Genesis 25:19-34: Jacob and Esau
Bible Essentials: Set 3, Lesson 18
Opening
Individuals: Take time to think back about your past week. Where have you seen God work in your life or answer prayer? Write down any prayer requests you have.
Group: Open the study by sharing life updates, reviewing highs and lows of your past week, or sharing prayer requests and praises.
Icebreaker: If you have any siblings, what was/is your relationship with them like? Did you fight all the time? Or did you get along well?
All: Begin the study with a word of prayer, asking God to open your heart for today’s study. You can also pray for any prayer requests now, or save that for the end.
Study
Read today’s passage: Genesis 25:19-34.
19 This is the account of the family line of Abraham’s son Isaac.
Abraham became the father of Isaac, 20 and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan Aram and sister of Laban the Aramean.
21 Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. 22 The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord.
23 The Lord said to her,
“Two nations are in your womb,
and two peoples from within you will be separated;
one people will be stronger than the other,
and the older will serve the younger.”24 When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. 25 The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment; so they named him Esau. 26 After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them.
27 The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents. 28 Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
29 Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. 30 He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” (That is why he was also called Edom.)
31 Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.”
32 “Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?”
33 But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob.
34 Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left.
So Esau despised his birthright.
What is the context for this passage?
In the stories in Genesis of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we don’t get much time with Isaac. In his early years, Isaac’s story is mostly focused on Abraham—Abraham waiting for a son, finally getting the son God promised (Isaac), sending Abraham’s illegitimate son (Ishmael) away, and then God’s test of Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. Once Isaac grows up, we have one chapter (Genesis 24) that focuses on Isaac getting a wife, although that story focuses more on Rebekah than it does on Isaac.
Once Isaac is married, we have a short passage about Abraham’s death (Genesis 25:1-11). We find that Abraham left everything to Isaac, even though Abraham had another wife and many more sons. We do learn one important thing, though—God blessed Isaac, just as he had blessed Abraham before him. Then, before we learn much more about Isaac, the story switches to Isaac’s sons, Jacob and Esau. Today’s passage is about their birth and relationship as brothers.
Read the passage again.
Explore a different version if you have one available. If you are online, here is Genesis 25 in NIV through Bible Gateway. You can change the version by using the dropdown menu at the top right of the page.
Try to summarize the passage in your own words.
Answer these three questions about the passage:
1. What does the passage say about God?
God hears the prayers of his people. Isaac received God’s blessing passed down from his father Abraham, so now Isaac is one of God’s people, just as his father had been. And just like his father, Isaac worshiped God and followed him. So when Isaac prayed for his wife to have a child, God listened.
God answers the prayers of his people. Not only does God hear the prayers of his people, he answers them. Sometimes he doesn’t answer in the way we expect, but he always answers. When Isaac prayed on behalf of his childless wife, God answered by sending them twin boys.
God has control over childbirth. God’s answer to prayer was to cause Rebekah to become pregnant. Although she had been barren for 20 years, God was able to open her womb so that she could bear the son who would carry on Abraham’s line and God’s blessing. God was able to keep her womb closed, and he was able to open it again. This control that God has over childbirth is seen many times in the Bible, including with Abraham and Sarah.
God speaks to his people. When Rebekah went to inquire about the active child in her womb, she was told there wasn’t one child, but two! God told her what would happen with her two sons. They would be separated into two nations, and the nation of the younger brother would be stronger than the nation of the older brother.
2. What does the passage say about people?
People want children to carry on their family line. Especially in Bible times, having a child to carry on the family line and the family legacy was vitally important. Being barren was viewed as being cursed by God. So why would there be barrenness in the line of God’s blessing? To show God’s power over all creation.
Siblings fight with each other. This passage shows human nature all too well. Some people get lucky (like me) and have a sibling they get along with, but many siblings grow up fighting against each other. Even from within the womb, Jacob and Esau were fighting, and that didn’t seem to stop as they grew up. They continued to have conflict and competition.
People often question God. When Rebekah felt the babies jostling within her, she questioned God: “Why is this happening to me?” When we face difficulty, we often approach God with the same question.
People can have different complexions and personalities even from the same parents. When Jacob and Esau were born, they looked and acted completely different even though they had the same parents—and even shared the womb together! I’ve seen this in a lot of families (including my nieces and nephews). This shows God’s creative combination of genes to bring about exactly the characteristics he wants.
Sometimes parents have favorite children. As much as some parents like to say they don’t have favorites, or try to make sure they don’t favor one child over another, they are human. Even if it’s not overt favoritism like in this passage, parents often play favorites. In this passage, Isaac favored Esau, and Rebekah favored Jacob.
People often over-react to what seems like dire situations. When Esau came in from his time in the open country, he was famished. Perhaps he hadn’t had much success hunting, and he hadn’t eaten in days. Although he likely wouldn’t have died if he took time to fix some food for himself, his hunger over-rode his good sense enough to make him sell his birthright for a bowl of stew. How often do we over-react to situations that we would view differently in other circumstances?
People sometimes try to trick or take advantage of others. When Esau came in and demanded a bowl of stew to alleviate his hunger, Jacob immediately tried to take advantage of Esau’s state of mind. What did Jacob want most? The birthright. In order to get it, he withheld the one thing that Esau needed—food—to use as a bargaining chip.
People do not react well when they are taken advantage of. Once Esau was no longer hungry and he had time to think about what he had done and how Jacob took advantage of him, he was angry. He despised his birthright, and that anger extended not only to his birthright but to Jacob as well.
3. What does the passage say about God’s plan?
God’s plan was to give Isaac a son through which God’s promise would be fulfilled. God promised Abraham that his descendants would become a great nation, and Isaac was the son through which God would fulfill that promise. But there was a problem—Isaac’s wife was childless. Even though this seems like a barrier from a human perspective, it was not a barrier for God. God opened Rebekah’s womb and gave Isaac the son who would continue the line of God’s promise.
God’s plan was to have two nations come from Isaac and Rebekah. When God opened Rebekah’s womb, he sent Isaac and Rebekah not one son but two. God foretold that these two sons would become two nations, but the younger son would bring forth the stronger nation.
God’s plan was for Jacob to have the birthright even though he was younger. Even before their birth, God had a plan for Isaac and Rebekah’s two boys: The older would serve the younger. The start of the fulfillment of this plan occurred when Esau sold his birthright to Jacob. With the birthright, Jacob would be the one to receive the blessing and the bulk of the inheritance. Jacob’s line would be the one through which the Messiah would come.
How does the passage fit into the overarching story of the Bible?
Sometimes it’s easier to understand a passage if you have a little outside knowledge from other passages in the Bible. This section will help provide that outside perspective.
In this short passage, we see the three forefathers of the Israelites in one passage for the first time. It starts with describing the family line of Abraham through Isaac and ends with Isaac’s son Jacob receiving the birthright from Esau. In this passage, we see God’s propensity for upending the way humans think things should be. Instead of the birthright and the blessing of Abraham’s line going through Esau, the firstborn, it went through Jacob even though Jacob was younger.
I don’t know what his reasoning was, but God had a reason for picking Jacob rather than Esau to fulfill his promise to Abraham to become a great nation. Not only did this completely switch the line of the birthright and blessing, it showed careful selection of which son would be the one through which the Messiah would come. Jesus came through the line of Jacob, not the line of Esau. And throughout the Old Testament, God’s favor and focus rested on the descendants of Jacob, not the descendants of Esau. God made this choice before they were even born. Even when the Israelites rejected God, God still preserved a remnant of Jacob’s line for the Messiah.
Just like with Jacob and Esau, God created each one of us, and he knows exactly what his plan is for us before we are ever born. Psalm 139:13-16 says:
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
God ordained all our days before we were even born. He knows exactly what his plan is for each of us. And for those who are predestined, part of God’s plan is for us to seek him. We see this in Jeremiah 29:11-13:
11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
This promise may have been made to the Babylonian exiles, but they are just as true for us today. What hope and future does God have for us? He gave us eternal hope through his son, Jesus Christ, who came through the line of Jacob. Jesus, God himself born as a man, lived a perfect life and paid the penalty for our sins so that we could live in hope of eternal life if we believe in him.
Discussion
Individual: Answer the following questions thoughtfully for yourself.
Group: Pose these questions for discussion.
All: If you are willing to share, I’d love to hear your thoughts to these questions. Feel free to use the comment section to start a discussion about this passage.
What else strikes you about this passage?
How does the passage affect how you view God? How you view yourself?
How does this passage affect how you will live your life?
Additional Study
For additional study related to this topic, read Malachi 1:1-5.
Premium Resources
For Bible Essential studies, you can use my thoughts as your devotional, or you can download and use the journaling sheet to work through the passage on your own. If desired, you can then compare your thoughts to mine. Journal sheets can be downloaded and used now or later. They can be printed and filled in by hand or saved and filled out electronically. Journal sheets are available for individual or group use.
If you plan to lead a group study, a PowerPoint presentation is also available.
You can access these resources by clicking here: Genesis 25 Resources
Or you can download the journal sheets here*:
*Substack doesn’t support PowerPoint file downloads yet, so if you want to access the PowerPoint file for group study, you will need to download it from the resource page linked above.
Pls pray I can learn learn to b a better writer I'm 64 too old for school but all things are possible with GOD
Your study gave me some things to reflect on this morning. I had a comment on post this week that questioned predestination. I had trouble coming up with the verse that supported it. The verse jumped out at me in your study. Now, I have an answer! Thank you for your work.