WHY DOES THE BIBLE'S “GOOD GUY” TAKE ADVANTAGE OF HIS BROTHER?

Jacob, Esau, and a Bowl of Stew

Genesis 25:27–34

Maybe you've heard the story since childhood.

Jacob and Esau were twins.

Esau was the rough outdoorsman.

Jacob was the quieter man who stayed around the tents.

Esau came home hungry.

Jacob had a pot of stew.

Esau wanted some.

Jacob said, in effect:

“First sell me your birthright.”

And Esau did.

If we've already decided that Jacob is the Bible's “good guy,” we may hurry past something uncomfortable.

Jacob seems to take advantage of his own brother when his brother is vulnerable.

Is that what happened?

And if it is, why does God continue working through Jacob?

Let's not defend Jacob before we've allowed Genesis to tell us what Jacob actually did.

THESE BROTHERS WERE DIFFERENT FROM THE BEGINNING

Genesis describes them:

“Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents.”
— Genesis 25:27

Nothing in that sentence says:

Esau was bad. Jacob was good.

They were different men with different ways of life.

But their parents made matters worse.

“And Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison: but Rebekah loved Jacob.”
— Genesis 25:28

There is already division in this family.

Father has his favorite.

Mother has hers.

And soon the brothers themselves will be struggling over something enormously important.

ESAU COMES HOME HUNGRY

Jacob is cooking stew when Esau returns from the field.

“And Esau came from the field, and he was faint.”
— Genesis 25:29

Esau asks Jacob for some of the food.

Jacob doesn't simply give his hungry brother a bowl.

He says:

“Sell me this day thy birthright.”
— Genesis 25:31

That's where a modern reader may stop.

Really, Jacob?

Your brother is exhausted and hungry.

You have food.

And your response is:

“What will you give me for it?”

If that bothers us, perhaps it should.

WE DON'T HAVE TO MAKE JACOB LOOK BETTER THAN GENESIS DOES

Sometimes we approach Bible characters as though there must always be a hero and a villain.

Then, once we've decided Jacob is the hero, we feel obligated to defend everything Jacob does.

But Genesis doesn't ask us to do that.

In fact, Jacob's name will become associated with a long story of maneuvering, bargaining and deception.

Later he will deceive his father.

Later still he will meet his uncle Laban—and discover what it feels like to be on the receiving end of someone else's schemes.

Jacob is an enormously important person in God's plan.

But that doesn't mean:

JACOB IS ALWAYS RIGHT.

The Bible can tell us what a person did without telling us to imitate it.

BUT ESAU ISN'T AN INNOCENT VICTIM EITHER

If we stop with Jacob's behavior, we miss half the story.

Esau responds:

“Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me?”
— Genesis 25:32

Was Esau literally about to die?

The text doesn't tell us.

He had just returned exhausted from the field.

But his next actions are interesting.

Jacob gives him food.

Then:

“he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way...”
— Genesis 25:34

Genesis doesn't describe an emergency rescue.

Instead, the scene ends with a devastating judgment:

“thus Esau despised his birthright.”

That is the narrator's conclusion.

Jacob may have exploited the opportunity.

But Esau made the trade.

WHAT WAS A BIRTHRIGHT WORTH?

This wasn't merely a sentimental family title.

The firstborn son ordinarily held a privileged position within the family and inheritance.

But Esau's family wasn't an ordinary family.

His grandfather was Abraham.

His father was Isaac.

God had promised this family:

descendants,

land,

and ultimately blessing extending to all nations.

Esau stood inside the family through which those promises were moving.

And when forced to choose between his birthright and immediate satisfaction, Esau essentially said:

What good is the birthright to me right now?

That's why Hebrews later warns:

“Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.”
— Hebrews 12:16

The problem wasn't that Esau liked stew.

The problem was what he was willing to exchange for it.

SO WHO WAS WRONG?

Maybe that's the wrong question if we're looking for only one guilty person.

Jacob took advantage of the situation.

And:

Esau despised his birthright.

Both can be true.

The Bible doesn't require us to make one brother completely innocent so the other can be guilty.

Real people are more complicated than that.

So are Bible characters.

BUT HADN'T GOD ALREADY CHOSEN JACOB?

Yes.

And this makes Jacob's behavior even more interesting.

Before the twins were born, God told Rebekah:

“the elder shall serve the younger.”
— Genesis 25:23

Jacob didn't create God's plan by bargaining with Esau.

God's purpose had already been announced.

Which raises an obvious question:

WHY WAS JACOB TRYING TO OBTAIN SOMETHING GOD HAD ALREADY PROMISED?

Genesis doesn't directly tell us what Jacob was thinking.

So we shouldn't pretend it does.

But we can say this:

God did not need Jacob's manipulation in order to keep God's promise.

We've seen something like this before.

ABRAHAM'S FAMILY HAD ALREADY LEARNED THIS LESSON

God promised Abraham and Sarah a son.

Years passed.

Sarah remained childless.

So Abraham and Sarah attempted to solve the problem through Hagar.

But God's promise didn't depend upon their solution.

Isaac eventually came exactly as God had promised.

Now another generation is tempted to take matters into its own hands.

God had already announced His purpose concerning Jacob.

Yet Jacob bargains for the birthright.

And soon Jacob and Rebekah will go much further.

They will deceive Isaac to obtain the blessing.

Once again:

Human beings try to secure by their own schemes what God has already promised.

THEN WHY DOES GOD KEEP USING JACOB?

This may be the deeper objection.

If Jacob behaves like this, why doesn't God simply say:

“I'm finished with you”?

Because God's choice of Jacob was never God's declaration that Jacob was morally perfect.

God is going to work on Jacob as well as through Jacob.

And Jacob has a long way to go.

The man who bargains with his brother will eventually be deceived by Laban.

The man who deceives his father will later be deceived by his own sons.

The man who spends much of his life struggling to obtain what he wants will eventually spend an entire night wrestling with God.

Genesis isn't finished with Jacob.

And God isn't finished with Jacob either.

PERHAPS “GOOD GUY” IS THE WRONG CATEGORY

The Bible is surprisingly unwilling to give us flawless heroes.

Abraham had failures.

Isaac will have failures.

Jacob certainly has failures.

Later Moses will fail.

David will fail.

Peter will fail.

Why doesn't the Bible clean up their stories?

Perhaps because the Bible isn't principally telling us:

LOOK HOW GOOD THESE PEOPLE WERE.

It is telling us:

LOOK HOW FAITHFUL GOD IS.

That doesn't excuse sin.

It explains why sinful people can still become part of God's redemptive work.

AND THAT BRINGS THE STORY UNCOMFORTABLY CLOSE TO US

It is easy to shake our heads at Esau.

Who would exchange something enormously valuable for one meal?

People do something similar every day.

We trade long-term good for immediate satisfaction.

Integrity for advantage.

Family for pleasure.

Character for popularity.

Tomorrow for right now.

But it is equally easy to behave like Jacob.

We may believe God—

and still decide that God needs a little help from our manipulation to make things turn out correctly.

So perhaps Genesis 25 isn't asking us simply:

Are you a Jacob or an Esau?

It may be showing us something less comfortable.

THERE IS SOMETHING OF BOTH OF THEM IN US.

DON'T MAKE THE BIBLE'S PEOPLE BETTER THAN THE BIBLE DOES

That may be one of the important lessons for reading Genesis.

We don't honor Scripture by defending Jacob where Scripture doesn't defend him.

And we don't read Scripture fairly if we excuse Esau where Scripture explicitly condemns his choice.

Let the text speak.

Jacob wanted the birthright badly enough to bargain for it.

Esau valued it so little that he sold it for a meal.

Neither brother comes out of this scene looking particularly admirable.

But God's promise continues anyway.

And that may tell us more about God than it tells us about either brother.

TEXT B4 TRADITION

Read First. Conclude Later.

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