Jacob and Esau Week 1

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.”

Genesis 25:23

[INTRODUCTION]

Good morning, and welcome this morning to First Christian Church. I am so excited that you are here with us today. Especially since we are starting a new series today.

I think there are two groups of people in this world, those that plan and those that marry someone who plans. In our marriage, Morgan is the planner. She has things mapped out and labeled. She maps out a journey or a road trip like no one else. Last summer we went on a “second honeymoon” and took a few days traveling from here to the Cumberland Gap and Mammoth Caves, Chicago, and up to my parents in Michigan. We had a great plan and a great trip. But sometimes even with a great plan, things do not go to plan. We may have mapped out the perfect route, the perfect pit stops along the way, and the right hotels. But when one or two things don’t live up to the plan, our plans can go awry. Over the next few weeks we will be looking at the lives of Jacob and Esau, and how God does things not in the way that man has planned, but how God has planned.

[PRAY]

I am so excited to start this new series with you today. We are going back to the Old Testament to look at the lives of Jacob and Esau. The lives of these two men are a great example to us of the powerful work of God, but also how God keeps His promises. I have said it before, and I will repeat it this morning, when God makes a promise, he does not break it. His promises are sure, and we can trust His word.

For us to understand better what happens in Genesis 25, we need to go back. The context of this event is vital for us to see. So, to start this morning we need to know about the family line that leads us to the birth of Jacob and Esau.

Jacob and Esau have some biblically famous relatives. Their grandfather is Abraham, and their dad is Isaac. When we think about big names in the grand scheme of the Bible, these two would definitely come to the top of the list. So, why are the lives of Jacob and Esau important?

First we need to remember the story of Abraham. He is called by God in Genesis 12 to leave the land he has lived in and go to the land that God will give him. Talk about a big call from God! Most people would never travel more than a few miles from the place they were born, and God calls Abraham, at the time called Abram, to leave and go to a land that God will show him.

We talked about it before, but at this time having children was the way to have a legacy. You needed to have an heir to take what you had and to make sure your name survived. Abraham and his wife Sarah struggled to have children, but they did have a promise from God. In Genesis 15 we read this:

After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” 2 But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” 4 And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” 5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

Genesis 15:1–6.

Abraham is stressed about who his heir will be, and God makes a promise to him in this moment. His heir will be his own son, not a relative. Not only that, but his offspring will be like the stars, unable to be numbered. What a promise! God even repeats this promise to Abraham again:

I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”

Genesis 17:16.

And finally at the ripe old age of 100, while Sarah was 90, they have their child Isaac. God makes a promise, and he fulfills it. He promised that they would have a child, and they did. He even promised that from Sarah, there would be nations, kings would come from her. Imagine feeling like just normal people that are following where God is leading. Not always doing everything right, struggling to trust God sometimes, but hearing this promise from God and seeing it be fulfilled right in front of you!

Isaac will eventually marry his wife Rebekah, a relative of his mom Sarah. This is where our story picks up today. Abraham had sent one of his servants to find a wife for Isaac, we see this play out in Genesis 24, and when Rebekah is chosen before she leaves her family they speak a blessing to her:

And they blessed Rebekah and said to her, “Our sister, may you become thousands of ten thousands, and may your offspring possess the gate of those who hate him!”

Genesis 24:60.

God promises to Abraham and Sarah that their offspring will be like the stars, and that kings and nations would come from her. We know then that Isaac, their only child, will carry on this promise. Rebekah gets this blessing from her family essentially praying that she will be blessed with a large family, that is strong and full of leaders.

When we get to Genesis 25 we see where there is a problem though. Isaac was 40 years old when he marries his wife Rebekah and in verse 21 we are told that he is praying to God because Rebekah is barren. She is not able to conceive and Isaac is interceding for his wife to God. I can only imagine those prayers. Begging God to intervene. Begging God to allow them to have children. I am sure he grew up hearing the promises that God had made to his parents. Hearing that their family will be full, they will be blessed by God. Hearing about the idea that nations and kings will be the descendants of his family. Maybe growing up wondering if he will be a king, if he will lead a nation of people. Maybe he will have so many children people would be able to visibly see the blessings of God and they would want to follow him.

But now he has a wife that cannot conceive. And they don’t have modern medicine to go to and find out why. They can’t seek medicine to help them or get a clear explanation of what is happening. All they can do is seek God. And God hears his prayer and grants it. What a miracle! Rebekah conceives!

All those years of waiting and praying, and finally Rebekah is pregnant. Isn’t like God to use things that seem broken. To use people that the world calls barren. To take someone who cannot conceive and to give them children. God does not operate in the realm of what the world says can or cannot happen. Does this make sense? When we look at a situation, and in human terms, come to a conclusion, that is not the end of the story for God. Isaac and Rebekah could have looked around them, and simply given up. Isaac could have just said, “I guess God doesn’t want to honor the promise to my family.” He could have quit praying and walked away from it, but he doesn’t. He trust that what God has said will be true. That God will not break His promise. He trusts the word of God to his family. He has heard the story of his own birth, I am sure. He would have been aware of what God did with his own parents. His mind may go back to the moments as he is bound as a child on the altar and his dad looks like he is about sacrifice him to God, but God stops him and provides a ram for them. He has seen God provide in times when it felt impossible. And I know that this felt impossible, but God provides for them.

But something is off for her. She can feel the children struggling inside of her. And she asks in verse 22, if this is happening, why me? If this is how it will be, why me? If this is the plan, I don’t want it. God, this isn’t the beautiful pregnancy that I imagined, the one that the videos on social media showed me. This is a struggle and it is hard, and I don’t like it. But what does Rebekah do when she is feeling this? She seeks God. She goes to speak to God. To ask her questions to Him.

How often do I feel like Rebekah? How often do I pray for something that I want so badly, and when God starts to answer I maybe don’t like the answer, or maybe it isn’t being answered in the manner I would have chosen, and I am upset. Do I act like Rebekah though? Do I seek God? Do I go to God for an answer? Do I cry out to Him, trusting that He knows best? Trusting that the answer He gives is the best answer I could ever hope for? I pray that we seek God in our trying times. That we go to God when we feel like we have no where to go. That when troubles or hard times come, we say to ourselves, “I need to seek God in this moment.”

When Rebekah does this, God answers. He tells her a new promise. This struggle in her womb is because in her are two nations. The twins that she is carrying will be tow people and they shall be divided. One will be stronger than the other, and the youngest will be served by the older one.

This struggle in her womb is just the precursor to what will happen over the lifetime of her children. That promise that her offspring would be nations will be fulfilled in these two. But it will not be peaceful. They will be divided and they will struggle. We will see that this struggle will begin before both are even out of the womb. This internal struggle is just the birth pains, so to speak, of the coming decades.

It is important for us to see something here. God says that the older will serve the younger. We know that even today, this is not how things normally operate. The older is typically seen as the leader. The oldest son would get the bigger inheritance, he would be the one to lead the family. But God is showing us again, He operates not how the world would expect Him to. He operates against the way that human society naturally assesses significance and worth. It won’t be the older son that will be the one this promise will continue through, but the younger.

When we get to the birth of the twins this is seen again. The first born comes out, covered in red hair, and they name him Esau, a play on the Hebrew word for hairy. And as he is being born, his younger brother Jacob is holding on to his heel. Jacob means supplanter or he cheats, and this would probably have been attributed to Jacob later. The Hebrew word for “heel” sounds similar to Jacob, and that may have been where we get the name Jacob.

Already what God told Rebekah is coming to pass. Jacob, even in birth, is trying to wiggle his way to the leadership position. We even see the difference between the two boys explained. Esau is hairy, a man of the field or hunter, and loved by his dad Isaac. Jacob is quiet and more of an inside person, and loved by his mother Rebekah.

Esau is everything that the world would call successful. He was what we think of when we picture a man’s man. He was hairy, loved to be outdoors and hunt. I can picture this big burly man that probably didn’t smell great. Or maybe he smelled like pine trees. It was everything that even today the world would say a man is to be. Listen to how Bible teacher Warren Wiersbe described it though:

While Esau looked like everything the world would celebrate, where it really mattered he fell short. Where it really mattered, his relationship with God, he was a failure.

So far though, being two different people wouldn’t be much to cause a problem. They could probably live their own lives and not have much of a problem. But chapter 25 ends with a story that will begin that divide they would be warned about.

Esau comes in from a day of hunting. He is exhausted, this word can also be translated a severe drought. He wasn’t just tired and needed a cup of water, but he is worn out. And what a blessing! He comes in and Jacob is making stew for dinner. He asks his brother for some dinner and how does Jacob reply? I will give you some for your birthright. If you are so hungry, switch birth positions with me. Let me get what you are destined to receive as the oldest. Esau has a moment to respond to this, and instead of realizing that he could have just gotten some dinner for himself, he agrees to sell his birthright for some stew and a piece of bread. With one quick decision, the rest of Jacob and Esau’s life will change.

Esau forsakes his birthright, and chooses immediate momentary satisfaction over what was promised to him. He could have gotten food. He could have said no to the deal that Jacob offered and moved on. But he lets a momentary need overtake his thinking and makes a decision that he may not realize at the moment but will come to realize, is life altering. He does not think about or see the longterm impact of this decision.

Esau is everything that the world would call successful. He was what we think of when we picture a man’s man. He was hairy, loved to be outdoors and hunt. I can picture this big burly man that probably didn’t smell great. Or maybe he smelled like pine trees. It was everything that even today the world would say a man is to be. Listen to how Bible teacher Warren Wiersbe described it though:

Esau was a success in the world and a failure with God.

Warren W. Wiersbe

While Esau looked like everything the world would celebrate, where it really mattered he fell short. Where it really mattered, his relationship with God, he was a failure.

But do not read this and think that Jacob is clearly the better son. Jacob does not show love to his brother. He sees his exhausted brother come in and ask for a bowl of stew, and does not show love. He could have easily given him food, but instead he makes it transactional. If you are so hungry and want me to give you some dinner, you have to do something for me.

I think there are two warnings for us here. Do not treat your relationship with God as a transactional relationship. Do not think if you do a,b,c that God is now obligated to fulfill x,y,z for you. Our relationship with God is not built around the idea that if we do things for God he will now do things for us. It is not a transactional, 1 for 1, relationship we have.

The other is we need to realize that God was not seeking someone that is intrinsically worthy, that is someone that was naturally worth, because there is no one. No person is naturally worthy of redemption from God. We are not naturally worthy of salvation. In fact, we are all sinners. We have all earned death, the wages of our sin is death. But through Jesus Christ, the free gift of life is available. Through the work of Christ on the cross, his death, burial, and resurrection, we can have life. Jacob was not intrinsically more worthy, he was not morally superior to Esau. Jacob’s actions did not save him, it was not his works, but the grace of God.

It is the same for us. It is not our works. It is not that we are somehow morally superior to someone else, it is not that we worked to make ourselves worthy to come to God. It is in the realization that we cannot save ourselves. It is realizing that I have sinned and separated myself from God, but God sent His son to die in my place. To take the punishment I deserved, and to offer me a way back to God. That is the good news that we see take place here. Not that earned my salvation through my works, but that God made a way for us to come back to him through his son.