Genesis 27:42, commentary and pictures

Esau's murderous intent toward Jacob followed Jacob's deception to obtain the blessing intended for Esau. Word of Esau's threat reached Rebekah, and she sent for Jacob her younger son to warn him of the danger. That warning compelled Jacob to flee for his life from Esau's anger and wrath as a fugitive from his father's home.

He left carrying Isaac's renewed covenant blessing and sent to seek a wife among his mother's family in Mesopotamia, yet he feared his angry brother would trace him and worried he had lost the blessing God had purposed for him. The flight separated Jacob from his mother forever so that she never saw his face again, as lasting grief and the bitter result of her wrong counsel to deceive Isaac to gain the blessing. Isaac lived many years after giving the blessing and became convinced by the later conduct and course of Esau and Jacob that the blessing rightly belonged to Jacob.

Years later, when Jacob was returning at God's command, news that Esau was approaching with warriors filled him with terror and fear of revenge. He recognized that the danger and distress had come from his own sin and relied on God's mercy and prayer as his only hope and defense. Jacob's peril from Esau represents the experience of God's people in the time of trouble. His efforts to make amends to Esau and avert the danger illustrate how Christ's followers should act to disarm prejudice and avert threats to liberty of conscience. Deceptions like Jacob's are still practiced amid partiality and hypocrisy at which angels veil their faces, so the time has come to investigate Christ's teachings to ancient Israel.