Title: Jacob and Esau (Genesis 27:1)
Contents The above text is about the time Isaac was conceived by his wife, Rebekah. Rebekah could not bear it because her twin sons in her womb were fighting, so she asked the Lord what to do. The above text was the word of a revelation from the Lord at that time. They finally had two sons, and they called their older brother Esau and their younger brother Jacob. As they grew older, their personality and behavior changed drastically.
According to Genesis 25:27, Esau was a familiar hunter, so he became a man of the field, and Jacob was a quiet man, and he dwelt in tents. As you can see here, Esau was masculine and Jacob was feminine. In terms of the difference between these two personalities, we cannot say which side is good and which is bad. However, these differences in personalities led the two to walk different paths in life. Esau, by nature, always liked to go out and play. The Bible refers to him as a accustomed hunter and a wild man. He was the only one who came to the house when he was about to die of hunger. But this became a fatal flaw for Esau. In other words, he missed many opportunities to receive his parents' education because of it.
He grew up not receiving much influence from his wonderful father Isaac and pious mother Rebekah.
He is just like that when looking at marriage cases. In Genesis 26:34-35, we see that when Esau was forty years old, he married Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basmath the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and they became grievous to Isaac and Rebekah. Esau married two daughters of a foreigner at once, and became a son who caused great sorrow to his parents because of him. But Jacob was different. He kept in mind his father's request, that he should not take a wife from among the daughters of the Canaanites, and he did exactly that (28:6,7). A son who grieves and grieves his parents in the world cannot do well. A son who wants to be well will first have to obey his parents. Esau and Jacob differed greatly in this respect, first of all.
Jacob's reluctance to go out was not necessarily a good thing, but he did so and naturally spent a lot of time with Mubo. He was able to receive a good influence from his parents and had many opportunities to receive their education. Therefore, he believes that he also knew how precious God's promises to Abraham and Isaac were. That is why he thinks that he has an earnest wish that he must inherit that promise at any cost. He must also have heard from his mother the revelation of God that his mother had received in her womb.
Therefore, it seems that he always had a desire to inherit the eldest son's inheritance. But what of Esau? This was his attitude, saying, "What shall be the birthright to me, since I am about to die?"
What is the birthright's cause? Where are all of God's promises! Just eat and be full! This was the person of Esau.
Therefore, in Hebrews 12:16, we see that we are warned to fear that there may be some who are sexually immoral among you, and perhaps there are some who are vain like Esau, who sold the birthright for a single meal. Here, it means a person who has betrayed his or her faith.
It means one who disregarded God's promises and disregarded them. God called Esau, who destroyed the precious faith of his ancestors in a bowl. After that, Esau was rejected as the Bible says, “I asked with tears to inherit the blessing, but it was forsaken, and there was no opportunity for repentance” (Hebrews 12:17). But Jacob was different. He longed for God's blessings. Therefore, he made many mistakes, but because of his faith, he was loved by God.
But he made a big mistake. That is, they tried to receive God's holy blessing through human deceit. Oh, that's sad! How can we receive God's holy promises and blessings by human cunning means and methods? A good purpose must be achieved in a good way. How can the path ahead be smooth by deceiving the blind father and deceiving the older brother? God could not immediately bless such Jacob. Many tears and lamentations followed him, and he had to go through many difficult days. Truly, as he confessed, he had to go through a rough time.
(Gen. 47:9).
Moreover, the two brothers, Jacob and Esau, became enemies of each other. Esau tried to kill Jacob. Until these two brothers became like this, their parents Isaac and Rebekah were not without responsibility. First, let's think about Isaac's mistake.
Genesis 27:1-4 When Isaac was old and his eyes were dark and he couldn't see well, he called his eldest son Esau and said, "Take your bow and go hunting for me in the field, and make it my favorite delicacy, and bring it to me to eat. There is a saying that before I die, let me bless you with all my heart. This can only be said to be Isaac's great mistake.
Isaac is also the word of God's prophecy, that is, two peoples are in your womb. Two peoples will be divided from within your womb. He would not have been ignorant of the saying that this tribe will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger. Had he remembered any of those words, he would not have wished to bless Esau so simply.
In the old days of the patriarchal era, the father who became a patriarch was the priest of the family, and the blessing of the priest was God's blessing (Numbers 6:27).
As a priest in God's place, he should have asked God, but he did not. He tried to solve important matters according to the customs of the world rather than the will of God and the words of his promise.
In Genesis 27:33, we see that Isaac trembled greatly and said, "Then who brought me the meat that I hunted?" Seeing that he will surely be blessed. .
I know that it was obviously not because of Esau's fear, but because he trembled so much because he was afraid of his mistake, which had almost violated God's will.
If Isaac had waited more carefully for God's will, Jacob and Esau might have avoided the unfortunate incident of being enemies so far.
Also, Rebekah's mistake is huge. First, he favored Jacob (25:28). Of course, it is only natural that Rebekah, who remembers the prophecy when she conceived a son, was particularly interested in Jacob. It cannot be a great tragedy. And that's not the only mistake Rebekah made. Jacob deceived his father because of his mother's wrong plan (Gen. 27:5-17).
It was unforgivable to try to fulfill God's holy promises by man's cunning means. God's promise must have been patiently waited for, believing that there must be a good way for God to fulfill it (Hebrews 10:36).
Failing to do so, the Rivble family finally did something and had to evacuate their beloved son far away.
In Genesis 27:44, we read in Genesis 27:44, saying that he wanted to stay at the house of an outcast for several days until the anger of your brother was relieved, and he evacuated to the house of his brother Laban of Haran. had to
In the Bible, Rebekah's name did not appear again after that. Later, when Jacob returned to his hometown, his mother was not there (Gen. 35:27-29).
Presumably, Rebekah passed away without ever seeing the face of her beloved son again. If so, I think it was God's discipline that Rebekah received.
How much trouble did Jacob, who followed the wrong way, suffer because of it? First of all, he liked to live in a tent, and contrary to his aptitude, he not only became a fielder who had to live in the field for the rest of his life, but he also had to live with a lot of hardship, even being threatened with life. We see that the Bible gives a special account of Jacob's suffering. It cannot but be seen that such a hard life of his life was a punishment that God had given him. But through such suffering, he finally became a more pious and holy patriarch.