Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

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The Triumph of the Schemer, Genesis 24-26, Day 21, Jan 21

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Esau sells his Birthright
 Hendrick ter Brugghen, 1528 – 1629,

Genesis 24
When Abraham’s servant heard what they said, he bowed down to the ground before the LORD. 53 Then the servant brought out gold and silver jewelry and articles of clothing and gave them to Rebekah; he also gave costly gifts to her brother and to her mother. 54 Then he and the men who were with him ate and drank and spent the night there.

   When they got up the next morning, he said, “Send me on my way to my master.”

 55 But her brother and her mother replied, “Let the young woman remain with us ten days or so; then you may go.”

 56 But he said to them, “Do not detain me, now that the LORD has granted success to my journey. Send me on my way so I may go to my master.”
 57 Then they said, “Let’s call the young woman and ask her about it.” 58 So they called Rebekah and asked her, “Will you go with this man?”
   “I will go,” she said.
 59 So they sent their sister Rebekah on her way, along with her nurse and Abraham’s servant and his men. 60 And they blessed Rebekah and said to her,
   “Our sister, may you increase
   to thousands upon thousands;
may your offspring possess
   the cities of their enemies.”
Echoes of God’s promise to Abraham.
 61 Then Rebekah and her attendants got ready and mounted the camels and went back with the man. So the servant took Rebekah and left.
 62 Now Isaac had come from Beer Lahai Roi, for he was living in the Negev. 63 He went out to the field one evening to meditate, and as he looked up, he saw camels approaching. 64Rebekah also looked up and saw Isaac. She got down from her camel 65 and asked the servant, “Who is that man in the field coming to meet us?”
   “He is my master,” the servant answered. So she took her veil and covered herself.
 66 Then the servant told Isaac all he had done. 67 Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he married Rebekah. So she became his wife, and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.

An arranged marriage and apparently, a happy one. 



Genesis 25

The Death of Abraham

 1 Abraham had taken another wife, whose name was Keturah. 2 She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah. 3 Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan; the descendants of Dedan were the Ashurites, the Letushites and the Leummites. 4 The sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanok, Abida and Eldaah. All these were descendants of Keturah.

 5 Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac. 6 But while he was still living, he gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them away from his son Isaac to the land of the east.

 7 Abraham lived a hundred and seventy-five years. 8 Then Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age, an old man and full of years; and he was gathered to his people. 9 His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah near Mamre, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite, 10 the field Abraham had bought from the Hittites. There Abraham was buried with his wife Sarah. 11 After Abraham’s death, God blessed his son Isaac, who then lived near Beer Lahai Roi.

Ishmael’s Sons

 12 This is the account of the family line of Abraham’s son Ishmael, whom Sarah’s slave, Hagar the Egyptian, bore to Abraham.

 13 These are the names of the sons of Ishmael, listed in the order of their birth: Nebaioth the firstborn of Ishmael, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, 14 Mishma, Dumah, Massa, 15 Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish and Kedemah. 16 These were the sons of Ishmael, and these are the names of the twelve tribal rulers according to their settlements and camps. 17 Ishmael lived a hundred and thirty-seven years. He breathed his last and died, and he was gathered to his people. 18 His descendants settled in the area from Havilah to Shur, near the eastern border of Egypt, as you go toward Ashur. And they lived in hostility toward all the tribes related to them.
Jacob and Esau

 19 This is the account of the family line of Abraham’s son Isaac.   Abraham became the father of Isaac, 20 and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan Aram and sister of Laban the Aramean.

 21 Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was childless. The LORD answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. 22 The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the LORD.
 23 The LORD said to her,
   “Two nations are in your womb,
   and two peoples from within you will be separated;
one people will be stronger than the other,
   and the older will serve the younger.”

Why? A fact of life which we just have to come to terms with, the sooner the better. God’s gifts are not equal. He gives different people different gifts of wealth, intelligence, beauty,health, physique, temperament, luck, destiny, families, according to his plans for them. It is our job then to do the best with the hand of cards which we’ve been dealt. 

 24 When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. 25 The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment; so they named him Esau. 26 After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob.
Jacob means He grasps the heel, an idiom for He deceives.
Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them.

 27 The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents. 28 Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
 29 Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. 30 He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” (That is why he was also called Edom.)
 31 Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.”
Jacob was blessed, but he also valued blessing greatly. Is that a trait of those God blesses? That they greatly value his blessing?

The birthright included the inheritance rights of the first-born. Jacob was the schemer, seeking any means to gain an advantage. 
 32 “Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?”
The impulsive Esau possibly did not have the character to be the Patriarch of God’s Chosen People. 
 33 But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob.
 34 Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left.
   So Esau despised his birthright.
And included in the birthright, were the covenant promises that Isaac inherited from Abraham–God’s plan of redemption for the whole world.

Isaac and Abimelek

 1 Now there was a famine in the land—besides the previous famine in Abraham’s time—and Isaac went to Abimelek king of the Philistines in Gerar. 2 The LORD appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land where I tell you to live. 3 Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham. 4 I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring[a] all nations on earth will be blessed,[b] 5 because Abraham obeyed me and did everything I required of him, keeping my commands, my decrees and my instructions.” 6 So Isaac stayed in Gerar.

 7 When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” because he was afraid to say, “She is my wife.” He thought, “The men of this place might kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is beautiful.”
 8 When Isaac had been there a long time, Abimelek king of the Philistines looked down from a window and saw Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah. 9 So Abimelek summoned Isaac and said, “She is really your wife! Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’?”
   Isaac answered him, “Because I thought I might lose my life on account of her.”
 10 Then Abimelek said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the men might well have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.”
 11 So Abimelek gave orders to all the people: “Anyone who harms this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”
Gosh, how does this work. Did he hear of Abraham’s strategies, or was it a genetic predisposition to cowardice and deceit. 
And both men were protected by God.
 12 Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the LORD blessed him. 
The hundredfold return on labour–a mark of the blessing of God.
ESV note–Blessing is always an indication of the divine favour.
13 The man became rich, and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy. 14 He had so many flocks and herds and servants 
marks of the blessing of God
that the Philistines envied him.
Sadly this accompanies blessing.
 15 So all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the time of his father Abraham, the Philistines stopped up, filling them with earth.
 16 Then Abimelek said to Isaac, “Move away from us; you have become too powerful for us.”

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