These chapters bring to the forefront a recurring theme in Genesis. God repeatedly chooses the younger son over his older brother.We find this with Cain and Abel, Ishmael and Isaac, Esau and Jacob, and will soon see the same thing with Joseph and his brothers, and even Joseph's sons Manasseh and Ephraim. One day, long down the road, David will be chosen as king over all the other sons of Jesse.
What other recurring themes do you see? Think... now that wouldn't be fair to give you a hint.
Back the truck up! I try to be very careful about how I word things so that what I write is faithful to what I think. I goofed on this post. My statement, "God repeatedly chooses the younger son over his older brother," was not meant to say that's how things are, but that we see that very thing happen more than once in the Old Testament.
ReplyDeleteI am not saying that if you're a younger brother you should attempt to steal your older siblings' inheritance, or if you're an older brother you should do unto your younger brother before he does unto you, or that if you have kids of your own you should favor the younger and drive away the older.
How much simpler it would have been for me to just take 20 seconds to proofread BEFORE I posted!
For Ch. 25 three points stood out to me - one was Keturah, who is so frequently forgotten and the many sons she bore to him in his now very-advanced age. They were all sent 'eastward' - I wonder how many of the various Arab tribes descend from them instead of Ishmael? The other point *was* Ishmael - or rather that he was STILL around to bury Abraham. I had pictured him long gone off to do his own thing having been disinherited, why was he still there? Hoping dad might change his mind someday?
ReplyDeleteThe third point (busy chapter!) was, as you pointed out, the manner in which one twin son was favored over the other though in this case it included deceit, which isn't always the case. I rather like that unlike the pagan gods, our God doesn't always grab the shiny, eldest, 'first fruit' one. Second born, third born, etc., we're all on a level playing field before God.
Ch. 26 has *another* rehash of the "she's my sister" thing followed by a water-rights war. I like the way he just kept digging more wells and more wells until *finally* he had one no one was trying to fight over.
Ch. 27 brings us Isaac's old age and the classic trickery to gain the blessing from blind ol' dad...with mom's help. I find Rebekah's complicity in elevating her favorite a real family soap-opera all by itself! No wonder Jacob ends up having to run off lest his brother kill him. Phew! "Days of Our Lives," you got nothin' on the Scriptures.
I thought it was interesting that as Jacob went in to get Isaac's blessing it seems Isaac was at least a bit suspicious. He has Jacob come close to try to be certain he wasn't being duped. There must have been some background to this to give Isaac that sort of doubt....though obviously his suspicions were well founded.
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