Afterward his brother came out with his hand holding Esau’s heel, so his name was called Jacob
– Genesis 25:26
And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau thy firstborn; I have done according as thou badest me: arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me.
– Genesis 27:19
Later, with his mother Rebekah’s assistance, Jacob supplanted Esau for their father Isaac’s blessing. When Rebekah told Jacob her scheme to fool Isaac into blessing him instead of Esau, he said, “I will be as a deceiver in [my father’s] sight, and I will bring upon myself a curse and not a blessing” (Gen. 27:12). He was thinking about himself. He didn’t consider his brother. He only cared about himself being cursed if his father found out. But Rebekah said to him, “Your curse be on me” (v. 13). He found this acceptable since the curse would be on his mother and the blessing would be on him. He was so selfish that he didn’t think at all about Esau, his mother, his father, or how they might react. He was a selfish man. Because Esau was plotting to kill him, Jacob was forced to flee, and Rebekah never saw him again. It was many years before Jacob returned to his father’s home, and by then, Rebekah had already died.
Adapted from A Sketch of Genesis, by Titus Chu, page 142.
Tomorrow: “Supplanting (3)”