Genesis 25-27

What’s Happening?

Abraham’s promised son, Isaac, has married (Genesis 24). The expectation is that he and his wife will be the ones through whom a great family that blesses all nations is born. But strangely, it is Abraham who continues to be fruitful even after Sarah’s death. With his new wife Keturah, Abraham fathers many more children, and his family outside of Isaac begins to boom (Genesis 25:1–4). Yet Abraham sends these flourishing relatives farther east—away from the land God promised. In this way, he makes clear that all his hope rests on Isaac, the son of promise (Genesis 25:5–6).

Then Abraham himself dies. After a full and fruitful life, he is buried in the very land God swore to give his family (Genesis 25:7–10). But as his body is laid in the ground, only Isaac remains as the sole heir to the promise. The flourishing family God had promised to bless the nations through now hangs on one man.

And the contrast becomes sharper when we look at Abraham’s other son, Ishmael. His generations are booming too (Genesis 25:12–18). But Ishmael’s line is not the flourishing family that will fill the promised land. His descendants multiply, but outside the promise.

Finally, we come to Isaac. But just as before with Sarah, Rebekah is barren (Genesis 25:21). The promise looks threatened again. Will the line of blessing God promised survive or will the nations under the serpent’s power snuff it out?

Isaac prays, and God opens Rebekah’s womb (Genesis 25:21). But even in her pregnancy, the threat continues. Rebekah feels the children warring inside her, and God tells her that she is carrying two nations (Genesis 25:22–23). They are striving against one another, a living picture of the conflict between the seed of the serpent and the seed of blessing. And shockingly, God declares that the older will serve the younger. Once again, the firstborn will not carry the line of promise. Just as Seth replaced Cain (Genesis 4:25) and Isaac replaced Ishmael, God’s plan is accomplished not through human pride or tradition but through his own power.

When the twins are born, however, the expected blessing goes wrong. Esau, the older, receives the rights of the firstborn. Jacob, the younger, comes out clutching his heel—his very name means “grasper” or “supplanter” (Genesis 25:26). And true to his name, Jacob gains what belonged to Esau, first by bargaining for his birthright with a bowl of stew (Genesis 25:29–34) and later by deceiving his father Isaac to receive the blessing (Genesis 27:18–29).

These events are messy and morally complex. But behind them is God’s hand fulfilling what he had already declared: the promise would pass through the younger, not the older (Genesis 25:23). What looks fragile and conflicted on the surface is actually God ensuring his purposes move forward.

Where is the Gospel?

This story makes clear that the promise of life and blessing will not be carried forward by human strength, wisdom, or goodness. Jacob and Esau are both deeply flawed. Isaac himself shows favoritism (Genesis 25:28). Nothing in this family looks like the soil from which a worldwide blessing could grow.

But God’s covenant has never depended on human perfection. As Romans 9 explains, before Jacob and Esau were even born—before they had done anything good or bad—God chose the younger to carry the promise (Romans 9:10–12). This shows that his plan does not rest on human effort but on God’s mercy (Romans 9:16).

And that mercy comes to its fullest expression in Jesus. He is the true seed of Abraham, the promised Son who succeeds where all others failed (Galatians 3:16). Unlike Jacob, Jesus did not need to take the blessing—he already held it as the rightful Son of God. But instead of keeping it for himself, Jesus shares it. By faith, we are adopted into God’s family and made co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17).

This means that even though we are more like Jacob than we’d like to admit—grasping, scheming, and prone to self-interest—God’s mercy still claims us. In Jesus, we are not only chosen but also transformed. The grasper Jacob becomes Israel, the father of a nation (Genesis 35:10). And in Christ, the old self in us is made new (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Through Jesus, the promise of Abraham is finally secured. A family too numerous to count, from every nation, will inherit the blessing (Revelation 7:9). A land of life and flourishing will be ours forever (Revelation 21:1–3). And the serpent’s power to corrupt and destroy will be crushed once and for all (Romans 16:20).

See for Yourself

I pray that the Holy Spirit will give you eyes to see the God who keeps his promises even when his people falter. And may you see Jesus as the true Son of promise who shares his inheritance with you, making you part of God’s family and heirs of his everlasting blessing.