Biblelicious

Genesis Chapter 25

I’m really not sure what to take from this chapter. Jacob, weak, whiney, mamma’s boy gets his hairy he-man brother to give up his birthright for a bowl of lentil soup.

There’s a whole bunch of who begat who at the beginning of this chapter that we are going to skip right over.

Here’s the important part:

This is the family history of Isaac, son of Abraham; Abraham had begotten Isaac.

Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebecca, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram and the sister of Laban the Aramean.

Isaac entreated the LORD on behalf of his wife, since she was sterile. The LORD heard his entreaty, and Rebecca became pregnant.

But the children in her womb jostled each other so much that she exclaimed, “If this is to be so, what good will it do me!” She went to consult the LORD, and he answered her: “Two nations are in your womb, two peoples are quarreling while still within you; But one shall surpass the other, and the older shall serve the younger.”

When the time of her delivery came, there were twins in her womb. The first to emerge was reddish, and his whole body was like a hairy mantle; so they named him Esau.

His brother came out next, gripping Esau’s heel; so they named him Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when they were born.

As the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter, a man who lived in the open; whereas Jacob was a simple man, who kept to his tents.

Isaac preferred Esau, because he was fond of game; but Rebecca preferred Jacob.

Once, when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau came in from the open, famished.

He said to Jacob, “Let me gulp down some of that red stuff; I’m starving.” (That is why he was called Edom.)

But Jacob replied, “First give me your birthright in exchange for it.”

“Look,” said Esau, “I’m on the point of dying. What good will any birthright do me?”

But Jacob insisted, “Swear to me first!” So he sold Jacob his birthright under oath.

Jacob then gave him some bread and the lentil stew; and Esau ate, drank, got up, and went his way. Esau cared little for his birthright.

Now, I’m as big a lintel fan as the next guy, and have been known to make some killer soup, but trading away your birthright is no small thing.

Feakin’ soup nazi.

Back then, in the way back times, the first born son got the lion’s share of pretty much everything in the family. The second son, not so much. He got some, but way less than number one son. This booty was not just financial, there were legal and spiritual aspects to the birthright too.

If you care, read about it here.

If not, suffice to say, your birthright was a really big fucking deal and you didn’t just give it away. At least most folks didn’t.

But, Esau does.

I read, like I always do, a bunch of commentary on the subject, but none of them really satisfied me. There was a lot of talk about the two nations and how Jacob is the father Israel and Esau is the father of Edom and how those nations were always at odd with one another.

Sure, there’s that. I mean, God says right there in the first paragraph, Rebecca, you’ve got two nations in your belly and they jostling you around because they don’t like each other so much.

But I think there’s more to this than allegory. And, since I’ve read ahead, I know that Jacob is a conniving, sniveling, suck-up, Alberto Gonzales-esk, sort of a guy. One for getting what he wants, no matter the means.

So, you’ve got to wonder, if, in that moment, Esau had simply had enough of his brother, simpering around, whining to his mother, “Esau got this, Esau got that, whah-whah-whah.” And he just said, “Fuck it, OK, whatever. If you love birthright so much, why don’t you marry it? Just give me a bowl of soup, can’t you see I’m starving here?”

Maybe it just didn’t matter to Esau, maybe the damn birthright was more trouble than it was worth. Jacob was a wimp and Esau was a brute of a man. Esau could have easily elbowed him out of the way and made off with the whole pot. Or he could a called a servant and gotten something else to eat. I can’t imagine there wasn’t any other food around. They are in Isaac, son of Abraham’s, household. It’s not like they were poor.

So, I’m just guessing here, and sometimes I’m a little slow on the uptake, but I’m thinking that this is not about the soup at all.

On a basic level, it’s about power. Beyond that, it’s about who is the better man.

I vote for Esau. Esau is the better man. Which doesn’t bode well for the father of the Israelites, but what’ya gonna do? You can’t pick your parents.

In this story, even though none of the commentaries pointed it out, I think we get our first real example of “Christian Virtue”. Even though we are not to the Christian part yet. Oh, and the Jews, and I think possibly the Muslim’s have this story too. So maybe it’s more of a general religious virtue than maybe just a strictly Christian one.

But what, you ask, is the virtue here. Letting some schmuck shyster you out of all your money?

Not exactly.

Esau knew he was being taken for a ride, I mean, how could he not. Give me your birthright for a bowl of soup? He’d not fallen off the turnip truck just yesterday. (Ok, they didn’t actually have trucks, or probably turnips, but you get the gist.)

He was a grown man, he knew what his birthright was worth. But, perhaps it wasn’t worth the frustration and tension it caused in the household. Jacob was envious, he was greedym and Rebecca favored him. Isaac favored Esau. It doesn’t sound like the happiest of families to me.

Perhaps harmony was worth more than a birthright.

This is going to be sort of sappy and buddha-esk, but perhaps being kind and generous and trying to make your world more livable is what this story is about.

That’s what I want it to be about.

So call me Al Gore if you want, I think we should all try to live in harmony and make our worlds more livable.