# 18 2023 Dev. Gen.25. God Answers Prayer! Read all of chapter twenty five first. We invite you into God’s space, to read His Word, to think on and interact with. This is God’s story. Do you believe that this is also part of our story, in our time? All passages are taken from the NIV.
Gen.25:22 “The babies jostled each other within her, ‘why is this happening to me?’ So she went to inquire of the Lord.”
Gen.25 is about Abraham’s family line, it is perhaps not surprising that Abraham took Keturah as wife after Sarah died, he lived 48 more years. He fathered six more sons. There is a lot of speculation about who she was, some Jewish tradition identify here as Hagar, the first concubine and that Isaac influenced him to marry her. It all seems unlikely and the Scriptures are silent about it. However, “Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac.”
Vs.1-11 Abraham remarries, has six more sons, he sends them all away from Isaac and gives them gifts, more than likely significant gifts. Abraham dies at 175 yrs. old and Issac and Ishmael bury him in the cave Abraham bought to bury Sarah. It is significant that Abraham lived in the promised land for 100 yrs. God blesses Isaac, “who then lived near Beer Lahai Roi which means; “the well of him that lives and sees me” or “the well of the vision of life”. This is the well to which Hagar fled when she ran away from Sarah, and where the angel of the Lord found her.
Vs.12-18 The family line of Ishmael is here described, based on God’s promise to Hagar, “I will make him a great nation”. Ishmael had twelve sons forming twelve tribes. Ishmael lived 137 years, “his descendent’s settled in the area of Havilah to Shur, near the eastern border of Egypt… And they lived in hostility to all the tribes related to them.” The names given to his sons are Arabic names, indicating the Arab’s of today are related to them.
Vs.19-34 describes the family line of Isaac. Isaac was 40 yrs. old when he married Rebekah but she was barren for the first 20 years of marriage, so Isaac prayed to the Lord and God answered his prayer and she became pregnant. The Scripture tells us, “the babies jostled each other within her, and she said, ‘Why is this happening to me?’ So she went to inquire of the Lord.” How she did that inquiry we are not told, perhaps at one of the alters Abraham had built. “The Lord said to her, ‘Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.'” Typically God chooses the under dog, the youngest, as He does in this case. God answers both Isaac and Rebekah’s prayers. God answers our prayers, but not always in the way we want.
When they were born, the first born was covered with red hair so they named him Esau, meaning red. The second child was born “with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob,” a Hebrew idiom for “he deceives”. See note.
They grew up as two very different people, Esau, a hunter, Jacob a home buddy. Isaac loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob. Unfortunately, it was a dysfunctional family.
One day Esau came home hungry and asked Jacob for the stew he was cooking. He was willing to give Esau the stew if he gave up his birthright. “He ate and drank, and he got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright.” Esau, also known as Edom, became a nation but God says in Malachi 1:1-5 – Jacob loved, Esau hated. God knows the heart, he knows our hearts and he answers our prayers. Amen, thanks be to God!
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