What does it mean that "two nations are in your womb" in Genesis 25:23?

She receives the answer that she has twins: in fact God calls them two nations, telling her that the twins were two totally different characters, one stronger than the other, but that the elder should serve the younger. This is a lesson that God often impresses on us in His word, to the effect that the last shall be first and the first last. Ishmael was born before Isaac, but he had to give place to Isaac. Now the same lesson is emphasized even when the same mother gives birth to twin sons. This totally casts us upon the sovereign wisdom of God. It is He who orders such matters, far above any question of people's character or actions. He is sovereign and we must simply bow to Him.

She receives the answer that she has twins: in fact God calls them two nations, telling her that the twins were two totally different characters, one stronger than the other, but that the elder should serve the younger. This is a lesson that God often impresses on us in His word, to the effect that the last shall be first and the first last. Ishmael was born before Isaac, but he had to give place to Isaac. Now the same lesson is emphasized even when the same mother gives birth to twin sons. This totally casts us upon the sovereign wisdom of God. It is He who orders such matters, far above any question of people's character or actions. He is sovereign and we must simply bow to Him.

There were to be twins. And the children gave anticipative token to their mother, as we are told, for her trial, so that she too went to enquire of Jehovah. Who can overlook the propriety with which the name of covenant relationship is here employed? All intrinsic value is lost by the supposition that it is due to an accidental occurrence of that designation; it is really divine purpose clothing the account with the title of moral government. Nor is there any ground to fancy that she consulted Melchizedek or journeyed to Moriah. Without either she knew where to find Jehovah and how to enquire of Him. Her faith might be weak, but it was real, and without superstitious dependence on any man or place.

Here was Jehovah's answer (v. 23): "Two nations are in thy womb, and two peoples shall be separated from thy bowels; and people shall be stronger than people; and the elder shall serve the younger." Predestination as to their history on earth is manifest here. It is made all the more striking because the babes yet unborn were of the same mother as well as father, nay twins. So it is that the apostle in Romans 9:10-12 deduces the truth intended. "But Rebekah also having conceived by one, Isaac our father, (for [the children] being not yet born, nor having done anything good or worthless, that the purpose of God according to election might abide, not of works, but of him that calleth) it was said to her, The elder shall serve the younger." Divine sovereignty was thus shown to be as free as it is certain to faith. Fleshly descent on which the Jews founded their exclusive title is disproved; expressly and assuredly of Esau. For here flesh is excluded most distinctly, and the title is drawn from Jehovah's sovereign pleasure. His word made it all the more pointed by declaring that "the elder should serve the younger," and this in view of their future nations respectively.

Esau and Jacob, not yet born, were declared to be two nations and also "two manner of people," and the elder was to serve the younger. When born the prediction was clearly verified. They were entirely different in physical appearance, in habits and mental make-up. The one a skilful hunter, a lover of the open air; the other a plain or homely man, fond of tent life. All this would have been obvious to the ordinary onlooker, but it is the incident at the end of the chapter that discloses the real rift between them, that the onlooker might never have discerned.

"And these [are] the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son. Abraham begot Isaac. And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah as wife, daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padan-Aram, sister of Laban the Syrian. And Isaac entreated Jehovah for his wife, because she [was] barren; and Jehovah was entreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If so, why [am] I thus (or, do I live?)? And she went to enquire of Jehovah. And Jehovah said to her, Two nations [are] in thy womb, and two peoples shall be separated from they bowels; and [one] people shall be stronger than [the other] people; and the elder shall serve the younger. And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, twins [were] in her womb. And the first came out red all over like a hairy garment; and they called his name Esau. 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 she bore them" (vv. 19-26).

There were the two sons of Abraham — Isaac and Ishmael; but they were by two wives: there are now the two sons of Isaac — Jacob and Esau; but they are by the same wife.

The enmity between the sons of Abraham began when Ishmael, a lad of fourteen years of age, mocked the weaned Isaac. But the struggle between the sons of Isaac was in the womb. Two nations were there, as the Lord had told Rebecca, "Two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels." And so it came to pass. The man of God was found in Jacob, the man of the world in Esau; the principle of faith was in the one, the principle of nature in the other. Two manner of people were indeed separated from her bowels, and had struggled in her womb. "The friendship of the world is enmity against God." And this was Esau. Accordingly, Esau made the earth the scene of his energies, of his enjoyments, and of his expectations. He was "a man of the field," and "a cunning hunter." He prospered in his generation. He loved the field, and he knew how to use the field. He set his heart on the present life, and knew how to turn its capabilities to the account of his enjoyments. His sons quickly became dukes, nay kings, and had their cities; as Ishmael's children had become princes, and had their castles. Their dignity and their greatness proceeded from themselves; and the world witnessed them in their magnificence.

We follow on now with the life of Isaac, and see it merging into that of his sons Esau and Jacob (Gen. 25:19-34). In these two sons we have a representation of the two seeds, with the contrast between the flesh and the Spirit. That is first which is natural, "afterward that which is spiritual." The strange contradiction which the believer finds in his own heart, the conflict of two natures, is here given to us in type, with the promise, thank God, of the subjection of the flesh to the spirit and the ultimate triumph of the latter. In Esau, we see the profanity of nature which despises the promises of God,while even the planning of Jacob has in it at least the redeeming feature of a faith that sets value upon that which God has promised.

Two manner of people were, after this manner, separated from Rebecca's bowels, as all this tells us. They are no sooner brought forth than this is seen; and their earliest habits, their first activities, are characteristic. It was not merely the bondwoman and the free, or the children of the two covenants, as Ishmael and Isaac had been; in Esau and Jacob we get a fuller expression of the same natures; the one, that reprobate thing, had from Adam, profane or worldly, which takes a portion in the earth and not in God; the other, that divine thing, had from Christ, which is believing, hopeful, looking to God's provisions, and waiting for the kingdom.

The only subject of this short prophetical book is the nation of Edom whose hatred for Israel will eventually lead to their total destruction. Edom is the name of Esau’s descendants. The nation of Edom lived in the mountains of Seir south of the Dead Sea down to the Gulf of Akaba (Gen. 36:8-9). Esau was Jacob’s twin brother. Already before their actual birth God announced that the older son Esau would serve the younger son Jacob (Gen. 25:23). Out of despising his birthright rose Esau’s hatred against Jacob (Gen. 27).

The general statement of Divine election as the ground of blessing having been illustrated by reference to the birth of Isaac, the case of Jacob is next introduced in order to narrow the principle in its application, and thus to place the doctrine in a yet more striking light. Rebecca was the wife of Isaac the heir of promise. She had been appointed for him of God, who sped the messenger of Abraham on his way (Gen. 24). God, then, was in the birth of Isaac and the choice of Rebecca. Further, the conception of Rebecca was in answer to the prayer of Isaac's faith. He prayed for seed, and a double answer came; twins were in the womb of Rebecca. While, however, the children were as yet unborn, their appointed destiny was revealed to their mother. "The elder shall serve the younger" (Gen. 25), was the expression of His will who is not only absolute in the original choice of His vessel of promise, but who likewise directs the course of the blessing once conferred.

The promises of God do not perpetuate themselves and flow to their fulfilment through a natural channel. Esau had nature's right of inheritance, for he was the first-born; but the thing to be inherited being Divine promise, it can rest only in the vessel prepared to receive it. The calling of God is thus made to anticipate the course of nature, and to contradict it. Blessing is kept in God. Abraham could confer on Isaac the wealth which God had given him, when God had first created Isaac to be the receiver and holder of the blessing. In the case of Jacob, God in like manner directs positively the course of His own blessing according to the immediate choice of His own will. Now all this was done, as the apostle here tells us, "that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him that calleth." God loved Jacob, and hated Esau. But why was this? Had Jacob earned His love? Nay, he was loved while as yet unborn. Had Esau by evil works incurred His hate? As Jacob's twin he too was yet in the womb, and so had done no evil.

Jacob and Esau were alike incapable of blessing as the natural seed of Rebecca. For nature, as we have seen, cannot enter into the promises of God. Jacob's blessing came by love: "Jacob have I loved." But the love of God is not constrained, any more than it is purchasable with a price. It is the good pleasure of the Divine will that is pleased to call the elect vessel of His love. Now Jacob is here considered not only personally, as contrasted with Esau, but nationally, as the quotation from Malachi is sufficient to prove (Mal. 1:1-5). The love, then, which chose the younger twin while yet unborn, and pronounced a promise of supremacy on one whom nature would have condemned to serve, will in due time exalt its object to the appointed sphere of blessing which, as the holder of the promises, it is surely destined to attain.