Genesis 27:11-17: a reflection

11Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. 12What if my father touches me? I will seem to him as a deceiver, and I would bring a curse on myself, and not a blessing.” 13His mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son. Only obey my voice, and go get them for me.” 14He went, and got them, and brought them to his mother. His mother made savory food, such as his father loved. 15Rebekah took the good clothes of Esau, her elder son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob, her younger son. 16She put the skins of the young goats on his hands, and on the smooth of his neck. 17She gave the savory food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.

This is a family scene thick with deception. Rebekah engineers a con to steal the blessing meant for Esau and give it to her favorite, Jacob, dressing him in his brother's clothes and goatskins to fool blind old Isaac. Notice that Jacob's only hesitation is the fear of getting caught, not the wrongness of the deceit: what if my father touches me and I am found out? Rebekah's answer is chilling in its confidence, let the curse be on me; just do it.

Here is the sad irony underneath. God had already said the older would serve the younger; the blessing was, in some sense, already promised to Jacob. But rather than trust God to give it in his own way and time, mother and son grasp for it through manipulation and lies. They try to seize by deceit what God had said he would give.

And it costs them dearly. This scheme fractures the family, sends Jacob fleeing for his life, and sets years of pain in motion. The story is a caution about grasping. We can be so afraid of missing the blessing that we resort to manipulation to secure it, even a blessing God intends to give us, and the grasping does real damage. Better to wait on God to give what he has promised than to seize it by deceit. What God intends to give, you do not have to lie your way into.

Lord, keep me from grasping through manipulation for what you have promised to give. Where I am tempted to seize a blessing by deceit rather than trust your timing, make me patient and honest, and free me from the fear that drives me to grab.