Family

DEVOTION

GENESIS

FAMILY

Gen 25:27-34

27 The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was a quiet man, staying among the tents. 28 Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob. 29 Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. 30 He said to Jacob, "Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I'm famished!" (That is why he was also called Edom.) 31 Jacob replied, "First sell me your birthright." 32 "Look, I am about to die," Esau said. "What good is the birthright to me?" 33 But Jacob said, "Swear to me first." So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob. 34 Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright.

NIV

There is something to be said about divided parenting within this text. It certainly is clear that Isaac favored Esau because of the type of man he had become, a skillful hunter. This would mean he was bringing home fresh game he had hunted which someone, perhaps one of the servants would prepare for the family to eat. Isaac surely enjoyed the taste and must have felt very proud of his firstborn. But Rebekah favored the quiet demeanor of Jacob, in fact Jacob was even becoming a chef. Surely a trade a father would not think is very manly. We are not told of all the intricacies of the family interactions, but this one point of favoritism by each parent toward one of their sons give us enough to know this is not a good thing. Looking forward, knowing what is going to happen between these two bothers we know they had a relationship that was not built on mutual affection. There was tension within their relationship because of the favoritism shown by their parents. This should give us pause to consider if we have failed in that same area, showing one of our children more approval then another. We also have to reflect as to if we encouraged each of our children to become the person God had designed them to be. Because we are knit together by God within our mother’s womb, he has created us with certain traits, certain personalities, certain abilities. We cannot mold our children into what we want them to be, it simply will not work out for the best. We need to see them for who God created them to be and encourage them to fulfill their God given talents and that means both parents working together, believing for the best for each of their children. Because of this tension between Jacob and Esau we see in this text the beginning of a very difficult time between these two. It appears Esau was unsuccessful in his hunting endeavors or at least he had been out hunting for a long time, and without a fire to cook any game, he was famished when he came into camp.  He asks Jacob for a little of the stew he was cooking. Now Jacob being the loving tender brother he was, offered Esau some right away, not! He saw an opportunity to get even with Esau because of the favor their father showed him. Parental favoritism led to sibling rivalry. Both Esau and Jacob knew that Esau was considered the firstborn and thus would inherit all of their father’s wealth. Esau had to have carried himself with that kind of thought, almost looking down on his gentle chef of a brother, who did not really act like much of a man, hunting spending time in the great outdoors. But Jacob was not a dumb man, he had the chance to get even for all those years. He bargains the birthright of Esau for a bowl of stew. What does this say about Esau? His stomach was more important than his birthright. Surely he was not that famished that he was about to die. How could he have made it from the great outdoors to the camp? Surely there must have been some other food within the camp other than this lentil soup Jacob was making. But here we are with this conflict and Jacob makes the most of it. Do we learn our lesson from Esau or from Jacob, or from the tension that exists between them? Do we identify with Esau or Jacob having already identified with one of the parents for our first lesson? Do we take advantage of our siblings? Do we plot for our own benefit? Do we allow our sibling to trick us into doing something we know is not right? There is much we could compare with, but the point is siblings should not have this kind of tension between them. Each of us must come to the realization that we each have been created by God with whatever gifts, abilities, traits that we have and we should love each other for who we each are. The family structure was created by God. A healthy family is focused on God, a dysfunctional family is not centered on God, but on each member looking to serve himslef. What we see in this text is not a healthy family. What we do with that is the question. Have we made mistakes in the past? Maybe and we cannot go back and change that, but we can move forward with a determination to be a God centered family.