Lesson 15 – Jacob Steals the Blessing (Genesis 27-28)

Lesson 15 –
Jacob Gets Isaac's Blessing

Scripture Passage: Genesis 27:1-28:9

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ENLARGE IMAGE

OPEN IT

1. What was the most outrageous trick you played on your parents when you were growing up?

EXPLORE IT

2. What did Isaac ask Esau to do? (27:1-4)

3. What title would you give to this passage? Why? (27:1-28:9)

4. What did Rebekah do after she heard Isaac talking to Esau? (27:5-10)

5. What was Jacob's initial concern with Rebekah's plan? (27:11-12)

6. What did Jacob do to make Isaac think he was Esau? (27:14-17)

7. What lies did Jacob tell to convince Isaac that he was Esau? (27:19-25)

8. What blessing did Isaac give Jacob? (27:27-29)

9. What happened when Esau came back with the food he had prepared for Isaac? (27:30- 38)

10. How did Isaac answer Esau's request for a blessing? (27:39-40)

11. What did Esau plan to do? (27:41)

12. What did Rebekah tell Jacob to do? (27:42-45)

13. What did Rebekah say to Isaac? (27:46)

14. What did Isaac tell Jacob to do, and what blessing did he give him? (28:1-4)

15. What did Esau do when he learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob? (28:6-9)

GET IT

16. Why would a person do something wrong in order to accomplish something right?

17. What excuses do people use to rationalize their sinful behavior?

APPLY IT

18. What excuse do you need to stop using in order to obey God more honestly?

Explore It Answers

This section is designed to prompt thoughts about how and why to derive each scripture-based answer, so the actual answer is based upon individual study and may not be fully disclosed here. Here, also, are parallel verses for the key scripture texts.

Biblical Answer 2

What did Isaac ask Esau to do? (27:1-4)

Key Scripture: Genesis 27:1-4 | Parallel Texts: Romans 12:18; Proverbs 16:7; Matthew 5:9

Biblical Answer 4

What did Rebekah do after she heard Isaac talking to Esau? (27:5-10)

Key Scripture: Genesis 27:5-10 | Parallel Texts: Romans 12:18; Proverbs 16:7; Matthew 5:9

Biblical Answer 5

What was Jacob's initial concern with Rebekah's plan? (27:11-12)

Key Scripture: Genesis 27:11-12 | Parallel Texts: Jeremiah 32:17; Luke 1:37; Mark 10:27

Biblical Answer 6

What did Jacob do to make Isaac think he was Esau? (27:14-17)

Key Scripture: Genesis 27:14-17 | Parallel Texts: Romans 12:18; Proverbs 16:7; Matthew 5:9

Biblical Answer 7

What lies did Jacob tell to convince Isaac that he was Esau? (27:19-25)

Key Scripture: Genesis 27:19-25 | Parallel Texts: Psalm 24:1; Acts 17:28; Romans 14:12

Biblical Answer 8

What blessing did Isaac give Jacob? (27:27-29)

Key Scripture: Genesis 27:27-29 | Parallel Texts: Genesis 1:27; Genesis 9:6; James 3:9

Biblical Answer 9

What happened when Esau came back with the food he had prepared for Isaac? (27:30- 38)

Key Scripture: Genesis 27:30-38 | Parallel Texts: James 1:19-20; Proverbs 15:1; Ephesians 4:31-32

Biblical Answer 10

How did Isaac answer Esau's request for a blessing? (27:39-40)

Key Scripture: Genesis 27:39-40 | Parallel Texts: Galatians 3:8; Acts 3:25; Genesis 18:18

Biblical Answer 11

What did Esau plan to do? (27:41)

Key Scripture: Genesis 27:41 | Parallel Texts: James 1:19-20; Proverbs 15:1; Ephesians 4:31-32

Biblical Answer 12

What did Rebekah tell Jacob to do? (27:42-45)

Key Scripture: Genesis 27:42-45 | Parallel Texts: Genesis 1:27; Genesis 9:6; James 3:9

Biblical Answer 13

What did Rebekah say to Isaac? (27:46)

Key Scripture: Genesis 27:46 | Parallel Texts: Jeremiah 32:17; Luke 1:37; Mark 10:27

Biblical Answer 14

What did Isaac tell Jacob to do, and what blessing did he give him? (28:1-4)

Key Scripture: Genesis 28:1-4 | Parallel Texts: Romans 12:18; Proverbs 16:7; Matthew 5:9

Biblical Answer 15

What did Esau do when he learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob? (28:6-9)

Key Scripture: Genesis 28:6-9 | Parallel Texts: James 1:19-20; Proverbs 15:1; Ephesians 4:31-32

Commentary Summary

Got Questions

In Genesis 27:1-28:9, Jacob Gets Isaac's Blessing highlights doctrinal themes such as God’s character, human accountability, and the certainty of His redemptive purpose. The sins of believers can hurt and divide their families. The emphasis is theological, asking what the text teaches about creation, covenant, judgment, grace, salvation, and the trustworthiness of God. This summary is designed to identify the major truths being taught, not merely repeat the narrative details. It therefore reads as a concise doctrinal overview suitable for the commentary summary section.

Enduring Word

In Jacob Gets Isaac's Blessing, the flow of Genesis 27:1-28:9 emphasizes practical faith, obedience, and response to God. Favoritism, broken lines of communication, lies, the love of the world, nominal religion, and seeking God's blessing through sinful means can tear Christian families apart. The focus here is pastoral and applicational, showing how the lesson challenges the reader to trust, repent, endure, worship, and walk in obedience. This summary is intentionally more devotional and exhortational so it does not simply duplicate the doctrinal wording used in the other commentary summaries.

Bible Project

Within the broader storyline of Genesis and the Bible as a whole, Genesis 27:1-28:9 helps move forward the pattern of promise, failure, mercy, and restoration that runs through Scripture. While God's purposes of grace cannot fail, He will discipline His people, possibly through broken relationships. This summary is shaped to sound more like a Bible Project overview by emphasizing literary flow, biblical themes, and how the lesson contributes to the unified story of Scripture. The goal is to locate the passage in the wider narrative rather than repeat the same doctrinal or devotional emphasis.

Last Week

THINK ABOUT THIS: The Lord is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He still can be trusted to bless His people with physical provision and the hope of future glory. But the richest blessings that believers presently enjoy are the fruits and gifts of the Holy Spirit.

This Week

THINK ABOUT THIS: The sins of believers can hurt and divide their families. Favoritism, broken lines of communication, lies, the love of the world, nominal religion, and seeking God's blessing through sinful means can tear Christian families apart. While God's purposes of grace cannot fail, He will discipline His people, possibly through broken relationships.

Next Week

THINK ABOUT THIS: Man attempts to grasp heaven, but his efforts fail, whether they are the proud labors of the Tower of Babel or the deceitful manipulations of Jacob. However, God bridges the gap with Jesus Christ. He is the only Mediator, the stairway to heaven.

TMFBSG Commentary Search Commentaries Commentaries Amplified

Footnotes

The following references are supplemental research resources for Lesson 15 — Jacob Gets Isaac's Blessing — Genesis 27:1–28:9. They are not represented as citations contained in the original commentary.

Genesis 27 must be read in light of the divine announcement made before Jacob and Esau were born: “the older shall serve the younger” (Genesis 25:23). This establishes an important theological tension in the story. God's purpose concerning Jacob precedes the deception of Genesis 27; therefore, Jacob and Rebekah's manipulation does not create God's plan, even though their sinful actions become entangled with its historical fulfillment. Genesis 25 — ESV .
The family conflict in Genesis 27 involves all four principal characters. Isaac favors Esau and intends to bless him; Rebekah favors Jacob and organizes the deception; Jacob lies repeatedly to his father; and Esau, after losing the blessing, determines to kill Jacob. Contemporary commentators frequently observe that the narrative does not present any of these human participants as morally exemplary. Rather, God's covenant purpose advances in spite of their failures. David Guzik, Enduring Word — Genesis 27 .
Isaac's blessing in Genesis 27:27–29 contains language of fertility, prosperity, dominion, and blessing or cursing that recalls God's covenant promises to Abraham, especially Genesis 12:1–3. The connection becomes explicit in Genesis 28:3–4 when Isaac knowingly bestows upon Jacob “the blessing of Abraham.” Genesis 12 — ESV ; Genesis 28 — ESV .
Victor P. Hamilton treats Genesis 18–50 in the New International Commentary on the Old Testament. His commentary gives particular attention to the literary structure, Hebrew language, patriarchal traditions, and the continuing covenant theme in which Yahweh remains faithful to his promised word. Hamilton's treatment provides a substantial scholarly resource for Genesis 27–28 and the Jacob narratives.
The blessing bestowed in Genesis is larger than material prosperity. Biblically, blessing develops as a covenant concept involving God's presence, protection, descendants, land, mission, and the extension of blessing to others. Jacob later receives God's own confirmation: “I am with you and will keep you wherever you go” (Genesis 28:15). Themelios — A Biblical Theology of Blessing in Genesis .
Jacob's deception should not be understood as divinely approved merely because Jacob ultimately receives the covenant blessing. The narrative shows substantial consequences: Esau's anguish and hostility, Jacob's flight from home, separation from his mother, and years of exile. The biblical storyline therefore distinguishes between God's sovereign ability to accomplish His purposes and moral approval of the human means by which events unfold. The Gospel Coalition — God's Sovereignty in the Mess of Human Sin .
The language of Genesis 27:29 — “Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you” — also gives the blessing a broader, forward-looking dimension. The promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob establish the covenantal line from which Israel and ultimately the biblical expectation of kingship emerge. The Gospel Coalition — The Challenge of Preaching Christ in Genesis .
Genesis 27:34–38 depicts one of the Old Testament's most emotionally intense scenes when Esau discovers that Jacob has received the blessing. The New Testament later recalls Esau's loss in Hebrews 12:16–17 as a warning regarding the consequences of treating sacred privileges lightly. Hebrews 12 — ESV .
Genesis 28:1–5 is an important interpretive companion to Genesis 27. Here Isaac is no longer deceived. Knowing that he is addressing Jacob, he blesses him deliberately, invokes God Almighty, and expressly asks that Jacob receive “the blessing of Abraham.” The passage therefore confirms Jacob's place in the covenant line independently of the deception that occurred in the previous chapter. Genesis 28:1–5 — ESV .
The conflict between Jacob and Esau extends beyond the brothers themselves. Esau becomes associated with Edom, while Jacob becomes Israel. Later biblical books repeatedly return to the relationship between Israel and Edom, making Genesis 25–28 foundational for understanding that later history. Obadiah — ESV .
A central theological lesson emerging from Genesis 27 is the distinction between divine sovereignty and human responsibility. God's promise concerning Jacob is fulfilled, yet the text never requires the reader to regard deception, favoritism, lying, or murderous resentment as virtuous. The story instead illustrates God's capacity to preserve His covenant purposes through deeply imperfect people.
The closing movement into Genesis 28 prepares for Jacob's own direct encounter with God at Bethel. Isaac's blessing points Jacob toward Paddan-aram, but God's revelation in Genesis 28:10–22 will personally confirm the promises of land, descendants, divine presence, protection, and eventual return. Thus the blessing moves from something Jacob obtains through family conflict to something God Himself subsequently confirms. Genesis 28:10–22 — ESV .

Bibliography

Crossway. The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2001.

Hamilton, Victor P. The Book of Genesis: Chapters 18–50. New International Commentary on the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1995.

Mathews, Kenneth A. Genesis 11:27–50:26. New American Commentary, Vol. 1B. Nashville: B&H Publishing, 2005.

Sarna, Nahum M. Genesis: The Traditional Hebrew Text with the New JPS Translation. JPS Torah Commentary. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1989.

Waltke, Bruce K., with Cathi J. Fredricks. Genesis: A Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2001.

Walton, John H. Genesis. NIV Application Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2001.

Wenham, Gordon J. Genesis 16–50. Word Biblical Commentary, Vol. 2. Dallas: Word Books, 1994.

Guzik, David. “Genesis 27 — Jacob Deceptively Gains the Blessing of Isaac.” Enduring Word Bible Commentary. Online commentary.

Kruger, Michael J. “Genesis.” The Gospel Coalition Bible Commentary. Online biblical commentary.

Raymond, Erik. “God's Sovereignty in the Mess of Human Sin.” The Gospel Coalition, December 3, 2024.

ESV Study Bible. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2008.

Hyperlinks

Supplemental research bibliography prepared for Lesson 15 — Jacob Gets Isaac's Blessing — Genesis 27:1–28:9. The resources above amplify the supplied lesson commentary and should not be interpreted as the original commentary's own bibliography.

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