Two Ways of Living
With pre-scientific prescience the ancients seem to be well aware that stories of tension and rivalry rarely begin where they come to the surface and are either the cause or the result of the pain and struggles of those who have gone before. So we are told that this story all began in the womb, with pains of pregnancy reminding us that the origins of such problems lie way back in the past, run deep, are often way beyond our control and defy explanation and understanding. We are dealing here not so much with issues and problems to be researched and solved as facts of life to be accepted. We begin where we are and either ease them or compound them.
What happened in the womb may be read as a poetic way of preparing us for what is to come, as does the explanation of their names by means of a Hebrew pun. From birth the story is set up. One is a country boy who enjoys the challenge and threat of the hunt, the other a homely type, quiet and easy-going. One is a wanderer, the other a settler. And to sharpen the conflict they are the mirror image of their parents. So from the very beginning the story is not so much two kinds of people as two ways of living.
This may be male (provider) and female (nurture). It may also be profit and service, conservation and exploitation, individual and community, personal freedom and self-control, and so on. Your choice of backdrop will determine how you read it.
Next the birthright. Given the chance to accept or reject one’s inheritance (or natural rights) we are offered the grasping (Jacob) or the compliant (Esau), but the full thrust comes perhaps in the last five words, especially the word ‘despise’. Jacob with a concern for (or was it an eye on) the future (even if he didn’t go about it in the best way) and Esau with an eye for instant gratification of the ‘now’. Or could it have been a commitment to the fullness of life here and now with an exploitation of every experience?
Either way, their choice is our choice. The alternatives are still with us. So too are the consequences, which Esau was to discover (chapter 27).
