Genesis 25

It records the death of Abraham and the birth of the twins, Esau and Jacob, to Isaac and Rebekah. It gives the generations of Ishmael and also the generations of Isaac.

Then there’s an incident involving the birthright of these twins. Abraham’s life is concluded in this chapter, but, really, his story ended back in chapter 23 when he sent the servant out to get a bride for Isaac.

There’s a great deal of ground covered in this remarkable chapter.

So let’s beginat Genesis 25:1-2 and I’m reading, Abraham married another wife, whose name was Keturah. 

She gave birth to Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. 

Now old Abraham has quite a family.

It’s growing rapidly since the death of his beloved Sarah.

Now, you may have thought that Abraham’s capability to father children was finished after the birth of Issac but God never said that the miraculous power to father children would be a one-time only miracle. He apparently kept that ability right up to his death.

Anything God does bears His signature and here we see that signature in the way that Abraham wasn’t only able to bring Isaac into the world, but he now brings another 6 children. We’re not told this but maybe there were even more. There could have been female children also. Female offspring are generally not named in the bible unless they are destined to become important later in life. This is because the scripture, especially here, is dealing with the nations and tribes that come through the seed of the males.

It’s interesting that Medan and Midian are mentioned in the children born from Keturah.

The other 4 boys will have nations come from them also, but we can’t identify them, while Medan and Midian do cross our pathway in Scripture.

We’ll find out later that Moses will go down into the land of Midian and take a wife from there. Remember that the Midianites are in the line of Abraham and so are the Medanites. So we find here the fact that there are other sons of Abraham, but the Lord has said that it’s through Isaac that Abraham’s seed is called, not through any of these other sons.

Now let’s read verses 5 through to 10. Verse 5,  Abraham gave everything he owned to his son Isaac. 

But before he died, he gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them off to a land in the east, away from Isaac. 

Abraham lived for 175 years, and he died at a ripe old age, having lived a long and satisfying life. He breathed his last and joined his ancestors in death. 

His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, near Mamre, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite. 

This was the field Abraham had purchased from the Hittites and where he had buried his wife Sarah. 

Ishmael comes for Abraham’s funeral also, Abraham is his father after all. So Isaac and Ishmael together bury Abraham in the burial place that Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite in the cave of Machpelah near Mamre. Then Isaac goes down to live at the place where he first met Rebekah.

Now we have this reference to Abraham’s concubines in verse 6.

Abraham lived another thirty-five years, after the marriage of Isaac, but all that’s recorded concerning him during that time lies here in just a few verses. We don’t hear any more of God’s amazing appearances to him or any of his trials. The scriptures give us almost no further history of him.

It’s worth pointing out that there’s no complete account of the every day lives of even of the best and greatest saints. That’s not the purpose of the bible. Some of the bible’s most prominent people just slide silently off the pages of scripture. This’s how it was with Abraham. Remember the bible is the story of Christ and His redemption and only that which teaches us about that is included in the Bible. It’s not a book on world events, or science or how to win friends and influence people.

So we come to this reference in verse 6 about Abraham giving gifts to the sons of the concubines.

The only relationship of this sort that we know of in Abraham’s life was with Hagar in Genesis 16:1-4.

Bible scholars and teachers differ on how this fits. Most see it as that although Keturah was Abraham’s second wife, she was on a different level than Sarah. There’s also some uncertainty around the word “concubine” itself. However, because of the lack of any events relating to Abraham’s life after the death of Sarah, we just don’t know.

What we do know is that in regard to God’s covenant promise to Abraham and his descendants, only Sarah and Issac matter and the bible only tells us of the things that matter to God’s ultimate purpose.

The greatest part of Abraham’s inheritance went to Isaac. The other sons (Ishmael included) migrated to “the East country,” that is, Arabia, but each received a portion of Abraham’s wealth, perhaps in cattle and other things.

We move to verse 11,  After Abraham’s death, God blessed his son Isaac, who settled near Beer-lahai-roi in the Negev. 

From the next verse, Genesis 25:12 through to Genesis 25:18 we have the generations of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s handmaid, bare unto Abraham.

The rejected line is given first and then set aside and not mentioned anymore. Then the line that is leading to Christ is given and followed.

Again we should be aware of the fact that the Holy Spirit uses this method in the Book of Genesis.

So it’s after the line of Ishmael’s given that we come to the line of Isaac. After the list of descendants from Ishmael is listed there’s a statement made that’s always been true of those descendants from then right up till today. The statement is, They lived in open hostility toward all thier relatives.

Now we arrive at Genesis 25:19 and I read,  This is the account of the family of Isaac, the son of Abraham. 

This is the line we’re going to follow.

“Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob”. That’s the way the first chapter of Matthew begins.

Each of these men had other sons. Abraham had quite a few sons, but the genealogy of those men is not followed. It’s the genealogy of Isaac that is followed. We can forget Ishmael and Midian and Medan and all the rest. They will cross paths with the descendants of Isaac time and again, but we’ll not follow their lines.

We continue this account of Issac’s family from verses 20 to 21,  Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah as wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padan Aram, the sister of Laban the Syrian. 

Now Isaac pleaded with the LORD for his wife, because she was barren; and the LORD granted his plea, and Rebekah his wife conceived.  

It’s interesting that Rebekah, just like Sarah, was barren. But Isaac pled with God on her behalf, and now she’s pregnant with twins.

To verse 22,  But the two children struggled with each other in her womb. So she went to ask the LORD about it. “Why is this happening to me?” she asked. 

The struggle of these two boys, which began before their birth, represents the struggle which still goes on in the world today. There’s a struggle between light and darkness, between good and evil, between the Spirit and the flesh. Every child of God knows a bit about this great struggle which Paul tells us about in Romans 7 where he uses his own personal struggle as an example.

Rebekah didn’t understand the struggle which was going on within her so she went to the Lord with the question, “Why am I like this?”

In verse  23 the Lord explains to her,  And the LORD told her, “The sons in your womb will become two nations. From the very beginning, the two nations will be rivals. One nation will be stronger than the other; and your older son will serve your younger son.” 

What God said is simple; Rebekah would give birth to twins. The twins would each father nations. One shall be greater than the other, and the younger will be greater than the older.

In this case, God chose to go against the accepted pattern of the younger serving the older. In Romans 9:10-13, the Apostle Paul used this choice of Jacob over Esau before their birth as an illustration of God’s sovereign choice.

Both Rebekah and the younger son should have believed it but again we’ll see humans deciding to help God along towards His purpose.

Verse 24 now,  So when her days were fulfilled for her to give birth, indeed there were twins in her womb. And the first came out red. He was like a hairy garment all over; so they called his name Esau.  

The name Esau means “red” or “earth–coloured.” Because he is born first, he is considered the elder. But remember, the elder is to serve the younger.

Verse 26,  Afterward his brother came out, and his hand took hold of Esau’s heel; so his name was called Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them. 

Isaac and Rebekah had been married for about twenty years before the children were born.

The older one was Esau. They called him “Red”.

Jacob took hold on Esau’s heel; so they called him Jacob, meaning the usurper, because he was trying to become the elder or to take his place. As we’ll see he need not have gone to so much trouble because God had already promised that to him.

Genesis 25:27,  So the boys grew. And Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field; but Jacob was a mild man, dwelling in tents. 

Now we’ll look at these two boys as they grow up in the home.

Here we have twins, but no two boys were ever more different than these two.

They not only struggled in the womb, but they’re against each other from here throughout most of their lives. They have totally different viewpoints, different philosophies of life.

Their thinking is different, and their attitudes are different.

To most men, we would see Esau as more attractive than Jacob. But we learn that we can’t and shouldn’t judge by outward appearance.

We must judge by what’s on the inside and we learn that in this case.

“The boys grew.” This fellow Esau was a cunning hunter, the outdoor boy, the athletic type, the typical Okker. He was into sports and everything that was physical, but he had no understanding and no capacity or even the slightest desire for spiritual things. He was only interested in that which was physical. He represents the flesh.

Jacob was a plain man. We can probably say he didn’t excel at much. He was sort of unremarkable. He lived indoors with mum and as we’ll see he was a real mummy’s boy tied to mum’s apron strings. We notice this when we see that he did what she told him to do.

But this boy Esau is Dad’s boy and we see that in verse 28 and I read, Isaac loved Esau because he enjoyed eating the wild game Esau brought home, but Rebekah loved Jacob. 

We see there’s a problem in the home.

We just know that under these circumstances there’s going to be trouble, and there is.

When one parent favours one child and the other parent favours the other child, there’s always trouble. That’s exactly what took place here.

Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his venison. You see Esau went out hunting, and he always got something when he went hunting. He brought home the venison. Isaac liked that. He liked this outdoor, rough and tough type of lad. Rebekah loved Jacob because he was a mummy’s boy.

Esau seems to be a more wholesome boy whereas Jacob’s cunning and tries to be clever. He doesn’t mind doing things that are absolutely wrong, and God will deal with him for this.

Interestingly, although Esau was very attractive on the outside, down underneath he really had no capacity for God whatever. If ever there was a man of the world, he’s that man. He’s just a physical man and that’s all. That’s all he lived for.

Down underneath in Jacob there was a desire for the things that are spiritual. It took God a long time to rub off all the debris that was on top and remove all the coverings in order to get down to where the spiritual desire was, but He finally did it. Before we’re through with our study of Jacob, and his story goes almost all the way through the Book of Genesis, we’ll see that he was God’s man all along, although he didn’t demonstrate it until late in life.

Now we’re told of an incident which took place in the home. In it we see the favouritism shown by both the father and mother that would contribute to the difficulty and conflict. It certainly couldn’t be called a happy home.

Now we come to Genesis 25:29-32,   Now Jacob cooked a stew; and Esau came in from the field, and he was weary. 

And Esau said to Jacob, “Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am weary.” Therefore his name was called Edom. 

But Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright as of this day.” 

And Esau said, “Look, I am about to die; so what is this birthright to me?” 

This incident reveals the nature of these two.

Esau came from the field. He’d been outdoors, and he was tired. He wasn’t starving to death. Some commentators think he was, but noone who’d been brought up in the home of Abraham was starving to death. There’d always be something to eat. The thing was that there was nothing prepared right at that moment but this pottage, this stew, which Jacob had made.

Jacob was the indoor boy and evidently a good cook.

“Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red stew for I am faint. In the King James Version, the word for the red stew is pottage. For I am weary or faint as in the King James.

Therefore his name was called Edom.” Edom means red or earthy just as Esau does. This man asks for some of the stew, and Jacob saw his chance. He’s a trickster and a traitor, and he wanted the birthright. He said, “Sell me your birthright as of this day.”

Let’s stop and look for a minute at the value of the birthright and what it means. It means that the one who had it was the head of the house. It also means that the one who had it was the priest of the family. In this particular family, it means that the one who had it would be the one who would be in the line that would lead to Christ.

Do you think that Esau valued any of that at all? Jacob knew that he didn’t. He attached no importance to it, and he didn’t want to be the priest of the family. In fact, that’s the last thing that he wanted to be.

That was Esau. He didn’t want to give any impression of regarding spiritual things. If anyone had called him “deacon” or “preacher,” it would’ve been an insult to him.

He just didn’t want the birthright. He didn’t care about being in the line that led to Christ. No one could have cared less about being in that line.

Jacob sees this, 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 stew.” Esau was very happy with the bargain. He said, “I’ll be very happy to do it; what profit is the birthright to me? What do I care about the birthright? I’d rather have a bowl of stew.” That is the value that he attached to spiritual things.

Let’s remember that Jacob also was wrong in what he did. God had promised, “The elder shall serve the younger.” The birthright is coming to Jacob in God’s own time but Jacob can’t wait; so he reaches out to take that which God has promised him. How many times do we see this? He takes it in a clever, tricky fashion but he should’ve waited for God to give it to him.

This man’s attitude was that he’d do what he could for himself. He thought that as long as he could help himself there was no reason to look to God to perform it. He felt thoroughly capable of taking care of his own business. In the beginning, he did quite well at it as far as the world’s measurement went. But there came a day when God sent this man off to college, and his Uncle Laban was going to be the schoolmaster of that college. It was known as the College of Reality, and Jacob was going to learn a few things the hard way in that college. But here he is still operating on the principle that he’s clever enough to get what’s coming to him by his own works. Oh, the spiritual lessons here!

Now we’re in the last two verses of Genesis 25:33-34,  Then Jacob said, “Swear to me as of this day.” So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. 

And Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils; then he ate and drank, arose, and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright. 

“Esau despised his birthright”. That’s the important thing to see here.

So Esau sat down and ate his stew. He had surrendered his birthright because it meant nothing to him. Nothing that was spiritual meant anything to him. Unfortunately,

You know there are many church members like that with no spiritual capacity and no understanding of spiritual truths. The mark of a true Christian is one whom the Spirit of God can teach and guide. The great Charles Spurgeon once said, “Great numbers of persons have no concern about eternal things. They care more about their cats and dogs than about their souls.” It’s beyond belief how easily eternal truths can be waved away by the flick of a hand. That’s exactly what Esau did.

But Jacob’s also wrong, and we’ll see more of his cleverness and trickery next time.

But Jacob’s also wrong, and we’ll see more of his cleverness and trickery next time.