Genesis 25-28:9
Introduction
This lesson is about Jacob and Esau, an evil twin
story if ever there was one.
Gen. 25
This chapter states that after Sarah’s death, Abraham took another wife named Keturah, who bore more children. These would be seen as legitimate by the culture, since they were by his legal wife and not a servant or concubine. Even so, they still aren’t in the line of promise through Sarah’s son Isaac. But God did include in the promise the fact that he would be the father of many nations, not just one.
Notable names of clans here include Sheba and Dedan. There are two sets of these names, one descending from Ham and the other from Abraham and Keturah, who according to Josephus settled in the Arabian peninsula. Some say that the queen of Sheba who visited King Solomon was from sub-Saharan Africa, but Sheba was in the area of modern Yemen. You can read more about it at this source, which includes more insight into modern political alliances with the Saudis and the US and UK— all of which is significant in Bible prophecy.
But as vs. 5 states, Abraham’s entire estate went only to Isaac, not any of the children of Keturah. Even so, he did give some gifts to them, before sending them off to eastern lands. Then Abraham died, and we see the phrase gathered to his people
. We should be careful not to read too much into ancient statements of the afterlife, even from the OT, which doesn’t give a lot of detail about it. They certainly understood that their souls would rise at a final judgment, since even Job knew this and lived around this time.
Then God blessed Isaac, who certainly knew first-hand about God, seeing that God stopped him from being sacrificed when he was a young man. But the text first turns to chronicle the line of Ishmael, who according to God’s promise to Abraham, also allowed Ishmael to have 12 leaders come from him. Though the Greek text merely says that his descendants lived in the presence of
his relatives (vs. 18), the Hebrew text says they lived in hostility toward
them. Remembering the prediction God gave about Ishmael being a wild and antagonistic man, this would seem to make sense.
In vs. 19 the text turns back to Isaac, and his wife was barren just as his mother had been. But he prayed for her and she became pregnant with twin boys, who literally fought each other before they were born. It got so unbearable for Rebekah that she asked God why this was happening, and God replied with something every Bible student should know in order to fathom the endless feud between Arabs and Jews.
God told her that two nations were within her, one stronger than the other, and that the first one born would serve the younger one. The first was called Esau because he was covered in red hair, and the second was called Jacob because he was grasping his brother’s heel. Esau grew up to be a skilled hunter, while Jacob was a quiet man who preferred to stay home— another example of how God does not define a real man
as people do. As God will point out much later when choosing a replacement for the first king Israel demands, he looks on a person’s heart, not their flesh.
Vs. 28 is probably the first recorded example of Parenting Blunders 101: Each parent had their favorite child. Dad preferred the rugged outdoorsman, and mom preferred the quiet, thoughtful man. This set the stage for what is arguably the the most influential family rift in history.
Esau comes home from hunting and is famished, and homebody Jacob was in the kitchen with a freshly-made pot of red stew. This earned Esau the nickname Edom. It mainly means to boil
, which was also used figuratively for someone who is arrogant or aggressive. But it’s also very similar to a word meaning red
, which is why it also sounds very much like the name Adam, for the red dirt he was made from. The stew being red as well makes this nickname for the red-haired man rich with meaning. Edom would also become a tribal name, sometimes in the form Idumean.
But Jacob seizes this opportunity to make a trade for something with a priceless quality Esau despised: his birthright as the firstborn son. The chapter ends by pointing out that Esau can’t really blame anyone but himself for this, though later he will try.
Gen. 26
Due to a famine, Isaac went to the land of the Philistines. But God told him to stay there and not continue on to Egypt, and he repeated the blessing he had given to Abraham. Now since God had directly spoken to him, you’d think that would assure him that he and his family would be safe.
But you’d be wrong, because Isaac decides to carry on the family business: since he, like his father, has a beautiful wife, he thinks the men of the land might kill him to get her, so to save his own skin he passes her off as his sister. Lather, rinse, repeat; even GOD must be face-palming by now. But again, he will leave there with great wealth because of this, so go figure. But the difference here is that they had been in the land for a long time before anyone finds out the truth, though somehow none of the men had touched her.
Another difference is that in this case the king didn’t give him his wealth, God did, by blessing his crops and herds. Again, go figure. But this blessing was not without cost: The Philistines became envious and tried to hurt him by plugging up all the wells his father Abraham had dug in the area. So he moved away by the king’s request, but he also reopened the wells.
Yet after discovering another well, the locals claimed it was theirs, so he moved on and dug another, with the same results. Finally he digs a well nobody else claims, and he’s able to settle. But later the king who had sent him away out of envy came to him and wanted to make an alliance, since it was clear that God was blessing him.
The chapter ends with a return to focus on Esau, who marries two Hittite women who bring endless grief to Isaac and Rebekah. And now we’ll see who else brings grief, at least to Isaac. Esau already has lost his birthright to his younger brother, but now he will lose much more.
Gen. 27
Isaac realizes that his end is near, so he calls for his favorite outdoorsman and asks him to go hunting and bring him venison to eat, after which he will give him his final blessing. But Rebekah has been eavesdropping, so she hatches a plan to make sure her favorite son gets the blessing instead. She makes a meal to taste like the venison Isaac loves, and then dresses up Jacob in animal skins to mimic Esau’s hairy arms and wild game smell, since Isaac had become blind.
So Jacob goes to Isaac, and when Isaac wonders how he got back so soon, Jacob quickly comes up with a clever excuse: It was a miracle! But the voice made him suspicious, so Isaac tells him to come closer. He still identifies the voice as Jacob’s, but the touch and smell convince him it’s Esau. Again he asks if this is really Esau, and again Jacob lies through his teeth.
Finally Isaac goes ahead and gives the blessing, but no sooner than Jacob leaves the room, in comes his brother Esau with the meal his had father asked for. When they both realize what happened, Esau becomes histerical and reminds Isaac that Jacob, the literal heel grabber
, was also the figurative deceiver. Now he piles on the past incident of losing his birthright and cries some more, but still manages to get a mixed blessing from Isaac: He will be a fighter who nonetheless serves his brother, but in the end he will be free of him.
So Esau lives with a death wish on Jacob, biding his time until Isaac dies. But again, Rebekah finds out about it, so she sends him off to her brother Laban, a name you might recall from an earlier lesson. But she needs a cover story, so she tells Isaac that she’s sending Jacob away to get a wife from elsewhere because the Hittite women are despicable— which is technically true, but a cover story nonetheless.
Gen. 28:1-9
In spite of everything, Isaac sends off Jacob with his blessing. Esau sees this so he knows where Jacob is going. But he also sees that both his parents despise the local women, so he goes to his father’s brother Ishmael to get another wife. You can check this source for a discussion of the names and numbers of Esau’s wives, due to differences between this passage and the genealogy in Gen. 36.