Readings:
Sermon:
Jacob is a tricky character from the womb. The children’s struggle in Rebekah’s womb is so painful and discomforting that Rebekah wants to die. What does she do, she prays to God. And God answers. God’s answer is not terribly encouraging: “Two nations are in your womb, they will be divided, struggling as they are now.”
We have a deeply human story of gift and conflict. Rebekah, like Sarah, is barren. She cannot conceive. The family of Promise seems to have trouble providing the posterity, the offspring, that the promise needs to keep going. They, and we, know that the promise is sure. They trust that God is faithful to the promise that God has made. They did not choose this, but God has chosen them. And the way is long and full of challenges. Only God can give life and God must be trusted.
Isaac prays twenty years for the son of promise. Twenty long years he waits and prays, prays and waits until the Lord grants his prayer and his wife becomes pregnant. Isaac is a man of faith, he is convinced that God will do what God has promised, that he, Isaac, will have a son to fulfil the promise. Twenty years he waits in faith. It is abundantly clear in this tale that only God can give life and that God must be trusted to fulfil God’s word, God’s promise. Rebekah falls pregnant in God’s time and the pregnancy and birth are difficult.
These boys are a gift from God, both of them, though only one is the son of promise. They are a gift but the joy of the gift does not mean that their lives are frictionless and smooth. On the contrary. The entire Jacob narrative is one of succeeding and overlapping conflicts.
Even more troubling is that God is the source of the conflict. It is God who chooses the younger to be the son through whom the promise unfolds. This goes against every cultural norm of primogeniture in the culture. Esau’s natural right of firstborn has been inverted by God. The priority of the firstborn is a keystone of the social and legal system. It sets out rights and responsibilities. It is the foundation for settling disputes around land which is the source of wealth and security. But it is a system that privileges some and puts others at a disadvantage, even though the firstborn has responsibilities for family. God chooses to upend the system. God chooses to bless the ‘younger’, the one without power, or wealth. This has been a pattern with God from the beginnings of the story of God’s people.
This sounds great, the underdog is no longer the underdog. We love stories of reversals of fortune, where the weaker gets the upper hand, the bullied, triumphs, the impoverished one makes good. But real life is much messier. And God is the author of this mess. God’s choice of the younger to be the Son of Promise, the one with the rights of firstborn, is the source of the conflict between the twins. We see it in families all the time, the resentment and jealousy, often bitten down, hidden, that older children feel towards younger, favoured siblings. Younger wealthier siblings. Younger more charismatic, free siblings. We see it in the workplace where the younger person gets the promotion that should have been mine. The younger person with a PhD is immediately on a higher salary scale despite my years of unstinting, loyal service.
In theological terms what we see operating here God’s grace. God has justified Jacob by grace. The story will have us feeling for Esau. The tale will have us angry with Jacob’s successful conniving. Yet the story invites us to acknowledge that it is a gift that God has taken the younger son and made him first. In this we have echoes of the Magnificat: God has lifted up the lowly. In the life of Jesus in Luke 7:34 he is accused of being the friend of those beyond the pale, he consorts with the not so nice people, tax collectors and sinners. God will bless whom God will bless and it causes upheaval along the way.
God is not bound by our social structures. God will bless as God chooses to bless. An interesting observation in this story is that election, the choosing of one son, does not mean that the other is not blessed. The blessing is different. The narrative will make very clear that both sons are extremely wealthy, so much so that when they are reconciled, they cannot live together because there is not enough space. Esau too has been blessed by God, but not with the blessing God chose to give to Jacob.
We often spend too much time envying the gifts, abilities, wealth, influence of others without realising that we too are blessed, with our own gifts, abilities, resources, influence. God blesses and calls us all to be a blessing to God, to others, to the world. This calling does not mean that our lives will be without struggle, conflict, friction, but our lives will be fruitful as we seek to be a blessing where we are, in what we do day by day.
We will enjoy the blessing all the more if we accept it, receive it, give thanks for God’s love, presence, gifting, calling, understanding that representing God in the world is sometimes troublesome – not everyone likes those who stand up for the voiceless and powerless, the lowly. Our advocacy may be sacrificial because we may be ostracised, marginalised because we make our voice heard. Goody two shoes who are concerned for justice and peace are not always welcomed or valued. I’ve known people who bore those costs.
When we choose to live as the people of God, as disciples of Jesus, we limit our options, our choices. Though this story suggests that those whom God chooses do not live in a world where all options are open. Those whom God chooses have freedom, but their destiny limits those freedoms. If you choose to become a parent, many freedoms are now limited. Choices curtailed. God chose Jacob over Esau which immediately placed Jacob on a path as the son of promise. God’s calling does this, it limits our options. God chose Israel over Egypt in the Exodus (11:7). Jesus chooses the poor, the meek, the hungry, the mourning, the merciful as heirs of the Kingdom (Mt 5:3-7).
Our story ends with soup, pottage. Humble food. Esau is famished and his need cannot wait. Jacob’s cleverness in getting the firstborn’s birthright begins to accomplish what God began in Rebekah’s womb. God is working mysteriously to fulfil the Divine promise but human ingenuity is not in conflict with God’s purpose. God can weave it all together. God can weave human weakness, misdemeanour, into Divine purpose. This too is grace.
This story is referred to in Hebrews 11 + 12. Jacob is presented as one who believed God’s promise of blessing, children and land (provision). Esau is presented as one who did not believe the promise. Hebrews was written to a persecuted church who were being exhorted to wait in faith. Esau could not wait. The life of faith we’ve seen so far in these foundational stories is one of trusting God’s promise and waiting in faith. This means living with the future in mind; getting on with life, living faithfully to establish justice and peace, praying to God to give strength until God’s kingdom comes on earth as it is in heaven.
Questions:
- I wonder whether you accept God’s gifts and calling on your life?
- I wonder whether you need to make peace with the way not everything has been easy in life and trust God to be fulfilling God’s purpose?
- I wonder what God has been saying to you this morning?