Genesis 25

A Story of Nations

Genesis 25 marks a transition point in the narrative of Genesis. Several significant events are recorded here. The first is the death of Abraham. Having lived for 175 years, we are told that he "breathed his last, and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and [he] was gathered to his people" (v8). The cave of Macphelah welcomed him into the realm of the dead. As the New Testament reminds us, he had not experienced the full significance of God's promises to him, but he had gone out in the obedience of faith, and God judged him righteous.

The second significant event is recorded in verse 11, where we read that "God blessed [Abraham's] son Isaac". We might be tempted to read over these words, yet they are pregnant with the faithfulness of God to his covenant word and promises. He had promised to be the God not simply of Abraham, but of his seed after him. Now, true to his word, God's blessing rests upon Isaac.

God is a God of covenant faithfulness, who honours all his promises. The foundation of infant baptism lies in the realisation that the covenant of grace has a prospective view - it anticipates the coming of a seed who will serve the Lord in their day and generation. It looks forward to the covenant blessing which will extend not simply to this generation but to the next. God had chosen the line of Abraham, and as his blessing had rested on the patriarch, so it was to rest on his descendants also.

But the main emphasis of this chapter falls on the marriage of Isaac to Rebekah, with its consequences which were to be of such great significance for the world. In the previous chapter, Rebekah had made her choice, and had entered in to the line of covenant favour by going with Isaac. Now they are married, and she is about to give birth. She is to have twins - Esau, the father of the Edomites, and Jacob, the father of the Jews. God's sovereign purposes of grace focus on Jacob as the special object of God's favour and love.

Two Nations

God told Rebekah not only that there were two children in her womb, but two nations. The God who sees the end from the beginning was able to anticipate what these two male children would become. In Esau he saw the beginnings of the Edomite line, who would feature later in the biblical narrative, particularly as the enemies of the church of God. In Jacob, he saw the birth of his own covenant children from whom Messiah would eventually come.

God's perspective, like his thoughts and ways, are high above ours. Yet what a glorious hope for the Church today to know that even in this war-torn world of ours, there is a sovereign God in total control of men and nations. He sits on his throne of holiness, and nothing is hidden from his view. All is before his eye - past present and future.

And interwoven into the great political and national movements of men and nations are the purposes of his kingdom and grace. Like a silver thread, his will runs through the line of this world's history, preserving the world as the stage upon which his drama of salvation is enacted. His purposes will be realised. Esau may be the older, but he will serve the younger. The Edomites may be strong, but they will serve the weak. Nothing can thwart the plans of almighty God.

Two Characters

So Esau and Jacob are born. How different they are! Esau was red and covered with hair. Jacob was different, and was born holding on to Esau's heel. Esau developed his hunting skills; Jacob was less adventurous, preferring to stay at home. And Jacob was his mother's favourite.

What a picture of family life! We think that our problems are modern and that the forces that shape our homes and families are products of our twentieth century way of life. But they are there in the family of Isaac and Rebekah - different sons from the same womb, with different appearances, different temperaments, different interests. And Rebekah has an affection for Jacob that she did not have for Esau. Who knows what significance that was to have for the boys in later life.

Parenthood is what shapes family life and family destiny. We only get one crack at it, so we must pray to God to enable us to fulfill our responsibilities, to bring up our children in the way they are to go, so that when they are old they will not depart from it.

Two Responses

We know that Jacob was the object of God's special care and affection (and not just of Rebekah's). We know that the purposes which shaped the lives of these twins were written in the book of God's sovereign providence.

Yet if this story teaches us anything it teaches us that we are responsible for our own actions, and that God's sovereignty is not an enemy of human freedom. It was true, as Malachi 1:2-3 puts it, that God loved Jacob and hated Esau, with a discrimination which is God's divine right. Some he chooses and ordains to eternal life; others he passes by.

Yet Genesis 25:29ff clearly teaches us that Esau's rejection is not the consequence of God's sovereignty in the matter; it is the consequence of his own rejection of God and the blessing of God. As the firstborn, a portion of blessing fell to him which he was willing to trade away to Jacob. When Esau sold his birthright he was rejecting the God of the covenant - the God of his fathers. This is made clear in Hebrews 12:16-17, where Esau is held up as a warning to those who have had experiences of grace, yet who have failed to realise their privilege. Esau "for one morsel of food sold his birthright; for you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears".

How are we responding to the covenant mercy and grace of God? May we learn to use and not abuse, to prize and not despise, the covenant lovingkindness of God!