Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Bill Ross" <wross AT farmerstel.com>]

<Liz>
Intersting about it being divinely ordained.
If divinely ordained, why wasn't Jacob simply born first???
So, what's the story about?

<Bill>
The point is that Jacob, though, younger, will be the line through whom the
"blessing flowed":

Gen 25:
22  And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be
so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD.
23  And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner
of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be
stronger than the other people; and ***the elder shall serve the younger***.

This is a justification of God bypassing Edomites, who should have normally
speaking been the mantle-bearers and instead being with Israelites, no?

The apostle Paul found this to be a type of the gentile assembly inheriting
the blessing, rejected by the elder Israel:

Romans 9:
1  I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me
witness in the Holy Ghost,
2  That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
3  For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren,
my kinsmen according to the flesh: {accursed: or, separated}
4  Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and
the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the
promises; {covenants: or, testaments}
5  Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came,
who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.
6 ¶ Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not
all Israel, which are of Israel:
7  Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children:
but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.
8  That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the
children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.
9  For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall
have a son.
10  And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by
our father Isaac;
11  (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or
evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of
works, but of him that calleth;)
12  It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. {elder: or,
greater} {younger: or, lesser}
13  As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

Bill Ross