2010 View

Genesis 25:24-27

“When her days to give birth were completed, behold, there were twins in her womb.  The first came out red, all his body like a hairy cloak, so they called his name Esau.  Afterward his brother came out with his hand holding Esau’s heel, so his name was called Jacob.  Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.  When the boys grew up Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents.  Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.”

There is nothing that profound about the boy’s name, Esau means “hairy one”, and Jacob name means “holder of the heel.”  But God has spoken to Rebekah on the future of her son’s before they were born, and she knew that Jacob, though he was not the first-born would end-up with the blessing of the first-born.  How different were these twins, totally, one was a man’s man, he loved the outdoors and hunting, where as his brother Jacob was quite the mommy’s boy.   It sometimes helps me to put these guys into our time; Jacob liked to cook, he liked to read the latest book on how to bake a cake or cook lamb chops, he was very much at home with his mother, and had no desire to play football with his older brother, much less go out into the field and get dirty, or kill some poor little animal.  Where as, Esau lived to get dirty, he loved the soil, when he read, it was about sports or hunting, and he was very good at what he did.  The twins had little in common, Esau the athlete, who found the favor of his dad and Jacob the bookworm, who was approved by his mother.

You might say that Isaac was at ease with Esau, but Jacob got under his skin; he could not understand why that boy liked flowers and stayed in the house when he could be out under the stars, or playing ball.  That was not the case with Rebekah, she loved Jacob, he liked the things she did and they could talk and do things together, Esau did not want or seem to need her, he liked hanging out with his dad, when he was not out on a hunt.  (May or may not be a good assessment of Esau and Jacob but it’s a view from the Back Porch.)  Looking at the story of these twins from a 2010 view.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice