Lessons From The Story Of Isaac's Family

Genesis 25:23, “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.”

The Old Testament is full of biographies for our learning (Romans 15:4). In the disturbing story of Isaac and Rebekah, and their sons Esau and Jacob, we glean many important truths.

As seen in our text passage of inspired Scripture, God had told Rebekah before their children were born that the elder would serve the younger (Genesis 25:23). Sadly, as they boys grew older, the parents were guilty of Parental Favoritism. Genesis 25:28, “And Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison: but Rebekah loved Jacob.” No parent should ever love one child over another. You would think that Jacob would have learned from his own parent's mistake, but he repeated the same mistake by favoring Joseph, which compelled his ten half brothers in envy to hurt him, selling him into slavery. Although it is quite normal for some parents to feel closer to one child than the others, our love should always be unconditional for all of our children, as is God's love for His children.

Esau made venison (deer) for Isaac as he was a skilled hunter and his father’s favorite son. Therefore, Isaac wanted to bestow the inheritance blessing upon Esau, who prepared him delicious roasted venison to eat that he enjoyed so much. However, Rebekah later prepared a meal of goat for Jacob and they conspired together to deceive Isaac, to secure the blessing for Jacob instead of Esau.

Rebekah had contrived the whole wicked plot. Instead of waiting upon the Lord to work in accordance with His promise, she manipulated her family by taking matters into her own hands (as did Sarah and Abraham with Hagar). So, we see that Isaac was stubborn and Rebekah was manipulative. We see these same sins in families today. Many husbands are stubborn and many wives are manipulative.

There are dozens of important lessons that we should learn from this dysfunctional family in the Old Testament. Esau was so hurt by his family's betrayal, which I have no doubt he knew his mother was involved in since she favored Jacob, that Esau went and married two heathen Canaanite wives to spite his parents (Genesis 28:8-9). The whole family was at each other's throats, and it all began with a wicked wife who instead of trusting God manipulated her family.

Esau was very carnal and while famished sold his birthright to Jacob for a lousy bowl of red pottage, but it was his rotten mama's boy brother who refused to share food with him (Genesis 25:29-34). What a horrible brother Jacob was, making his own biological brother forfeit his birthright for some food. I don't like Jacob when he was younger. What a horrible guy!

And do you have any idea of just how much Esau gave up in that one hasty foolish carnal decision? Esau lost the right to inherit a double portion of his father’s estate, the leadership of the family, and the spiritual blessing of the covenant promises made to Abraham. What a foolish hasty decision! There are countless people who have starved themselves to death in a hunger strike for political reasons. Surely, Esau could have waited a little longer to eat a meal. It blows my mind that he gave up so much for so little.

This sad story about Esau teaches us a valuable lesson about the danger of wrong thinking. Genesis 25:32, “And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me?” He felt like he was going to starve to death, but that is not the case at all. Esau wouldn't have starved to death by the end of the day. He could have found food to eat had he simply waited a couple more hours at the most. To be honest, I don't understand Esau's foolish mindset, but it is clear that hunger is a powerful influence upon a human being.

Clearly, Esau was only focusing on the here and now, the present, and not the future. So often people foolishly sacrifice their future on the altar of the present.