Genesis 27:11

‘And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Look. Esau is a hairy man and I am a smooth man. Perhaps my father will feel me and I will seem to him as a deceiver. And I will bring a curse on me and not a blessing.” And his mother said to him, “On me be your curse my son, only obey my voice and go and fetch me them.”

Jacob is wary. A deathbed curse was looked on as no light thing. And it would be so easy for Isaac to detect the subterfuge. But his mother assures him that she will stand between him and the curse. Her words suggest that this was looked on as a genuine possibility. But there is in fact only One Who can stand between us and our deserts.

In defence of Jacob we must remember here that he was used to obeying his mother. While his father was the patriarch the practical authority had long since devolved on Rebekah in many things, which was one reason why marrying someone with her background had been so important. And it was she who was urging him in the light of what both thought of as his unfairness and dotage.