"With God's Help"

 

Genesis 25:19-34

July 12, 2026

 

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 the Aramean of Paddan-aram, sister of Laban the Aramean. 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. 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. 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.

 

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            I ran into an awkward spot planning the service for this week.  We were going to have a handbell rendition of “O Beautiful, For Spacious Skies” last week, but it was bumped to this week.  That posed a problem because after hearing about how Jacob treated Esau from the moment of their birth and how he tricked him out of his place of honor it seemed out of line to ask God to “crown the good with brotherhood” if that is how brothers treat one another.

            Again, this is one of those spots in the Bible where you can tell it wasn’t all meant to be read in the short chunks we are used to.  Something like the Proverbs, yes.  Genesis, no.  In Genesis we watch Jacob – and to a lesser extent Esau – grow up and mature and escape the patterns of their early life.  Esau had been born first, which gave him precedence in the family and social order, but Jacob had grabbed him by the heel as they were being born, and that was taken as descriptive of their later relationship.

            You expect that toddlers will be self-centered.  You try to make sure that does not grow into becoming selfish.  When parents play favorites, that gets in the way, and Genesis tells us that the differences of temperament between the twins were allowed to go sour in part because of their parents’ attitudes.

“When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents.  Isaac loved Esau because he was fond of game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.”  [Genesis 25:27-28]

This story tells of how Jacob tricked Esau out of his privileges as the firstborn, and the way the story is told blames Esau for falling for it.

“Once when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was famished. 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.”  [Genesis 25:29-34]

Again, though, this wasn’t going to be the end of the tale.   The lentil stew incident would be exactly that – one incident, worth remembering, but not the whole story.  

There was another aspect to the boys’ situation in the family.  There was this aspect of their social standing, where Esau had in fact shown poor judgment.  But there was also the question of who would receive their father’s blessing as the one whose descendants would be seen as being in full succession to their grandfather Abraham, to whom God had promised the entire land.  Since Esau was Isaac’s favorite, he was the leading contender.

            Rebekah’s favorite was Jacob, though, and when Isaac was bedfast and blind, she set things up with Jacob’s cooperation (or connivance, depending on how you see it) so that Isaac would bless Jacob, thinking that he was blessing Esau.  Now, Esau may have been big and hairy but he was not stupid and he figured out what had happened right away.  He was so angry that he swore to kill Jacob.  Jacob had to go on the run because he knew that Esau would do it if he could.

            That throws everything into a different light. Esau couldn’t be blamed the way he could the first time.  It all gets complicated.  Reading on, as we will over the next couple of weeks, those complications begin to come together – with God’s help.  All of this is the background for that.  Spoiler alert: Jacob will meet his match in the person of his (and Esau’s) uncle Laban.  Esau will go his own way and put this all behind him.  Jacob will have to struggle with his flaws eventually – with God’s help.  He will find the courage to face his brother years later and they will reconcile – with God’s help.  Their descendants will repeat the cycle in one way or another in later books of the Bible and will work things out for better or for worse, depending on their willingness to accept God’s help.

            Despite how much later generations may want to tell the story as if it were all black and white, they don’t ever manage to do that.  The only way that it ever works out for the best is when they reach the point where they stop trying to assign blame and set aside judgment, leaving it in God’s hands – with his help.

            This is not just about two brothers, or their descendants, or the nations that they formed and lost and re-founded and lost again across the ages.  This is about humankind itself.  We fail as people.  Maybe I should say, “As people, we fail.”  We sin.  We let God down, we let each other down, we let ourselves down.  But God’s help abides, as God abides.

            The first letter of John says:

“This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.  If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  [I John 1:5-9]

We are children of God, still and always growing in grace.