Gen. 25, part II: Jacob and Esau

Like most of the other Tablets, verse 19b appears to be the start of another one and is typically beginning with a lineage.

Like Sarah, Rebekah was barren initially. How long? We don't know, but there is a clue. Isaac was 60 when the boys were born. The end of chapter 24 had said that he was comforted by Rebekah after the death of his mother. Thus we might be on target to think that they got married not long after his mother died -- at least within two years. That would make Isaac 40 at the oldest when he was married, so Rebekah might have been barren for a good twenty years! We cannot ge sure, but it was long enough to bother Isaac and he prayed about it.

She becomes pregnant and receives a prophecy about the twins she is carrying -- each will 'father' a nation, but the nations will be separated. The nation coming from the older twin will end up serving the nation coming from the younger twin. The older twin turns out to be Esau and the younger, Jacob. This flew directly in the face of the tradition of primogeniture, or that all younger brothers should serve the eldest. It is a good example of God choosing according to HIS standards and not ours!

Note that another name for Esau is Edom (see verse 30).

Then we have the business of Esau selling his birthright, or the primogeniture, to Jacob for a bowl of stew. Please compare this with the first temptation Christ received from Satan. Jesus was reasonably hungry after a forty day fast and the first temptation was to turn the stones into bread. And it must have been some temptation. He would have been ever so much more hungry than Esau was in Genesis 25...

One of them held firm on the strength of Scripture, and one did not care for anything but his own physical hunger being satisfied. Interestingly, it was food Satan used to get to Eve, too. It is also food Christ uses when asking His disciples to remember Him -- we call it Holy Communion.

So there we have Esau, like Eve, following his own thoughts and desires. This in opposition, in Eve's case, to the clear direction from God and, in Esau's case, to the gift of primogeniture from God. Comparing Esau to Eve and contrasting him with Christ makes an interesting series of thoughts!

Is Jacob, however, any better? What SHOULD one say to one's hungry brother? "Here, sure, go ahead and eat!" Instead, Jacob asks for the birthright if his hungry brother wants any food from him!

I'm not sure I would have wanted Jacob for a brother! We know that later he will engage in deceit in order to get the other half of Esau's right: the paternal blessing due the eldest.

God had a lot of work to do with Jacob!

 

I have to admit that this entire family of Isaac's confuses me. Esau was a grown man. He knew what it was to be a little hungry. Why sell his BIRTHRIGHT for a mess of stew? That's like selling off a herd of cattle (steak on the hoof) for a hot dog! Makes no sense to me at all. The only thing that can be said is what the Bible says: Esau despised his birthright.

And yet he turns out to be his father's favorite!