The Bully
Failing the Test
Genesis 25:19-34 (NRSV)
The Birth and Youth of Esau and Jacob
19 These are the descendants of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham was the father of Isaac, 20 and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, sister of Laban the Aramean. 21 Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord granted his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived. 22 The children struggled together within her; and she said, “If it is to be this way, why do I live?”[a] So she went to inquire of the Lord. 23 And the Lord said to her,
“Two nations are in your womb,
and two peoples born of you shall be divided;
the one shall be stronger than the other,
the elder shall serve the younger.”
and two peoples born of you shall be divided;
the one shall be stronger than the other,
the elder shall serve the younger.”
24 When her time to give birth was at hand, there were twins in her womb. 25 The first came out red, all his body like a hairy mantle; so they named him Esau. 26 Afterward his brother came out, with his hand gripping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob.[b] Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.
27 When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents. 28 Isaac loved Esau, because he was fond of game; but Rebekah loved Jacob.
29 Once when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was famished. 30 Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stuff, for I am famished!” (Therefore he was called Edom.[c]) 31 Jacob said, “First sell me your birthright.” 32 Esau said, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?” 33 Jacob said, “Swear to me first.”[d] So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. 34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank, and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.
Footnotes:
[a] Genesis 25:22 Syr: Meaning of Heb uncertain
[b] Genesis 25:26 That is He takes by the heel or He supplants
[c] Genesis 25:30 That is Red
[d] Genesis 25:33 Heb today
Verse 25:22
ַוִּיְתֹרֲצצּו
and·they-are-bruising-themselves
Reading the news from Jerusalem this morning, one could wish to have been born and lived a hermit in a cave on a mountain in some remote place far from the world of men, humans, and never coming into contact with us. So that one would not live with a broken heart. The cruelty, someone called it man’s inhumanity to man, is unbearable, the factor of terrible, deep depression to the soul. Why, Lord? Why?
Our OT reading, our Bible story for the upcoming Sunday makes it seem almost foreordained, doesn’t it. Rebekah carries twins, two boys. Why, oh why couldn’t they have been identical? but, no, they are fraternal twins as different as night and day. Even in the womb they are struggling, fighting. The Hebrew means “they are bruising themselves.” It is so bad, so hard, her pregnancy so difficult that Rebekah despairs of her life and prays to the Lord, asking why, what is going on within me? God’s answer is ominous.
Struggle, the fighting will never stop.
The boys hate each other.
One is simple, the other a Bully.
My pain, deeply personal because of our spiritual tie and an odd sense of loyalty to Israel and all things Jewish, Hebrew, is almost unbearable because of the terrible things done to four children, teenage boys, in Jerusalem these past days, the evil murders of three Jewish boys and the unspeakable murder of a Palestinian boy. I have always had to fight off an inner sense of seeing, favoring the Jewish side. But that changes when it becomes personal.
It becomes personal when an American child, a visitor to Jerusalem, is viciously, brutally beaten by the authorities. A police state? It strains my faith, tests my loyalties, and I fail. I cannot help it. Outside of my family, I know no greater love or loyalty than the American flag. Many times I have tried to explain to myself and anyone listening that I do not like the flag displayed in the church or carried in church procession; because when I see the flag I cannot see the Cross, and it confounds my reasons for being in church, my tie to the gentle Jacob over Esau the red hairy brute. Now, seeing an American child brutalized in Jerusalem by Israelites, I take it so personally that it has broken my bond, severed my tie and feeling of loyalty. Sadly, I see clearly now, and Rebekah’s pain is my own.
TW+