And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.
Twenty years of childlessness lie behind this short note about the birth of Rebekah's twins. The verse records an answered prayer. It also opens one of the Bible's clearest test cases: one mother, one father, one birth — and two very different futures already announced by God.
The twins were a long time coming. Isaac married at forty, and the waiting went on from there.
God Himself tests faith. The promise is sure, but the believer has to wait for it… Isaac had no wife until he was forty years old. Even then he remained childless some twenty years… It was grace. But grace showed the channel through which the blessing would flow. That drew out his prayers, while patience had its perfect work.
The barrenness itself had a purpose in God's hands.
The barren condition of Rebekah led Isaac to exercise faith and to cast himself upon the Lord for help. And He answered him. God delights to take up what is weak and barren and show His power in answer to prayer.
The detail that they were twins is not decoration. It rules out every natural explanation for God's choice.
Predestination is clear here — God settled their history on earth beforehand. This is all the more striking because the babies not yet born had the same mother as well as the same father — in fact, they were twins… This shows that God's sovereignty is as free as it is certain to faith. It rules out natural descent, on which the Jews founded their exclusive claim.
So where does the reason lie? Not in the boys, but in God Himself.
Both he and Esau had one mother, and they were born at the same time, for they were twins. By nature Esau had first place, by only a few moments. Again, however, God set aside the first and chose the second, saying, "The older shall serve the younger"… This shows us that God chooses because of what HE IS IN HIMSELF, and not because of what men may be, as shown in their works.
Later Scripture speaks of God loving Jacob and hating Esau. Writers are careful to keep that statement in its own place and time.
You must distinguish between Genesis 25:23 and Malachi 1:2-3. God spoke the first before the children were born. He spoke the second hundreds of years later, after each had fully shown his conduct and character… The apostle is establishing the absolute sovereignty of divine mercy: God's right to do as He wills. He proves to Israel that arguing against divine sovereignty means giving up all their privileges. So how did they get in? Was it by birth? No; for on that ground Ishmael and Esau had the precedence. Was it by works? No; for they made the golden calf. How then? Simply by God's sovereign mercy. Well then, if God is sovereign He can have mercy on whom He will; and blessed be His Name, that opens the door for us poor Gentiles.
Writers also mark what the words about hating Esau do not mean.
This clearly does not mean any unconditional and eternal condemnation… In Genesis the Lord speaks only of having chosen Jacob. And what creature of the dust can challenge His right to do so?
The two sons picture a conflict every believer knows from the inside.
In these two sons we have a representation of the two seeds, with the contrast between the flesh and the Spirit. The natural comes first, and "then the spiritual." The believer finds a strange contradiction in his own heart: the conflict of two natures. That conflict is pictured here for us — with the promise, thank God, that the flesh will be brought under the spirit, and that the spirit will win in the end.
The birth gave both boys names that would describe their lives.
Esau came first. He was red in appearance and hairy, with red hair. This reminds us of Adam, which means "red earth," for Esau's history would show what man is in the flesh… The second son, Jacob, followed, his hand holding Esau's heel… His name means "he will take by the heel"… That is what Jacob was in the flesh. But God later changed his name to Israel, "a prince with God." God's counsels would stand, and He did a work in Jacob's soul that made a glorious change in the man.
- Before the prayer — Rebekah was barren, so Isaac prayed. Twenty childless years taught him patience.
- Before the birth — God named the order of blessing while the twins were unborn. No act of theirs could explain it.
- Before the works — one father, one mother, one birth. Descent and merit are both ruled out. The choice rests on God Himself.
- Before the verdict — the word about loving Jacob and hating Esau came centuries later, after both men had shown their true character. Do not merge the two statements.
- After the choice — the two brothers picture the conflict of flesh and Spirit in the believer. Jacob's new name shows that God's purpose ends in a changed man, not just a chosen one.
And the first came out red -- all over like a hairy garment; and they called his name Esau.
Esau arrives red and hairy, and his look gives him his name. Commentators read that description as a portrait of a man of the earth. It is also the first half of a pattern God repeats all through Scripture.
The name comes straight from what everyone saw at the birth. Reference works then follow it into the man's later choices.
Esau was Isaac and Rebekah's son and Jacob's twin, though he was actually the first-born. He is described as "red, all his body like a hairy cloak," and his name matches this, since it means "hairy." Gen. 25:25. The first thing we read of him is the selling of his birthright to his over-reaching brother Jacob, for a bowl of stew. Because of this the New Testament calls him a profane person, because he did not value what was the gift of God.
Writers tie the newborn's redness to the name Adam, and to the dust the first man came from.
Esau, the first, looked strikingly red, hairy, and his hair red. This reminds us of Adam, which means "red earth." Esau's history was to emphasize what man is in the flesh, just as "the first man was from the earth, a man of dust" (1 Cor. 15:47).
The same link returns later in his life, once his own choices show what he is.
Then it all comes to light. Esau despises his birthright, and so he is profane; Jacob values it, but seeks it in crooked ways. Esau now shows himself openly as Edom — that is, Adam, only a little changed on the outside, and not in heart.
Being "of the earth" does not mean being weak. The picture is raw energy that answers to nobody.
Later these tendencies come into open view and get their names. Esau is red, and all over like a hairy garment — unmistakably of the earth, but full of strong, wild life… Esau is the free rover, held back by nothing but his own will, chasing his own aims — the hunter who can pursue animals or men without caring which.
Esau's arrival first is part of an order that runs through the whole Bible. The one who comes first by nature is not the one God builds on.
God gave special rights to the firstborn son of each family (a double inheritance). Again and again we meet firstborn sons who fail, and their blessing goes to another who has no claim to it. Cain was the firstborn, but Seth took his place. In the same way Isaac replaced Ishmael, Jacob replaced Esau, and Joseph replaced Reuben, and so on. The underlying principle is clear: the firstborn speaks of man in his natural strength — "he is the firstfruits of his strength" (Deut. 21:17). And this is the point: natural man acting in his own strength always ends in failure. For blessing to come, God has to provide the "second." Hebrews 10 states this principle plainly: "He does away with the first in order to establish the second" (v. 9).
The two babies also picture a struggle the believer knows inside.
In these two sons we have a picture of the two seeds, with the contrast between the flesh and the Spirit. The natural comes first, and the spiritual after it. The believer finds a strange contradiction in his own heart: two natures in conflict. We have it here in type. And with it comes the promise, thank God, that the spirit will bring the flesh under and win in the end.
Being born first settled nothing here. Both boys had the same father and mother, and the choice between them came before either was born.
Predestination as to their history on earth is plain here. It is all the more striking because these babies, not yet born, had the same mother as well as the same father. In fact they were twins… So divine sovereignty was shown to be as free as it is certain to faith. The Jews based their exclusive claim on fleshly descent, and that claim is disproved — most clearly in the case of Esau. For here the flesh is shut out completely, and the title comes from the Lord's sovereign pleasure.
- Born red — his colour and hairy covering give him his name. Writers link that redness to Adam and to the dust the first man came from.
- Named Esau — the name means "hairy." Later he is called Edom — Adam, one writer says, only a little changed on the outside.
- Strong but earthbound — his energy is real: a free rover, held back by nothing but his own will.
- First, then second — the firstborn stands for man in his natural strength. That strength always fails, so God's blessing runs through the second.
- Settled beforehand — the twins had the same parents. Only God's sovereign choice explains the outcome, and it shuts the flesh out completely.
And after that came his brother out; and his hand took hold of Esau's heel; and his name was called Jacob. And Isaac was sixty years old when they were born.
Twenty years of waiting ended with twins, and the second baby came out gripping his brother's heel. That grip gave him his name, Jacob, and it marked the man he would be.
Isaac married at forty, and twenty more years passed before these twins arrived. One writer sees purpose in that delay.
It is God's way that faith should be tried. The promise is sure, but the believer has to wait for it... Isaac had no wife provided for him until he was forty years old. Even then he stayed childless for some twenty years... It was grace; but grace revealed the channel through which the blessing was to flow, and this drew out his prayers, while patience had its perfect work.
The name Jacob comes straight from what his hand was doing. Esau threw that name back at him years later.
The second son, Jacob, followed closely, his hand holding the heel of Esau. This detail shows what would be true of Jacob all his life. His name means "he will take by the heel." Esau referred to this later when Jacob had deceived his father in taking Esau's place. Esau's words then were "Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has cheated me these two times" [older translations: "he has supplanted me," which matches the name]... His hand grasped at the blessing Esau was going to receive. This tells us what Jacob was in the flesh. But later his name was changed to Israel, "a prince with God." God's counsels would stand, and He did a work in Jacob's soul that made a glorious change in the man.
The grip was not a one-off. It belongs to a pattern that ran from the womb to the turning point of Jacob's life.
In him we see human nature at its most crooked, and so we see grace in all its moral beauty and power. His remarkable history suggests this: before his birth, at his birth, and after his birth, nature showed its extraordinary energy. Before his birth, we read, "the children struggled together within her." At his birth, we read of "his hand holding Esau's heel." And after his birth — right up to the turning point of his history, in Genesis 32, without a single exception — his course shows nothing but the least attractive traits of nature. But all this only works like a drab background, throwing into relief the grace of Him who stoops to call Himself by that touching name, "the God of Jacob" — a name that speaks so sweetly of free grace.
Commentators read the two boys as a picture. Esau looks earthy and wild; Jacob's whole character shows in that grip on the heel.
Esau is red, and all over like a hairy garment — unmistakably of the earth, but full of strong, wild life. Jacob shows himself in this: his hand lays hold of Esau's heel. From that he gets his name, "heel-catcher" — "supplanter." Here we see the spirit that tries to set aside the flesh by the effort of the flesh. So the power of the flesh is felt, while the power of God is not — or is felt as opposition.
The same picture reaches into the believer's own heart.
In these two sons we have a picture of the two seeds, with the contrast between the flesh and the Spirit... The strange contradiction the believer finds in his own heart — the conflict of two natures — is pictured for us here. And with it comes the promise, thank God, that the flesh will be brought under the spirit, and that the spirit will win in the end.
Centuries later the prophet Hosea set this grip beside Jacob's night of wrestling.
"In the womb he took his brother by the heel, and in his manhood he strove with God" [older translations: "by his strength he had power with God"]. From the first Jacob did what showed he would supplant his brother, and this was long before anyone could put it down to a character he had grown into. But God also recalls what grace did when it gave him strength beyond his own in his weakness. When the sinew of his thigh had been shrunk, God strengthened him to prevail with the angel. So he gained the name that pledges the blessing of grace and complete victory to the seed of Abraham.
- Waited for. Isaac married at forty and was sixty here. The promise was sure, but God tried his faith while he prayed.
- Named for. The hand on the heel gave the boy his name — "heel-catcher," supplanter — and Esau later said the name fitted.
- Grasping. Struggling before birth, grabbing at birth, scheming afterwards: the grip was the first sign of a nature that ran through his whole life.
- Pictured. Commentators read the twins as flesh and Spirit. Esau is earthy; Jacob fights the flesh with the flesh. Believers know that conflict from the inside.
- Changed. Hosea sets the heel-grip beside the wrestling. God gave the supplanter strength he did not have, and he became Israel, a prince with God.