To Prosperous

Genesis 36:6-9

It is clear that God had blessed both of the twins and now they are too prosperous to live in the same area.  Both have large flocks, many servants and God in his wisdom has arranged that through prosperity and not hatred the brothers would go different pathways.  Esau and his family could not be part of the plans God had for Israel, “Then Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, and all the members of his household, his livestock, all his beasts, and all his property that he had acquired in the land of Canaan.  He went into a land away from his brother Jacob.” (Genesis 36:6)

Our Creator and our God said this to Rebekah before they were born, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.” (Genesis 25:23)  And you may have forgotten why Rebekah was having this conversation with the Lord, the answer is found in verse 22; “The children struggled together within her, and she said, “If it is thus, why is this happening to me?”   These brothers did not begin the war after they were born; it had begun in the womb.

Esau was the first-born and entitled to inherit three quarters of Isaac’s wealth and the blessing, but he sold his birthright to his younger brother for some stew.  The Lord had looked down in time, before it had happened, and saw that Esau was not a man of integrity or of faith and that the younger bother was.  God arranged the reunion of these brothers and God prospered them to the point that they would have to go separate ways.

The descendants of Esau and Israel led different paths, with Edom settling east of modern day Israel forming tribal chiefs, while Jacob traveled west of the Dead Sea and north along the Jordan river in accordance with the lands that were granted by God to the people of Israel, his inheritance. 

In my 67 years of living on planet earth, it has become clear that often I misunderstand the ways of God, but that does not give me license to not follow his Commandments.  It is a wise person who studies Esau and Jacob’s lives to see the heart of God.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice