Esau
and Jacob were both believers in God. Their father, Isaac, was a
believer, and so was their grandfather Abraham. Being the Iron Age
patriarchs that they were, they’d make pretty lousy believers if
they didn’t at least share their faith with their household.
Anyway,
what made a person a believer in those days: performing rituals,
sacrifices and other acts of worship? At this point in Biblical
history God's revelation was in its infancy, so to call a person a
believer was to give them a pretty wide berth. Perhaps it’s enough
to be considered a believer if a person was morally upright? Abraham
and Isaac knew God and were morally upright, and they tried to share
this faith with their households. They are believers. The better
question is, why was there a crook in God's family?
Esau
became a skilled hunter, at home in the countryside. Jacob was quiet
and liked to stay at home in the tents. Isaac loved Esau because he
brought him tasty wild game to eat, while Rebekah loved Jacob.
One
day Jacob was cooking some stew when Esau got back from the
countryside, tired out and starving hungry. “Give me some of that
red stew,” Esau told Jacob. “I'm absolutely starving!” (That's
how Esau got his other name, “Edom,” meaning “red.”)
“First
sell me your rights as the firstborn son,” Jacob replied.
“Look!
I'm dying here! What use are the rights of the firstborn to me?”
Esau declared.
“First
you have to swear to me,” Jacob demanded. So Esau swore an oath
selling his rights of the firstborn to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau
some bread and lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then he got up and
left. By doing this Esau showed how little he cared for his rights as
the firstborn son.
-
Genesis 25: 27b-34
If
you recall, Esau and Jacob were twins born within seconds of each
other. Esau came out first, with Jacob's tiny hand firmly gripping
Esau's tiny heel as if to pull Esau back to the womb so Jacob could
come out first. For this feat he was given a name that meant
supplanter, which is really a dirty word (usurper, grasper at the
heel, cheater) to call a literal infant. What did he know? What did
either of them know?
Their
personalities are a direct outcome of how they were raised. Esau was
a dutiful son who might have taken up hunting as a hobby but brought
home food for his father from his loot. (Isaac was into the lucrative
well-digging business in the arid Levant, and was known to pharaohs,
kings and local chieftains. Esau’s hunting did not contribute
significantly to the family kitchen.) Jacob, on the other hand, was a
homeboy under the constant hovering of his mother Rebekah. Now,
Rebekah herself was a monster in her own right, but that’s another
story.
I
also like how it was emphasized that Jacob was a plain man “dwelling
in tents”. Everyone dwelt in tents at that time, even Esau the
hunter. Jacob was so lazy, his tent-dwelling was the only remarkable
thing about him. Just like that line on Miss Congeniality about
Sandra Bullock's character's only talent, being able to “stand
there and convert oxygen to carbon dioxide.”
Believers
have long waxed philosophical about Esau disregarding his birthright
in a moment of weakness and how it's such an evil thing. No doubt it
was an evil thing. This is the problem with people who are born into
privilege: not knowing how privileged they are compared to the people
around them, they quickly lose respect for that privilege. Esau was
ignorant of its significance, and neither Isaac the also-privileged
younger son nor Rebekah the aforementioned monster were in any
position to educate him on the matter.
However,
the person who wasn’t ignorant of its significance is his younger
brother, Jacob. Jacob the homeboy was more in touch with just how
wealthy his father was. He was more aware of the breadth and scope of
his father’s lands, his flocks, his servants. Jacob could see how
much more favored Esau was. Jacob saw his place at the dinner table,
the size of his portions, the responsibility he commanded over
Isaac’s household – all because his twin brother was born but a
few minutes ahead of him.
No
one seems to talk about how Jacob despised Esau’s birthright even
more than Esau himself, by treating it as nothing more than an item
that could be bought or sold. Not even with his own rights as the
second child, but with a bowl of soup, of all things. This is
probably how low Rebekah, whom Jacob grew up under, seemed to regard
Isaac and all his birthright talk. It was never a sovereign,
God-given attribute. It was just a means to an end, just another
thing to scheme about. And the tent-dwelling mama's boy picked up on
it.
Isaac
was probably unaware of the deal between the two brothers because he
still sought to give his blessing to Esau. A father's blessing was
more than daddy wishing his kids good luck. It was effectively a last
will and testament, the swearing-in of the new head of the family,
solemnized before the presence of the Lord, and if possible, before
witnesses. To the Biblical patriarchs, this blessing was a huge deal,
something not even they could roll back if given by mistake.
Isaac
was old and going blind. He called for Esau, his oldest son, and
said, “My son.”
“I'm
here,” Esau replied.
“I'm
old now,” said Isaac, “I may die soon, who knows? So please take
your bow and arrows and go hunting in the countryside for some meat
for me. Make me that tasty food that I love and bring it to me to
eat, so I can bless you before I die.”
Rebekah
heard what Isaac told his son Esau. So when Esau left to go hunting
in the countryside for wild game, Rebekah told her son Jacob,
“Listen! I heard your father tell your brother, ‘Get me some wild
game and make me some tasty food so I can eat it and then bless you
in the presence of the Lord before I die.’ Now then, my son, listen
to me and do exactly what I tell you. Go to the flock and bring me
two nice young goats. I'll cook them and make the tasty food your
father loves. Then you take it to your father to eat, so he can bless
you in the presence of the Lord before he dies.”
-
Genesis 27: 1-10
By
the way, Isaac wasn’t even remotely close to dying at this point.
He was still alive when the two reconciled literally decades later.
Before modern medicine, knowing you’re about to die is pretty
straightforward business: if you say you’re dying it’s because it
feels like you’re actually dying. It’s at that point where you
will probably be dead in a few days. You don’t say you’re dying
just because you’re blind or tired or hungry. You don’t say
you’re dying (and, importantly, issue your last will when your two
sons are obviously not ready for it) and live on for another 20
years. People have said that Esau was weak, that he was worldly and
carnal, that he lived for the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes
and the pride of life because he said he was dying and exchanged his
birthright for a bowl of soup. Bad Esau! I wonder who he got that
from.
Anyway,
having scammed Esau off of his firstborn rights, the two crooks then
went for Esau's blessing. Rebekah made Jacob dress in Esau's clothes
and put goatskins over Jacob's exposed skin, because Esau was a hairy
man and Jacob was not. She then put Isaac's favorite dish in Jacob's
hands and made him give it to his father. Isaac hesitated a
lot — touching Jacob's "skin," interrogating him
as to how he was back so soon and with a complete dish, playing his
son's voice by the ear, making Jacob kiss him to try to catch his
smell.
Years
earlier, while her sons wrestled in her womb, the word of the Lord
came unto Rebekah about how the older son will serve his younger
brother. This prophecy was meant to be about the kingdoms the two
brothers would be the founders of, far into Rebekah’s future, far
beyond Rebekah’s control. There were many ways this prophecy could
have been fulfilled, ways that did not involve coldbloodedly
deceiving a blind old man or depriving a good son of his rightful
patrimony. At Isaac's tent that day, the outcome was tragic as it was
inevitable. Jacob stole the blessing meant for his brother.
This
time Esau was furious, so Rebekah told Jacob to flee to her brother
Laban's domain in Paddan Aram and wait for things to cool down a bit
at Canaan. Of course, Rebekah had a convenient little lie for when
she approached her husband over Jacob’s cowardly escape: “I'm
so sick of these Hittite women — they're ruining my life! If Jacob
also marries a Hittite woman like them, one of the local people, I'd
rather die!” (v.46)
What
ensued over the next two decades at Paddan Aram was a harrowing tale
of lies and one-ups between Jacob and his mother's family, between
his servants and Laban’s servants, and among Leah, Rachel, Bilhah
and Zilpah, the mothers of his children. Jacob worked seven years for
the hand of Rachel and on their wedding night, Laban swapped Leah for
Rachel. Jacob worked another seven years for Rachel, then another six
years growing his flocks and Laban’s. For all his hard work, Laban
lowered his pay 10 times. Finally, when Jacob could no longer endure
the dirty looks and the back talking from his mother’s family, he
decided to leave Paddan Aram — but not before the two camps nearly
massacred each other over a matter of stolen gods.
One
night on the journey home, Jacob wrestled with “a man.” The other
guy had managed to knock off Jacob's thighbone off its socket, but
Jacob had him in a stranglehold and refused to let go — unless he
got something in return. Because he’d sent his camp ahead of him
and was all by himself, we only have Jacob’s version of the events
that transpired that night. So his story goes that he “wrestled
with God,” although Genesis was consistent in calling the stranger
“a man.” Later prophets would interpret that the man, at the
most, was really an angel. Jacob did not stand a chance if his
sparring partner really was the God of his ancestors, and on the face
of it, why would God wrestle with him at all? To build his character?
To bless him even more? To shoehorn a story of how he assumed a more
grandiose name shortly before meeting with Esau, the brother he
cheated out of his inheritance? Or maybe just a funny way to explain
a limp?
The
important takeaway here is that after two decades, Jacob had changed
not in the slightest bit. There is an expression among Filipino
students for people like Jacob getting a good word in the Bible, such
as he was: pasang awa. He was literally breathing on God’s grace,
not his own good work. In Bethel, as he lay upon a rock while fleeing
from his brother with nothing but his cane and the clothes on his
back, God promised to make him a great man, the owner of the land he
was then sleeping on, to care for him and to never leave him — not
because Jacob was worthy but because God said so. God always kept His
promises. Like Rebekah’s prophecy at the time they were born, all
these things would be added unto him. There was no need to stoop so
low.
And
in the grand scheme of things, the whole deal about birthright and
blessing didn't even matter, at least not materially. When the two
brothers finally saw each other again, the encounter was awkward and
tense, as much for their old conflicts as also for how embarrassingly
wealthy the two men had become. It’s interesting what must have
been going on in their heads upon seeing each other that day: was
this the man I scammed 20 years ago? Was that the guy I wanted to
kill because he stole Daddy’s blessing? In any case, the brothers
fell into each other’s arms and were kissing and weeping loudly —
with their servants, families, livestock and armed bodyguards looking
on.
“What
were all the livestock for that I met on the way?” Esau asked.
“They're
a gift to you my lord so you'd treat me well,” Jacob answered.
“I
have more than enough, my brother! You keep what you have,” said
Esau.
“No,
please!” Jacob insisted. “If you're happy with me, then please
accept the gift I'm giving you. Now I've seen your face again it's
like seeing the face of God, and you have welcomed me so kindly!
Please take the gift I've brought to you because God has treated me
so well and I have so much.” So Esau accepted it.
-
Genesis 33: 8-11
Yes,
God blessed Jacob because He promised that He would. But at the same
time, it's as if God personally empathized with Esau with whom He had
no promises to keep — Esau the noble ranger who loved his father
but did not stand a chance against the scheming of their own mother
and his evil twin. Genesis 36 details how Esau moved south of Canaan
into the hill country of Seir, a wild, wild mountain wilderness Esau
always loved, that stretched from the Dead Sea all the way to the
gulf of Aqaba. He was already a wealthy man by the time he moved out,
and on Seir his descendants would build a kingdom named after him,
beautifully carved out of red mountain rock and ruled by kings
centuries before Jacob's descendants crowned their first monarch.
There's
a lot more that can be said about Jacob and Esau, about how the
kingdoms built in their names would rise, prosper, rival each other,
fracture, get conquered, and fall. At the end of their histories as
independent nations, God had this to say through the prophet Malachi.
A
prophecy: This message came from the Lord concerning Israel through
Malachi.
I
have loved you, says the Lord.
But
you ask, “How have you loved us?”
Wasn't
Esau Jacob's brother? the Lord responds. But I loved Jacob and
despised Esau. I have made Esau's mountain homeland into a wasteland,
and turned his inheritance into a desert for jackals.
-
Malachi 1
These
words must be taken in the context of the centuries of fighting
between the kingdoms of Israel and Edom, long after the deaths of
Esau and Jacob. But this also goes all the way back to why Jacob is
called a man of faith and Esau isn’t. Jacob's faith came not
through his own cunning craftiness; it’s because Jacob was loved,
and his very faith in God was itself a gift from God. Jacob was
a coward and lived out his name as a schemer, but God revealed
Himself to Jacob in a way He didn’t with Esau. God chose Jacob to
sire His people, through whom His Messiah would one day be born. Thus
Jacob’s faith is a testament to God's grace, and His grace alone.
Source: My Quora Answer to "In Genesis of the Old Testament, Jacob as well as Esau lived in tents with Abraham and Issac, two giants in faith. What caused Jacob a God-believer and Esau a non-God-believer?"
