THE SALE OF THE BIRTHRIGHT
Genesis 25.1 to 34
=Interpretation.= (Chapter 25. 1 to 10 may be omitted as containing
nothing of interest to children, except that Abraham's death and
burial should be mentioned.)
The story of Jacob and Esau in their contention for the birthright
and the blessing is one that is frequently misunderstood. The
tendency to idealize the forefathers of the race has lead many
teachers to attempt to justify the conduct of Jacob in his efforts
to secure the birthright and the blessing, totally ignoring the fact
that all the wretched consequences which followed naturally upon
his attempt would seem to indicate that God did not approve. What
these consequences were will be discussed in subsequent chapters.
Other teachers sin in the opposite direction and make out Esau to
be the innocent victim of Jacob's cunning and avarice. How they can
reconcile this with the choice of Jacob to be the patriarch rather
than Esau, how they can conceive that God's will could confirm the
act of Jacob and the hand of Providence be, so to speak, forced
into blessing Jacob though Esau was the more worthy of blessing, is
difficult to understand. The mistake common to both these versions
of the Biblical meaning of the story is that they look at it mainly
as a character study of two contrasting types, whereas the moral of
the story lies not so much in the characters as in the incidents,
which, when given closer attention, reveal the fact that the motive
underlying the whole story is not the personal contest between
Jacob and Esau but the carrying out of God's plan, contained in
his promise to Abraham, the plan of bringing into existence the
people to whom He was to reveal Himself. And this idea is brought
out, as in the story of Abraham's relation to Ishmael and Isaac,
by contrasting the purposes of the human agents with God's purpose
and showing how God's purpose is made to triumph by His so shaping
the incidents of Jacob's life that they correct Jacob's original
misconception of his mission.
Let us see how the incidents in this chapter cast light on our
theme. Note in the first instance the prophecy contained in
Genesis 25.23 which indicates in advance that Jacob and not Esau
was intended from the beginning to be the heir of the blessing of
Abraham. Note also that the prophecy speaks of "two nations" and
"two peoples", showing distinctly that the events of the narrative
were shaped by God with a view to subsequent history not merely to
the lives of Jacob and Esau as individuals. The very fact that "the
elder shall serve the younger" is to give emphasis to the divine
election of Jacob, for, according to the law and custom of those
days, the elder was entitled to the obedience and service of the
younger. Had Jacob been the older of the two brothers his subsequent
preeminence and that of his descendants would have seemed but part
of the natural course of events and would not have argued divine
election, but with Esau the first born the subsequent elevation of
Jacob does so argue.
This, as well as much else in the story, becomes clearer to us if
we understand what was meant by the birthright. In patriarchal
times, the father was absolute ruler over his descendants. At
his death, the oldest son took his place and inherited as even in
later times, twice as large a portion of the estate as any of his
other sons. (See Deuteronomy 21.17.) But this is not all that was
involved in the birthright. If it were all, Jacob's desire for it
would have been mere avarice and ambition and would have justified
that total condemnation which many a teacher has given him. But we
must remember that the first born was also the religious head of the
tribe. (See Numbers 3.45.) It was therefore most natural for Jacob
to assume that God's promise to Abraham, with all its spiritual
implications, naturally went with the birthright.
Now let us examine the characters as they appear in this chapter.
Esau is not the consummate villain that he is so frequently depicted
as being in later Jewish _agada_. But on the other hand, he is not
the injured hero. The story characterizes him as a skilful hunter,
interested in his woodcraft, and caring little about either the
privileges or the responsibilities of his birthright. To Jacob
however the inheritance of the blessing of Abraham was important,
perhaps a knowledge of the prophecy that had preceded his birth
making it even more so. Esau had forfeited his moral right to the
blessing through his failure to appreciate it. Not too much stress
must be laid on Esau's words "Behold I am at the point to die and
what profit shall the birthright do to me?" as these are to be
regarded not as a statement of sober fact but as the exaggeration of
a hungry man, for the Bible takes pains to explain Esau's attitude
in the words, "And he did eat and drink and rose up and went his
way. So Esau _despised his birthright_", showing that he was at the
time perfectly satisfied with the bargain he had made. This takes
from Jacob the stigma of having forced the bargain on Esau when the
latter could not help himself. He merely took advantage of Esau's
contempt for the birthright, which was sufficient evidence that he
was not worthy to possess it. At the same time, Jacob's employing
these means to secure the birthright does not seem, as will appear
more clearly in later chapters, to meet the divine approval, because
(1) this attempt to wrest the birthright from Esau through taking
advantage of Esau's weakness in itself argues a lack of complete
confidence in the realization of God's promise, in other words, a
lack of that quality of _temimut_, of naive acceptance of God's
will, which was so conspicuous a trait of Abraham's character, and
(2) because he does not fully understand the spiritual character of
his mission inasmuch as he regards its realization as dependent upon
the legal status of the birthright, which he could, so he thought,
secure by purchase.
=Aim.= The aim of this lesson is to teach the general truth that
a privilege which is not appreciated becomes forfeit, and the
particular truth that to be a Jew is to possess such a privilege,
which we must learn to appreciate.
=Suggestions to the teacher.= Before beginning the narrative of this
chapter itself, prepare the way by questions that will bring out the
fact of the election of Abraham and his descendants and the choice
that God exercised in selecting from among his descendants only
those properly qualified. Such questions are the following; "Do you
remember, when we were learning about Abraham and about how God told
him to leave his land and go to the land that He would show him,
that God made Abraham a promise? What was that promise? (Note: The
answer must include the idea that his descendants would be a great
nation, a blessing to all the world, and would inherit Canaan.) When
our father Abraham died, did this blessing go to both his children,
to Ishmael and to Isaac? To whom did the blessing belong?"
After having thus prepared the way proceed as follows:
"Now Isaac and Rebekah also had two children. The first born or
older was called Esau and the younger Jacob, and it was known that
only one of the two was to inherit the blessing, but for a long time
it was not known which one."
Then contrast the two characters emphasizing the physical prowess of
Esau, which won him the more universal admiration and the preference
of his father with the quiet thoughtfulness of Jacob. In order to
impress the child, the contrast must be given largely in terms of
their physical appearance. We continue the narrative as a teacher
might tell it in class:
"These two sons, Esau and Jacob, were very different one from the
other. Esau was a big strong man, rough and hairy in appearance, who
delighted in all sorts of sport and exercise, especially in hunting.
People admired him for his great strength and skill and most of
them thought that surely this big, strong man was the one whom God
had chosen to be the father of His people. And Isaac himself loved
Esau more than he did Jacob, because, now that Isaac was growing
old, Esau used to hunt food for him in the forest and would tell him
wonderful stories of his strength and skill in catching the deer and
other game that he prepared for him for food. But Jacob was very
different. He was not above the average man in strength and he had
no particular skill in hunting as had Esau. He was a quiet man, who
used to sit for hours in his tent, while his flocks were pasturing
nearby and think about the things he had learned from his father and
mother and from his grandfather Abraham, about how God had made the
world, and about how he had told Abraham to leave his country and go
to a new land, and, above all, about the promise that God had given
to Abraham to make of his descendants a great people. Which of these
two sons of Isaac and Rebekah had God chosen to become the father of
the Jewish people? Most people, no doubt, thought at the time that
Esau was meant, because he was the stronger and more successful in
the hunt, but there was one person who thought differently, and that
was the mother of these two young men, Rebekah. For she remembered
a prophecy that God had told her before either of the two children
were born, and this prophecy said, 'Two nations will come from thee
and two peoples will be born of thee and one will be stronger than
the other, but the elder will serve the younger'."
The prophecy is introduced here rather than at the beginning of the
story because it is well to stimulate the child's curiosity as to
which of the two is to receive the blessing of Abraham before giving
him any hint as to the answer. By thus beginning with a statement
of the question, the child's attention is at once directed to the
central theme of the narrative without which the incident of the
sale of the birthright is not comprehensible. But now one comes
face to face with the subject of the birthright itself. Explain,
that beside Esau's strength and skill, there was another reason why
people thought that Esau was to be the chosen son, and that is
because he was the older, for it was the custom in those days that
the oldest son enjoyed what was known as the birthright. The idea of
the birthright can be explained by saying that in the days of which
we are speaking the father used to be the king over all his children
and their families and servants, that he used to lead them in war
and judge all their disputes in time of peace, and that he was also
their priest, who used to perform the sacrifices for them and lead
them in their prayers and hymns to God, but that, when the father
died, the oldest son got all these rights and this right of the
oldest son to become priest and king after the death of the father
is known as the birthright.
After the child has a clear idea of the meaning of the birthright,
tell how Jacob thought that the one who had the birthright was he
whom God meant to make the head of the great nation he had told
Abraham about, since whoever had the birthright would be king and
priest over all the others after Isaac's death. I continue the
narrative as the teacher might tell it:
"So Jacob kept thinking to himself, 'If only I had the birthright!
If only I had the birthright!' but Esau, who had the birthright,
seemed to care very little about it. So long as there was game
enough in the forest to keep him busy hunting, he bothered his head
very little about what he would do when, on Isaac's death, he would
have to rule the people and lead them in the service of God, and the
promise made to Abraham that some day his descendants would become
a great nation concerned him even less, for he thought only of the
affairs of the day and to the future he gave no thought at all."
This brings us to the climax of the narrative, the actual sale
of the birthright. It must be told in such a way that the child
understands the point that Esau lost his birthright because he did
not know how to appreciate it, and that, as a universal proposition,
a privilege not appreciated is lost. This can best be done if,
before telling the story of the sale of the birthright, one presents
a hypothetical case somewhat as follows:
"Suppose, children, that a man owned a very valuable book which he
wanted to leave when he died to one of his two children, and suppose
that one of his children was a great lover of books and the other
did not care even to look at a book or to take the trouble to learn
to read, which of the two children do you think ought to have had
the book after the father's death? Of course, the one who knew the
value of the book and how to appreciate it, because we only deserve
what we know how to appreciate. Now who do you think should have had
the birthright, Esau, who did not care about being the father of the
great people God had promised to make of Abraham's descendants, or
Jacob who did care? (Answer: Jacob.) Well, Jacob thought so too and
so he began planning how he might get Esau to give up the birthright
to him."
In quoting the dialogue between Esau and Jacob, paraphrase Esau's
words in verse 32 so as to make it perfectly clear that they are an
expression of contempt for the birthright, "I am so hungry I could
die. What do I care for the birthright!"
After having told the story question the children with a view to
seeing whether they understand its leading ideas. The following are
suggestive questions:
What promise did God make to Abraham and to Isaac?
Was this promise meant for both of Isaac's children?
Which of Isaac's children do you think God wanted to have the
promised blessing? Why? (Note: If the child gives the wrong answer,
the teacher must ask a number of leading questions until the right
answer is secured.)
What does birthright mean? Who had the birthright at the beginning
of our story? Did Esau care very much for the birthright? Did
Jacob want it? Why did Jacob want it? What did Jacob do to get the
birthright?
This lesson lends itself easily to dramatization by the children.
(See Introduction, page 31.)