Abraham remarried after Sarah died. He died later, when he was 175. Rebekah and Isaac had no children after 20 years of being married. "So Isaac asked the Lord to let her have a child, and the Lord answered his prayer." Rebekah felt twins fighting inside her. She asked the Lord why her twins were fighting, and He told her:
"Your two sons will become
two separate nations.
The younger of the two
will be stronger,
and the older son
will be his servant."
Esau was born first (covered with red hair) and the second baby grabbed on to his brother's heel, so they named him Jacob. Isaac was 60 when they had their kids.
Esau became a good hunter and Jacob was a good shepherd. Their parents chose favorites: Isaac favored Esau and Rebekah favored Jacob. Esau came home one day hungry and said,
"I'm starving to death! here and now give me some of that red stew!" That's how Esau got the name "Edom." Jacob replied, "Sell me your rights as the first-born son."
"I'm about to die," Esau answered. "What good will those rights do me?" But Jacob said, "Promise me your birthrights, here and now!" And that's what Esau did. (dummy!) Jacob then gave Esau some bread and some of the bean stew (maybe that's why I don't like beans), and when Esau had finished eating and drinking, he just got up and left, showing how little he thought of his rights as the first-born.
Maybe Esau was dumb. Maybe he's in Heaven and will read this post and exact some sort of revenge on me later. Maybe he'll challenge me to a quiz match and humiliate me in front of a bunch of people. Can you get embarrassed in Heaven? Some people act like all we'll do is smile and laugh and praise. It says God will wipe away our tears and Revelation does describe joyous worship of the Lamb, but will we still experience the range of human emotions? We were created in God's image, ya know...
Posted by Doug Van Pelt at January 12, 2007 10:13 AM