I do not understand in Genesis 27, where Jacob lies, deceiving Isaac, and steals the blessing of his brother. How is he favored by God?
This is a difficult section. To start, we can acknowledge that lying and stealing are both sinful, and cannot be the reason why Jacob received the blessing. Now, without question, it was Esau’s birthright, as the first-born son, to receive Isaac’s blessing. Yet, as we read in Genesis 25, Esau chose to sell this birthright to Jacob. Here it even says that Esau “despised” his birthright. This was all in fulfillment of the Lord’s words, spoken in His perfect foreknowledge: “And the LORD said unto her (Rebecca), ‘Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.’” (Gen 25:23) Now in regard to the “deception”: Since by purchasing the birthright, Jacob, in a spiritual sense, truly was the elder son, Esau, it could be said that he did not really deceive his father. Isaac, although a great patriarch, “was old and his eyes were dim and he could not see.” (Ge
