“Who was right in the Jacob and Esau episodes about the birthright and the blessing?”

QUESTION: Who was right and who was wrong in the Jacob and Esau episodes regarding the birthright and the blessing?

ANSWER:When considering episodes like this in God’s Word, we should not allow our reasoning to becloud the lessons God wants us to learn from them. It is always good to look beyond the story for any commentary on it or its characters which Scripture gives us. The Bible’s teaching is absolutely consistent throughout.

Romans 9:10-14 shows us that God in His sovereign purpose had told Rebecca, “The older shall serve the younger.” And God will bring about His purposes and plans. All man’s manipulations will never change God’s purposes or frustrate their being accomplished. He will ever cause all things to work together for His glory and for good to those who love Him.

Even when God, as in the case of Esau and Jacob, makes His purpose known, man generally pays no attention, setting his own desires above God’s. Thus in Genesis 25:27-28 we see Isaac favoring Esau because of the meat from his hunting, and Rebecca favoring Jacob, her stay-at-home son. This was a failure in parenting, first of all, for each to have favorite children, and then to base this favoritism on their fleshly likings. This was quite a decline from the beautiful beginning that marked this couple’s earlier relationship (Gen. 24:67; 25:21).

When we look at the personal character of Esau and Jacob, Esau’s is that of a hunter – impetuous, violent, and strong-willed, as we see with his marriages. In both the Old and New Testament God focuses on his despising the birthright; Hebrews 12:16 terms him a “profane person.” Jacob’s character of supplanter is brought to our attention from his birth, and again and again we see him conniving to get ahead by other than violent means.

While Jacob’s dealings with Esau were anything but brotherly, God simply recounts them without commenting on Jacob’s conduct. We readily see how Jacob took advantage of his brother’s hunger to buy his birthright. This would not only give him a double portion of the inheritance, but also involved headship of the family and, most importantly, the promise of the coming Savior. Our all-seeing and heart-knowing God not only shows us how Esau unwisely bartered away future advantage for momentary satisfaction of appetite, but also that he despised the birthright. To God this was a most serious matter.

God does not concentrate on any legalities involved in the transaction. Instead He shows us what was in the hearts of both parents and sons and how this was expressed in what they did when Isaac decided to bless his sons (Gen. 27). Isaac’s blindness was physical, but also spiritual in that he lost sight of God’s expressed purpose for Esau and Jacob and their future. While Rebecca had not forgotten God’s pronouncement that the elder would serve the younger, there is no indication that her conduct was an attempt to bring about its fulfillment. Her favorite was to get the blessing by hook or by crook. Jacob’s scruples were not based on the right and wrong of the methods his mother suggested to get the blessing, but upon whether they would be successful. As for Esau, he showed that he harbored resentment against Jacob for taking his birthright.

It’s easy to see the wrong of each family member. But God’s purposes cannot be nullified by failures. Romans 9:11 teaches us “that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls.” Blessing depends on God’s faithfulness, not on whether man deserves it or has earned it.

God tells us that when Esau “wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears” (Heb. 12:17). Esau’s bitter cry when deprived of the blessing by Jacob’s deceitfulness showed his resentment. His subsequent threat to kill Jacob gives evidence of his lack of repentance. Jacob is never commended for how he obtained the blessing. His ways to get ahead are condemned in Hosea 12 and other passages. Rebecca never saw Jacob again after he left for Padan Aram.

Hebrews 11:20 picks up on Genesis 27:33 where “Isaac trembled exceedingly and said of Jacob, ‘I have blessed him – and indeed he shall be blessed.’” He realized the mistake he almost made in wanting to give Esau the blessing when God had purposed that it should go to Jacob. Regardless of his guile and Esau’s protestation, Isaac now acted in faith, accepting God’s purpose and how God had allowed his mistake to be overruled, saying, “Indeed, he shall be blessed.”

We are often wrong, but God is always right and His purposes will stand, come what may.

By Eugene P. Vedder, Jr.