Today's passage: Genesis 25:19-34
Helpful thoughts:
- With the phrase, “These are the generations of” the book of Genesis moves on to the next chapter.
- Once again, the wife in the line of the people of God is barren for a time. Unlike in the previous generation, conception came within one verse! We don't know exactly when Isaac prayed to the Lord for Rebekah to conceive (Or how many times he prayed).
- We do know they had been married for 20 years. Verse 26 tells us Isaac was 60 when Jacob and Esau were born. He was 40 when they married.
- From the womb, Rebekah knew that the younger child among her twins would be the one who carried on the promise. God made this clear from the beginning.
- Esau's name refers to his rugged red features. Jacob was named after his heal grabbing. Grabbing someone's heal was a figure of speech referring to deception.
- Many years later, and for a single warm meal, Esau willingly gave up his firstborn status.
Questions to consider:
- What have we learned so far about Jacob and Esau? What characteristics are already on display in this first passage about their lives?
- Esau and Edom are both tied to the word for “Red.” But, if Esau started being called Edom after the event of selling his birthright, what would he have always thought of whenever people called him Edom? What all did the name “Edom” remind him of? What would Jacob be reminding him of every time he used this name?
- What all did Esau despise when we despised his birthright? What was tied to the birthright of the son of Isaac, the grandson of Abraham (Hebrews 12:15-17)?