Eugene Delacroix, Jacob Wrestling with the Angel (Detail), 1850. Oil on Canvas, Church of Saint-Sulpice, Paris
This article is Part 7 of the FAI Publishing series Seeds and Generations, a Biblical survey of the theology of “Seed” and “Generation” throughout redemptive history to the end of the age.
ONE WOMB, TWO SEEDS
As the promised seed of Abraham, Isaac took Rebekah, daughter of Leban, to be his wife. Like her mother-in-law, Rebekah was barren for decades.[1] But her waiting was not in vain. As the promised seed, Isaac’s birth required a miraculous conception, and the same would be true of the next generation. Isaac “prayed to the Lord for his wife…and the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived.”[2] But this time, it was not one seed that grew in the blessed womb, but two.
Rebekah became increasingly concerned as the fetal activity inside of her grew more intense. “The children struggled together within her, and she said…’If it is thus, why is this happening to me?’” [3] Inquiring of the Lord, the wife of the promised seed received a sobering response:
Two nations are in your womb,
and two peoples from within you shall be divided;
the one shall be stronger than the other,
the older shall serve the younger.[4]
Within her own body, Rebekah felt the “struggle” of the two seeds that bore an ancient enmity for one another. These two seeds would become two peoples, nations divided as the Seed of the Woman was divided from the seed of the serpent. But the outcome of the cosmic battle now focused on her womb was hidden from Rebekah. The Lord only revealed that the younger child would be the stronger one, and that the older would serve him.
In the course of time, Rebekah went into labor and brought forth twins. Even in the manner of their births, the children heralded the spirit of the two seeds within them. Esau “came out red,”[5] a color that will carry greater significance later in the narrative. His twin brother “came out with his hand holding Esau's heel.”[6] The struggle between the two brothers in utero continued as they left the womb. As mentioned previously, the motif of a stricken heel is used in reference to trapping or overcoming a victim. And so, the younger brother was born clinging to the heel of his twin, prefiguring that he would overcome his older brother. Accordingly, he was named “heel-catcher,” or in Hebrew, Yakov.
HUNTER AND HEEL-CATCHER
As Esau and Yakov grew, their distinct personalities began to manifest:
When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents.[7]
Although there is nothing inherently evil about the skill of hunting, the inspired author emphasizes that Esau is “a skillful hunter…a man of the field” for a reason. Esau’s choice of vocation gives a clue to his spiritual parentage. Like Nimrod “the mighty hunter”[8] before him, Esau represents the seed of the serpent. On the other hand, Yakov is content to dwell in the tents of his father Isaac instead of wandering afield for prey.
The distinction between the twin seeds is revealed one day in an incident that would seem as happenstance:
Once when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was exhausted. And Esau said to Jacob, ‘Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted!’ (Therefore his name was called Edom.) Jacob said, ‘Sell me your birthright now.’ Esau said, ‘I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?’ Jacob said, ‘Swear to me now.’ So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.[9]
The hunter returned from the field one day to find his brother cooking a “red stew.” Exhausted and famished, the stew appeared to him as “good for food…a delight to the eyes”[10] and he demanded some for himself. Yakov saw a prime opportunity to ensnare his brother. “Sell me your birthright now.” It was a bold move for the heel-catcher, exceeded only by his older brother’s indifference towards his birthright. “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?” In a moment of fleshly craving, Esau was willing to trade away his most precious inheritance. And so, the hunter “ate and drank and rose and went his way.” That is, Esau went his own way, departing from the way of the Lord. In despising his birthright, the older brother showed contempt for the One that had given it to him. The red man was enticed by red stew, and so he sold his inheritance to follow the “great red dragon.”[11] The hunter had been caught in a trap. Yakov had grabbed Esau by the heel yet again and had prevailed.
BIRTHRIGHT AND BLESSING
The trajectory of Esau and Yakov’s lives continued to separate down their destined courses. Esau took pagan wives, while Yakov found wives from among his kinsmen, as his father and grandfather had done. As Isaac lay blind on his deathbed, Yakov completed his trifecta of heel-catching by impersonating his brother while Esau was hunting “in the field.” Tricking his father into receiving the blessing of the older son, he confirmed the Lord’s prophetic promise to his mother:
Let peoples serve you,
and nations bow down to you.
Be lord over your brothers,
and may your mother's sons bow down to you.
Cursed be everyone who curses you,
and blessed be everyone who blesses you![12]
Isaac’s words recall the Lord’s promise to Abram, “I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”[13] But the father’s blessing goes even further to confirm not only the son’s election, but also his authority. “Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you.”
In receiving the birthright of the firstborn, and in receiving the blessing of the father, the heel-catcher foreshadows the One whose heel would be struck by the serpent. Although the Promised Seed could have enjoyed every royal prerogative, He nonetheless strove with the Red Hunter, prevailing over him. As Yakov took the birthright of the firstborn for himself, so too did the One he prefigured “lay down his life and take it up again” to claim his inheritance as the “firstborn from among the dead.”[14]
Even though Yakov’s methods were underhanded, his immature tenacity showed a deeper passion for greater things. His desire contrasts with the apathy of his older brother, who by right could have received the inheritance and blessing of the firstborn, but instead traded the greater things for lesser comforts. Like Cain, when Esau discovered that his brother had found greater favor, he hated him with murder in his heart.
Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”[15]
Alerted to his brother’s plot by his mother, Yakov fled to live with his uncle Laban. One night on the way, he was met in a dream by the One whom he prefigured, standing at the top of an angelic staircase, to give him the greatest birthright and blessing of all:
I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth…and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.[16]
Yakov awoke with a sanctified sense of purpose, declaring the Lord to be his God. Instead of deceiving men for greater things, he would strive to take hold of eternal things. Instead of a birthright to a perishable inheritance, Isaac’s younger son had received an imperishable inheritance. For seven years twice over, Yakov toiled for Laban, marrying his daughters, and raising the offspring that he had been promised.
HEEL-CATCHER to GOD-STRIVER
In the course of time, Yakov returned with his household to the Land of his father. Along the way, he received word that Esau was en route to intercept him, and he feared the worst. Sending his wives and children ahead to cross the Jabbok River, the younger brother found himself alone in the dead of night. And there, at the edge of the Promised Land, at the edge of destiny, he would strive once more and overcome. Only this time, he would not struggle against flesh and blood, but with the Divine Seed of the Woman.
And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.’ And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed”…And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.”[17]
The heel-catcher’s unwieldy desire for greater things had been refined and forged into a holy violence. Jacob refused to release his Divine visitor, struggling with him through the night, until the Man put his “bones out of joint.”[18] Still, Yakov contended. “I will not let you go until you bless me!” He was no longer content with the blessing of his father. Instead, he strove for the blessing of his father’s God. And his persistence was rewarded. “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” The heel-catcher had become the God-striver. Yakov had become Yisrael. “And there he blessed him.”
Wounded and chastened for the rest of his days, the son of Isaac had nonetheless overcome. His desire was for “a better country, that is, a heavenly one”[19] and he would not make the mistake of his older brother by letting it slip away. Rather, he embodied the teaching of the One with whom he had strived:
The Kingdom of Heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.[20]
Gabe Caligiuri is a regular contributor to THE WIRE publication and podcast, as well as an occasional contributor to other FAI digital content on the subjects of history and geopolitics as they relate to the Great Commission. Gabe and his family live in California.
[1] Genesis 25:20 states that Isaac was 40 years old when he married Rebekah, while verse 26 states that he was 60 when his sons were born, indicating as much as 20 years of barrenness and prayerful waiting for the couple.
[2] Genesis 25:21
[3] Genesis 25:22
[4] Genesis 25:23
[5] Genesis 25:25
[6] Genesis 25:26
[7] Genesis 25:27
[8] Genesis 10:9
[9] Genesis 25:29-34
[10] Genesis 3:6
[11] Revelation 12:3
[12] Genesis 27:29
[13] Genesis 12:3
[14] John 10:18, Colossians 1:18
[15] Genesis 27:41
[16] Genesis 28:13-15
[17] Genesis 32:24-30
[18] Psalm 22:14
[19] Hebrews 11:16
[20] Matthew 11:12