God of Covenant: Session FIVE Sibling Rivalry Isaac & Rebekah as parents who show great favoritism Gen 25:19- “These are the generations…” • Isaac prays for his wife. Rebekah prays to the Lord for answers. • God is setting His favor on the younger son just like Abel, Isaac, and now Jacob whose name means “he grasps the heel or he cheats” • Seeds of favoritism (Isaac-Esau and Rebekah-Jacob); Rebekah probably told Isaac that Jacob would bear God’s favor. • Theme of “red” with Esau. • Birthright was what gave the older son a double portion; Jacob has cheated his brother out of what would have come to him anyway “self-reliance”. Uses legally binding words/attitude “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Jacob despises Esau and Esau despises the birthright Gen 26 • Isaac leaves for Gerar which is on the way to Egypt. God tells him not to go. “your offspring” • Isaac tells the men that Rebekah is his sister. “laughing” implies intimacy. Same pattern. What are we modeling for our children? • Isaac was blessed by God in his disobedience too. Matthew 5:45 “For He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” • Isaac digging wells. Philistines recognize he is blessed by God too. Makes covenant • Esau took Canaanite women as wives. They made life bitter for Isaac & Rebekah. Remember the care that Abraham took to find a wife for Isaac? Isaac didn’t do this for Esau. Gen 27 • Isaac still wants to bless Esau. Rebekah is trying to trick Isaac. Isaac will be betrayed by his sense. (touch, hearing, seeing, taste, smell) • “Because the Lord your God granted me success.” (attributes to God what is work of sinner) • Blessing was a prophecy of things to come; language of the land of milk & honey. Echoes the cursing & blessing. Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful (Jacob-like) above all else things and desperately sick; who can understand it?” • Isaac had planned to give all to Esau in spite of God; God worked it out in spite of them • Esau’s descendants dwell in an arid land; “yoke” Matt 2:16-18 Herod the Great from Esau. • If Esau kills Jacob, he will be put to death and Rebekah will lose both sons; It will be 20 years before Jacob returns. Arise & Go Gen 28 • Jacob flees in search of a wife. Esau marries someone in the line of Ishmael. Jacob the homebody sent from home. He leaves with the promises of God but not relationship with God. • 28:10-12 Jacob’s Ladder (Stairway) picture of a ziggurat (Tower of Babel); John 1:51 Jesus speaks of this as Jesus is the SON OF MAN is the ladder/stairway (mediator between God/man) • Bethel means house of God • If/then conditional terms with God of universe; Jacob is a work in progress but God uses him anyway How would it change the way we live if we think about God with us wherever we go? .