The entire episode of Yakov taking the birthright is very difficult to understand. This is especially true when Yakov gained the reputation of being an איש אמת, a man of truth.
This does not seem to be very truthful when he deceived his father and brother. He was encouraged by his mother, Rivka, and was told by her that if there was a curse on him for doing this, she would take responsibility.
Rav Asher Weiss wrote that Yakov’s primary motivation in taking the blessing and birthright from his brother, was because he was able to see into the future. He believed that this blessing was needed in order to fight Eisav in the future.
He was also able to see how difficult the exile was going to be for his children in the future. The blessing would be protection and a promise of survival to the Jewish people.
This needed to be done discretely because he had to be smart in dealing with Yitzchak and Eisav. His father was somehow under a spell that made him refuse to believe that Eisav was anything less than a Tzaddik. Only after Eisav returned and the blessing was already given, did Yitzchak realize the truth about Eisav.
Yakov’s handling of Eisav, was meant to set an example as to how to deal with crooks. You need to outsmart them. You can’t act with your usual level of innocence and trust. You have to catch them off guard and be one step ahead of them.
This is only an attempt at making sense of one of the more perplexing episodes in the Torah. There is much more that could be studied to shed even more light on the lives of our great patriarchs.