“Jacob Lies to His Father”

“Jacob Lies to His Father”

Isaac was getting very old and couldn’t see; he called his oldest son, Esau, and told him to take his bow and go out into the field and get a deer. “Then cook the meat just the way I like it best; then I will bless you.”

He meant that he would ask God to be kind to Esau and give him many good things. So Esau went out into the field to hunt the deer for his father.

Rebekah heard what Isaac said, and she wasn’t happy about it. She didn’t want Esau to get the special blessing from Isaac, even though he was her oldest son; she wanted the best for Jacob.

When Esau had gone to hunt the deer, Rebekah told Jacob to kill two lambs from their flock of sheep and bring them to her. She cooked them so the meat tasted just like the deer meat Jacob’s father loved so much. Then she got some of Esau’s clothes for Jacob to put on and she put goat skins on the back of his hands and neck. She told him to take the food to his blind father and say that he is Esau.

So, Jacob took the food to his father. His father was surprised that Esau was back so soon. Because he was blind, he asked if it really was Esau. Jacob said yes, and that he had brought the deer meat his father had asked for.

His father put his hands-on Jacob’s hairy neck-remember, Jacob’s mother had put a goat skin around his neck! – and smelled his clothes and was convinced that it was really Esau, even through his voice sounded more like Jacob’s. And of course, it was Jacob, and not Esau at all. Jacob had fooled his father. So his father ate the food and blessed Jacob.

This was a very wicked thing that Jacob and his mother had done; for though Esau had sold him his birth right, Jacob should not have lied to his father. As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had left the room. Esau came in from his hunting, with the deer meat he had cooked.

Isaac asked him, “Who are you?”

Esau answered, “I am Esau, and I have the meat you told me to get for you.”

Isaac began to tremble, “Who was it, then, “he asked, “Who was just here? I have given him your blessing!”

Isaac knew now that it was Jacob who had come in first, and he told Esau that his brother had been there before him and had stolen his blessing.

Esau cried and begged his father to bless him too. So, Isaac did, but he had already promised the best things to Jacob, and now he couldn’t take them always from him.

Esau hated Jacob for what he had done, and said to himself, “My father will soon die and then I will kill Jacob.”

Esau was not a good man; he did not love God. When a good man has done something wrong, he is sorry afterwards and asks God to forgive him and tries not to do it again. But when a bad man has been wicked, he does not repent and ask to be forgiven; he goes on and does the same thing again. Jacob did a wicked thing in lying to his father, but afterwards he became a good man who loved and served God as long as he lived, and God forgave him for his sin. But Esau was not willing to forgive Jacob; instead, he said he would kill him after his father died.

When Rebekah heard what Esau was saying, she sent for Jacob and told him to leave home and to go away to the country where she used to live, to the home of her brother Laban, so that Esau could not hurt him. But how could she get Isaac to agree? This is the way she did it:

She reminded Isaac that the girls of Canaan didn’t love God, but prayed to idols. She reminded him that Esau had married two of these girls; she said she would rather die than see Jacob marry a girl who didn’t love God.

Isaac agreed that Jacob must not marry a Canaanite girl. He called Jacob to him, blessed him again, and told him not to marry a girl of Canaan, but to marry one of his mother’s relatives who lived far away in another country.

Then Isaac sent Jacob away to that far-off land where his uncle Laban lived, to see if he could find a girl there who would marry him. It was the same land from which Isaac’s mother had come with Abraham’s servant.

Questions:

What did Isaac tell Esau to do for him?

How did Rebekah and Jacob fool Isaac?

Who did Jacob pretend he was?

Who got the first blessing from Isaac?

What did Esau say he would do to Jacob when he found out what Jacob had done?

Where did Jacob go to escape from Esau?

What excuse did Rebekah use for sending Jacob away?