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Genesis 25: The Next Generation
Transcript:
Welcome to the Beyond the Basics Bible Study Podcast. My name is Dan Snyder and I am your host. Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of Beyond the Basics, where we are exploring the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, one chapter at a time.
Welcome! For this episode we’re gonna get into Genesis chapter 25. This chapter actually has two halves. The first half is gonna be genealogies of Abraham’s other children besides Isaac. And then the second half is gonna be about Isaac’s family.
So if you remember from the previous chapter, Isaac had just married Rebekah, his wife. And now we’re gonna get into Isaac’s family. But first we’re gonna go through a genealogy of Abraham’s other children.
And we find out that Abraham actually had another wife named Keturah. And I’m going to probably butcher her name as well as all of her children’s names, all of Ishmael’s children’s names, but I’m gonna do my best. Abraham married Keturah, they had six children together, and then Abraham sent them away from Isaac to the east, and Abraham died after that at the age of 175. So Isaac and Ishmael buried him at the cave of Machpelah,
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where Sarah had been buried. And then we’re told that Ishmael had 12 sons and he died at the age of 137. And his sons settled between Havila and Shur, and we’ll get more into those two places later on. And then after that, we get into the family of Isaac. Isaac married Rebekah at the age of 40, but she was barren. And so Isaac prayed for her and she conceived. God spoke to her after she had conceived and told her that she was gonna have twins. But he told her that the older would serve the younger.
02:05
And so the twins are born. Esau was first, Jacob was second, grabbing Esau’s heel. Then we’re told that Esau became a hunter and Jacob became a quiet man. But then…
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At the end of the chapter, we find a little story about Jacob cooking some stew, Esau entering the tent, asking for some of the stew, and Jacob asked for his birthright in return, and Esau was so hungry he gave it away in an instant. So that’s the overview of the chapter. We’ll get more into it right now. So, at the beginning of the chapter, Abraham, we find out, had another wife named Keterah, and she had six children.
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But in verse 5, we find out that Abraham gave all he had to Isaac, which is the same phrase as in chapter 24. If you remember in chapter 24, it also says that Abraham had given all he had to Isaac. So this idea is repeated to tell us that Isaac is Abraham’s only heir. He receives the full inheritance. And that doesn’t mean literally every penny. And in fact, in verse 6, it does tell us that Abraham did
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give some gifts to the sons of Keterah. But it means that Isaac was the one who would receive Abraham’s wealth. Isaac was the one who would receive the status as patriarch in the family. And it means that Isaac was the one who would receive the promise that Abraham had received from God. So that’s what it means by Abraham giving all he had to Isaac. And verse 6 says, But to the sons of his concubines Abraham gave gifts. We already knew about
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Hagar, his concubine Hagar, but this tells us that he had multiple concubines. So most likely Keterah was a concubine rather than a wife. Sarah was his only true wife. Concubine, if you remember from one of the past episodes, we talked about the difference between a concubine and a wife. Concubine being more than a slave but less than a wife. A lot of times it was more for
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sex slavery than anything for the purposes of producing children. because the concubine didn’t have the full rights of a wife, Abraham could send her sons away without an inheritance because they wouldn’t have full inheritance rights as sons of a concubine. So he sent them away, in verse 6, from his son Isaac, just like he did with Ishmael, and he sent them eastward to the east country.
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This is to ensure Isaac’s position as the only heir. This is to make sure that Isaac is the only one that is even around to receive Abraham’s inheritance. It’s to make sure that none of the other sons can even try to claim it as their own. So Abraham lived 175 years.
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He breathed his last, died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people. He died and was buried in the same cave that he had bought for Sarah. Death was only a step to the day when he would be resurrected. So again, this is his last act of faith. This is Abraham’s last act of faith here.
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So he’s buried with Sarah, his wife. After the death of Abraham, God blessed Isaac his son. So he was the one who received the blessing of Abraham. And Isaac settled at Beer Lehi Roy.
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And then we get into the genealogies of Isaac, Abraham’s son. we’re told in verse 20, Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebekah to be his wife. And in verse 21, and Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife because she was barren. And we actually find out later on in the chapter that he was 60 years old by the time he had Jacob and Esau. So he prayed for 20 years before his sons were born.
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that shows consistency and persistence in his prayer life. And this is in contrast to Abraham’s response. Remember when Abraham had to wait 25 years for Isaac to be born, what did Abraham do? He tried multiple times to take matters into his own hands, up to the point of obtaining a sex slave to have a child
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and call it Sarah’s, it appears that Isaac simply prayed consistently and waited patiently for 20 years. So what can we learn here? Even though Isaac didn’t make the same mistakes that Abraham did, he still had to wait. He didn’t wait quite as long. Abraham waited 25 years for his son. Isaac waited 20, but he still had to wait a long time. It’s showing us that it’s not the ups and downs that matter.
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It’s the not giving up that matters. Abraham had ups and downs in his faith journey. Isaac didn’t, but they both had to wait. So what’s the common denominator? It’s not the style of faith journey. It’s the fact that neither of them gave up. Both of them still had faith. And so that leads us to the question, why did God make Isaac and Rebecca wait so long before he answered their prayer? And I think it’s because Abraham went through that journey that we discussed.
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Abraham went through that journey of growing in faith and learning how to trust God. And he can pass those stories on to his son. He can teach and he can train his son. He can tell his son, don’t do what I did. He can tell his son, do this that I did. There’s all sorts of ways that he can teach his son through what he himself learned. But the faith itself doesn’t pass to his son. The stories can be passed down.
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The experiences can be passed down, the lessons can be passed down, but the faith doesn’t pass down. Isaac needed his own journey of faith. Isaac needed to go on his own journey of learning to trust in God. And his journey took less ups and downs. Seems like, at least at this point, he learned some lessons from his father. So, fathers, if you’re listening, pass those lessons down to your children. You never know when they might be listening.
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The Lord granted his prayer, and Rebecca, his wife, conceived. It tells us that the children struggled together within her, and she said, if it is thus, if this is happening, why is this happening to me? She prays to the Lord, she says, why is this happening? Because presumably at the time, she didn’t know that there were two children inside of her. And so she prays to God, and she says, God, why is this happening? Why is this feeling so crazy inside me? And so the Lord said to her, he gave her a four-fold response.
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He says, two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided. The one shall be stronger than the other, and the older shall serve the younger. The first thing he said is two nations are in your womb. And Esau, who would be the firstborn, would be the father of the Edomites. And then Jacob, of course, would be the father of the Israelites. And what’s interesting here is God tells her that she’s going to have two nations and two sons. Now Abraham had two sons.
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with the younger being the chosen son, just like Isaac and Rebekah had two sons with the younger being the chosen son. But Abraham got the first son by taking matters into his own hands. Remember, he took Hagar as a concubine and Hagar had her son Ishmael. This was Abraham trying to make a son happen. He was getting impatient and he tried to make a son happen rather than waiting for God to give him the son through Sarah. But Isaac and Rebekah, in contrast,
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both turned to the Lord in prayer for one son. Rebecca was barren. She couldn’t have kids. But what did Isaac and Rebecca do? They both prayed and they only prayed for one son, but God rewarded them with two. So this is important. The result was both was the same for both, but Abraham caused himself all sorts of trouble by trying to take matters into his own hands. Whereas Isaac and Rebecca were rewarded with the two sons. So the second promise that God
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gives, or the second response that God gives is that there are two peoples that shall be divided. This should remind us of the sons of Eber in Genesis 10. Remember Eber had two sons, Joktan and Peleg in Genesis chapter 10, and it says the earth was divided in those days. And it actually, the text actually divided the genealogies of the two sons. It gave us Joktan,
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first, then it told us the story of the Tower of Babel when the people were divided because of, when the people were scattered because God confused their language, and then after the story of the Tower of Babel we’re told the genealogy of Peleg who ended up carrying the seed line who Abraham was descended from. And we’re gonna see, this is not even the first time that Esau is gonna be compared to the people of that time, the time of…
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the Tower of We’re going to see that even more in a little bit here. But I think that’s what it’s telling us. I think that’s what the text is telling us, that we’re going to see a resurgence in the person of Esau, in the arrogance, the violence that was on the earth in the days of Babel. And the line of Jacob is going to be called out of that. But that’s going to be a difficult journey for Jacob, as we’re going to see in the coming chapters. So the third response from the Lord.
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The one shall be stronger than the other. That turned out to be true. Israel remains to this day. Edom no longer exists as a people or a nation. And then the fourth response that God gives Rebekah is that the older shall serve the younger. And this of course went against the culture of the day. In those days the firstborn had rights to inheritance and the prominent position in the family. We’re gonna find out more about that at the end of this chapter when we talk about the birthright and going forward.
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in coming chapters. And we don’t know why God chose Jacob over Esau. Of course, Jacob does learn to trust God later on, but Jacob is not a good person in these next several chapters. Jacob’s not any better than Esau, really, when it comes down to it. So we know it’s not because of anything they did, but we’re told in Romans 9, verses 10 through 12, Paul says, and not only so,
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but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though he were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad. That’s important to remember. Esau and Jacob both turned out to be pretty terrible human beings, at least for a while, in Jacob’s case. But before they were born, they hadn’t done anything, either good or bad. So why would God choose Jacob over Esau? Why would God choose the younger over the older? Paul tells us in order that God’s purpose of election might continue,
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not because of works but because of him who calls. She was told the older will serve the younger. So Paul tells us that God has a purpose and it has nothing to do with works, has nothing to do with what they did, has nothing to do with what they would do later on, has everything to do with God choosing who he chooses because he is God and he is sovereign. And it’s probably not for us to know why he chooses the ones he does, simply that he does.
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you uh
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So that’s God’s four-fold response. So then we’re told, When her days to give birth were completed, Behold, there were twins in her womb. The first came out red, all his body like a hairy cloak, They called his name Esau.
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So Esau comes out afterward, verse 26, afterward his brother came out with his hand holding Esau’s heel. Who does that remind you of? Genesis 3.15 says, will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. Jacob comes out and he’s holding Esau’s heel, just like the serpent was to bruise the heel of the woman, of the woman’s offspring. And in fact, the name Jacob means he takes by the heel.
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Which, really, what that meant was something like trickster or con man. So essentially he’s a deceiver. That’s what his name is saying. He’s a deceiver. Just like the snake. Just like the serpent in the garden who deceived. And he’s a grabber of heals. Just like the serpent. So Jacob is a serpent-like baby. That’s what he’s being compared to. He’s being compared to the serpent. So, we got a problem here. God said…
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the older shall serve the younger. God was choosing the younger, but the younger is, so far, the seed of the serpent. That’s a problem. So put a pin in that. We’re going to take a short break from the narrative and it’s going to tell us that Isaac was 60 years old when she bore them. Now, the number 60 refers to the final stage of a person’s life. So what it’s saying is that Isaac was becoming an old man when Jacob and Esau were born. So back to the story in verse 27.
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It says when the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter. Well, who else do know that was a skillful hunter? Who else do you remember? Do remember Nimrod? Remember I said that the children, that Rebecca’s children being divided was not the last time we would reference Genesis chapter 10 and 11? Well, now Esau is being compared to Nimrod. Nimrod was like the Nephilim, if you remember. Nimrod was descended from fallen angels.
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He was the mighty hunter. He was the hunter of men. So he was violent. He was arrogant. was immoral and unholy. Hebrews 12 verses 15 through 16 tells us about Esau. says, See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled, that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.
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So Hebrews, the author of Hebrews tells us that Esau was sexually immoral, he was unholy. This narrative here tells us he’s violent, he’s a hunter, he has violent tendencies. And this is compared to Jacob, who in verse 27 is, told that he was a quiet man, which this word, tam, can also be translated as blameless. This is the same word in Psalm 37 37, which says, mark the blameless.
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behold the upright for there is a future for the man of peace.” So what it’s saying is that Jacob lived a quiet and peaceful life compared to the violent and chaotic life of Esau and he dwelled in tents so he chose the nomadic lifestyle of his father and grandfather. So he was a shepherd, he was a quiet man, lived in tents, he moved around from place to place like Isaac and Abraham did compared to
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Esau, who was living in violence, who was immoral, unholy.
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verse 28 we’re told that Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game but Rebecca loved Jacob so Rebecca loved Jacob because she received the promise from God regarding the younger son and she believed God now whether or not she told Isaac about the promise that God had given her we don’t know but either way whether she did or she didn’t Rebecca responds very poorly here parents
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obviously should never play favorites with their children. And here we see each parent having a favorite child. And Rebecca may have had good reason. She received a promise from God about her younger son Jacob. But her response was to show favoritism towards that younger son, and that’s a problem. So as you can see, I’m sure by now we are going to have serious, serious, serious family drama. We’ve got two sons who are serpent-like figures.
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Jacob being the deceiver, Esau being the Nephilim-like figure. We’ve got two parents who are playing favorites with their children. We’ve got one son who’s violent, one son who’s quiet, but basically a con man. This is foreshadowing all kinds of trouble. And that brings us to the question, how is the promised seed gonna come through this family? This family’s a mess. It’s a disaster. Both sons are the seed of the serpent. How is the seed
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the woman that is promised gonna come through these two sons. Well there’s hope because if you remember God said that the two peoples will be divided. Jacob is gonna be called out of the trouble of this family and he’s gonna go through serious trouble but he’s gonna be called out just like Peleg was called out of that violent and arrogant society that built the Tower of Babel. So we’re gonna start to see the process here.
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So Jacob in verse 29 was cooking stew. Esau came in from the field and he was exhausted. And Esau said to Jacob, let me eat some of that red stew for I am exhausted. Therefore his name was called Edom. And Jacob said, me your birthright now. So what this birthright was, first of all it was a double portion of the inheritance. So the firstborn received double what the other children received.
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whether there were two children, whether there were ten children, it didn’t matter, each child would receive an equal portion of the inheritance except for the firstborn who would receive double. So in Deuteronomy 21, 17 it says, he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the first fruits of his strength. The right of the firstborn is his. So that describes the double portion of the inheritance.
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So that’s part of the birthright. The birthright would also include the right to become the patriarch of the family. Once Isaac would die, the one with the birthright would become the patriarch, or the elder. And then in this particular case, in this particular family, the one with the birthright would be the one to inherit the promise of the covenant that God made with Abraham. So this is a significant thing to give away. Nobody would ask that.
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unless you had some kind of indication that would actually work. So Jacob must have had some sort of indication that if you were to ask for his birthright that would actually work. There had to be leading up to this an indication that Esau already had no regard for his birthright, did not care about the inheritance, did not care about becoming the family patriarch, did not care about the covenant that was passed on to Isaac. So Jacob asks,
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For his birthright, Esau says, I’m about to die. This probably was sarcasm. He’d been in the field hunting or working all day. There’s no indication that he was out there for several weeks. He probably, most likely, not. I mean, it takes several weeks for a person to die from starvation. There’s no indication he was out in the field that long without food. So was probably sarcasm. He’s just showing how little he cares for this birthright.
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He cares so little for it that he’s sarcastic about it. So Jacob says, swear to me now, in verse 33. So Jacob took advantage of his brother’s weakness. His brother was hungry, not dying, but hungry. And Jacob took advantage of him. He tried to trick his way into getting something that God had already promised him. God had already promised Rebekah that Jacob was gonna receive this birthright. He didn’t say how.
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But he said it would be Jacob’s. But Jacob now, just like Abraham and Hagar tried to take matters into their own hands, Jacob is trying to take matters into his own hands by trying to trick his way into getting this birthright. He does not trust God. He knows that it’s his destiny, that it’s his inheritance, but he doesn’t trust that God will do what he said he will do. So Jacob feels that he needs to do it himself.
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So in verse 33, Esau swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. He thought so little of the covenant promises that could be his. It’s not just the wealth, it’s not just the physical inheritance. Esau could have had the covenant promises. No, he couldn’t have because we know that God had already promised before they were born to Jacob. But Esau, he may not have known that. As of this moment, he had the birthright. He could have valued that. He could have
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Cherished that he could have protected that but he thought nothing of it. So this chapter chapter 25 it starts with Abraham securing Isaac’s birthright and it ends with Jacob stealing Esau’s birthright clearly Abraham passed on the importance of the value of this birthright to Isaac But Isaac did not pass on the value of this birthright to his sons
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because in verse 34 we’re told that Esau despised his birthright. He valued a meal over his birthright. He traded it for dinner. Now we can understand potentially why he didn’t value it if he was not aware that a covenant promise was coming along with it because Isaac owned very little land. He was a shepherd and Esau was a hunter so land was more valuable to him than servants and flocks.
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But either he didn’t know or he didn’t believe God’s promises regarding the land that was promised. Either Isaac didn’t pass that information down, or he just didn’t believe it. He despised it.
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How does this chapter point to Jesus? Well, I just mentioned some personal application that we can consider when reading this chapter, some lessons that we can learn regarding our inheritance in Christ.
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Regarding our future inheritance what we look forward to but also in a more practical terms This is a chapter where Jacob obtains the birthright to Abraham’s promise Jacob is now the one who is going to inherit the promise and the covenant that God gave to Abraham that is now officially his and so now the coming seed the coming Messiah would come through Jacob’s descendants, so we are Tracing that line one more generation. We are now one generation closer
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And the question we always ask every time we see a new generation is, is this the one? Is this the seed? We already know it’s not Jacob. We already know Jacob cannot be the seed. We already know Jacob cannot be the Messiah because he is very snaky. He’s serpenty. He’s deceivi. He’s not a good person. We’re gonna see that even more in coming chapters. So it’s not gonna be Jacob, but we know that he is the one who would carry the line, who would carry the seed line.
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Questions for reflection. What can we ask ourselves? How can we reflect on this chapter? First, what is the proper response when God doesn’t provide something that we need? Do you think it was fair for God to choose Jacob before Esau, even before he had a chance to prove himself? Why or why not? Let me say that again. Do you think it was fair for God to choose Jacob before Esau even had a chance to prove himself? Why or why not? Why does God choose certain people over others?
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And read Romans 9 verses 11 through 18 when you’re answering that question. And more specifically, why do you think God keeps choosing the younger brother over the older? What value do you place on your future inheritance? And how does this affect the decisions you make right now?
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Well that’s our episode on Genesis 25. Thanks for joining once again. As a reminder, if you want to support the show, go ahead and subscribe, follow on whatever app you’re listening to, rate the show, give it a five star rating. Always helpful. Something brand new, Beyond The Basics is now on Patreon. You can search for Beyond The Basics on Patreon. I’ll have a link on the website and you can become a patron for only $4 a month.
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And you’re going to get, as a patron, you’re going to get the full uncut episode each Sunday as it’s released. Each Sunday evening as I release these episodes. If you’re curious, what that means is nothing is changing with the free episode that you’re listening to right now. Assuming this is the free episode that you’re listening to. Nothing is changing with these episodes. It’s still going to be the same episode, around 25 to 35 minutes long or so. Going through the main themes.
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and main messages of the chapter. That’s always been what the free episode is all about. However, in the past, I’ve always cut out or left out interesting points, interesting information, other points of interest, or just simply cutting things out for the sake of time. So that’s what I’ve done in the past, and when I’ve cut those things out, I delete them and they go away forever. Well now, before I cut those things out, I’m going to be posting that to the Patreon.
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page and you can subscribe for four dollars a month and listen to all that extra audio before I cut it out for the free episode. So that’s what you’re getting as a patron. If you’d like to subscribe to that, go ahead to be on the basics on Patreon and subscribe. Very much appreciate your support in that way. And don’t forget to listen next week as we go through Genesis chapter 26. Thanks for listening.
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By Dan SnyderTranscript:
Welcome to the Beyond the Basics Bible Study Podcast. My name is Dan Snyder and I am your host. Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of Beyond the Basics, where we are exploring the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, one chapter at a time.
Welcome! For this episode we’re gonna get into Genesis chapter 25. This chapter actually has two halves. The first half is gonna be genealogies of Abraham’s other children besides Isaac. And then the second half is gonna be about Isaac’s family.
So if you remember from the previous chapter, Isaac had just married Rebekah, his wife. And now we’re gonna get into Isaac’s family. But first we’re gonna go through a genealogy of Abraham’s other children.
And we find out that Abraham actually had another wife named Keturah. And I’m going to probably butcher her name as well as all of her children’s names, all of Ishmael’s children’s names, but I’m gonna do my best. Abraham married Keturah, they had six children together, and then Abraham sent them away from Isaac to the east, and Abraham died after that at the age of 175. So Isaac and Ishmael buried him at the cave of Machpelah,
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where Sarah had been buried. And then we’re told that Ishmael had 12 sons and he died at the age of 137. And his sons settled between Havila and Shur, and we’ll get more into those two places later on. And then after that, we get into the family of Isaac. Isaac married Rebekah at the age of 40, but she was barren. And so Isaac prayed for her and she conceived. God spoke to her after she had conceived and told her that she was gonna have twins. But he told her that the older would serve the younger.
02:05
And so the twins are born. Esau was first, Jacob was second, grabbing Esau’s heel. Then we’re told that Esau became a hunter and Jacob became a quiet man. But then…
02:16
At the end of the chapter, we find a little story about Jacob cooking some stew, Esau entering the tent, asking for some of the stew, and Jacob asked for his birthright in return, and Esau was so hungry he gave it away in an instant. So that’s the overview of the chapter. We’ll get more into it right now. So, at the beginning of the chapter, Abraham, we find out, had another wife named Keterah, and she had six children.
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But in verse 5, we find out that Abraham gave all he had to Isaac, which is the same phrase as in chapter 24. If you remember in chapter 24, it also says that Abraham had given all he had to Isaac. So this idea is repeated to tell us that Isaac is Abraham’s only heir. He receives the full inheritance. And that doesn’t mean literally every penny. And in fact, in verse 6, it does tell us that Abraham did
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give some gifts to the sons of Keterah. But it means that Isaac was the one who would receive Abraham’s wealth. Isaac was the one who would receive the status as patriarch in the family. And it means that Isaac was the one who would receive the promise that Abraham had received from God. So that’s what it means by Abraham giving all he had to Isaac. And verse 6 says, But to the sons of his concubines Abraham gave gifts. We already knew about
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Hagar, his concubine Hagar, but this tells us that he had multiple concubines. So most likely Keterah was a concubine rather than a wife. Sarah was his only true wife. Concubine, if you remember from one of the past episodes, we talked about the difference between a concubine and a wife. Concubine being more than a slave but less than a wife. A lot of times it was more for
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sex slavery than anything for the purposes of producing children. because the concubine didn’t have the full rights of a wife, Abraham could send her sons away without an inheritance because they wouldn’t have full inheritance rights as sons of a concubine. So he sent them away, in verse 6, from his son Isaac, just like he did with Ishmael, and he sent them eastward to the east country.
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This is to ensure Isaac’s position as the only heir. This is to make sure that Isaac is the only one that is even around to receive Abraham’s inheritance. It’s to make sure that none of the other sons can even try to claim it as their own. So Abraham lived 175 years.
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He breathed his last, died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people. He died and was buried in the same cave that he had bought for Sarah. Death was only a step to the day when he would be resurrected. So again, this is his last act of faith. This is Abraham’s last act of faith here.
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So he’s buried with Sarah, his wife. After the death of Abraham, God blessed Isaac his son. So he was the one who received the blessing of Abraham. And Isaac settled at Beer Lehi Roy.
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And then we get into the genealogies of Isaac, Abraham’s son. we’re told in verse 20, Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebekah to be his wife. And in verse 21, and Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife because she was barren. And we actually find out later on in the chapter that he was 60 years old by the time he had Jacob and Esau. So he prayed for 20 years before his sons were born.
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that shows consistency and persistence in his prayer life. And this is in contrast to Abraham’s response. Remember when Abraham had to wait 25 years for Isaac to be born, what did Abraham do? He tried multiple times to take matters into his own hands, up to the point of obtaining a sex slave to have a child
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and call it Sarah’s, it appears that Isaac simply prayed consistently and waited patiently for 20 years. So what can we learn here? Even though Isaac didn’t make the same mistakes that Abraham did, he still had to wait. He didn’t wait quite as long. Abraham waited 25 years for his son. Isaac waited 20, but he still had to wait a long time. It’s showing us that it’s not the ups and downs that matter.
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It’s the not giving up that matters. Abraham had ups and downs in his faith journey. Isaac didn’t, but they both had to wait. So what’s the common denominator? It’s not the style of faith journey. It’s the fact that neither of them gave up. Both of them still had faith. And so that leads us to the question, why did God make Isaac and Rebecca wait so long before he answered their prayer? And I think it’s because Abraham went through that journey that we discussed.
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Abraham went through that journey of growing in faith and learning how to trust God. And he can pass those stories on to his son. He can teach and he can train his son. He can tell his son, don’t do what I did. He can tell his son, do this that I did. There’s all sorts of ways that he can teach his son through what he himself learned. But the faith itself doesn’t pass to his son. The stories can be passed down.
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The experiences can be passed down, the lessons can be passed down, but the faith doesn’t pass down. Isaac needed his own journey of faith. Isaac needed to go on his own journey of learning to trust in God. And his journey took less ups and downs. Seems like, at least at this point, he learned some lessons from his father. So, fathers, if you’re listening, pass those lessons down to your children. You never know when they might be listening.
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The Lord granted his prayer, and Rebecca, his wife, conceived. It tells us that the children struggled together within her, and she said, if it is thus, if this is happening, why is this happening to me? She prays to the Lord, she says, why is this happening? Because presumably at the time, she didn’t know that there were two children inside of her. And so she prays to God, and she says, God, why is this happening? Why is this feeling so crazy inside me? And so the Lord said to her, he gave her a four-fold response.
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He says, two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided. The one shall be stronger than the other, and the older shall serve the younger. The first thing he said is two nations are in your womb. And Esau, who would be the firstborn, would be the father of the Edomites. And then Jacob, of course, would be the father of the Israelites. And what’s interesting here is God tells her that she’s going to have two nations and two sons. Now Abraham had two sons.
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with the younger being the chosen son, just like Isaac and Rebekah had two sons with the younger being the chosen son. But Abraham got the first son by taking matters into his own hands. Remember, he took Hagar as a concubine and Hagar had her son Ishmael. This was Abraham trying to make a son happen. He was getting impatient and he tried to make a son happen rather than waiting for God to give him the son through Sarah. But Isaac and Rebekah, in contrast,
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both turned to the Lord in prayer for one son. Rebecca was barren. She couldn’t have kids. But what did Isaac and Rebecca do? They both prayed and they only prayed for one son, but God rewarded them with two. So this is important. The result was both was the same for both, but Abraham caused himself all sorts of trouble by trying to take matters into his own hands. Whereas Isaac and Rebecca were rewarded with the two sons. So the second promise that God
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gives, or the second response that God gives is that there are two peoples that shall be divided. This should remind us of the sons of Eber in Genesis 10. Remember Eber had two sons, Joktan and Peleg in Genesis chapter 10, and it says the earth was divided in those days. And it actually, the text actually divided the genealogies of the two sons. It gave us Joktan,
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first, then it told us the story of the Tower of Babel when the people were divided because of, when the people were scattered because God confused their language, and then after the story of the Tower of Babel we’re told the genealogy of Peleg who ended up carrying the seed line who Abraham was descended from. And we’re gonna see, this is not even the first time that Esau is gonna be compared to the people of that time, the time of…
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the Tower of We’re going to see that even more in a little bit here. But I think that’s what it’s telling us. I think that’s what the text is telling us, that we’re going to see a resurgence in the person of Esau, in the arrogance, the violence that was on the earth in the days of Babel. And the line of Jacob is going to be called out of that. But that’s going to be a difficult journey for Jacob, as we’re going to see in the coming chapters. So the third response from the Lord.
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The one shall be stronger than the other. That turned out to be true. Israel remains to this day. Edom no longer exists as a people or a nation. And then the fourth response that God gives Rebekah is that the older shall serve the younger. And this of course went against the culture of the day. In those days the firstborn had rights to inheritance and the prominent position in the family. We’re gonna find out more about that at the end of this chapter when we talk about the birthright and going forward.
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in coming chapters. And we don’t know why God chose Jacob over Esau. Of course, Jacob does learn to trust God later on, but Jacob is not a good person in these next several chapters. Jacob’s not any better than Esau, really, when it comes down to it. So we know it’s not because of anything they did, but we’re told in Romans 9, verses 10 through 12, Paul says, and not only so,
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but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though he were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad. That’s important to remember. Esau and Jacob both turned out to be pretty terrible human beings, at least for a while, in Jacob’s case. But before they were born, they hadn’t done anything, either good or bad. So why would God choose Jacob over Esau? Why would God choose the younger over the older? Paul tells us in order that God’s purpose of election might continue,
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not because of works but because of him who calls. She was told the older will serve the younger. So Paul tells us that God has a purpose and it has nothing to do with works, has nothing to do with what they did, has nothing to do with what they would do later on, has everything to do with God choosing who he chooses because he is God and he is sovereign. And it’s probably not for us to know why he chooses the ones he does, simply that he does.
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you uh
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So that’s God’s four-fold response. So then we’re told, When her days to give birth were completed, Behold, there were twins in her womb. The first came out red, all his body like a hairy cloak, They called his name Esau.
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So Esau comes out afterward, verse 26, afterward his brother came out with his hand holding Esau’s heel. Who does that remind you of? Genesis 3.15 says, will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. Jacob comes out and he’s holding Esau’s heel, just like the serpent was to bruise the heel of the woman, of the woman’s offspring. And in fact, the name Jacob means he takes by the heel.
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Which, really, what that meant was something like trickster or con man. So essentially he’s a deceiver. That’s what his name is saying. He’s a deceiver. Just like the snake. Just like the serpent in the garden who deceived. And he’s a grabber of heals. Just like the serpent. So Jacob is a serpent-like baby. That’s what he’s being compared to. He’s being compared to the serpent. So, we got a problem here. God said…
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the older shall serve the younger. God was choosing the younger, but the younger is, so far, the seed of the serpent. That’s a problem. So put a pin in that. We’re going to take a short break from the narrative and it’s going to tell us that Isaac was 60 years old when she bore them. Now, the number 60 refers to the final stage of a person’s life. So what it’s saying is that Isaac was becoming an old man when Jacob and Esau were born. So back to the story in verse 27.
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It says when the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter. Well, who else do know that was a skillful hunter? Who else do you remember? Do remember Nimrod? Remember I said that the children, that Rebecca’s children being divided was not the last time we would reference Genesis chapter 10 and 11? Well, now Esau is being compared to Nimrod. Nimrod was like the Nephilim, if you remember. Nimrod was descended from fallen angels.
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He was the mighty hunter. He was the hunter of men. So he was violent. He was arrogant. was immoral and unholy. Hebrews 12 verses 15 through 16 tells us about Esau. says, See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled, that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.
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So Hebrews, the author of Hebrews tells us that Esau was sexually immoral, he was unholy. This narrative here tells us he’s violent, he’s a hunter, he has violent tendencies. And this is compared to Jacob, who in verse 27 is, told that he was a quiet man, which this word, tam, can also be translated as blameless. This is the same word in Psalm 37 37, which says, mark the blameless.
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behold the upright for there is a future for the man of peace.” So what it’s saying is that Jacob lived a quiet and peaceful life compared to the violent and chaotic life of Esau and he dwelled in tents so he chose the nomadic lifestyle of his father and grandfather. So he was a shepherd, he was a quiet man, lived in tents, he moved around from place to place like Isaac and Abraham did compared to
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Esau, who was living in violence, who was immoral, unholy.
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verse 28 we’re told that Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game but Rebecca loved Jacob so Rebecca loved Jacob because she received the promise from God regarding the younger son and she believed God now whether or not she told Isaac about the promise that God had given her we don’t know but either way whether she did or she didn’t Rebecca responds very poorly here parents
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obviously should never play favorites with their children. And here we see each parent having a favorite child. And Rebecca may have had good reason. She received a promise from God about her younger son Jacob. But her response was to show favoritism towards that younger son, and that’s a problem. So as you can see, I’m sure by now we are going to have serious, serious, serious family drama. We’ve got two sons who are serpent-like figures.
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Jacob being the deceiver, Esau being the Nephilim-like figure. We’ve got two parents who are playing favorites with their children. We’ve got one son who’s violent, one son who’s quiet, but basically a con man. This is foreshadowing all kinds of trouble. And that brings us to the question, how is the promised seed gonna come through this family? This family’s a mess. It’s a disaster. Both sons are the seed of the serpent. How is the seed
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the woman that is promised gonna come through these two sons. Well there’s hope because if you remember God said that the two peoples will be divided. Jacob is gonna be called out of the trouble of this family and he’s gonna go through serious trouble but he’s gonna be called out just like Peleg was called out of that violent and arrogant society that built the Tower of Babel. So we’re gonna start to see the process here.
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So Jacob in verse 29 was cooking stew. Esau came in from the field and he was exhausted. And Esau said to Jacob, let me eat some of that red stew for I am exhausted. Therefore his name was called Edom. And Jacob said, me your birthright now. So what this birthright was, first of all it was a double portion of the inheritance. So the firstborn received double what the other children received.
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whether there were two children, whether there were ten children, it didn’t matter, each child would receive an equal portion of the inheritance except for the firstborn who would receive double. So in Deuteronomy 21, 17 it says, he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the first fruits of his strength. The right of the firstborn is his. So that describes the double portion of the inheritance.
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So that’s part of the birthright. The birthright would also include the right to become the patriarch of the family. Once Isaac would die, the one with the birthright would become the patriarch, or the elder. And then in this particular case, in this particular family, the one with the birthright would be the one to inherit the promise of the covenant that God made with Abraham. So this is a significant thing to give away. Nobody would ask that.
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unless you had some kind of indication that would actually work. So Jacob must have had some sort of indication that if you were to ask for his birthright that would actually work. There had to be leading up to this an indication that Esau already had no regard for his birthright, did not care about the inheritance, did not care about becoming the family patriarch, did not care about the covenant that was passed on to Isaac. So Jacob asks,
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For his birthright, Esau says, I’m about to die. This probably was sarcasm. He’d been in the field hunting or working all day. There’s no indication that he was out there for several weeks. He probably, most likely, not. I mean, it takes several weeks for a person to die from starvation. There’s no indication he was out in the field that long without food. So was probably sarcasm. He’s just showing how little he cares for this birthright.
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He cares so little for it that he’s sarcastic about it. So Jacob says, swear to me now, in verse 33. So Jacob took advantage of his brother’s weakness. His brother was hungry, not dying, but hungry. And Jacob took advantage of him. He tried to trick his way into getting something that God had already promised him. God had already promised Rebekah that Jacob was gonna receive this birthright. He didn’t say how.
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But he said it would be Jacob’s. But Jacob now, just like Abraham and Hagar tried to take matters into their own hands, Jacob is trying to take matters into his own hands by trying to trick his way into getting this birthright. He does not trust God. He knows that it’s his destiny, that it’s his inheritance, but he doesn’t trust that God will do what he said he will do. So Jacob feels that he needs to do it himself.
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So in verse 33, Esau swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. He thought so little of the covenant promises that could be his. It’s not just the wealth, it’s not just the physical inheritance. Esau could have had the covenant promises. No, he couldn’t have because we know that God had already promised before they were born to Jacob. But Esau, he may not have known that. As of this moment, he had the birthright. He could have valued that. He could have
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Cherished that he could have protected that but he thought nothing of it. So this chapter chapter 25 it starts with Abraham securing Isaac’s birthright and it ends with Jacob stealing Esau’s birthright clearly Abraham passed on the importance of the value of this birthright to Isaac But Isaac did not pass on the value of this birthright to his sons
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because in verse 34 we’re told that Esau despised his birthright. He valued a meal over his birthright. He traded it for dinner. Now we can understand potentially why he didn’t value it if he was not aware that a covenant promise was coming along with it because Isaac owned very little land. He was a shepherd and Esau was a hunter so land was more valuable to him than servants and flocks.
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But either he didn’t know or he didn’t believe God’s promises regarding the land that was promised. Either Isaac didn’t pass that information down, or he just didn’t believe it. He despised it.
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How does this chapter point to Jesus? Well, I just mentioned some personal application that we can consider when reading this chapter, some lessons that we can learn regarding our inheritance in Christ.
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Regarding our future inheritance what we look forward to but also in a more practical terms This is a chapter where Jacob obtains the birthright to Abraham’s promise Jacob is now the one who is going to inherit the promise and the covenant that God gave to Abraham that is now officially his and so now the coming seed the coming Messiah would come through Jacob’s descendants, so we are Tracing that line one more generation. We are now one generation closer
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And the question we always ask every time we see a new generation is, is this the one? Is this the seed? We already know it’s not Jacob. We already know Jacob cannot be the seed. We already know Jacob cannot be the Messiah because he is very snaky. He’s serpenty. He’s deceivi. He’s not a good person. We’re gonna see that even more in coming chapters. So it’s not gonna be Jacob, but we know that he is the one who would carry the line, who would carry the seed line.
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Questions for reflection. What can we ask ourselves? How can we reflect on this chapter? First, what is the proper response when God doesn’t provide something that we need? Do you think it was fair for God to choose Jacob before Esau, even before he had a chance to prove himself? Why or why not? Let me say that again. Do you think it was fair for God to choose Jacob before Esau even had a chance to prove himself? Why or why not? Why does God choose certain people over others?
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And read Romans 9 verses 11 through 18 when you’re answering that question. And more specifically, why do you think God keeps choosing the younger brother over the older? What value do you place on your future inheritance? And how does this affect the decisions you make right now?
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Well that’s our episode on Genesis 25. Thanks for joining once again. As a reminder, if you want to support the show, go ahead and subscribe, follow on whatever app you’re listening to, rate the show, give it a five star rating. Always helpful. Something brand new, Beyond The Basics is now on Patreon. You can search for Beyond The Basics on Patreon. I’ll have a link on the website and you can become a patron for only $4 a month.
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And you’re going to get, as a patron, you’re going to get the full uncut episode each Sunday as it’s released. Each Sunday evening as I release these episodes. If you’re curious, what that means is nothing is changing with the free episode that you’re listening to right now. Assuming this is the free episode that you’re listening to. Nothing is changing with these episodes. It’s still going to be the same episode, around 25 to 35 minutes long or so. Going through the main themes.
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and main messages of the chapter. That’s always been what the free episode is all about. However, in the past, I’ve always cut out or left out interesting points, interesting information, other points of interest, or just simply cutting things out for the sake of time. So that’s what I’ve done in the past, and when I’ve cut those things out, I delete them and they go away forever. Well now, before I cut those things out, I’m going to be posting that to the Patreon.
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page and you can subscribe for four dollars a month and listen to all that extra audio before I cut it out for the free episode. So that’s what you’re getting as a patron. If you’d like to subscribe to that, go ahead to be on the basics on Patreon and subscribe. Very much appreciate your support in that way. And don’t forget to listen next week as we go through Genesis chapter 26. Thanks for listening.
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you