JACOB: WRESTLING WITH GOD AND MAN
Jacob was a clever and crafty, colorful and captivating, calculative but complex character. Jacob is not our model, neither are his methods and marriages. His motivation was indefensible, his mistakes were glaring, and his misery dogged him.
However, readers who initially despise Jacob’s character and reject his conduct are likely to identify with his strengths and weaknesses, his successes and failures, and his struggles and resourcefulness later.
The father of the nation Israel was ruthless, but reliable and redeemable at the same time. If faith characterized his grandfather Abraham, fairness his father Isaac, then Jacob was known for his feistiness. However, behind the tough exterior was a tender soul: he fell truly, madly, deeply in love. Of course, the highlight of his epic journey in life was an gripping struggle with God by the river of Jabbok. In the end, his biggest defeat was the scene of his biggest triumph. God eventually blessed Jacob when he sought Him for the cure to his ills, something He had patiently waited for since Jacob’s birth.
WHAT TO DO WITH WHAT YOU HAVE (GEN 25:19-34)
19This is the account of Abraham’s son Isaac. Abraham became the father of Isaac, 20and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan Aram and sister of Laban the Aramean.
21Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. The LORD answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. 22The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the LORD. 23The LORD said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.” 24When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. 25The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment; so they named him Esau. 26After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them.
A Jewish story told about a poor man who noticed that there was a naked stranger in his house. “Hey,” he shouted, “you get out of my house, do you hear?” “Dear Sir,” said the stranger, “Just look at me. How can you bring yourself to drive a naked man into the street?”
“You’re right,” said the poor man, “that would be a sin. But tell me, who
are you?” The visitor confessed, “You don’t recognize me? Well, to tell the truth, my name is Poverty.”
When the poor man realized that Poverty was living in his house, he was deeply distressed. He racked his brains for a way to get rid of him. Finally, he went to a tailor’s shop, described Poverty, and ordered a suit to fit (and cover Poverty’s nakedness). The tailor wrote down Poverty’s measurements and went to work. To pay for the suit the tailor was making, the poor man had to sell everything he owned. But he gritted his teeth and bore it, because anything was better than having Poverty as a personal guest.
Finally, the tailor delivered the suit, and Poverty put it on. “Sorry,” Poverty smiled. “It doesn’t fit.” The poor man turned on the tailor and cried, “How could you do this to me? I paid you good money, how could you made the suit too small?” “Don’t scold the tailor,” said Poverty, “it’s not his fault. It’s just that while you were spending the last of your money, I grew bigger.” (YIVI Institute for Jewish Research, Edited by Beatrice Silverman Weinreich, Translated by Leonard Wolf).
The debate over God’s sovereignty, fairness, and choice at the brothers’ birth is pointless, because the focus is strictly on the twin brothers’ independent maneuvers over each other before, during, and after the moment of birth. Nevertheless, even though baby Jacob won the battle at birth, he did not win the war by himself. No one helped Jacob more than Esau, who was irrevocably poorer when he sold his birthright to his younger brother. Esau did not lose everything, but he lost the most important treasures entrusted to him: privilege and responsibility. A church member noted: “God gives you a personality, but you form your own character.” Hebrews 12:16-17 emphasizes Esau’s loss, and not Jacob’s gain: “See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son.” Nevertheless, Esau’s loss was Jacob’s gain.
How is it possible for some people to keep, increase, and even multiply what they have, while others ignore, waste and even lose all they have? What kind of attitude should we place on spiritual things?
CHOOSE WHAT IS GOOD FOR YOURSELF
27The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was a quiet man, staying among the tents. 28Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob. 29Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. 30He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” (That is why he was also called Edom.) (Gen 25:27-30)
A.B. Simpson, the founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, told of a man’s advertisement for a skilled coach driver. Among those who came were two that seemed to him to be particularly bright. He took them aside and asked them how near they could drive to the edge of a precipice without falling over.
The first candidate answered that he could go within half an inch and had frequently done so, just shaving the edge and feeling perfectly safe. He then asked the other the same question. “Well, sir,” replied the man modestly, “I really cannot tell, because I have never allowed myself to venture near the edge of a precipice. I have always made it a rule to keep as far as possible from danger, and I have had my reward in knowing that my master and his family were kept from danger and harm.”
The master had no difficulty in deciding between the two candidates. He said to the second man, “You are the man for me. The other may be brilliant, but you are safe!” (The Holy Spirit, Camp Hill: Christian Publications, 1994)
The problem of Esau was that he erred on the side of danger, recklessness, and indifference. He was a skillful, or the word knowledgeable in Hebrew, hunter, but he did not know what was good for himself or his family. The dark side of Esau was that he walked on the wild side and catered to every sight, sound, and smell. Worse, he would give anything and everything to gratify his desires.
Temperamental, insatiable, and unpredictable, Esau thirsted for temporary things, not permanent things; he lived on borrowed things, rather than earned things; and he craved for physical things, never spiritual things.
The moment he returned from the field, Esau ranted and raved about hunger pangs, lived and died over red stew, and went bonkers and ballistic over soup, porridge and beans. The first word from his mouth was not the NIV translation (v 30) but the one-time occurrence of the Hebrew verb “feed,” which means to swallow greedily in its primitive root. Ironically, the hunter was the hunted; he was stalked, baited and trapped not by his brother’s guile, but by his need to be fed. The king of the jungle was an easy prey in the kitchen. Esau didn’t cook, but he took, but what an expensive, no-frills, quick snack it was!
Sympathy for Esau or blame on Jacob is natural, but unnecessary. Esau was not carefree and careless for a moment; he cared for nobody but himself for many years. When Esau was forty years old, he married not just one but two idol-worshipping Hittite women, and the wives doubled the grief of his parents (Gen 26:34-35), so much so that his mother, Rebekah, was disgusted with living (Gen 27:46) and the usually quiet father, Isaac, strictly forbade his other son Jacob from marrying a Canaanite woman (Gen 28:1). When Esau realized how displeasing the Canaanite women were to his father Isaac, instead of seeking a bride from his mother’s family side like brother Jacob, Esau compounded his mistakes by marrying Wild Uncle Ishmael’s daughter (Gen 28:8- 9)! His choices were nothing short of rebellious.
CHERISH WHAT IS GIVEN TO YOU
31Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.” 32”Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?” 33But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob. (Gen 25:31-33)
Fans of the Peanuts comic strip know that Charlie Brown has a sister by the name of Sally, who looks to her big brother for advice. One day, while Charlie Brown was lounging comfortably in his big round chair, in came Sally.
The big brother instinctively asked the little sister, who is not a big fan of school, about her progress in school: “Have you done your homework yet?” Sally countered, with a piece of paper in her hand: “No, I have a new philosophy.” She looked at the piece of paper she held in her hands, and said with a blank expression on her face: “I’ve decided to put everything off until the last minute, and to learn everything in life the hard way.”
Charlie Brown wished her sister, who was walking away from his brother and the conversation: “Good luck.” Sally promptly answered, “Thank you, that’s what my teacher said.”
British pastor Rev. Billy Strachan once asked his congregation a set of thought-provoking service-related questions. The four questions all contained five words. The first five-word question was, What Gift Do You Want? Another question was What Gift Did You Get? The next five, What Gift Do You Need? The last was What Good Did It Do? (Keswick, 1990)
A birthright was a privilege that involved responsibility. Esau, as the heir, stood to gain twice as much inheritance as anyone in the family (Deut 21:17), but he had a cavalier attitude toward his favored status. It is doubtful if Esau knew how valuable the birthright was, how privileged he was, and how important his role was in the family. He was the type that would bankrupt and sell what was priceless to his parents, family, and clan. Clueless and dense, Esau could not guard what he had, never mind what was communal. Not only did Esau not guard or increase what he had, he did not know much he was worth, how much he would need, and how much he could afford.
Jacob, on the other hand, for all his faults, was poor, hungry, and resourceful. He was always second – second string, second banana, second in line - but he was second to none.
Esau was not the only one to lose the right to lead the family. Jacob’s three oldest sons – Reuben, Simeon, and Levi (Gen 49:3-5) – also lost the respect of their father, their reputation within the family, and their standing in the nation. Like the three oldest sons of Jacob, Esau lost his birthright because he was an obsessed, a carnal, and an ungodly man. His stomach was his god, his mind was on earthly things, and his taste was poor.
Esau fell into the entitlement trap. Conditions were alien to him as the firstborn. He thought he was set for life even though he just was older by a few seconds. Like the Chinese say, he could “eat on even if a leg is broken.” The ungodly think they are entitled to spiritual service pensions and benefits from the Heavenly King all their life on earth. Esau lost everything because he did not treasure, keep or realize what he had in the first place.
Jacob, on the other hand, was the underrated 100-pound weakling with the insatiable appetite and the relentless drive. He was the soul and symbol and stock of an emerging nation. The younger, lesser, and poorer brother did not just grab his opportunity one-time at birth; more importantly, he held on to everything he had for the rest of his life.
COUNT WHAT IS GONE FROM YOU
34Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright (Gen 25:34).
A very successful businessman had a meeting with his new son-in-law. “I love my daughter, and now I welcome you into the family,” said the man. “To show you how much we care for you, I’m making you a 50-50 partner in my business. All you have to do is go to the factory every day and learn the operations.” The son-in-law interrupted, “I hate factories. I can’t stand the noise.”
“I see,” replied the father-in-law. “Well, then you’ll work in the office and take charge of some of the operations.” “I hate office work,” said the son-on-law. “I can’t stand being stuck behind a desk all day.”
“Wait a minute,” said the father-in-law. “I just make you half-owner of a moneymaking organization, but you don’t like factories and won’t work in a office. What am I going to do with you?” “Easy,” said the young man. “Buy me out.”
It’s been said, “There are three kinds of people: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who have no idea what happened.”
The reason for Esau’s rejection was due his passive-aggressive rejection of his birthright. He was an indifferent, ignorant, and irreligious man, passive and poor in retaining and nurturing of what he had, but eager and prepared to sell his birthright. He did not blink an eye, sit on it, or doubt for a moment his decision.
Esau was ignorant of what he had, what he lost and why. In other words, he did not care one way or another; he just gulped down the food and drink, sprang up on his knees and looked forward to the next adventure. It was a good deal and a great bargain to him. He must have been amused by the worth of his birthright, the request of his brother, and the absurdity of even bargaining.
Jacob, on the other hand, believed, valued, and pursued what he did not have, not what he could not have. Someone suggested that Jacob valued the birthright so highly that he was willing to stoop to the level he did to obtain it. http://www.bible.org/docs/ot/books/gen/deffin/gen-27.htm#TopOfPage
I believe Esau is the type that would lose what he had to others, sooner or later, fairly or naively, if not to Jacob, then someone else. God had disclosed the flaw and the ruin of Esau to Rebekah: the older will serve the younger (v 23). Note that God did not condemn Esau to his fate; He just unmasked his future. Esau was the No. 1 pick who did not bother to train, sign, or play. His life was characterized by excesses, exaggerations, and excuses. The writer of Hebrews called Esau a godless man, the type that live and die by the senses (Heb 12:16).
Conclusion: It’s been said, “When a man with money meets a man with experience, the man with the experience ends up with the money and the man with the money ends up with the experience.” (Live and Learn 95). God has given us much, but He has also asked from us much – faithfulness, dependability, and usefulness. In all things, do not take for granted God’s gifts to you, His guidance in your life, and His grace that has covered your weaknesses. Good choices, godly character, and genuine commitment matter!
Victor Yap
http://epreaching.blogspot.com/
www.riversidecma.org
www.preachchrist.com (Chinese sermons only)
