Jacob and Esau: Sibling Trickery by Cheri Holdridge (with an assist by Kurt Young)

Today, I have a confession to make. There is this woman who attended seminary with me. And I was envious. Some days I am still envious of her life. We graduated at the same time. Over the years we have crossed paths. Now with Facebook it is easy to keep up with one another, as Facebook friends. 

I won’t say her name because this sermon is being recorded and I don’t want anyone to figure out who she is. But this is my confession. In seminary, she was someone I compared myself to her and I always put myself down by comparison. She was smarter, more interesting, more assertive, and more attractive. She just seemed to have it all together at a time in life when I did not feel so good about myself. To put it bluntly, she was in the cool crowd and I was just on the outside of that group looking in.

Have you ever felt like that? Like you are the outsider? My need to compare myself to this other woman did not end with seminary. Now when I read about the work she is doing in ministry, I am still comparing myself. When people celebrate her accomplishments on social media, that green monster of envy comes over me. I don’t want to compare myself to this person. I want to consider her a friend, and to be happy for her, but that competitive nature just comes out in me. I want to have what she has. 

Human beings just seem to have a natural way of comparing ourselves to one another. We have to compete. We have to know who is stronger, or smarter, or more beautiful. From the beginning of time we have created ways to determine who in each family and tribe will have more power and by default who will have less power. These stories we are reading in the Old Testament are filled with ancient accounts of human beings vying for power.  There is no story more filled with conflict and competition than the one of twin brothers: Jacob and Esau. 

I wonder as they were growing up if anyone told Jacob and Esau what pregnancy was like for their poor mother, and what God said to Rebekah. In my family, we tell our children about how when I was pregnant I was nauseated for the entire 9 months with each child. You better believe I hold that over their heads when they are complaining about doing something they don’t want to do. 

So I am thinking that it would have been a common conversation for Rebekah to say to her boys: Jacob and Esau, “Before you were even born, you two use to wrestle inside of me. It’s no wonder you fight now, because you were sparring even before you were born!” In fact as the story goes, Jacob, who was born second, was holding onto Esau’s heel as they came out of the womb. It was as if Jacob was fighting to have the spot of being first born. Because then, as now, being the oldest had its privileges. 

So before they were even born, Rebekah is praying to God and saying, “What is going on inside of me?” There were no ultrasounds in those days. Except for her size, she really could not have known there were two babies.  But as the story goes, God said to her: 

Two nations are in your womb,
    two peoples butting heads while still in your body.
One people will overpower the other,
    and the older will serve the younger.

The message from God was clear, that Jacob and Esau were destined to be in conflict. And even though tradition would demand that the older would receive the privilege of position: a double share of the family inheritance, meaning land and wealth, God told their mother that this was not to be. The usual order of things would be reversed. The older would serve the younger.

Their names represented this prophecy. Jacob’s name means “heel” – the one who kicks his way out, or “supplanter” the one who would displace his twin brother. Esau’s name means “hairy” and he came out with lots of hair. The name also connects to the place Edom. This is the country which became his home. There comes a point later in their family story where they part ways. Esau leaves the country of Israel and his people settle in Edom which is to the South and East in what is now Jordan. 

The conflict between these two is central to this story. It continues beyond this story through several chapter in Genesis. We see the conflict in the family as even the parents choose sides. Their father, Isaac, prefers Esau because he is a hunter and an outdoorsman. These are traits that many fathers would love in a son. Their mother, Rebekah, favors Jacob. He is described as a quiet man preferring life indoors among the tents. This would not have made Jacob seem strong by the values of the time. 

Now just to put this in context, remember where we have been the last couple of weeks. Jacob and Esau are the grandsons of Abraham and Sarah. They are the grandsons of the promise. God promised Abraham and Sarah descendants as many as the stars in the sky; and God promised them land. God promised to be in relationship with them. So far, we don’t see many children. They only had one son: Isaac, and you will remember Abraham almost sacrificed Isaac. Isaac’s wife, Rebekah, like Sarah, was barren for a long time. According to this story they were married for 20 years before she got pregnant. That’s a long time to be barren. This promise of God has got to be feeling a bit shaky to these folks, no matter how strong their faith is.  But they are people of faith, so they are hanging in there.

Then along comes these two boys who are in constant conflict. And God tells them that God is going to turn the order of things upside down. The older will serve the younger.   God loves to turn things upside down.

The story then turns upon this funny little encounter between Jacob and Esau.  Esau comes in from the field.  He says he is starving. Jacob is cooking some lentil stew, called “Pottage.” In exchange Jacob asks for Esau’s rights as first born. Esau says: I’m going to starve to death anyway. Jacob makes him swear an oath  That’s it – that is how Esau gives up his rights as first born

What do we make of this story?

Lesson one: Jacob is like every annoying little brother you have ever known. But he is smart and he uses his wit to get what he wants. 

Lesson Two: Esau is an idiot. He is like every big brother who bullies his little brother and he probably got what he deserved. This is the point where we need to remember that this story [take Bible in hand] is written from the perspective of Jacob’s tribe, not Esau’s. Esau eventually goes off to live in another land. Our family story is the story of Jacob’s tribe and so the story is told from his perspective. Esau is not portrayed in a particularly good light.  Just something to keep in mind when you are reading scripture. 

Lesson Three: Even though this story shows us a great deal about human nature, then and now, the point is not about either brother – this is about God. God is up to something here. God is shaking up the traditional structures. God is  choosing the one they do not expect.   He is choosing Jacob as the great leader.

In this world, the first born is king. The hunter, the one with obvious physical strength is the one with the most value. Jacob has none of those things.  Jacob is, for his time, a loser.  God is siding with the one who appears weak – with the man who likes who stay inside and cook.  Not a person of value in those days. 

Writer Julia Claussen’s reminds us that self-understanding of Israel at this time, was that of “a tiny, powerless people,” living “in the midst of much stronger nations --a reality that became even more evident in the run-up to the exile with superpowers who were quite able to crush Israel without blinking.”

Source: http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=967

They saw themselves as powerless and so they valued those with physical strength such as Esau. For God to choose Jacob as the one who would carry on the promise would have been puzzling. But we will see that God will give Jacob many sons who will become the fathers of the 12 tribes of Israel and we will finally see the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah. 

What we see in this story is God turning upside down the common sense values of the culture, the common sense of the time. This turning upside down is well spoken centuries later in the words of the Apostle Paul. He is speaking to new Christians in Corinth and he writes: “²⁶ Consider your own call, brothers and sisters:^[g] not many of you were wise by human standards,^[h] not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. ²⁷ But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; ²⁸ God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, ²⁹ so that no one^[i] might boast in the presence of God.” (I Corinthians 1:26-29)

If God can choose Jacob, the young brother, who is no good at hunting, and who quite frankly takes advantage of his older brother’s hunger to cheat him, then God can choose us. 

We have a way of focusing on what we are not very good at. When I compare myself to that woman I knew in seminary and all the things she is doing that I am not doing, I am making myself into an outsider. But God took Jacob who was an outsider and made him a leader of a great nation. 

God can take each one of us and our imperfections in our little part of the world. Toledo is not the most exciting city, but it is our home. This is our home.  God has placed us here to use our gifts.

The woman I am comparing myself to? She probably has other people she is comparing herself to also? She probably has insecurities and regrets. She probably even feels like an outsider sometimes.  It’s the human condition.  

But God has dreams for each one of us, just like God had dreams for Jacob (and dreams for Esau, by the way, they are just not written in this story). God has hopes and desires for you, every one of you. According to some values in the world, you may be an outsider. You may feel like you don’t have enough of something, but to God you are enough. Remember God created the world and what did God said about the world?  It was good. You are part of that good creation. 

And so Jacob’s story can be our story. We don’t have to be in conflict and competition. Instead, we can trust that because God made us, we are enough. Amd we can live into God’s dream for us.   So I want to invite you into a ritual.  You can think about that person you compare yourself to.  Now, put them aside, but I want you to tell yourself “you are enough, live into God’s dream for you”.  If you can find someone to do this with you, stand with them and say this to each other.  Because we need to hear this as often as we can.  So, remember, you are enough and it’s time to live into God’s dream for you.