Genesis 25:12-34 (ESV)
12 These are the generations of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s servant, bore to Abraham. 13 These are the names of the sons of Ishmael, named in the order of their birth: Nebaioth, the firstborn of Ishmael; and Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, 14 Mishma, Dumah, Massa, 15 Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. 16 These are the sons of Ishmael and these are their names, by their villages and by their encampments, twelve princes according to their tribes. 17 (These are the years of the life of Ishmael: 137 years. He breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people.) 18 They settled from Havilah to Shur, which is opposite Egypt in the direction of Assyria. He settled over against all his kinsmen.
19 These are the generations of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham fathered Isaac, 20 and Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean, to be his wife. 21 And Isaac prayed to the LORD for his wife, because she was barren. And the LORD granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived. 22 The children struggled together within her, and she said, “If it is thus, why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the LORD. 23 And the LORD said to her,
“Two nations are in your womb,
and two peoples from within you shall be divided;
the one shall be stronger than the other,
the older shall serve the younger.”
24 When her days to give birth were completed, behold, there were twins in her womb. 25 The first came out red, all his body like a hairy cloak, so they called his name Esau. 26 Afterward his brother came out with his hand holding Esau’s heel, so his name was called Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.
27 When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents. 28 Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
29 Once when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was exhausted. 30 And Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted!” (Therefore his name was called Edom.) 31 Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright now.” 32 Esau said, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?” 33 Jacob said, “Swear to me now.” So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. 34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.
Following sermon transcript was generated by AI. The sermon was not. Please comment if you notice any errors.
So we've got basically three chunks of text here. The first is verses 12 to 18, the generations of Ishmael. And why would we care if Ishmael is not the son of promise?
So Abraham has these sons. He actually has a number of other sons later by his second wife, Keturah. But earlier on in Genesis, we saw where God had promised to Abraham that he was going to become a great nation. But at that point, he was 75 and he didn't have any children. So after about a dozen years, his wife, who is only 10 years younger than him, is now at this point, she's also well into her 70s, says, hey, you know what? How about I give you my servant and you have a child with her and that child will be counted mine. And Abraham says, okay, sounds fine. And they decide to do that. That's a common practice in the ancient Near East. The children of the maidservant would have been considered the wife's children. And they do that. And Ishmael is born. Abraham has a child with Hagar. And God says, no, this was not my plan. It is not through Ishmael that your children will be named. I'm going to give a child to Sarah. And it's still then another 13 years before that promise comes to fruition. And God does give a child to Sarah. And this child's name is Isaac.
And as Isaac is growing and he starts to get a little older, Ishmael starts to make fun of him and is poking fun at him. And Sarah, remember this was all her idea. Sarah says, get that woman and her child out of here. Send them away. And Abraham doesn't want to. Abraham doesn't want to send away his son, his firstborn son. He loves him. He cares about him. He cares about Hagar too. And he does not want to send them away. But God comes and he says, no, listen to Sarah. Send them away, and then in chapter 17 and verse 20, God promises that he is going to make Ishmael into a great people as well. Twelve princes are going to come from him. And here in chapter 25, we see that God is fulfilling his promise to Abraham. God is making Ishmael into a great nation, and these twelve princes, twelve tribes that become the people that today we would consider Arabs, they are descendants of Ishmael. So this is significant because we see God's faithfulness to the promise that he gave to Abraham to bless Ishmael, but at the same time we also see that this isn't the line of promise, these are not God's chosen people, and so we see a theme recurring that starts in Genesis all the way back in chapter four.
And that's the theme of tension between brothers, between those who are the chosen people of God and those who are not. There is a tension, a division between them. And that happens with Cain and Abel. And we know how that results. And then it happens again here with this tension between Ishmael and Isaac. And Ishmael is blessed, but he's not the chosen one. And it's going to recur with Isaac's own children.
So the second section we see are the children of Isaac. And if you remember it, here the text reminds us that Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, the Aramean of Paddan Aram, sister of Laban, the Aramean to be his wife. The longest chapter in Genesis was one of the last ones we looked at, and that's chapter 24. And chapter 24 of Genesis is this great, big, long narrative of Abraham realizing my son needs a wife. And he should not be taking a wife from among the people of the nations, the Canaanites, who would lead him away from God. Lot did that. Lot moved into the same area. He followed Abram into the promised land. But then he took a wife from among the people of the land and raised his family the way that everybody else in that area did. And it was a disaster for Lot. It undid his life and he eventually loses his wife and things don't go well with his daughters.
Abraham doesn't want that for his son. And so he sends a servant back to his home country and says, find a wife for my son. And so in chapter 24, you get the story of the servant coming and meeting Rebekah. And then the whole story is repeated as the servant repeats it back to Laban and his father. And it's kind of a head scratcher. Why does the author spend so much time informing us of how Isaac got a wife? But the point of the story is that God is providing miraculously for the people of God. He's miraculously providing for the line of promise to continue. Even though Abraham was so old when his child came, and now his son is getting old to be getting married for the first time, 40 years old. God is providing for him.
So Isaac has this wife, Rebekah, but then she too, verse 21 tells us, is barren. She's barren just like her mother-in-law was. And so it's another 20 years of waiting for the promise of God. Waiting for what is going to happen here. And Jacob, Isaac rather, Isaac prays for his wife. And he prays for her to conceive. And she does conceive, which again, this is like a really important theme in the biblical narrative. If someone who is barren or someone who we don't expect to get pregnant gets pregnant, something important is about to happen in salvation history. It's true with Sarah, it's true with Rebecca, it'll be true later on with Rachel and then Ruth and then Hannah and then most importantly with Mary. All these people you don't expect to be pregnant either because they're old or they're barren or with the case of Mary, a virgin, like something significant is happening when the unexpected happens concerning a birth.
And here, Rebecca conceives, but then she's miserable, and it seems more miserable than the typical pregnant woman. She's to the point where she goes to inquire of the Lord. And we don't know what that means specifically. I think it's entirely possible that she actually goes to her husband, Isaac, who we'll see later on in Genesis, seems to function as a prophet. Like, it seems that she probably goes to him and inquires, says, okay, ask the Lord for me. Why? Why is this struggle taking place within me? And she receives this prophecy. The Lord said to her, two nations are in your womb. And two peoples from within you shall be divided. One shall be stronger than the other and the older shall serve the younger. So she receives a prophecy concerning her children that they both will turn into nations and they will be at enmity with one another. One's going to be stronger and the younger is going to be the one who is the head. He's going to be the one who receives the blessing. He's going to be the chosen of God and the older will serve him.
So then the boys are born. And the first one, we're told, comes out all red. And so he's all hairy and his name is then given to him. His name is Esau. And the second one, his name is really significant because as he comes out, he grabs hold of the heel of his brother. And the name Jacob means like a heel grabber, but it can also be taken to mean a deceiver or a trickster. And that, as we walk through the Jacob story, is going to be very indicative of the kind of man that Jacob is. Jacob is a deceiver. He is a trickster. He's a schemer. Even this word here in verse 27, where it says, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field. Jacob was a quiet man. Could be taken to mean that he's a contemplative man, that he's sitting here, he's thinking. He's thinking about things and he's scheming how to get ahead.
So you see these two brothers, they're different kinds of men. Esau is a man of action. Every time I say man of action, I think of the line from the Princess Bride where the man in black says to the six-fingered man, we are men of action, lies do not become us. Esau doesn't really seem to have a lying bone. He doesn't have a thinking bone in his body. He's just a man of action. Whereas Jacob is the schemer. These two brothers have very different trajectories, but those trajectories bring them into conflict.
Again, we see in this section of verses 19 to 26 that God has been faithful to his promise. God is bringing about children to keep the line of promise going on, that God had promised that he was going to bless the world through Abraham's family, and against all odds, his family continues. Even though these old men and old women are having children, well, through the fact that they are having children, God is continuing to bring his promise to fruition.
But then we start to get into the narrative proper of Jacob's life with his first story, which is, it's really a sad story. Verses 27 to 34. When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man dwelling in tents. You see the start of the tension here. Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob. Not a good deal. It's clear to everyone including the narrator that there's two kids and mom loves one and dad loves the other. This is not a good setup.
Once when Jacob 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'm exhausted. Now I don't know if you've watched brothers interact. They often speak to one another in this sort of way, this rough, confrontational, not very kind way. Now, nonetheless, you are reading the story and you're thinking, okay, if you know how the story goes and you know Jacob's the chosen one, Jacob's the one who's supposed to be like God's servant, how should he respond? How should he love his neighbor as himself here? How should he love his brother as himself? Maybe he should like throw some insult back at him about what a jerk he is and then give him a bowl of stew, right? Like he's... That's what you would expect a brother to do. Yeah, maybe he's going to throw an insult back and say, wow, maybe you could go out to the manor's tree and pick something but but he's gonna give him a little stew but that's not what happens instead the first thing on the tip of Jacob's tongue is sell me your birthright you're reading that you're like wait how did we go from stew because I'm hungry to birthright.
And what is obvious as you're reading this text is Jacob's been thinking about this. Jacob has been scheming. I have got to find a way to get the birthright. Now, we don't know for sure whether Jacob knows the prophecy that was given to his mom, that the older is going to serve the younger. But I think it's entirely possible because Jacob is the one that Rachel loves, that Rachel has told Jacob this prophecy that you know someday that your brother is going to be serving you. And just bide your time. I know he's bigger than you and he beats you up sometimes, but someday he's going to serve you. And Jacob's sitting here scheming, going, how am I going to make that happen? How can I make him the heel that I take hold of and bring into submission to me? Here I am making this stew and in comes my brother and I have an opportunity. I have an opportunity to exercise my will in this situation and put him in his place.
Jacob said, sell me your birthright now. And Esau said, I'm about to die. What good is a birthright to me? Why do I care about a birthright? And Jacob is not happy with the, well, I don't care answer. He says, no, swear to me, swear to me that you will give me your birthright now. So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew and he ate, and he drank, and he rose, and he went his way. Thus, Esau despised his birthright.
You read that story, and you walk away going, I don't really think God could use either one of these guys. They're both kind of losers. One of them is absolutely unthinking. I mean, the chapter concludes with a negative reflection on Esau. The text does not say, oh, poor Esau, he got tricked. It doesn't say, oh a bummer thing for him. It says he despised his birthright. The birthright was everything. To be the oldest son means you would inherit your father's household, either the entirety of the household or at least a double portion over what everyone else would receive. And he looks at that and says, yeah, it doesn't matter. I'm just hungry. He's driven by his stomach. And the text holds him guilty for that. He is not well reflected on here.
On the other hand, you have Jacob who's, he's a little bit more of a long-term thinker. He's driven by selfish interest, but not the selfish interest of right now, but he's driven by the selfish interest of, I'm gonna get mine out here in the future. I'm gonna lay things in place so that I can have what is coming to me or what I want to be coming to me, whether it should be or not. And that's really the point of this story is to introduce us to these two characters, both of whom are undeserving of anything from God. Both of whom are undeserving of God's mercy and his grace. Neither one deserves God's involvement in their life in any way except for judgment.
But the point, longer term, thinking theologically, thinking through the whole of Scripture, that the Apostle Paul draws from this text is that though neither one of these two men deserves God's mercy, salvation does not ultimately depend upon our worthiness of God's mercy. We all deserve God's judgment, and yet God chooses to pour out mercy and grace. In the book of Malachi, God is bringing an indictment against the people of Israel because they have rejected him. He has poured out his love and his mercy on the people of Israel, the people who descend from Jacob over and over again. And they have chosen to reject him. They've acted like Esau and they've said, Paul, what good is it for us that we're God's chosen people? Oh, well, what good does that do us? They just keep rejecting him. And in Jesus, Malachi chapter 1, verses 2 and 3. God says, you say, what does it matter? You say, what good is it? Is it not written that Jacob I have loved and Esau I have hated? He has loved Jacob so much that his treatment of Esau seems like hatred in comparison.
I have loved you, says the Lord. But you say, how have you loved us? Is not Esau Jacob's brother, declares the Lord? Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I hated. I have laid waste to his hill country. I have left his heritage to the jackals of the desert. If Edom says, We are shattered, but we will rebuild the ruins, the Lord of hosts says, They may build, but I will tear down. They will be called the wicked country and people with whom the Lord is angry forever. Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, Great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel.
So God holds both of these brothers accountable, and Esau is ultimately held accountable for his rejection of God. When it says the people of Edom, these are the people who descend from Esau. We saw there in chapter 25 of Genesis, Esau asked for this red stew, and God changes his name to Edom, which means red. His descendants are called the people of Edom. who like red stew, like, I don't know, the association there. And they live to the south of Israel and become a thorn in the people of Israel's side for centuries to come. And God ultimately says, but I'm bringing judgment on them in a way that he does bring judgment to Israel, but not in the same way, not in the ultimate way that Edom is destroyed. And that's not because of anything inherent in either one of them.
The apostle Paul picks this language up in Romans chapter 9. beginning in verse 6. It is not as though the word of God has failed, for not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all who are children of Abraham, not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but through Isaac shall your offspring be named. This means that it is not the children of the flesh or the children of God, but the children of the promise who are counted as offspring. For this is what the promise said, about this time next year I will return and Sarah shall have a son. And not only so, but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing good or bad, in order that God's promise of election might continue, not because of works, but because of him who calls, she was told the older will serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.
I think when we see this story, we see Paul uses it as an illustration here of the fact that salvation does not ultimately depend on us. We are responsible for how we respond to God. Esau is held guilty because he despised that which was most important, the salvation, the blessing that was held out to him. He despised it. He didn't care about it. And God holds him guilty. But Jacob is the same kind of man. Jacob is just as sinful as his brother. And the fact that he will ultimately come to faith, that he will come to salvation, is because of the initiating love of God. The love of God that was determined for him before he was ever born.
And so the truth I think that we should draw from this text is that we each are responsible for how we respond to God. But if we respond to him rightly with faith and obedience, it is not because we're smarter than our brother. It's not because we just know so much better and we're so much more enlightened. It's because God and his mercy has been gracious to us when we did not deserve it. Romans 9 there, Paul said, before they had done anything good or bad... God determined to show his love to Jacob. And if you have trusted in Christ, it's not because you are better than anybody else. It's because you, like Jacob, are an undeserving recipient of the love of God. And that's good news. Because if we look to ourselves as the basis of our salvation... and we look to our good works as the basis of our salvation or our wisdom as the basis of our salvation, we will rightly come to the conclusion that I don't have enough. I don't have enough wisdom. I don't have enough good works. I've got too much of a mess still going on either out in my life or inside in my head and in my heart, which Jesus says is just as culpable as the things that you do outside of you. If you sin in your heart, you've done it.
You need a salvation that comes from the outside. And you need a God who is desiring to save you despite you. Despite your inclinations. Despite your unworthiness. And that's what we have in Scripture. A God who initiates. A God who sends. We're going to see that in Jacob's life where God will initiate with him over and over again. And we see it in the history of the world as God, the son himself enters into human history, takes on flesh and dwells among us. And in him, we have beheld the glory of the eternal father. And in him, the wrath of God is poured out and satisfied so that we might have a relationship with him so that we can respond to him in faith. But that's all a gift. It's not anything we deserve.
And so as we jump back into the narrative of Genesis, we jump back into Jacob's story, jump into Jacob's story for the first time, we need to realize nothing that is good in our lives is because we deserve it. It's because God is gracious. God is going to pour out his love in Jacob's life, not because Jacob is good, but because God is loving. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you. that you are a good God, that you are a gracious God. And we ask that you would give us the grace and the mercy to respond rightly to you. We need your help in this. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
