“Jacob Gets the Birthright”

Genesis 25:27-34

 

We are reading through the book of Genesis and have started the narrative of Jacob, the youngest of twins born to Isaac and Rebekah. We were told last week during the narrative of the birth of these twins, that  the older will serve the younger. This is a God thing that continues throughout Scripture. Mind you, God has told Rebekah that Jacob is the chosen one. Today we read how Jacob actually gets the sibling birthright. Which by the way, was not necessarily a God thing. 

 

We begin today’s Scripture finding out that the boys have grown up. Esau became a man who was an expert hunter, an outdoorsman. Jacob, on the other hand, preferred to live indoors among the tents. We are also told that Isaac loved Esau. Why? 

Because Isaac loved the game he brought home for him to eat. As for Rebekah, well, she loved Jacob. Within the first two verses we have gained a great deal of insight on this family system. The boys have grown up and they are completely in contrast to each other. Esau was an animal slayer, a man of the field and Jacob was content to stay home, more of a home body. We also discover there was a contrast between the parents in relation to the contrasting siblings. Isaac really loved his first born son, not so much because of who he was but for what he provided him…Esau brought his father game, “meat for his mouth,” is the direct translation. Whereas, Rebekah loved Jacob. 

 

This isn’t the first father who has had a tender spot for his firstborn son, even though the firstborn son was not the chosen one. Think back to Abraham, who argued with God that he already had a first born son, Ishamael. 

But God said, no, it’s not the son from Hagar that is the chosen one, but the son from Sarai, Queen, that the chosen line will come from. God promised to bless Ishmael but he would not be the chosen line. Abraham was able to come to grips with God’s plan but Isaac brings his favoritism to another level. We will discover the sibling rivalry and the parent rivalry becomes pretty complicated quite quickly. 

 

For one thing, we are told why Isaac loves Esau. It’s all about his stomach. We are not told why Rebekah loves Jacob, however. 

Could it be because Rebekah knows something significant about Jacob? 

Remember, while the twins were in her womb she was at her wits end so she petitioned God for answers. God provided a little poem about two nations in her womb and one being greater than the other. 

We know that Rebekah knows about the younger serving the older, is that why she loves Jacob? 

As far as that goes, does Isaac know that Esau won’t be the line of promise? 

Did Rebekah tell anyone? We have no idea. 

 

The narrator has left that to our imagination. What the narrator does reveal is that these two parents have different visions of the future of the family. 

 

The narrator has offered some other details that should take us back to the melody of this story. Esau isn’t the first hunter we have encountered. Does anyone remember the first hunter?    

Nimrod, from the line of Ham, the non-chosen line of Noah. Jacob will carry on the chosen line of Shem. 

We should recall that Nimrod, the non-chosen line, was the hunter, and Shem and the tents resemble Jacob. It’s all connected. Like an echo.

 

Let’s continue with verse 30. One day Jacob was cooking a stew. The narrator is comparing Jacob with Esau revealing to us that Jacob can make a meal too. It happens to be a vegetarian, lentil stew, but a meal nonetheless. It just so happened that Esau came in from the field and he was famished. It’s tough work being out in the field, dragging dead animals around and dressing them and such. Esau sees the red stew his brother had made and asks him for some. 

 

At this point, the narrator puts in a bit of a side note telling us that for the rest of the Hebrew Bible, when you hear about Esau, he will be called by his other name  Edom, meaning “red.” 

Esau puts out the request for Jacob’s stew and it just so happened that Jacob was ready to present a deal. “Sure, bro, I’ll give you some stew, all you have to do is give me your birthright, or the rights of the firstborn. Esau has a dramatic reply, verse 32,

“I’m starving! What good is a birthright if I’m dead?”

 

Jacob demands that Esau swear an oath. Esau did it and then Jacob gave him some bread and some lentil stew. Esau ate and drank then he got up and left. We then read that Esau despised his birthright. 

 

It doesn’t get any better than this, does it? 

 

It’s like we are watching some backwards movie. We began with a little bit of background information on the characters. Rival siblings with their rival parents. 

Then we get to this stew scene where the non hunter does some cooking, the hunter comes in and all he can think about is his gut, oh yeah, just like his dad, who happens to like him because he brings him food. It’s clear Esau doesn’t fall far from that tree because he too is all about feeding his empty stomach. So much that he’s willing to give up his rights as the first born son. There you have it, the slick, skinny deceiver outwits the big, burly hairy guy out of his inheritance. You’re not sure if you should be rooting for the deceiver or for the deceived. 

 

We’ve focused on Esau being linked to Nimrod. What about Jacob, let’s look at how the narrator describes him. To do so, I’m going to read a variety of translations for verse 27 that describes Jacob, 

 

NIV - “while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents.” 

 

NASB - “Jacob was a [o]civilized man, living in tents. The subscript reads “complete”

 

The Message - “Jacob was a quiet man preferring life indoors among the tents.” 

 

King James - “Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents”

 

New Living Translation - “but Jacob had a quiet temperament, preferring to stay at home.”

 

This is a great example of why it is helpful to be reading in different translations as you study the Bible. Whenever there is a variety it should be a signal… beep….beep….beep. Telling you that something interesting is going on here. Basically it means that no one is quite sure exactly what the Hebrew is trying to say and the author has created a bit of a rabbit hole for you to go down that will provide you with a deeper understanding, should you be inclined to enter.  

Shall we enter? Let’s go…..

The Hebrew word used to describe Jacob is “tam,” transliterated T-A-M. It is used to describe somebody’s moral completeness or their moral wholeness. If you were to do an initial search with your concordance you would discover it in the opening line of Job, Job is called an “‘ish tam,” or a whole man, same phrase. He’s upright, he feared God, he turned away from evil. This should immediately prick your ear, Jacob is being called an “ish tam” in a story where he tricks his brother? So you keep looking in your concordance and discover in Psalm 37, “Consider the tam, observe the upright. A good future awaits those who seek peace.” Okay, the person of “tam” is upright and because they are peacemakers they have good things in store for them. We are still a bit confused because again that doesn’t sound at all like Jacob. 

 

So what is going on here? Well, it turns out the biblical authors often intentionally introduce puzzles or riddles into a story to force you to begin thinking about the melody, to open your eyes and ears to a deeper significance layered in the story. It’s a literary technique that offers a gem of knowledge if you are willing to do the work and meditate on what has been written and not just take things at face value. 

In this story we have a word used to describe morally upright people in a story about a man who is not morally upright. 

Let’s go back in the book of Genesis where there was a person that was called “tam.” His name was Noah. He was a man of “tam” for his generation. He became God’s chosen one. God rescued him out of the many when the many perished in the de-creation. God than used him as the vehicle to bless the many on the other side. 

Okay, as for Jacob, he too is the chosen one. 

So they have that in common. 

Jacob will go into exile and become many, and out of that many, will come the line of the snake crusher. 

So given all of that, he has some connection to the man of “tam,” because eventually he will play the Noah role. 

But…. Does he share the same characteristics as Noah?

 

Well let’s look at what Jacob has to say for himself. Up to this point we are in the first section of Jacob’s story and it’s all about deception to Jacob’s brother and soon to Jacob’s father. In that next section, where Rebekah tells Jacob to go to his father and take the meal she will make for him and get the blessing, Jacob responds with, “Listen mom, this is not going to work. It’s like this. My brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man.” 

The word Jacob uses to describe himself as smooth is, “ish khalaq.” Let’s compare this description of a smooth man with a whole man. The word tam can mean morally whole but it also can mean physically whole. For example, animals that were brought to the temple for a sacrifice were supposed to be animals that were “tam” or “tamim.” Meaning that they had no blemishes, or cracks in their skins or any spots. They’re whole. What is even more interesting about Jacob calling himself a “smooth” man is that the word “smooth” is one of the most regular metaphors to talk about smooth talkers in the Hebrew Bible. 

Here are some examples: 

Psalm 12: “Everybody lies to their neighbor. They all have smooth lips with deception in the heart.” 

Proverbs 5: “The lips of the adulterous woman drip honey. Her speech is more smooth than oil.” 

The descriptions of Jacob being a whole man and being a smooth man holds a double meaning. It’s like a pun. And then when we compare him to his brother Esau we have the whole man vs. the hunting man and the smooth man vs. the hairy man. The narrator is presenting us with Jacob, the enigma. He is the opposite of God’s anointed representatives in the world but he’s the chosen representative in his generation. 

How can this be? 

It causes the reader to stop and think. When there seems to be a disconnect in the story, the author is purposefully signaling for us to return back to the melody. We are being asked to rethink what has already happened and recall matching parts of the story. 

Okay, Can you think of another human who was willing to give up their firstborn right for a meal? 

Well, the guy in this story had two names, Esau and Edom. That should take you to the first human character’s name, Adam. It has the same letters as Edom. 

Well, wasn’t Adam willing to give up his firstborn right for a meal because of a deceiver. 

Listen to the melody. The echo of the Eden story. Where humans were called the image of the creator and then the royal priestly representatives when God puts the humans to work and keep the garden, which is the language of what priests do. 

Jump to Colossians, chapter 1 where the Apostle Paul writes a poem where he describes Jesus as the image of the invisible God and the firstborn of all creation. The two ways used to talk about the chosen representative that God ordains to rule the cosmos. 

Take our story of the brothers. 

Esau is in the Adam slot. 

Jacob is in the snake slot.

The blessing is in the tree slot. 

Pretty creative, don’t you think? 

Yet, in the midst of our story we have Jacob acting as if what God told his mother Rebekah is something 

Either he never heard or 

if he did, 

it is something he doesn’t trust. 

Because we find him trying to deceive his way into the very thing that God has already destined him to have. 

Check in time. 

I see Jacob’s all over the place, all the time. Christian believers who know the gospel, inside and out and yet, they act like Jacob. 

They are the smooth talkers, who seek out the best in life, sometimes at the expense of others, but justified because deep down inside they feel they deserve it. And when they don’t feel like God has given it to them, they decide to take it for themselves. 

Worldly cultures haven’t changed much either. During the time of Jacob and Esau, world culture destined the oldest male to be in charge and gain the majority of the family inheritance. Today world culture tells us bigger is better, having more means you are well off. Advertisements are reminding us of this every day, “You deserve a break today, just get up and get away, to McDonalds”

It’s all around us. People who claim to be Christians, not always acting like Christians, yet, prospering. What to do with that conundrum. Yet, that is much like the story of Jacob. As we continue to read through the book of Genesis we are presented with the question - 

How does Jacob's smooth talk and treachery relate to God’s will and purposes? 

We haven’t been given an answer……..yet. 

We will continue the story of Jacob but first the narrator will provide more details with a bit of a back story of Jacob’s parents, Isaac and Rebekah. 

Let’s pray.