Genesis chapter 25, and we'll
read from verse 19. And these are the generations
of Isaac, Abraham's son. Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac
was 40 years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter
of Bethuel, the Syrian, of Paddan Aram, the sister to Laban, the
Syrian. And Isaac entreated the Lord
for his wife, because she was barren, and the Lord was entreated
of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. And the children struggled
together within her. And she said, if it be so, why
am I thus? And she went to inquire of the
Lord. And the Lord said unto her, two
nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be
separated from thy bowels. And the one people shall be stronger
than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger. And when her days to be delivered
were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. And the
first came out red, all over like an hairy garment, and they
called his name Esau. And after that came his brother
out, and his hand took hold on Esau's heel, and his name was
called Jacob. And Isaac was threescore years
old when she bare them. And the boys grew. And Esau was
a cunning hunter, a man of the field. And Jacob was a plain
man dwelling in tents. And Isaac loved Esau, because
he did eat of his venison. But Rebekah loved Jacob. Amen. May God bless to us this
reading from his word. We're moving quickly in the history
of the Patriarchs and now we have discovered that Isaac is
married. Abraham's death was before us
earlier in this chapter, and now we come to the birth of Esau
and Jacob. And I wanted to do a little bit
of math with you, or maths as we say in the United Kingdom. So you need to have your thinking
hats on now to do some sums. We're told that Abraham was 100
years old when Isaac was born. And Isaac was 40 years old when
he married Rebekah. And Rebekah was 20 years married
before she conceived to have children. Now Abraham died at
175 years old. So how old were Esau and Jacob
when Abraham died? How old were Esau and Jacob when
Abraham died? They got to spend some time with
their grandfather. 15. Who got that? They were 15
years of age. And I think that this is a very
interesting and significant account of their birth. Rebecca, their
mother, had waited a long time to conceive, to become pregnant. And now she finds that her pregnancy
is a very distressing and it would seem a very painful experience. But there are two lessons that
we have here in these thoughts. And the first one is this, that
Abraham's promise was in Isaac. But before it could come to pass,
there would be a delay. There would be a time that was
frustrating, and there would be a time of having to plead
before the Lord. Abraham had to wait for many,
many years before Isaac was born. And now Isaac, who was also the
child of promise, and through whom this promise would flow
for the coming Messiah and the possession of the land and all
of God's blessings, he didn't see children being born either. He had to wait for 20 years,
and that's a long, long time to wait. And the first lesson
of this for us today is that God will be sought for his blessing. Even those promises that he has
made to his people, he requires that his people will pray for
them and wait upon them patiently. So this teaches us, this long
delay in the coming of these children teaches us patience
and persistence with the Lord. The second thing is this, and
I want you to notice this please, even some of you younger people.
Rebecca had a very distressing and probably painful pregnancy,
but she made use of her pain. She was a wise young woman. She said to herself, Why am I
thus? Why am I like this? Why is it
that I am the way that I am? Why is it that I am in so much
distress? Why is it that I'm in so much
pain? Why is it that these things upset
me so much? And do you know what she did?
She said, why am I thus? And she went to inquire of the
Lord. She took her problems to the
Lord. Isn't that a lovely thing? This
Lady Rebecca that had been brought into Isaac's home, brought into
Abraham's family, she trusted the Lord and she went to the
Lord with the burden that was on her heart and with her pain
and with her sorrow. And I don't know whether she
went to another person, whether she shared these things with
Abraham. She may well have done. Abraham
was the friend of God and it would have been a good person
to go to. Or perhaps she just prayed in
her own heart. She opened her heart to the Lord
and he answered her. And he told her that despite
her pain, that this was not an ordinary pregnancy, that there
were two babies in her tummy, and that those two babies represented
two different nations, and that those two babies were wrestling
together in her womb. Rebecca heard the words of the
Lord, And she believed them. and she took comfort from them. Do you know, I think that she
even just believed that she wasn't going to die. I suspect that
her distress was such during this pregnancy that she thought
she might even die. Such was her pain and such was
the things that were happening because she seemed to realise
that this wasn't like other women's pregnancies. She realised she
would live, but she also got a promise from the Lord, and
we read that, that the younger, or the elder would serve the
younger, and she took that as a promise. So she was comforted
by the Lord. She knew that these two boys,
one would be of reputation for his strength, and one for his
leadership. And so it proved in the history
of the world and the history of the church as the Lord prophesied
and promised to Rebekah. When these boys are born, the
first one to emerge was Esau. And we're told that he had striking
red hair. And he showed us something of
his strength because it seems as if he won the battle in Rebecca's
womb to come out of the mother first of all. And so he got the
birthright. He was the firstborn. And of
course, that was very important, especially in bygone days. So
he won the battle of the womb, as it were. and he became the
child of inheritance and it seemed also the child of promise. The
second child was weaker, wasn't as strong as the first child. But here we see a strange thing.
because he had a firm grasp of his brother's heel. And it seems
noticeable, not just that his hand was on his brother's heel,
but it seems to have been wrapped around it, that little hand round
his brother's heel. And this birth event was significant. It was almost as if Jacob, as
his name was called, was trying to pull his brother back and
to take his place. And that prefigured a contest
that would affect and alter the history of the world. As the
boys grew, their different temperaments came to be seen, as they do in
all people. We might be brothers and sisters,
but we have a different personality. We're different people with a
different temperament. And that's what happened with
these boys. Yes, they were twins, but they weren't the same person. And we're not the same people
either, we have differences. Esau was a hunter, he was active,
he was aggressive, maybe even cruel. Jacob, we're told, was
a plain man, quiet, reserved, sincere, perhaps even upright
in his attitudes. And here we're told an interesting
thing at the end of our passage today. You know, parents ought
not to love their children differently or to treat them partially. But Isaac, he loved savoury dishes
and he loved the savoury meals that Esau prepared from his hunting
expeditions. And maybe because Esau was his
firstborn and he admired his strength and his power, Isaac,
we're told, loved Esau. But Rebekah remembered what the
Lord had told her. And she knew that the elder would
serve the younger. And she admired qualities in
Jacob that his father did not see. She knew God's hand was
upon her second born. And she loved what God loved. And she showed herself a woman
of spiritual awareness and understanding in her own right. In the years
to come, God's dealings with these two boys would be a subject
for several Bible writers and a principal example in the Apostle
Paul's teaching on election and predestination. But for now,
they're just boys. And let us note that although
these two boys were twins and shared much in common, God dealt
with them according to his purpose and not according to anything
in themselves. Salvation is and must be all
of grace. Amen. May the Lord bless these
thoughts to us.