1 When Isaac had grown old and his eyesight was failing, he summoned his older son Esau and said to him, “My son?”
And Esau said, “I’m here.”
2 He said, “I’m old and don’t know when I will die. 3 So now, take your hunting gear, your bow and quiver of arrows, go out to the field, and hunt game for me. 4 Make me the delicious food that I love and bring it to me so I can eat. Then I can bless you before I die.”
5 Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. When Esau went out to the field to hunt game to bring back, 6 Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “I just heard your father saying to your brother Esau, 7 ‘Bring me some game and make me some delicious food so I can eat, and I will bless you in the Lord’s presence before I die.’ 8 Now, my son, listen to me, to what I’m telling you to do. 9 Go to the flock and get me two healthy young goats so I can prepare them as the delicious food your father loves. 10 You can bring it to your father, he will eat, and then he will bless you before he dies.”
11 Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, “My brother Esau is a hairy man, but I have smooth skin. 12 What if my father touches me and thinks I’m making fun of him? I will be cursed instead of blessed.”
13 His mother said to him, “Your curse will be on me, my son. Just listen to me: go and get them for me.” 14 So he went and got them and brought them to his mother, and his mother made the delicious food that his father loved. 15 Rebekah took her older son Esau’s favorite clothes that were in the house with her, and she put them on her younger son Jacob. 16 On his arms and smooth neck she put the hide of young goats, 17 and the delicious food and the bread she had made she put into her son’s hands.
Reflection
I would guess that it probably has been a while since you last read this scripture or maybe you never read or heard it at all. I don’t know when I last read the scripture, but I do know that my first reaction was what a duplicitous mother and then why does she seem to love one son more than the other.
Finding answers to questions like this takes time and sometimes we don’t have enough time to get a full answer. I know AI is associated with a lot of negativity. I have been very cautious about the tool and have found one that I felt I could trust and now firmly believe I can trust after many months of searches running from engineering questions and research to a lot of scripture searches. That tool is Claude AI if you want to try it. Quick and accurate as long as you frame your request accurately. Below is my question and the response:
I have read Genesis 27:1-17 in the CEB translation and am wondering why the mother favors one son over the other so strongly?
“Great question — Genesis 27 makes a lot more sense when you look back a couple chapters, because Rebekah’s favoritism doesn’t come out of nowhere.
The oracle before birth (Genesis 25:23) While Rebekah was pregnant, she inquired of the Lord about the twins struggling in her womb and received the answer that two nations were in her, and the older would serve the younger. That’s a direct divine word naming Jacob — not yet even born — as the one through whom the covenant line would run. Rebekah has theological grounds, not just personal preference, for backing Jacob.
Explicit favoritism is already established (Genesis 25:28) The text tells us plainly: Isaac loved Esau because he had a taste for wild game, but Rebekah loved Jacob. It’s stated as flatly as that — almost like the narrator wants you to see the family fracture line before the birthright and blessing episodes even happen. Some of it may simply be proximity and temperament: Jacob is described as a quiet man who stayed among the tents, while Esau was a skilled hunter often out in the field. Rebekah likely had more day-to-day closeness with the son who was around camp.
Esau’s own choices reinforce it Esau trades his birthright for a bowl of stew (25:29–34), showing he doesn’t value what it represents. Then in 26:34–35, he marries Hittite women who — the text says — made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah. From Rebekah’s vantage point, Esau keeps demonstrating he isn’t suited to carry the covenant forward, while Jacob (whatever his flaws) seems to want it.
My study bible points out that Rebekah, as a woman, did not have the social status to determine the recipient of the blessing herself. Her accomplishment can be explained by the difference between authority and power. Women lacked authority – no socially sanctioned right to own property or select the heir who would pass it down. But they still possessed power, the ability to work within and around social structures to achieve their goals.
by Clarence Beverage
For Pondering and Prayer
This reminds us that God can work through flawed people and messy families without endorsing the mess.
Trusting God’s sovereignty doesn’t mean waiting. It means being honest about the difference between faithful action and anxious control.
What are your thoughts?
Prayer: Lord, so often, it feels like life is complicated and we need to move with dispatch. Help us to learn to pray to your Holy Spirit, seek guidance and wisdom, then see, feel, and listen for the response that is sure to come. Amen.
