Article 2015-11 - Deceit, Quarrels & Jealousy
Chapter 14: Deceit, Quarrels & Jealousy
Introduction
Some missionaries grow up in Christian families where there is much carnal behavior, as we see in the next story. Again God’s truth that the younger should take precedence over the elder brother features in this episode. Anew we see that God’s promises do not need to be obtained by ungodly means. The story shows that equal upbringing does not guarantee equal Christian character development. It also remains true that even Christians who live under grace need to conquer their carnality.
Scripture reference
… Esau became a skilful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was a quiet man, staying among the tents. Isaac … loved Esau, but Rebecca loved Jacob (Gen. 25:27,28)
Esau … said to Jacob, ‘Quick let me have some of the red stew!’ Jacob replied, ‘First sell me your birthright.’ Esau said, ‘What good is the birthright to me?’ (Gen. 25: 30-32)
The story
Before we focus on the new missionary, we need to look at other aspects of his family story. We must understand one major lesson, one that Jesus would later teach Nicodemus. Now we go back to Isaac’s tent camp of Isaac.
Sad as it is, it happens in many, even Christian families: there are split loyalties. Older couples sometimes loose their intimacy and start siding with one or more of their children, leaving the remaining spouse to side with the other children. Isaac’s small family was split like this: he had more sympathy for his slightly older, wild, rough and tough son Esau; his wife preferred their slightly younger, domestic, smooth and soft son Jacob. She knew first-hand that God preferred Jacob too, because before the birth of the boys He had said that the older would serve the younger. That fact had escaped Isaac apparently, maybe because it fitted neither his preference nor his culture. Or Isaac did not accept this as God’s word, because it was not spoken to him but to his wife. He may not have realized that he himself was the younger of Abraham’s first two sons, on whom God’s promises rested.
Years passed and the brothers grew apart in character and behavior, not unlike their parents. When Isaac came to an age at which he thought he would soon die, he decided that the time had come to pass on the patriarchal blessings to his eldest son Esau. The latter had despised his right of the first-born and traded it with his younger brother for a bowl of stew. It must have been legally binding because of Esau’s oath, but it may have been conveniently forgotten by Isaac and Esau. Rebecca however was convinced, like before her the mother-in-law she never knew, that God needed to be helped to realize His promises to Jacob. By cheating on old, blind Isaac they managed to make the blessing that God intended for Jacob appear as theft. The split of the family was now definite: Jacob understood his brother’s vengeance enough to not feel safe at home anymore. At Isaac’s request he left for Paddan Aram, to find himself a wife from there and not marry Canaanite girls like Esau did. Rebecca probably never saw her favorite son again; her name is not mentioned anymore. She must have died in the twenty years before Jacob returned to his father, who was still alive.
Scripture reference
When Esau was forty years old, he married Judith, daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and also Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite. They were s source of grief to Isaac and Rebecca (Gen. 26:34,35)
Esau … went to Ishmael and married Mahalath … the daughter of Ishmael … (Gen. 28:8,9)
The story, continued
Esau was born in a God-fearing family but went his own way. He married two Canaanite women, as well as a cousin, a daughter of Ishmael’s. He lived for himself, was indifferent in character and indulged in carnal pleasures, without bothering about eternal things. His family became a stench in the nostrils of his parents. He was like some today, who say they are Christians, but who behave like the world does. They do not understand that friendship with the world is enmity towards God. Esau’s God-ordained role was to serve his younger brother, but he did not. His descendants became enemies of Jacob’s descendants.
Jacob was born in the same family as Esau, just minutes later. He was not exactly the portrait of Godly virtue either, as we see in his cooperation to cheat on his father and his cunning behavior in the years he spent with his uncle Laban, who became his father-in-law. When he was on his way to Laban he had met God in a special way, understanding that he was the new son of promise. For the rest he had to unlearn much ungodly behavior; Jacob had his own carnality to deal with.
When he finally leaves Laban’s home he has four women instead of one, eleven sons and a daughter, plus a history of jealousy and quarreling among his wives and trouble with Laban and his sons. When, during that journey, he meets God during a nightly fight where He wounded his hip-sinew, he comes to a deep surrender that we may compare to being born again: receiving a new identity, symbolized by the new name ‘Israel’. And so he came back to his father’s land.
Comment
There are indispensable lessons for missionaries in this story. Earlier we saw how Abraham sent Eliezer to find a wife for his son. This gives us a picture of the Son Jesus, and His Wife, the Church. Isaac and Rebecca got two sons: Esau, who through his behavior became the picture of false, carnal Christianity and Jacob, who became the picture of true, spiritual Christianity. Esau refused by his lifestyle to submit to either Isaac (the Son) or Rebecca (the Church). Jacob submitted to both. There we see two representations of Christianity: ‘Esau-Christianity’ – this is the false church that develops into what the book of Revelation calls the whore of Babylon. The other type is ‘Jacob-Christianity’: the true Church that develops into the Wife of the Lamb.
The other truth we learn from the brothers is that of being born again. This is what Jesus taught Nicodemus and what Paul spoke about, when he said that the natural man cannot please God. The natural man is born first. Jesus said that one needs to be born again. When that happens a ‘younger life’ is born: the new identity we receive in Christ. The new life should grow, the old life should be laid down: the old life must serve the younger life. The spiritual, born-again Christian should not be dominated by his old, natural life, but subject it to his new life.
Missionaries must understand that unspiritual, not born-again ‘Esau-Christianity’ cannot inherit God’s Kingdom. Therefore, preaching the gospel is serious business, where we cannot be content with superficial results. Becoming a born-again Christian is not something that happens by just raising one’s hand in an evangelistic campaign. ‘Jacob-Christianity’ does not come about without deep, sincere repentance where the sinner understands that he is a sinner indeed and with his whole heart turns away from his them. In a way he will then be ‘crippled for life’ – like what happened to Jacob after his fight with God – only to see his new identity appear in spiritual strength.
We also learn from this story that Isaac, by sending Jacob to find a wife, also became a sender, like Abraham. With this the picture changes and Isaac becomes a type of the Father, sending His Son. Jacob has to work to purchase his wife and have children with her. Likewise, Jesus had to leave heaven, His Father’s home, to come down to earth to redeem Himself a wife (the Church) and have descendants with her.
Jacob received his son Joseph from again a barren woman, Rachel, who now becomes an image of the Church that, after a period of barrenness, brings forth missionaries. The missionary for the new generation is Joseph, the first with a true international ministry.
Discussion & dialogue
- Briefly explain to your study group the concept of father and son, sender and sent-one, missionary and missionary-sender, as portrayed in the characters of Genesis
- Which five of the ten themes reoccur in this story? (The answer is in the Teacher’s Guide)
