Now today our study brings us to the 25th Chapter of Genesis.  And this one records the death of Abraham, and it gives the generations of Ishmael and also the generations of Isaac and the birth of the twins, Jacob and Esau—or Esau and Jacob, if you want them in chronological order—and then the experience of Esau and Jacob relative to the birthright.  So that this is a remarkable chapter and it covers a great deal of ground.

Now we saw last time how a bride was secured for Isaac, and that bride was Rebekah.  And we read now in Chapter 25, this will be the last mention of Abraham; that is, in the record, but frankly his story ended back when the servant was sent out to get a bride for Isaac.  

ABRAHAM AGAIN MARRIES

I’m reading Chapter 25:1 of Genesis.

Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah.

Now Abraham after the death of Sarah, he married again and this one is Keturah.

And she bare him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah.

And that’s quite a family.  He had his biggest family after the death of Sarah.  And somebody raises the question, “Well, I thought that at the time of the birth of Isaac that this man, he was dead as far as his capabilities of bringing a child into the world.”  Friends, he was, but you see this is an evidence of the fact that when God does something, He really does it.  That’s the reason that I believe that anything that God does bears his signature, and right here this man Abraham was not only able to bring Isaac into the world, but he now brings in this great family here.  

But the interesting thing that we have before us is that we have Medan and Midian.  Now the other boys, I’ll be honest you, that nations came from them, but I can’t identify them right now, and I’m interested because they do not cross the pathway in Scripture.  But Midian does; we’ll find out that Moses a little later on goes down into the land of Midian, and he takes a wife there in Midian.  Remember, that’s in the line of Abraham.  And the midianites also, so that you have here these other sons of Abraham.  But we’ll not follow them for the very simple reason that we’re following Isaac, and Isaac is the way the Lord put it “your seeds are called.”  It’s through Isaac and not through any of these others; not through Ishmael; not through Midian or Medan.  And all of these were men of the desert, nomads in that day.

ABRAHAM DIES

Now we come down to Verse 5.

And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac.  (Notice that.)  But unto the sons of the concubines, which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, eastward, unto the east country.  And these are the days of the years of Abraham’s life which he lived, an hundred threescore and fifteen years.  Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people.  (Genesis 25:5-8)

This is interesting.

And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, which is before Mamre.  The field which Abraham purchased of the sons of Heth: there was Abraham buried, and Sarah his wife.  (Genesis 25:9-10)

Now Ishmael comes for the funeral because, after all, Abraham is his father.  And here Isaac and Ishmael bury Abraham.  In Verse 11 we follow it right along now.

And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed his son Isaac; and Isaac dwelt by the well Lahairoi.  

That’s where you remember he met Rebekah when she came to him.  Now we have in Verse 12 down through Verse 18 the generations of Ishmael, Abraham’s son whom Hagar, the Egyptian, Sarah’s handmaid, bear unto Abraham.  Now the list of them are given here, and I have no intention of reading this section at all, but to call your attention to the fact that is the method of the Holy Spirit; this is the handwriting of the Spirit of God.  And that is in the Book of Genesis, the rejected line is given first and then set aside; not mentioned any more.  And the line that’s leading to Christ is given.  And, therefore, after we have line of Ishmael, then we come in Verse 19 and we have here, “Now these….”

ESAU AND JACOB

And these are the generations of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham begat Isaac.  (Genesis 25:19)

Now this is the line we’re going to follow, and you’ll find this in the first chapter of the Book of Genesis.  “Abraham begat Isaac.  Isaac begat Jacob.”  Each one of these had other sons, as we’ve seen.  Abraham had quite a few sons here, but they’re not mentioned.  That is, the genealogy of these men is not followed at all; only the genealogy of Isaac, his father.  And now we read in Verse 20.  We’re following Isaac from now on.  You can forget Ishmael and you can forget Midian and Medan.  Now they’ll cross the path of the sons of Abraham through Isaac time and again.

And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to Laban the Syrian.  And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife, because she was barren: and the Lord was entreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.  (Genesis 25:20-21)

Now this girl Rebekah is barren.  Now Isaac beseeches the Lord, and she now is going to give birth to twins.  Verse 22.

And the children struggled together within her…

And that is a very interesting statement.  In fact, it’s so interesting that you can follow it right on through the Scriptures.  This is the struggle.  You find that that is the struggle that goes on today in the world.  There is the struggle between Light and Darkness, between good and evil, between the Spirit and the flesh, and every child of God knows something of that struggle.  It’s what’s set before us in the 7th of Romans.  

And the children struggled together within her; and she said, if it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the Lord.

She didn’t quite understand.  And now Verse 23.

And the Lord said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.

Now this is the statement that God makes to her:  The elder is to serve the younger.  Now she should have believed it and also her son that was the youngest should have believed it.  Because God says that the elder shall serve the younger.  Now Verse 24.

And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.  And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau.  

That means “red” by the way.  He came out red, earth colored.  He’s the eldest, but the eldest will serve the younger.

And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau’s heel; and his name was called Jacob: and Isaac was threescore years old when she bare them.  (Genesis 25:26)

Actually, they’d been married there for about 20 years before the children were born, these two boys.  And the oldest is Esau; he’s “Old Red” if you please and earth colored.  And Jacob—they called him that, Usurper.  And he took hold on Esau’s heel, and he’s trying to become the elder or take his place, but God’s already promised that to him, and he should have believed God.  

Now we look at these two boys as they grow up in this home.

And the boys grew: and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents.  (Genesis 25:27)

Now here are the two boys, they’re twins, but no two boys were ever as different as these two are.  They not only struggled in the womb, but they’re against each other from here on out.  They just absolutely have different viewpoints, a different philosophy of life, and their thinking is different; their attitude is different.  

Now at the very beginning, I must confess that Esau is more attractive than Jacob is.  But you see you can’t always judge by the outward signs.  You have to judge by what takes place on the inside.  Frankly, you need to see that in this particular case here.  

“And the boys grew; and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents.”  Now this fellow Esau is a cunning hunter.  He’s a man of the field.  He’s the athletic type, the outdoor boy, the one that we’d call him today ‘The All-American boy.”  He went in for sports.  He went in for everything that was physical, but he had no spiritual ability whatsoever or understanding or capacity or desire.  It was always for that which was physical.  He represents the flesh.  

And Jacob was a plain man, and I think that you can make of that anything you want to; dwelling in tents. He’s indoors.  He was mama’s boy.  He was tied to his mama’s apron strings.  You’ll notice that he moved and did what she told him to do.  He’s really a mama’s boy.  And this boy Esau is papa’s boy though.  Verse 28.

And Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison: but Rebekah loved Jacob.

Now you have the problem right here in the home.  You would feel that under these circumstances they’re going to have trouble, and they are, because when one parent’s partial to one child and the other parent is partial to the other child, then you have trouble.  And that’s exactly what took place here.  And Isaac loved him because he ate of his venison.  Esau went out hunting, and he always got something when he went out hunting and brought home venison, and Isaac liked that.  And he liked this boy.  He’s the outdoor type.  And Rebekah loved Jacob.  He’s the mama’s boy.  And very frankly, at this particular juncture, I must confess that this boy Esau is much more attractive.  In fact he seems to be more of a wholesome boy.  This boy Jacob is cunning.  He tries to be clever.  The fact of the matter is he doesn’t mind stooping to do things that are absolutely wrong.  God will deal with him.  

But the interesting thing, though that Esau may be very attractive on the outside, down underneath he had really no capacity for God whatsoever, and if there ever was a man of the world, he’s that man of the world.  He is just a physical man; that’s all.  That’s all he lives for.  But down underneath Jacob, there was a desire for the things that are spiritual, and it took a long time for God to rub off all of the debris on top and to remove all the coverings to get down where it was, but He finally did.  And we’ll see before we’re through with this man Jacob, and he goes almost all the way through the Book of Genesis now, that he was God’s man all the way along.  But he didn’t demonstrate it until late in life, and we’ll come to that.

Now we’re told here an incident that took place in their home there.  Now you can well understand that in a home like this that things would not be too even.  There would be the difficulty; there would be this matter of conflict, and it would not be called a happy home.  Verse 29.

And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint:  And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom.  And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright.   And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me? (Genesis 25:29-32)

Now will you notice this incident reveals, frankly, the natures of both of these men.  Esau came from the field; he was outdoors and he was tired; he was exhausted.  Now he’s not starving to death as some would imply, and no one that had been brought upon the home of Abraham is going to get hungry.  There’d be something for him to eat.  The thing was there was nothing prepared to eat at that moment, but this pottage; this stew or soup that Jacob had made.  Jacob’s the indoor boy; he’s a good chef but not outdoors.  He just does it cooking inside.  “And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage [actually not in the original]; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom.”  And that means red; it means earthy.  And this man, he just asks his brother, “Give me some of this feed.”  Now Jacob said…and he’s a trickster; he’s a traitor.  “And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright.” 

Now Jacob wanted that birthright.  Now what was the value of the birthright?  Let’s look at it for a minute.  In that day it meant several things.  It meant that the one who had it was the head of the house.  It also meant that the one that had it was the priest of the family.  And in this family it meant that the one that had it would be the one that would be in the line that would lead to Christ.  Now do you think that Esau valued it at all?  Jacob knew that he didn’t; that he attached no importance to it at all.  He didn’t care about being the priest of the family.  In fact, that’s the last thing that he wanted to do.  He just wouldn’t do that sort of thing.  

I feel today sometimes when I hear Christians—especially some man who’s a Christian, they ask him to do something; he says, “Oh, I’m not a preacher.  I can’t do that.”  Well sure, you may not be a preacher, but you see that there are too many today that don’t want to do that which is spiritual.  They don’t want to even give the impression that they spiritual or interested in spiritual things.  

Esau, he didn’t want to give that impression.  Anyone that would’ve called him Deacon or Preacher would have insulted him.  He didn’t want the birthright.  And he didn’t care about being in the line that led to Christ.  Fact of the matter is no one could’ve cared less than he did about being in the line that leads to Christ.  

And so Jacob sees that, and he says to him, “I’ll tell you what I’ll do.  If you’ll give me your birthright, I’ll give you a bowl of soup.”  And Esau says, “I’ll be very glad to do it.  What profit is the birthright to me?  What do I care about the birthright.  It’s not worth a bowl of soup to me.”  That’s the value he attached to spiritual things.  

Now the thing that’s wrong about Jacob, of course:  God has promised him the elder shall serve the younger; the birthright is coming to Jacob in God’s own time.  Jacob, though, can’t wait.  And so he reaches out to take that which God has promised him, and he’s taking it in, let us say, a clever, tricky fashion.  He should not have done it this way.  He should have waited for God to give it to him.  But you’ll find out this man can’t wait, and, after all, this man operated on the principle, “What I can do myself, there’s no reason for me to look to God to do it.”  He felt thoroughly capable of taking care of his business.  And he did pretty well as far as the world would measure it…at the beginning.  But there came a day when God really sent him to college, and Laban was the president of the college.  And it was known as the college of hard knocks!  And he’s really going to learn a few things in the college of hard knocks.  But so far, he’s operating on the principle that he’s clever enough to get what’s coming to him.  

Verse 33 now.

And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob.  Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.  (Genesis 25:33-34)

That’s the important thing to see at this juncture.  This man just sits down, eats a bowl of soup.  And for that bowl of soup, he surrendered his birthright, just like that.  It meant nothing to him.  It had no spiritual value to him whatsoever because nothing that was spiritual meant anything to him.  Now you meet a great many people that are that way.  And, unfortunately, I’m afraid we have church members that are like that; who have no spiritual capacity whatsoever; no understanding of spiritual truth.  And that I think is the mark of a Christian today is that one that the Spirit of God can teach and lead and guide.  

This is quite a revelation now of the two boys.  Actually, here he’s deceiving no one.  He‘s just taking advantage of a man that doesn’t attach any value to it at all.  It’s just like a man today that has a very valuable heirloom, say an old Bible that belonged to his grandfather, and another grandson wants it and he pays him 25 cents for it.  And the fellow says, “Well, give me your 25 cents.  I don’t care for it at all, and I was going to throw it away anyway.”  And that’s exactly what Esau would have done, but this boy Jacob did this very cleverly.  But now in this next chapter—and we’re going to have to save that until next time—we’re going to see he’s really a rascal by the way.