25:19. Now these are the birth-records [tol'doth] of Yitzhaq the son of Avraham: 

Avraham fathered Yitzhaq, 

Since what follows is not a genealogy, this appears to be the section Yitzhaq himself added to the continuing record passed down from those before him.

20. and when Yitzhaq was 40 years old he took Rivqah, the daughter of B'thuel the Aramaean from Paddan-Aram, the sister of Lavan the Aramaean, for himself as a wife. 

40: the same age Moshe was when he found his wife at a well. This is three years after Sarah died. The number 40 signifies times of change and transition after completing a full cycle of testing.  

21. And Yitzhaq prayed to YHWH on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. And YHWH accepted his request, and his wife Rivqah conceived. 

She was childless for nearly twenty years of marriage (v. 26); only then did he ask. But the text actually says “he” was barren, though “barren” has the feminine form, because if she lacked children, so did he. This is the same pattern by which YHWH worked with Avraham. These very important births, which were to carry on a lineage that went against the current of the downhill pattern of human trends, were not to be seen as accidental or even ordinary, but had to be seen as YHWH's direct intervention. But while Avraham had prayed for an heir, the first time he failed to specify who the heir would come through. Yitzhaq learned from this, and asked YHWH directly to let his wife bear his children; he did not want another incident like that of Hagar. But now that she had conceived, there was a new conflict to deal with:

22. But the sons struggled against each other within her. And she said, "If so, why is it like this for me?" So she went to ask YHWH. 

If so: If this is indeed an answer to a former prayer. Rivqah did not hesitate to ask YHWH when something did not seem to be going as promised, and YHWH does not seem to have been offended by her questioning, as it was only information she was seeking, rather than a reason to continue doubting Him. She went: possibly to Shem (Melkhitzedeq) the high priest at the site that later became Yerushalayim.

23. And YHWH told her, "Two nations are in your womb; indeed, two peoples will be separated from within your body. And one people will be stronger than the other, but the elder will serve the younger." 

Peoples: unified groups or communities. Stronger: or superior, increased more greatly. Again, the pattern continues: the elder will not take precedence, for while the younger do not have the advantage by worldly standards, they can prevail by YHWH's intervention.  

[c. year 2110 from creation; 1890 B.C.E.]

24. When her days [of readiness] to give birth were fully accomplished, it did turn out that twins were in her womb. 

Twins: the Hebrew word (Th’om, on which the name Thomas is based) means joined, opposite, or matching. The two seem to be opposite indeed, but in a way their two personalities comprise the entirety of human experience—the right and left hand, the inclinations to right and wrong, one to be emulated, one from whom to learn what not to be like. But both inclinations are latent within them both, and both paths are open to both of them at birth. Like Yitzhaq and Yishma’el, one is the child of promise, and the other is a child of slavery (to the flesh). The two goats of Atonement were to look as similar as possible--like twins--yet one was "for YHWH" and the other for banishment.

25. And the first came out, ruddy all over as if he had a disheveled fur coat, so they named him Esau. 

His name is similar to esah: "shaggy", but it is based on the word “to accomplish". He appeared to be someone who would get things done. "Ruddy" is from"red”, probably the color of his hair. Disheveled fur coat: or hairy garment. The term for this coat (aderet) is used elsewhere of the mantle of Eliyahu which he passed on to Elisha, signifying that he was the next prophet to take his place. (1 Kings 19:19; compare 2 Kings 1:8) Z’kharyah 13:4 speaks of prophets wearing an aderet of coarse hair (se’ar, related to Se’ir, the shaggy goat for which Esau’s territory was later named). Yochanan the Immerser wore a hairy garment (Mat. 3:4). Thus if one wore a hairy cloak, he was perceived to be a prophet. Esau was born already “clothed”, with the sign of the prophetic gift right on his body. There was no doubt he should be next in line. Who could challenge his position upon seeing him? The firstborn has the right of priesthood, for the Levites are taken in their stead. (Num. 3:12). He is responsible for the family’s order and well-being before YHWH. So why did Esau not become a prophet or a priest? His life will answer this question. (There is already a hint in v. 27.)

26. Then afterward, his brother came out, and his hand was holding onto the heel of his brother Esau, so he was named Yaaqov. And Yitzhaq was 60 years old when she gave birth to them. 

Yaaqov: "He will take by the heel"—as if to say, “Where are you going? Stay with me!” But the term was already (27:36) an idiom for a supplanter or circumventor, who stealthily takes another's place. Even while still in the womb, he wanted the job that was expected of Esau, and though he could not come first, part of him came out with the firstborn. That Yaaqov was a "heel-holder" also relates to the prophecy in 3:15 that the Messiah's heel would be bruised. He indeed got around his disadvantages and displaced his brother. But chiefly, by continuing the Messiah's ancestral line, he displaced the “nearer kinsman” (as in the book of Ruth) who stood in the way of the redemption of mankind. The flesh is manifested first in our lives (though we are held innocent until accountable), yet from the beginning our better inclination struggles for preeminence (v. 26), though the spirit starts off as much weaker. (v. 23) Both flesh and spirit are, of course, worked out in the physical realm; the question is whether it is the flesh or spirit that rules, and which we intend to become. Paul equates keeping the Torah with what it means to be spiritual (Rom. 7:14). When we die to self, we empower the “Yaaqov” in us; thus Paul can say that the vestigial manifestations of “Esau” in him are not his true self. “Esau” is always there, and we have a relationship to both sides, but if we have attached ourselves to Israel (the spiritual side of Yaaqov), we do not belong to Esau, and he can no longer enslave us, because we are “dead” to him. 60 years old: Thus his twin sons were 15 years old when Avraham died.

27. When the boys grew up, Esau became a man who knew hunting—a man of the field. But Yaaqov was a wholesome man, living in tents. 

Knew hunting: was very adept at the chase, like an aggressive businessman in modern terms—a prudent investor and an opportunist, which made him successful in a way his father admired. He brought a type of security to the family. He may have even used his prophetic gift to that end. Yet to become so skillful, he had to concentrate on earning rather than learning--which when taken too far pits YHWH against mammon (wealth). While his gift is not presented as positive or negative here, he was consumed with the hunt. The word for hunter literally means “one who lies in wait”. The best way to catch an animal is to become like a wild animal. He was like Kanaan in this regard. As a "man of the field" (which Yeshua interpreted as "the world", Mat. 13:38), he shows that he sought his security in the present world. Yaaqov, however, was "wholesome": mature, and therefore complete, a well-rounded man of integrity. Though he was only one of the pair of twins, he is somehow still complete in himself, for he has made the right choice. (Mat. 6:33) "Dwelling in tents" is often an idiom for one who is a student of YHWH's instruction. (Num. 24:5) The first use of the term speaks of the tents of Shem. (9:27) Israel Koschitzky writes, "Our Sages say that the Torah -- not the actual document, but the substance of the Commandments and the attachment to the Divine -- was revealed by [Elohim] to our forefathers. Shem the son of Noah, and Ever his great-grandson, even opened a Yeshiva (place of study), and Yaaqov went to study there." This may very well be true, since Shem outlived even Avraham, and was still alive at this time.  A tent-dweller puts less value on his possessions, for he has to pack them up and leave more often. He is not attached to one place, but moves when the source of food moves, much like the pillar of fire in the wilderness which his descendants would follow. Tent-dwellers do not depend on hunting, but raise their own flocks (also making kosher preparation). Living in tents is also the wartime lifestyle. While he lacks some of Esau’s drive, and he does not have the natural gifting as a prophet that Esau had, Yaaqov’s perfection is that he was hungry for the fullness of the path of YHWH and was determined to do whatever was necessary to obtain it. He fought for every bit of understanding, while Esau took it for granted. Yaaqov also had his underhanded side, but by such study he would learn how to subdue it and make it subservient to him, like the “unrighteous mammon” of Luke 16:11. While there is a balance—we still need to work—we should lean toward the side of study to restore the equilibrium.

28. Now Yitzhaq preferred Esau, because game was in his mouth, but Rivqah prefers Yaaqov. 

In his mouth: i.e., he had something to show for it (as opposed to Yaaqov's more abstract interests), and he had a "taste" for game. Yitzhaq, too, had spent a lot of time in the field (25:63). Prefers (literally, loves): The present tense in Hebrew highlights the eternal value of her love, compared to the temporary nature of Yitzhaq's, which was based on his liking for what Esau could do for him. Though Rivqah’s name means “ensnarer”, which would seem to align with Esau’s profession, she was a Hebrew, having crossed over like Avraham. She was forearmed by the prophecy that the elder would serve the younger (v. 23), and she will use her ensnaring ability to ensure that. Yitzhaq had his own opinion, but Sarah stuck to what YHWH’s prophet had told her. She may have never told Yitzhaq what he had said, knowing how it would pain him since Esau was his favorite.


                                                            29. Once Yaaqov was cooking some food, and 
                                                            Esau came in from the field, and he felt faint. 

                                                            30. And Esau said to Yaaqov, "Please let me have 
                                                            a gulp of the red—this red stuff—because I'm 
                                                            about to collapse from hunger!" On account of 
                                                            this his name is called Edom ["red"]. 

                                                            “Gulp" here means “guzzle” or "gorge down and 
                                                            devour like an animal". It can even be translated 
                                                            "pour that red stuff into me!" He was not a refined 
                                                            man at all, and even asked for his brother’s assistance in eating it. (Compare Prov. 19:24; 26:15) He mentioned its redness twice; though finished hunting, he is still "seeing red", focusing on something resembling himself! Like his father in v. 28, his focus is on his belly. (See v. 34.) Even if he has caught something that day, he does not want to wait until it is skinned and prepared, but wants instant gratification. 

31. But Yaaqov said, "Sell me your birthright as of today!" 

Yaaqov, being “complete”, also knew how to lie in wait as a hunter, but only did this when it was appropriate and necessary. The birthright was the firstborn's right to a favored position and a double portion of the inheritance (which gave him the responsibility to rescue his siblings from any type of need). By later law a father could not give it to a son he loved better, but one could forfeit it by his actions, as Yaaqov's son Reuven did (48:16; 49:4). Rav Michael Hattin notes, "Before the construction of the Tabernacle... the firstborn served as priests. (B’reshith Rabbah 63:33). In other words, being the firstborn in ancient Israel meant aspiring to a special life of connectedness to [Elohim]. In this context, living by the terms of the birthright meant being prepared to continue the spiritual legacy of Avraham and Sarah. That... seems hardly a vocation for a savage hunter whose greatest pleasures are temporal, corporeal, and sanguinary...It is possible to interpret Yaaqov's conduct here as his means of testing Esav's resolve." Israel Koschitzky surmises, "Yaaqov...realized that his older brother was unable to fulfill the obligation on behalf of Yitzhaq's children, and was therefore motivated to take it upon himself in order to ensure that it was done properly." As of today: while there was no physical inheritance yet, but Esau was the priest-in-training, and this is what Yaaqov wanted, since his brother was not fulfilling this role well. He was buying the right to be the type of servant he knew the family needed.  

32. And Esau said, "Look here, I'm about to die; of what benefit is a birthright to me?" 

Spending too much time hunting may have made him fixate his mind on death.

33. But Yaaqov said, "Swear to me today." So he swore to him, selling his birthright to Yaaqov. 

Yaaqov knows he may change his mind once he has a full stomach. But Esau was not living up to  his calling; he did not care about the gift that had been offered him, so, knowing that someone needs to do this rightly, Yaaqov wants the job whether it comes naturally to him or not.

                                                            34. Now Yaaqov had given Esau bread and 
                                                            lentil stew. He ate it and drank it, then got up                                                             and left. Thus Esau despised his birthright. 

                                                            Yaaqov gave Esau bread—something from the 
                                                            ground, not something he has caught. This way no                                                             one could ever say his decision was made under 
                                                            duress, thus making it a legal transaction and a test                                                             of what was really in his heart. He did not change his mind; he still did not care to serve the rest of his family with YHWH's word. Bread is symbolic of community. So Yaaqov offers him "spiritual food" (Yoch. 4:32-34) in an attempt to get his focus back where it belonged. But after eating this bread, he was still hungry. Yaaqov, in contrast, hungers for YHWH’s word. (Compare Prov. 13:25ff: "The righteous eats to the satisfying of his soul/appetite, but the belly of the wicked will be in want." Even in his eating, the righteous person is learning, for the kosher laws teach him what kind of person to be. Philippians 3:15ff tells us that the "perfect"--as Yaaqov was called in v. 27--should all have the same mind rather than letting our belly be our god and setting our mind on the "things upon the earth". In Hebrew, “belly" can indeed mean the seat of mental faculties (what one's mind is on) or a womb--the place of ultimate security, which is the god of the wicked. Despised: treated with contempt, Rashi suggests that this means he is confident that natural abilities are enough to right the world's wrongs, and that looking outside the natural order (to YHWH, as Yaaqov did) is an ephemeral waste of time. He was a big, burly man, and could easily have wrestled the food away from his brother, but if those first invited will not come to the banquet, the food will go to the blind, lame, or whomever can be found to accept it. (Mat. 21:23-22:10; Luk. 14:23)  


CHAPTER 26 

1. Now there was a famine in the Land (different from the former famine, which had been in the days of Avraham). So Yitzhaq went to Avimelekh, king of the Filistines, at Gerar. 

Hevron, where they had been living, is on the border of a rain shadow caused by the mountain it sits atop, so only a slight change in weather patterns could shift the desert to where he was. Filistia, on the other hand, is on the coastal plain, which gets much more rainfall and would be less easily affected by the famine. Many events in Scripture were spurred on by famines, as we will see later in this book; Ruth, the ancestress of King David was enabled to join Israel initially due to a famine. But King Shlomo tells us the main purpose of famine in his dedicatory prayer for the Temple (1 Kings 8:37ff): It is to make us recognize the plague that is in our hearts, so that we will examine them and see where we are lacking. I.e., famines only come when there is a lesson we need to learn from them. The hunger is to make us seek YHWH so He can reveal to us what we need to do about it. Esau was famished, though he was adept at the hunt. His brother was not, but made relationship with YHWH the priority, so he was well-fed. Avraham died satisfied (25:8), but Esau was never full, because he did not seek YHWH in the tents, but only sought His provision in the field. If we are only looking to YHWH for what He can do for us, we will starve. Esau’s job had been to establish the covenant, but he rejected it, because his only thoughts were about how hungry he was; he could not grasp that it was about “us”, for self blinded him. That is the famine. In 25:23, we were told that the elder twin would serve the younger. But the word for “younger” is tsa’ir, which means insignificant. In fulfillment of this prophecy, the one who had much was serving what was least important. Amos 8:11ff speaks of a famine of hearing the words of YHWH. It is not that His words are lacking; most homes today have more Bibles than people in them. But most cannot hear what the words are saying, because they are listening the wrong way. His words are not written for a Western mindset, but a Hebraic one. Filistines: sea peoples from Kaftor in the Greek isles (probably Kriti) who settled on the coast of Kanaan after being defeated by the Egyptians in a sea battle. Their name means “immigrants”, since they were indeed outsiders. Gerar: Tel Garor today, halfway between coastal‘Azzah (Gaza) and Be’ersheva. The word means “to chew the cud”, and is thus a picture of meditating on YHWH’s word. Yitzhaq’s response to the famine was indeed to go to this place where he could sort out where his heart was, where his perspective was lacking, and spend time hearing from YHWH.

2. And YHWH appeared to him and said, "Do not go down into Egypt; stay in the Land which I will indicate to you. 

He was following in his father’s footsteps, but in this case YHWH did not want him to do so. Avraham had not even wanted him to leave the Land to go back to where he had come from. (24:6) Egypt is where Hagar had become joined to the family of Avraham. Yitzhaq did not need to repeat the same errors that had come from this. Gerar is on the way from Hevron to Egypt, but is still in Kanaan.  

3. "Stay [as a sojourner] in this Land, and I will be with you and bless you, for to you and to your seed, I will give all these lands. And I will establish My oath, which I swore to your father Avraham. 

Here Yitzhaq is expressly commanded to never leave the Land of Israel, just as the high priest would later essentially never be able to leave the tabernacle compound since he had constant responsibilities there. Since he has become an ascending offering, he is not permitted to descend out of the Land. The famine that took Naomi’s family out of the Land was in the days of the judges, when there was no king in the Land and everyone did what was right in his own eyes. We can never take Y’shua out of the Hebraic context, or his message will no longer be about ascending to YHWH.

4. "That is, I will increase your descendants until they are like the stars of the sky, and I will give your descendants all these lands. And the nations of the earth shall bless one another through your Seed, 

5. "because Avraham obeyed my voice and observed the obligation I gave him: My commands, My prescribed customs, and My instructions." 

Thus YHWH's promise narrows down to Yitzhaq's line. The promise continues because of Avraham, not Yitzhaq, because the latter was not living such an exemplary life. King Shlomo's reign was extended for his father's sake, though his own actions deserved worse (1 Kings 11:12). Y’shua said those who continue in his word will know the truth; he said there were others in whom his words had found no place. (Yochanan 8:31-43) Though they were Avraham’s seed (like Esau), they could not “hear” his words. They were suffering from the famine Amos wrote about. Even the learned were not doing the deeds of Avraham, because each wanted his own voice to be heard above all others. Rather than submitting to the teacher YHWH had sent, they tried to defend themselves. They left YHWH’s word for their own perspective, and were enslaved—as if back in Egypt, where Yitzhaq was not to go.

6. So Yitzhaq settled in Gerar, 

7. and the men of the place asked about his wife. And he said, "She is my sister", because he was afraid to say, "My wife"—"lest the men of the place kill me because of Rivqah"—because she was good-looking. 

He claimed a relationship to her, but not the most intimate one. Naturally, if he did not claim her as his own, others would be attracted to her. He had to learn the same lesson his father had.  

8. But after he had been there [for] a long time, it turned out that Avimelekh, king of the Filistines, was looking out the window—and, lo and behold, he saw Yitzhaq teasing his wife. 

Long time: literallly, "long days"; separated from his wife, they would indeed seem that way. Teasing: in a very familiar manner--something he obviously would not do to a mere sister; the word is based on Yitzhaq's name, laughter. Avimelekh means "my father is a king", hence it is the title of a dynasty; Avimelekh was also the king Avraham had visited two generations before.

9. So Avimelekh called Yitzhaq and said, "She is your wife after all! So how come you told me she was your sister?" And Yitzhaq told him, "It was because I told myself, 'Otherwise I might die on her account.’" 

He could not hide who she really was for very long. Yitzhaq did not have the excuse Avraham had had; though she was his cousin, she was not his sister.  

10. And Avimelekh said, "What is this you have done to us? One of the people could easily have lain with her, and you would have brought guilt on us!" 

If he had waited much longer, she would not have been his wife anymore. She was royalty, but did not belong in the house of this king. She was meant to be seen only as the companion of the one who represented YHWH’s covenant.  

11. So Avimelekh gave orders to all the people, saying, "Anyone who touches this man or his wife will meet a certain death!" 

Literally, "dying shall die"--a typical method of intensifying a word in Hebrew. Touches: i.e., molests.  

12. Moreover, Yitzhaq planted crops in that land, and a hundredfold return came to him that year, and YHWH blessed him. 

13. And the man increased, and kept advancing forward until he had become very great. 

14. He also had possessions—flocks and herds, and many servants, and the Filistines began to envy him. 

Those who today call themselves Filistines are also outsiders who only fought over the Land after Yitzhaq's descendants made it prosper. Rome named the Land Palestinium for the Filistines to blot out the memory of Judea. 

15. So the Filistines stopped up all the wells that his father's servants had dug (in the days of his father Avraham), and filled them with dust. 

Stopped up: Heb., closed up or made secret. They kept all the clarifications Avraham had provided from anyone's sight. Though Avraham had reprimanded the earlier Avimelekh for his servants doing the same thing (21:25), they did it again.  Dust: from a word meaning “gray”. The “righteous nation” (20:4) nonetheless muddied YHWH’s word with a mixture that can make Israel cease to exist, because things are no longer black and white as they are in Torah. They claim everyone is “God’s child”. Being the shepherds (pastors) of Y’hezq’el 34:17 who muddy the water with their feet (a term used for YHWH’s festivals in Ex. 23:13), they have clogged up the clear interpretation of the Torah by forbidding any practice that would make the church resemble the Jews in any way—to the point that people consider the Torah dangerous, because they have never seen pure water. 

16. And Avimelekh told Yitzhaq, "Move away from us, because you are stronger than we are." 

The Filistines, once a mighty seafaring people, had been defeated on their own turf by the Egyptians in a sea battle, and were forced out of their former lands in the Greek islands, and settled on the coast of Kanaan. At this stage they were weakened, though they would become a much stronger people later. But the term “stronger” literally means more tightly bound together, and this does make for a formidable community. 

17. So Yitzhaq went from there, pitched his tent at Gerar's seasonal streambed, and settled there. 

A streambed (called Wadi al-Jerar today) seems like a dangerous place to put one’s tent, but his main pursuit was water (as the seasonal stream would leave substantial ground water). The term for seasonal streambed is also the word for inheritance (what “flows down”). So the heritage he sought was meditation (gerar) on YHWH’s word. Although he was not to leave the Land, he still did not build a house, for a tent symbolizes following the water and remaining a sojourner. He also would be able to move it away from the riverbed when the rainy season came!

18. And Yitzhaq again dug the wells of water that they had dug in the days of his father Avraham (since the Filistines had also stopped them up after Avraham's death). And he gave them the same names his father had given them. 

In Hebrew, “well” is based on the word for making the deeper meaning plain and accessible. Dug: the Hebrew word means to pry into or search. While we can erase all traces of something built above ground, a well affects the ground itself and can be found again when sought, though covered over. He did not just wait for the rain to bring water to the wadi (arroyo); he worked hard to find it even out of season, for at the bottom of our inheritance we know there is always living water. Same names: Today we are going back to getting the water (Torah) the way it used to be reached--through its Hebraic context. And we are finding that we say the same things David did so long ago: “YHWH’s words are great riches and a cause for extreme joy and delight!” (Psalm 119) The returned tribes of Israel are ordained to "rebuild the ancient cities and inhabit them." (Amos 9:14; compare Numbers 21:17.) 

19. And Yitzhaq's servants dug in the dry riverbed, and found a live aquifer there. 

This was a new well (one his father had not dug); in a similar way, YHWH is fulfilling the promise to Daniel that in the last days knowledge would increase. But they did not seek it at random: where a river once had been, there was likely to be water below. Similarly, we are told to go back to the ancient, well-worn paths (like this former water-path) to find settledness for our souls (Yirmeyahu/Jer. 6:16). As we seek YHWH's original ways, today's unique needs will be met, while if we look outside His parameters, we will come up dry. But once they dug, they found more than they had anticipated: not just stored-up ground water, but flowing water! What appeared only seasonal actually turned out to have water flowing all the time. The Torah is not just from a past dispensation, but current, once we bother to dig it out.

20. But the shepherds of Gerar disputed with Yitzhaq's shepherds, saying, "The water is ours!" So he called the well by the name Eseq ["bickering"], because they had disputed with him over it. 

They did not argue with him until after the well was re-dug, letting him do all the work.  The “other righteous nation” laid claim to the Torah as its own, though the clear descendants of Avraham had done most of the work of explaining the nuances of its words, co-opting it, reinterpreting it, and at times not even giving Yehudah access to it.  

21. So they dug another well, but they also fought over it, so he named it Sitnah.

Sitnah: "animosity", "hostility", or "obstruction". It is from the same root as "satan"--adversary. Every time he found something valuable, it was either being stolen or covered up. But contention is not what he is about. They can argue all they want; he will move on to a higher level:

22. So he moved from there and dug yet another well, and this one they did not fight over, so he called it by the name, Rehovoth, saying, "...Since now at last YHWH has given us space, so we can be fruitful in the Land." 

They dug in a place apparently no one else was interested in this time. We may have several wells to dig before we attain fruitfulness, but it is worth the digging. Rehovoth means "Wide open spaces". He finally had plenty of room. Rather than participating in men's bickering, Yitzhaq said, in essence, "We can dig more wells, and wide enough to accommodate anyone who still needs water."  The Torah has enough unmined treasure for everyone to find something “new” in it.

23. He went on up from there to Be'er-sheva, 

24. and YHWH appeared to him that same night, and said, "I am the Elohim of your father Avraham. Do not be afraid, because I am with you, and I will bless you and increase your descendants, for the sake of My servant Avraham." 

As soon as he moved on to the place meaning “clarifying of the oath/completeness” (symbolizing a fuller understanding of the promises), YHWH comes to him and tells him He is not against him—so how can anyone else defeat him? (Compare Romans 8.)

25. So he built an altar there and called on the name of YHWH, and he pitched his tent there. And Yitzhaq's servants dug a well there.

Even though he had found plenty, it was still not time to build a house, because he knew he would ascend again, for there are many steps up to YHWH’s house. But his students were still with him, and they made up his true “house” (household). Once he had pitched his tent and started teaching, they were able to do what he had been doing. They, too, could now bring clarity to YHWH’s words. Dug: The Hebrew word implies it was with little effort (compared to the word in vv. 18, 21 which means "searched out or dug for). But it was probably less of an effort because his father had dug the well there already. It must have been filled in as the others had been. Though it had already been named, Yitzhaq names it again. This links us to a prophecy given specifically for the nation of Israel as we know it today: "O house of Yaaqov, who are called by the name Israel, and have come out from Yehudah's waters...I made you hear new things as of right now--hidden things, and you did not recognize them. They are created now, and not from [when I foretold them long ago]; yet [I promised them] before today, but you did not hear them, lest you should say, ‘Oh, I knew that!'...I will not give My glory to another" (Yeshayahu 48:1-11) The new moon celebration has been Yehudah’s since Sinai, yet scarcely anyone has practiced it for centuries; it is the same with the blue thread in the garment-fringe. Now that these and other practices are being restored and adopted by the House of Yosef, not just Yehudah. Yitzhaq's well is still at the Tel of Sheva today, and it is extremely deep, and still full of water. In fact, these wells were important for British General Allenby in 1917. An Arab prophecy had said the holy city would be liberated from the Turks "only when a prophet brought the waters of the Nile to Palestine." Allenby did build a pipeline across the Sinai, but it could only provide water for his troops as far as Be'ersheva. Therefore, his strategy for taking Yerushalayim depended on taking Be'ersheva before the Arabs had time to fill up there wells again. This he did, and, not wanting to have a battle in a holy place, he sent airplanes to drop leaflets over Yerushalayim that said, "Now is the time for you to leave Yerushalayim. --Allenby." In Arabic, his name had to be written as "Al-nabi"--the prophet! Thus the city was therefore surrendered without a fight--and on the first day of Hanukkah, the feast commemorating the liberation of Yerushalayim under the Maccabees! 

26. Then Avimelekh came to him from Gerar with Akhuzzath, one of his companions, and Fichol, the commander of his army. 

One of his companions: Akhuzzath is from the word for “inherited possession”, so this may have been the treasurer in his administration, brought along as another witness to the covenant he was about to make.  Fikhol means “the mouth of all”—representing the voice of the rest of his people as a second witness.

27. But Yitzhaq said to them, "Why have you come to me, since you hate me and sent me away from yourselves?" 

Compare Yiftakh's (Judges 11:7) and Yochanan the Immerser’s words to the religious leaders of Yerushalayim (Mat. 3:7; Luke 3:7), who had driven him from his rightful position. (Some believe he should have been the legitimate high priest.)  

28. So they said, "Because when we looked carefully, we saw that YHWH has been with you, so we have said, ‘Let there be an oath now between us—between ourselves and you—and let us make a treaty with you', 

This is the same thing Avraham had done in chapter 21, at the very same place. This king knew the name of YHWH since He had appeared to the earlier Avimelekh. Filistine ruins have in fact been found that bear the name of YHWH. But in asking us to leave, they had lost any advantage they had from our being there, for we took with us the things they envied. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan even says that all the wells of the Gerarites had gone dry after they drove Yitzhaq away! So they realized they had nothing without him. Since they came to where he had pitched his tent, they may have wanted more than just peaceful coexistence. Since this people had earlier been described as a “righteous nation”, and the only other place this phrase is used (Yeshayahu 26:2) is interpreted to refer to the Northern Kingdom of Israel. So this verse is echoed by the prophecy that ten men from every nation will join themselves to Yehudah, saying, “We have heard that Elohim is with you.” (Zkh. 8:23)

29. "so that you will do no evil to us, since we did not touch you, and did only beneficial [things] to you, and sent you away in peace—now that you are blessed by YHWH." 

Only beneficial things: They conveniently forgot that they had stopped up or stolen his wells!  Did he simply mean that they never made war with him or killed any of his people?

30. So he made a feast for them, and they ate and drank. 

Though they actually did "touch" him, as with Yosef, YHWH meant it for the best, and all their differences seem as nothing in the end. (Compare Zkh. 12:10).  

31. And they got up early—at the break of day—and each swore an oath to his brother, and Yitzhaq gave them a sendoff, and they left in peace. 

The Philistines lived in Kanaan, but they were not Kanaanites, with whom we are not to make a covenant. They had immigrated from outside that land. They were still Hamitic, but descendants of Mitzrayim (10:14).  

32. And it was on that day that Yitzhaq's servants came and told him about the well that they had dug, saying, "We've found water!" 

33. So he called it Shiv'ah; thus the city's name remains Be'er-Sheva to this day. 

And still it does! This very well has also been restored. Shiv'ah: meaning both "oath" and "seven", a confirmation of what his father named (21:31). Apparently it had been called something else in the meantime--much like the Torah, which was maligned for many centuries but is now being again recognized for what it really was--valuable instruction. Knowing what our ancestors did is not enough; we must do them too. Thus we are again using the original names: Yitzhaq instead of Isaac, Elohim instead of “God”, Messiah instead of Christ. He renewed a covenant made by his father, as Yeshua did. Yitzhaq has now also come back in line with his father’s actions, paralleling how, after a long time of being known as “Jesus”, Yeshua is now being put back into His original context, and we are no longer strangers to the covenant he renewed for us. (Eph. 2:12, 19)


34. Now when Esau was 40 years old, he took a wife—Yehudith, the daughter of Be'eri the Chittite—and also Bas'math the daughter of Eylon the Hittite. 

Beeri (whose wife was apparently Anah, which means "answer") is called a "Hivvite" in 36:2; Hittite is a general term (related to the word for "terror") for any descendant of the second son of Kham; Hivvite is a more particular genealogical one.  

35. But they were a bitterness of spirit to Yitzhaq and Rivqah. 

Targum Onqelos tells us that they were rebellious and agitated against Yitzhaq and Rivqah’s authority. Y’hudith means “praise”. Bas'math means "spice" or "perfume of the balsam tree”. Be'eri means "my well". Eylon means a mighty tree. These names sound like things that would make his parents glad. Yitzhaq had spent his whole life digging wells. Avraham preferred to camp under big trees. Bas’math is called Yishma’el’s daughter in chapter 36, so she was even a descendant of Avraham. But these women were not what their names made them seem. “My well” actually would remind Yitzhaq of the strife at Eseq. (v. 20) Bitterness of spirit: or bitter wind; the one whose name meant spicy perfume was really a foul odor. A mighty tree was also a common place for pagan rites. Esau was religious, but not righteous, though teaching was readily available to him. We do not know whether his parents yet knew about Esau’s selling his birthright to Yaaqov. They were terribly disappointed when he went after pagans instead of marrying Leah in the pattern of the two previous patriarchs. In chapter 36 Yehudith is called Oholibamah, which means "my tent is a cultic platform". Since a tent is symbolic of religious learning, by marrying a woman with this name (even though she was a "praiser", or apparently religious), Esau espoused pagan worship. This might be analogous to marrying someone who speaks in terms of "the good Lord", without specifying His Name, thus leaving things ambiguous enough to get what one wants. ("See, Mom and Dad? She's religious like you!") But Rivqah saw through it, prompting her next actions: 


CHAPTER 27 

1. Now what took place when Yitzhaq was old and his eyes had become too dim to see, [was that] he called his elder son Esau and said to him, "My son!" And he said, "Here I am!" 

Old: Not as many details are given about the events his life as about his father’s or his son’s. Of course, what took place on Mount Moryah was vivid enough for an entire lifetime. In fact, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan says it was because he looked on the throne of glory when there, his eyes began to grow dimmer, like one who stares directly at the sun. But Rabbinic writings say this also refers to his spirit of prophecy being diminished. One’s heart can be seen through his eyes (Prov. 30:17), and if his mind was on the field (v. 3), Esau’s talent in worldly success compared with Yaaqov’s intangible accomplishments may have made him think he could hold him to a lower standard. He would not have been as eager to bless Esau if his perception of his unwillingness to be the spiritual leader of his generation had been sharper. Esau seemed the obvious choice for the blessing, being born already looking like a prophet. Hattin suggests that as a hunter he had demonstrated that he possessed a crucial mix of ambition, determination, skill, and foresight that the calling as the founder of as new nation demanded. But the only other hunter figure in all of Hebrew Scripture is Nimrod the mighty (10:8-12), and there is a definite connection between his prowess as a hunter and his skill as an emperor. The successful hunter is stealthy, “not dissuaded by the sight of bloodshed and is able to maintain calm and resolve in the face of fear. In short, a conqueror of animals can easily adapt his abilities to become a conqueror of men."

2. And he said, "Here I am, an old man now, and I don't know the day of my death. 

He may have recognized he had not done as well as he should have in disciplining Esau, and had given up on being able to do any better. He already feels that all of his accomplishments are behind him. Instead of continuing to dig wells and teach his children to follow YHWH, he had already become a pessimist and had his mind on enjoying himself one last time before he died—just like Esau.(25:32) But he ended up living at least 20 years longer—possible up to 80.

3. "So now, please take up your gear—your hanging-quiver and your bow—and go to the field and hunt me some game 

Game: Literally, "a huntable", possibly implying a clean animal--a necessary reminder to a son who took wives that were NOT "fair game". Yet he was becoming slack, because a deer shot by a bow would be torn, and thus not kosher (Lev. 17:15), as something trapped would be. Yitzhaq was in a hurry, and the bow would be faster.

4. "and make me delicacies such as I love, and bring them to me, and I will eat, so that my soul may bless you before I die." So Esau went to the field to hunt game and bring it in. 

Delicacies: the root word suggests something “tasty”. It is as if he is saying, "Give me a reason to bless you”, just as Avraham had said, “If only Yishmael might live before you”. He wants to bless Esau, but knows there is no other justification for blessing him. So he calls on him to do the only thing he can do that is worthy of blessing, and hopes it will end well, against all likelihood. 

5. But Rivqah heard when Yitzhaq spoke to his son Esau. When Esau had gone to the field to hunt game in order to bring it in, 

Rivqah had the perception Yaaqov did not, and understood what was really at stake.

6. Rivqah spoke to her son Yaaqov, saying, "Listen here! I heard your father speaking to your brother, saying, 

Her son: as opposed to “his son Esau” (v. 5).  

7. "'Bring me game and make delicacies that I may eat, and may bless you in the presence of YHWH before I die.' 

Rivqah adds a phrase, intending to remind Yitzhaq how strong this blessing was and jar him into recognizing Esau does not deserve it.  

8. "So now, my son, hear my voice; listen what I am ordering you to do: 

Ordering: We are told to heed the correction of our father and not forsake the instruction (torah) of our mother. (Prov. 1:7-8) Esau did not want to be corrected, and, like most loving parents, Yitzhaq did not want to correct him. But his mother knows things must be set right, because copping out will not accomplish the Kingdom.  

9. "Go now to the flock and bring me from there two choice kids of the goat-flock, and I will make them into delicacies for your father—the way he likes them. 

If goats from the flock would suffice to please him, it must have been the added spices that he really liked. He is grasping at straws to somehow validate his need for Esau. Rivqah knew better, having heard directly from YHWH. A deer is kosher, yet wild like Esau, while goats were domesticated like Yaaqov. 

10. "Then you bring it to your father and let him eat them, so that he may bless you before his death." 

As Sarah had YHWH's mind regarding Hagar, so Rivqah also had more spiritual insight than Yitzhaq. Though Yaaqov had bought the birthright from Esau, it was not really secure without his father’s added blessing.

11. But Yaaqov said to his mother Rivqah, "Look! My brother Esau is a hairy man, but I am a smooth man. 

Smooth: in his skin, but the word also means slippery or flattering. So Yaaqov possesses the same skills as Esau; the difference is in what he uses them for—the family rather than his own advantage.

12. "What if my father feels me? Then I would seem in his eyes like someone who is mocking him, and bring upon myself a curse instead of a blessing!" 

13. But his mother said to him, "May any curse that comes upon you fall upon me, my son; just listen to my voice, and go, get the goats for me!" 

Modern Christians are afraid a curse will fall on them if they subscribe to the Torah, but if we obey YHWH and negative repercussions result, they are His problem, not ours.

14. So he went and got them and came back to his mother, and she made delicacies like his father loved. 

15. Then Rivqah took the clothing of her elder son Esau—the valuable ones that were with her in the house—and dressed her younger son Yaaqov in them, 

House: The man whose eyes had grown dim had stopped living in tents, and thus was no longer mobile or ready to move when YHWH led. The most desirable clothes in the house(hold) were, by tradition, those Adam had passed down to the first-born of each generation, who acted as priests before Aharon's time.  

16. and she put the skins of the young goats on his hands and the smooth part of his neck. 

17. Then she put the delicacies and bread which she had made into her son Yaaqov's hand, 

Again, he did not ask for bread, but she may have been satisfying his hunger before offering the delicacies, so he could enjoy them as such. But, again, bread represents offering him "real food" so he might possibly regain his spiritual sense and do the right thing for the community, recognizing what his two sons' actual callings should be.

18. and he went to his father and said, "My father!" And he said, "Here I am. Who are you, my son?" 

19. And Yaaqov told his father, "I'm your firstborn son Esau. I have done as you told me. So please sit up and eat of my game, so that your soul may bless me!"

Yaaqov had indeed become the firstborn, and on this day he was a “shaggy goat” as Esau’s name denotes. So he used his words shrewdly. The right of the priesthood had already been sold; the blessing had to do with the firstborn's right of absolute leadership in the tribe.

20. But Yitzhaq said to his son, "What's this? How did you find anything so quickly, my son?" And he said, "Because YHWH your Elohim brought it right to me." 

Brought it right to me: or "YHWH arranged it for me". (He did-- before Yaaqov was born, when He spoke to Rivqah about the elder serving the younger). Your Elohim: he does not yet refer to Him as his own. He may just be speaking as Esau would, but though he has studied, he has not experienced YHWH as his own, and later he even places a condition on calling Him as such. (28:21)

21. But Yitzhaq said to Yaaqov, "Please come close and let me feel you, to see whether you are my son Esau or not." 

Yaaqov’s “slip-up” may have been giving credit to YHWH. Yitzhaq became suspicious at this point, because Esau would have bragged that he was the greatest hunter in the world, and the animals would just fall down dead when they no more than saw him! Yet, his eyes being dim, he relied on his “feelings”.

22. So Yaaqov came near to his father Yitzhaq, and he felt him, and said, "The voice is Yaaqov's voice, but the hands are Esau's hands!" 

Rav Shach wrote, “As long as Yaaqov’s voice stays in the place of Torah study and prayer (i.e., the congregation of Israel), Esau’s hands [success in the material world] will stay in their place. But if the voice of Yaaqov is sounded in the realm of Esau, the hands of Esau will enter the place of Yaaqov.” When Rav Sha’ul took the message to “Gentiles” in the synagogues, things worked as they were meant to. But when Christianity took the word to the nations indiscriminately (preaching on street corners, inviting everyone in, casting pearls before swine), Esau (the “money man”)’s hands did take over the congregations. We should invite into our domain those whom we suspect are Israel and don’t know it, but we are not to speak it loudly in their place. Light does not chase insects down; they are drawn to it. YHWH made Esau the man of the field; when we try to tamper with that, we are asking for trouble.  

23. And he did not recognize him, because his hands were like his brother Esau's hairy hands, so he blessed him. 

24. But he said, "Are you really my son Esau?" And he said, "I am." 

In Hebrew there is a loophole: he could have been interpreted as asking, “Are you my hairy son?” At that moment, Yaaqov truly was! Yaaqov also had an “excuse” in that his mother had commanded him to do this.

25. So he said, "Serve me my son's game and let me eat of it, so that my soul may bless you." So he came near him, and he took it and ate. Then he brought him wine, and he drank.

My soul: He wanted to be in the midst of an emotional experience so he could give his son the heartiest of blessings.

26. And his father said, "Now come and kiss me, my son." 

27. So he came close and kissed him, and he smelled the scent of his clothes, and he blessed him. He said, "See, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that YHWH has blessed. 

One who spends time with animals takes on their smell. Yitzhaq may have missed living in tents, and saw this reminder of life on the land as especially valuable.

28. "May Elohim also give you of the dew of the heavens and the fatness of the earth, and an abundance of grain and new wine. 

Fatness: the best. The Land of Israel was at that time the best and most productive in the world. Grain and new wine: not just physically, but symbolically, in terms of community and joy. This same blessing is repeated after the havdallah service that marks the end of the Sabbath and the transition back into the rest of the week.  

29. "May nations serve you, and peoples bow down to you; be a ruler to your brothers, and may your mother's sons bow down to you. Moreover, may those who curse you be cursed, and those who bless you be blessed. 

Peoples: regimes or princes, as in 25:23. Bow down to you: in reverence (see Deut. 4:6). Mother's sons: how do they differ from his brothers? Brothers can be extended to kinsmen in general, but he may have also expected Rivqah to marry again, since he thought he was dying. The final sentence is the same promise given to Avraham, which Yitzhaq now possessed and had every right to pass on to his son. If Esau had been given this blessing, the messenger’s word to Rivqah in 25:33 could not have been fulfilled. She took the word that "the elder would serve the younger" as something she had to ensure, rather than expecting to just "happen" miraculously.

30. Now it turned out that when Yitzhaq had finished blessing Yaaqov, he had barely left his father's presence, when his brother Esau came back from his hunting. 

31. And he, too, cooked delicacies and came to his father. And he said to his father, "Let my father rise and eat the game of his son, so that your soul may bless me." 

Yaaqov, being a man of study, had only asked his father to sit up, but Esau expected his father to remain standing in his presence. This was not honoring him. Esau was in a hurry. He has been waiting for this moment for a long time, and wants it to be over with quickly so his primacy can be recaptured.

32. But his father Yitzhaq asked him, "Who are you?!" And he said, "I am your son—your firstborn, Esau!" 

If he has sold his birthright, he no longer is considered the firstborn, but he may have never told his father this.

33. Then Yitzhaq, suddenly shaken, horrified by the force [of what had occurred], said, "Then where did the one come from who hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate it—all before you came? And I blessed him--and indeed, he shall be [the one who is] blessed!" 

He suddenly realized that his suspicion about Yaaqov had been true after all, and trembled violently at the reality that confronted him. But he had also just found out that his eldest son did not have much respect for him, and he may have also been trembling at the realization that he had almost allowed himself to bless the son who did not deserve it. 

34. When Esau heard his father's words, he cried out with a loud and extremely bitter cry, and said to his father, "Bless me, too, my father! Bless me!" 

35. But he said, "Your brother came with cleverness and has received your blessing!" 

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan says, “with wisdom”. If it was being used to supplant evil, what he did was not unethical, though it would have consequences. Now that the blessing has gone to the right son, Yitzhaq’s eyes are not so dim. 

36. So he said, "That is why he was named Yaaqov, because both of these times he has taken me by the heel! First he took my birthright, and look! Now he has taken my blessing!" And he said, "Haven't you reserved even one blessing for me?" 

Taken me by the heel: Yaaqov’s name is related to the word for heel, also an idiom for "behind-the-back plotter" or "trickster". Targum Onqelos has “outsmarted”. Yaaqov had not, in fact, taken his birthright, but bought it (25:33), so he should have had the blessing as well. It was Esau who was actually trying to steal it back! We must inform the “Esau” in us that we cannot trade in the things of the Kingdom for worldly desires, then expect to reclaim them whenever we want! If the rightful owner gets there before we do, we have lost them as he did:

37. But Yitzhaq replied and told Esau, "Behold, I have set him over you as a ruler, and I have given him all his relatives as servants; I have sustained him with grain and wine. So what else is there for me to give you, my son?" 

As for those in Yeshua's parables, the gates were already closed. (Matt. 25:10) It is too late for him. Relatives: He intends for there to remain a relationship between these two sons, but Esau must be the one to defend Yaaqov.

38. And Esau said to his father, "Do you only have one blessing, my father? Bless me, too, my father—I beg you!" And Esau raised his voice and wept. 

39. And his father Yitzhaq answered and said to him, "Behold, your abode shall be [away] from the fatness of the earth and [far] from the dew of the heavens above, 

Away from the fatness: His land is indeed largely desolate and desert-like.  He should not have asked for more words from his father, because this is what they had to entail.

40. "and you shall survive by your sword, and you shall serve your brother, yet it shall be that when you brandish that sword, you will break his yoke from off your neck." 

When you brandish that sword: become restless, or "there shall be a time when you are aggrieved, and..." In Rabbinical lore, Edom represents Rome (and hence, its church), because Romulus, the co-founder of Rome, was a descendant of Esau. (Leviticus Rabbah 13:5) When Yaaqov's descendants began to reject Yeshua's followers at the Bar Kochba rebellion, under pressure they split from the main body of Judaism--a repeat of the division of the Kingdom under Rehov'am (1 Kings 12)--and paganism began to enter the Called-Out Assembly en masse. The appearance of Messiah's followers changed by and large from being "tent-dwellers" (students of Torah) to those "interested in their belly" and the wealth of this world. So his blessing contains a curse. Christianity made us see the yoke as a bad thing, but a farmer would see it as very profitable, both for himself and for his animals, because it helps distribute the load properly. If Esau had remained under Yaaqov’s yoke, his load would not have been heavy. But by rebelling, he got out from under the covering Yaaqov provided, and was “on his own” to fend for himself.

41. Then Esau hated Yaaqov, because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him. And Esau said in his heart, "The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Yaaqov." 

Esau hated Yaaqov: see Mal'achi 1:3, where YHWH reciprocates. If he killed his brother, he would become the heir again. This was now the only way to have it back, but this too would have been a deceitful route to what he wanted. 

42. But Rivqah was told the words of her older son Esau, and she sent [someone] to call her younger son Yaaqov, and she told him, "Look, your brother Esau is going to console himself by killing you. 

Was told: by whom? Esau had said these words “in his heart” (v. 41), so it must have been YHWH or His messenger who told her.  

43. "So now, my son, listen to my voice, and get up and flee for your life to my brother Lavan in Haran, 

44. "and stay with him for a few days until your brother's rage subsides— 

A few days: Possibly an idiom for up to a year. It ended up being more than 7,000 days!

45. "until your brother's anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him, then I will send for you, and bring you back from there. Why should I, too, be bereft of both of you in one day?" 

I will send: though apparently she was no longer living when Yaaqov would return, she did send for him, for later we see Rivqah’s nurse return with him, but apparently his commitments kept him from returning until after Rivqah herself has died. He was her favorite son, and possibly the curse that she took upon herself in v. 13 was why she would never see him again. The spirit of the Torah is what has sent for Israel in exile and is calling us back to the Land of our roots. Both of you: Would Esau end up being a wanderer far from home like Qayin if he killed his brother? The word for "bereft" is from the literal term for a "short stem", visible only when the grape cluster has been removed.

46. But to Yitzhaq, Rivqah said, "I am weary of my life on account of the daughters of the Hittites. If Yaaqov also takes a wife from among the daughters of Heth, like those from the daughters of the land, of what value is my life to me?" 

She found a way not to have to tell him that Esau wanted to kill Yaaqov. She appeals to Yitzhaq’s love for her, saying, “It will kill me if Yaaqov does this too!” The daughters of Heth: See 26:34. Yaaqov’s flight cannot be seen as rebellion, so that Yitzhaq will not reverse what he has just done and again set Esau over all that he has. So Rivqah, being clever in her own right, makes sure the blessing given when he sets out on the journey will be one freely given, not coerced. This was a true statement on Rivqah’s part, even if it was mainly her pretext.  


CHAPTER 28 

1. So Yitzhaq called Yaaqov, and he blessed him and gave him orders, saying, "Do not take a wife from the daughters of Kanaan! 

Orders: a military term. This was not a request. When a superior in the army gives a command, it is not something negotiable that we can stop to ponder to determine if we agree with it or feel like carrying it out. It is to be followed no matter what—and right away. The blessing was a command, but the command was also a blessing. If we do as our father instructs, we will inevitably be blessed, even if it does not seem so at first. Removing some of our options gives us better structure and highlights our priorities more clearly. He starts with a prohibition against connecting ourselves with the people of Kanaan, who molested his grandfather Noakh when he was drunk. Kanaan means “knee-bender”. If we bend the knees too far, we end up down on all fours like an animal—a picture of those who primarily follow animal instincts. The serpent was cursed even further (Gen. 3:1-15)—having its belly right down on the earth. In contrast, YHWH’s pet name for Israel when obedient is Yeshurun—the one who is upright—that is, on two feet, standing up straight. Yaaqov is now in a position to continue to guard the covenant of Avraham, but if this seed gets mixed in with those who are down on all fours, his success will be greatly inhibited. We are not talking about being so heavenly-minded that we are of no earthly use, because that is unbalanced in the other direction, but our inclination needs to be toward bringing heavenly things to earth. What we hunger for will determine our actions. If we surround ourselves with selfishness, we tend to become selfish too. His wife must thus come from the line of Shem, whom Noakh made the master of Kanaan and the teacher of Yefeth, if he is to carry on the work of Shem.

2. "Get up, go into Paddan-Aram to the household of B'thuel your mother’s father, and take yourself a wife from there—from the daughters of Lavan, your mother's brother. 

Paddan-Aram: the plain of the Arameans (Syrians). The scope of his search for a wife is much narrower than his father’s, for the bar has been raised. Not just any Aramean would do. She had to follow the pattern that had proven best: Rivqah was Sarah’s niece, so Yaaqov’s wife would be Rivqah’s niece.  

3. "Then El Shaddai can bless you, make you fruitful, and multiply you, and you will come to be an assembly of peoples.

Though he said he had no blessings left to give, apparently Yitzhaq's prophetic spirit has revived. El Shaddai: the “feminine” side of YHWH, from a word meaning “breast”, thus emphasizing provision, which he indeed received. Yitzhaq is beginning to see again, due to his wife’s influence. Fruitful: His great-grandson’s name means "doubly fruitful". (48:19) Multiply you: or, grant you greatness and abundance. Through the descendants of Yosef, which means "add", many peoples have become grafted into Yaaqov's stock and thus his heirs both physically and spiritually. (Rom. 14:19; Eph. 2:15) An assembly of nations: an organized body, gathering, or congregation. In contrast with Avraham’s many descendants who spread far and wide, Yaaqov’s were intended to remain together and remain concerned about one another, not just self. Their strength lies in the fact that they are an assembly, not just one man. Each one does not just add strength, but multiplies it. The Hebrew term is qahal--the equivalent of the better-known Greek “ekklesia", for though these peoples would still be scattered at one point, they will yet be regathered out from among the nations with whom they mingled, to again form one people. (1 Keyfa/Peter 2:9-10)  

4. "May He also give to you Avraham's blessing—to you and your seed along with you, so you may possess the land of your sojournings, which Elohim gave to Avraham." 

Avraham’s blessing: The promise of inheriting the Land is again narrowed, for the last time, to Yaaqov's descendants alone. Yitzhaq must never have intended to give this blessing to Esau, because when he had the occasion to, he did not. He gave him only earthly blessings, though the most important of these, too, actually went to Yaaqov as well. But until this point he had still only blessed Yaaqov with preeminence, fertility, and the position of leadership. (27:28ff) Now that, as per verse 8, his eyes have been opened again (no longer being blinded by Esau’s gifts) and he knows to whom he is talking, he gives him the fullest birthright blessing. (Avraham’s covenant was not mentioned in the first blessing that he intended to be for Esau.) But the blessing is still contingent on his maintaining the right attachments and accepting the command along with the blessing.  

5. Then Yitzhaq sent Yaaqov away, and he went into Paddan-Aram, to Lavan the son of B'thuel the Aramean, the brother of Rivqah, who was Yaaqov and Esau's mother. 

Notice the order the two sons’ names are listed in, contrary to their birth order, but in agreement with the way their mother saw them. In contrast with 25:5, Yaaqov is now counted the elder. Esau was called, but Yaaqov was chosen. (Mat. 20:16) Yaaqov was willing to take on the role of servant and teacher, so his father chose him. The church has been known as the “called-out”, but even it has continued to refer to the Jews as the “chosen people”.

6. When Esau saw that Yitzhaq had blessed Yaaqov and sent him away to Paddan-Aram to take a wife for himself from there (how in his blessing he had commanded him: "You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Kanaan"), 

7. and that Yaaqov had obeyed his parents and gone to Paddan-Aram, 

8. and when Esau saw that the daughters of Kanaan were disagreeable in the sight of his father Yitzhaq, 

9. [only] then did Esau go to Yishmael and take Machalath, the daughter of Yishmael the son of Avraham (Nevayoth's sister), as his wife, adding her to his other wives.

Thus some of the Arabs (Yishmaelites) are also Edomites. Esau perceives that his parents wanted him to marry a cousin. Like the Protestant Reformation, he tried to make amends for his earlier errors by taking a more worthy wife also but without putting away all the paganism in the process. He tried to please his father, but did not follow orders completely; he tried to find a substitute more close at hand. Esau still chose the wrong line. He went to Yishma’el’s camp, which was much closer than Paddan-Aram. Machalath: from a root meaning "weak, sick, or diseased". (See 26:34, 36:3). He should have been following Yaaqov, not to kill him, but to marry Lavan’s other daughter. Leah could have helped him become a man who made better decisions. Instead, while doing what looked right, he actually compounded the problem. Machalath was a descendant of Shem, but not through his mother, and she was actually only 25% Semitic, the remaining 75% being Hamitic as his other two wives were. Repenting, in Hebrew, means going back to where one came from. Yaaqov turned back to the ancestors who were worthy of emulation. If we do things our fathers’ way despite our own preferences, and do not use our giftings to further our own desires, but for the betterment of the set-apart community, we too can inherit from this ancestor.

Portion Tol'doth   
(Birth-Records)
Genesis 25:19 - 28:9
In this portion, we see Yaaqov living up to his name—grabbing his brother’s heel in two different ways, and though it came at a high price, he ended up with the advantage where it mattered most. But he seems to do some very unethical things in the process. He lies—but then so did Rahav, and YHWH blessed her. Now he did not break an actual command; he did not bear false witness against his fellow. He actually took the place for which he was better suited, and it was not by his own estimation. His mother was the instigator. But is the end being used to justify the means? It looks very much like that is exactly what is going on! But ultimately, whose idea was it? Didn’t Rivqah get the idea that the younger would replace the elder from the highest Authority on what is right and wrong--from YHWH Himself? He knew which of these two sons needed to have the position of spiritual ascendancy; how different the world would have been if Esau’s philosophy (essentially “might makes right”) were to be the rule?  

This calls all our ideas about what is fair and equitable into question. If we think we can define what is good and what is bad by how it makes us feel, we end up standing in judgment of the Creator Himself!  Yes, we need the generalities to remain intact, but there are always exceptions—but YHWH is the one who gets to make them. We can’t write rules about the exceptions, because that would be the same story all over again; we have to take each matter directly to Him. Much simpler, yet we find it so hard to do. Why? Because that ability to be free moral agents all the time—to choose what we think is right or wrong, or to make airtight rules about what is black and what is white, no matter how righteous a person there might be who just doesn’t fit the pigeonholes—isn’t that precisely what we were aiming at when we decided that the Knowledge of Good and Evil was more important than obedience to the only one who knows which exceptions can fly and which cannot? We wanted to be in control!  

So in the process of repair, it is the weak that become strong and the meek that inherit. The firstborn doesn’t always get to be the one with the birthright. Yes, Torah later says the actual firstborn can’t be replaced by the firstborn of a wife-come-lately who is more favored. But the second-born of the first wife can supplant her firstborn, if he jeopardizes the rest of the family’s welfare by thinking only of himself. Yaaqov even shows that a whole series of sons can forfeit the birthright and one’s grandsons may even end up in the firstborn’s position if the rest write themselves out of the criteria! The “rules” we think we have nailed down sometimes have to be broken because YHWH is doing something bigger: He is bringing about the only line that can actually undermine the results of the poison from that tree, and replace it with a firmer foundation on which the world and its activities can be based.  

And what is that? Just what we lost in Eden—a direct relationship with the Creator where all we need to know in any decision is what He says is best. And He is not capricious or selfish in His choices; He showed beyond a shadow of a doubt that He has our best interests at heart, because He Himself did all that Avraham was asked to do, and more—He actually followed through with the sacrifice of His own son (who was specially-favored for a good reason) in order to give us short-sighted, ambitious people giddy with the promise of achieving the impossible a real, true way to reverse the consequences of our foolish demand to have a choice.  

It’s again a personal world, not an impersonal set of rules behind which we can hide when YHWH wants to let us experience the thing that always makes us the most vulnerable—real love. The strange, awkward, messy events described here made that possible, because YHWH was willing to even look bad so that not just the good, but the best, was available to the creatures He favored for whatever incomprehensible reason. There is method to His “madness”, but until we have that proverbial 20/20 hindsight, madness is indeed what it appears to be, because somehow He is “madly” in love with us.
The Cycle of Blessing

Most of us are familiar with the stories in this Torah portion of Yaaqov, true to his name, supplanting Esau’s birthright and blessing.  

The meaning of “birthright” is not always understood in our day and culture. Simply put, it is the right, due to primogeniture, to a double portion of one’s father’s inheritance. (Deuteronomy 21:17) This was not designed to enrich the firstborn over his brothers so much as to ensure that the son who was to become the family’s patriarch upon his father’s death would have adequate means to assist others in the clan who fell on hard times, such as by taking the role of the kinsman-redeemer.

But I want to focus on a different blessing that shows up in this Torah portion. It’s not stated quite as overtly as those mentioned above. But I think it may be even more helpful for our everyday lives than those better-known ones.

When YHWH had begun blessing Yitzhaq, those around him started envying his success. They also felt threatened by him, so he moved away and focused on restoring the progress his father had made, which they had thwarted. But when he started something new again, they laid claim to it. This had been their territory, and they had apparently abandoned it, but when he made it work, what he found on it must therefore be for their benefit! Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? This pattern repeated itself until finally he found a water source they did not dispute about, and he at last had the breathing space he felt he needed in order to be able to keep any benefits for himself.

But the call of his heritage (26:23) seems to have been even stronger than having lebensraum (living space), as with the Israelite Scythians, who many centuries later had wide stretches of steppes at their disposal, but felt they had to return to their homeland as soon as the reforms of Yoshiyahu (Josiah) made it safe to do so. And already many Jews, though used to the wide open spaces and lifestyle of America, are returning to the much more cramped quarters of their homeland, because it is the place they are meant to be. (May we have occasion to do so within our lifetimes as well.)

And there, at the place he had learned his father’s faith (22:19), YHWH promised Yitzhaq the same blessings and protection He had promised to Avraham. So Yitzhaq refreshed his covenant with YHWH. He did not just rest on the promises made by his father. He renewed his father’s vows for his own generation. We, who have gone much further afield, are now being given the open door to do the same.

Only then did his enemies, who had not been bothering him for a while, actually come and make peace with him. Granted, they were afraid of him, because he had become strong. But he assured them that he did not want what was theirs. He even gave them something of his own, and they no longer feared him. What was going on here? Yitzhaq was beginning to fulfill the other part of the promise to Avraham—that his descendants would not only be blessed, but would be a blessing to those who got on their good side.

Then and only then, did they actually verify that there was still a source of water—the most necessary commodity—in that place, so that they could remain there, where YHWH had spoken to him in a place he could call his own, both because of the family heritage it held and because no one was fighting him for it.

It is worth noting that he did not strike water until after the Philistines had left, so they apparently did not know about it, and this in itself was a blessing, because they would therefore not be interested in taking it from him. But the point is that when we bless others—even with as simple a thing as an affirmation that we are not out to get them—it brings them relief, and so there is one less thing for us to worry about as well. The cycle of blessing can continue and we can be further blessed.

* * *

Moshe Kempinski notes that in Hebrew, "blessing" is related to a word that refers to the "process of the pulling down of a vine and placing part of the branch in the ground so that it can sprout new roots and begin to grow another renewed plant. That is to say it involves the process of re-rooting the plant back into the sustenance-filled earth so that it can be empowered and renewed."

Study questions:

1. Why are the ages of the protagonists at various stages included in the narrative (Genesis 25:20, 26, etc.)? Is this the style of fiction, myth, or history?

2. Where do you think Rivqah went to inquire of YHWH (25:22)?

3. Rivqah took the prophecy in 25:23 as a call to action. (27:6ff) Was this parallel to Sarah’s idea in 16:2? Might it still have come about—maybe even in a better way--if she had kept her hands out of it? Why or why not?

4. What did Yitzhaq do when he had a problem he could not solve? (25:21) Do we need to make things any more complicated than that?

5. YHWH later said, “Yaaqov have I loved; Esau have I hated.” (Mal’akhi 1:2-3) What clues can you find in this Torah portion as to why? (Prime the pump with 25:34.)

6. What is the difference between birthright and blessing (27:36)? (Compare 25:31; 27:4, 10.)

7. Why was it so important for Yitzhaq to stay in the Land of Kanaan as an “anchor” (26:2-5) when Avraham and Yaaqov were both permitted to leave temporarily?

8. How different would our world be if more non-Hebrew people thought the way this Philistine king did? (26:10)

9. Why did Yitzhaq repeat his father’s dubious survival tactic (26:7)? Why do you think YHWH enriched Yitzhaq apart from the king’s help (26:12-14) when He had enriched his father with help from this king’s predecessor?

10. Were the king’s fears (26:16) realistic, in light of verses 30-31? What parallel can you see between his request (26:16) and Kefa’s (Luke 5:8)?

11. Why would people cover up Avraham’s legacy just because he was dead (26:18)? What does Matthew 22:31-32 say to this? How does using the Hebrew names for Biblical characters and ideas help restore the legacy of our ancestors?

12. If he had found plenty of room (26:22), why move on (26:23)? What light might 26:25 shed on this?

13. What is the double entendre in the naming of the well Be’er-Sheva’ (26:33)?

14. Why would YHWH honor a blessing procured in this way (chapter 27), when Esau “sought and begged for it with tears”? (Compare Hebrews 12:17)

15. Who do you think reported to Rivqah what Esau said in his heart (27:41-42)? Was what was in his heart made obvious by his actions and possibly overt words (cf. Luke 6:45)?

16. What psychological trick did Rivqah use to give more authority to an idea that Yaaqov might have been hesitant to implement (27:43-28:5)?
Esau's territory, the mountains of Se'ir
Companion Passage:
Mal'akhi 1:1-2:7
Yitzhaq's well at tel Be'er Sheva; 
The Sidewalk
for kids

Did you ever dig down into the ground so deep that you found water? Back in the days before we had pipes to bring water from other places into our houses, that is how we got water to drink. It had to be cleaned up, of course, if it was muddy. And usually if you keep digging down even deeper, the water is cleaner and more drinkable. Do you see how important it would be to have a well near where you lived—so like Jack and Jill, you wouldn’t have to go so far to get it?

Yitzhaq had lots of flocks and herds, and lots of people working for him to take care of them, so he had to live near water. The thing we are told more than anything that he did in his life was that he dug wells—lots of them. Not because he needed so many, but because people came and stole them from him. “It’s ours”, they said, because it was where they lived, even though he was the one who dug it.  

Other times they filled them back up so he couldn’t use them, and they told him to get away from there, so he had to go and dig another well. And this took place over and over again. He started giving them names like “fight” and “quarrel”, because that was what the people around him kept doing.

So what did he do? He’d go somewhere else and dig a new well.  

Sometimes when people want to fight about something you think you should have (when it’s not clearly something you’ve bought), the best thing to do is to walk away and start again. There were some things that Tesla invented that Edison claimed he had invented. Edison was more famous, so probably more people would believe him just because they had heard of him before. So what did Tesla do? Go invent something else—and probably something better. If they had had a big fight over it, it could have gotten so tied up in court that nobody would have benefitted from it. And that’s not why you invent things. Sometimes it’s better to think about things that way. President Reagan had a sign on his desk that said, ““There is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn't mind who gets the credit.”

Sometimes it’s better to just go dig another well, because YHWH made this world with enough for everybody if we look for it hard enough. And finally, when Yitzhaq had done that enough times, he found a place where no one bothered him anymore, and he called it, “Plenty of Room”.

But Yitzhaq dug some other wells too—not new ones but very old ones—the same ones his father had dug, but that somebody later had stopped up. (Genesis 26:18)

Lots of times when we’re young, our parents look so old-fashioned! We think we can do things better, and we don’t pay attention to what our parents say. “The world has changed”, we think. And soon those old wells get lost. But a very wise man named Tim Russert said, “The older I get, the smarter my father seems to get!” The more we see about the realities of life, the more we see that our great ideas were unrealistic and our parents were right after all. As I get older, I am finding that a lot of the wells my father dug for me still have water in them, if I just uncover them in the right way so mud doesn’t get back in them.

But there are some wells that we are starting to rediscover that are much older than just our fathers or grandfathers. Over the centuries, we Israelites have fought each other over a lot of things. Some of the fights were so serious that we split up and said, “We’re not the same group of people anymore”—Judah and Ephraim, later Pharisee and Sadducee or Essene or Karaite, or Orthodox, Reform, or Conservative, and now—again—Messianic vs. Rabbinic. We got so mad at each other for things we did to each other that we just didn’t want to have anything to do with the “water” those “other” people were drinking. Sometimes we threw mud in it and tried to cover it up completely.

But do you know what? Each of those wells has real, drinkable, life-giving water in it if we dig deep enough. And if we realize that we are all Israelites, we might want to try the water some of the others dug for—and share some of what we’ve dug. It’s not like drinking from a pagan well, although some things have gotten mixed into them all, mostly because we didn’t help each other keep them clean. Imagine how pure the water would be if we did!

What else did Yitzhaq do with the wells his father had dug? He called them by the same names his father had. As many of us realize, after so many years of our well being covered up, that we are really Israelites, we’re finding that one we’ve been calling “God” is really YHWH, “Jesus” is really Yeshua, and “peace” is really “shalom”—which means a whole lot more. And the Torah, a water source we’d thought was no longer drinkable, even bitter, can become sweet again when a tree is put into it.

The Renewal of TOL'DOTH 

YHWH let Yitz’haq plead with Him. (25:21) Or, He “let Himself be entreated by him”, to use another way of translating it. Whatever people may say about how to persuade YHWH to give them what they want, it is only their opinion, however reasoned or sophisticated. He “will have mercy on whom He wants to have mercy”, as He told Moshe. (Ex. 33:19) He wouldn’t even let Moshe persuade Him, because no one else knows what is best for someone else; only YHWH does, and He chooses what will have the best overall result—something we can never predict. In Hoshea He says He will have mercy on the kingdom He at first chose not to have mercy on, because He knew we would respond to His severity and prove to be His children after all. (Hos. 2:23) Yeshua told us (Mt 9:13) to go learn what it means that YHWH prefers mercy toward one another over gifts offered to Him. (Hos. 6:6) He wanted Yitz’haq to have children, so He was glad Yitz’haq asked Him for this. But it did not just come naturally; He made it impossible first. It had to be clear that this nation was no accident; it was YHWH’s doing alone.

YHWH turned the tables again when He told Rivqah that her elder son would serve her younger. (25:23) The book of Yasher tells us that the way she had inquired of YHWH was by going to ask through Shem and Ever. (Yasher 26:10) Yasher confirms the old tradition that Melkhitzedeq the priest of the Most High was indeed one and the same with Shem. (Yasher 16:11) The priest is the one designated to bring us knowledge of YHWH (Mal. 2:6-7) and bring answers from Him. (Ex. 28:30; Num. 27:21)

Commenting on what YHWH told Moshe about how He metes out His mercy, Paul reminded us that the outcome is not about what anyone wants or who tries the hardest, but rather whom YHWH wants to have mercy on. (Rom. 9:16) The natural order was overridden many times in the creation of Israel, because it is a supernatural people—a counter-history created to correct the course of mankind and restore what was lost at Adam’s fall. So it is certainly no coincidence that the “seed of the woman” would have his heel bruised in the process of crushing the serpent’s head (3:15) and that the younger son who would supplant the older had a name based on the word for “heel”. (25:26)

The covenant with Avraham was renewed with Yitz’haq (26:3-5), whose part in the covenant was simply to remain in the Land and not leave it. Avraham’s “work of faith” was to leave behind what was familiar and go to what was unclear; Yitz’haq’s was to stay put even though there was no provision where he was at the time. But he found provision by re-digging the wells his father had dug, which the Philistines had stopped up. He called them by the same names his father had (26:18), just as we are again returning to the original ways of saying and looking at things as “the time of the restitution of all things” draws near. But he did not stop with researching what had already been learned about YHWH; he kept digging more wells, searching for a still-deeper knowledge of the Holy One.

Yaaqov was the one who carried on that characteristic. He was a “tam” man, living in tents. (25:27) This probably hearkens back to Noakh’s blessing about the tents of Shem, and the book of Yasher indeed reveals that both Yitz’haq and Yaaqov, before their respective marriages, spent years in the School of Shem and Ever, the men who knew YHWH best. So this school was probably at none other than the site of the later Yerushalayim, where we know Melkhitzedeq was king.

But what kind of man did the text say Yaaqov was? “Tam” is difficult to distil into a single English word. It means everything from “plain and simple” (i.e., pure, without pretense) to “complete”, “undefiled”, or “having integrity” The term shows up in describing the blameless Iyov, Solomon’s undefiled bride, lambs without blemish, and Noakh’s completely-human pedigree when that was becoming rare because of angels that would not stay within their rights. (Gen. 6:9) It is even translated “quiet”—probably because he did not have to make noise to compensate for his shortcomings, because he was “wholesome” or “well-rounded”, “lacking nothing”. But the more he learned, the more he saw that his brother was not living up to his calling, and yet he was not in a position to set things straight so the treasure YHWH had entrusted to Avraham’s line would not get sidelined to a place where it could not bring blessing to all nations as it was supposed to.

The birthright, in Hebrew, is literally the “firstborn-ness”, and “firstborn” is exactly what Yeshua is often called. (Luke 2:7Rom. 8:29; Col. 1:15, 18; Heb. 12:23) Like Yaaqov, he didn’t start in that position. From our viewpoint haSatan appeared much earlier than Yeshua did, and held the deed to the earth after having tricked Adam into giving it up (somewhat like what Yaaqov did with Esau here but more maliciously). But since Yeshua got the right to rule back in a totally above-board, but very painful, way (though he had to keep the plan hidden until it was accomplished), we could again say that the “younger” has ousted the “elder” from the throne he had usurped. (As the “nearer kinsman” wanted to redeem the land but not Ruth the apparent foreigner, haSatan wants the wealth of the world but despises its inhabitants who are only an echo of what they used to be, whereas Yeshua was willing to see our value, though our shininess was covered in mud. Like Yaaqov, he did what it took to restore the dominion to humanity, though most were unworthy of that position, because he knew he could do the job more correctly than how his “older brother” was handling things.

Yaaqov’s mother carried it a step further to ensure as best she knew that the prophecy of the elder serving the younger (which Yasher tells us came through Shem) would come true. In Hebrew mysticism, the Holy Spirit is called a “mother”, and that Spirit is what drove Yeshua into a place he later told us to pray YHWH would not lead us: into temptation by a weaver of lies more skillful than either the schemer or his “ensnaring” mother (the meaning of “Rivqah”). But he emerged from the experience with increased power and reputation (Mat. 4:1; Luke 4:14).

  But again, this time it had been done with no deceit found in his mouth (Yeshayahu 53:9)—an accomplishment not achieved by any before him, because the path to get there is a tightrope indeed and full of suffering—the bruising of the heel. But he succeeded in crushing the serpent’s head, which was worth all the blood, sweat, tears (Heb. 5:7), and pain, and this will be validated when not only do the “peoples serve him and the nations bow down to him”, but, better still, all those who blessed him receive their blessing. (27:29)

Esau, on the other hand, was careless about what was entrusted to him, and lost not only the part he despised but also the part he wanted—just like haSatan—because he “found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears”. (Heb. 12:17, based on Gen. 27:34, 38) And when he realized how his choice of wives displeased his parents, the best he could do was choose another less-than-ideal one, but he still could not undo the results of the first choice. There comes a point when our decisions taken us beyond the point of no return—to the point of being called “hated” rather than “loved” by YHWH Himself. (Mal’akhi 1:2-3) So seek diligently BEFORE you make the choice, so you may be found in the better category, the one that inherits the blessing of Avraham. (28:4)
A Devious Victory?

Rivqah would not have gotten the information vital to her later decisions if she had not had the chutzpah to ask YHWH for an explanation of the strange occurrence she experienced. (Gen. 25:22-23) YHWH did not count her as presumptuous or insolent in this case, because it was an honest question. “You do not have because you do not ask.” (Yaaqov/James 4:2)

She ended up preferring Yaaqov (25:28), though we are not told if it was mainly because of this answer from YHWH or for other reasons. But she was emboldened to use several methods we would usually find unethical to ensure that he came out ahead of Esau. Would Yaaqov have ended up with the blessing if she had not manipulated matters? Is this another Yishma’el moment? What if Rivqah had waited on YHWH to fulfill His promise, as Avraham learned (the hard way) to do? What kind of Yitzhaq-like miracle might we be telling our children about instead of this dubious kind of action on her part?

We may never know, which is probably why YHWH engineered other circumstances—such as Sarah’s and Rivqah’s barrenness, and the call to offer Yitz’haq on the altar—in such a way that the counter-history YHWH was creating through Israel could not be the result of human doings, but would be inexplicable apart from YHWH, unlike the lines of Yishma’el, Mo’av, or Ammon which were “born by the will of the flesh”, to use Yochanan’s terminology. Such interference is not the way His Kingdom is meant to be brought about: “The blessing of YHWH makes rich, and He adds no [need for] bending with it.” (Proverbs 10:22)

He may do things in a roundabout way to out-maneuver the crooked and throw those who would abuse the truth off His tracks (Psalm 18:26), as with the way the Messiah’s genealogy got around a curse in which the enemy probably thought he had won. (Yirmeyahu 22:30) But that is one of the “hidden things” that are YHWH’s prerogative; the things that are open are our responsibility (Deut. 29:29), and transparency is a big part of that openness, so that it can be proven that the things YHWH does cannot be explained away, chalked up to lesser motives. Learn from our ancestors’ errors and their consequences: integrity is paramount in the accomplishing of His purposes, so that when the Kingdom arrives it is not tainted by any twisted, bent, or corrupt roots. 
Yitzhaq's restored well at Be'er-sheva'
Photo used by permission.
Staying Aligned with Our Calling--and Caller

“Yitzhaq prayed to YHWH…and YHWH let Himself be prayed to…!” (Genesis 25:21) And the prayer was answered. Why? Was it Yitzhaq’s persuasiveness? No; it was because he prayed according to YHWH’s will, which in this case was clear, because He had promised Avraham that his descendants would be counted through Yitzhaq, so when there was a 20-year “roadblock”, Yitzhaq expected that YHWH would be willing to take it out of the way. The way to be able to pray with confidence is to know YHWH’s purpose and line up with it. “We know that if we ask according to His will, He hears us.” (1 Yoch. 5:14)

Knowing this, Rivqah was perplexed when she met a new glitch: “If so, why is it this [way for] me?” If this is really His doing, why this complication? She did the right thing: she didn’t try to come up with an explanation; she asked YHWH. (25:22) The answer wasn’t the most pleasant, but it made things clear.
Though the twin named after the heel he clutched (25:26) didn’t like his name (27:36; 32:27), it was a constant reminder (in a roundabout way) of the promised seed who would one day have his heel bruised when crushing the serpent’s head. (3:15) A play on the word “heel” in Hebrew (26:5) hinted that “Heel-man” would have apart in bringing this about, giving his line what it took to endure the constant struggle to hold back the progress of the “man of the field” (metaphor for “the world”, per Mat. 13:38).

Yitzhaq, who was dedicated to YHWH for the purpose of ascending (22:2) was told not to descend from the Land where he had been offered up to YHWH (26:2); he would be sustained amidst its scarcity. Yet though he did not go into Egypt, he made the same mistake his father had made there—and here! 

 But the name of the place he settled (Gerar) is related both to “living as a sojourner” and “chewing the cud”—so fitting for a man already known for meditating (24:63). Ruminating is the perfect picture of meditating on YHWH’s word, for a different form of the same word is used by David of turning YHWH’s word over and over in his mind to get more insight and benefit from it (Psalm 119:15, 48, 148), mulling it over so often that he gained stability even amid opposition at the highest levels. (119:23, 78)

But where did Yitzhaq meditate? In the field; no wonder he preferred the son who was a “man of the field”. But this time it was shallow thinking. Rivqah dragged the reluctant Yaaqov (who was more balanced, 25:27) into a “conspiracy” to pull Yitzhaq back from the edge of that precipice, using strange, even desperate tactics to establish this part of Yaaqov’s calling. (27:6-24) His mission would later involve “wrestling—not against flesh and blood” but (contrary to all human logic) with even the good side of the spiritual realm, and being rewarded with a name that showed that his struggle was not in vain, but that he had gained what he had grasped for ever since that initial wrestling in the womb.

That calling continued through his generations (tol’doth), and ultimately produced a man who could, like a mirror, reverse Adam’s grasping, precisely by his not grasping for equality with Elohim (Philippians 2:6 vis-a-vis Gen. 3:5) A convoluted path to victory, indeed, seemingly fraught with contradictions and backtrackings. Rivqah is not the only one it puzzles, but it is because his lineage had to, in tandem with Him who knows how to beat the devious at their own game (Psalm 18:26), undo all the knots humanity had gotten into through our avon (“iniquity”, but literally, twisting, bending out of shape).

Yitzhaq’s part of this mission was to reopen the water-sources his father had found but which others had obscured. (26:18) It took a lot of work. But that is our job too, as heirs to his nation and its purpose. 

But the word that came in the midst of it was, “Don’t be afraid, because I am with you.” (26:24) We hear this so often it may seem trite, but the older and more experienced we get, the more comforting and even amazing it is. To be in line with His blessing is far from common. Don’t take it for granted!

A Dubious Route 
to Blessing? 

YHWH appeared to Yitzhaq very seldom, except to tell him to remain in the Land despite famine, and reiterate His promise to continue the covenant and keep providing for him. (26:2, 24) But how could He continue it with Yitzhaq’s trickster son? How could blessings gotten by lies be condoned by YHWH?

The birthright (25:34) Esau possessed is the right of primogeniture that allots a double portion of the inheritance to the eldest son. (Deut. 21:17) The extra portion was given to him for the purpose of caring for anyone in his family who became needy, not for himself. He is also to be the family’s spiritual leader.

Even before he overtly forfeited his birthright, Yaaqov also knew Esau did not have the character to bear the responsibility that came with being in the position of firstborn. Even when he tried to reform himself, he did not understand the right principles for doing so; he went to the wrong side of his family to take an additional wife (28:8-9), and this still did not undo the problem of the other wives who were a vexation to his parents. (26:35; 27:46) So it is understandable why Yaaqov thought he could do better.

Yaaqov was hesitant to supplant him the second time; in a sense the responsibility for that plan fell on Rivqah. But once the practical problems of their ruse were resolved, Yaaqov was complicit in the deceit. (27:19) There are many ethical issues here, and our ancestors were not always the best examples to us.

Yet YHWH loved them; He even shared Rivqah’s preference for Yaaqov (25:28). “Yaaqov have I loved and Esau have I hated.” (Mal’akhi 1:3) When the terms “hate” and “love” are contrasted like this in Hebrew, it is often just speaking of choosing one over the other rather than malice per se; that resolves a lot of theological questions. But YHWH certainly did have reasons to be disappointed by Esau, whereas Yaaqov was a man of integrity and much more learned. (25:27) 

Did Rivqah’s ideas about favoring Yaaqov and tricking Yitzhaq come because YHWH had told her before they were born that the elder twin would serve the younger? (25:23) Did she just decide to “side with the winner” before he had the advantage—and force the issue? Were they both right to take matters into their own hands and try to fulfill a spiritual promise by fleshly means? (Compare Galatians 3:3) Like Sarah, who tried to do the same, Yaaqov and Rivqah created unnecessary problems for themselves by not waiting on YHWH to fulfill the vision--similar to another Yaaqov’s observation that “the wrath of man does not accomplish YHWH’s justice.” (James 1:20) And “those who operate according to the flesh cannot please Elohim.” (Romans 8:8) They paid a price for trying to do it their own way and by merely human means. (Gal. 4:29) “He who sows to his flesh will from the flesh reap corruption.” (Gal. 6:8)  

So was this the only way the prophecy could be fulfilled? Could there have been a better way, one that better highlighted YHWH’s power, as in Yitzhaq’s own birth vis-à-vis Yishma’el’s? “The blessing of YHWH makes rich, and He adds no sorrowful hardship with it.” (Prov. 10:22) That’s the ideal. Should they have waited on YHWH to see if He had a less messy way to get this done? Or was this one of the times when they were instruments of YHWH’s “outsmarting the devious in their own tricks”? (Psalm 18:26)

We may never know; history is what it is. We cannot go back and try the other possible routes. But as for ourselves, we can ask Him to provide a better way. 

 Even Yaaqov was given a second identity—Israel (32:28)—and when he acted in the spirit, that is what YHWH called him; sometimes, when he responded according to the flesh, he was still called Yaaqov. (e.g., 45:26-28) So anyone whose spirit is regenerated does have a second option. “Though we walk in the flesh, we do not battle according to the flesh.” (2 Cor. 10:3) So ask YHWH first if there isn’t a way to get the job done that preserves integrity on all fronts.

The Root of Replacement Theology vs. a Better Root

Yaaqov’s children were fully Semitic; Esau’s were partly Hamitic, to varying degrees. (Gen. 28:6-9) Does that matter? Later, Joseph’s children—our own ancestors--were half-Egyptian too (41:45). One of Judah’s surviving sons was part-Canaanite (38:2); we are told nothing about Tamar’s pedigree. (38:6) Again, does it matter?

Tol’doth, in Hebrew, means “genealogies” (records of births or even of genes/DNA). It also seems to signify the parts appended by each of those whose names appear with the term each time it is used. E.g., this was the section Yitzhaq (25:19) added to the running record that Moshe later inherited and codified as part of the Torah.

After its initial usage in Gen. 2:4, from Gen. 5:1 on (after the fall of Adam), tol’doth is spelled defectively—with one of the two waw letters missing—until Ruth 4:18, where Peretz’s genealogy restores it. Why? Waw has the numeric value 6, which in Scripture represents humanity (created the 6th day).

But there was no real man in the genealogies anymore, after Adam lost the likeness of Elohim (compare Gen. 5:1 with 5:3). But when Boaz fulfills his role as kinsman redeemer, letting Elimelekh’s line continue via Ruth, the covenant DNA carried down through Avraham and Yitzhaq is able to “break through” (the meaning of peretz) and be passed to the Messiah’s mother. Through the virgin birth, the seed of the woman (3:15)--immortal unless fertilized by a male, which carries the genetic defect--could survive, and a man who again bore Elohim’s likeness be born, bringing real humanity back!

Yitzhaq reaffirmed the definitions Avraham established (26:18), but also repeated some of his father’s not-so-admirable traits. (26:7-10) In turn Yaaqov repeated his father’s pattern of looking for a wife among his mother’s household. (24:4ff) This gave a positive purpose to his having to flee his brother’s wrath. (28:2) If Esau spoke only in his heart (27:41), who told Rivqah of his murderous thoughts? (27:42) Was it YHWH or His messenger again, following up on His initial revelation to her that the younger would be greater than the elder (25:23)?
 
Was what Rivqah and Yaaqov did right? Or should the blessing indeed have gone to Esau? YHWH had said it would not. (25:23) The haftarah shows how YHWH was not pleased with Esau’s ways. (Mal. 1:3) Esau was also known as Edom (25:30), and one of his grandsons was Tzefo (36:11). In Yasher 61:12-25 (a book acknowledged as historically reliable at least, in Joshua 10:13 and 2 Samuel 1:18), we hear that the war hero Tzefo was adopted by the people of Kittim, who later founded Rome, and he was made their king, whose reign extended to Italia. Thus the surprising traditional Jewish association of Edom with Rome appears literally true, not just a metaphor. 

So in prophecies about Edom, we can read “Rome” between the lines. As Esau tried in vain to make a comeback after being diminished (Mal. 1:4), first through plotting to console himself by killing Yaaqov, Rome has tried via its counterfeit priesthood to get Esau’s primacy back by supplanting Yaaqov (Israel) as YHWH’s chosen people—the “replacement theology” that says Avraham’s spiritual seed uproot physical Israel, being planted on its former site rather than (as Paul really says) being grafted into the physical to share the same root. (Rom. 11) That is how YHWH wants to “be magnified beyond Israel’s borders” (Mal. 1:5): not by ending Israel, but by including others.

This also needs to be deeply understood by all today who are saying “from the river to the sea, Palestine must be free”. River to sea is the entirety of Israel! So they are (unwittingly, we hope) attempting again to “kill Yaaqov” as Esau wanted to do. To prefer Esau is to side against the One who preferred Yaaqov. (Mal. 1:2) So though the end does not justify the means, Rivqah had the right intent in trying to ensure that Yaaqov ended up being the one blessed. Thus Yitzhaq passed on to Yaaqov what YHWH had told Avraham: “Those who bless you will be blessed.” (Gen. 27:29) And Rivqah was divinely informed that this was how it was meant to be. (25:23) 

 Is it even possible to be as straightforward and transparent as we’d prefer to be, with a malevolent enemy after the Seed? (Galatians 5:17) With all of his faults, Yaaqov was judged to be a man of integrity (25:27), so YHWH affirmed him as a victor by giving him a name with that meaning (32:28), and thus Yaaqov “died” and was “resurrected” with a new identity that overrode his old ways. We “no longer know him according to the flesh.” (2 Cor. 5:16)  

And so it can be with all who partake of his root; from it flows the life of the salvaged seed that bears good fruit.