If the last story seemed challenging for children this age, this one may seem even more so. But it is filled with the kind of intrigue, danger, and sheer adventure that children this age love. It's important for you, the leader, to be familiar with what leads up to the tale, especially by reading Genesis 25:21-34.

Jacob wants the birthright, and Esau is careless about it. While Jacob doesn't know it, God has already secretly informed Rebekah that Jacob will bear the covenant promise. Yet they all in their own way use their wiles to get for themselves what God has already given. Jacob and Rebekah want the right thing (the covenant promise) but go about getting it in the wrong way.

What complicates the story is that God's promise is tied in with the parental blessing. It might be best to think of this blessing as a sort of prophetic vision that God is offering through the words of this dying parent. Notice how the words that Isaac spoke to Jacob echo the words of blessing that God spoke earlier to Abraham (Genesis 12:3). Jacob's words also mirror what God had said to Rebekah (25:23). The blessing was more than just the father's good wishes for his sons; it embodied the expression of God's promises given to Abraham and now passed on to the next generation.

At its heart this is a tale of trickery and deception. Encouraged by his mother, Jacob steals the birthright that he already swindled out of Esau. What a daring thing to impersonate his own brother's voice and smell and feel! But when Jacob gets scared, Rebekah pushes him on. She is ready to take on herself any curse that might come from old Isaac's lips.

If there's a villain in the story, it seems to be Rebekah: she pulls the strings and makes the plans while Jacob goes along with her plot. Isaac seems weak and gullible. If anyone in the story evokes sympathy, it's Esau, who remains obedient and faithful to his father and becomes a victim of Jacob's deception. It all ends in hatred, disgrace, and revenge. Talk about a dysfunctional family!

The Bible is much more realistic about human life than most TV dramas, with their clearly delineated good guys and bad guys. The Bible is about a God who shapes and bends sinful human beings and circumstances to accomplish his purposes.

Nothing human beings can or will do can deflect God from his ultimate loving purposes. Not only does God love us despite our misdeeds, he will even use our misdeeds to accomplish his will. Notice too that lying and deception do not go unpunished. They permanently fracture this family and set up tensions that continue for generations.