Foundational themes in Genesis – Study 76

(Key verses: Gen 25:22-34)

Spiritual sonship is a theme in the scriptures which highlights God’s purpose with mankind, which in this life is reserved for those few whom He is conforming to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ (Joh 1:1-4; Col 1:15-19; Rev 3:14). Jesus is God’s preeminent creation as He is above everything, and He alone has immortality or spiritual perfection at this stage with the Father (1Ti 6:15-16; Eph 1:13-14). This glorious conforming process in the few elected ones is marked with fiery trials and much tribulation to make these sons of God perfect (Rom 8:29; 1Pe 4:12; Act 14:22; Heb 2:10; Heb 12:4-7):

Rom 8:22 (Phillips NT) It is plain to anyone with eyes to see that at the present time all created life groans in a sort of universal travail.
Rom 8:23 And it is plain, too, that we who have a foretaste of the Spirit are in a state of painful tension, while we wait for that redemption of our bodies which will mean that at last we have realised our full sonship in him.
Rom 8:24 We were saved by this hope, but in our moments of impatience let us remember that hope always means waiting for something that we haven’t yet got.
Rom 8:25 But if we hope for something we cannot see, then we must settle down to wait for it in patience.

This theme of spiritual sonship is also typified in Genesis through the relationships between Abraham, “the father of us all” in terms of the faith, and Abraham’s beloved son, Isaac, and Isaac and his offspring (Isa 51:1-2; Rom 3:22; Rom 4:12; Rom 4:16; Rom 9:7-8; Heb 11:17-18). Whether it is physical or spiritual, the firstborn in scripture is related to might, strength, excellence, dignity, elevation and power, which all links to taking or having governance and authority (Deu 21:17; Psa 105:36; Hos 12:2-3):

Gen 49:3 Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power:

Isa 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

This rulership and authority of the firstborn, as acknowledged by the father of the son, is also promised within the law of the double portion according to the law of Moses:

Deu 21:15 If a man have two wives, one beloved, and another hated, and they have born him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn [Hebrew: “bekôr” which links with “bikkûr” which means “firstfruit”: In Exodus 23:16 this “bikkûr” also is the feast of harvest or pentecost] son be hers that was hated:
Deu 21:16 Then it shall be, when he maketh his sons to inherit that which he hath, that he may not make the son of the beloved firstborn before the son of the hated, which is indeed the firstborn:
Deu 21:17 But he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the firstborn, by giving him a double portion of all that he hath: for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his.

This spiritual truth of the double portion of the firstborn was established in the beginning in Jesus Christ as the Lord and ruler of both the heavens and the earth, which is what this double portion in the law of Moses typified (Gen 1:1; Gen 2:7; Pro 8:22-30; Joh 1:1-4; Act 17:24; Rev 1:1-8). This Jesus could only reveal to His disciples after His resurrection from the dead:

Mat 28:18 And Jesus came and spake unto them saying, All power is given [Greek aorist tense] unto me in heaven and in earth.

Within these two realms there is also an order established by God. It is only through faith that anyone will be able to see that the things which are seen (“the earth”), are ruled and controlled by the spiritual (“the heaven”), which do not appear to the natural man as such, and which the natural mind cannot appreciate or understand (1Co 2:14):

Heb 11:3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

All things are first “bound” or “loose[ed]” in heaven before it has any affect or application on the earth:

Mat 18:18 (CLV) Verily, I am saying to you, Whatsoever you should be binding on the earth shall be those things having been bound in the heavens, and whatsoever you should be loosing on the earth shall be those loose in heaven.
Mat 18:19 Again, verily, I am saying to you that, if ever two of you should be agreeing on the earth concerning any matter, whatsoever it is they should be requesting shall be coming to them from My Father Who is in the heavens.

From this perspective, the heaven rules not only that which belongs to heaven, but also that which is on earth (Mat 6:9-10). The rulership of the heavens is therefore vital to lay hold of as this powerful heavenly perspective and insight helps us to subdue and have dominion over our own earth and all the nations of that earth (our own bodies and carnal mind first):

Isa 40:17 All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.

These spiritual foundations were properly laid in the beginning – that is in Christ, the firstborn or firstfruit (Hebrew: “rêshı̂yth”; Greek: “archē”) of the Father (Gen 1:1; Joh 1:1-3; Rev 1:8). Through Christ, the foundations of heaven and the foundations of earth were laid, and He works with them (Psa 24:1; Pro 16:4; Joh 1:3; Col 1:16; Job 38:4; Psa 102:25). Spiritually the number 12 speaks of foundations (including that of power and authority), and the number 24 signifies the total authority over the foundations of heaven and earth (Gen 2:7; Gen 17:20; 1Co 3:11; Jas 1:1; Rev 14:1-5; Rev 21:19-20). This position was given to Jesus by the Father, and He gives this ‘right’ of the firstborn also to those whom He receives from the Father in this age – the “uihothesia” who is also called “a kind of firstfruits” in the scriptures (Exo 23:15-16a; Psa 103:19; Mat 16:19; Luk 12:31-32; Rom 8:23; Jas 1:18):

Isa 40:21 Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?
Isa 40:22 It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:
Isa 40:23 That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.

This rulership is now made available to those whom He has chosen before the foundation of the earth to rule and reign with Him:

Rev 1:5 And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
Rev 1:6 And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

This dominion over all is a desire every human craves, but our natural thinking on this is always twisted. Many therefore exercise evil authority over others and are greedily chasing earthly possessions to give them this false sense of being blessed and in control. This constitutes also what the strong delusion is which God sends in them (2Th 2:11). In the world this hierarchy of power is prominent, which is also revealed through the spiritual whore, Babylon. This whore enjoys keeping many in spiritual diapers and looks down on those who are deemed not up to their spiritual standard. This spiritual whore is rewarded with what she has been given to believe:

Rev 18:6 Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.
Rev 18:7 How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

The law of the firstborn is what caused so much unhappiness in the household of Isaac and Rebekah. After Isaac waited and prayed patiently for twenty years for an offspring with his wife, Rebekah conceived twins (Gen 25:19-21; Gen 25:26), but there was a struggle within Rebekah’s womb which will affect their lives as long as they lived:

Gen 25:22 And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD.
Gen 25:23 And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.

So this struggle was for this right to rule. This struggle relates to the war in our own heaven when we become aware of this double portion or two eons in which we must live and rule (Mat 4:4; Rev 12:1-17). God ordained that the heavens and the earth will be these opposing forces as the generations of the heaven and the generations of the earth will always be foreign to each other (Gen 1:1; Gen 2:4; Psa 2:1-2; Gal 5:17). Although the flesh is first on the earth, it will not have spirit life or get the double portion of spiritual rulership, which is given to the one that is born “afterward”:

Mat 19:30 But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.

1Co 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
1Co 15:46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
1Co 15:47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.

The spiritual eon comes second or last for us, and that spirit life in the second man, Christ, gives us the rulership over all. What the flesh cannot see or accept is that the last Adam, Jesus Christ, is actually the Lord from heaven who has this rulership before the foundation of the earth (Isa 48:13; Zec 12:1; Heb 1:10):

Col 1:15 Who [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
Col 1:16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
Col 1:17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

The war in the heavens is all about inheritance – the spiritual versus fleshly inheritance. God has no pleasure in flesh or its inheritance:

Rom 8:5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
Rom 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Rom 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
Rom 8:8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

The outcome of this struggle in the womb of Rebekah was already predetermined: “…the elder [flesh] shall serve the younger”. The election that those who “are after the spirit” will have dominion over those who “are after the flesh” is revealed in these two offspring of Isaac and Rebekah. As the first Adam is “the figure” or type of the last Adam, they are indeed a twin in that sense, but the lastborn has the superior position (Rom 5:14):

Rom 9:10 And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac;
Rom 9:11 (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)
Rom 9:12 It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.
Rom 9:13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

God had nothing against Esau personally, but against that which he was chosen to represent, which is death and its fleshly desires. God’s pre-election or predestination is a doctrine which few can accept because of their false beliefs in a free will of mankind and the doctrine of an eternal hell. These and other false teachings prevent many from seeing how God works His plan to save all people through His elected spiritual sons. Those who reject the doctrine of predestination actually accuse God of being unrighteous in making these choices:

Rom 9:14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
Rom 9:15 For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

These accusers of God cannot accept the great mercy of God, and their hate-filled heart will only be satisfied if their enemies burn in an eternal hell (Psa 136:1-26). This is revealing the wickedness of their own Adamic hearts which they themselves cannot see in their self-righteous state of mind. God has never spoken a word, and neither did it ever come up in His mind that He will burn His own children with physical fire for all eternity (Lev 18:21; Lev 20:1-5; Eze 16:20-21; Jer 7:30-31). Yet many are still deluded by these false and evil teachings of eternal hell and the eternal existence of flesh and death, even when God clearly states in the scripture that death in all its carnal forms will be destroyed (Rom 8:6-8):

1Co 15:26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

Rev 21:4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
Rev 21:5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

Our first old man is indeed delivered and redeemed by the fire of God’s word through judgment which brings the resurrection to new life through Christ, the firstborn (Exo 13:13; Isa 26:9; Jer 5:14; 1Co 3:13-15). God made the choice, and we respond to His choice – not the other way around (Rom 9:16):

Joh 15:16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

Joh 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Sonship is God’s choice and through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob this is made clear for those who can receive this. Through Isaac’s offspring, this pattern is repeated, and again the firstborn is rejected even before he did anything either wrong or right:

Gen 25:24 And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.
Gen 25:25 And the first came out red [Hebrew: “admônı̂y” from “âdam”], all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau.

The firstborn was Esau, and he was red and hairy, which reflects the first man Adam who is from the ground or field, and that includes “all that is in the world” (Num 6:18-19; 1Co 11:14):

Mat 13:38a The field is the world….

1Jn 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

Esau is that which represents the lusts of this world in us as we all must first endure this stage of fleshly sonship, and this type of sonship is not “of [the spirit] of the Father” (Mat 19:30). Jacob, the twin brother of Esau, was the last born, and his actions in the womb and during the birth process reveal so much about our own walk and the struggles of the flesh until the day of final redemption from this “body of sin” (Rom 6:6; Rom 7:18; 2Co 5:21):

Gen 25:26 And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau’s heel; and his name was called Jacob: and Isaac was threescore years old when she bare them.

Jacob was holding on to Esau’s heel! Jacob’s name actually means exactly that – “heel holder” or “supplanter”. Heels are the part of the foot which leaves prints and tracks, and through these prints or tracks others can identify us and our walk (Psa 89:51; Son 1:8):

Jer 13:22 And if thou say in thine heart, Wherefore come these things upon me? For the greatness of thine iniquity are thy skirts discovered, and thy heels [Hebrew: “âqêb”/“iqqebâh” = heel/footsteps/footprint] made bare.

The heels we first take hold of are visible in the tracks or footprints of the rejected flesh, which is revealed to us when we can see the man of sin in ourselves first (2Th 2:3-4; Rev 13). The revelation of our true carnal nature is important in our growth and development in sonship. We start off being the enemies of the elect of God when we have reproach in our hearts against the truth in the words. Our old man of sin does lift his heel against the new man:

Psa 41:9 Yea, mine own familiar friend [our old man], in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel [Hebrew: “âqêb” or “iqqebâh”] against me.

Psa 89:50 Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy servants; how I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty people;
Psa 89:51 Wherewith thine enemies have reproached, O LORD; wherewith they have reproached the footsteps [Hebrew: “âqêb” or “iqqebâh”] of thine anointed.

God’s elect will be brought to repentance by the rebuke and chastening of our loving Father, and then they will continue in His Word, even against those who hide themselves and mark our steps to rejoice when we stumble (Psa 56:4-6; Joh 8:31; Heb 12:5-7). This relationship between Jacob and Esau and the ways they live also brings important aspects of our own growth process to the fore:

Gen 25:27 And the boys grew: and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents.

These two sons of Isaac and Rebekah also caused the division in the family in terms of the preference these parents showed for these two sons and their way of life:

Gen 25:28 And Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison: but Rebekah loved Jacob.

Esau, like his name, was attached to anything that is red, which connects with the earth, which is the first Adam (Gen 2:7). Isaac was also more attached to the fleshly firstborn, Esau, but Rebekah loved the last born, Jacob:

For Sarah the second born of her husband was the favourite son (Isaac). Now also for Rebekah the second born of the twins (Jacob) is favoured. A woman is a picture of the church in scripture – the false church or the true church – and these two women, Sarah and Rebekah, are given to us as types of the true church in the way they were attached to the types of the true Seed which God favoured (Gal 3:16; Gal 3:29). It is through God’s true church that the true sons of God and the manifold wisdom of God will be revealed:

Eph 3:9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
Eph 3:10 To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God.

The earth is what the weak flesh is attached to, and from its composition the flesh also sees its survival and preservation (Gen 2:7; Gen 3:17-19):

Gen 25:29 And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint:
Gen 25:30 And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red [Hebrew: “âdôm” from “âdam”] pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom [Hebrew: “ĕdôm” from “âdôm”]

Jacob, true to his name, wanted to negotiate for something much more important than what his flesh wanted. He wanted rulership over much more:

Gen 25:31 And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright [Hebrew: “bekôrâh” = belonging to the “bekôr”]
Gen 25:32 And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me?
Gen 25:33 And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob.
Gen 25:34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.

Esau despised the rights of the firstborn and the inheritance attached to it (Gen 17-18; Gal 3:16; Gal 3:29). The buying of this birthright was, for the time being, only this pottage of lentils, but it will becomw a more costly transaction for Jacob progressively. This inheritance connects spiritually to the blessed and holy first resurrection which comes at a very high price for God’s elect – the losing of their lives (Mat 10:38-39):

Rev 20:6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

Many cannot appreciate this powerful inheritance when they, like Esau, cannot see the profit to live soberly in this present age as the chastening power of the grace of God has not been unveiled to them (1Tim 2:11-12). They despise the true sons of God by rejecting and mocking their election and make fun of their suffering as they cannot see what the mystery of the glory of Christ is (Luk 24:46; 2Co 11:23-28; Col 1:24-27). Although the first resurrection is not yet fulfilled outwardly, this spiritual governance and dominion over sin is being inwardly established now in the elect, even in downpayment form (Eph 1:13-14).

Rom 6:8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
Rom 6:9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.

Rom 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

Detailed studies and emails relating to these foundational themes in Scripture are available on the iswasandwillbe.com website, including these topics and links:

Begotten and Born
Numbers in Scripture
Colors in Scripture – Red, Part 1
The Spiritual Significance of The Nazarite Vow
Revelation 14:1-5
The Biblical Overview of The Plan of God, Part 7