Genesis 25:1-18
What
will we leave behind us? What will we pass on to the next generation?
In this passage of many names, there is a challenging contrast between
the influence of Abraham and Ishmael on the next generation. In verse
11, we read, ‘After Abraham’s death, God blessed his son Isaac’. In
verse 18, we find that ‘Ishmael’s descendants lived in hostility toward
all their brothers’. In Isaiah 52:13-53:12, there is a great prophecy
concerning the death of Christ. We read of His suffering, as He becomes
‘an offering for sin’. We learn also of His glorious future - ‘He will
see His offspring and prolong His days’(53:10). Unlike Abraham (175
years) and Ishmael (137 years), Jesus did not live a long life on earth
(33 years), yet ‘He shall see the fruit of the travail of His soul and
be satisfied’- ‘many’will be ‘accounted righteous’(11).
Genesis 25:19-34
Esau
was a fool. He chose his own way rather than the Lord’s way. Jacob was a
‘heel’! ‘Born with his hand holding on to Esau’s heel..., he was named
Jacob (Heel)’(26). A crafty twister, a manipulating cheat, there was
nothing about him that merited God’s blessing. He was not superior to
Esau. Like Esau, Jacob was a sinner. Esau was not inferior to Jacob.
Both were guilty before God. Why, then - in God’s purpose - does ‘the
elder’(Esau) ‘serve the younger’(Jacob) (23)? The answer is grace, the
‘amazing grace’ of God. Grace lifted Jacob. The glory belongs to God.
Grace could have lifted Esau. By grace Jacob valued the birthright
(God’s blessing). His way of seeking God’s blessing was devious.
Nevertheless, he was seeking for God - and God, in His grace, found him
and made him a new man (32:28). ‘Wonderful grace of Jesus, Greater than
all my sin!’
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