ABSK Grad Ministry

Today we studied Genesis 25:19-24 . To summarize the text, after Jacob and Rebekah got married, they didn’t have a child for 20 years. When he prayed, God answered and they were able to have a twin. God told the destiny of the twin, the older one would serve the younger one. The first child was born very hairy, so he was named Esau. The second child, Jacob was born grasping Esau’s ankle. Esau was loved by Abraham more because he was a skillful hunter, while Jacob was very quiet and loved by his mom. One day Esau came home famished and sold his birthright to Jacob over a soup.

====Discussion=====

—-From this text, it is important to notice that Issac and Rebekah held on to God’s promise rather than trying some other ways to have a child as Abraham and Sarah did. Jacob was destined to be served by his brother. He believed in God’s promise that Abraham told him. What he did not believe was how he was going to get there. He took the matter in his hands and took the birthright from his brother.

—-How do you feel about God choosing Jacob over Esau?

Even before they were born, God predestined that one people would be stronger than the other,  and the older would serve the younger. It can be very perplexing to know that God predestine people’s lives. But the bottom line is we have no knowledge as to why God chose certain people or nations. Essentially we have to believe in God. When we see what God does, we have to accept as it is because we don’t know the full picture. The world seemed unfair for Esau. He was born first and usually the younger one should server the older one. But he still had a choice and chose to sell his birthright over a soup.

—-What is an underline themes in this passage?

The underline theme in this text is about God’s grace. God’s grace to answer the prayer of Issac and Rebekah and Jacob.  As we have seen from the 11th hour worker story and the story in the new testament where God used a fool to teach a wise man, the order of God’s blessing is not necessarily how we think.

—-Lesson to all of us:

Jacob is no better than Esau, but through God’s grace, Jacob was chosen by God. Some people get offended by God’s choice. If we have this feeling of a victim, we should really understand that we are equally sinful people. We are not better than anybody else, just like Jacob and Esau. If we still get offended, we need to understand God’s grace better. God is not bound by our understanding. Grace is by definition is not earn. Our sins increase, the grace increases even more. Grace goes to the undeserving. The problem of Esau is that he did treat his birthright very lightly. Even though God already predestined the two, Esau still had a choice. There is still a responsibility in Esau’s part. What do we learn from Esau? We have a birthright as well. From Ephesian 1:3-13, our birthright is Jesus. He predestined the entire humanity for salvation. Still, we  have a choice to accept it or not. Through Jesus, God’s grace is big enough to cover all our sins. God’s grace is for all of us to take. This is an unconditional election. This is really up to us whether to take it or despise it. We don’t want to trade it with anything like soup. The soup can come to our lives in different forms. But our birthright is much more greater than that.