The life of Jacob is the longest story of any single person in the book of Genesis. As the last of the patriarchs, his story marks an important transition point in the narrative arc of the whole Bible. This passage is all about the blessing imparted by Isaac, and Jacob's duplicitous attempt to secure it. As modern people, our notion of "blessing" is pretty weak. But when we begin to understand what blessing really means in the Bible, and how Jacob goes about trying to get it, we begin to get an understanding of just how crucial this is for our own lives as well.