Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #16 of Genesis, chapter 25, and we are going to read Genesis 25:28-34:

And Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison: but Rebekah loved Jacob. And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint: And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom. And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright. And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me? And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.

In our last study we noticed in verse 27 that God is making plain statements about each of these twins: “Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents.”  God was conveying who each man would represent, spiritually.  Esau typified the man of the world, as the “field” typifies the world.  And Jacob was a “plain” man, and we saw that this word is most often translated as “perfect” in referring to Job and other men, pointing to the fact that their sins had become washed away, and they had become pure, clean and perfect in the sight of God.  He also dwelt in tents, which ties in with the truth that God’s people are strangers and pilgrims on the earth.  We have no certain dwelling place because this is not our home, but we are moving along toward the heavenly city, New Jerusalem, and the new heaven and new earth.

So we can see from this language when we look at its spiritual meaning that it supports and strengthens the whole idea of how the Bible presents God as deciding between these two men, loving Jacob and hating Esau.  Jacob represents the elect, and Esau represents those God did not save and who were left in their sins to perish, ultimately.

That raises a question in verse 28, where we read, “And Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison: but Rebekah loved Jacob.”  In a little while, we are going to see that Isaac will give the blessing of the father to one of his sons, and he sought to give it to Esau because Esau was the firstborn, and that would fit with the idea that he loved Esau.  Isaac is a picture of God, and we already know that when Abraham attempted to offer up Isaac as a living sacrifice, Isaac was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ.  But Jesus is God: “I and the Father are one.”  So Isaac is a picture of the Father, and he will ultimately give the blessing to one, and not to the other: “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”  We know that Jacob would receive the blessing, but that was not the original intent of Isaac. 

Remember that we looked at the word “venison,” and it was interesting that the reason Isaac loved Esau was because he did eat of his venison.  For example, we saw in Genesis 27:3-4:

Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison; And make me savoury meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat; that my soul may bless thee before I die.

That was Isaac speaking to Esau, and Esau went forth to find the venison through hunting.  This word “venison” can also be translated as “hunter,” and whatever kind of animal that might have been hunted, it was said that Isaac loved it: “And Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison.”  This word is also found in Psalm 132:15, where it is translated as “provision.”  It says in Psalm 132:13:

For JEHOVAH hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation.

Zion is another name for Jerusalem, so JEHOVAH having chosen Zion would be a picture of those He had elected to salvation.  The city “New Jerusalem” consists of everyone that has become saved.  All the elect are the chosen.  Then it say says in Psalm 132:14:

This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it.

And this fits in with all we know about God building the “house” and then entering into it.  He builds His spiritual house, and then He dwells in it, His people.  In the book of Revelation, it tells us of New Jerusalem coming down from above, and it says that God will never leave us nor forsake us.  We are His people and He is our God, and He will dwell with us, and this is His rest for ever.  Then it says in Psalm 132:15:

I will abundantly bless her provision: I will satisfy her poor with bread.

Again, the word “provision” is the word “venison.”  He will abundantly bless her venison.

Then it says in Psalm 132:16:

I will also clothe her priests with salvation: and her saints shall shout aloud for joy.

It is in the context of the elect and salvation and of God blessing the venison.

By the way, what did Jacob bring to his father, although deceitfully?  It was “venison.”  It was two kids of the goats.  He did not have to go into the field.  It was right there on their homestead, and his mother made “savoury meat such as Isaac loved.”  So he blessed the hunting, the venison or the provision abundantly, blessing Jacob because he thought he was blessing Esau, but as it turned out, Jacob received the blessing.  And it was related to the “venison,” the eating or partaking of the savoury meat of the venison, and then pronouncing the blessing.

So Isaac loved Esau because he did eat of his venison, and he fully expected to give Esau the blessing of the firstborn, having eaten of his venison.  But in the scheme of things (and we know God controls all these things), in allowing Rebekah to hatch this plan and in allowing Jacob to carry it out, God knew full well what would happen.  Any sin was their sin.  It was not God’s sin, but He permitted it to take place.  In the final analysis, it fulfilled the Word of God and the plan of God for Jacob to be the “chosen one” and to receive the right of the firstborn, because he would be born again, along with all those he typified.

But, again, we wonder, “Why does Isaac love Esau in this way, if Isaac is a type of God the Father?”  Then we would have to say that God loved the unsaved.  Who does Esau represent?  He will eventually receive the name “Edom,” based on his love of the red pottage.  Edom means “red,” but it is also closely related to the word “Adam” or man.  Esau is a picture of mankind in the original creation, and when God created man, did God fully intend to bless him and to abundantly bless his provision or venison and all the blessings of the (firstborn) son of God?  We looked at the genealogy in the Gospel of Luke, where it referred to Adam as the “son of God.”  He was God’s son, the firstborn of those he created in this world, and he should have received the blessing of the firstborn as his birthright, but he did not.  You see, this is why Isaac originally loved Esau and intended to bestow the blessing of the firstborn upon Esau.  It was proper.  It was right.  He was his firstborn son and, yet, when it finally came down to it, Esau did not receive the blessing.  Isaac gave the blessing to the usurper, Jacob.

And that is exactly what happened in God’s program wherein mankind at the first should have received the blessing, but lost the blessing to another – all those that Jacob represented, the elect of God.  In becoming born again, they become the children of God and receive the blessing over the natural-minded people of the world that do not receive the blessing.

Let us go on to Genesis 25:29:

And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint:

We have a very interesting word in this verse.  It is the word “sod.”  The Hebrew word translated as “sod” is Strong’s #2102, and I say it is interesting because it is found ten times in the Bible and this one time it was translated as “sod,” and  I will give you a breakdown of the other translations: 1) it is translated as “deal proudly,” four times; 2) “presumptuously,” three times; 3) “presume,” one time; and 4) “proud,” one time.  All these other translations are all related, and from what I can see, they all have to do with sin in one form or another.  So we will look at some of the places this word is found, starting with Exodus 21:12-14:

He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death. And if a man lie not in wait, but God deliver him into his hand; then I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee. But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbour, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die.

The word “presumptuously” in verse 14 is used in a context that is not good; it has to do with doing evil and wrong, and it has to do with a man that plotted and planned to kill his neighbor through guile.

Or, we read in Deuteronomy 1:43:

So I spake unto you; and ye would not hear, but rebelled against the commandment of JEHOVAH, and went presumptuously up into the hill.

This was Moses speaking to Israel when God judged them for the evil report of the ten spies (out of the twelve) that said they could not overcome the inhabitants of the land and that they should go back to Egypt.  Then God judged them and said, “After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years.”  That really shook them so they decided, “Now we will obey you, God, and we will do what you want, and we will go up,” but it was too late.  And they were told not to go up, but they “presumptuously” went up the hill, and they were beaten back.  You see, it was all sin and all wrong in not doing it God’s way, but doing something presumptuously.

It says in Deuteronomy 18:20:

But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.

Here, our word is “presume.”  A false prophet is presuming and, of course, pride is involved in presuming to speak in the name of God when God had not spoken (to them).  Before the Bible was completed, a prophet might say, “I had a dream.  I had a vision,” and before the Bible was completed that was a possibility and, yet, it was out of their own minds.  Or today, anyone that goes to the Bible and says, “This is what the Bible teaches,” but they are not following the Biblical methodology of comparing spiritual with spiritual, thus allowing the Holy Spirit to teach, then they are “presuming” to speak a Word or speaking the Word “presumptuously,” and that is wicked.

Or, we can go to Nehemiah 9 where this word is used three times.  It says in Nehemiah 9:10:

And shewedst signs and wonders upon Pharaoh, and on all his servants, and on all the people of his land: for thou knewest that they dealt proudly against them. So didst thou get thee a name, as it is this day.

It is the word translated as “dealt proudly,” and it is also translated that way in Nehemiah 9:16:

But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks, and hearkened not to thy commandments,

And in Nehemiah 9:29:

And testifiedst against them, that thou mightest bring them again unto thy law: yet they dealt proudly, and hearkened not unto thy commandments, but sinned against thy judgments, (which if a man do, he shall live in them;) and withdrew the shoulder, and hardened their neck, and would not hear.

It is very consistent, is it not?  Whether it be presuming to speak a Word in the name of the Lord, or going up a hill presumptuously, or murdering someone presumptuously, or rebelling against God and dealing proudly, it is all sin and transgressing the Law of God.

We did not look at all the verses, but it is saying the same thing in the other verses, but let us look at one more place this word is used in Jeremiah 50:29:

Call together the archers against Babylon: all ye that bend the bow, camp against it round about; let none thereof escape: recompense her according to her work; according to all that she hath done, do unto her: for she hath been proud against JEHOVAH, against the Holy One of Israel.

Here, it is the word “proud,” so we really have to wonder because we have to consider how we define words in the Bible.  How do we understand a word in the Bible?  It is through how God uses that word in other places.  This particular word is translated as “sod” in our verse, and it actually says, “sod pottage,” but “pottage” is a separate word, but it is related to “sod.”  It is derived from “sod,” apparently.  It is the same Hebrew consonants, but it has the Hebrew letter “Nun” before it, and that seems to be the only difference between “pottage” and “sod.”  And the translators thought that since “pottage” is the word “pottage,”…and we will look at some verses where it is used.  It is only used six times, and two of those times it is used in Genesis 25, but it has to do with pottage in every case.  So the translators were seeing, “So Jacob dealt proudly pottage,” or “Jacob presumptuously pottage,” but that did not make sense.  Of course, they knew this word and how it was used, but based on the closeness of the word “sod” to the word “pottage,” and it being basically the same word, they thought it must be “sod.”  However, there is a Hebrew word for “sod,” and it is used in 2Kings 4, and also the word “pottage” is used there, too, and we will see that they “seethed” pottage, and the word “seethed” there is #1310 in Strong’s Concordance, which is used in 2Kings 4:38, and that word “seethed” is translated as “seethed” ten times; as “boiled” six times; as “sod” six times; as “bake” twice; and as “roast” twice.  So that is a perfectly good Hebrew word to use if one is describing boiling some soup or some pottage, like the lentiles that Jacob was boiling.  I am sure that Jacob was boiling lentiles, but it is historically accurate or correct to say he “sod pottage.”  He did. 

He did, and when Esau came in, he smelled it and he wanted some.  It was in the pot, cooking.  And after making the deal, Jacob served him some of the soup that had been boiled or “sodded,” but our question is, “Why did God not use the Hebrew word #1310?”  In other words, why does it not say that Jacob seethed or sod pottage using that word instead of using a word that has to do with “presumptuous” or “proud” sin?  I do not totally know the answer, but I think that we can understand at least one thing that God is trying to get across is that what Jacob was doing was sinful.  It was related to pride; he wanted to be the firstborn.  He wanted the birthright, and it may reveal some envy on Jacob’s part.  Why else would Jacob be interested in the birthright?  It was Esau’s, as Esau was the firstborn, legitimately and properly. 

Of course, maybe anyone that was a twin would have a better understanding of this, especially if you were living in a society where it mattered so much to be the firstborn son, and you would have to live with the regret of your position in the womb – that you were born a minute later.  You were actually “grabbing the heel” of your brother, being so close to having been the firstborn son.  It could have been a matter of seconds, but it would impact your whole life, as far as your lot in life, your riches, and everything.  And, apparently, Jacob “dealt proudly pottage,” because God knew his thoughts.  Here, he was plotting on his own, as we do not read that Rebekah was involved.  This is speculation, but maybe she manipulated Jacob or talked to him about this because he was her favorite, and he was the one of whom God had said that the “elder shall serve the younger.”  And she could have had her eye on things, and she could have said to Jacob, “You are going to be the one who is blessed.  You are the one that all will serve.”  She could have put these things in his mind, so Jacob saw an opportunity: “I am going to make a deal, and Esau is going to sell me his birthright.”

That is the only thing, I think, that can be in view here as God used this particular word translated as “sod.”  But we will have to look into this more when we get together in our next Bible study.