Jacob got the blessing his father, Isaac, had intended for Esau. He got it by trickery. You might remember that “trickery” might even be the word that defines his name. Jacob means deceiver or trickster. There seems to be an interesting progression of Jacob’s deception. It begins by listening to his mother. He then impersonates his brother. Then he lies to his father. He then goes to the awful length of bringing the name of the Lord God into the deception. When Isaac questions the quickness of his returning with the food, Jacob says “because the Lord your God granted me success.” I don’t expect God smiled down on that. There’s always a progression. It begins with listening. Genesis 3, the first sin, began the same way. Eve listened to the serpent and Adam listened to his wife.

It’s interesting that a “kiss” is involved in the deceit. Genesis 27:26-27 tells us, “Then his father Isaac said to him (Jacob), Come near and kiss me, my son’ (thinking it was Esau) So he (Jacob) came near and kissed him.” Butler observes “Jacob had very affectionate manners in beguiling Isaac. His deceitful kissing of Isaac is one of the deceitful kisses recorded in the Bible. Joab kissed Amasa before he murdered him (II Samuel 20:9); the harlot kissed the young man before she destroyed his morals (Proverbs 7:13), and Judas betrayed Christ with a kiss (Matthew 26:48, 49). The devil has used kissing for ages to deceive and destroy.”1

Faith Hill sings a song “This Kiss.” In the later chorus to the song she sings, “It’s the way you love me. It’s a feeling like this. It’s centrifugal motion. It’s perpetual bliss. It’s that pivotal moment. It’s, ah, subliminal. This kiss, this kiss (it’s criminal)…” Louis Armstrong also had a song about a kiss. It contained the phrase “A kiss is just a kiss.” Is it really? Jacob was to receive a couple kisses in his later life that might be compared to the one he gave his father to deceive him. Laban kissed Jacob and tricked him into marrying Leah instead of Rachel. Esau kissed Jacob when he returned to Canaan as well and their relationship remains strained as long as Edom existed. (King Herod was the last Edomite, descendant of Esau, mentioned in the Bible. Remember, a kiss is not always a kiss.

1John G. Butler, Analytical Bible Expositor: Genesis (Clinton, IA: LBC Publications, 2008), 265.