Old Testament for July 16, 2023

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Genesis 25:19-34
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OBSERVE:

The generational torch is passed from Abraham to Isaac, and then to Isaac’s sons, Jacob and Esau:

This is the history of the generations of Isaac, Abraham’s son. Abraham became the father of Isaac. Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Paddan Aram, the sister of Laban the Syrian, to be his wife.

However, in this family history, there is a crisis.  Rebekah was barren.  Given the promises of Yahweh to Abraham, that his descendants would be as many as the stars, this is serious.   But when Isaac intercedes with Yahweh, Rebekah finally conceives twenty years after their marriage, when Isaac is sixty.

Not only does she conceive, she is carrying twins!  But hers is a very difficult pregnancy.  Perhaps this is a premonition of the sibling rivalry that is to come:

The children struggled together within her. She said, “If it is so, why do I live?”

We are told that she goes to inquire of Yahweh — we aren’t told how or where she goes. But she does receive an answer, in the form of a prophecy:

Yahweh said to her,
“Two nations are in your womb.
Two peoples will be separated from your body.
The one people will be stronger than the other people.
The elder will serve the younger.”

These twins aren’t merely brothers who fuss the way brothers often do. They represent two nations — Esau becomes the ancestor of the Edomites, and Jacob will come to be known as Israel. And though Esau is the first-born, he will be overshadowed by Jacob.

Though they are twins, the two brothers couldn’t be more different.  Obviously, they are fraternal twins, not identical.  When Esau was born, he was covered with red hair.  And the wrestling match that began in Rebekah’s womb continues even as the boys are born:

After that, his brother came out, and his hand had hold on Esau’s heel. He was named Jacob.

Their extreme differences grew as they grew.  Esau grows up to be a robust and skillful hunter who loves the outdoors.  He was his father’s favorite because he brought him venison.  Rebekah was partial to her Jacob.  We get a picture of him as a contemplative man:

Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents.

The tension between the two brothers intensifies one day when Esau has been out in the field.  Perhaps he has been unsuccessful in a hunt, or he’s been working in the fields — he’s famished.  Jacob has been boiling a stew of lentils, and Esau asks for a bowl.  Jacob seizes the opportunity to take advantage of his older brother’s plight. (As an aside, the Biblical writer suggests that this red stew becomes the basis for Esau’s nickname Edom, or Red — although we might speculate that the fuzzy red hair that covered him at his birth might have something to do with it! Perhaps Esau was a redhead).

Jacob slyly says to Esau, in just the taunting way a brother might:

 “First, sell me your birthright.”

The birthright is the right of primogeniture ­— the right of the first-born son.  This is the right of inheritance Jacob is asking for!

The repartee between the two could have been playful, but not between these two brothers.  Esau is short-sighted, and perhaps a little naive about his brother’s intentions:

Esau said, “Behold, I am about to die. What good is the birthright to me?”

Jacob reveals just how earnest he is — he withholds the stew until Esau swears to him first.  In a culture where a man’s word is a contract, this is no light thing.

Esau swears, and gets his bowl of stew and some bread — and we are told:

He ate and drank, rose up, and went his way. So Esau despised his birthright.

APPLY:  

At its heart, this is a story that most of us can understand.  It is a family story.  A childless couple yearning for children.  A troubled pregnancy.  The sibling rivalry of two brothers who couldn’t be more different.

It is in and through such families that God chooses to work — to answer prayers, and make promises of a legacy to come, and even to fulfill his plans in spite of the character flaws of such brothers as Jacob and Esau.

What is refreshing about the Biblical record is its realism and honesty.  Isaac and Rebekah remind us of yearning couples that we know.  Jacob and Esau remind us of feuding brothers.  This reminds us that God works through families, and through people, just like ourselves!

RESPOND: 

Some years ago I took a course on Family Systems Theory.  I found it fascinating.  It was based on the theories of Dr. Murray Bowen.  He believed that human interactions are based on interlocking systems that reduplicate the traits of family interactions — whether they are biological families, clubs, churches, military platoons, or even larger political systems.

In the story of Jacob and Esau, I can identify some of the principles of Family Systems Theory that occurred long before Dr. Bowen’s theories.  One of those concepts is triangling — this is what happens when two members of a family seek to resolve the tensions they may have with one another by shifting their focus to a third member of the family.   The tension between Jacob and Esau is exacerbated by the enmeshment they experience from their parents — Jacob enmeshed by his mother Rebekah, and Esau enmeshed by his father Isaac.  These are triangles that interlock — and eventually result in what Bowen might call emotional cutoff ­— when Jacob is forced to leave his home altogether.  But — that’s another story for another Bible study.

The point is that the Biblical stories are our stories.  And the fulfillment toward which history moves is, at its heart, the story of becoming God’s family.

Lord, our families are dysfunctional — but you work out your plans and purposes within even our dysfunctional families.  And we look forward to the consummation of your kingdom — which is described as the ‘wedding supper of the Lamb.’  In heaven we will experience the perfection of your family. Thank you! Amen.

PHOTOS:
“Esau and Jacob” by Giovanni Andrea de Ferrari is in the public domain.