The Blessing Plot, The Real Deceiver Unmasked
Genesis 27:25–29
We’re in Genesis 27, the story of Isaac blessing Jacob. This is a dark chapter in God’s word. The heading in the NET Bible reads, Jacob cheats Esau out of the blessing. The New American Standard Bible says, Jacob’s deception. The New Living Translation says, Jacob steals Esau’s blessing. How are we to understand this episode? Is Jacob the villain in this tale of deception? Or is someone else to blame?
Is Jacob the Worst of the Worst?
Let’s begin by focusing on Jacob. Jacob deceiving Esau over the birthright was bad enough — but taking advantage of your own father? That’s a different matter. The Bible says, honour your father and your mother. It’s absolutely foundational.
But what if your father was blind? Taking advantage of someone who can’t see is low. Deuteronomy 27:18 says, Cursed be he that maketh the blind to wander out of the way. And what would you call someone who plotted to defraud his own father on his deathbed — someone about to die? Deuteronomy 15:7–8 commands open-handed generosity to the poor and needy. Where was Jacob’s heart towards his poor, aged, blind, and dying father?
It looks damning. But something is off.
A Warning Light on the Dashboard
Isaac was growing old long before his time. He was a hundred — but Abraham, Isaac’s father, died at 175, and Jacob later died at 147. And yet Isaac was withered up at a mere 100 years old. Something is deeply wrong.
1 Corinthians 11:30 tells us that there is often a link between rebellion against God and premature ageing and death. Isaac’s premature ageing is like a warning light flashing on the dashboard.
Was Isaac going badly astray? Let’s dig deeper. Isaac was trying to hide the giving of the blessing from both his son Jacob and his wife Rebekah. And this wasn’t normal. Jacob, near his death, gathered all 12 sons around him — adulterers, kidnappers, and even murderers among them — and all received a blessing, out in the open. But Isaac wanted to bless in the shadows. As John 3:19 says, Men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.
Could it be that Isaac’s intentions were evil here? The answer is a clear yes. He was determined to reject God’s choice and bless his own choice — Esau.
Isaac’s Fatal Obsession
One shocking matter dominates Isaac’s thinking in this chapter, and no one talks about it. At this most crucial of all milestones — his own impending death, the passing on of his vast estate, the giving of the blessing that would ensure the line of Christ — what does Isaac have on his mind?
Behold, I am old, I do not know the day of my death. Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me, and prepare for me delicious food such as I love, and bring it to me so that I may eat.
Six times in the passage, delicious food is mentioned. Twice we’re told that he loves Esau’s delicious food. Isaac was obsessed with his belly. He was scheming and deceiving just to satisfy his appetite.
The only other place in Scripture where the Hebrew translated here as delicious food appears is in Proverbs 23:1–3:
When you sit down to dine with a ruler, consider carefully what is before you, and put a knife to your throat if you are a person of great appetite. Do not desire his delicacies, for it is deceptive food.
Isaac is foolishly craving Esau’s delicacies — deceptive food — blinding him to Esau’s evil nature and to God’s clear choice of Jacob.
Isaac’s symptoms are serious. He’s old before his time. He’s blind. And worst of all, his god is his belly. Philippians 3:19 tells us that this is a sign of being an enemy of Christ. How shocking that Isaac, the child of promise, would show signs of being Christ’s enemy.
Isaac’s Passionate Drive to Bless Esau
Isaac says: Make me savoury meat such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, that my soul may bless thee before I die. Not that I may bless you — but that his soul wants to bless him. Deuteronomy 12:20 and 14:26 use the same language of longing and lusting. Isaac longed and lusted to bless Esau. This was no whim. Isaac had an overwhelmingly passionate drive to bless the wrong son.
And what of Esau? While Jacob was dwelling in tents, learning the family business of buying, selling, and raising livestock, Esau was off doing what he wanted to do — hunting. Meanwhile Jacob was preparing himself to receive the inheritance. Esau never lifted a finger to prepare himself to manage his father’s business.
Furthermore, Esau had already sold his birthright, showing he despised it. Jesus said in Matthew 7:6, Give not that which is holy unto the dogs. Neither cast ye your pearls before swine. And yet Isaac’s deepest desire was to bless profane Esau — his eldest son — with the inheritance and the holy blessing of God, something far more valuable than a thousand pearls.
What’s more, Esau had married two Hittite women, practitioners of fertility cult religion — a sign of his apostasy from Jehovah. Genesis 26:35 says those evil wives were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah. Why favour the author of your own mental anguish? You would have to be blind. And sure enough, that’s exactly what Isaac was — blind to the wickedness of his own son Esau, and far worse, blind towards God the Lord.
Since the twins were born, Isaac knew that by God’s decree, the older would serve the younger. Jacob was God’s chosen heir. As the boys grew, their characters only underlined the wisdom of God’s choice. But Isaac was defying God’s will by favouring Esau. For the worst of reasons: his belly.
Jacob’s Deception — Was It Wrong?
Jacob undeniably deceived his father Isaac by word and deed. Verse 19 tells us: Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau, thy firstborn. A clear lie.
But where does God say thou shalt not lie? The ninth commandment says thou shalt not bear false witness. And Scripture interprets Scripture. In many cases, deception is actually blessed by God.
Abraham twice told Sarah to say she was his sister rather than his wife — before Pharaoh and later before Abimelech. After each deception was discovered, Abraham was vindicated by the Lord and showered with riches. Isaac and Rebekah did likewise before a later Abimelech, and God blessed Isaac with a hundredfold harvest immediately after. The Hebrew midwives deceived Pharaoh and were richly blessed by God.
What do these deception stories have in common? A rich and powerful man — a Pharaoh or an Abimelech — who threatens to forever extinguish the line of the Messiah. And in each case, the deception safeguards the children and the line of Christ.
Does Isaac fit into this mould? He was emphatically a powerful man, vastly wealthy, commanding unquestioning loyalty from his household. And he threatened the line of Christ by giving the blessing to the wicked son. But the alleged deceiver in this story, Jacob, was a man. Where did the plot to deceive originate? From a woman — Rebekah, Jacob’s mother.
Rebekah: The Mastermind
Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command thee. Go now to the flock and fetch me from thence two good kids of the goats, and I will make them savoury meat for thy father, such as he loveth. And thou shalt bring it to thy father, that he may eat, and that he may bless thee before his death.
Far from being the mastermind orchestrating the whole deception, Jacob was uncertain:
Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. My father, peradventure, will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver, and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing.
This forced Rebekah to take extreme measures, taking the curse upon herself, and commanding him a second time: Upon me be thy curse, my son, only obey my voice.
The fact that Rebekah was the mastermind of this deception places Genesis 27 in a radically different light. Rebekah is defending her son Jacob from a tyrant who threatens to take away his God-given blessing — and without that blessing, how could Jacob perpetuate the line of Christ? This is the same pattern: protecting Christ’s line, as Sarah before her, and the Hebrew midwives after her.
But remember what God’s word says about maltreating the blind: Cursed be he that maketh the blind to wander out of the way. Did Rebekah and Jacob’s actions lead Isaac astray? Absolutely not. Isaac was already far gone. Rebekah’s plan — and Jacob’s execution of it — prevented Isaac from acting out his rebellion, and stopped him from blessing Esau in place of God’s chosen Jacob.
What If Rebekah Had Done Nothing?
What if Rebekah had simply folded her arms, prayed, and done nothing? Listen to part of the blessing Isaac thought he was giving Esau:
Let people serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be master over your brethren, and let your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be those who bless you.
In direct defiance of God’s prophecy to Rebekah in Genesis 25 — that the older would serve the younger — Isaac was about to wield his tongue like a sword against the clear will of God. Rebekah and Jacob had to act quickly and decisively to rescue Isaac from his blasphemous collision course with the vengeance of God.
But surely they didn’t have to resort to deceit? When a husband hides his plans for succession from his wife, and the wife is forced to spy on her own husband, things are fundamentally broken. And words had failed years ago. Isaac was deaf to his wife’s reason, just as he was blind to Esau’s evil character.
Consider Rahab, who protected God’s people by deceiving powerful men. She acted instantly and is honoured in Hebrews 11 for her exemplary faith. Faith sometimes involves deceiving tyrants. Leviticus 19:16 says, Do not stand idly by when your neighbour’s life is threatened. And Proverbs 24:11 reads, Deliver those who are drawn toward death, and hold back those stumbling to the slaughter. Isaac was emphatically on a collision course with the Lord.
The Clearest Vindication
The clearest vindication of Jacob’s actions comes from the simple text of Scripture. Not only does Scripture never condemn the actions of Jacob in this chapter — Isaac blesses Jacob and that blessing stands. Genesis 27:33 records Isaac telling Esau after having already blessed Jacob: Yea, and he shall be blessed. Furthermore, what happens to Jacob in the next chapter? He meets the Lord in a dream and the Lord himself blesses Jacob.
Why am I telling you all this? Because the Bible has been censored. Its plain words are forced through a filter that only allows simple explanations — understandable at a glance, childish, inoffensive moral tales. But God’s word gives us complex narratives, requiring daily meditation to understand, that address grown-up, real-world problems.
When truth is proclaimed clearly, we begin to feel God’s presence — even though your family has perhaps been torn apart for years by a husband’s deep waywardness. But when God’s word enters in afresh, hope springs again, that God’s purpose will triumph as God’s people act decisively in faith.
Please don’t take my word for it. Be a Berean and search the scriptures to find out if it really is so. With that in mind, please email questions@godsworldgodsway.com with questions and comments. See you all next week.