Lesson 6 – Jacob & Esau
Chpt 26 Famine, Isaac to Philistines, Isaac offers Rebekah as his sister to save his rear. God reaffirms the covenant with Isaac.
This is written in the form of a readers theater. Try changing voices for each part.
Study Questions
"For the Holy One has chosen Jacob and Israel as God's own possession."
Closing Prayer:
We all occasionally get undeserved breaks and we all scheme to get blessings that may not really be ours. So let us pray,
Dear God help us to bring blessings to those who have gotten a lot of bad breaks, and help us to see and act upon opportunities for making your will a reality in our world. Amen.
(taken from Journey through the Bible, Christian Board of Publications, 1995, p.24)
1Jacob and Esau are biblical personalities who stand out. Esau is a robust, hearty man who is never happier than when he is out in the woods hunting for game for the table. Esau is also a person of generous spirit, ready to go along with the views of others, not always insisting on his own way. Esau is Isaac's kind of man: He loves a good meal, likes to walk in the fields, is restless around home, and uncomfortable with domestic chores.
2But Esau seems not to care about this promise God made to Abraham and renewed to Isaac. What about the family of Isaac? Will it thrive and take its place in the world, doing its part to realize God's blessing and fulfill God's promise? Esau seems not to care, or perhaps even to know, about that. He loves life, but he takes it as it comes.
3Jacob is entirely different. He and his strong-willed mother, Rebekah, care about God's promise. They care so much that they are ready to take shortcuts in seeing to its fulfillment. One theme dominates the whole, long Jacob story: Jacob does his part to see that his family prospers in God's world, so that God's promise to the descendants of Abraham will find realization.
4Two incidents graphically show the character of Esau and Jacob. The first occurs when Esau returns from the field and finds Jacob tending to a pot full of stew. We can almost smell the aroma with Esau, and we are not surprised that Esau thinks he will die if he does not have some of the stew. The price for a bowl of stew, however, is Esau's right to the first share in his father's property. Esau is not starving to death, but he is a man who is ruled by appetite, one who acts on impulse. He is ready to turn his back on his family's heritage and its future in order to have some of this stew.
5Jacob does not hesitate to take advantage of this weakness in his twin brother, apparently because Jacob knows that God's promise is likely to fare better in his care than it will in the care of Esau. So he buys the right to be treated as the firstborn child. The story makes it clear that Esau, by selling his birthright, showed contempt for his position in the family, while Jacob prized the birthright dearly. Both brothers are criticized in the story, but Jacob at least cares about God's promise.
6The second incident is given in greater detail. Jacob has the birthright, but he needs also to have his father Isaac pronounce words of blessing on him. These words were thought to have special power to affect future events. If Isaac ate a good meal, gained strength and insight, and made a special effort, then his words were believed to have such power that they would help to shape the future. Jacob wanted his father's blessing, but so did Esau, of course, and Esau was still his father's favorite son. The story shows how far Rebekah and Jacob were ready to go in order to secure the father's blessing of Jacob. Again, we need to remember that this is a story of one son having little concern about the family's future, while the other son, and his mother, cared very deeply about that future.
7The story is a heart-wrenching one. After Jacob has been blessed, Esau, arriving too late, cries out in pain and bitterness for a blessing from his father, but Isaac is unable to withdraw the blessing that Jacob has already received. Isaac tries to muster a blessing for Esau, but it comes out as more of a curse than a blessing, for Esau is destined to serve his brother Jacob, work very hard for his livelihood, and do so in a part of the country much leaner and less productive than the land where Jacob will settle. Small wonder that Esau is furious and begins to make plans to dispose of Jacob!
8Again, Rebekah comes to the rescue of Jacob and also of God's promise to the family of Abraham. She arranges for Jacob to leave Canaan and go to Mesopotamia, to her brother Laban's home to spend time there, so that Esau's anger may cool a bit. Otherwise, Rebekah may lose both of her sons at once (if Esau should carry out his threat and murder his brother, then Esau too would have to be put to death for the murder; that was the ancient custom).
9So there is our story of these two brothers who, according to ancient Jewish tradition, were already struggling with one another in their mother's body before birth. Since we know that Esau is understood to be the ancestor of the kingdom of Edom, to the southeast of the land of Judah, we can suppose that this old story is also speaking about the early history of the Israelites and the Edomites and their years of struggle and warfare. The striking thing we see is that Jacob, grandson of the great Abraham, cares deeply about God's work in the world, even though he sometimes bargains too sharply or resorts to trickery. Human beings cannot, like Esau, simply enjoy their walks in the forest, their pursuit of game, their hearty meals at home. If God has indeed promised that the descendants of Abraham and Isaac are going to become like the stars in heaven, like grains of sand along the seashore, then human beings had better be prepared to do their part in bringing this promise to fulfillment. God's promise stands firm, but the realization of God's promise rests heavily on the shoulders of the people of the promise.
Genesis 25:27-34
NARRATOR: 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,
ESAU: "Let me eat some of that red stuff, for I am famished!"
NARRATOR: (Therefore he was called Edom.)
NARRATOR: Jacob said,
JACOB: "First sell me your birthright."
ESAU: "I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?"
JACOB: "Swear to me first."
NARRATOR: So he swore to him, and sold his birthright 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 27:1-45)
NARRATOR: When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called his elder son Esau and said to him, "My son"; and he answered, "Here I am."
ISAAC: "See, I am old; I do not know the day of my death. Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field, and hunt game for me. Then prepare for me savory food, such as I like, and bring it to me to eat, so that I may bless you before I die."
NARRATOR: Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it, Rebekah said to her son Jacob,
Rebekah: "I heard your father say to your brother Esau,
'Bring me game, and prepare for me savory food to eat, that I may bless you before the LORD before I die.'
Now therefore, my son, obey my word as I command you.
Go to the flock, and get me two choice kids, so that I may prepare from them savory food for your father, such as he likes; and you shall take it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies."
NARRATOR: But Jacob said to his mother Rebekah,
JACOB: "Look, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a man of smooth skin. Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him, and bring a curse on myself and not a blessing."
Rebekah: "Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my word, and go, get them for me."
NARRATOR: So he went and got them and brought them to his mother; and his mother prepared savory food, such as his father loved. Then Rebekah took the best garments of her elder son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob; and she put the skins of the kids on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. Then she handed the savory food, and the bread that she had prepared, to her son Jacob.
So he went in to his father, and said,
JACOB: "My father";
ISAAC: "Here I am; who are you, my son?"
JACOB: "I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, so that you may bless me."
ISAAC: "How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?"
JACOB: "Because the LORD your God granted me success."
NARRATOR: Then Isaac said to Jacob,
ISAAC: "Come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not."
NARRATOR: So Jacob went up to his father Isaac, who felt him and said, "The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau."
NARRATOR: He did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's hands; so he blessed him.
ISAAC: "Are you really my son Esau?"
JACOB: "I am."
ISAAC: "Bring it to me, that I may eat of my son's game and bless you."
NARRATOR: So he brought it to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank. Then his father Isaac said to him,
ISAAC: "Come near and kiss me, my son."
NARRATOR: So he came near and kissed him; and he smelled the smell of his garments, and blessed him, and said,
ISAAC: "Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the LORD has blessed. May God give you of the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine. Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you!"
NARRATOR: As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of his father Isaac, his brother Esau came in from his hunting. He also prepared savory food, and brought it to his father. And he said to his father,
ESAU: "Let my father sit up and eat of his son's game, so that you may bless me."
ISAAC: "Who are you?"
ESAU: "I am your firstborn son, Esau."
NARRATOR: Then Isaac trembled violently, and said,
ISAAC: "Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate it all before you came, and I have blessed him?--yes, and blessed he shall be!"
NARRATOR: When Esau heard his father's words, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father,
ESAU: "Bless me, me also, father!"
ISAAC: "Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing."
ESAU: "Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two
times. He took away my birthright; and look, now he has taken away my blessing." "Have you not reserved a blessing for me?"
ISAAC: "I have already made him your lord, and I have given him all his brothers as servants, and with grain and wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son?"
ESAU: "Have you only one blessing, father? Bless me, me also, father!"
NARRATOR: And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.
Then his father Isaac answered him:
ISAAC: "See, away from the fatness of the earth shall your home be, and away from the dew of heaven on high. By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother; but when you break loose, you shall break his yoke from your neck."
NARRATOR: Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself,
ESAU: "The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob."
NARRATOR: But the words of her elder son Esau were told to Rebekah; so she sent and called her younger son Jacob and said to him,
Rebekah: "Your brother Esau is consoling himself by planning to kill you. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice; flee at once to my brother Laban in Haran, and stay with him a while, until your brother's fury turns away- - until your brother's anger against you turns away, and he forgets what you have done to him; then I will send, and bring you back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?"
Jacob, Hebrew YA'AQOV, Arabic YA'QUB, also called ISRAEL, Hebrew YISRA'EL, Arabic ISRA'IL, Hebrew patriarch who was the grandson of Abraham, the son of Isaac and Rebekah, and the traditional ancestor of the people of Israel. Stories about Jacob in the Bible begin at Genesis 25:19.
According to the Old Testament, Jacob was the younger twin brother of Esau, who was the ancestor of Edom and the Edomites. The two are representatives of two different grades of social order, Jacob being a pastoralist and Esau a nomadic hunter. During her pregnancy, Rebekah was told by God that she would give birth to twins; each of them would found a great nation, and Esau, the elder, would serve his younger brother. As it turned out, Jacob, by means of an elaborate double deception, managed to obtain his older brother's birthright from their father. Jacob then fled his brother's wrath and went to take refuge with the Aramaean tribe of his ancestors at Haran in Mesopotamia.
Along his journey Jacob received a special revelation from God; God promised Jacob lands and numerous offspring that would prove to be the blessing of the entire Earth. Jacob named the place where he received his vision Bethel ("House of God"). Arriving at his uncle Laban's home in Haran, Jacob fell in love with his cousin Rachel. He worked for her father, Laban, for seven years to obtain Rachel's hand in marriage, but then Laban substituted his older daughter, Leah, for Rachel at the wedding ceremony. Unwittingly married to Leah, Jacob was thus compelled to serve Laban for another seven years so that he could take his beloved Rachel as his wife as well. Jacob then served Laban for another six years, during which he amassed a large amount of property; he then set out with his wives and children to return to Palestine. On the way Jacob wrestled with a mysterious stranger, a divine being, who changed Jacob's name to Israel. Jacob then met and was reconciled with Esau and settled in Canaan.
Jacob had 13 children, 10 of whom were founders of tribes of Israel. Leah bore him his only daughter, Dinah, and six sons--Reuben, Simeon, Levi (who did not found a tribe, but was the ancestor of the Levites), Judah (from whom a tribe and the Davidic monarchy were descended), Issachar, and Zebulun. Leah's maidservant, Zilpah, bore him Gad and Asher, and Rachel's maidservant, Bilhah, bore him Dan and Naphtali. Rachel's sons were Benjamin and Joseph (who did not found a tribe, but whose sons founded the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim).
The story of Jacob's later years more properly belongs to the story of Joseph. Late in his life, a famine prompted Jacob and his sons to migrate to Egypt, where he was reunited with his son Joseph, who had disappeared some years before. Israel died in Egypt at the age of 147 years and was buried in Canaan at Hebron.
The stories about Jacob's birth and his acquisition of the birthright (Genesis 25:19-34; 27) provide a thinly veiled apology for the relation between Edom (Esau) and Israel in Davidic times. Edom, the older nation, was made subject to Israel by David (2 Samuel 8:8ff.). The Jacob stories assume and emphasize that all things occur by divine design. The divine objective is of overriding significance; it is God's will that Esau (Edom) shall live in the desert and be subject to Israel.
© 1999-2000 Britannica.com and Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.