The story of Esau and Jacob

 The story of Esau and Jacob

Genesis 25: 19-34, after the sixth week, Pentecost , 2020 years 7 Mon. 12 days

 

 

Esau and Jacob

Of the characters in the Old Testament, the story of Esau and Jacob is the most interesting . They are twin brothers . It is said that Esau came first and then Jacob grabbed Esau's heel and came out . The twins' father is Isaac and their mother is Rebekah . At that time, Isaac was 60 years old . Maternal Rebekah must have been quite old . Children born in old age are more precious . The older brother Esau and the younger brother Jacob were twins, but they were completely different . They look different and have different personalities . My older brother is outgoing, and my younger brother is inward . Esau wandered the mountains and fields to hunt , and Jacob helped his mother at home . Of course, Isaac's generation from Abraham had to be inherited by his brother Esau . But my younger brother Jacob took over .

Jacob's fate was dramatic . Jacob not only great, but as part of Jacob's grandfather Abraham and Jacob's eleventh son, Joseph, Sarah Atlantic destiny , among them Jacob was special in that the name of Israel is their wish . Jacob's other name is Israel . Another reason Jacob is special in Israel's history is that the twelve sons he gave birth to four women form the twelve tribes of Israel .

There are two crucial scenes in Jacob's relationship with Esau . One is Esau's sale of the birthright to Jacob, and the other is Jacob's return to his hometown after 20 years of living abroad . The reason Jacob left his hometown 20 years ago was because his older brother Esau jumped out to kill him . Esau deserved to be angry with fire . This is because Jacob intercepted the blessings that should be given to the firstborn son before his father Isaac grew old and died . Jacob's further explanation regarding the incident-old Isaac and Rebekah conspired with the mother to be mistaken in Jacob window 27 appears in the chapter . Jacob ran away to Haran, where his uncle Laban lived . After forming a family there, I thought about returning to my hometown . The question depends on whether your older brother forgives you . The four took a hundred young people have been going to meet Jacob . Jacob fell into a state of super tension .If, in a vindictive things happened in the old days , Cain killed his brother Abel as , plane and killed the fate of Jacob, Jacob will end there , it would have been different the history of the nation of Israel . Fortunately, Esau embraced her younger brother with brotherly love . The beginning of the incident that Jacob intercepted the right to bless the eldest son was the red bean porridge incident, described as a sort of episode . The red bean porridge incident caused the butterfly effect to change the fate of Jacob and the people of Israel . That is the text of today's sermon .

 

The story of red bean porridge

It is one day when four people , old parents and two sons , lived together . As usual, his younger brother Jacob helped his mother Rebekah to prepare a special meal . The specialty was red bean soup . It must have smelled good . Finally, my brother returned from hunting . I can imagine how tired and hungry he would have been . Upon entering the house, the smell of red bean porridge irritated his nose . I asked my younger brother Jacob to get red bean soup quickly . This is a natural request . They are a family . One person did the housework and the other did the outside work . For Esau, who was mainly active outside, Jacob was like a younger sister who helped his mother do the housework . When a younger sister comes in while her brother is working, she must prepare something to eat and drink before the older brother speaks . The meat Esau hunted was especially liked by his father Isaac . My mother and Jacob would have eaten meat too .Their workers would also like meat . Esau worked harder for the family than Jacob, who was doing housework . Even that day, I missed the meal because of hunting for wild animals . Now that I am home, I have to fill my hunger quickly . Jacob says something wrong . “ Brother , I will give you red bean porridge, so please sell me the name of the firstborn .” Jacob said something that didn't make sense to anyone . You can expect how in the will react . " Hey , dude , import or red bean soup, do not play fast . I'm hungry and die .” This is normal . By the way, Esau answers in verse 32 of today's text . “ I am dying, and what will this birthright do to me? ” Listening to these words at first glance conversation with Jacob ' GagIt sounds like ' . Jacob's request sounds like a joke, and Esau's answer is so . The birthright is not something that can be bought or sold with a bowl of red bean porridge .

Who do you think is right, Esau or Jacob ? I have to ask a different question . Who do you think was wrong, Esau or Jacob ? Jacob's fault is great to anyone . This is because he took advantage of his brother's hungry state to obtain the birthright . The humanity of the two is accurately portrayed in the story that follows . Esau seems to have forgotten the episode about red bean porridge . I don't think it is a big deal . But Jacob was holding it inside . When the time of his father Isaac's death approached, he conspired with his mother, Rebekah, and deceived his father Isaac, whose eyes were dark . Jacob intercepted the blessing by taking advantage of Esau's hunt for the beast needed for the blessing ceremony . The story, which sounds like a cartoon, is drawn in great detail in Gen. 27 . The point there is that Jacob tricked his brother and father to obtain the blessing of the firstborn . Who is wrong ?Jacob's humanity looks really thin . In light of the fact that Jacob fled to his maternal uncle Laban's house and trembled while thinking of his brother when he returned 20 years later, it seems that Jacob himself knew how great his fault was . As I said earlier, Esau did not take his brother's fault . It was a great person . Genesis reporter why good humanity , brotherhood and even hospitable , without picking up the pieces from a strong vitality seems neunghae the trick , I sided I do not want to close by doing, Jacob ?

We don't know all the reasons . Those who think rationally will find it difficult to unconditionally agree with the Bible's answer . However, rational thinking is not always right . The Bible is our rational thinking and the other , says that much of the underlying . Let's read verses 33 and 34 again today .

 

Jacob said, "Swear to me today . Esau swore and gave Jacob the cause of the firstborn . Jacob gave Esau the bread and red bean porridge, and Esau ate and drank, and then went up, and Esau considered the birthright of the firstborn .

 

The Genesis reporter teaches that it is Esau's fatal error to lightly take the birthright . Humanity in Esau is not bad . He is not an invalid . The Bible does not point out other shortcomings of Esau . It is only pointed out that Isaac and Rebekah did not like Esau's wife Judith, daughter of Beeri of the Hittite, and Basmath, daughter of Elon of the Hittite, when Esau was forty years old ( Gen. 26:34,35). Marriage to a Gentile woman is not desirable, but it is not a big problem, as Jacob's eleventh son, Joseph, who was a man in Egypt, took the daughter of a Gentile priest as his wife . Moreover, Esau's marriage is not even more of a problem as it happened before the Israelites completed the Ten Commandments and other laws . The Bible's critique of Esau begins with the only fact that he took the birthright as lightly . Don't you think it's too much ?

 

Birthright

This judgment in the Bible, conversely, means that Jacob was the one who valued the birthright . The Bible does not see Jacob's humanization . His humanity is nothing better than Esau . He is a human being who deceived even his father after obtaining the birthright of the firstborn in a bowl of red bean porridge . Even at his uncle Laban's house, he made most of his uncle's property by using human tricks . Jacob favored Joseph, the eleventh of twelve sons, and Benjamin, the youngest . I think it was because of the favor of my mother Rebekah . Jacob's favoritism causes tragedy among the brothers . The brothers sold Joseph to a colossus and told his father that Joseph had been sacrificed to wild animals . These twists and turns happened a lot in Jacob's life . In a word, he spent a lifetime seeing a lot of things he couldn't see . The frail fate of the nation of Israel was revealed in Jacob's personal life . The Jews would have taken this Jacob narrative as their own story .Jacob went to Egypt in his old age and stood before Pharaoh . Pharaoh said, “ How old are you ?” When asked, the answer is as follows . “ My traveler is one hundred and thirty years . I am young, so I couldn't finish my ancestors' traveler's path, but I had a bad time ” ( Genesis 47:9). Jacob's life was harsh . Nevertheless, unlike Esau, the Bible put Jacob in the line of faith comparable to Abraham based on the only fact that the birthright was valued . Even now , we pray with the expressions of Abraham's God , Isaac's God , and Jacob's God . Is this evaluation of the Bible justified ?

The fact that Jacob cherished the birthright of the firstborn means that he valued the tradition of God's faith from Abraham . The Israelites viewed themselves as God's chosen people, based on God's promise with Abraham . In short, the fact that we live as the chosen people of God is the firstborn . The story that Jacob obtained the birthright from his brother with a bowl of red bean porridge seems like a brotherhood play, but there is a self-consciousness within that person as a person who received God's promise . That is the thought of the chosen people that passed on to the Israelites .

Some people view the Jews' idea of ​​the chosen people negatively . It makes sense . On the basis of the Chosen people's thoughts, they rejected other peoples . When Canaan was conquered, it destroyed the young and old in Jericho and Ai . Because of their exclusively chosen people, they were hated by other peoples . The Auschwitz massacre by Hitler is a classic example . I do not view the Jewish people as special good or particularly evil compared to other peoples . Today, do not you think it justified their persecution towards the Palestinian people , the past, they do not think that even assuming the persecution received from other nations . But I know how precious their chosen people are . Due to human limitations, they have caused countless trials and errors in the past, but the fact that their chosen people's thoughts were great does not change . Putting aside anything else, the fact that Jesus appeared in their history has played a major role in human history that no other nation has ever played .The story of Jacob, who gained the birthright of the firstborn with a bowl of red bean porridge in this long history of salvation that God does, sits like an illustration .

 

A sense of calling

Today we Christians are also God's people who are called by God . There are people who value the calling, which is a kind of vocation, like Jacob, and others like Esau , take it lightly . People call that conscious faith in God , to live that vocation awareness as a child of God , the people here value the birthright of people just like this vocation conscious thorough Jacob that preach the gospel . You may know that this sense of vocation is not vividly felt in today's reality . There are two reasons .

First , in this reality where we live, the reality of red bean porridge is more highly appreciated than the birthright of the firstborn . Rather than the justification of being God's people, the economics are overwhelming our lives . “ I am dying, and what will this birthright do to me? ” The grunt of Esau is the most desperate prayer of modern people . Even within the ecclesial community, faith literally falls on a plausible justification, and in reality, Silly is becoming a trend . The people received the promises of God in this situation , calling the disciples of Jesus of consciousness is not forced to be empty . Even if you worship, there is no spiritual resonance . Even if you read the Bible, it only evokes faint emotions like the old stories I heard from my grandmother when I was a child, but it does not come with real life power .

Second , regarding your sense of calling , you and I must acknowledge the following facts . Vocation awareness , to elect this or that ideology is not easy to live our lives up to there . This is a real Christian dilemma . I am frustrated by why I, who are God's people, cannot live as an example between spirit and body like God's people . I am disappointed with myself . Other people may rather point you . Look at Jacob . He was selfish, but still got the birthright , it is also a mistake-prone . Just as the people of Israel left many stains in human history . We are the same with Jacob . When you are old and at the end of your life, you may shout that you have lived through harsh years .

In spite of all these limitations, the birthright of Jacob's immersion is absolutely precious in our lives . This vocation awareness of the people of God in our souls , if you are calling consciousness of the disciples of Jesus Christ, remains like a seed in any rough life years, because we will take part in a huge history of salvation of God . The seeds will germinate and sprout in time to yield fruit . Without that hope, we cannot live as Christians .

In Matthew 13 , the third word according to the church calendar today , there is a parable about the four lands where the seeds fell . The seed fell on the side of the road , on stone , on thorns , and on good ground . Seed is the word of the kingdom of heaven . A roadside is a person who has been deprived of the Word by an evil person , a stone field is a person who falls down soon after encountering difficulties because the Word cannot take root , a thorn is a person who cannot see the fruit of the Word due to the anxiety of the world and the temptation of wealth, and a good land. Is a person who listens to the Word and realizes it and produces fruit . Living with a sense of calling means preparing a good land . At the moment it looks similar to other lands, but when the seeds fall, it turns out that they are different in nature .

My dear brothers and sisters , as a preacher , I hesitate to preach to you to break through this reality, which is overwhelmed by economics, in the name of a Christian , but that is the way of life, so I cannot tell you anything else . Do not take lightly the cause of the firstborn , that is , the vocation of being a disciple of Jesus . As long as that sense of vocation remains a seed in our souls, you and I, like Jacob, will participate in God's ultimate and mysterious work of salvation . Ame