“Two nations are in your womb, / and two peoples from within you shall be divided; / the one shall be stronger than the other, / the older shall serve the younger.” - Genesis 25:23
AKA Israel
He was in the line of Christ through Joseph. (Matthew 1:15)
I want to move you, if God the Holy Ghost shall help me, so that you will say within yourselves, like Queen Esther, “I will go in unto the King, and if I perish, I perish;” and may you add to that the vow of Jacob, “I will not let thee go, except thou bless me!”
(Spurgeon's Sermons on Prayer by Charles H. Spurgeon (2007). Page 18., https://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/sermons/the-ravens-cry/#flipbook/)
- Name Meaning: "heel holder," "supplanter" (Literal Word app), "he cheats" (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2025&version=esv)
- Father: Isaac (Genesis 25:25)
- Mother: Rebekah (Genesis 25:25)
- Brother: Esau (Genesis 25:26)
- Sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, Benjamin
- Daughters: Dinah
Story
Jacob's Birth
Rebekah was barren when Isaac married her, but Isaac prayed for her and she conceived.
The children struggled together within her, and she said, "If it is thus, why is this happening to me?" She inquired of the Lord, Who answered, "Two nations are in your womb, / and two peoples from within you shall be divided; / the one shall be stronger than the other, / the older shall serve the younger."
She gave birth to two twins: Esau and Jacob. Jacob came out second, with his hand holding Esau's heel.
(Genesis 25)
Jacob's conflict with Esau
Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents. Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
(Genesis 25)
Esau sells his birthright to Jacob for lentils
Once, when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field exhausted and asked for some of that red stew. (Therefore his name was called Edom.) Jacob told him to sell him his birthright. Esau agreed, asking what good a birthright was to a dying man, so Jacob gave bread and lentil stew after he swore to it. Esau ate, drank, rose, and left, despising his birthright.
(Genesis 25)
Literary Form
The story of Jacob (Genesis 25-35) resembles a hero story.
(The Origin of the Bible: Newly Updated by F. F. Bruce, J. I. Packer, Philip W. Comfort, and Carl F. H. Henry, 2020. The Bible as Literature by Leland Ryken, Page 131-132)