There are many childless couples in our congregations that might be cynical against this since they have prayed for years for a child. But the passage is still applicable today in that there are some children alive out there only because of a direct result of prayer and for no other reason. Be it either an unexpected pregnancy or through an adoption. Isaac and Rebekah had prayed for a child for 20 long years. Instead of getting one boy they got two. You might think that was a double blessing but it became a source of contention and conflict because the parents took sides and each had a preference. The parents probably could have done more to ease the tensions in the home by fixing their relationship. Rebekah probably did not tell Isaac about God's prophecy concerning Jacob. And Isaac was too concerned with his creature comforts to have any appreciation for Jacob. Isaac was very happy with "his" boy Esau. Esau was the heir apparent. He liked the outdoors and liked to hunt and that was Isaac's kind of boy. This family was set for conflict. These two boys were a picture of trouble from the very beginning. They had a classic clash between the impulsive and the practical, the active and the thinker, the bold and the careful, the doer and the schemer. A home should not be filled with this kind of tension. Parents should do more to ensure that the home is a place of relaxation, tranquility and peace. Not the cause of stress and dysfuntion. Isaac thought he had it made. God had given him his heir. Esau thought he had it made. Born barely first but never the less just soon enough to what he thought would guarantee his life of leisure. But Jacob had other plans. Esau didn't imagine how obsessed Jacob was with wanting what he had. One day Esau comes in from a hunt. He is not thinking of the future, he's only concerned about his deep hunger pains right now. But Jacob is consumed with the thought of the future. How to secure the advantage for himself. Jacobs opportunity presents itself and Esau quickly exchanges lasting joy for a brief gratification of appetite. Both boys were hungry. Jacob had cooked himself a stew and was about to eat. The difference was that Jacob was willing to defer his need and Esau wanted to satisfy it immediately, regardless, not thinking of the cost. Both boys acted selfishly as if they were the only ones to be affected by this exchange. Esau gives us a good example of what not to do. His experience reminds us of our need to be prepared for temptation. In Africa they have the white ants. These ants will eat the insides out of dead wood or furniture and then abandon it without ever affecting the surface or outside looks. So after they attack a chair it can look as good a new but when you sit in it it will crumble because it has no structure to it. It is but a shell. Esau did nothing for 20 years to discipline his desires and appetites until he became a shell that easily fell to temptation.
This passage reminds us also of the struggle between the young and the old. The traditional way that has all the control and the young revolutionaries that are vying for that control. We see that in our own culture. We also see it in the New Testament. Paul identifies Israel (Jacob) as the old way and Christ as the new. The Jews resisted this and do so even today. But just as God's promise was to be fulfilled through the younger, against the culture of that day, so is his promise fulfilled today through Jesus. God thinks nothing of turning the way we think things should be done completely upside down. When we accept Christ into our hearts he turns everything upside down again. Rearranging our priorities completely. There is that struggle within us between the old and the new. But the promise is sided again with the new. The nucleus of the problem lies in our not wanting to wait for God to do something new. We try to take the control away from him by doing our own thing. We can't wait for the new and we go back to doing the same old thing that got us into trouble in the first place. If we wait for and believe in the sure promises of God he will lead us to blessings of rest and inheritance. The challenge is how to take the promises of God seriously enough to withstand alternate forms of food that are available and within control. Waiting is possible when one does not doubt the outcome. This story calls us to wait with Jacob. Too often we want to exchange God's way for our own way because we don't know if he is ever going to act. There is no reason to doubt the future. May God enable us to wait for him and his leading, leaving us always in the center of his will.
Esau traded his birthright because he was hungry. How often do we choose filling our hungers over the discipline of faithfulness to God?
Kendra in GA
I am looking at this as as typical dysfunctional family. The parents aren't talking to one another but to their own favoorite son. The son favored by the mother seeks the blessing of the father while the father's son devalues it. Neither son is really happy nor is the entire family happy because they are coniving and scheming behind each other's back rather than talking to one another. The church is often a disfunctional family needing to talk openly about what is really going on.
Maybe the question is not, for what do we sell our birthright but how do we steal the birthright of others. So we can have more "power", be in control, get rich, or what everever reason we steal the birthright of others. Right now in northern Nebraska there is a battle between the Native Americans on the Pine Ridge Reservation (prison) and the citizens of WhiteClay, NE over the issue of Alcohol Sells. Whiteclay a city of 50 people has 4 locations to sell beer. It is the major source for alcohol on the southern part of Pine Ridge. The tribal leaders want the town to stop selling beer, but that would stop the whites from making big bucks. The state supports the business people. So once again we steal the birthright of the Native Americans so we (the whites) can have money. What birthrights have you stolen this week? Can we just feel sorry of stupid old Esau and priase the wise Jacob? This scripture should help us to look at how do we treat our brothers and sisters. Do we charge a high price for our food to the starving? It is still early in the week so I have not worked on this idea very much. But it is a place to start thinking. RevJCB in NE
I'm looking at the struggle between the brothers. I know I've had struggles with my own family. It does seem almost constant from birth. Yet in the end the brothers do reconcile.
I'm looking a link with the Romans text. The struggle between flesh and Spirit. our reconciliation comes with God's power in Jesus Christ. We are reconciled to God and then can be reconciled to our brothers (and sisters) when we open our lives to God's Spirit and Christ's love.
Bruce in WI
I thought I'd work from the angle of Jacob was rotten -- for stealing his brother's birthright. After all, how many days had Esau been out hunting, and where did Jacob get the fixings for the stew? Probably from Esau. But, eventhough Jacob was rotten, God used him to continue the covenant. . .
So, almost everyone has a rotten sibling (I don't I'm an only), or knows someone who does (depending on the day you ask them, either one of my children would say the other is rotten). If God can use Jacob, who actually stole his brother's birthright (brings up questions of who gets Grandma's silver and who gets Grandad's fishing pole), how much more will God be able to use us -- as rotten as we are.
Just thoughts.
RevJan
Do you know my younger brother? This sounds like him and me on any typical day when we were growing up. BUT it doesn't sound like TWINS, not the TWINS I have heard so much about, the closeness, the almost mystical sharing of thoughts and all the other signs that twins share with each other--Anyone out there a twin or knowledgeable about TWINS? I would like to know if Esau and Jacob are that much of the exception to the rule STAN in TN
How does one engage the Bible and all its stories and still remain faithful? Trust in God!
This week I met Rebecca. She seemed like a typical boomer. I also met her daughter. The two don't speak to each other, at least not since Mother's Day. They had been estranged for nearly a year, but the daughter felt moved to call her mother and wish her a happy Mother's Day. After some effort to discover her mother's home phone # she called. When "Esse" heard her mother's voice she said, "I just called to wish you a happy Mother's day." To which "Rebecca" replied, "Please do not call me here again!" End of conversation. "Esse" will likely be in church this Sunday. What is dhe going to feel when she hears her story and how God instructs/informs Rebecca that it is all right to reject her child? "It's the will of God."?
God didn't want Esau to be the road taken for the chosen people? Maybe "Esse" should just accept this fact that God choses some while rejecting others, just like her mother.
some how I will preach this text this week. But I think I will be approaching it from another angle. Just what that is I am not sure. (It's only Wednesday, so I have some time to think and pray and listen.) Deke of the North
To the person who asked about twins that don't get along. I have twin daughters. They are only 16 months old. That doesn't make me an expert, but I can say that they have very different personalities. They don't share everything, they often don't want to play together. Sometimes that can't stand to be apart, but most of the time, they enjoy individual attention from their Mom and me.
I think it's common among twins that they do have a certain bond (from my reading and other anecdotes.) I also know that they still have sibling battles.
I'm remembering a story from a year or two ago, about twin sisters in high school. One was very popular, smart, etc. The other twin tried to kill her. I can't remember the details, though I'm sure a bit of online searching will yield some results.
I suppose taken a step further, Esau might want to kill Jacob, which is what Jacob fears further along in the narrative.
My own caution is to stay in this story, not to jump to the parents siding with one over the other. This story is about Jacob and Esau. It's a humorous poking fun at the ancestors of Israel and the Edomites.
Brotherhood/Sisterhood is not without conflict. They struggled in the womb, they struggled when they got out. (in the future, we know that Jacob will struggle with the angel of God).
Conflict is not new to families or to churches.
One thing I keep hanging on is what will be the birthright of our children. In what condition will we give them the earth? What form of education? How will techology benefit or harm them? What about the hate groups all over the country? If you were the first-born to this inheritance, would you even want it?
A little Hebrew word study shows that the word for birth right is the same root as first born and first fruits. In the Greek, Jesus is the "first born" of God - a hierarchical position of privilege.
I'm going somewhere with birth rights and first born - I think....
Kelly in Tacoma
How about looking at the brothers as an example of the struggle of principles, models, and/or personalities struggling to be born in individuals.
Shalom
Pasthersyl
I am struck with the irony present now and later as Jacob gets the birthright from Esau by extorting it from the former's hunger, later in life to be begging food from the Son he had favored over the other brothers. I am also reminded of the Chaos Theory of physics. One component of it is that very small things that happen at the beginning of a process have a disproportionate effect on the outcome.This event leads to unending hostility between Israel and Edom.
We are all ancestors. Our actions reverberate long after we are gone.
I will probably concentrate on the "lost inheritance." A parallel can be drawn between how Esau lost his inheritance and how we gave away ours, but how God still reaches out to include us in the New Testament. I remember that there is a promising prophecy (I think by by Isaiah) for the people of Edom. Does anyone know what the reference is?
I titled my sermon 'Destined to Differ' and I plan to talk about the fact that we created with many differences among us. Jacob is Israel and Esau represents Edom. The story is an explanation of how Israel came to dominate its neighbors at that time in their history, even though they were a younger nation. I'm fascinated in Israel's acknowledgement in this story of their own imperfections as Jacob is portrayed as such a trickster. What a different country the United States would be if we could acknowledge our imperfections more, instead of always having to arrogantly prove we are number one in all things. We have many differences among us, and we contend with one another, and we might as well be honest about who we are - beloved, imperfect children of God.
While family dynamics are interesting, I think the last verse points to the heart of the story--Esau despised his birthright. Not only his rightful inheritance and place in the family structure but the lineage of promise Abraham had received from God. We all have a great birthright from God. But we tend to trade it in for instant gratification. The things God promises are intangible--peace in the midst of a life of turmoil, eternal life--but we pawn them off for what feels good NOW.
Rebecca in MD
This story show that God know ahead of time how we will live our lives. Jacob truly lived up to his name, trickster, supplanter. I was not till 20 yrs. later that he comitted to doing things God's way and his name was changed to Israel and was a prince with God. It just goes to show you how desperate God is to use selfish and ego filled people even preahers to do his work.
About Essau he also lived up to his name (earthly) because he was very worldly minded. His god was his belly and cared more for the tings of the world than the things of God. He would rather hunt in the wild than hunt in the WORD. He would rather feed his face that to feed his faith. He like many folks today they would drive for miles to a good restaruant but wouldn't walk across the street to hear a sermon. But thank God there are those who are hungry for Gods word, so don't let the Devil make you think that your wasting the food. God's word will not come back void.
ooops! Forgot to post my name. Dan Munson-Albany,LA.
ooops! Forgot to post my name. Dan Munson-Albany,LA.
Ooops! Forgot to post my name. Dan Munson-Albany,LA.
It seems to me that Jacob is a bit unscrupulous (not just from this passage, but from the whole cycle about him), and Esau is stupid. The fact that he offers his birthright in exchange for some of Jacob's "red stuff" (Esau doesn't even know what it is), shows how stupid and how little regard for his birthright he really has. But, the theme of election and grace is that God works through such folks as Jacob and his kind. There's grace enough in that for all of us. Walter Taylor Antwerp, Belgium
I don't know if Esau was stupid or if he was just shortsighted-his question is a good one--what difference does a birthright make if I am dead? The truth was, he probably could'ver hung on a little longer and not given away his future. IT is the same choices we were struggling with concerning our ecology, the deficient (sp?), the kind of future we were going to leave our kids. That little episode in the field with the birthright and pottage didn't have anything to do with Esau's birhtright since Isaac was prepared to bless him. BUT the exchange did have something to do with who Esau was and what his priorities were. STAN in TN.
Several of the submissions here refer to personality theories, etc. You may be interested to know that one theory regarding the origins of ADD/ADHD suggests that "hunter types" were the original human being, and that "farmer types" "Evolved" from them and began to till and cultivate, etc. ADD/ADHD'ers (in a minority position today because of the way enculturation has gone - at least in the western world) are hunter types, designed by God to scan the horizon in search of food and to protect themselves/their communities. It's sad what the world does to minorities - how we try to "change/fix" them: Could this text be preached with a biblical justice theme? Preacher Mom in a family of ADD'ers!
10 July 1999 08:38:30
I am preaching on this text Sunday. Many entries have given me food for the journey. I believe with others that JACOB was a scoundrel--and his mother taught him most of all that he knows. Schemeing to deceive her husband and her favorite sons' twin brother. What a price we pay! Relationships not building up---but tearing down trust, nurture, faith, and love.
How do we see Rebekah-- one in a generation willing to take from the world what one desires without considering the consequences of later generations. The image on the Neb. Pastor -JCB speaking of the liquor issues with the small town and the Indians rights is one of those atrocities which have shaped our churches and our country.
Sure--we have been so righteous and firm in our judgement--which some in church firmly declare as following God's will and Word. But we are paying the price--we have not provided a world for the next generation (the first of a new milenium) to enter into with hope and possiblities, with trust and love. No wonder the current generation does not want much to do with us--the Church. WE lied and decieved, and stole birthrights--and live in guilt and sin--afraid that we will be found out. Our brother/sister may be planning revenge--ie. Esau--so we build our case--and we deny -- and God does not smile upon us--bub sheds tears daily as God sees the pain, anguish, distrust, and greed.
O, that we could all repent, turn away from what we know to be sin--an pray -- and reconcile, first with one another and also with God. God forgives Issac and God will forgive us--it is God's nature to forgive!! Thanks be to God!
DF in KS