Steer Clear Of God
The Spiritual Genius of a Flawed Character
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Brothers
Esau as an Ould Lad
Don’t get God’s attention if you can possibly help it.
I’m only half joking. May sound odd, but that’s often my conclusion reading the Old Testament. The pounding cometh, even if it’s a pounding that likely leads to some complex resolution several generations later. Wheels within wheels we can rarely fathom. There may not be immediate gratification.
Hold the scene in your mind with me awhile.
There’s Jacob, peering from the shadowed tent at his charismatic brother, brave Esau. A lad easy to love is Esau. Settled in himself, at ease in nature, both his own and the hills and animals around him. You can’t help but feel a lift in spirit as you see him strolling down from the dusking hills with a couple of those wild goats for the pot, the kind his father Isaac loves so much.
Issac is old now, though like many of these Genesis characters, can be old for an awfully long time. His eyes are dim but his tastebuds still work and what he’s wanting most of all is one of those wild goat stews Esau cooks up. He can almost taste it. It’s time to give the soul blessing to his oldest lad, the one that bestows real leadership on him. After the stew, wine and prayers, it’ll be time.
Rebekah notices the moment. Wife of Isaac, mother of the twins. She’d have reason to pick up on it. God had told her – however God tells us these things, maybe it was different then – it wouldn’t just be two kids she gave birth to but two nations, and oddly, the elder pup would serve the younger. Well, the elder was bold Esau. It didn’t seem to make sense, but God knew what he was doing.
And if we learn anything in life, if God says something like that, you should be patient and let him sort it out. But feeling the heft of Isaac’s age, Rebekah is thinking that there’s risk that Isaac will raise up the wrong son. Rebekah has a special care for Jacob. She can see he’s smart, understanding the running of the camp, even if less effortlessly likeable than Esau. A parent will spot the vulnerabilities in their child, but also their strengths.
It may be that Isaac and Rebekah play the dangerous game of favourites.
Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
So Esau takes his quiver and bow and walks into the hills, to do the thing he loves: to hunt and bring pleasure to his old father.
And from the tent Jacob watches and does the thing he loves: he thinks and thinks and thinks.