Hey RPC, I wrote up a short essay on the narrative of Esau, specifically his betrayal by Rebekah and Jacob. It was inspired by this post by u/old_fasioned_man, thanks for the inspiration. I figured this sub would enjoy my take on it.


For my paper, I have chosen to write about the narrative of Esau, and his revocation of the birthright provided from his father Abraham. This narrative that features Esau begins in Genesis 25, however, the narrative is followed up later in the chapter, where Abraham is shown giving away Esau’s birthright to his brother, Jacob. This specific event is what I will be exploring in further detail. There are a few reasons I chose to write about this passage, the biggest reason of them being how accessible the narratives of Esau and his family are, compared to other Old Testament narratives. This story, while having considerable depth, is also written and narrated much better than many other Old Testament narratives, in my opinion. When researching passages to write on for this project, I had originally chosen to write about Lot and his fleeing of Sodom and Gomorrah, but quickly realized how poorly written the story was. I felt like this detracted enough from the overall narrative that I scrapped the reflection I began about Lot and his struggles, and instead chose to write about Esau. I also chose this passage as a bit of a response and companionship to the material we’ve touched on in class, specifically the Trible readings. Even though Trible focused mainly on women’s narratives and their struggles, I think the story of Esau and Rebekah’s egging on of Jacob is an important narrative that benefits from a deeper look into the story, especially Rebekah’s perspective and reasoning. The lead-up to Esau’s deception is crucial to understanding how this narrative is set up. Esau was born to Rebekah and Isaac, and was the twin brother of Jacob. The storyline’s major focus of power struggle between the brothers is highlit at the beginning of the story. Genesis 25:21 describes how the brothers wrestled each other within Rebekah’s womb, which was a signal to Rebekah that the twin brothers would compete for power in the future. God also foreshadows the brothers having struggles with power in the future, telling Rebekah that the “older will serve the younger”. This is integral to understanding the concept of birthright, as birthright was granted to the firstborn. Birthright was the good will that a father passed down to the first born son, which allowed them full control of the inheritance. As Esau was the firstborn, he was granted the promise of birthright from his father Isaac. Jacob was named so, as Jacob means “he grasps the heel”, which is a Hebrew figure of speech for being deceptive. The narrative then advances to an unspecified time in the future, where Esau’s revocation of the birthright occurs. Esau is described to have come in after hunting on the verge of death, where he asks Jacob for some of the stew he had prepared. Jacob refuses, and suggests that he would sell Esau the stew if Esau gave Jacob his birthright. Esau agrees. Later, Rebekah conspires with Jacob to trick Isaac into granting his blessing to him instead of Esau. Rebekah overhears the conversation between Esau and Isaac where they discuss Isaac granting Esau the birthright before he dies, and Rebekah devises a plan for Jacob to accept the birthright in Esau’s place without Isaac having confirmation of who he was granting the birthright to. While we have spoken of many of the struggles of women in the Bible this semester through the Trible readings, I feel like this story of Esau’s deception and Rebekah’s manipulation of the brothers is an important story that should be touched on. Ultimately, when we observe the events as they unfolded, Esau is single handedly responsible for giving up his birthright. However, Jacob and Rebekah’s behavior is questionable throughout the narrative, at best. It’s not explicitly discussed in the passages themselves, but the language of how the story is written appears to be very dismissive of Jacob and Rebekah’s behavior. Our study guide (NISB pg. 51) mentions this as well, with a bit of an explanation about how second-born sons and women were often at a disadvantage due to the social and cultural norms at the time. This begs the question of whether or not God views this deception as morally acceptable or not, as the passage does not say. The writer of the narrative is critical of Esau repeatedly, citing issues between his wives, as well as stating that Esau “despised” his birthright. While Esau might have acted irrationally in selling his birthright for food, the author is quick to be overly critical of Esau’s behavior, while widely dismissing Jacob’s questionable actions to demand the birthright from Esau, and Rebekah’s plotting on Jacob’s behalf to trick Isaac. While I don’t believe Esau is completely free from criticism of his actions in this narrative, the author fails to take into consideration his strengths in this story. Esau is described as a “man of the field” (Gen. 24:27), so he wasn’t a total burden on his family, despite having wives who the family disapproved of, as one example. The way the author describes Esau as this unaware and unintelligent man is disingenuous towards Esau, and excuses Jacob for entirely too much of his behavior. The story describes Esau as being out on a hunt for a lengthy period of time, which is more than likely where Jacob got the food to prepare the stew he used to trade for Esau’s birthright. Esau being the provider for the entire family while Jacob stays at home and Isaac too old to hunt just further highlights the bitterness of the betrayal that Esau must have felt, as he was the person who was putting the majority of the effort into the family staying fed. Another question that’s brought up by the writer’s implied writing of the story is the ties between the birthright and godlessness by giving such a thing up. The answer to this is explained more plainly as a general analysis of the story itself, and this is where the fault of Esau lies. It’s not so much that Esau was a godless man which is what disallowed him from claiming his birthright, despite what the author might suggest. Instead, it is the lack of discipline which is what God disapproves of, despite Esau having other negative qualities. God even shows within this story that the negative qualities of people are not as important as having discipline; this is plainly shown with Jacob and Rebekah’s attitude towards the entire situation! Jacob and Rebekah can not be faulted for taking advantage of Esau’s shortcomings, even if the methods they use to transfer the birthright to Jacob are nefarious, at best. This leads us to the ultimate end goal of the story, which is that one mistake opened Esau up to attacks from people he considered close to him, and by allowing himself to be indecisive and weak, even for just a moment, he allowed himself to be taken advantage of. This story is unique to the Bible, for as far as we’ve studied, I don’t believe there’s another story in the entire Old Testament that punishes a person for one small, seemingly innocent mistake. As said before, this does not excuse Esau from acting poorly in giving his birthright away; this lapse of judgement is what placed Esau into this problem in the first place. However, while also considering this, one must also take into account the poor behavior of Jacob and Rebekah, and God’s decision to allow such an event to happen. This is why Esau must suffer with the consequences of his actions. Whether anyone was aware in the narrative or not, this was a test bestowed upon by God, to see if Esau was worthy of leading entire nations and having the blessing of a prosperous life. By Esau revoking his birthright over something as small as a meal after a hunt, he has shown God that he does not have the resolve it takes to lead an entire nation. This story could be framed a few different ways to be relevant to people today. The biggest take I got from this narrative was the seriousness of Esau’s failure to keep his birthright in a lapse of thought, which changes the course of his life forever. Something as silly as trading it for a meal is enough for Esau to lose favor in God’s eyes enough to allow an event like his own family to conspire against him to occur. This narrative stands to be a cautionary tale towards young men especially, in my opinion, given the context with which the author presents Esau here. It serves to be a warning to those with large ambitions and great plans that no momentary lapse of steadfastness will be tolerated, and those who wish to knock you down or take advantage of you will at the first opportunity. Esau was the unfortunate martyr in his own narrative, but given the context of the story, it stands to be a strong warning to those with ambitions that they need to keep their constant guard up, for when you slip for the first time, someone will be more than happy to take your place.