Genesis 25:28

28. Because he did eat Literally, for hunting was in his mouth, that is, the results of hunting game . Comp . Genesis 27:4.

Rebekah loved Jacob No reason is given for her partial love, but we easily infer it was owing to Jacob’s more domestic habits, and the prophecy which had gone before his birth. Isaac seems, after the birth of his sons, to have been strangely swayed by carnal appetite. Quiet, unenterprising, and timid, he was drawn by the law of attraction of opposites to his daring, impetuous, and resolute son, while the quick and impulsive Rebekah loved (best) the mild and undemonstrative, but scheming, Jacob. Esau was frank and bold, but coarse and carnal; Jacob was timid, reticent, and shrewd, but spiritual. Esau had no spiritual insight, no relish whatever for the blessings and duties of the great Abrahamic covenant, he cared only for the carnal portion of the birthright; Jacob, though selfish and cunning, yet had a genuine hunger for the things of God; but it required a long and painful discipline, mighty, spiritual strugglings and angelic wrestlings to qualify him to become the heir of Abraham. In this patriarchal home the mother was the ruling spirit, and the timorous Isaac and unsuspecting Esau were no match for the resolute Rebekah and scheming Jacob. God used, yet punished, these sins. The shortsightedness of Isaac, the wild ferocity of Esau, the deception of Rebekah and Jacob, were woven into the web of providence for man’s good and God’s glory.