Genesis 25-27
If I were to sit down and make up stories of my family origins, I would make all the main characters excellent heroes — always honest and upstanding, good-hearted and courageous, faithful and strong. If I knew of any flaws, I would either leave them out entirely or make excuses for them. I would make my ancestors out to be practically perfect in every way. And it would be rubbish.
Fortunately for all of us, the Bible is far more honest, and that is one thing I love about it. The Bible just lays reality out there for all to see, warts and all — and there are a lot of warts. Today we see a few.
Before Jacob and Esau are born, Rebekah is given a prophecy:
Two nations are in your womb,
Genesis 25:23
and two peoples from within you shall be divided;
the one shall be stronger than the other,
the older shall serve the younger.
Today we begin to see that prophecy playing out, and it is not pretty. It involves underhanded manipulation, scheming, conniving, and deception. We may eventually think of Jacob as “one of the good guys”, but he certainly does not behave honorably here. He cons Esau out of his birthright. Then at Rebekah’s prompting, he deceives Isaac into giving him the blessing, stealing it right out from under Esau.
Mind you, Esau is not particularly stellar, either. In selling his birthright for a bowl of soup, Esau reveals his shortsightedness and how little he cares for what really matters. And in marrying two local Hittite women, he dishonors his parents, disregarding the precedent that Abraham set in avoiding such unions.
Yet none of Esau’s behavior excuses Jacob. Jacob is unavoidably undeserving of any favor. Not from Isaac. Not from God. Yet Jacob — like Isaac before him — is the one through whom God’s promise is to be fulfilled.
If I were the Hebrew writing Genesis as the history of my great-great-great-grandpappy, that’s not the way I would tell it…
I think we had a really good discussion today — good, serious topics, but also plenty of laughter and fellowship.
Jim asked one question that I think deserves a bit more attention than our conversation gave it. Regarding Jacob’s stealing of Esau’s blessing (Gen. 27), Jim asked whether (or why) there is only one blessing to give. Why not just pronounce a second blessing on Esau? In fact, Isaac does pronounce a blessing (of sorts, at least) on Esau in Gen. 27:39-40. But the critical piece is that Isaac cannot undo what he has already said. In the first blessing to Jacob, he says, “Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother’s sons bow down to you.” That is now a certainty, fixed in stone, as it were, and there is nothing anyone can do about it.
One thing to note here is that for these people words have power, particularly blessings and curses — and covenants. Truth be told, words still have power, but we have forgotten that truth and tend to throw words around casually. We make promises and commitments and think very little about breaking them. These days people get married (which, by the way, is done by a minister “pronouncing” / declaring the couple as married), but divorce follows more than 50% of the time. That is not the way it is supposed to be. We should instead take our words seriously, say what we mean, and mean what we say. (See Mt. 5:33-37 and James 5:12.)