“Jacob is Born”

Genesis 25:19-26

 

We are beginning the story of Jacob. This is the story of the youngest of twins born to Isaac and Rebekah. His name means “heel catcher” from his action as he was exiting the birth canal holding on to the heel of his brother, Esau. The name also describes how he lives his life, with a cunning demeanor that was full of deception. This is quite a story, so get ready for an interesting tale. 

 

As an overview, the story of Jacob, in the book of Genesis begins in chapter 25, verse 19 and ends in chapter 37, verse 1. Go figure. This just goes to show that the chapter divisions may have been an attempt to establish some kind of meaningful breaks in the literary organization, but when it comes right down to it, they are often messed up. This should remind us that the original text was written in Hebrew with no verses or chapters. 

Jacob’s story is bundled into three sections and each section has been bundled into groups of three. This is a common literary convention used by biblical authors. Our first bundle begins with the birth of twins and the first story of Jacob deceiving Esau out of his birthright. 

 

Then, Jacob and Esau all of a sudden drop out of the picture and in chapter 26 we pick up on a story of Isaac, the father of these twins. Isaac replays story for story what had happened to his father Abraham. He deceives a foreign king about the identity of his wife because he’s scared for his own life. He eventually makes peace with that same king, by a well, by making a covenant. 

 

We then return back to the story of Jacob and his brother. This story is probably one of the more famous stories of Jacob where he and his mom concoct a plan to steal the blessing from his brother by deceiving the father. 

The author has intentionally placed these two stories of deception of the son deceiving the father and brother around the story of the father's deception. 

 

Do you get it? 

 

The theme of the entire first section is wrapped with layers of deception upon deception. Demonstrating that the fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree. The son is like the father who is like the grandfather. 

How does it end? 

Jacob manages to get both the birthright and blessing but finds himself exiled because he’s afraid that his brother is going to kill him. We could have guessed. 

 

The saga continues. 

 

Part two of the story goes from chapter 28, verse 10 to chapter 32, verse 1. 

The first paragraph of this section has Jacob leaving the land and at the end of the section he comes back to the land. The exit and return frame Jacob’s exile, 

which lies in the middle. 

 

The first story in this section is about Jacob’s ladder. It’s the moment Jacob sees Heaven and Earth united. It’s quite the story. At the beginning of Jacob’s exile he has a dream or vision, he sets up a stone and a pillar and he hears God’s promise of blessing. 

So, before he even begins the exile, 

Jacob hears from God 

that He would be with him and 

God would bring him back. 

 

Then we read three long stories of Jacob in exile in the house of his Uncle Laban. 

Talk about deception. 

It’s contagious, deception upon deception, combined with sibling rivalries within family rivalries. And in the middle of all this, we get the birth of 12 sons, the origins of the tribes of Israel, in a story full of people trying to work each other over and deceive and trick each other. 

What chaos!

 

Following this, Jacob has a dream where he recalls the dream he had when he was first exiled, and he hears God say to him, “Okay, it’s time to go back.” Not so simple. Jacob starts to leave and his uncle chases after him. Then they become so angry with each other because of the twenty  years of conflict and resentment and treachery, that you think there is going to be a major fight but they choose to make peace through a covenant on a mountain. Why? 

Laban understands that Jacob is attached to God’s blessing and he wants to be a part of it. 

He actually smartens up. 

 

Then we have part three, chapter 32, verse one to chapter 37, verse one, with the overarching fact that Jacob and Esau’s conflict has not been resolved, from when Jacob went into exile. We have Jacob about to meet his brother Esau and then God picks a fight with Jacob in the middle of the night. I know you’ve most likely heard about this story being where Jacob wrestles with God, but actually it’s God who picks a fight in the middle of the night. The result is Jacob goes to meet his brother Esau, limping and wounded from his fight. 

 

Next, we are presented with a story about Jacob’s sons who do the deceiving. They deceive the inhabitants of the city of Shechem and murder them because their ruler, a guy named Shechem, son of Hamor, oh yeah and the name Hamor means, “donkey” which we will discuss, 

but this donkey’s son rapes the the daughter of Jacob and the brothers are peeved. They retaliate by deceiving and murdering all of the male inhabitants of the city. After all of this, Jacob and Esau decide they will part ways. Guess what, Esau goes to the east and builds a city. Jacob stays in the land of Canaan. 

 

Good grief! 

This is not the happy part of the story of Genesis. 

No way. 

It’s about as human and raw as you can get. 

The central theme is not love, joy, peace and hope, the central theme is deception, in each of the three movements. Isaac deceives the nations, and his son, Jacob and his uncle Laban deceive each other. Then Jacob’s sons deceive the Canaanites. 

 

Throughout these three sections we will be listening to the melody of the snake. Where’s the good guy? 

At least when we read the story of Cain and Abel there was an innocent person. But do you recall that even in the Abraham story the good guys sometimes became bad guys and the bad guys sometimes acted better than the good guys? 

 

At this point it seems like the chosen line that God has chosen to work in and through, was actually born a bad guy. 

Now what do we do? 

It seems that Jacob was born a snake and managed to give birth to a whole bunch of little snakelings who spend most of their time in deceit and treachery. 

 

In essence we have what is called a tragedy. And yet, God’s faithfulness to this family is amazing. 

The story of Jacob is raw and unflattering, and unfortunately a portrait of human nature. 

 

I think that is supposed to be the point. 

 

We are reading a preview of what will happen in Exodus, Leviticus, and so on throughout the Hebrew Bible. Children replaying and intensifying the behavior of their parents. That’s the organization of the Jacob story. 

 

It’s not much different than what we have already read. Can you recognize the melody? God has a plan to work through somebody, who isn’t the firstborn, and again, there seems to be a distrust in God’s plan and when that distrust gets acted upon and things go crazy. Jacob is someone God wants to bless the world through and for whatever reason, he can’t believe it and manages to follow his own wisdom and it leads to utter disaster. 

This whole story is about a guy who has never truly believed that God would want to bless him and in turn bless the whole world through him, so he sabotages his whole life and everybody’s life around him trying to manufacture his own Eden instead of receiving the gift. 

 

Phew! Let’s get started with the first section of the story of Jacob in chapter 25, verse 19. 

 

We first read that Jacob and Esau are born into the line of Abraham’s son Isaac. The author provides a link back to Genesis 24, when Abraham sent his servant back to his homeland to find a young woman from his extended family to marry Isaac. And guess what? Just like Sarah, Abraham’s wife, Rebekah is barren. Yet, unlike Abraham and Sarah, who chose to put things in their own hands, we are told that Isaac petitioned Yahweh on behalf of his wife. 

It took a while, but twenty years later, she became pregnant. Verse 22 tells us, this time I am going to read from The Message, 

“But the children tumbled and kicked inside her so much that she said, “If this is the way it’s going to be, why go on living?” 

If any of you women, who have been pregnant, you have an essence of what this was like. Although I did not give birth to twins, I vividly remember, without any warning, being kicked in the ribs by both Emily and Lydia. I can only imagine what Rebekah’s ribs felt like with two babies tumbling and kicking. 

Like her husband Isaac, she went to God to find out what was going on, again from The Message, 

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.

When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. The first one to come out was red all over his body and he was covered with hair. They called him Esau, which means “hairy.” The second boy to be born came out with his hand around the first boy's heel, so he was named “Jacob” or “heel grabber.” This was the typical way of naming your child during the Old Testament. The mothers would often give a name immediately after birth that reflected the circumstances of the birth. 

Did you notice the cryptic riddle Yahweh gave to Rebekah? 

She seeks an explanation for what was going on in her womb and God provides a futuristic vision of what will happen when the children grow older. 

We are given a preview of everything that is about to happen. This is a regular occurrence in the Old Testament, beginning in Genesis 3 with God’s comments to the snake and the woman. 

What does Yahweh say about these two children?

The two babies are a reflection of two peoples that will be separated. One is going to be stronger than the other. Oh, and unlike what happens in the world, the older one is going to serve the younger one. 

 

Before their stories have a chance to begin, we are primed to know and anticipate the idea of the inversion of the birth order. Which is not a new concept with God’s people because this inversion began with Cain and Abel, Ishmael and Isaac. 

 

But check out what we read regarding the birth of these boys. First, we are told a hairy like animal comes out, followed by a trickster, grabbing the heel of the older. We already know the older is going to be subservient to the younger, so why is the younger one grabbing at that position? 

Do you see it? 

We are given a preview of the entire story right here? There exists a tension between what God ordains through His purpose and sovereignty as a future for this family, because straight from the womb, the younger comes out grabbing, as if the future will be realized by his taking. 

There we have it, the age old debate between

• God’s sovereign purpose and plans and
• God’s delegating His authority and purpose to humans who have their own will

And how often those two things wind up being in conflict with each other. The very moment God delegates His authority to image-bearing humans, there has been a tension about humans executing their own will, which often is at odds with God’s will. 

 

Yet, the portrait of God is that He won’t let humanity’s will derail His ultimate goals. As we continue to read through the book of Genesis we will see that this debate is not resolved, at times it will actually be amplified, but through it all, God keeps working with Jacob. Amen. 

 

Check in time. 

Since the beginning of Genesis we have been reading about God’s plan to get past human errors in order to bless His creation. All along the way humans seem to get in the way and mess things up. 

Humans have been given free will, but according to God we have also been given the ability to tame it. I suspect as we continue to read about Jacob we will discover many similarities both good and bad. May we hold on to the most compelling lesson provided through his narrative, that regardless of what Jacob does or says, God’s plans won’t be thwarted. 

Jacob’s son, Joseph says it quite nicely when he confronts his brothers, as he looks back over what has happened in his life and he says to them, Genesis 50:20,

“Don’t be afraid. Do I act for God? Don’t you see, you planned evil against me but God used those same plans for my good, as you see all around you right now—life for many people. Easy now, you have nothing to fear; I’ll take care of you and your children.”

 

When we walk with the Lord, and even when we or those around us don’t, God’s plans continue. 

 

Let’s pray.