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One-sentence summary: Jacob tricks Esau again, runs from his brother who plans to kill him, dreams of a ladder to heaven, receives a promise from God, is tricked by Laban into marrying Leah, and marries Rachel.
Isaac is old, and "his eyes [are] so dim that he [can]not see." He calls his eldest son, Esau, and asks him to hunt game so that he can eat and bless him before he dies. Rebekah overhears, and she tells Jacob to follow her instructions, to get two goats from the flock for her to prepare so that he may go to his father and receive the blessing instead. Jacob is hesitant and says that his father is likely to find out, since he is not hairy like Esau, and that he will incur a curse rather than a blessing. Rebekah tells him that the curse will be on her, only to listen to what she says. She takes Esau's clothes and puts them on Jacob, and the skins of goats' kids she puts on his hands and neck. She gives him the food and sends him to his father.
Although Isaac wonders at how "Esau" hunted and prepared the game so quickly, Jacob says that God helped him. Isaac asks him to come near to see if it is really Esau. When he feels his hands, he says, "The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau." He doesn't recognize him, but because of his hands, the plan works. He asks again if it is really him, and Jacob lies a second time. Isaac blesses him: "May God give you of the dew of the heaven and of the richness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine. Let peoples serve you and nations bow down to you. Be master over your brethren and let them bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you and blessed be those who bless you."
As soon as Jacob leaves, Esau comes in with food to his father. Isaac, shocked, asks, "Then where is the one who hunted game and brought it to me? I blessed him and, he shall be blessed!" Esau weeps bitterly and asks his father to bless him also. Esau says his brother Jacob is rightly named, as he has deceived him twice, once by acquiring the birthright, and now by the blessing. Esau begs his father to bless him and weeps again.
Then Isaac says to Esau, "Behold, your dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth and of the dew of heaven from above. By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother. Then it shall come to pass, that when you become restless, you will break his yoke from your neck." So Esau hates Jacob and makes plans to kill him after his father's death and the time of mourning has ended. Word gets out to Rebekah, and she tells Jacob to again listen to her and flee to her brother Laban until Esau's anger has subsided. "Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day?" she says, referring to her husband. Then, she tells Isaac she is "weary of her life" because of Esau's wives and that she couldn't bear it if Jacob takes a wife from one of them.
So Isaac calls Jacob and blesses him again and tells him not to take a wife of the daughters of Canaan but to go to Laban and take a wife from one of his daughters. He says, "May God bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you and give you the blessing of Abraham, that you may inherit the land which you are a stranger in, which God gave to Abraham." Sadly, this will be the last that Jacob sees of his mother, Rebekah, a price they pay for their deception.
Jacob goes to Laban. When Esau sees how Jacob is blessed and how he was commanded not to take a wife from the surrounding peoples- how displeasing it is to his parents- he decides to take another wife from the daughters of Ishmael.
Jacob travels to Haran and sleeps all night under the stars, with a stone at his head. He dreams and sees a ladder to heaven, with "angels ascending and descending... and the Lord above it." God speaks to him in the dream: "I am the Lord God of Abraham and of Isaac, your father. The land on which you lie, I will give to you and to your descendants. Your descendants shall be as dust of earth. You will spread to the north, south, east and west. In your and in your Seed all the families of the earth will be blessed. I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done all that I have spoken of you." Jacob awakes and says, "Surely, the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it!"
Jacob rises early in morning and sets up the stone he was sleeping under as a pillar and pours oils on it and calls the place Bethel, meaning "house of God." He makes a vow: "If God will be with me and keep me and sustain me and bring me back to my father's house in peace, the Lord will be my God, and this stone will be God's house and of all You (the Lord) give, I will give a tenth to You."
So Jacob journeys on to the east and stops at a well. He asks some men there with their flocks if they know Laban. As he is speaking, Rachel, Laban's daughter and a shepherdess, arrives with her sheep. Jacob greets Rachel with a kiss and weeps, telling her who he is, and she runs to get her father.
Laban goes out to meet Jacob and invites him to his house, for he says, "Surely you are my bone and flesh" After about a month, Laban asks Jacob how he should pay him for his service. Jacob loves Rachel, his eldest daughter, who is beautiful and says he will serve seven years for her, and Laban agrees. The seven years "seem like only a few days to Jacob," because he loves Rachel so much. However, the night of his wedding, Laban gives him Leah, his youngest daughter, instead. Awaking the next day, Jacob asks Laban, "What have you done? I worked for Rachel! Why did you deceive me?" Laban says as is the custom, he cannot give the younger daughter before the elder, so he tells Jacob to fulfill Leah's wedding week, and then he will give him Rachel also in exchange for another seven year's labor.
When God sees that Leah is unloved, He opens her womb, but Rachel is barren. Leah bears four sons: Reuben, Simeon,
Levi, and Judah, praising God and believing that she will find favor with her husband.
Thoughts/Questions:
Have you ever thought you "got away with" something, only to discover years later that you were reaping what you had sown?
God cares about those who feel unloved. He has a way of bringing justice and balancing the scales in life.