Jacob’s Deception

November 11, 2018 Background Scripture: Genesis 27:1 – 28:5 Lesson Passage: Genesis 27:5 – 10, 18, 19, 21 – 29 The bible records a number of incidents of deception. The first occurs in the book of Genesis when the serpent deceived the woman into eating fruit from the forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden. The serpent’s deceit was a deliberate attempt to get the woman to undermine the authority of God. This eventually led to sin entering the world through the man who received and ate fruit of the forbidden tree from the woman. It seems as though deception has been part of the human experience since the Garden of Eden. Deception is often used to undermine the authority of someone and thereby achieve an end not intended by the one who has been undermined. Last week’s lesson introduced the rivalry that developed between the twins, Esau and Jacob. This week’s lesson sees that rivalry grow to a dangerous level. Esau developed a hatred for his brother, Jacob, and vowed to kill him after their father’s death. How does a sibling rivalry degenerate to the point of a death wish for one’s sibling? Perhaps Esau accepted that he had acted foolishly when he vowed to give Jacob his birthright in exchange for a meal. But in the matter of the blessing of God that their father would bestow, Esau did not willingly surrender that. It was through the scheming of Jacob and their mother, Rebekah, that the blessing was loss. Isaac was deceived, Jacob benefited, and Esau again suffered loss as a result of the deception. Rebekah overheard Isaac asking Esau to go kill some wild game and fix him some food so that he could pronounce a blessing upon him before his death. While Esau was away hunting, Rebekah developed a plan of deception. It should be noted that the entire plan was contrived by Rebekah although she stayed in the background and allowed Jacob to carry out the malicious scheme. Jacob expressed concern to his mother about her plan—not that he should not do it, but that he might get caught attempting to deceive his daddy! She assured Jacob that he should not worry about being caught. Rebekah had all of the details figured out. All that was required was for Jacob to consent to carry out the plan. Jacob did all according to his mother’s instructions to him. In fact, when it seemed as though Isaac was aware that he was being deceived, Jacob lied twice to allay Isaac’s concern. In the end, Isaac was deceived into thinking that Jacob was his brother Esau. As a result of the scheme, Isaac pronounced the blessing upon Jacob and sealed it with the stipulation that all who cursed Jacob would be cursed and all who blessed him would be blessed. The blessing also made Esau subservient to Jacob. For Esau, this was the last straw. Esau stated that Jacob had been properly named because his behavior was that of “a heel grabber”. Jacob’s name meant that he would be bent on trying to take advantage of someone. He had proven this to be accurate with his actions towards his brother, Esau. Robert C. Hudson October 12, 2018