Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #13 of Genesis, chapter 25, and we are going to read 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 are returning to our study in Genesis.  I consulted with some commentaries, and I just want to review some things.  It is interesting, but not surprising, that the theologians (and these were some of the best) believe that the fulfilment of Genesis 25:23 regarding the statements made there had to do with Jacob and Esau, and that it would have a greater fulfilment, but they believed that fulfilment was in regard to the two nations, Israel and Edom.  Edom was the nation that came from Esau; they are his descendants.  And, of course, Israel came from Jacob, as Jacob had his name changed to “Israel.”  They further believed that the greater was “Edom” and this elder served the younger in the days of David when David defeated the Edomites and they became his servants in subjection to David.  That is just what a handful of theologians said, and I am not sure what the majority of them believed, but I think it is telling because it reveals the mindset of finding answers in history and answers that make sense to natural minds, rather than the deeper spiritual fulfilment regarding the deep truths that lie on the spiritual level.  (And these spiritual truths are what God directs His people to search the Scriptures to find.) 

So we realize that the two nations represent two people groups that populate and inhabit the earth, the saved and the unsaved, or God’s elect and those that are not God’s elect.  The elect of God are typified by Jacob, and the unsaved are typified by Esau (those not chosen to receive the gift of eternal life).  This understanding agrees with everything the Bible says.  We recognize the history, and we recognize that Jacob and Esau had descendants that developed into actual nations, but that is not sufficient because it does not get to the “meat” of the Word, but it is simply the “milk” of the Word.  Whenever we stay on the plain, historical, grammatical and literal level of meaning, we are not getting to the spiritually nourishing part of the Word of God.  Christ told us that, and He spoke in parables, and without a parable He did not speak.  There are all kinds of examples in the New Testament that quote from the Old Testament and reveal the deeper spiritual truths of historical occurrences, just like these verses in Genesis 25.  So we have to follow that example that God Himself has given us in His Word regarding how to come to the Bible and find the deeper spiritual truths, the “nuggets” He has hidden and expects us to dig up.

So there were two nations in Rebekah’s wombs, and we are told they would be separated from her bowels, “and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.”  The word “people” is Strong’s #3816 in the Hebrew Concordance, and it is also translated as “nations,”  so even in saying that one people is stronger than another is affirming that one nation would be stronger than the other.  But our question is which son is being referred to.  Is it Jacob that is stronger than the other, or Esau that is stronger than the other?  And the answer will also reveal which “people” or “nation,” whether it be the nations of the world as typified by Esau, or the nations of them which are saved as typified by Jacob.  Which of those nations will be stronger than the other?  When we search the Bible, I think we find the answer.  For example, we can go to the New Testament book of Romans, which says in Romans 5:6:

For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

Reference is made to those Christ died for, and that would be the elect, His chosen people, who are said to be “without strength.”  You cannot be stronger than another if you are “without strength” or lack strength.  Or, we can go to 2Corinthians 12:7-10:

And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

Again, Paul is a pattern of believers, and he is saying he is “weak.”  He has many infirmities, and he experiences reproaches.  He is in necessity and is persecuted and in distresses for Christ’s sake or for the Word’s sake.  But when he is “weak,” he says he is “strong.”  And this relates to Psalm 142, which does use the word that is found in Genesis 25:23 concerning one people that is “stronger.”  It is Strong’s #553.  It says in Psalm 142:6:

Attend unto my cry; for I am brought very low: deliver me from my persecutors; for they are stronger than I.

That would be those that cast reproach upon you and persecute you, and so forth.  “They are stronger than I.”  Strength lies with them because we are “without strength,” according to Romans 5:6, and this is the understanding of the people of God.  As we live in this world, we are faced with the constant forces that would come against the kingdom of God and the Word of God as we align and identify with those things.  We can become beaten down, day, after day, after day.  The numbers are too many that are in the kingdom of Satan.  They far outnumber us.  There are billions of people in the world and, yet, few are God’s elect.  There are almost two billion professed Christians, and most can be counted in the churches and congregations, with just a relative handful outside (the churches).  Now we know that God saved the great multitude, but we know that great multitude is only tens of millions in a sea of billions of people, so society takes shape after the peoples of the world, and the cultures and pressures of society just comes against God’s elect. 

On top of struggling with these forces without, we have the inward struggle with our own flesh, which would seek to be aligned with the things of the world, and we have to keep the body under.  This is why the Apostle cried out, in Romans 7, “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”  That is the cry here in Psalm 142:6: “deliver me from my persecutors; for they are stronger than I.”  The Apostle Paul was moved to say, “…when I am weak, then am I strong,” because in the experience of weakness within the true child of God, what we do in our weakness is to cry out to God: “O, Lord, I am too weak!  I am too weak.  I cannot do this.  I cannot face it.  I cannot fight it.  I cannot overcome it.  I am helpless and without strength.  Help me, O, Lord, for you are strong.  You are Almighty and all powerful, and you can help me.  You say in your Word that seek to help – and will help – those that are yours.”  This is what we read in Isaiah 41:10:

Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

This is where our strength is.  When we are weak, the children of God can say, “We are strong,” because there is One with us: “Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world,” the Bible says.  It also says in Ephesians 6:10:

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.

Then it goes on to explain how that can be through the “armour of God” that armour is granted to each one that God has saved.  It is spiritual armament that protects us, and it is also a weapon to do battle with, as go on the offense with the sword of the spirit, the Word of God.  He gives us the shield of faith whereby we quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

Or, we read in Philippians 4:11-13:

Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which sstrengtheneth me.

Therein is our strength.  Christ is our strength when we are weak.  This means that when we read in Genesis 25:3 that the one people shall be stronger than the other people, we have to admit it is true.  The people of the world are certainly stronger than we are, of ourselves.  The Bible likens us to orphans, widows and strangers, the weak and helpless in our society.  Who is weaker than an orphan who has no parents?  Or a widow?  Often, historically, it would be a widow that could suffer and die, being alone.  Or an orphan, due to battle, who had no one to look after him, and he would be lost and suffer and die from hunger because he was just a little, weak child.  But when God has adopted us into His family and entered into that spiritual marriage with us by bringing us into His kingdom, we are strengthened.  But, to begin with, we are certainly the weak ones out in the world.

Again, it says in Genesis 25:23:

… and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.

Right away, we see that this goes contrary to the way it should be and the way God’s Law has established, because the Bible says the elder, or the firstborn, is really the one that has the authority in the household.  He would be the son that would receive the “double portion” of inheritance.  We read this in Deuteronomy 21:15-17:

If a man have two wives, one beloved, and another hated, and they have born him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn son be hers that was hated: Then it shall be, when he maketh his sons to inherit that which he hath, that he may not make the son of the beloved firstborn before the son of the hated, which is indeed the firstborn: But he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the firstborn, by giving him a double portion of all that he hath: for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his.

So the firstborn son had a right to receive a double portion of inheritance.  For example, in the case of Isaac, we will read that he wanted to give the inheritance or blessing to his firstborn son Esau.  That was his intention because he wanted to do the will of God.  The will of God was that whoever the son was that was firstborn, the inheritance must be given to him.  Also, Isaac had a “soft spot” for Esau.  He loved his son and he wanted to give him the blessing of the firstborn, but we know there was a plot, and it turned out that Jacob (with the help of his mother and some deception) received that blessing instead of his brother Esau.  This all fits in and, certainly, Rebekah had in mind what we are reading about in Genesis 25:23 because God was revealing to her that two nations were in her womb, and that one would be stronger than the other, and the elder would serve the younger.

The word “elder” is only translated that way here.  It is #7227 in the Hebrew Concordance.  Most often it is translated as “great” or “many.”  I believe that it is translated as “multitude” one time.  It depends on what is in view.  If years are in view, it could be translated as “many” years, or if something is in view that is not related to time, it would be translated as “great.”  When many people are in view, it was translated as “multitude.”  So it has to do with the “greatest” or the “most,” so the we could read it this way: “and the greater shall serve the younger.”   This is quoted in Romans 9:10-13:

And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

Now it is interesting that even in the New Testament Greek, the word translated “elder” is translated as “great” or “many,” or “much,” but it is following suit.  It is an exact quote using the equivalent Greek word sought by God to make sure this point gets across, and I am not sure why God did not use the usual word for “elder,” because it does have in view the fact that it is talking about these two sons, with the “greater” serving the “younger.”  It is understood that the “greater” would be the firstborn. 

We can look up that word translated as “younger,” and it is also translated as “least” one time, and as “a small one” or “a little one,” having to do with little children.  But we can read in Genesis 29 and see how this word “younger” is used when Laban gave Leah to Jacob to wife, and Leah was the older or eldest daughter.  It says in Genesis 29:25-26:

And it came to pass, that in the morning, behold, it was Leah: and he said to Laban, What is this thou hast done unto me? did not I serve with thee for Rachel? wherefore then hast thou beguiled me? And Laban said, It must not be so done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn.

This is the same word for “younger,” but the word “firstborn” is not found in Genesis 25:23, but we can see how that is in view in situation or context.

Also, if we go to Genesis 48, we find that Joseph had two sons and Jacob was dying, and Joseph wanted his father to bless his sons, so he brought them in before him, and it says in Genesis 48:14:

And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh's head, guiding his hands wittingly; for Manasseh was the firstborn.

Then it say sin Genesis 48:17-19:

And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him: and he held up his father's hand, to remove it from Ephraim's head unto Manasseh's head. And Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my father: for this is the firstborn; put thy right hand upon his head. And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it: he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations.

Now this is kind of strange or unusual that we find this kind of situation as often as we do in the Bible, where God is making a special point of indicating “how it should be,” with the elder or firstborn receiving the blessing and birthright, because he was indeed the firstborn son.  But we know that in the case of Jacob and Esau, it was Jacob that actually got the blessing.  And now we have just read that the younger son of Joseph got the blessing.  We wonder why God is doing this, because these things were controlled and orchestrated by God, and it was the Lord that established the principle that the elder shall serve the younger.  Of course, we wonder why.  Why is that so important?  If God wanted Jacob to receive the blessing, then why did He not simply cause him to be born first?  Why was it necessary in the historical account that Esau came forth first and was the firstborn, but then the right of the firstborn is given to his younger brother Jacob?

I think we will understand, by God’s grace, why this is so, in our next Bible study, Lord willing.