really is. So it used what is good to bring about my death. Because of the commandment, sin became totally sinful.

¹⁴ We know that the law is holy. But I am not. I have been sold to be a slave of sin. ¹⁵ I don’t understand what I do. I don’t do what I want to do. Instead, I do what I hate to do. ¹⁶ I do what I don’t want to do. So I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷ As it is, I am no longer the one who does these things. It is sin living in me that does them. ¹⁸ I know there is nothing good in my desires controlled by sin. I want to do what is good, but I can’t. ¹⁹ I don’t do the good things I want to do. I keep on doing the evil things I don’t want to do. ²⁰ I do what I don’t want to do. But I am not really the one who is doing it. It is sin living in me that does it.