Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share Jacob and Esau
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
Jacob and Esau
Genesis 25: 19-34
These are the descendants of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, daughter of Bethuel… Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord granted his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived. The children struggled together within her; and she said, “If it is to be this way, why do I live?” So she went to inquire of the Lord. And the Lord said to her,
“Two nations are in your womb,
and two peoples born of you shall be divided;
the one shall be stronger than the other,
the elder shall serve the younger.”
When her time to give birth was at hand, there were twins in her womb. The first came out red, all his body like a hairy mantle; so they named him Esau. Afterward his brother came out, with his hand gripping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them. When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents. 28 Isaac loved Esau, because he was fond of game; but Rebekah loved Jacob.
Once when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was famished. 30 Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stuff, for I am famished!” (Therefore he was called Edom. Jacob said, “First sell me your birthright.” Esau said, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?” Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank, and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.
Jacob and Esau
I heard a story a few years back about the feud of the handbells. Schulmerich was the world’s biggest handbell company. Jake Malta was employed there until 1973, but he couldn’t quite let go of this vision he had of the perfect handbell. He traveled to Europe and studied bell physics and began making iterations of sketches picturing a bell with a slightly different shape. In his work he removed the brass nub called a tang that connected the handbell to the bell and with that he started his own handbell company called Malmark, just down the street. This was the beginning of the great handbell feud. Schulmerich ran an ad poo-pooing those tangless bells. Malmark sued. It escalated through legal battles until they finally settled by agreeing to not publicly compare bells. The legal departments created guidelines for their sales people, expressly telling them what could and couldn’t be said in order to avoid further legal escalation. And so as one Schulmerich salesman remembers, he was told he could say, “Our handle isn’t hollow,” leaving the client to read between the lines about what exactly might be the matter with the handle of those Malmark bells. The engineering departments of both went into deep study trying to prove that bells with a tang were louder than their subpar competitors, ultimately proving that it was true, but at one percent louder it was not necessarily a noteworthy difference.
For thirty years the feud continued of these two handbell companies down the same street in a small town in Pennsylvania. Bell ringers across the country hold strong allegiances. As I was told by our own Patrick Doyle, our bells are Malmark. This dispute ultimately led to a legal battle that sought a ruling from the Supreme Court who, for some reason, has refused to hear the case.
Over time, generations changed and new leadership came into the two companies and in 2012 the new heads of the same companies found themselves at the same meeting in Cincinnati. The room was tense. In the end these two heads sat down, much to everyone’s shock. John Goldstein, the head of Schulmerich is quoted as saying at the end of their meeting, “The re
View all episodes
By First Congregational Church, BellevueGenesis 25: 19-34
These are the descendants of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, daughter of Bethuel… Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord granted his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived. The children struggled together within her; and she said, “If it is to be this way, why do I live?” So she went to inquire of the Lord. And the Lord said to her,
“Two nations are in your womb,
and two peoples born of you shall be divided;
the one shall be stronger than the other,
the elder shall serve the younger.”
When her time to give birth was at hand, there were twins in her womb. The first came out red, all his body like a hairy mantle; so they named him Esau. Afterward his brother came out, with his hand gripping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them. When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents. 28 Isaac loved Esau, because he was fond of game; but Rebekah loved Jacob.
Once when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was famished. 30 Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stuff, for I am famished!” (Therefore he was called Edom. Jacob said, “First sell me your birthright.” Esau said, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?” Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank, and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.
Jacob and Esau
I heard a story a few years back about the feud of the handbells. Schulmerich was the world’s biggest handbell company. Jake Malta was employed there until 1973, but he couldn’t quite let go of this vision he had of the perfect handbell. He traveled to Europe and studied bell physics and began making iterations of sketches picturing a bell with a slightly different shape. In his work he removed the brass nub called a tang that connected the handbell to the bell and with that he started his own handbell company called Malmark, just down the street. This was the beginning of the great handbell feud. Schulmerich ran an ad poo-pooing those tangless bells. Malmark sued. It escalated through legal battles until they finally settled by agreeing to not publicly compare bells. The legal departments created guidelines for their sales people, expressly telling them what could and couldn’t be said in order to avoid further legal escalation. And so as one Schulmerich salesman remembers, he was told he could say, “Our handle isn’t hollow,” leaving the client to read between the lines about what exactly might be the matter with the handle of those Malmark bells. The engineering departments of both went into deep study trying to prove that bells with a tang were louder than their subpar competitors, ultimately proving that it was true, but at one percent louder it was not necessarily a noteworthy difference.
For thirty years the feud continued of these two handbell companies down the same street in a small town in Pennsylvania. Bell ringers across the country hold strong allegiances. As I was told by our own Patrick Doyle, our bells are Malmark. This dispute ultimately led to a legal battle that sought a ruling from the Supreme Court who, for some reason, has refused to hear the case.
Over time, generations changed and new leadership came into the two companies and in 2012 the new heads of the same companies found themselves at the same meeting in Cincinnati. The room was tense. In the end these two heads sat down, much to everyone’s shock. John Goldstein, the head of Schulmerich is quoted as saying at the end of their meeting, “The re