The Struggle for Salvation

We are returning this morning to our study of the book of Genesis. Just before the advent season, we stopped here in Genesis 25 where the story of Abraham’s life came to a close. What comes next, after Abraham? You will recall that Genesis is structured around ten generational notes, like the two found here in Genesis 25, in verses 12 and 19: “These are the generations of…” After a brief list of “the generations of Ishmael, Abraham’s son,” we come to verse 19 and “the generations of Isaac, Abraham’s son.” This chapter moves quickly, telling us about the birth of Isaac’s twin sons, Esau and Jacob, and then to a strange story after they have grown up about a birthright and a bowl of stew.

This rapidly-paced chapter is designed to throw us into this next major section in Genesis and to give us an idea of what this section is all about. These stories are not mere stories—they are theological narratives, the stories of redemption, of how the creator God is fulfilling his promise to save the world he created.

The narrator of Genesis has selected and structured these narratives in order to tell us about that story. Just as Genesis 12 which began the Abraham story laid out great promises of God that Abraham must believe throughout his life, so this chapter which begins the Jacob story gives us a word from God (in verse 23) that will characterize Jacob’s life, and indeed the life of the nation he fathers, and also teaches us about the way God’s great promise to Abraham will be fulfilled.

So, this chapter begins by concluding the life of Abraham and by the time it ends we are already into the adult lives of his grandsons, twin boys whose lives will be in constant tension, indeed we are told here that they “struggled together” even while they were in their mother’s womb! Struggle is something of a theme in Jacob’s life, and that’s not all that surprising. Because God is bringing salvation to the world through his chosen people, the descendants of Jacob, we should expect there to be all kinds of conflicts as this story of redemption unfolds.

This introductory chapter to this section in Genesis tells us about three kinds of struggles that define not just Jacob’s life but the entire story of redemption. And as we will see, these three struggles directly affect all of us as well. Let’s call them the struggle of the nations, the struggle for the blessing, and the struggle in prayer.

The Struggle of the Nations

First, the struggle of the nations. When we study the life of Jacob, we are seeing here not just the life of one man but the life of an entire nation and the struggle that nation will have given its divine place among the other nations.

The Meaning of a Difficult Pregnancy

The way this is portrayed in our text today is by the difficulty Rebekah endured while carrying Jacob in her womb. We are told in verses 21-22 that after Rebekah conceived, “The children struggled together within her.” The word struggled is defined by one dictionary as kicking and shoving one another. It is quite an experience to feel a baby moving around as she develops in her mother’s womb. But this must have been quite the experience. For some of us who have two or more boys in the home, we know something of the very real, very physical struggle they can easily get into. You see two young brothers and it isn’t too surprising if the sight you see is more or less a large bowling ball careening through the house.

In this case, the bowling ball was careening in Rebekah’s womb. The rowdiness brought her to a place of exasperation, and she went to the Lord seeking an explanation. This is not normal. It must mean something.

Two Nations and the Outcome

Indeed it does. Verse 23 is God’s explanation for what is going on, and it demands our attention.

Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.

Here we see God’s explanation comes in the form of two sets of parallel statements about what this all means.

First, there are “two nations” in Rebekah’s womb, and these two nations, she is told, “from within you shall be divided.” Part of the explanation for Rebekah is the fact that she is pregnant, not with just one child but with two. And yet, though she is carrying twins, and twins often have an amazing unity and closeness between them, not so here. These boys will be divided, a division which has already begun to happen “from within” her. That is the first part of the explanation. These boys, and the nations they represent, will be rivals.

The second statement is about the outcome of the rivalry. God tells Rebekah, indeed all of us, how the rivalry will fare. “One shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.” Having read the entire account of Jacob’s life in the rest of Genesis, we can see the truth of this statement, but Rebekah couldn’t have had much clarity about it at the time.[1] All she could have known is that the struggle she was having in her pregnancy was representative of a much bigger international struggle that would develop from the children to whom she would soon give birth.

The Name of the Nations

Verse 24 moves us on to the moment when Rebekah gave birth to the twin boys. And the attention here is on their names because the names are representative of the nations the boys will generate.

Esau was technically born first, as twins often like to point out for trivial reasons. “He came out red,” verse 25 says. The word (admoni) means “reddish” and is also used to describe David’s appearance in 1 Samuel 16:12 and 17:42. It could be describing the appearance of his hair or his skin, but the more important point being made by this characterization doesn’t come until the next episode in this chapter where we are told that Esau would also be known as Edom, a word which has similar sounds to the Hebrew word for red.

To the original audience of Genesis, this is the important point. Esau became the forefather of the Edomites, “who were bitter rivals of Israel throughout the OT period.”[2] Perhaps the lowest point between them was at the Babylonian exile when the Edomites helped the Babylonians capture fleeing Israelites, an event which is denounced most especially in the prophecy of Obadiah.

This association of Esau with the nation of Edom is also reflected in the other way Esau was described at birth. You see it there in verse 25 as well, but let’s just say he is described here like Gaston in Beauty and the Beast.

No one fights like Gaston Douses lights like Gaston In a wrestling match, nobody bites like Gaston! For there's no one as burly and brawny “As you see, I've got biceps to spare.” Not a bit of him's scraggly or scrawny. “That's right! And every last inch of me's covered with hair!”[3]

The point about the hair is that this Hebrew word (se’ar) sounds something like the name Esau and the name of the territory the future nations of Edom would occupy, Seir (Deut 2:4).

Thus, attention is not just on Esau himself but on the nation he represents. And the same is true with his twin brother, Jacob, who will become the forefather of the nation of Israel—his twelve sons will become the heads of the twelve tribes that make up ancient Israel. The first time “Israel” is mentioned in the Bible is when Jacob becomes known by that name later in his story (Gen 32:28). But for now he is called “Jacob” because of how he is described at birth, “his hand holding Esau’s heel.” The Hebrew word for heel has the same consonants as the name Jacob.

Thus, the struggle of the nations is set up. It is Esau vs. Jacob, or the Edomites vs. the Israelites. Actually, it has an even larger scope than that.

The Struggle for the Blessing

Verse 27 takes us quickly to the adult lives of the two boys. “Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field.” Jacob is the opposite, “a quite man, dwelling in tents.” The polarity between them continues in verse 28. “Isaac loved Esau . . . but Rebekah loved Jacob.” And then we have the strange incident described in verses 29-34. But we suspect it has a significant meaning for the rest of the story of Jacob in the next several chapters. Indeed, here we see the struggle for the blessing that will characterize Jacob’s life, indeed it will characterize the life of the nation he originated.

The Birthright and the Blessing

These verses tell us about how Jacob convinced Esau to sell him his birthright. The birthright is the privilege and responsibility in so much of the ancient world for the firstborn son to receive a double portion of the father’s inheritance.[4]

Jacob had cooked up some stew one day, and Esau came in from the field, utterly exhausted. He said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted.” But Jacob played “Let’s make a deal,” saying, “Sell me your birthright now” (v. 31). Verses 32-33 take us deeper into the psychological struggle between the two brothers. As Esau considers whether or not his birthright has any value for him in the moment, Jacob goes in for the kill: “Swear to me now.” And so he did. Esau “sold his birthright to Jacob.”

Now, this could not have been a legal exchange, but it demonstrates a larger message.[5] “Birthright” is in Hebrew an anagram for “blessing,” which is what the real struggle between these two boys and the two nations is all about, and of course we already know that “blessing” is perhaps the most important issue for the entire book of Genesis.[6] This strange (to us) episode is about the larger issue of the blessing, the one promised to Abraham in Genesis 12, the blessing which Galatians 3:8 calls “the gospel.”

Esau’s Demise

This whole story about the value of the birthright over against the value of a bowl of stew, then, is much more important even to our own lives than we might at first think. The narrator emphasizes his point at the end, “Thus Esau despised his birthright” (v. 34). He is presented to us as someone who is dead to spiritual realities and interested only in immediate, fleshly gratification.[7] And that is a deadly position to take.

The author of the New Testament book of Hebrews makes this point to his Christian audience. “See to it,” he says, “that no one fails to obtain the grace of God” (Heb 12:15). He urges Christians not to be “immoral or godless . . . like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal” (Heb 12:16, NASB). Esau’s immorality in this episode is his apostasy, his unfaithfulness to God.[8] As the firstborn, he had plenty of privileges, of course, but also the accompanying responsibility which he here refused to accept. His godlessness, then, is highlighted in his inability—his unwillingness—to see beyond the momentary desires and value that which is eternal.

That remains a challenge for Christians today. You and I can no more go on thinking that because we’ve made some decision for Jesus in the past, that we have arranged to have a home in heaven when we die by some religious experience we once had, that that is all that really matters.

“So you don’t believe in eternal security, Ben? It’s not ‘once saved always saved’?”

Let no one be confused. “The New Testament regards the enjoyment of assurance of salvation as normal and healthy Christian experience.”[9] But the reason why we are easily confused on this theological point is because of so much failure to see the part that Christian obedience and genuine spirituality plays in the struggle for salvation. If salvation is simply some transaction we make with God at some particular moment that has nothing to do with the kind of people we can (and indeed must become), then we will find ourselves in endless confusion about such matters.

The author of Hebrews concludes his comments about this story in Genesis by reminding us “that afterward, when [Esau] desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears” (Heb 12:17). He is something like Judas Iscariot. Mediaeval artists saw the connection, often painting Judas as red-headed.[10] Esau, like Judas Iscariot after him, continues to serve as a warning to professing disciples of Jesus to this day.

God’s Choice

At the same time, there is plenty in this story to make us wonder about Jacob, too. Is he so godly himself? Shrewd, perhaps. But is he holier than Esau we might rightly ask? We’ll be asking that question quite a bit throughout his life story.

And that will raise questions about God, too. As it soon becomes clear, Jacob will prevail over Esau not because Jacob is more deserving than Esau but because of God’s choice. The prophecy in verse 23 is not simply God seeing how things will turn out between these two boys but how God himself will be involved in that outcome.

The prophet Malachi announces this word from God, centuries later. “Is not Esau Jacob’s brother? . . . Yet I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated” (Mal 1:2-3). And then the Apostle Paul, writing in Romans 9, brings up the issue as well.

And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” (Rom 9:11-13)

Election. What is it and what is God’s purpose in it? That’s what we are about to find out as we read the stories of Jacob and the struggle for salvation.

This could get interesting!

The Struggle in Prayer

It certainly will bring us into the struggle. Fewer things are more controversial about the Christian message than “God’s purpose in election.” We struggle to understand what it means and what it tells us about God. Some find the subject assuring, while others find it highly offensive. But that’s how it is with God and his ways, which often remain baffling and mysterious to us and to our understanding. Perhaps that’s why we also see here, as the Jacob story gets underway, the struggle in prayer that will define his lifetime as well.

Wresting With God

Prayer has sometimes been called the act of “wrestling with God,” a concept that comes from Jacob’s encounter with God in Genesis 32. Although that encounter is never used as a model for prayer, Paul says in one place he struggles (the Greek word is agonizomai) in prayer (Col 4:12).

Struggle is the theme of this chapter and indeed of the rest of Jacob’s life, the theme for the rest of Genesis, in fact. We struggle with all sorts of things. We struggle with our attitude, our desires, and our plans. We struggle with sin. We struggle with our finances. We struggle with everything. We certainly struggle to understand God and his purposes and the significance of our life within his purposes.

Prayer is the glorious privilege given to Christians as we deal with such struggles.

Isaac’s Perseverance in Prayer

There are two prayers in this chapter. There is the prayer of Isaac in verse 21. He “prayed to the LORD for his wife, because she was barren.” And then we are told right away that “the LORD granted his prayer.” But notice the chronology that is spotlighted here. Verse 20 says Isaac was 40 when he and Rebekah were married. Verse 26 tells us he was 60 when the twin boys were born. For about two decades Isaac prayed before his prayer was granted.

Twenty years. For what have you prayed for twenty years?

Probably not much. We tend to give up praying before so much time has passed. We Christians today are not so good at persevering in prayer. If we don’t get what we want in short order, we assume we aren’t going to get it.

One wonders why it took so long. Verse 21 says plainly: “And the LORD granted his prayer.” Why did God wait twenty years before he gave Isaac and Rebekah what they were asking for?

We could come up with all sorts of possible answers to that question. Is there something that prevented God from answering? Was God reluctant to answer the request? These are fine questions to ponder, but the point may also be that we just do not know. The text doesn’t give a reason. It simply tells us about this struggle and invites us into what Paul calls the struggle of prayer.

Rebekah’s Prayer: Why Me?

Then we have Rebekah’s prayer. The difficulties she was experiencing in her pregnancy led her “to inquire of the LORD.” Her prayer is, “If it is thus, why is this happening to me?” a bit of an interpretive translation since the Hebrew is “terse to the point of being elliptical.”[11] Clearly she is in herself experiencing the anguish of some pre-natal reality. “Why me?” is one such cry. It is possible to take her words as even indicating a desire to die, “why go on living?” Whatever her experience was in her pregnancy, we get the sense that it was worse for her than in her infertility.

We might put her prayer a bit differently in light of the answer she receives in verse 23. So there will be these two nations battling out in the struggle for salvation. “Ok,” we might ask with Rebekah, “but why does it have to be this way? Why does it have to involve me so painfully? Why do I have to be involved in the struggle?”

Now this is not a story designed to speak directly to women who have been under similar feelings of despair, either in being unable to conceive, or in being in a very difficult and complicated pregnancy. But of course it can say something about that as it moves along. It does so, however, only as it picks up the rest of us along the way. Here’s the deal: while we are here being introduced to Jacob and the story of his life, we are also, like Rebekah and Isaac, being brought into the story along the way ourselves.

This story, as we will soon find out, is a story of struggle, of wrestling, of agonizing. It is the story of God’s redemption of the world that he will bring about through Israel, the name later given to one of Rebekah’s twin boys. But it is a struggle that will implicate all the rest of us, one way or another.

We, like Rebekah who struggled in pregnancy, like Isaac who struggled in prayer, are going to be involved in this story of Jacob, in the struggle for salvation. It will not be easy, though the way we experience that struggle will differ from one Christian to the next.

But the struggle is to be expected, as Jesus himself experienced as he agonized in the Garden of Gethsemane. And of course, we find him there, struggling in prayer.

May we find ourselves dealing with the struggle that way, too.

_____

[1] Gordon J. Wenham, Genesis 16–50, Word Biblical Commentary, vol 2, ed. Bruce M. Metzger, David A. Hubbard, and Glenn W. Barker (Dallas: Word Books, 1994), 176.

[2] Wenham, Genesis 16–50, 180.

[3] Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, Beauty and the Beast: Original Soundtrack, song "Gaston," performed by Richard White and Jesse Corti, Walt Disney Records, 1991.

[4] Wenham, Genesis 16–50, 178.

[5] Tremper Longman III, Genesis, The Story of God Bible Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2016), 334.

[6] Wenham, Genesis 16–50, 178.

[7] Longman III, Genesis, 333.

[8] William L. Lane, Hebrews 9–13, vol. 47B, Word Biblical Commentary, ed. Bruce M. Metzger, David A. Hubbard, and Glenn W. Barker (Dallas: Word Books, 1991), 455.

[9] Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, and Gospel Assurance—Why the Marrow Controversy Still Matters (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2016), 213.

[10] Wenham, Genesis 16–50, 176.

[11] Robert Alter, Genesis: Translation and Commentary (New York: W.W. Norton, 1997), 127.