Throughout the summer we have been looking in a letter in
our Bible called the book of Genesis at how a man named Abraham responded to
God and God’s promises. This week, as we jump back into the book of Genesis, we
are going to discover another timeless truth regarding God and God’s promises.
So let’s discover this truth together, in Genesis 25:19:
Now these
are the records of the
generations of Isaac, Abraham's son: Abraham became the father of Isaac; and
Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the
Aramean of Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean, to be his wife. Isaac
prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren; and the LORD
answered him and Rebekah his wife conceived. But the children struggled
together within her; and she said, "If it is so, why then am I this way?" So she went to
inquire of the LORD. The LORD said to her, "Two nations are in your womb;
And two peoples will be separated from your body; And one people shall be
stronger than the other; And the older shall serve the younger."
Moses brings us into this section of the book of Genesis
by providing for us the context and characters of the story. After Abraham’s
death, we see the focus of God’s story shift to Abraham’s son Isaac and his
wife Rebekah, who we met two weeks ago. Moses tells us that while Isaac and
Rebekah attempted to have children, there was a problem. And that problem was
that Rebekah was barren. Rebekah was unable to get pregnant. And after twenty
years of infertility, Isaac approaches the Lord in prayer, pleading that his
wife would be able to have children. Moses tells us that God answered Isaac’s
request by enabling Rebekah to become pregnant with twins.
However, there was a problem with the pregnancy, which we
see in verse 22: “But the children struggled together within her”. Now this
phrase literally means that the children were abusing and crushing one another.
Rebekah’s womb had become an octagon where some MMA ground and pound was taking
place. The twins in Rebekah’s womb were at war with one another from
conception. And as a result, Moses tells us that Rebekah came to the Lord with
a question: "If it is so, why then am I this way?"
Now this question, if communicated in the language we use
in our culture today, would have sounded something like this: “if this
pregnancy is like this, then why am I here”? You see, Rebekah was in so much
despair over the painful pregnancy that she was experiencing as a result of the
battle that was occurring within her that she wanted to die. So she asked God
“why? Why is this happening to me”? We see the Lord answer Rebekah’s question
in verse 23:
The LORD
said to her, "Two nations are in your womb; And two peoples will be
separated from your body; And one people shall be stronger than the other; And
the older shall serve the younger."
Here we see the Lord proclaim to Rebekah that the
descendants of her two children would come to represent two nations. And just
like the children, their descendants who would form these two nations would be
in battle with one another. And just like her two children, one child would be
stronger than the other and the older child would end up serving the younger
child. After God proclaimed His prediction and promise to Rebekah, Moses gives
us a glimpse into the birth and early life of these two children in verse 24:
When her
days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. Now
the first came forth red, all over like a hairy garment; and they named him
Esau. Afterward his brother came forth with his hand holding on to Esau's heel,
so his name was called Jacob; and Isaac was sixty years old when she gave birth
to them. When the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the
field, but Jacob was a peaceful man, living in tents. Now Isaac loved Esau,
because he had a taste for game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
Moses tells us that these two children fought all the way
into their entry into the world. The firstborn twin, named Esau, escaped the
womb with his twin brother holding on to his heel in hot pursuit to get a few
more punches in before being separated. And as the joyful parents watched in
amazement the birth of their twin sons, they decided to name the second son
Jacob, which literally means one who takes by the heel or supplants. The name
Jacob conveys the sense of having a desire to catch up and pass up someone, in
this case his older brother Esau.
Moses then gives us a glimpse of the differences between
Esau and Jacob. First, Esau and Jacob were different in terms of their
disposition and occupations. Esau was a man’s man who was a hunter. Esau loved
to kill stuff and drag it back to his tent.
Jacob, on the other hand, is described as being a peaceful man. This
phrase conveys the sense that Jacob was an introverted, stay at home kind of
guy. Jacob had a quiet and detached personality that was perfectly content in
solitude.
Second, we see that Esau and
Jacob were different when it came to their relationship with their parents.
Moses tells us that Isaac loved Esau, because he had a taste for game. You see,
Esau was dad’s favorite. Esau and Isaac went hunting together and enjoyed the
chase and the kill. Esau and Isaac were two peas in a pod; they had a bro-mance
going on. Jacob, on the other hand, was mom’s favorite. Jacob was a momma’s boy, who loved the peace
and quiet that came from a conversation over coffee at the kitchen table.
Instead of embracing and
celebrating the differences of their two children, Rebekah and Isaac played
favorites when it came to their two children. Instead of finding common ground
and cultivating relationships that united them as a family, Rebekah and Isaac
focused on the differences of their children in a way that divided the family.
Tomorrow, we will see how this
favoritism and subsequent division that Rebekah and Isaac fostered in their
children set that stage for what would happen throughout their life…
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