Undeserved Grace - Esau and Jacob

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost (A)

July 13, 2014

Genesis 25:19-34

The mess of pottage by James Tissot (Image via OzTorah.com)

Introduction

Last Sunday we read the story of the finding of a bride for Isaac. Today we read of the twin sons of Isaac and Rebekah: Esau and Jacob. We can read from our text that Rebekah was barren. So Isaac prayed to the LORD and the LORD answered his prayer and Rebekah became pregnant and gave birth to twins, Esau and Jacob (Genesis 25:21).

The story of Esau and Jacob is difficult to explain. Why did God bless the "deceiver" and reject the "deceived"? I think not a few Sunday School teachers have been asked this questions and they tried to come up with an explanation. The Bible itself gives little by the way of clues. Today let us examine the text more closely. In addition, we shall take a peek into Jewish tradition and see what light it can throw to our understanding.

I. Esau and Jacob in the womb (Genesis 25:22-23)

Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah (v. 19) but he was sixty when Rebekah gave birth to Esau and Jacob (v. 26). Rebekah was barren so Isaac prayed to the LORD to give her children (v. 21). Thus, they waited twenty years to have children.

When Rebekah became pregnant, the two babies "struggled together" within her womb, so "she went and enquired of the LORD" (v. 22). The LORD told her that there were two peoples (nations) within her womb, "one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger" (v. 23).

It seems that the struggle between Jacob and Esau had been preordained. Even God himself foretold that the younger one, Jacob, prevail over the older one, Esau. Does this suggest that God has already preordained our destinies for us?

II. Esau and Jacob at birth (Genesis 25:24-26)

The Jewish people are fond of wordplay. But these wordplays were not just playful or clever use of words but actually confessions of faith or even prophecies. When the first came out, he was red "all over like an hairy garment" (v. 25), he was given the name Esau (in Hebrew עֵשָׂו, Eisav), which sounds like the Hebrew word for "hair", (שֵׂעָר,se'ar). Later he was given the name Edom (אֱדוֹם), which means 'red', because he hungered for some red “pottage” or soup. (The name Edom comes from the same root word for the name of Adam (אָדָם), which is spelled in Hebrew as Alef-Daleth-Mem, because Adam was formed from the soil, called adumah in Hebrew.)

Meanwhile, the younger brother came out, he was grasping the older one's heel. So he was named Jacob (יַעֲקֹב, Yaaqov), which comes from the Hebrew word for 'heel' (עֲקֵב,'aqev) and 'to take someone's place' (עֲקֵב, 'aqeb). Does this mean that by being given the name Jacob, the one who grasped his brother's heel in order to take his place, his destiny has been sealed? If so, we should be careful of the names that we give to our children!

III. Esau and Jacob as adults (Genesis 25:27-28)

Even if Esau and Jacob were twins, they were not identical twins. (Fraternal twins are formed when a single fertilized egg splits; thus the twins possess identical DNA. But fraternal twins are conceived when two separate egg cells are fertilized. Thus, their DNA are not identical and the twins can even differ in sex.) They were different physically: Esau was a hairy man while Jacob was smooth-skinned (Genesis 27:11). In addition, they had different interests: Esau became "a cunning hunter, a man of the field" while Jacob "was a plain man, living in tents" (v. 27).

The words that the Bible used to describe them may give us clues. Esau was described as a "cunning" man. The Hebrew word used here is yode'a (יֹדֵעַ), which means that he was a very knowledgeable hunter. Meanwhile, Jacob was a "plain" man. The Hebrew word used here is tam (תָּם), which means 'complete' and 'perfect'. Thus, Jacob is revealed to be a 'morally perfect' person!

IV. A bowl of red lentils and a firstborn's birthright (Genesis 25:29-34)

Why did Esau sell his birthright as the firstborn son for a bowl of pottage? Is such a thing even possible? The Jews have a collection of legends called midrash (plural, midrashim), which comes from the root word drash, which means 'to search' or 'to discover'. Using midrashim, the Jews sought to explain "unclear" passages in the Bible--passages like Esau and Jacob.

The Bible simply says that Esau despised his birthright (v. 34). But in the midrash Esau as an evil person. According to the midrash, he even wrote a contract selling his birthright to Jacob, even calling to persons as witnesses. The midrash also explains that red lentil pottage is the traditional food for mourning, which Jacob cooked on the occasion of the death of Abraham (Genesis 25:7-11), thus the rabbis concluded that while the house of Isaac had been mourning, Esau went out hunting instead of staying at home to mourn the death of Abraham!

Conclusion: God's undeserved grace

The story of Esau and Jacob illustrates God's undeserved grace. Human beings cannot do anything to merit God's favor. This is the patterned played out throughout Genesis. God chose Abraham but we are not told why. God seemed to favor barren women: the Matriarchs Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel were barren but God miraculously blessed them with children. For some reason God seemed to repeatedly favor the younger child rather than the older ones: He chose Isaac over Ishmael, Jacob over Esau, and Manasseh over Ephraim. And God chose the deceiver, Jacob.

Perhaps these are God's ways of saying that he moves in mysterious ways:

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways. (Isaiah 55:8-9)

And so is it with God's grace. Nobody deserves it, yet God in his sovereign wisdom and power, chose to love us all the same. If God can be gracious to a deceiver like Jacob, he can be gracious to us. Amen.