Isaac, son of Abraham, was forty years old when he married his wife Rebekah and much
like his own parents, he too had left things a bit late, in terms of starting a family. Well,
I say he left things a bit late, but it would appear to be more accurate to say that Rebekah,
despite having been carefully handpicked by Abraham’s servant to become Isaac’s bride,
was indeed barren. Whilst there are similarities between Issaac and Rebekah’s situation to that of
Abraham and Sarah’s, it is not known for certain whether Sarah was incapable of conceiving due to a
medical factor, or simply due to her old age. But with Rebkah, it is specified that she was unable
to become pregnant, thus making her circumstance a fair bit more hopeless than Sarah’s.
It’s also interesting that despite being the promised and hallowed son of Abraham,
Isaac was not simply handed everything that he desired and that like his father, he too had
to demonstrate faith in God and was made to face some seemingly impossible situations. In the case
of Rebekah not being able to have kids, Isaac does not simply give up or resign to cursing his luck,
or worse yet, cursing God. Instead, he seeks out God’s counsel and demonstrates his faith in the
Lord, knowing that the only way to solve such a dilemma was to believe that God would help him.
The bible tells us, “Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was childless.
The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant.” (Genesis 25:21)
As we can see, Isaac’s prayer was answered - though it was not done immediately, no.
In fact, the bible tells us that Isaac was married at the age of forty, but his sons
Esau and Jacob were not born to him until he was the age of sixty. This would mean that Isaac would
have had to have waited a total of twenty years before he even saw his prayer come into effect.
Furthermore, we don’t actually see God speak to Isaac here as he had once spoken to Abraham,
and so Isaac could not have possibly known whether God had even heard his prayer. But because he was
so faithful to God, he gave his Lord the benefit of doubt and chose to believe that just because
his prayer had not been answered immediately, did not mean it would not be answered eventually.
Much like his father in his later years, Isaac demonstrates a tremendous amount of faith
and in those twenty years, he does not appear to take matters into his own hands,
nor try to impregnate anyone else to actualise the Covenant.
He shows not only trust in his God, but also a praiseworthy amount of loyalty to Rebekah
who despite being barren, does not go about seeking alternative women to sire his offspring.
But the pregnancy of Rebekah was not necessarily a smooth one as we understand that as the babies
grew inside of Rebekah (indeed, there were two of them), the children jostled against each other.
This concerned Sarah immensely and she grew so restless over their apparent squabbling inside
of her, that she went to consult with God. And she asked, ‘Why is this happening to me?’
And the Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will
be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.”
Here, we see God actually vocalise his wisdom to Rebekah- which is interesting
given that we do not see God speak to Isaac in the same way. In fact, going by the bible,
it can be determined that Isaac was met with silence, which yet again
is a testament to his faith that despite hearing nothing, he still chose to believe.
With Rebekah on the other hand, it could be said that he recognised her concern and because there
was more at stake for the mother in pregnancy, he chose to make himself known in an effort to calm
her pangs of worry and provide some peace of mind in her pregnant state. In this passage alone,
God also reveals to her the number of children that she is carrying, as well as their gender and
the hostile relationship they will have. ‘Two nations are in your womb,
and two people from within you will be separated’ - God explains to Rebekah
and these words are fairly simple to comprehend. Rebekah would give birth
to twins and each would father a nation, those that would constantly be at odds with the other.
‘One will be stronger than the other’ God continues and by this he clearly means that
one brother will preside over the other. ‘And the older will serve the younger’,
God concludes, and here it can be interpreted that God wished to continue the trend of the
younger sibling being more cherished or worthy. Traditionally, it was the younger sibling who
could come to serve the older, but as we saw with Isaac and Ishmael, it was Isaac who was promised
the inheritance of Abraham and it was Isaac who was deemed as more of the ‘chosen one’. However,
it could be argued that this was due to Isaac having both Abraham and Sarah as parents,
as God had intended and not to do with the fact that Isaac was younger. But in this
instance with Rebekah, God makes it clear that the younger sibling will be served by the older.
But why did the biblical God decide this, you might ask. Especially given that neither child
had been born yet and neither child really had much of an opportunity to do anything good or bad.
Well, there are a number of theories. In one idea, it could be said that given God knew of everything
that would transpire, he already knew that good and bad that Esau and Jacob would come
to commit. And so, having already seen their paths unfold, he determined Jacob to be more worthy and
more preferable than his brother. We see this mentioned in Malachi 1:2-3 where God tells us
“I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his hill country into a wasteland
and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.” In essence, Esau’s fate was already sealed from
the moment he was conceived and God had long since made his decision about who would be serving who.
Some have interpreted the ‘hate’ of God here as God not hating Esau as a person,
but instead hating the idea of him receiving the Covenant of Abraham instead of Jacob. For as we
later see, Esau is certainly not a dishonourable character who is ill intentioned and in fact,
he comes to demonstrate many traits that paint Jacob as weak and lazy. Furthermore,
it should be noted that despite the judgement of God, Isaac deems Esau as his favourite son.
Yet another idea, albeit a more arbitrary one, as to why God chose Jacob over Esau, was because Esau
tried to kill Jacob in the womb. Though, of course this is not specified in the bible. A Jewish
legend also suggests that every time Rebekah was near an idol of a false god, Esau would kick in
the womb. But every time she went near a place of the Lord, Jacob would kick. By these ‘kicks’,
one might interpret both Jacob and Esau’s excitement and recognition for one deity over the
other, but again this exact tale is not written in the bible and some have considered it to be
unfair and even unreliable to consider the kicks of babies to be any indication of preference.
The bible continues of the birth of the two boys by telling us,
“When the time came for Rebekah to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb.
The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment; so they named him Esau.
After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel;
so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them.”
Interestingly, the first to come out was Esau and was described as being red and that his whole body
was like a hairy garment. This would of course refer to how unusually pilose the boy was,
but also that he was red - or, had red-ginger coloured hair. Subsequently, Jacob came out,
though he is not described beyond the fact that he was holding onto Esau’s heel.
There is some meaning behind this and that the holding of his brother’s heel
was a gesture of their previous struggle within the womb.
The grasping of his brother’s heel suggests that they had been fighting inside the womb
and were jostling in an effort to become the first born. Of course, Esau evidently won this exchange,
hence him being born first, but the resentment and frustration that Jacob held for his brother is
seen as early as here, as he grasps his brother’s heel perhaps in an attempt to drag him back.
There’s also an idea that comes to foreshadow Jacob’s swindler ways,
for by grasping his brother’s heel, he could have been described as a ‘heel-catcher’ - a
term that was thought to mean something akin to a fraudster, trickster or someone dishonest.
The bible spends no time at all discussing the childhood of Esau and Jacob in this section and
instead skips ahead to when they are much older. We understand that Esau becomes a skilful hunter
and a man of the open country, whilst Jacob becomes content to merely stay at home
and hang out amongst the tents. The contrast between the siblings is made clear here,
with Esau appearing to be far more aggressive and perhaps
extroverted and Jacob appearing to be far more calm and perhaps introverted. In any case,
we get confirmation here that neither Isaac or Rebekah loved their sons equally and that
Isaac had more of a preference for Esau whilst Rebekah had more of a preference for Jacob.
We then come to learn of one fateful encounter between the two brothers
where Jacob was at home cooking some stew. Esau had returned from a long hunt and was starving
and so he said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!”
But shrewd and cunning, Jacob replied “First sell me your birthright.”
Evidently, Jacob was aware of how valuable being the firstborn was in his society - in fact,
it might be argued that given he came out of the womb grasping his brother’s heel,
he had always some inclination on some intrinsic, subconscious level. We understand that the
birthright itself was not just some family bragging right, but that it also saw the firstborn
receive double the portion of inheritance and the ascension of becoming the head of the family.
With this, Jacob’s ambitions becomes clear - he wanted those very things for himself and
he was prepared to let his brother die of starvation in order to obtain them.
Esau points out the ridiculousness of Jacob’s request,
“Look, I am about to die,’ Esau tells him. “What good is the birthright to me if I’m dead?”
But Jacob is ruthless and dismisses the logic of his brother’s statement,
choosing to focus on what he desires more. He tells Esau, “Swear to me first.”
So Esau swore and oath to him and sold his birthright to Jacob.
As we can see, Jacob certainly lives up to that ‘heel-catcher’ idea, for he is cunning enough to
take advantage of his brother’s condition and make him an offer he can’t possibly refuse.
Now, many will come to view Jacob as the villain in this interaction, and I’m mostly inclined
to agree given that he pounces on his brother’s vulnerability and exploits him for his own gain.
Yet, some have argued that in actuality, Esau is the villain because God had already chosen Jacob
to carry the birthright when he was in the womb. Through this idea, Jacob isn’t swindling Esau out
of anything, for he already owns the birthright and is merely luring Esau into admitting it.
Furthermore, it is also suggested that Esau sells the birthright even though it doesn’t
belong to him and thus, he is being dishonest by trading for something he doesn’t even have.
Yet another idea that places Esau as more of the dubious one in this sibling rivalry,
is that Esau shows little acknowledgement of the spiritual importance of the birthright.
He does not recognise the Covenant, nor the honour of being the first to be descended from Isaac,
but instead sells this birthright for food.
Now, it should be argued that he had no choice - it was quite literally sell the birthright or die,
but I suppose one can argue that having been a hunter, Esau certainly had it within his power
to acquire game and replenish himself, but that in this case he simply could not be bothered.
It would show that he did not value the legacy of Abraham, nor appreciate how fortunate he was
as a descendant of the great prophet, given that he so easily parts with the birthright.
The bible then tells us that the terms were agreed upon and Jacob acquired the birthright,
whilst Esau acquired some bread and stew. Furthermore, we are told that because of this,
Esau had despised his birthright on the account that he either never valued it in the first place,
or thought so little of it, that it was traded without careful consideration.
But let me know what your thoughts are on the birthright and whether Esau should have maintained
it, or whether Jacob was better suited to it. Was Esau the victim in this sibling rivalry or was
Jacob just in essentially exploiting his brother - or exposing him - in an effort to better himself.
Let me know in the comments below and as always, if you’ve enjoyed today’s episode, then don’t
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Until next time!