Yesterday, we saw that Isaac’s favoritism, his focus on worldly pleasures and his disregard for the prophecy God gave to his wife set the table for family discord. Today, we see Rebekah and Jacob getting in on the dysfunction, without apologies. Instead of trying to reason with Isaac, Rebekah instantly develops a plot to deceive him. Instead of expressing horror at participating in such a plot, Jacob’s only concern is that he might get caught, and thus receive a curse instead of a blessing. Worst of all, in verse 20, Jacob not only lies to his father about the game he claimed to have caught, but says that the Lord enabled him to have a successful hunt. Jacob may not have lied to God, but he certainly lied about God, which is even worse than lying to his father.

So, what can we learn from all this mess, besides a host of negative examples of family behavior? Of course we should avoid favoritism and pursue open and honest communication. Of course we should not only listen to God’s Word but speak the truth about Him. But perhaps the greatest lesson is not what we learn about ourselves, but what we learn about God. God, after all, chose to bless Jacob, in spite of his conniving, dishonest ways. In fact, God was faithful to His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, no matter how faithless or sinful all of them may have been at times. That’s the good news: God is determined to save even sinners like Jacob, even sinners like us. Isn’t such a faithful God worthy of our trust?

Genesis 27:5-17 (ESV)

5 Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it,
6 Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “I heard your father speak to your brother Esau,
7 ‘Bring me game and prepare for me delicious food, that I may eat it and bless you before the LORD before I die.’
8 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice as I command you.
9 Go to the flock and bring me two good young goats, so that I may prepare from them delicious food for your father, such as he loves.
10 And you shall bring it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.”
11 But Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man.
12 Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing.”
13 His mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, bring them to me.”
14 So he went and took them and brought them to his mother, and his mother prepared delicious food, such as his father loved.
15 Then Rebekah took the best garments of Esau her older son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son.
16 And the skins of the young goats she put on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck.
17 And she put the delicious food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.