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Jacob & Esau by Alon Ronk We begin with Hebrews 12:16, "Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears." Often we hear people talk about what a conniving deceiver Jacob was. It is pointed out that his name means, Supplanter. Supplanter, according to the New Webster's Dictionary of the English Language, means, "To displace or take the place of, as a person, especially by treacherous or underhand means; to displace; supercede; replace, as a thing, by something else." But I want to come to Jacob's defense and show that he got the bad rap. Let's look at Romans 9:11-13 and begin laying the groundwork for this study. " (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated." When Jacob and Esau were born, it was already God's purpose, and according to His foreknowledge, that the the elder would serve the younger; i.e. Esau would become subservient to Jacob. It was not Jacob's plan. It was not even Rebekah's plan, even though she thought it was. God Almighty made a covenant to Abraham. One of the aspects of that covenant was that Abraham's seed would be a source of blessing to the whole world. In Genesis 22:15-18 we read, "And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice." The covenant was passed on to Abraham's son Isaac, Genesis 17:18-21. "And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee! And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year." Isaac and Ismael became two separate peoples or nations. Isaac, however, had inherited the covenant and the covenant God made with Abraham would continue with Isaac. Isaac also had two sons. One of his sons would be the next step in God's creation of a new nation. The nation God was in the process of building was Israel, Isaiah 43:1, " But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine." This nation would also be the heir of the covenant God made with Abraham, and again with Isaac. So one of Isaac's sons would inherit the covenant and would thus be the next in line in the ancestry that would lead up to the birth of the Messiah. The other son would become another nation or people as did Ishmael. Genesis25:19-23, "And these are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son: Abraham begat Isaac: And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to Laban the Syrian. And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, an d Rebekah his wife conceived. And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD. And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger." From Esau came the nation of Edom; Genesis 36:1,8-9, " Now these are the generations of Esau, who is Edom. Thus dwelt Esau in mount Seir: Esau is Edom. And these are the generations of Esau the father of the Edomites in mount Seir:" From Jacob came the nation of Israel; Genesis 32:24-30, " And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him the re. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved." Thus Jacob and Esau became representative names of peoples. So the future of these two nations were predestined by the sovereignty of God. That's called , national election. This brings us back to Romans 9:11-13 again, "(For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated." God did not base His plans on the goodness or lack thereof of Jacob or Esau. He decreed His plan before either of them were born. In His sovereignty God elected Israel to be a light unto the nations and the people from whom Messiah would come. But what about where it says, "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated." First of all, the word, hate, also means to prefer one over another. God preferred Abraham over everyone else. God preferred Isaac over Ishmael. God preferred Jacob over Esau before either of them had done any good or evil. But that's not to say that He hated the one He did not prefer; or should I say, prioritize. For example, Jesus said in Luke 14:26, "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." The same word is being used here. Jesus is not telling us that we have to hate our own family in order to follow Him. He's saying, we must put Him first. Don't forget that God had also blessed Esau too; Joshua 24:4, " And I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau: and I gave unto Esau mount Seir, to possess it; but Jacob and his children went down into Egypt. Furthermore, Paul said, "As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated." Then where was it written? We find this verse in Malachai 1:1-5, "The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi. I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob, And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the LORD hath indignation for ever. And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The LORD will be magnified from the border of Israel." What God is speaking of here took place many hundreds of years after the death of Jacob and Esau. The prophet Malachai is, himself, looking back to a time that is recorded in Jeremiah 49:7-22, and Obadiah 1-18. "Concerning Edom, thus saith the LORD of hosts; Is wisdom no more in Teman? is counsel perished from the prudent? is their wisdom vanished?Flee ye, turn back, dwell deep, O inhabitants of Dedan; for I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him, the time that I will visit him. If grapegatherers come to thee, would they not leave some gleaning grapes? if thieves by night, they will destroy till they have enough. But I have made Esau bare, I have uncovered his secret places, and he shall not be able to hide himself: his seed is spoiled, and his brethren, and his neighbours, and he is not. Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let thy widows trust in me. For thus saith the LORD; Behold, they whose judgment was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drunken; a nd art thou he that shall altogether go unpunished? thou shalt not go unpunished, but thou shalt surely drink of it. For I have sworn by myself, saith the LORD, that Bozrah shall become a desolation, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and all the cities thereof shall be perpetual wastes. I have heard a rumour from the LORD, and an ambassador is sent unto the heathen, saying, Gather ye together, and come against her, and rise up to the battle. For, lo, I will make thee small among the heathen, and despised among men. Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the pride of thine heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the height of the hill: though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the LORD. Also Edom shall be a desolation: every one that goeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss at all the plagues thereof. As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbour cities thereof, saith the LORD, no man shall abide there, neither shall a son of man dwell in it. Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan against the habitation of the strong: but I will suddenly make him run away from her: and who is a chosen man, that I may appoint over her? for who is like me? and who will appoint me the time? and who is that shepherd that will stand before me? Therefore hear the counsel of the LORD, that he hath taken against Edom; and his purposes, that he hath purposed against the inhabitants of Teman: Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out: surely he shall make their habitations desolate with them. The earth is moved at the noise of their fall, at the cry the noise thereof was heard in the Red sea. Behold, he shall come up and fly as the eagle, and spread his wings over Bozrah: and at that day shall the heart of the mighty men of Edom be as the heart of a woman in her pangs." And in Obadiah, " The vision of Obadiah. Thus saith the Lord GOD concerning Edom; We have heard a rumour from the LORD, and an ambassador is sent among the heathen, Arise ye, and let us rise up against her in battle. Behold, I have made thee small among the heathen: thou art greatly despised. The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground? Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the LORD. If thieves came to thee, if robbers by night, (how art thou cut off!) would they not have stolen till they had enough? if the grapegatherers came to thee, would they not leave some grapes? How are the things of Esau searched out! how are his hidden things sought up! All the men of thy confederacy have brought thee even to the border: the men that were at peace with thee have deceived thee , and prevailed against thee; they that eat thy bread have laid a wound under thee: there is none understanding in him. Shall I not in that day, saith the LORD, even destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau? And thy mighty men, O Teman, shall be dismayed, to the end that every one of the mount of Esau may be cut off by slaughter. For thy violence against thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever. In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them. But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day that he became a stranger; neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress. Thou shouldest not have entered into the gate of my p eople in the day of their calamity; yea, thou shouldest not have looked on their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor have laid hands on their substance in the day of their calamity; Neither shouldest thou have stood in the crossway, to cut off those of his that did escape; neither shouldest thou have delivered up those of his that did remain in the day of distress. For the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head. For as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all the heathen drink continually, yea, they shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been. But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions. And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them, and devour them; and th ere shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau; for the LORD hath spoken it." So we see here that God was referring to the two nations and not to the two men Jacob and Esau. But how did that happen? that Jacob, even though not first born, could inherit the covenant and become Israel? For that we turn to Genesis 25:29-34, "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." Esau came in from one of his hunting trips, which obviously was not prosperous, and was really tired from the day's work. You will notice that Esau went to Jacob and asked for some red pottage, from which also Esau got his new name of Edom." Feed me...with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom. The name Edom, which means red, would be a constant reminder of the day Esau sold his birthright, and for what reason: he wanted some food. So Jacob, sensing an oppurtunity here, makes a deal with Esau. You sell me your birthright and I will pay you in food. Esau said, Okay. What good is a birthright, you can't eat it. So Jacob made Esau swear. Esau could have said no. But his own appetite was more important than his birthright. But with the surrendering of the birthright to Jacob, Esau forfeited something even greater. He forfeited his place in the covenant. Therefore his place was given to Jacob. Thus the prophecy was sealed that, the elder would serve the younger. So Jacob received the blessing. The event is recorded in Genesis 27, please read the chapter. I want to pick up with verses 30-37. "And it came to pass, as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob was yet scarce gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting. And he also had made savoury meat, and brought it unto his father, and said unto his father, Let my father arise, and eat of his son's venison, that thy soul may bless me. And Isaac his father said unto him, Who art thou? And he said, I am thy son, thy firstborn Esau. And Isaac trembled very exceedingly, and said, Who? where is he that hath taken venison, and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed him? yea, and he shall be blessed. And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father. And he said, Thy brother came with subtilty, and hath taken away thy blessing. And he said, Is not he rightly named Jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright; and, behold, now he hath taken away my blessing. And he said, Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me? And Isaac answered and said unto Esau, Behold, I have made him thy lord, and all his brethren have I given to him for servants; and with corn and wine have I sustained him: and what shall I do now unto thee, my son?" Was Jacob the deceiver? Was he the crook, so to speak? First, remember that the plan to deceive Isaac into blessing Jacob as the firstborn was hatched by Rebekah. Genesis 27:5-17, "And Rebekah heard when Isaac spake to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it. And Rebekah spake unto Jacob her son, saying, Behold, I heard thy father speak unto Esau thy brother, saying, Bring me venison, and make me savoury meat, that I may eat, and bless thee before the LORD before my death. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command thee. Go now to the flock, and fetch me from thence two good kids of the goats; and I will make them savoury meat for thy father, such as he loveth: And thou shalt bring it to thy father, that he may eat, and that he may bless thee before his death. And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man: My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing. And his mother said unto him, Upon me be thy curse, my son: only obey my voice, and go fetch me them. And he went, and fetched, and brought them to his mother: and his mother made savoury meat, such as his father loved. And Rebekah took goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them upon Jacob her younger son: And she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck: And she gave the savoury meat and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob." First of all, remember why Esau sold his birthright? Because he said he was hungry and at the point of dying. Was he really at the point of dying? One day without food? I hardly think so. And besides, Rebekah would have gladly made him a meal rather than let her son die. She made Jacob a meal to deceive her husband with. Second, Jacob protested his mother's plan. We'll never get away with this, he thought. My father will think I'm a deceiver. Something Jacob did not want. Now ordinarily, they may not have gotten away with it but it was of the Lord for this to happen and would fulfill His purpose. In fact, it seems Jacob was deceived more than he deceived. Laban deceived Jacob out of alot plus the deception of giving to Jacob Leah instead of Rachel, Rachel, of course, being the one Jacob wanted, and was led to believe he was getting. But it did not stop there. Genesis 31:7, " And your father hath deceived me, and changed my wages ten times; but God suffered him not to hurt me." As for who the real deceiver was we should look more closely at Esau. Notice Esau's response after finding out that Jacob got his blessing. "Thy brother came with subtilty, and hath taken away thy blessing. And he [Esau] said, Is not he rightly named Jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright; and, behold, now he hath taken away my blessing." We see Esau evidently deceived his father because Esau himself sold his birthright to Jacob of his own free will and bound himself to the agreement by an oath. Numbers 30:2 says, "If a man vow a vow unto the LORD, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth." Ecclesiastes 5:5 says, "Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay." It also seems that Esau had kept this from his father Isaac. Since the blessing goes with the birthright, Jacob also did not take that away; it was rightfully his. How does the New Covenant portray this event. First of all, it has nothing contrary to say of Jacob. But in contrast, has plenty of negative things to say of Esau. This also should show us that Jacob was in the right and it was Esau who was in the wrong. Returning to our opening text, the scriptures say, " "Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright." If I may translate this verse without attempting to re-interpret the verse, the scriptures are saying that Esau sold his birthright for one helping of food. But the Bible doesn't stop there. It is very, and surprisingly forceful in its condemnation of Esau's action. The Word calls Esau a "fornicator" and "profane". The greek word for "fornicator" in this verse is, pornoj=pornos. It's where we get the word, porn, porno, or pornography. I was actually surprised when I looked the word up. I thought, wow, that's pretty strong. But then I remembered a couple of verses. The first one, in James [ the correct name for the book of James is actually JACOB {Iakwboj - Jakobos, the Greek form of the Hebrew, Jacob} though not the same Jacob as the one in our study ] chapter 4, verse 4, "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." Jacob (James) is equating putting the world first, and our own selfish interests ahead of God, as spiritual adultery that has nothing to do with sex. The picture is that of breaking the commitment of faithfulness to another to whom one is bound. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 11:2, "For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." The second verse was in Ezekiel 6:9. "And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols: and they shall lothe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations." Again we see the picture is that of unfaithfulness to God, and in this case, replacing Him with idols. Esau had prostituted his self to his own lusts for the gain of the moment, the carnal man, who sought only to profit in the flesh. What Esau had done, He did to himself. It could never again be changed. Esau tried. In Genesis 27:36-38, Esau pleaded, "... Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me? And Isaac answered and said unto Esau, Behold, I have made him thy lord, and all his brethren have I given to him for servants; and with corn and wine have I sustained him: and what shall I do now unto thee, my son? And Esau said unto his father, Hast thou but one blessing, my father? bless me, even me also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice, and wept." The New Covenant also records this, "For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears." Repentance means to change one's mind. There was just no way to change it. Lastly, Esau overhears Rebekah saying to Isaac in Genesis 27:46, "And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth: if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these which are of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me? " What was Esau's response to that? Genesis 28:1-9 records what happened after that. "And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. Arise, go to Padanaram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother's father; and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother's brother. And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people; And give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham. And Isaac sent away Jacob: and he went to Padanaram unto Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother. When Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob, and sent him away to Padanaram, to take him a wife from thence; and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan; And that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Padanaram; And Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father; Then went Esau unto Ishmael, and took unto the wives which he had Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Abraham's son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife." It appears that Esau went to the Ishmaelites for a wife just to spite his father and mother. But God kept His people separate to preserve them a nation. Assimilation would have dissolved Israel into the surrounding cultures and the light unto the nations would have gone out; and with it, the bloodline leading up to the Messiah. This is why Esau's sin was so grave: because it involved the promise of the coming seed. Also read the story in Genesis 34. The judgement of God came down pretty heavy at the hand of Simeon and Levi. Verse 25 states, "And it came to pass on the third day, when they were sore, that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brethren, took each man his sword, and came upon the city boldly, and slew all the males." Why was the penalty so harsh? Because the heathen were attempting to assimilate Israel into their culture. Verse 20-23 says, "And Hamor and Shechem his son came unto the gate of their city, and communed with the men of their city, saying, These men are peaceable with us; therefore let them dwell in the land, and trade therein; for the l and, behold, it is large enough for them; let us take their daughters to us for wives, and let us give them our daughters. Only herein will the men consent unto us for to dwell with us, to be one people, if every male among us be circumcised, as they are circumcised. Shall not their cattle and their substance and every beast of theirs be ours? only let us consent unto them, and they will dwell with us." Oviously Simeon and Levi did this for a different reason. It was to avenge their sister Dinah. But I can't help but see the unseen hand of God in all of this. A similar thing began to take place in Ashdod. You may recall a study on this site on, The Danger Of Incomplete Obedience. I spoke of three cities Joshua left standing. They were Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod. Ashdod was the place of defilement and here too, Israel was beginning to assimilate. Nehemiah 13:23-30 says, "In those days also saw I Jews that had married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab: And their children spake half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews' language, but according to the language of each people. And I contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them, and plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God, saying, Ye shall not give your daughters unto their sons, nor take their daughters unto your sons, or for yourselves. Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel: nevertheless even him did outlandish wo men cause to sin. Shall we then hearken unto you to do all this great evil, to transgress against our God in marrying strange wives? And one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was son in law to Sanballat the Horonite: therefore I chased him from me. Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood, and the covenant of the priesthood, and of the Levites. Thus cleansed I them from all strangers, and appointed the wards of the priests and the Levites, every one in his business." But one might say, now that the Messiah has come, is assimilation still an enemy to the Jewish people. Yes and no. No, to the extent that I believe a Jewish believer may marry a gentile believer and that the gentile believer is grafted in and therefore the Jewish identity is still preserved.This does not involve the assimilation of the Jewish people into the surrounding cultures. The Jew does not become a gentile. But for Jews to assimilate into their surrounding cultures, through marriage with the people of the surrounding cultures, till the Jewish identity is lost, and even denied, is wrong. Paul said in Romans 11:1-2, " I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. " Since God did not cast away His people whom He foreknew, does it not stand to reason then that He is still preserving them and their identity for some future purpose? The Bible is full of future prophecies relating to the Nation of Israel. It is absolutely essential that the Jews retain their national identity. Jacob is the man who cared more about the birthright and all of its ramifications. Esau is the one who cared more about the desires of the carnal life. Esau cared more for where he fit in to the world. Jacob cared more about where he fit in to God's kingdom. Jacob has been called the deceiver. But instead, Jacob was the REceiver of a great blessing and took part in a great plan. Let us also, as Jacob did, embrace those things that are freely given us of God. Let us not be like Esau who forsook the blessings of God. It is Jacob that gave us the greatest example when he said, " I will not let thee go, except thou bless me." - Genesis 32:26. And that is where our focus belongs. Matthew 6:33, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Colossians 3:1-2, " If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." Hebrews 12:2, "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." Deuteronomy 6:5, "And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might."