Jacob answered his mother Rebekah, “Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man and I am a smooth man. Perhaps my father will feel me, then I will be as a deceiver in his sight, and I will bring upon myself a curse and not a blessing.” But his mother said to him, “Your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, get them for me.” So he went and got them, and brought them to his mother; and his mother made savory food such as his father loved. Then Rebekah took the best garments of Esau her elder son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son. And she put the skins of the young goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. She also gave the savory food and the bread, which she had made, to her son Jacob. (Genesis 27:11-17)

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A man’s character is revealed most by his sober second thought. An impulse may be bad or good; a deliberate purpose is worse or better; it can strengthen or check the impulse. Esau was impulsive, a bundle of impulses, sometimes good, sometimes weak or bad. God couldn’t use him. Jacob was the stronger character, a cool, deliberate thinker. That made his badness worse, and his goodness better, when at last he yielded his life to God.