Sibs (Genesis 25:19-34)

 Sermon for Speedway UMC on July 16, 2023

Sibs (Genesis 25:19-34)

God is good! All the Time! I’m Scott Tyring, and I used to serve this congregation as associate pastor from 2003 to 2008. and I work just down the street at Conkle Funeral Home. When Michele and I moved to Speedway in 2003 our kids were in 4^th grade, 7^th grade, and 9^th grade. Our kids are now young adults, and we have three young grandchildren, Margot, Maddox and Rowan. Pastor G asked me to preach, and we decided to continue your study of Genesis.

 

Genesis is one of my favorite books of the entire Bible because it introduces us to the greatest story ever told. God’s story, which gives meaning to our very lives, starts in Genesis. The title Genesis comes from the Hebrew Be’reshit which means “in the  beginning.”  In the beginning God…!  Genesis reveals a God who creates universe with a command, “Let there be…” By God’s word, the heavens and earth were created. All the wonders of the cosmos, all the plants and animals, mountains and oceans, deserts and glaciers were made by our Maker. How wonderful is the power, glory, and mind of God!

 

Much like the overture of a symphony introduces musical themes that will be performed more fully throughout the performance, Genesis introduces themes that are explored more fully throughout the Bible. Themes of creation, covenant and consequence are laid out before us in the biblical story. Our creator makes humankind. Male and female are made in God’s image. We share characteristics with God, but we are not God. We are only creatures who share the divine spark within. We were made for God and without God we are lost to a life of empty searching.

 

In the Garden of Eden, sin is introduced when the serpent questions God’s command. The serpent twists God’s purpose for the first humans. Adam and Eve listen to the serpent’s voice rather than obey God’s command. Paradise is lost.

 

The consequences of sin play out as the story progresses. The land is corrupted with weeds and thistles. Adam must labor by the sweat of his brow to get the land to produce food. In Eden, he could easily get all he needed from the trees within God’s paradise garden. Not anymore. Eve suffered pain in childbirth. Her children live in enmity with the serpent and those who serve the serpent, children of the evil one.

 

But even though they endure the consequences to sin, God promises redemption. The son of the woman will crush the serpent’s head. Interpreters have read this redemptive promise to reveal Israel’s hope in messiah, a divinely anointed human, later to be known as the Son of Man.

 

Sin’s corruption brings about the first murder. Cain murders his brother Abel. In this morning’s reading, we learn about two other siblings, Esau and Jacob, who will become enemies.

 

By Genesis 6, The Lord regrets ever making humans, for the inclinations of their hearts were only wicked all the time. And so God, the creator who separated light from darkness, dry land from the primordial waters of chaos, separated Noah and his family from all the wickedness on earth. Noah found favor with God. He walked with God blamelessly. God was about to wash the world clean of its corruption, but with Noah he would start over. Noah’s Ark points to the covenant community, set apart through covenant obedience from the chaos of worldly corruption. Just as Noah was saved from the great flood, the covenant community is saved through God’s blessing and protection.

 

Sadly, sin persisted. Noah got drunk on wine and some kind of terrible indiscretion occurred between a vulnerable father and his son Ham. God intended to bless Noah and his family because of Noah’s obedience, but Noah, in his anger, cursed Ham’s lineage. From Ham’s sons come a who’s who of Israel’s future enemies. Warring nations like Babylon, Akkadia, Assyria, and even the deplorable Philistines descend from Noah’s cursed son, Ham.

By chapter 11, we are back to a world corrupted by human sin. In Babel, the people build a tower toward heaven to make a name for themselves. But God calls Abraham away from this moon worshipping culture and promises to make his name great. Through Abraham’s obedience to God’s call, God promised to bless him and his descendants, even the whole world. God’s covenant with Abraham is reconfirmed with his son Isaac and with Jacob after him.

 

In Genesis 25, we learn that Rebekah, Isaac’s wife, is barren. For 20 years God had not blessed them with a child. But Isaac prays to God and God blesses them with twin sons. Rebekah had trouble in her pregnancy. Her unborn sons wrestled each other in her womb, causing her pain and distress. How does Rebekah respond? She went to the Lord in prayer.

 

How different would our lives be if we all followed Isaac and Rebekah’s example! Some might self-medicate to deal with pain and disappointment. Others are prone to complain to all their friends and family, or even to complete strangers on social media. Isaac and Rebekah’s response was to pray. As a child of the covenant, Isaac trusted the divine promise that God would make the children of Abraham into a great nation with descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky above or as countless as the sands on the seashore. Rebekah had serious pain, but she turned to God for answers. As the prophet Isaiah reminds us, “Those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength.” (Isa 40:31)

 

God told Rebekah that two nations were fighting inside of her. Esau would become the nation of Edomites. Jacob, her younger son, would become the inheritor of God’s blessing and the one by whom the nation of Israel is named.

 

Esau became a hunter, but Jacob was a man more comfortable among the women who stayed at home. Easu was loved by his father Isaac, but Rebekah loved Jacob. Parents choosing favorites is bound to cause trouble.

 

Easu, one day, came in from hunting in the wilderness famished. Jacob was cooking lentil stew. Esau demanded a bowl of that red stuff. Jacob took advantage of the situation and offered to sell a bowl of lentil stew for Esau’s birthright. Esau agreed.

 

It was the tradition of the Hebrew people to assign the spiritual leadership of a family clan or household to the firstborn son. For Esau to treat his birthright so carelessly reveals his contempt for the tradition and for his responsibility to become the spiritual leader of the clan after Isaac.

 

We also see that Jacob lives up to his name. Jacob literally means heel grabber, a euphemism for a manipulator, supplanter, deceiver, and cheat. Jacob takes advantage of his compulsive older brother. Esau doesn’t think past his stomach and Jacob seizes the opportunity to improve his situation. While Jacob is not perfect, God knows Jacob’s heart. God believes in Jacob’s potential to further the fulfillment of His covenant promises given to Abraham. God chose Jacob to be the spiritual leader of the people Israel, but the path there would be a difficult one.

 

One can interpret the two siblings as a picture of what it means to be human. In each one of us there are fighting siblings. One follows his gut and the other follows the divine promise.

 

The apostle Paul lamented that there are those in life whose god is their belly. They are slaves to their cravings, fears, and ambitions.

 

…many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears. 19 Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. 21 He will transform our humble body that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself. (Php 3:18-21)

 

Do you see illustrated here the two types of people? One follows their appetites. The other follows the divine promise of resurrection and eternal life.

 

Jesus taught his disciples in Luke 12:22-31,

 

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. ²³ For life is more than food and the body more than clothing. ²⁴ Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! ²⁵ And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your span of life? ²⁶ If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? ²⁷ Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. ²⁸ But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, you of little faith! ²⁹ And do not keep seeking what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. ³⁰ For it is the nations of the world (those who follow their appetites and ambitions) that seek all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. ³¹ Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

 

Within each of us are these two siblings fighting for first place in our hearts. It’s like the old Native American story of two wolves.

 

The story goes that a young brave spoke with his chief about his struggle with resentment and anger. The chief told the brave that within each of us are two wolves fighting for dominance, one that seeks to do harm, the other that seeks only to do good.

 

The brave asked, "Which wolf will win?"

The chief smiled and said, "The one you feed."

The scripture today calls us to examine ourselves, as the word of God is prone to do. Look into God’s holy word mirror. What do you see? Are you more like Easu? Do your appetites and ambitions in life rule over you? Or are you more like Jacob, who came to fully trust in the promise of God’s blessing?

 

In truth, we are caught in the struggle between both. The sibling we feed gets first place in our lives. We must learn to quiet the one and heed the other.

 

We belong to the new covenant in Jesus. We live by the promise of eternal life, everlasting love, and we work together to build God’s kingdom on earth, where there is peace and justice and plenty for all. May you learn to feed faith in God’s great and wonderful promises through Jesus Christ, our Lord.