When What You Wanted Isn’t How You Wanted It - Genesis 25:19-26

Bible Study Lesson for January 13

In last week’s study, we covered Abraham’s final years and his death. Abraham’s story concluded with the genealogy of his eldest son Ishmael, who did not bear the promise even though he was Abraham’s first born son. The rest of Genesis will pick up this theme, as younger sons consistently are chosen to bear the promise, and older sons have to reckon with their more humble place.

The term for the normal custom of passing on inheritance to the oldest son is called primogeniture. Across many cultures in history this was the normal way a society hands on its resources from generation to generation. In God’s privileging Isaac over Ishmael, Jacob over Esau, and Joseph over his ten older brothers, we see that God is not bound to human traditions. The stories shake out in a lot of different ways, but we should note that this is a distinguishing feature of the many stories of Genesis. God’s choice of who bears the promise and who plays the central role is up to God and no one else. Remember Abraham’s prayer, “O that Ishmael might live in your sight!” There is a blessing for Ishmael, for Esau, and for the brothers of Joseph, but God chooses to advance the salvation plot through the chosen brothers, regardless of birth order.

Dr. Stephen Breck Reid, my Old Testament professor in seminary, challenged his students to find ourselves in the “minor” characters in scripture. He pointed out that all too often our sermons focus on Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, and other great men. In our own lives, we often have more in common with the people interacting with the patriarchs than with the great men themselves. So when we read these stories, the invitation is to ask ourselves how we should react and what we can learn from these smaller roles in Scripture.

Jacob and Esau are born out of barrenness. The story begins, “Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife [Rebekah], because she was barren; and the Lord granted his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived” (25:21). This is one of the reasons God can exert so much influence over who is chosen in the story— because God miraculously provided the children. Their very conception is an answer to prayer and the result of waiting. Perhaps learning from his relationship with his brother, Isaac does not try to produce an heir for himself by taking a concubine. Instead, he prays and trusts God to provide a child.

When Rebekah gets pregnant, she feels an unexpected discomfort and seeks an answer from God as to why the answer to prayer would result in a struggle. The answer comes in the form of a message from the Lord: there are two children who will be ancestors of two nations struggling inside her womb, and the younger will serve the older. Jacob, perhaps even more than Isaac or Abraham, represents the story of Israel. It is Jacob who will be renamed Israel, and Jacob’s twelve sons will be the fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel. In the story of his birth, Jacob is shown to be born into struggle. Jacob will struggle with his brother over birthright and blessing. Jacob will struggle with his uncle over material gain. God’s election does not exempt us from struggle in life, even interpersonal struggle.

If we consider all of this from Rebekah’s point of view, we can see the hope and joy of a woman whose prayers are answered. The one who was barren gives birth to twins. But even amid this blessing, there is the frustration of turmoil and the despair of brokenness. She feels that something isn’t right. And so she returns to the one who answered her and her husband’s prayers. When things aren’t what you expected, do you go back to God to reevaluate? Like Rebekah, we can call on God for answers in the midst of our distress. God may not make things easier, but we can pray that God will make things clear.