Genesis 25:19-26 | Birth of Jacob and Esau | Shane Mosby
The story of the birth of Jacob and Esau serves many purposes including foreshadowing the relationship between the brothers that will be later expanded on in Genesis, showing what it looks like to live as a servant of God and shows another example of God’s character and faithfulness. From this passage we learn that prayer leads us to communion and transformation.
We already know that God promised to Abraham plentiful offspring and the nation of God. Isaac, as Abraham’s son, grew up hearing these promises often, and learned from his father. So then Isaac understood at some level that he would have some part to play in this, but his wife, Rebekah, was barren. His response was to pray to God, and we see that God hears his prayer and responds, giving him that which he asks for. His wife also prays to God when she had some sort of complications with the pregnancy, and God revealed to her what was to come.
God desires relationships with humanity. In James 2:23 we read that Abraham was considered “a friend of God”. Abraham was devoted to God, trusted his promises, acted in faith, and prayed to him often, both in the good times and the bad. Relationships aren’t one sided, and they aren’t always perfect. Think of the ways that God has used your brokenness and shortcomings to bring about good in your life. If we are honest, we can all think of ways this has happened.
These good and bad moments of life are intended to direct us to prayer. We see Isaac do this here, in direct response to the difficulty of infertility, he prayed to God. The original word for prayer used here is the same one used to describe Moses’ prayer in Exodus on account of the plagues being brought down on Egypt by God. These prayers were likely not clean and proper. Sometimes communicating with God is messy, raw, perhaps even angry, but it’s real, and that is what God wants from us. He knows us better than we know ourselves, so trying to put up walls when speaking to him is foolish and unnecessary. We also recognize that Isaac chose to rely on God and his promises rather than taking matters into his own hands. He could have chosen the path that his father did and impregnate another woman to bring about offspring, but he didn’t. He naturally responded to his circumstance with prayer, and God responded.
Prayer is not merely a circumstantial action, but also cultivates our relationship with God. When we see our relationship with God as an actual relationship, we realize that communication is not just recommended, but essential. We know in our personal lives that poor communication or the lack thereof ruins relationships, and the same is true with God. Not only that, but we see that it is essential in the way God intervenes, and makes us more aware of that intervention. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 tells us to pray without ceasing. As Christians our lives should be marked with prayer in all things, as a natural response in desiring communion with God, not just as a means of desperation in the hard moments.
Lastly, as we see, prayer transforms the world around us. In this passage, Isaac prays for a child, God hears him, and gives him what he asked for in direct response. Prayer is by no means trivial. We may not understand it completely, but it is an undeniably important tenant of the faith through the Old Testament and New. James 4:2 says “You do not have because you do not ask.” What are the good things you need in your life that you have not asked God for? Do you struggle to feel connected to him, or others? Have you asked him to help you in that? He knows our need before we ask. May we live lives so dependent on God that prayer comes forth as a natural response in or pursuit of cultivating a relationship with him instead of feeling like an obligation. Where we fall short (which we all will), may we learn to depend on him all the more.
