Genesis 25:24-34 - And when the time came to give birth, Rebekah discovered that she did indeed have twins! The first one was very red at birth and covered with thick hair like a fur coat. So they named him Esau. Then the other twin was born with his hand grasping Esau’s heel. So they named him Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when the twins were born.
As the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter. He
was an outdoorsman, but Jacob had a quiet temperament, preferring to stay at
home. Isaac loved Esau because he
enjoyed eating the wild game Esau brought home, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
One day when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau arrived
home from the wilderness exhausted and hungry. Esau said to Jacob, “I’m
starved! Give me some of that red stew!” (This is how Esau got his other name,
Edom, which means “red.”)
“All right,” Jacob replied, “but trade me your rights
as the firstborn son.”
“Look, I’m dying of starvation!” said Esau. “What good
is my birthright to me now?”
But Jacob said, “First you must swear that your
birthright is mine.” So Esau swore an oath, thereby selling all his rights as the
firstborn to his brother, Jacob.
Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and lentil stew. Esau
ate the meal, then got up and left. He showed contempt for his rights as the
firstborn.
I have a brother who is three years younger than I am
and like many brothers we had our rumbles.
But Jacob and Esau take it to another level. It is a rivalry that the Lord told their
mother would develop and it was probably not helped by the fact that Esau was
Isaac’s favorite and Jacob was Rebekah’s favorite. This feud would last most of their
lives. Even more than that, the two
brothers’ feud would metastasize into a feud between two nations. Many lives would be lost would result from
this sibling rivalry.
This is what unresolved conflict tends to do – spiral
out and expand and eventually create casualties. Many historians trace the current tensions in
the middle east all the way back to Isaac and Ishamael, the sons of
Abraham. American historical legends recall
the bloody feud between the Hatfields and McCoys. And too many of our families could recall
tales of how a family feud created a lasting toxicity that is passed down from
generation to generation. My family
name, McCrea, was spelled differently four generations ago. Two brothers’ feud got to the point that one
of them legally changed the spelling of the last name so as to “disown” his
brother.
You can probably guess where I’m going with this. It’s not good to let brokenness in our
relationships continue to grow. At the
very least, a decision to not continue pouring gasoline on such fires can
literally save truckloads of pain and might even save a life. If it is within you power to de-escalate a
conflict or even begin to heal the wounds from the past, we’re called by our
reconciling God to work for peace.
Jacob and Esau eventually reach a truce of sorts and I
can only imagine how much pain and suffering was avoided because they did (If
you want to read about it, the story is in Genesis 33). Try to imagine what pain and suffering might
be avoided if we did the same.
Prayer: God
give us hearts predisposed towards making peace with our brothers and
sisters. Amen.
Prayer Focus:
Pray for those who lives have turned upside down by family conflict.
Song: Cochren & Co. - One Day (Official Lyric
Video)
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