Jacob Part 2: The Birth of Esau and Jacob

The Birth of Esau and Jacob

The Literary Design of the Yaaqov Story

The Jacob story goes from Genesis 25:19 - 37:1

It goes from chapter 25, verse 19. So do you remember how the seven-day narrative in Genesis 1 and 2, the chapter divisions that came much later, they're kind of amiss 'cause the seventh day happens at the beginning of chapter 2 even though it's the conclusion of the story at the end of chapter 1, which is kind of a bummer.

Often the chapter divisions really are attuned to some kind of meaningful break in the literary organization, but sometimes they, they blew it, and that, you know it, it's okay.

Some of you may not be able to accept that, but it's somebody's attempt, and what that allows me to do is discover anew how these things are put together. 

The Yaaqov story is divided into three movements or sections.

And then each of these sections is itself bundled into groups of three. 

Which is a very common literary convention that the biblical authors use of bundling things into pairs or triads, sometimes four things, but usually pairs and triads. 

So just look at the way this works. Part one is the story of the birth of the twins and then the first story of Jacob, Yaaqov deceiving Esau. 

So the first section goes from 25:19 all the way through to 28:9.

It begins with the story of the birth of the twins and the younger deceiving the older to get his, you remember, what does he steal from his brother where he tricks him out of the?

Birthright. The bekorah in Hebrew.

Then you get a story, all of a sudden Yaaqov and Esau, they just drop, like they're gone, and chapter 26 is all about the father of these twins.

It's all about Yaaqov, and in this chapter, Yaaqov replays story for story of his father Avraham. He deceives a foreign king about the identity of his wife 'cause he's scared for his own life and he ends up eventually making peace with that same king by a well by making a covenant. We'll talk about that. 

Then back to the brothers. And what you get is the long and probably one of the most famous stories about Yaaqov in that he and his mom concoct this plan to steal the berakah from their father and brother. 

So on one side in the birth story is a story about Yaaqov stealing the bekorah. And this whole story is about Yaaqov stealing the berakah. It's the same four Hebrew letters, just swapped in the middle. And so these two stories of deception frame the story about, the two stories about the son deceiving the father frame the story about that father who imitates his own father's deception.

That's the theme of this whole first thing is layers and layers of deception. So the son is like the father is like the grandfather. That's this whole thing. So this section ends with Yaaqov stealing the blessing but finding himself exiled 'cause he's afraid that his brother's gonna kill him.

Part two of the Yaaqov story goes from chapter 28, verse 10 to chapter 32, verse 1, and this is the boundaries. In the first paragraph, he leaves the land. At the end of the section, he comes back to the land, so that's the frame. So in the middle is Yaaqov's exile.

It begins with the famous story of Yaaqov's ladder. where he sees Heaven and Earth united. that story's so awesome. We're gonna spend a couple sessions on that one. So it begins with this dream that he has, a vision, and he sets up a stone and a pillar, and he hears God's promise of blessing. I'm gonna be with you and bring you back from your exile.

Then we get three long stories of Jacob in exile in the house of his Uncle Lavan, it's deceptions within deceptions within deceptions, and sibling rivalries within family rivalries within family rivalries.

And then right at the center of the center of this is the birth of the 12 sons. So in other words, the origins of the tribes of Israel is in a story full of people trying to work each other over and deceive and trick each other. This is a family born in deceit and treachery.

After that, Yaaqov has a dream, and he recalls the dream that he had right here at Bethel in chapter 28. And he says, God says in the dream, "Okay, it's time to go back." And so he begins to leave, his uncle chases him, and it's this whole chase scene. And man, they are angry at each other, 20 years of conflict and resentment and treachery. And you think they're going to like get into a fight, but what they choose to do is make peace through a covenant on the mountain.

And they decide to be at peace 'cause Lavan says, "So that I can participate in the blessing that God is gonna give you."

Part three, chapter 32:1-37:1, the Yaaqov and Esau conflict that just has been totally unresolved from when he went into exile, that's front and center. And so this whole section here is framed with Yaaqov about to meet his brother Esau. And right in the middle is when God picks a fight with Yaaqov in the middle of the night. It's usually framed as Yaaqov wrestling with God, but it's actually God who picks the fight in the middle of the night.

And so Yaaqov comes to meet his brother Esau, but he's limping and wounded from his fight.

Then you get a story about Yaaqov's sons who deceive the inhabitants of the city of Shechem and murder them because their ruler, a guy named Shechem, son of Hamor. Hamor means Donkey, so we'll talk about it. There's the whole son, but the son of Donkey rapes the daughter of Yaaqov. And the brothers are so mad that they deceive and murder all of the male inhabitants of the city. 

So then after that story of deception, treachery, and murder, Yaaqov and Esau decide that they're gonna part ways and Esau goes to the east and builds a city.

Yaaqov stays in the land of Canaan.

This is not a happy part of the story of Genesis. It is a Honest look at human nature. 

And notice how deception is the central section of each of the three movements. 

So we're taking the snake at the tree. What happens, if you have Cain and he becomes the seed of the snake by his choices, and if you have the chosen one, who, and Abel, he is innocent? He just brought his offering to God and God's choosing of him is actually what puts him in the crosshairs of his brother.

But there it feels like there's a good guy and there's a bad guy.

But then you learn in the Avraham story, but even the good guys can become the bad guys, and the bad guys can become the good guys. 

But what if, what if the chosen line that God has chosen to work in and through, what if they're born a bad guy?

What if they're born a snake? And what if that snake gives birth to a whole bunch of little snakelings, say 12, who are born in deceit and treachery? 

And then, part three, the first story you get about how all the brothers treat each other and other people is a story of them deceiving the nations and murder and treachery. 

So this is, the Yaaqov story, maybe this is why it's not most people's favorite part.

It's a tragedy.

And God's faithfulness to this family is gonna shine like a bright candle in a very dark room, but it is a very raw, unflattering portrait of human nature, and I think that's part of the point. 

And remember, this is all a preview of what's gonna happen in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, all right on through the rest of the Hebrew Bible is all itself, the children replaying and intensifying the behavior of their parents. 

The Birth and Rivalry of the Brothers

Genesis 25:19–26 LEB

19 Now these are the generations of Isaac, the son of Abraham. Abraham fathered Isaac, 20 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, as his wife. 21 And Isaac prayed to Yahweh on behalf of his wife, for she was barren. And Yahweh responded to his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived. 22 And the children in her womb jostled each other, and she said, “If it is going to be like this, why be pregnant?” And she went to inquire of Yahweh. 23 And Yahweh said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from birth shall be divided. And one people shall be stronger than the other. And the elder shall serve the younger.” 24 And when her days to give birth were completed, then—behold—twins were in her womb. 25 And the first came out red, all his body was like a hairy coat, so they called his name Esau. 26 And afterward his brother came out, and his hand grasped the heel of Esau, so his name was called Jacob. And Isaac was sixty years old at their birth.

"And these are the birth generations of Yitskhaq,"

Avraham caused the birth of Yitskhaq, and Yitskhaq was a son of 40 years." That's a Hebrew idiom for ... Most times when you read somebody is a certain age, in Hebrew, it's a idiom of to be a son of so many years. "Yitskhaq was a son of 40 years when he took Rivqah." That's Rebekah in our English translations. "Rivqah the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan-aram, the sister of Lavan, the Aramean, to be his wife."

"Now, Yitskhaq petitioned Yahweh on behalf of his wife." Oh, why did he have to do that? "Because she was 'aqarah," uprooted, barren.

"And Yahweh was petitioned by him, and Rivqah his wife conceived, and they struck one another," that is the sons inside of her. "And she said, 'Well, if it is this way, what is this, me?'"

That's literally what she says in Hebrew. "If it is this way, what is this, me?"

"So she went to inquire of Yahweh and Yahweh said to her, 'Two nations are in your womb. Two peoples will be separated from your guts, your innards.

A people will be stronger than a people, and the great one will serve the little one.'

And when her days were fulfilled to give birth, behold, there were twins in her womb.

The first came out red all over like a garment, a hairy one, so they named him 'Esav.

'Esav is spelled with letters that are similar or look similar to the word "hairy." This word "hairy," 'Esav means hairy.

"Afterward, there came out his brother and his hand was grabbing the 'aqev of Esau, so they called his name Yaaqov.

And Yitskhaq was a son of 60 years when she gave birth to them."

So this is all about earlier notes in the melody

Two Children

This narrative momentum prepares the reader to expect that Yitskhaq’s story replay this cycle we have already Seen.

We expect the birth of siblings, one of whom will be chosen and the other not, and we expect this will separate the family instead of uniting them.

Remember, all of this momentum is generated out of the promise of Genesis 3:15, which says there will come from the lineage of Eve a future seed who will encounter hostility from the snake and the snake’s seed. However, Eve's seed will fatally wound the snake and be wounded by the snake.

Genesis 3:15 CSB

15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.

Like Father Abraham, Like Son Yaaqov

Yitskhaq's story takes up the early part of Yaaqov's story. He features as a character in only chapters 25-28 and then is absent from the narrative. He is a transition figure in the Genesis scroll, which focuses mainly on Abraham and Yaaqov.

However, Yitskhaq is a key link in the narrative argument about this family whom God has chosen as his vehicle to restore the Eden blessing to the nations. Yitskhaq’s story will replay many of the core themes from his father’s story, while anticipating many of the themes from Yaaqov's story to come.

“These parallels are sufficiently close to suggest that they are not coincidental. The history of Isaac's family is being deliberately compared with that of Abraham. And if this is so, special attention needs to be paid to the divine oracle summarizing the future career of Esau and Jacob in 25:23, for this occupies a position 12:1-3. The latter passage is of cardinal importance not just for the Abraham cycle but for the whole Pentateuch whose theme it states. Here 25:23 is similarly programmatic: it announces the God-determined career of Jacob to be one of conflict culminating in ultimate triumph.” Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 2: Genesis 16–50. Word. 173.

From Barrenness to Birth

This story recalls the crisis that Yitskhaq’s parents faced at the beginning of their story. Sarah’s inability to have children stood in tension with God’s promise to bless their family and make them into a great nation. Now God’s blessing on Yitskhaq ( Gen. 25:11) stands in tension with Yitskhaq and Rivqah’s inability to produce children.

However, in contrast to Abraham and Sarah, Yitskhaq and Rivqah quickly find a solution to this crisis: they turn to Yahweh in prayer. However, even this redemptive breaking of the generational chain does not prevent their children from replaying the separation of their ancestors.

The Yitskhaq and Yaaqov story opens with a crisis of fertility on purpose. It goes back to a key theme in the opening movement of the Abraham story.

So we have Sarah and what we're told about her is that she's 'aqarah, barren.

Now, if you trace that theme through the Avraham stories, you'll notice that that theme of her inability to have children, it comes up at three key points in the story and they're described with different language each of those times.

Genesis 11:30 NASB95

30 Sarai was barren; she had no child.

Right at the beginning of the Avraham story, in chapter 11, what you're told is in the same exact word, she was 'aqarah, barren, and she had no child.

Genesis 16:1 CSB

1 Abram’s wife, Sarai, had not borne any children for him, but she owned an Egyptian slave named Hagar.

The fact that she has no children is the introduction to the story of the failure with Hagar in chapter 16, Avram's wife had born him no child. 

Genesis 18:10–12 CSB

10 The Lord said, “I will certainly come back to you in about a year’s time, and your wife Sarah will have a son!” Now Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent behind him. 11 Abraham and Sarah were old and getting on in years. Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. 12 So she laughed to herself: “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I have delight?”

And then at the beginning of Genesis 18 is the announcement that Sarah, your wife, is gonna have a son. And what she says in that moment, she laughs.

The Hebrew word for laugh, it's "tsakhaq," it's Isaac's name as a verb. She Isaacs, she laughs, and says, "Listen, have I become worn out, after I've become worn out, will I have Eden?" She describes getting pregnant as having Eden.

The word "barren" means "without root." It's like a tree that doesn't have any roots in the water or the soil down below. so she goes from a state of barrenness to a state of birthing. We'll stick with the alliteration here. And birthing, she just straight up calls it to be pregnant and have a child, to be fruitful, is Eden.

So we go from barrenness to Eden. 

Yitskhaq and Rivqah’s story has the same theme and vocabulary as Abraham and Sarah’s story. This is obviously intentional. And the similarities go even further back. The Eden story begins with the same crisis, but in this case, it features a dry and barren desert unable to produce any plants or seed.

just like God created life out of non-life in the Eden story, that becomes the notes of the melody to talk about God creating life out of non-life in the womb of Sarai. 

And if you're going to like the virgin birth and Mary, gold star, because that's where all these roads lead is to God creating life out of non-life by pouring out his Spirit into the womb of Mary, just like the river of Eden. 

So when we come back to this birth story here, this is a story about the next generation of the chosen ones, but it begins with desolate lifelessness, a lifeless womb, and so that's the crisis. Just like the crisis in Eden was no life, we gotta get some life around here, the crisis of Avraham and Sarah was no child. We gotta get a child. And how did Avraham and Sarah respond? Remember?

Came up with their own plan.

They've got their own plan; they've got their own plan. And so that's what the father and the mother did. What does the next generation do? What is Yitskhaq's response?

He prays. This is like Sunday school 101.

If you have a problem, what should one do? Pray. So notice how sparingly the story is told.

So she's barren, so he prayed, and you're just supposed to bring the earlier story to bear and immediately that'll pop for you, be like, "Oh, oh wow."

So the sons are not destined to repeat the sins of their fathers. They can make a different choice. 

Remember that's what God said to Cain. Listen, sin's crouching at the door. You can master that thing. It doesn't have to eat your lunch. You can let it, but it doesn't have to. And in this case you're like, "Wow." So when God's chosen one is faced with a very lifeless, desolate situation and he petitions to the creator, what do we know this creator's capable of? 

He can bring Eden out of the wilderness. And so that's what happens.

Two Brothers in the Womb

So I know that's a lot to load into this little tiny scene here, but as I've sat and thought about how these stories work and how barrenness, barrenness and conception in the earlier generation is tied to Eden, that's what Sarah calls it. And Eden is about the garden out of the wilderness. These are different ways of talking about it. So if the story ended at verse 21, you'd be like, "Okay, things are going great here," but there's trouble in paradise, in the paradise of the womb because there's sibling rivalry, like from the moment that they can start moving around in there. You thought it was bad with Cain and Abel who are out there outside of the garden, and you thought Yishmael and Isaac had some problems, but man, this generation, it's conflict from like conception.

So just like Yitskhaq went to go pray, so now Rivkah goes to pray 'cause she's got, she's like, I gotta live with this for another few trimesters here? 

What's gonna go on? So she inquires and she also gets a response and the response is a dense little poem that is a cryptic ... it's a riddle. This is so Hebrew Bible right here. It's a little riddle that actually it's previewing for you everything that's about to happen. It's a lot like what God says to the snake and the woman in Genesis 3, it's a little preview, and so this is a little preview. So there's two nations in your womb. Am I familiar with that already? 

Think of the three sons of Noah become many nations. Yishmael and Isaac, they become two separate peoples. So there's two peoples here that will be separated. 

One is going to be stronger than the other.

And the great one, the older one, will serve the little one.

So am I already primed to know and anticipate the idea of the inversion of the birth order. So yeah, that was Cain and Abel, Yishmael and Isaac, and so on.

So what I'm anticipating, so let's think about this. This is what God is saying to Rivkah.

So Rivkah now has the assurance that God is gonna keep doing that thing of inverting what seems normal in the world, which is to exalt the firstborn. That's like the wisdom of the world and God loves to invert the wisdom of the world and bring down the arrogant and exalt the lowly and that's how Yahweh loves to operate.

And so this is a little preview, and it's told to Rivkah.

So what's interesting is that the next narrative that's given here is the birth story, and what you see is there's a hairy animal comes out. 

Is that a human? Is that an animal? An animal comes out first, Hairy, and then Trickster comes out second, grabbing the heel of the older. 

So just think of how, we're just told that the older is gonna be subservient to the younger, but then how they come out is the younger just grabbing at that position. 

Do you see it? The whole story is being previewed right here. 

So it's this tension between God ordains through his purpose and sovereignty a future for this family, but from the womb, the younger comes out grabbing, as if this future will only be realized by taking.

This is such a powerful and ominous beginning scene to the story. 

So he's named Trickster. So we go from the birth of the previous generation to the crisis. God provides Eden in the wilderness in terms of the womb and speaks out a plan that's gonna carry the blessing and promise forward, but then you get the birth story where he's grabbing, grabbing at it for the very moment. 

Yaaqov the Heel-Grabber

So that word "heel" is used very sparingly and in a strategic way in the Genesis story. The first time it's used is then that promise about the snake and the snake crusher in Genesis 3:15. And so the primary image of someone striking at the heel is associated not with the seed of the woman, but with the snake. 

And what do we know about the snake? Well, the snake's a deceiver, and the snake doesn't want to accept the rule of the one God has appointed. He wants to overturn the order.

Whereas in this story, God has ordained that the younger will be elevated over the older, but it's the younger one who's the chosen who comes out trying to snatch at the heel.

So these are very evocative little hints here that I think are trying to paint for us the character of Yaaqov as he comes out of the womb. He's born like a snake, and he's gonna behave like a snake, which is why deception and treachery and deceit is gonna mark every main beat of his story from his birth to his death.

God’s Will - Human Will

This story is exploring in a deep way is something that Christians have been arguing about for about 2,000 years. It's a fairly common well-known debate about God's sovereign purpose and plans, but also God delegating his authority and purpose to humans who have their own will and purpose and those are often in conflict with each other. And so this story is exploring that in a really deep way, not to untie the knot or resolve it, but to explore it and keep putting the knot in your face.

And I actually can't improve upon the way Joseph articulates this tension 'cause it's the same tension that's carried through in the next generation in the Joseph story where Joseph can look back at what his brothers did to him, the rival brothers.

It's the younger, the youngest son that's elevated over the one, over the many, and the brothers are angry like Cain and Esau, so they try to kill him. They decided to sell him into slavery. And what, as Yoseph, Joseph, looks back over the history of his whole life, this is what he comes to realize, you all planned evil against me. 

Genesis 50:20 LEB

20 As for you, you planned evil against me, but God planned it for good, in order to do this—to keep many people alive—as it is today.

That was evil and that was your plan, but God, Oh, this is New American Standard. The New American Standard translates it, "But God meant it for good." He uses the same verb in Hebrew. Let me get a different translation here.

"You meant," okay, we'll go with that. It's the word "scheme" or "to plan." You schemed evil, but God schemed good to bring about what is happening here today, the saving of life, the rescue of life.

So the moment God delegates his authority to image-bearing humans, it sets up this tension in the story about humans executing their own will, which is often at odds with God's will. 

The biblical portrait of God shows us that he won't let humanity's will derail his ultimate goals. - Tim Mackie

And so the portrait of God is that he won't let humanity's will derail his ultimate goals.

And so there's all kinds of things that humans are gonna do that are not God's will,  That's more the portrait is humans plan this, and so God works it into his plan and now that that's on the table, then that's what God will work with, and so that's the portrait here. 

God says, "Listen, I'm gonna do the same thing that I've been doing with the firstborn." And then the twist is with the younger born grabbing from the very beginning, which is a preview of all the terrible stuff he's about to do. 

So the Genesis story doesn't resolve The Problem, it exaggerates it, it amplifies it in a way that I think forces us all to just stare into the mystery

Because there's gonna be all kinds of things that Jacob is gonna go do and God's gonna keep working with him and you're gonna be like, "Wait, is this okay? Is he supposed to do that? Is that how we're supposed to get God's blessing?"

And I don't think we should walk away thinking that any more than we should think, "Oh, I know, I should try and sell my brother as a slave so that I can save the whole country." And it's like, no, there are other ways that God could have saved the country, but now that you've sold your brother as a slave, God's gonna do it this way. 

Jacob Tricks Esau

Bibliography

https://bibleproject.com/classroom/jacob

Freedman, David Noel, Gary A. Herion, David F. Graf, John David Pleins, and Astrid B. Beck, eds. in The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary. New York: Doubleday, 1992.

Freedman, David Noel, Allen C. Myers, and Astrid B. Beck. in Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 2000.

Mathews, K. A. Genesis 11:27–50:26. Vol. 1B of The New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2005.

Brannan, Rick, and Israel Loken. The Lexham Textual Notes on the Bible. Lexham Bible Reference Series. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014.

Barry, John D., Douglas Mangum, Derek R. Brown, Michael S. Heiser, Miles Custis, Elliot Ritzema, Matthew M. Whitehead, Michael R. Grigoni, and David Bomar. Faithlife Study Bible. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016.

Cotter, David W. Genesis. Edited by Jerome T. Walsh, Chris Franke, and David W. Cotter. Berit Olam Studies in Hebrew Narrative and Poetry. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2003.