~~~~~Lesson: Genesis, Chapter 27 (reading below lesson)

The story of Jacob "stealing" Esau's blessing is almost light-hearted....a kid dressed up in his older brother's clothes before his blind father doing what his mother commands.
There is also the fact that there is no ethical judgment in the story. Nowhere later in Chapter 27 does God come down and curse Jacob for stealing his Father's blessing. In fact, it had been prophesized before Jacob and Esau's birth that despite being the younger son, he would be the one to inherit (wealth, a long line of family, service from his brother). In ancient Israel, the eldest brother received a double share of the inheritance, the rest of the brothers received a single share.

So, do you think Rebekah's actions were simply desire for her favorite son to inherit?
Or where her actions maybe there were a way for Jacob to fulfill God's command of receiving the "older brother's" share of the inheritance?
Do you think Rebekah's actions were ethically wrong...and why do you think that?


~Reading: Chapter 27: 5-13, 26-29

(5-13) Rebekah has been listening while Isaac was speaking to his son Esau. So when Esau went out into the country to hunt some game for his father, Rebekah said to her son Jacob, "Listen! I overhead your father tell your brother Esau, 'Bring me some game and with it prepare an appetizing dish for me to eat, that I may give you my blessing with the Lord's approval before I die.' Now son, listen carefully to what I tell you. Go to the flock and get me two choice kids. With these I will prepare an appetizing dish for your father, such as he likes. Then bring it to your father to eat, that he may bless you before he dies."

"But my brother Esau is a hairy man," said Jacob to his mother Rebekah, "and I am smooth-skinned!" Suppose my father feels me? He will think I am making sport of him, and I shall bring on myself a curse instead of a blessing." His mother, however, replied: "Let any curse against you, son, fall on me! Just do as I say. Go and get the kids."

(26-29) Finally his father Isaac said to him, "Come closer, son, and kiss me." As Jacob went up and kissed him, Isaac smelled the fragrance of his clothes [he was wearing Esau's clothing so as to trick his father]. With that, he blessed him, saying,
"Ah, the fragrance of my son is like the fragrance of a field that the Lord has blessed! May give to you of the dew of the heavens And of the fertility of the earth abundance of grain and wine. Let peoples serve you, and nations pay you homage; Be master of your brothers, and may your mother's sons bow down to you. Curse be those who curse you, and blessed be those who bless you."