Israel's Evil Twin

This may come as a surprise to you but, God said that He loved Israel and hated Esau, Israel's twin!

Why would God hate Esau?

Esau forsook something very precious in the eyes of God. He forsook his birthright. He gave it up as if it had no value because he had a rumbly in his tumbly. You can read about it in Genesis 25:29 - 34.

As odd as it may seem, the history of the world seems to sometimes hang on these little details that seem so infinitesimal to us. A little hunger pain set this one off.

Now, what is the big deal? Well, it was an attitude. The Bible says "Esau despised his birthright." Being a grandson of Abraham, it seems that when Esau minimized that heritage he was born into, God took that very personally. Here was a grandson of Abraham, the "Father of Faith", who had no respect for his heritage of faith and therefore, no respect for God. So, God hated him.

Jacob (Israel) was not the best example of a godly man either. He bribed his twin brother with food and then he tricked his own father into giving him the blessing of the eldest son, too. And Jacob also wrestled with an angel to get another blessing! But, he had his priorities right. He got the blessings of God.

Meanwhile, Esau went off and married two Hittite women. That was "a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah", his parents. (Marrying Canaanites was a pretty ungodly thing to do in those days. They were of a different race and religion. This also showed how little Esau cared about the God of Abraham.)

And when Esau cried and wept to his father his father gave him a blessing. Do you know what he said?

"By thy sword shalt thou live..." among other things.

To make matters worse, Esau went and married wives that were daughters of Ishmael. (Genesis 28:9)

So, now we've got Esau marrying into Ishmael's family. Ishmael was the son of Abraham because of Sarah's lack of faith. In a sense, Sarah was leaning on the arm of the flesh when she went to Abraham and begged him to sleep with her handmaid, Hagar. God told Abraham he would have a son, so Sarah thought she would give God a little help. She decided she herself was way too old for God to use to bear a son, so she got Hagar on the job. Then, when Hagar got pregnant and had a son, Hagar must have lorded it over Sarah a bit too much because Sarah had her kicked out of the camp!

So, Ishmael, although he was a son of Abraham, was not the promised child and was not chosen of God, although God promised Hagar that he would be a great nation. And, as we know, the Arabs are a great nation.

The Jews and the Arabs are brothers. Born of twins. Abraham is their father. BUT... in order to be a TRUE son of Abraham, one must have FAITH in the true God. Herein lies the controversy that has been passed down from generation to generation.

Then there was the "prophet" Mohammed and Islam was born. The Muslims needed a "holy book" and so was born the Koran. Where did the writings for the Koran come from? Mostly from the Bible and Jewish fables and writings.

You can see by looking back into history that there was "bad blood" between Esau and Jacob. Esau (the father of the Arabs) hated his brother, Jacob (the father of the Jews) because Jacob tricked him out of his birthright AND blessing. But, mostly, I think Esau was very jealous of Jacob because God had blessed him ahead of Esau. That's because Jacob obeyed God and honoured his birthright.

Now we are seeing the Arabs running around trying to establish righteousness in the arm of the flesh by the letter of their (Shariah) law. Even now, the prophecy is being fulfilled that Esau would "live by the sword". That bad blood is still flowing and now the Muslims have two enemies: Jews AND Christians (both infidels). And it's all because Esau despised his birthright and God. AND because Sarah didn't believe God when God said she was going to have a child. Little did Sarah know what great repercussions one bad decision could cause.

Both the Jews AND the Arabs (and everyone else on the planet) must come to the knowledge of salvation in Christ who also was a son of Abraham. Abraham believed/believes in Jesus. As Jesus said, "Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and was glad!"

God told Abraham, "In thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed."

In Jesus who came of the seed of Abraham shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Whoever believes on His name will be saved. Amen.