Jacob and Esau by William Brickey

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 27, 1900

Jacob and Esau.

By William Brickey

WILLIAM BRICKEY.

(Kimball, Minn.)

It is hard for some to understand Rom. 9:13. They seem to think that Esau was under sentence of eternal condemnation before he was born.

It is not true that God said, before the children were born, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” But it is true that God said, before the children were born, “The elder shall serve the younger.” Rom. 9:12. This is a quotation from Gen. 25:23. Then Paul follows this with another quotation from Mal. 1:2, 3: “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”

One quotation is from the first book in the Old Testament, the other is from the last, and was written more than a thousand years after Jacob and Esau were dead, and had no reference to them personally, but to their posterity. Neither did the statement, “The elder shall serve the younger,” refer to them personally. Esau was no servant, but a mighty prince.

The prophecy in Gen. 25:23 refers to two nations and two manner of people, and says that one people shall be stronger than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger. Neither does Paul apply this to Jacob and Esau as individuals, but he applies it to two manner of people, and says that all are not Israel that are of Israel, and shows that another manner of people may become Israel by faith.