Esau's birthright

Q Jacob has been accused of "stealing "the birthright from Esau, but is this accurate?"
A. There has been much said about this incident found in Gen 25-27 and much of it has been fueled by anti-semitic feelings, but a closer examination shows that there more to this story than meets the eye, so let's examine this a little closer. Rebekah is pregnant and is told by G-d she is going to have twins. They struggle within her and she is told that the older one will serve the younger. Later Esau comes through the birth canal first, with Jacob grasping at his heel, thus the meaning of his name. "Heel" is alluding the the "end" of days and is also a messianic reference from Gen 3.15. This episode reveals that Jacob had in his heart even at birth a desire to have first-born status. It mean't something to him. Esau sells his birthright to Jacob because he didn't care about it (Gen 25.34).

Now, Rebekah overhears Isaac telling Esau about blessing him and realizes that this was not what G-d desired. She knew the prophecy about Jacob and Isaac appparently was not lining up with that, so she devised a plan to have Jacob impersonate Esau. Jacob was apprehensive about it from the start, but Rebekah took full reponsibility for it in 27.13. Jacob goes in and says to his father after a certain question, "G-d has caused this to happen to me" and receives the blessing of the first-born. Esau comes in later and finds out Isaac has blessed Jacob and accuses Jacob of "stealing" his birthright in 27.36. But, that is not true because Esau gave it away in 25.34, so Jacob was first born and Isaac blessed him correctly.

So, in reality, Rebekah believed G-d's word about Jacob and Isaac did not have his eye on what G-d wanted. She felt led to take this action and G-d caused this to come about in this manner, according to His purposes. Jacob didn't steal the birthright, it was given to him by Esau and this played out exactly as G-d desired. This story was initiated by Rebekah, not Jacob. G-d chose Jacob over Esau because G-d can do that, it's His choice. Esau wanted the status without the responsibility. Many teachers have called Jacob a "supplanter", and a "cheater and deceiver" but that is not the case. It was G-d's idea from the start and Rebekah was G-d's tool to bring this about in this way.