Verses 19-34 introduce the whole Jacob and Esau saga.
In the first pericope (25:19-26) we have the record of God answering Isaac's prayers by making Rebekah fertile (blessing). He gave her two sons, Esau and Jacob, and foretold that from them two nations would come with the elder serving the younger.
The emphasis of this section is on the divine oracle (v. 23) as is clear from the chiastic structure of the narrative.
"AIsaac was forty years old when he took to wife Rebekah (20).
BRebekah was barren; prayer for children was answered (21a).
CHis wife Rebekah conceived (21b). The children struggled together within her (22a).
DRebekah asks for an oracle (22b)
D'Yahweh grants her an oracle (23)
C'Her days to be delivered were fulfilled (24a). And behold, there were twins in her womb (24b).
B'Jacob and Esau are contrasted in birth and appearance (25-26a).
A'Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah bore the twins (26b)."628
The question of an heir continues primary in this section. Who will be Isaac's heir through whom God will fulfill His promises? Rebekah, like Sarah, was barren (v. 21). After 20 years of waiting and praying (vv. 21-22) God gave her children. Which of these two sons would be the blessed heir? God intervened to announce His foreordained choice (v. 23). Jacob's reactions to his election over Esau were quite different from Isaac's reactions to God's choice of him as Abraham's heir, as this section begins to illustrate.
Scripture does not give the reason God chose Jacob over Esau. What we do know is that His choice did not rest on the superior merit of Jacob but on the sovereign prerogative of Yahweh (Rom. 9:10-13). In ancient Near Eastern culture the first-born normally became his father's heir. So in designating Jacob as Isaac's heir God sovereignly overruled natural custom by supernatural revelation. The response of the members of Isaac's family to this revelation demonstrates their faith, or lack of it. However the main point of the narrative is to trace God's faithfulness and power in bringing to pass what He had promised.
"The revelation of the Divine will concerning the two brothers (ver. 23) was evidently no secret. It is clear that both Esau and Jacob knew of it. This fact is in some respects the key to the true interpretation of this incident [i.e., vv. 29-34]."629
25:19-20 Paddan-aram means "the flat (land) of Aram."Aram was the area near Haran. People from this region became known as Arameans, and later the Greeks called them Syrians. Bethuel was a semi-nomadic herdsman, and he probably lived in the open fields at least part of the year.
25:21 Rebekah was barren for 20 years after she married Isaac (vv. 20, 26). God closed her womb so the chosen family would recognize her children as the fruit of His grace rather than simply the fruit of nature.
25:22-23 Rebekah's pregnancy was so painful that she wondered if there was any point going on living. She expressed the same thought when her sons had grown up (27:46). God's choice of the younger over the elder "was contrary to ancient Near Eastern custom, but the elective purposes of God transcend custom."630The divine oracle summarizes the careers of Jacob and Esau and is similar to 12:1-3 in that both statements are programmatic.
25:24-26 Esau means "hairy one"and Jacob "El will protect."631The Hebrew ya'aqob("Jacob") is similar to aqeb("heel"). From Jacob's grasping Esau's heal at birth came the nickname "heel-holder"(i.e., one who outwits by trickery) "just as in wrestling an attempt may be made to throw the opponent by grasping the heel."632
The lesson to be learned is that those who owe their existence to God's creation and election can acknowledge His hand at work in the affairs of their lives.
