Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #10 of Genesis, chapter 25, and we are reading from Genesis 25:22-23:

And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of JEHOVAH.  And JEHOVAH said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.

We know that Rebekah was barren, and she conceived after twenty years.  That was all in the will and purpose of God.  God has His plans for individuals, as well as for nations and for His people and for everything that happens in this world.  And He works it out according to His timing and perfect will.

Once Rebekah did become pregnant, the children were struggling together within her, and she said, “If it be so, why am I thus?”  And she went to inquire of JEHOVAH.  Keep in mind that, obviously, they had no ultrasound or ways of looking into the womb as we do today if a woman is experiencing severe kicking.  Most births are one baby, and the baby is positioned in a certain way and it might kick on the left side.   If it is positioned the other way, it will kick on the right side.  But she must have been experiencing “kicks” at different sides at once.  Maybe she had an idea that there may be two of them and later in the pregnancy, she may have realized that.  But early on, she was confused about what was going on when the children were struggling together within her.  God responded, in Genesis 25:23:

Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.

Now she knew from God Himself who has revealed that there are two babies, and that is why they were struggling.  These verses really testify to the fact that babies are living human beings, even when in the womb.  We live in such a desperately wicked time with the horrible things that man has done – and continues to do – in the darkness of his mind and soul.  He has lost all sight of basic right and wrong or basic morality.  Both males and females today reject the truth that babies are human while they are in the womb.

Here, we see they are struggling together within her.  They are active.  They could be pushing one another or using their arms and legs to strike out at one another, and then the other responded because they do have “life” that God has given to them.  Yet, we also see that right away from the beginning of Jacob and Esau’s lives (before they are even born), they are “going back and forth” with one another, struggling together.

The word “struggle” is a Hebrew word that can be translated as “oppress.”  Because it says they struggled together within her, we cannot say that it was Esau oppressing Jacob.  It was equal.  One did it to one brother, and the one brother did it to the other brother.  It was back and forth.  And that reminds us of what God says in a couple of other places.  For example, it says in Proverbs 29:27:

An unjust man is an abomination to the just: and he that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked.

Normally we would look at this from the perspective of being one of God’s elect children, and we see the wickedness, evil and sinful things that are happening in the world.  And it is an abomination.  In our old nature, we were part of it; we were children of wrath even as others.  But since God made a change in us and gave us of His Spirit, and since we have been beneficiaries of His grace and knowledge, we are learning the whole Word of God and the holy, righteous standards of God’s commandments.  We are seeing God with eyes of faith, and He is pure and holy and righteous and just, and the more we see God through His Word, the more our righteous souls are vexed day by day with the unrighteous deeds of  the wicked, as Lot’s soul was vexed.  So the sinful activities of unsaved man in his “normal” conduct in this world becomes an abomination to the just. 

In the first instance, the just is the Lord Jesus Christ, but we have received in Him a righteous nature in our new heart and spirit, so we have that reaction of recoiling and pulling back from the disgust and horror of things like abortion and the ugliness of that whole thing; it is an abomination to the soul that God has given to His people.  That soul is pure and holy, although we are still commanded to love our neighbors that may still be in their sins and involved in evil acts and deeds.  We do not point the finger and say, “You are a sinner that you have done this.  How abominable!”  No – that is God’s place.  But I am talking about an inward deep reaction in the soul of God’s people.  And, yet, we must continue to live in this world, and we continue to go to God to ask for strength and help to love our neighbor and to be kind to the unthankful and evil, as well as loving the brethren.

So we know the unjust man is an abomination to the just, and it goes on to say in the second part of the verse in Proverbs 29:27:

… and he that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked.

Again, the one that is upright in the way is Christ, but Christ lives within us: “…nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.”  So “he that is upright in the way” would be the elect child of God as God moves within us to will and to do of His good pleasure and to keep His commandments more and more.  And this is an abomination to the wicked.  You see, it is equal.  They look at us with disdain: “You think you are holier than thou!  You think you are so holy and so righteous.”  The fact that we desire to do God’s commandments is gnawing at them – it disturbs them.  They are annoyed, and they feel a like reaction to how the child of God feels toward sin, and they feel that way toward someone that is “upright in the way.”  That is, toward someone that is in Christ and in the Word of God, seeking to do Christ’s commandments. 

Remember the reaction of Joseph’s brethren.  We read about Joseph in Genesis 37, where it says in Genesis 37:3-4:

Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours. And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.

Here, we see the reason.  It had to do with love directed toward Joseph that was not directed toward them.  And, of course, that will fit in with everything we are going to read about Jacob and Esau, because God said, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”  God has love toward the one, but not toward the other.  This is discernable, and they can pick up on it, and it is what is underlying the animosity and the problem they had with this one that was loved of his father.  And the world picks up on this principle, to a degree.  Of course, there are also spiritual forces at work sometimes where individuals in the world can be stirred up to come against God’s people.  They may not even know why, but they have a dislike towards that person, and Satan has stirred it up.

But often it is because the (unsaved) people of the world have a feeling or understanding that this person seems to be favored.  Normally, when people of the world are among other people of the world, they can feel that God is with them and they are favorite sons and loved, and they will go to heaven, and all is well.  But when someone enters into their circle and he has a love for the Bible and attempts to walk in the commandments of God, it really shines a light on the darkness they have been living in, and they start to realize that it has all been deception, and they have been lying to themselves and others have been lying to them, and that is very disturbing.  It is very disturbing, and they do not like it at all, so they can respond with hatred or pulling away, or whatever.

We also know of Joseph that his brothers were so hostile to him that they later threw him into a pit and sold him to slave traders.  And that started the “ball rolling,” with his entry into Egypt, and it all worked according to God’s plan for Joseph, and it worked for good for Joseph and all the people of God, including his brothers.  (But that is a different picture we will see later on.)  But that is the idea that Proverbs 29:27 is saying.  You see, Joseph was an abomination to his brethren, and the wrongdoing of Joseph’s brethren was an abomination to him.

We also read something in Galatians 5:17 that explains a great deal about the tension that exists between the two peoples or the two nations that are in this world, and we will talk more about that later.  We read in Galatians 5:16-17:

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

There is the flesh, on one hand, and the spirt, on the other hand, and they are contrary to each other.  Notice how God says, “for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit.”  Yes – we can understand that because they are envious and jealous of the fact that God has saved us and given us of His Spirit and made us His children.

But then He goes on to say, “…and the Spirit (lusts) against the flesh.”  The word “lust” simple indicates a strong desire.  There can be a good use of the word, applied correctly.  So the Spirit is against the flesh in the same way the flesh is against the Spirit.  There is a constant battle between these two forces.  They cannot be brought together peaceably.  The flesh will lust against the Spirit.  The Spirit will lust against the flesh. 

Of course, this is all happening within each one that God has saved because the Lord has saved our souls, but He has left us in physical bodies, the flesh.  So we can very well understand the struggle that exists between flesh and Spirit.  The Word of God says, “Walk in the spirit,” and we walk in the spirit when we keep God’s commandments and do what it says.  For example, regarding Sunday the Sabbath, the Bible tells us to keep it holy and remove our will from things we should not do on that day, as we read in Isaiah 58.  And, yet, the flesh says, “Now hold it!  I will go to the store whenever I want to go to the store, whether it be Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday.”  And there is the battleground. 

You know, it is almost like we have a split personality, but it is a struggle within the mind, and it is expressed by a desire.  There could be an actual “thinking it through,” wherein the spirit of the individual says, “I have six days that I can shop, get some coffee, buy pizza or go the store or do anything I want.  I have six days, and I have Saturday when I can cut the grass.  I can do these things on other days, but today it is Sunday.  It is the Lord’s Day, and I want to spend it in the Bible in spiritual activities.”  It is the spirit within wanting to do spiritual things, but the flesh says, “Are you crazy?  Are you kidding?”  I can still read the Bible, but I can just take five or ten minutes and drop into a store quickly because I want this.  Then I will just stop over here and get a cup of coffee because I want a cup of coffee.”  After you have spent the time reading the Bible for an hour or two, you say, “I want to go out into the yard and take care of some things.  It is one of my two days off from work, and I need to get things done.” 

You see, it is all fleshly wisdom or natural-minded wisdom.  And we go “back and forth, back and forth.”  What one will get the upper hand?  God tells us that we are not to submit to the body, but we are to bring the body or the flesh under.  The flesh no longer has dominion.  We have the power of God on our side, so we are to put to death the flesh and the carnal desires and the things the body wants that are contrary to the commandments of God, whatever it may be.  And that was just one example.  We can look at any commandment and we will find that there will be “back and forth.”  The one wants to do this, and the other wants to do that. 

Sometimes it is a different thing, like marriage or remarriage.  There is a divorced person and the divorced person thinks, “Well, the Bible is clear.  I am still married to my spouse, even though we are divorced.  We are still married in the eyes of God.”  Then comes the voice of the flesh, saying, “Yes – but you are young.  You are young.  It is not right.  You can still have a mate.  You can get married or remarried.  Does not the Bible talk of forgiveness?”  Then the other side says, “I know the Bible speaks of forgiveness, but this is just talking about the righteous standard of God’s Law and what His Word would have His people to do.”  So, if  we are bringing the body under, by the grace of God through the Spirit of God, then that man or woman would live as a single individual until their spouse dies or until the end of their life.  They will learn to trust God in it and to live to the glory of God. 

Or, if the flesh is not brought under (as God works within), or if the individual is not truly saved, they are going to have all kinds of ideas, saying, “You know, I have never really studied that matter for myself very thoroughly.  Let me look at what the Bible says everywhere it talks about marriage and divorce.”  Then they search and, inevitably, they will find some wording in a verse, here or there, that seems to go in another direction.  If not harmonized with everything else in the Bible, they come up with a faulty conclusion. And the Bible does speak about fornication in some places and the way God worded it, it appears to allow for some exception for divorce for fornication, but it is just man trying to justify his sin, so he searches and searches to find something, if he is of a mind (a natural mind) to do so, and he thinks he has found justification (for divorce) and he goes ahead and does it.  That is when the flesh has overcome.  But even in that unsaved person, there could be a struggle, back and forth, back and forth.  They are really struggling with God, in that case, but not within themselves because they never had a new, born again soul.

But, again, we find in Genesis 25:22:

And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of JEHOVAH. 

Then God tells her why the two children are struggling in Genesis 25:23:

And JEHOVAH said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.

The word “people” is not the usual word for “people,” although it is translated as “people” twenty-five times, including three times in this verse.  And, yet, it is also translated as “nation” nine times, so it is almost a double emphasis.  There are two “nations” and that word for “nations” is “go-ee,” which is a different word.  So, it says that two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people or two manner of nations shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one nation shall be stronger than the other nation; and the elder shall serve the younger.

One thing we can see for this word translated as “people” is that God has in view more than these two individuals; He is looking at more people than just Jacob and Esau, and He is looking at more people than the historical nation of Israel and the nation of Edom, as Esau becomes the nation of Edom in the Bible.  But it is much broader than those two nations.  As I mentioned before, the two nations (Jacob and Esau) are a picture of all human beings that would ever be born into the world, and either we are of the one nation that Jacob represents, or we are of the other nation that Esau represents.   Every human being of every tribe, every tongue and every country.  The “nations” among the nations of the world are either associated with Jacob or Esau, the saved and the unsaved.