Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Yesterday, Isaac and Rebecca had twin sons, and God made an unusual promise to bless the younger

one, Jacob, instead of the older one, Esau.

We saw God's plan unfolding when older brother Esau sold Jacob the rights to his inheritance

in exchange for lentil stew. And today, we'll take a few more steps in that direction

when the sins of both Rebecca and Isaac also play a role in this. Rebecca tricks her husband into giving his blessing to her favorite son, Jacob.

And in his heart, Isaac goes against the words of God by intending to bestow his blessing on the

child God has not chosen for it.

Both parents' sins are warring against each other, though it's worth noting that we can't be 100% sure Rebecca has communicated God's words to Isaac.

Jacob isn't sinless here either. Not only that, but in the course of receiving this blessing, he refers to Yahweh as Isaac's God, but not his own.

By the way, a blessing is different than an inheritance.

It carries more of a spiritual significance than a financial one. It is a very big deal, and once it's given, it's irrevocable. When Isaac is accidentally giving the blessing to Jacob instead of

Esau, he uses some of the very

same phrases and ideas that God does in 2523. Isaac says, be lord over your brothers, and may your

mother's sons bow down to you. Decades earlier, God had said, the older shall serve the younger.

Esau, of course, hates this and hates Jacob.

But before you feel too sorry for Esau, pay attention to his attitude of entitlement when he

denies responsibility for selling his birthright.

He never quite understood the weight of it all.

On top of that, he threatens to kill Jacob. So Rebecca sends

Jacob away to go live with her brother Laban and Heron. That's the Canaanite land where we first met her.

As she's sending him off, Isaac warns him, don't marry a Canaanite woman. You have to marry one of

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