Genesis 35: 21-29: “And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar. And it came to pass, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine: and Israel heard it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve: The sons of Leah; Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun: The sons of Rachel; Joseph, and Benjamin: And the sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s handmaid; Dan, and Naphtali: And the sons of Zilpah, Leah’s handmaid; Gad, and Asher: these are the sons of Jacob, which were born to him in Padanaram. And Jacob came unto Isaac his father unto Mamre, unto the city of Arbah, which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac sojourned. And the days of Isaac were an hundred and fourscore years. And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days: and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.”
The major problem between Esau and Jacob began because Isaac thought that he was going to die. He wanted to have a nice meal of venison before he died so he promised Esau that he would bless him before he died. However, he didn’t actually die until more than twenty years after the blessing episode. We must be careful to remember the words of James 4: 13-15 (“Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.”) Our times are in God’s hands and He works according to His plan rather than ours. This passage also contains a summary of Jacob’s family after Rachel’s death.We see that the conflict between the wives and supported by Jacob led to a battleground mentality between the sons. Reuben tried to demonstrate his superiority as the firstborn by demonstrating that he was better than his father but this act led to him losing his place as the firstborn son. This also helps us to understand the conflict that occurred between Joseph and the other sons that we will soon be reading about.
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
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