Esau and Jacob
Gen 25:19-27
19 This is the account of Abraham's son Isaac. Abraham became the father of Isaac,
20 and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan Aram and sister of Laban the Aramean.
21 Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. The LORD answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant.
22 The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, "Why is this happening to me?" So she went to inquire of the LORD.
23 The LORD said to her, "Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger."
24 When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb.
25 The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment; so they named him Esau.
26 After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau's heel; so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them.
27 The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was a quiet man, staying among the tents.
(NIV)
The struggle of these two boys, which began before their
birth, represents the struggle which still goes on today. There is a
struggle between light and darkness, between good and evil, and between the
Spirit and the flesh. Every child of God knows something of this struggle
which Paul sets before us in the seventh chapter of his book to the Romans.
Rom 7:15-25
15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.
17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.
18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.
19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-- this I keep on doing.
20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
22 For in my inner being I delight in God's law;
23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.
24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
25 Thanks be to God-- through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
(NIV)
This struggle which Paul describes is always with us. It is represented by the struggle between two twin brothers. Both boys sinned. Out of one twin came the Gentile nations and of the other the Arab nations. It is God's desire that both will eventually return to Him and accept His ways. Some Arabs have already come to God, some Gentiles have not. You can only discern God's people by their desires. God's children desire to do good but sometimes sin. People who do not belong to God cannot recognize sin and they stay in it continually. God's law which was given to Israel could not be kept. It was given such that His people could recognize sin and move away from it. May God grant our nation and the peace loving nations of the world the desire to accept Him and to strive to do His will. God will prevail.