Genesis 25 - Human Brokenness Amidst God's Design

The best way to cure yourself of turning Bible characters into heroes is to read about them.  While you’re thinking about that, I’ll confess to you that while I was reading the passage this morning, I thought, “seriously?” more than once.  Scripture is like that.  It compels us to consider whether or not something is there as an example to us or if it is merely something that happened. We’re in Genesis 25, the part of the story where Isaac and Rebekah have twin sons.

Transcript

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The best way to cure yourself of turning Bible characters into heroes is to read about them. While you're thinking about that, I'll confess to you that while I was reading this morning, I thought, seriously, more than once. And sometimes scripture is like that. It compels us to kind of do that work of figuring out whether or not these people are supposed to be examples to us, or just kind of flawed people that are living life that God used. On that happy note, welcome to Meet Me in the Word. I am genuinely glad that you've joined me today. We're in Genesis chapter 25. It's the part of the story where Isaac and Rebecca have twin sons. Go ahead and open up your copy of God's Word to Genesis 25, and we're going to read most of the second half of that chapter together. But before we do anything else, let's stop and pray. Jesus, thank you for this amazing day that you've given us. God, we're thrilled that we get to have this opportunity. God, a chance where we can kind of shut everything else out and just focus in on you. Jesus, we're here to meet with you. Would you please meet with us? Amen. All right. So we're jumping into it and uh we're gonna start at verse 19. And a little bit later on, I'll give you a bit of a synopsis or a summary of those first nineteen verses. But for our purposes here, we're just gonna focus in on the story of Jacob and Esau. And uh so yeah, join me as as we do that. So Genesis chapter 25, starting at verse 19. This is the account of the family line of Abraham's son Isaac. Abraham became the father of Isaac, and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, daughter of Bethuel, the Aramean from Paden Aram, and sister of Laban the Aramean. 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. The babies jostled each other or jostled each other within her, and she said, Why is this happening to me? So she went to inquire of the Lord. 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. When the time came for her 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 Rebecca gave birth to them. The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents. Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob. Once, when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. He said to Jacob, Quick, let me have some of that red stew. I'm famished. That is why he was also called Edom. Jacob replied, First sell me your birthright. Look, I'm about to die, Esau said. What good is the birthright to me? Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright. Let's take a moment to pause and listen to God. If you're new here, I'll just remind all of us that if it's helpful for you, go ahead and pause this podcast to give yourself space, but we'll continue on together. Alright. So let's jump into uh into talking about what's actually happening here in the text to make a few observations. And I've actually centered these three main observations around the idea of tension. And when I use tension here, I'm not saying I'm, you know, distraught or that we should feel like all anxious about it necessarily. I'm just acknowledging that there are maybe some competing ideals or values that just kind of come up in the nature of this particular uh passage. And by the way, this happens pretty frequently in scripture, and it's helpful, I think, when we can acknowledge that there may be some things that don't mesh as neatly as we wish that they would at different times. So the first tension that I wanted to highlight is between God's design and human uh brokenness or the the flaws in the sinful aspect of humanity. And so what I'm talking about here specifically is kind of what comes out. Uh obviously, there's kind of this really cool moment where once again we have a wife that is uh childless, and that's a problem. Uh, and in this case, Isaac the husband prays, seeks the Lord, and the Lord grants that request, and she's able to bear children. That's definitely a win for both Isaac and Rebecca. It's a win uh for just the the lineage and the promise that was given to Abraham to start out with. All of that stuff is good. But then we pick it up here in verses 22 and 23, and I'll just highlight those again for us. It says, The babies jostled each, or I keep saying that in such a weird way, the babies jostled each other within her. And she said, Why is this happening to me? So she went to inquire of the Lord, 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. So there's something interesting going on here. There's there's stuff going on in her womb, in her belly, so to speak, and it's enough that she brings it to the Lord and saying, like, what what is happening inside of me? And and the Lord gives her this explanation, which is pretty significant. It's this understanding that that there will be uh there will be a separation, right, uh, between the two boys. Uh there they're not necessarily gonna be buds uh as they grow into manhood. Like there's there's gonna be some stuff that's happening here, and this is by God's design. So there's that aspect of it, but then we see kind of how the story plays out, and it it feels just like these two guys have issues, right? Jacob and and Esau have different, you know, uh interests. Uh Esau is much more interested in heading out and hunting and doing that kind of thing, and Jacob seems to be, it describes him as being content, right, around the tents. There's sort of that dynamic going on. So they're there's that, but they're they're both kind of foolish in different ways, right? They're they're they're not necessarily these like noble characters and you know, sorting out life in from that perspective. No, they're they're deeply flawed humans, and the way that God's design is carried out is again, I've just we recognize that there is like, man, these these people be people in, right? Like they're just in that kind of a space. And so I just uh recognize that. By the way, though, there is this other bit that I wanted to make sure that we that we talked about it is an example of God flipping uh social norms, right? So the social norm, the cultural norm uh would be that that the oldest uh would be the one in line to receive inheritance, to receive blessing. That's the way things worked. But in this case, no, the Lord said the the uh the older will serve the younger, and and so he's flipping that cultural expectation around. And I just think that's actually kind of cool, the way that the Lord has this habit of using the lesser things, at least the way that we might think about them, to to rule over uh things that we would expect to be in control or or to have power, and and that's cool. I just I I like that. But it does show, this story does show that that Esau, he was foolish, right? He was absolutely foolish. And it actually describes there at the end that he despised his birthright. And we can maybe have some empathy and can understand where he's coming from when he's coming back, and and it he says, I'm famished, I'm super hungry. Uh, but he he just loses sight of of what it means to hang on to the thing that was definitely the most precious uh that had been given to him, which was his birthright. And he he loses sight of that and just asks for stew. And so so there's that. And then and then we we see Jacob here, he operates in a way the kindest word that I could come up with was opportunistic. He is opportunistic, and that's not always a bad thing, by the way. But he's certainly deceptive and he is cunning. And I'm like, ah, okay. So I'm holding this design of God, this statement that God makes to Rebecca for when she asks to bring about understanding when they're still in her womb. And and the Lord says that to her, okay, well, we can understand that, but then to see the way that it plays out, you know what I'm saying. All right. The second tension that uh was apparent for me uh was was the tension that came uh between Isaac and Rebecca from playing favorites. And this is gonna play out a little bit more in in later chapters, but just verse 28, uh, which lays it out there for us. Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebecca loved Jacob. And, you know, it's normal to maybe have a stronger connection to one person over another in general, and certainly with within the context of families, some people are gonna click easier than others, but to to have that idea that we would like r really be devoted to one or to play favorites in that sense, it just is it's kind of gross, right? Like it's heartbreaking, and it it it happens, I know it happens, but um, regardless of like how much you like this kind of food, Isaac, you should still love both of your kids, right? Like there's that that whole thing that's that's going on, and and same to Rebecca, of course. And then finally, the tension of three very imperfect patriarchs. And I wanted to take a moment and acknowledge that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob uh are all talked about in this chapter, and all of them reveal just their humanity, and and it's really, really interesting. We didn't read about the death of Abraham, even though it's included in this chapter, and and I'm I that's by the way, that's where I had the seriously moments. And actually it came out when when I was reading through, and and uh it says who he takes another wife, and we haven't heard about her until this moment, and so that's happening, and then there are all these other kids, and then and then it says it talks about you know Abraham's uh concubine s right, plural. And I'm like, seriously, this is this is God's guy, right? Uh and and and so we we we have these moments where we we we just see that that these three, which by the way, were the three that that throughout the rest of of Israel's history, they they referenced when they talked about God, they're like the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, right? And so these are the three that they kind of hang their hat on in so many different ways, and like we're descendants of Abraham. And I'm like, yeah. And that guy was kind of messed up, and so was Isaac, and so was Jacob. And so I just acknowledging that the the the tension of having three very, very imperfect patriarchs, and and and so that it's just it was striking to me today, and I I wanted to share that that with you. It's just it's it's fascinating. And and so anyway, there you have it. That's just food for thought. Let's reflect on this in in hopefully a a helpful way for our our spiritual growth. And it's really this thought if God used people like them, he can use people like us. Right? If if Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness, then certainly there's a space for me and for you in the context of what Jesus is doing, right? And so whenever we take a look and we become discouraged at our own brokenness, our own flaws, when we take a look at leaders in the context of the church who fall, people who disappoint us, whether it's in scandalous sin or some other way, we can be like, you know what, that really is sad, and we should grieve that. But I still see God using imperfect people to accomplish his perfect plan. Let's pray. Jesus, thank you for all of the good things that you've given us. God, thank you for stories like this that while we just see some people doing some things that are kind of questionable, we recognize that your hand is involved in all of it. And so, God, we look to you and we ask, Lord, that you would give us the the joy of following you as we seek you the rest of the day. Amen.