XIII - The Birth of Jacob and Esau

We've reached the half way point of the book of Genesis. Notice how much has been covered in those first 24 chapters? We covered the entire creation in just two chapters. Just 25 short sentances. Less than five minutes reading for the average adult. ----------------------The fall of man was covered in just one chapter. The next two chapters told of the time between Adam and Noah. Chapters six through eleven deal with the flood, and the rest of the first half of Genesis records the growth of the human race through the life of Abraham, concentrating mainly of course on the nation of people that will soon become known as the nation of Israel.------------------------But now the pace through time will slow down. For example, in the same space (two chapters) that it took to cover the entire creation, it will cover the relatively short time to transfer Jacob and his kinship from Canaan to Egypt.--------------------As you've seen, the early part of Genesis is concerned with the human race in general. The remainder of our study, particularly in the OldTestament, the Scripture concentrates on one particular family: The family of Abraham, which will go on to become the nation Israel.--------------------- In Genesis Chapter 25, the Scripture sets the stage for the next five to six hundred years of History. Vs.1 tells us that after Sarah's death, Abraham took another wife named Keturah. Keturah bore Abraham six sons. (One son was Midian who was an ancestor of Moses's wife Zipporah. Zipporah was a daughter of Jethro, priest of Midian.) Vs 5: Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac, which was God's intent. Abraham of course loved his other sons, so he gave them gifts (generous ones, I'm sure) and sent them to settle with their families in the east (away from Isaac). Abraham also probably wanted these other sons away from Isaac as Isaac needed no disputes or challenges while establishing his family in the promised land. Did this cause some problems with Keturah and her sons? Probably, but this was of small consequence in the whole scheme of things. Vs 7>> Abraham dies and is buried beside Sarah. Interesting to note that Ishmael came back for his father's funeral. Being buried beside Sarah may or may not have been Abraham's wishes, but Isaac "ruled the roost" now and made ALL decisions. Ishmael, Keturah and/or her sons would have had no say in such matters.-------------------------- Vss 12-18 tell briefly of the remainder of Ishmael's life. Few people realize that Ishmael (like Jacob) also had twelve sons who became twelve tribal leaders, forming the entire ancestry of the modern-day Arab nations.------------------------ Vs 19 begins the story of Isaac and his family. Like his mother Sarah, Isaac's wife Rebekah was barren and could not bare Isaac children. So Isaac prayed. God heard Isaac's prayers and Rebekah became pregnant. Vs 22: The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, "Why is this happening to me?" So she prayed about it, worried that something was not right. { Comment: Had any human had twins before? I don't think there is record of it. Therefore, this would have been a "different" pregnancy, even if the twins were not struggling against each other so much. } Read in vs 23 what God tells her. TWO nations are in your womb. They will be separated. One will be stronger than the other. The older will serve the younger. All of these things must have sounded strange and alarming to Rebekah. I think all unheard of, especially about the older serving the younger. This prenatal struggle between these two boys set the stage for the endless conflict between their families and descendants, the Israelites and the Edomites.------------------Vs 24: It's time for the babies to be born. The first one was red and hairy. They named him Esau (means "the hairy one"). When Esau came out of the womb, the second one had hold of his heel. (they couldn't even get along long enough to get born.) They named the second one Jacob (means "grabber or supplanter"). The Scripture goes on to tell how the boys grew up to be different in every way. Esau was a hunter, a man of the fields. Jacob was content to stay home, indoors. It goes on to say that Isaac had a taste for wild game and favored Esau. Rebekah prefered Jacob.--------------------- Vs 29 begins dealing with the story of Esau selling his birthright. Esau came in from hunting, famished. Jacob had been cooking stew. (remember, Jacob prefered indoors and probably enjoyed cooking and was probably good at it.) Esau told Jacob he needed something to eat. Jacob sensed weakness, and said he would sell Esau the stew for his birthright. Esau agreed. He was a short-sited, shoot-from-the-hip type of thinker. He squandered his entire birthright, robbing his future generations as well, for immediate gratification in the form a meal. His rational: What good is the birthright if I'm going to die of starvation? How ridiculous! Last phrase in the chapter it says Esau despised his birthright. I'm not sure "despised" is the correct word for this, but I think perhaps the word "disrespected" fits. While Esau took his birthright too lightly, it meant EVERYTHING to Jacob. Nothing was more valuable to Jacob, of course. Consider just how valuable it was. It's hard to condone Jacob's methods, but we cannot fault him for placing the proper level of value on the birthright. Jacob was a schemer by nature. He knew that the birthright belonged to the oldest son, and there was no way to get it other than 1) killing Esau before he has sons, or 2) have Esau willingly give it to Jacob. Jacob had high asperations, and he was smart enough to figure out a way and certainly able to recognize an opportunity when it presented itself.---------------The spirit of Esau abounds in our materialistic age. Few are willing to endure the discipline of self-denial. It's always a danger signal when material things or things of comfort take precedence over higher spiritual priorities. Our decisions in our daily lives reveal where our minds and hearts are.