Jacob, Esau, Rebecca — The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful

The Good and the Bad Mixed Together

In the most formative and important family in the history of salvation we have every human emotion — the good is mixed with the bad and the bad has some good in it, and the future of humanity's salvation is always hanging by a hair. The important part in this Torah reading for me is the simplicity of humanity with its beauty and with its good, and at the same time from the same people you see the selfishness and the manipulative behavior — the good and the bad mixed and interwoven tightly like a fine Persian carpet. Every character in this text has good qualities and bad qualities. Every character is blessed and everyone has major weaknesses. There is grace and truth in all of the biblical characters, but especially in this particular parasha of God's word.

Both Noah and Isaac had righteous offspring. Noah had Shem and Isaac had Jacob. Both also had offspring that were not so righteous. Noah had Ham and Canaan, and Isaac had Esau.

"Two Nations Are in Your Womb" — A Rolling Forward Prophecy

God answers Isaac's prayer and Rebecca conceives twins. In verse 23 of our portion, the Lord tells Rebecca:

This prophecy is a rolling forward prophecy. It is still being played out on the stage of history and through the very flesh and blood of the Jewish people who are returning home after two thousand years of diaspora. This return home to the land of Israel is not just the work of a few Zionists at the end of the 19th century. It is also the fulfillment of dozens of prophetic promises from the Torah, and through the New Testament. The one that is short and specific is from Obadiah:

This word of God will be fulfilled to the letter.

"The Rabbi Will Serve the Disciple"

The last phrase in this prophecy — "And the older shall serve the younger" — in transliterated Hebrew looks like this: "ve-rav ya'avod zayer." In the Hebrew language of the Second Temple it would be translated as, "The rabbi will serve the disciple." In the dramatic scene of Yeshua washing the feet of his disciples before the Passover Seder meal, the conversation is based on this text in Genesis. Here is the text from John 13:

"Teacher" in Hebrew is "rav", "rabbi", and I am serving you by washing your feet. This is the calling of those who are chosen by God to serve Him, to serve His disciples, to serve even the Esau's of this world. This whole scene in John 13 is based on the prophetic promises given to Rebecca in Genesis.

Jacob, Esau, and Rebecca — Each Defended

I realize that the purchase of Esau's inheritance in an exchange for a bowl of soup might look bad to some self-righteously inclined brothers or sisters, but I have been around the world a few times and have seen and learned from some of the most famous pastors and elders that business is business and Jesus is Jesus! Jacob was a good modern businessman and he had a product. His product was in demand, and it was unique in the marketplace. There was a client that was willing to pay the price of the red, red soup that Jacob was cooking, and there was an opportunity to exercise free market, by supply and demand rules, and a good business deal was carried out to the satisfaction of both sides: the seller and the buyer.

Rebecca, the wife of Isaac and the mother of both boys, was the broker and the middle "man" between both of her sons. The question always comes up in my mind, why did Rebecca worry about Jacob more than about Esau? The rabbinical Jewish answer to this question is simple: Rebecca was a prophetess, and the intention of Esau's heart to kill his brother Jacob was revealed to Rebecca, and for this reason she, as the mother of both boys, was more worried about the physically more timid and weaker boy, Jacob. She knew that Esau, the outdoorsman and hunter, could take good care of himself in this physical world.

The rest of this Torah portion is the story of Rebecca and Isaac. The mover and shaker in this story is Rebecca! Isaac is a much older and more earthy character. Rebecca is initiating the action, she is a prophetic character. Rebecca sees the future of her twin sons, and takes action to secure the future and fulfillment of God's promises to Abraham and Isaac. Some would condemn Rebecca for her actions. I don't. Because God doesn't condemn Rebecca for her actions. Just like God doesn't condemn Pharaoh's daughter for disobeying her father's law to drown every Hebrew male child in the river. No, the Lord God of Israel and the world is and can be extremely understanding when there are laws and rules that need to be broken for the greater good. Our God is full of grace and truth, longsuffering, and love!

In the Torah portion of Pinchas, Phinehas, the young priest from Aaron's family, took the law into his hands, and without asking permission, spears Zimri and the princess of Moab through, all the way to the ground, for having sexual relations in public, in the entrance to the holy Tabernacle. God didn't condemn Phinehas for this action. God praised Phinehas. In the same way, Rebecca is praised among the matriarchs.

Both Brothers Were Blessed — And a Word About Elijah

It is interesting to me that Esau honored his father Isaac, and didn't want to cause grief and sorrow to his father by killing his brother Jacob. The good news of this story is that the Lord Himself brokered the justice and the fairness and the future of the two brothers and their families. Jacob had twelve sons and Esau had also twelve sons. Jacob grew with wealth and power and so did Esau grow in wealth and power. God Himself made sure that both brothers were a great success and had successful lives, and the blessings of Isaac were fulfilled for both Jacob and Esau. One gained and the other didn't lose anything.

The reading from the prophets that is connected to Parashat Toldot is from the prophet Malachi 1:1-2:7. This reading from Malachi is a difficult reading because it has all sides condemned for abuse. Even the priests and the Levites, who should be the paragon of holiness and charity, are corrupt and dishonoring the very name of the Lord. In the end, the great equalizer of God's love and justice, blessings and judgment, equally spread between the children of Abraham and the neighboring nations, will be the victory of the Lord, and peace between fathers and sons. And Elijah the prophet, who is one of the stranger prophets in the Bible, will come and make peace between fathers and sons. The strange thing is that we know nothing about Elijah's family, his birth place, his father's name, or anything much about Elijah's origin, or even his tribe. We do know that the prophet that killed 450 prophets of Baal in the Kishon River will in the end be the great peacemaker between fathers and sons.

Noah built the Ark on dry ground on an Earth that never had seen rain before the flood. He had no knowledge or clue of how this wooden box covered with pitch would save him and his family and humanity. He was obedient and faithful and did the work and built the Ark. Let us take an example from Abraham, Noah, Moses, Joshua, David, and those prophets who stood and suffered persecution but never stopped believing in the words that God gave them to deliver on the streets of Jerusalem, Samaria, and in the hills of the Galilee.