Two nations are in your womb, two peoples butting heads while still in your body. One people will overpower the other, and the older will serve the younger. Genesis 25:23 (MSG)

Birthright – Jacob Series – Part 1

Go to PART 1  |  PART 2  |  PART 3  |  PART 4  |  PART 5  |  PART 6  |  PART 7

Twin brothers.
A rift.
A birthright.
A Deception.

When we first meet Jacob from the book of Genesis, we don’t see him at his best. He struggled from birth. Not with sickness, but with angst and inferiority. He wanted to be first, he wanted to be the one in power. The scriptures tell us that even in the womb, he and his twin brother Esau struggled and fought with each other. (Genesis 25). You can only imagine what their relationship would have been like. Twin Brothers who shared blood, womb and birth, but little else. Since Esau came out first, he was declared the first born son. Blessings and inheritance rights would be his after the death of his father, Isaac. Not Jacob's. This rift stayed with them into adulthood, when one day, a scheming Jacob, seizing what he saw to be an opportunity for himself to get ahead, made a deal with his brother for the birthright. If you don’t know the story, check it out in Genesis 25.

Jacob gets a pretty bad rap for making a deal with his brother to obtain the coveted birthright. Preachers and commentators alike call Jacob out for it: deceiver, trickster, schemer. But Esau played a part in this, too. He willingly went along with it. Jacob did not trick him. (That would come later and with someone else…) It was an exchange: I’ll give you this, and you give me that. And they agreed, and the trade was made.

The writer of Genesis said that Esau, “showed contempt for his rights as the firstborn.” (Genesis 25:34).

And thus, the rift widened.

While the boys were still in utero, their mother, Rebekah, worried about the constant tugging and pulling by the two within her. She prayed and heard God say:

“Two nations are in your womb, two peoples butting heads while still in your body. One people will overpower the other, and the older will serve the younger.”

There has been much said about who these two nations birthed from these twins boys are, and much blame placed upon the situation that would erupt between the two about the state of the world right now.

I don’t find these accusations helpful. We can read the scriptures and use them as a way to point our finger and judge others. But this doesn’t achieve anything. Scripture should be read with an attitude of, “how is the text speaking to me?” If all we hear from the Bible is what the text is saying to and about someone else, we’re not reading it right.

Rifts. Power struggles. Identity crisis. Deals. The breakdown of a family, the separation of hearts filled with the same blood – these are things that we've all felt and struggled with. (And sounds much like a parable Jesus told in Luke 15 about a lost son…) I think there might be more to the story than we see at first glance. There might be something in Jacob, and Esau, that we can take into our own hearts and lives too. We are not that different from them. They live within us all on some level: the struggle for freedom and rights and legacy.

How do we move forward in the world without these rifts informing our views of each other? How can we create a peaceful world, where there isn’t just a birthright for the first born – the strongest, the “rightest,” the richest, the one who serendipitously turned up on time – but there is enough for everyone. If we lay aside our greed, and we open our hands and share our portion, no matter how big or large, with those around us who have less, then I think we could find some solidarity with each other.

Tozer wrote, “If man had his way, the plan of redemption would be an endless and bloody conflict. In reality, salvation was bought not by Jesus' fist, but by His nail-pierced hands; not by muscle but by love; not by vengeance but by forgiveness; not by force but by sacrifice. Jesus Christ our Lord surrendered in order that He might win; He destroyed His enemies by dying for them and conquered death by allowing death to conquer Him.”

Over to you! Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Go to Part 2 – Jacob and Esau »

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