COME AS A CHILD LESSON 70 THE BIRTH OF TWINS

 (Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

Abraham was buried at the Cave of Machpelah next to Sarah in the field that he bought from Ephron the Hitite, to the east of Mamre in the land of Canaan.  All of these details are important because God had promised Abraham that his descendants would possess the land where he was buried.  We read about this in Genesis 12:1-3.  

We can also think of and be thankful for the fact that Abraham, like Sarah, was probably resurrected from the grave after Jesus was resurrected and ascended to Heaven after him at the Ascension as part of that great cloud of witness.  Anyone seeking Abraham's grave site today would find an empty tomb!  He is known as the one who had faith to believe even before the Messiah had come.  Abraham will forever be revered by the people of God for his great faith.

After Abraham died we are told that Isaac moved to the home which Abraham had established at Beer Lahai Roi.  Isaac was now the rightful owner of all of Abraham's property.  This must have been the property where Abraham had lived with Keturah, and perhaps Isaac looked after her when Abraham died.    We know this home was near the well where she (then named Hagar) had experienced a theophany, and that was the place where she personally met God for the first time.  She had named this well that sprang from a fountain of a spring "The Well of The God Who Sees Me" and some had also begun to call it "The Well of The Vision of Life".  It was the well where people traveling would stop as they passed through on the way to Shur.  Abraham had bought this well from King Abimeleck.  The well and the cave at Machpalah were the two pieces of property that Abraham had bought and paid for during his life time.  Now Isaac had moved his home to the place of the well.

More than likely this new home of Isaac’s was in close proximity to where Ishmael was living too.  This again indicates that the two brothers had finally come to agreeable terms and were getting along with each other. They both could live in the land in peace.  This was a great accomplishment!  

Ishmael had twelve sons.  Each of the twelve sons was considered a prince and each established their own township that carried their own name, and each of those towns eventually became nations.  Ishmael lived to be 137 years old.  

It was said that many members of Ishmael’s family lived in the area from Havilah to Shur, which was east of Egypt as you go toward Assyria, and for some reason the bible mentions that Ishmael died in the presence of all his brethren. This seems to indicate that his family was close and that they bonded together and cared for one another, and that Ishmael was well respected among them, but that is just my own interpretation of the passage.  I had to wonder if this scripture meant that Isaac too was there among his other family members when he came to the end of his life.  There is no way to know how this really played out.

The name of Ishmael’s wife is not mentioned, but we do know from study of scripture that Hagar had once traveled to Egypt to find her for Ishmael, so it is supposed that she was an Egyptian woman, though some people dispute this.  Either way – we know that Ishmael took a foreign wife and we do not know her name.

Isaac also became the a father.  He was forty years old at the time he married Rebekah (a native of Syria) but Rebekah did not conceive a child right away.  Isaac, who was very anxious to have children, prayed for her and pleaded to God for her to be able to have children.  Finally, Rebekah became pregnant with twins which were born when Isaac was sixty years old. These Two boys were the very first twins that we know of. and they were as different as night and day.

During the pregnancy Rebekah could feel the two children struggling within her womb and their disturbances worried her.  She inquired of The Lord about this.  This is what she heard from the Lord in answer to her prayer:

“Two nations are in your womb,

Two peoples shall be separated from your body;

One people shall be stronger than the other,

And the older shall serve the younger.”

When the first child was born he had a ruddy red coloring and his skin was very hairy.  It was like he was wearing a hairy garment.  They named him Esau.  The noun for Esau in Hebrew means "hairy."  The verb for Esau in Hebrew means "to do or to accomplish, " or "he that acts or finishes."  A simpler definition of the Hebrew would translate as "doer."  

The next son was born holding on to Esau’s heel and they named him Jacob, which means "to press or to squeeze," or "to grab the heel," or "to trip up."  It also means to supplant or to deceive."  The verb of this word for Jacob is often used for one who ambushes an unsuspecting party."  Another way of saying this would be "trickster."  

The two boys grew up to be young men.  Esau was a man who loved to hunt and he was always outside walking through the fields looking for his next game.  Jacob was a mild-mannered man who enjoyed dwelling inside the tent.  Isaac loved Esau and related better to him than Jacob. He enjoyed the stews that Esau would make for him from the meats that he hunted.   Rebekah loved Jacob and related better to him than Esau.  Jacob was quiet and enjoyed staying in the tent with Rebekah and tending to household chores with her.  He enjoyed the art of cooking..

The prenatal striving of the twins in Rebekah's womb foreshadowed the relationship of conflict that would exist between these two sons of Isaac and Rebekah.