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Chapter 12—Jacob and Esau
This chapter is based on
Genesis 25:19-34
and
27:1-32
.
God knows the end from the beginning. He knew, before the birth
of Jacob and Esau, just what characters they would both develop. He
knew that Esau would not have a heart to obey Him. He answered
the troubled prayer of Rebekah and informed her that she would have
two children, and the elder should serve the younger. He presented
the future history of her two sons before her, that they would be
two nations, the one greater than the other, and the elder should
serve the younger. The first-born was entitled to peculiar advantages
and special privileges, which belonged to no other members of the
family.
Isaac loved Esau better than Jacob, because Esau provided him
venison. He was pleased with his bold, courageous spirit manifested
in hunting wild beasts. Jacob was the favorite son of his mother,
because his disposition was mild and better calculated to make
his mother happy. Jacob had learned from his mother what God
had taught her, that the elder should serve the younger, and his
youthful reasoning led him to conclude that this promise could not
be fulfilled while Esau had the privileges which were conferred on
the first-born. And when Esau came in from the field, faint with
hunger, Jacob improved the opportunity to turn Esau’s necessity
to his own advantage, and proposed to feed him with pottage if
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he would renounce all claim to his birthright, and Esau sold his
birthright to Jacob.
Esau took two idolatrous wives, which was a great grief to Isaac
and Rebekah. Notwithstanding this, Isaac loved Esau better than
Jacob. And when he thought that he was about to die he requested
Esau to prepare him meat, that he might bless him before he died.
Esau did not tell his father that he had sold his birthright to Jacob and
confirmed it with an oath. Rebekah heard the words of Isaac, and
she remembered the words of the Lord, “The elder shall serve the
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