Jacob : The Tricky Man Who Stole a Blessing

Isaac lived a loooong time. He was old. As Isaac got older he couldn’t see, and his body was so weak he could hardly get out of bed. But Isaac wasn’t afraid. Soon he would get to be with God. But before he died, Isaac wanted to bless his firstborn son, Esau.

When people who trust God bless other people, God hears and He can make those things happen! Isaac wanted God to bless Esau because he hoped God would do wonderful things for Esau.

So Isaac had an idea. He knew Esau liked to go hunting, and Isaac liked to eat the meat. So Isaac told Esau, “Go out in the field and find an animal to shoot with your bow and arrow. Bring the meat home and make a special meal for me. Then I will bless you.”

Well, when Rebekah heard what Isaac had said to Esau, she was not happy about it. Rebekah thought Isaac should bless Jacob instead. Rebekah remembered what GOD had said when Jacob and Esau were in her tummy. God had said, “The older will serve the younger.”

That meant that somehow, someway, someday Jacob would be over Esau. And that’s what Rebekah wanted to happen.

So now Rebekah had an idea. Rebekah quickly found Jacob and said, “Quick, before Esau gets back! Your daddy, Isaac, is about to bless Esau. But I want you to have the blessing. I will make the special meal for Isaac. Then you, Jacob, can take it to him and he will bless you instead.”

Think about it…

Uh-oh. Problem. We imagine that Isaac knew God had said the older would serve the younger. We don’t know what kind of conversations Isaac and Rebekah had about this beforehand. But, there still seems to be some disagreement as to what should happen with this blessing, doesn’t there? Isaac wanted Esau to be blessed, and Rebekah wanted Jacob to be blessed. A husband and wife should talk together to find out what GOD wants. But that’s not what is about to happen. Rebekah was telling Jacob to trick Isaac. Tricking was not God’s way to handle this disagreement.

Rebekah knew that Isaac couldn’t see with his eyes. But Isaac could still smell with his nose and touch with his hands. Rebekah wanted Jacob to smell like Esau, so she put some of Esau’s smelly clothes on Jacob. Rebekah wanted Jacob to feel like Esau, so she put some hairy goat skins on Jacob’s hands and neck!

Now Jacob smelled like Esau, and Jacob felt like Esau.

Then Jacob took the food and went sneaking into Isaac’s tent. Then, Jacob did something terrible. He LIED to his daddy. Jacob said, “I am your son, Esau.”

‘Hmmm,” Isaac thought. “This sounds like Jacob’s voice.”

But Isaac FELLLLLLTTT Jacob’s arm — and it felt hairy like Esau, because of the goatskins. Then Isaac SNIFF! SNIFF! SNIFFFFFFFFED — and Jacob smelled like Esau, because of the clothes. So Isaac thought, “It must be Esau.” So he ate the special meal and blessed Jacob.

Isaac thought he was blessing Esau, but really he was blessing Jacob!

Just then, Esau came back home with the animal he had shot with his arrow.

Esau cooked the special meal and took it to Isaac. “Here I am with the food, Daddy. I’m ready for you to bless me.”

“What?!” Isaac began to tremble. “Who was just here?! I blessed someone else already!”

When Esau found out Isaac had given his blessing to someone else, he started to wail! WAAAH! “Bless me, too, daddy!” Esau asked.

But Isaac said, “I can’t. Jacob already has your blessing! I can’t take back what GOD has done.”

When Esau heard that, he got sad, sad, SAD. Then Esau got mad, mad, MAD!

So Jacob had to leave home to get away from Esau.

Too bad. Because Jacob didn’t need to do all that tricky, sneaky grabbing. He should have trusted GOD to work it out. Soon God would have to teach Jacob some HARD lessons. But, keep listening, eventually, God will be able to finally trust Jacob with blessings!