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Genesis 25:12-27:40
Jacob and Esau: A Family Feud

Last week’s lesson focused on the marriage of Isaac and the death of Abraham. This week’s lesson follows that up with stories of Abraham’s children, Isaac and Ishmael.

First is Ishmael, the elder. He settled in the Desert of Paran (21:21), and his offspring settled to the west in the Wilderness of Shur, near the border of Egypt (25:18). Notice two things in particular about Ishmael’s genealogy:

1. Ishmael has 12 sons and 12 tribes, just as there are 12 sons and 12 tribes of Isaac’s son Jacob later in Genesis. When Mohammed wrote the Qur’an, he co-opted for Ishmael some of the events the bible ascribes to Isaac, and the fact that Ishmael has the same number of sons as Jacob provides another possible element of confusion.

2. The bible says Ishmael’s offspring “lived in hostility towards all their brothers” (25:18), just as the Angel of the Lord had prophesied to his mother Hagar before his birth (16:12).

In contrast to Ishmael’s fertile Egyptian wife (21:21), Isaac’s wife Rebekah is unable to conceive in almost 20 years of marriage – just as happened with Sarah, her great aunt and mother-in-law. The bible does not record Abraham prayed to God about Sarah’s infertility; instead he and Sarah took matters into their own hands with a slave girl – and the results were disastrous. But Isaac goes to God in prayer . . . and God “answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant” with twins (25:21). Isaac may have learned something from his father – which seems to be one of the points of tonight’s lesson!

Rebekah’s pregnancy is not a pleasant one; she has unusually active babies! She, too, prays to God, and is told: “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” (25:23). God is telling her the younger son will receive the rights and privileges normally received by the firstborn – as happened with Isaac and Ishmael. And when the twins are born, Jacob the younger is grasping the heel of his older brother Esau (25:26) – implying Jacob is trying to best his brother even as a newborn, and introducing a 3rd story in Genesis of brothers in competition.

The bible fast forwards to a time when the two boys are grown (25:27). They could hardly be more different: Esau the coarse hunter . . . Jacob engaged in more sedentary pursuits. Parental favoritism creates or enhances a rivalry between them: Isaac prefers Esau the manly man; Rebekah favors the quiet Jacob.

Jacob covets Esau’s birthright: the firstborn’s right to a double portion of his father’s estate and other privileges. He sees an opportunity when Esau comes home famished, and Jacob is cooking red lentil stew. Esau asks for some stew – in the Hebrew he asks to “gulp it down – but Jacob makes him swear to exchange his birthright for the stew. This is a culturally legitimate request; extra-biblical documents record the exchange of a birthright for something else. In any case, Esau agrees; and he sits down to eat and drink.

The bible does not condemn Jacob for his behavior; it’s reprehensible, but direct. However, the bible criticizes Esau because he “despised his birthright” (25:34). What does this mean? Perhaps Esau just can’t see beyond immediate desires – like many rich kids . . . what use is a future inheritance when he’s hungry?! Perhaps he rejects the ways of God and his parents . . . which seems to be his attitude when he later chooses a wife. Perhaps he feels self-sufficient and doesn’t think he’ll need his father’s inheritance – which, after all, does not include any land.

Moving into chapter 26, the bible puts the struggle between Esau and Jacob on hold, and returns to the story of Isaac. A famine occurs in the Negev – just as happened with Abraham. Then Abraham moved to Egypt without consulting God (Gen 12) . . . but this time God appears as a theophany to Isaac, and instructs him not to go to Egypt, but to stay in the land promised his father. If Isaac does that, God promises:

“I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham. I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, . . . and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because Abraham obeyed me” (26:3-5 NIV)

Abraham is almost surely dead at this time, and God is proposing to transfer His covenant with Abraham to Isaac – if Isaac is obedient, as his father had been.

Isaac obeys, and to escape the famine, he moves from Beer Lahai Roi to Gerar in the land of the Philistines – the same place Abraham lived earlier (Gen 20). Here Isaac encounters a king called Abimelech – perhaps the same Abimelech encountered by Abraham, but more likely a different king with the same name or title, because the episode occurs at least 75 years later. In any case, Isaac perpetrates the same ruse his father did – claiming Rebekah is his sister. This doesn’t have the same potentially disastrous consequences Abraham’s deceit did, because Rebekah is not taken into Abimelech’s harem. However, Isaac is sternly upended by the king when the lie is discovered. It was discussed before that killing a man to take his wife was not a crime in this society – but adultery was – so Abimelech is concerned it “would have brought guilt upon” them if one of the Philistines had slept with Rebekah (26:10). The king decrees death to “anyone who molests” Isaac or Rebekah (26:11); perhaps he is afraid because he has become aware Isaac is the son of Abraham – on behalf of whom God threatened horrible consequences to the king some 75 years ago if he touched Abraham’s wife.

Isaac tries his hand at agriculture . . . and produces “a hundredfold, because the LORD blessed him . . . He had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him” (26:12, 14). Remember: Gerar is not that far away from the Negev, and the famine must also affect that area . . . so Isaac’s great prosperity due to God’s blessing must lead later readers to conclude this is what would have happened to Abraham if he had trusted God and not fled to Egypt (Gen 12). In any case, Isaac is so prosperous the Philistines are frightened; they ask him to move away because he has “become too powerful” (26:16).

When Isaac moves, he reopens his father’s wells. This leads to a dispute over water rights with the local Philistine herdsmen, so Isaac moves again to avoid such problems . . . to Beersheba. Here God again appears to Isaac as a theophany to confirm the promises in His first appearance. Because Isaac did not leave Canaan when the famine came, God has blessed him with prosperity in the midst of his enemies, and God now “confirms the oath (He) swore to . . . Abraham” (26:3). God reveals Himself as the God of his father, and promises His divine presence: “Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bless you and will increase the number of your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham” (26:24). God’s covenant with Abraham is formally transmitted to Isaac . . . with a promise that despite having only 2 sons (in contrast to Ishamel’s 12), God will bless Isaac with many descendants – just as he has already been blessed with material wealth. And Isaac responds as his father had: he builds an altar to God.

As if to affirm God’s promise, Abimelech – along with his chief adviser and military commander – visits Isaac in Beersheba. The king wants a treaty because Isaac is “blessed by YHWH” (26:29). So they hold a feast and swear an oath to one another, guaranteeing peace for Isaac (26:31).

The story of Isaac in Gerar is so much like Abraham’s that many scholars doubt its authenticity. But the bible says it’s a different story (26:1) . . . and there are fundamental differences, which seem to show progress learning to follow God’s ways. As said before . . . maybe that’s the point.

Chapter 26 closes with two verses which seem to give insight into the character of Isaac’s older son Esau. As we discussed last week, when Abraham sought a wife for Isaac, he explicitly did not want anyone not “from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living” (24:3). Such a woman – influenced by her parents – would tempt Isaac’s family to assimilate into the Canaanite culture. But Esau takes two Canaanite wives – and this was “a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah” (26:35). Esau is 40; Isaac is 100. Is Esau rebellious: deliberately doing something he knows will offend his parents? . . . is he just self-centered and hedonistic? Whatever the reason, Esau doesn’t seem to understand his family’s special relationship to the One True God; he would be a poor choice as heir to God’s promises to Abraham and Isaac.

Chapter 27 opens at least 35 years later; Isaac is almost 140 and nearly blind. He must realize Esau with his Canaanite wives cannot be the heir to God’s promises to Abraham; he surely knows about God’s revelation to Rebekah that “the older (son) will serve the younger” (25:23), and he knows Esau sold his birthright to Jacob some 50 years earlier. But Isaac likes Esau . . . and maybe he wonders if a schemer like Jacob is fit to be heir to God’s promises, either. In any case, he calls in Esau to be blessed. If the story had turned out differently, we might have a better idea the exact significance of the father’s blessing . . . but some scholars suggest the blessing formally confers the rights of primogeniture – including becoming head of household on his father’s death; it is essentially the father's Last Will and Testament. Isaac may not feel he is free to ignore the birthright agreement between Esau and Jacob – but he can give a blessing which circumvents much of its impact. Jacob feels he must receive the blessing!

Rebekah has a different view than her husband; she wants her favorite Jacob to receive the blessing. She overhears Isaac’s directions to Esau, and realizes since he must hunt wild game and prepare a meal before he receives the blessing, there is an opportunity to take advantage of Isaac’s poor eyesight and make a switch. She calls in Jacob, relates what Isaac has told Esau, and tells Jacob to bring her two choice goats – which she cooks just the way her husband likes. She dresses Jacob in Esau’s clothes; baths were rare – as was laundry – so the clothes smell like Esau! But there’s still a problem: Esau is hairy; Jacob is not. Jacob fears – probably rightly – he’ll be cursed by Isaac if this deception is discovered. (Although some commentators applaud Jacob’s reluctance to participate . . . he seems less troubled about being dishonest than worried about being caught.) In any case, Rebekah volunteers to take any curse . . . and covers the back of Jacob’s hands and neck with goatskins to make him appear hairy. Then she sends him in to receive his father’s blessing.

Jacob’s acquisition of Esau’s birthright was reprehensible but not dishonest . . . but here he compounds lies and deceitfulness in a masquerade to steal his father’s blessing. Isaac senses something is wrong when Jacob enters and addresses him. He smells the food and expects Esau . . . but the voice sounds like Jacob. It must have been obvious to Rebekah and Jacob this would be a problem, but there’s no indication they tried to do anything about it. “Who is it?” Isaac asks (27:18). Jacob tells his first lies: “I am Esau your firstborn,” he says; he claims the goat Rebekah has prepared is “game” (27:19). Jacob asks for the blessing, and makes reference to his father’s instructions – which only Esau should know. But Isaac is still suspicious: “How did you find it so quickly, my son?” Jacob adds blasphemy to his lies by implicating God in this scheme: “The LORD your God gave me success” (27:20). But Isaac still isn’t satisfied; he asks Jacob to come closer, so he can see if he feels like Esau . . . and Rebekah’s goat skins do the trick: “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau,” Isaac says (27:22). He is about to bless Jacob . . . but hesitates: “Are you really my son Esau?” Jacob lies again “I am” (27:24). Isaac asks for the food. He apparently continues to think things over as he eats the goat and drinks some wine, because after the meal he says “Come here, my son, and kiss me” (27:26). Isaac wants to smell his son; when he does that, he is finally satisfied it’s Esau: “Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the LORD has blessed” (27:27). Then he proceeds with the blessing. Thinking it is being given to Esau, Isaac appears to acknowledge his sons’ birthright agreement, and does not offer a double portion of his estate . . . but Isaac is a nomad – not a landowner – and so offers something more significant: he asks God to bless him by making the area he lives the most productive in Canaan. Isaac designates him head of household and heir to God’s promises to Abraham with the words “Be lord over your brothers. . . . May those who curse you be cursed and those who bless you be blessed” (27:29).

Jacob departs without comment; he has stolen Esau’s blessing, just as he came to do. And none too soon . . . because while Isaac delayed to convince himself the man before him was Esau, Esau was able to kill and prepare the game Isaac requested. So Esau comes in with food and asks for his father’s blessing when Jacob had “hardly gone out” (27:30-31). Isaac is confused “Who are you?” (27:32). Esau tells him. “Isaac trembled violently and said, ‘Who was it, then, that hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it just before you came and I blessed him’” (27:33). Even though the blessing was taken “deceitfully” (27:35), it stands because it was given “in the presence of the LORD” (27:7); Isaac may think he will oppose God if he tries to rescind it. Esau pleads with his father; he acknowledges his birthright is gone, but he wants the blessing: “Bless me—me too, my father!” he says. “(Jacob) took my birthright, and now he’s taken my blessing! . . . Haven’t you reserved any blessing for me?” (27:34, 36). Isaac is adamant. But Esau – the manly man – weeps aloud (27:38), and Isaac relents. There’s not much left to give Esau –Jacob’s blessing included all the “good stuff” – but Isaac says: “You . . . will serve your brother. But when you grow restless, you will throw his yoke from off your neck” (27:40).

At this point, most people feel sorry for Esau – cheated by Jacob out of all rights of primogeniture, and receiving only this puny “blessing.” Yet we must put all this into context. God told Rebekah during her pregnancy the elder son would serve the younger; and it’s obvious from Esau’s choice of wives he is not a fit heir to God’s promises to Abraham. Therefore, what seems in this story like a series of accidents, failures, and deceptions is – in the long run – just God’s plan being put into effect through human imperfections. Another example of this occurs later in Genesis with Jacob’s son Joseph . . . and Joseph will articulate it so well: that often what man intends for evil, God intends for good! And as far as payback to Jacob for his deceptive ways . . . it will become clear next week that he is paid in kind and in full. Just because he transmits God’s promise to Abraham by siring the line of Jesus the Messiah, Jacob is not exempted from punishment for what he does wrong.

And as far as Isaac’s blessing is concerned . . . it becomes clear later that Esau doesn’t suffer by having Jacob “head of the household”; he does his own thing anyway. Nevertheless, Esau’s descendants come under the dominion of the descendants of Jacob during the monarchy of David – but they revolt against Solomon, and eventually gain independence. In fact, King Herod of Jesus’ time was a descendant of Esau.