In the Beginning: A Study in Genesis 27-36Sample

Why Do Siblings Have the Most Frustrating Relationships?

Abraham’s son Isaac married the lovely Rebekah, and they had twin boys – Jacob and Esau. Unfortunately, the parents played favorites, as Esau, the firstborn, was a daddy’s boy, and Jacob, the secondborn, was a momma’s boy. These boys, who began fighting in their mother’s womb, continued their fight at birth and throughout life.

Isaac is not mentioned again from Genesis 27 until his death in Genesis 35:28–29, as he recedes into the background and is replaced by his sons, Jacob and Esau, as the center of the Genesis story. Early in their lives, Jacob the Trickster took the family birthright from his foolish brother Esau. Now, this account reports how Jacob also stole Esau’s blessing.

When Isaac decided to bless them, he was a very elderly man. This decision would impact the rest of their lives since it bestowed upon them spiritual and material blessings that were irrevocable. This blessing is ultimately in God’s hands. In this way, it served much more like a prophecy than a simple prayer.

Because Esau was the firstborn and his favorite, Isaac sought to bless Esau instead of Jacob. However, Rebekah, like Eve and Sarah before her, sought to take matters into her own hands because she favored Jacob over Esau. She devised a deceitful plan to rob her son Esau of his blessing, and in her trickery, we get a glimpse of where Jacob may have learned how to scheme.

The plan duped Isaac, and Jacob stole Esau’s deathbed blessing. While Esau understandably weeps bitterly, the sad truth is that neither son appears worthy of the family blessings promised by Abraham.

We then learn that Esau is so angry at his brother that he intends to kill him as Cain did Abel in Genesis 4. So, out of fear of losing her only two sons because of her sin, Rebekah sent her favored son Jacob back to live with her brother Laban until Esau calmed down. She hoped she would only lose her beloved son for a few days, but he stayed away from home for nearly 20 years because her brother Laban, like her, was a cunning trickster, as the following chapters explain.

Before leaving, Jacob was blessed by his father and instructed to marry only a woman who belonged to God so that the promises of the covenant would continue through his family line. To spite his parents, Esau intentionally married yet another godless wife, in addition to his other wives, that had brought nothing but grief to his parents.

This entire family history, which continues in the subsequent chapters of Genesis, shows how our relationship with our siblings can be incredibly frustrating. It often starts with parental favoritism, as it was with Isaac and Rebekah. This led to a division between the parents, causing a division between the children and ensuing generations of division.

Theologically, this section raises the question as to whether or not human sin will continue to grow, as it did in the days of Noah, if a trickster like Jacob is acting as the head of the human side of the covenant. Since his father Isaac and his grandfather Abraham walked with God, the question remains whether or not faith will continue into a third-generation through Jacob. This sets the stage for the following events in Genesis.

Question:

How does this story demonstrate the destructive nature of parents playing favorites with their children?