I Wouldn't Trade Dirty Socks for Lentil Soup

Genesis 25:19-34

So Isaac and Rebekah are married and are having trouble conceiving. Isaac prays to God and at last Rebekah is pregnant. Not only is she pregnant, but they've hit the jackpot- twins. However, after the babies kicked and fought in the womb, Rebekah seems to regret what she's been given.

Maybe the lesson here is to be careful what you wish for. They were sad before (or at least Isaac seemed to be), and when God grants their wish, Rebekah replies with "why me?" It's so easy to map out our own futures, to calculate and figure out what we need to be happy- if I could just get pregnant, if my job were a little better, if church weren't so annoying, if I only had an I-pod, I'd be happy. I suddenly hear Steve Martin chanting "All I need is this paddle game...and this remote control... and that's all I need." But too often the thing we think is the answer doesn't quite do it for us.

It seems weird to me that Isaac, this child of promise that Abraham waited so long for, has so little story. We get the attempted sacrifice from youth and the deception coming up soon, but so little else. But he's still considered a "bible hero." No Red Sea parting, no ark building, no imprisonment- but he's still a man of God. And when I examine myself, no king has demanded my head on a platter, I've never faced the fiery furnace, I've never faced stoning by an angry mob- but maybe the little things I have done are what God expects. He puts in our paths what we can face and that's what he expects.

So Rebekah prays and God tells her- two nations are in your womb and the older will serve the younger- prophecying or foreshadowing what was to come between her two sons. I wonder how this knowledge affected the way she treated her childern. Jacob was her favorite- but she already knew he was destined to control. Did she share the info with her husband? Did he have compassion for his son destined to serve? How would things have been different if the two of them never knew until the action took place?

Maybe just the names influenced the outcome- we'll call one of them Hairy and the other one Deceiver, I wonder how they'll turn out.

At the end of the section Jacob performs his coup. He trades Esau a bowl of lentil stew for his birthright. Esau, Esau, Esau- dumb move big brother. But Jacob knew what he was doing. He manipulated his brother and profited from him. And for this stupid mistake Esau will always be remembered- earning the name Red for his inheritance of red stew. I guess it's better than Hairy.

Jacob goes on to be a different man- but just like all of us, at times he looks out for himself and tries to beat the system. And maybe he lived a lifetime of regret for the pain he caused his brother- and when he saw his children mistreating their brother, I wonder if his mind went back to the wrong he caused Esau