Toledot Slides (pdf)
Toledot Notes (pdf)
Overview of Torah Portion Tol’dot (“Generations”): Genesis 25:19 – 28:9
Last week’s Portion ended with the listing of the descendants of Ishmael – 12 sons and (at least) one daughter; and also the descendants of Abraham through Keturah. This week’s Portion starts with the descendants of Abraham through Sarah: only Isaac! Isaac was 37 years old when Sarah died (Gen 23:1); he was 40 when he married Rebekah, and 60 when Jacob & Esau were born. In those 40+ years, Ishmael and Keturah’s descendants were busy having children…and grandchildren! Through our human eyes, it appears the Abraham is getting a really slow start to that “Father of Many People” name that Yehovah gave him.
Chapter 25
Isaac interceded for Rebekah during the 20 years when she was barren (there is no record of Abraham interceding for Sarah during the 70+ years when she was barren). When Rebekah became pregnant she was alarmed at the physical struggle going on within her womb; Yehovah told her that there were twins in her womb – two nations; one stronger than the other; and the older would serve the younger. There is no Biblical evidence that Rebekah ever told anyone else (especially Isaac) those words from Yehovah; but she certainly used those words as she instructed Jacob to “steal” the Firstborn’s blessing from Esau.
The firstborn, Esau, came out red and hairy (his name in Hebrew means “hairy” and comes from the root word for goat …and a hairy one at that)! Jacob’s name means “heel grabber” (see the Power Point slides) as Genesis 25:26 clearly says. Did Jacob have his hand on Esau’s heel to prevent him from “crushing his head”, as Genesis 3:15 prophesies? (Just a thought!). The translation “supplanter” or “deceiver” comes from the idiom “to turn your heel (ekev)”; this title was given to him by his brother Esau (Gen 27:36), and NOT his father and mother!
As the twins grew, they couldn’t have been more different: Esau was the man of the field; the “skillful hunter” (the very same Hebrew phrase used to describe Nimrod in Gen 10:9). And Jacob dwelt in tents….perhaps as a shepherd. We shouldn’t miss the symbolism here (from Matt 25) of the separation of the sheep (Jacob) from the goats (Esau).
“And Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game…” The Hebrew expresses it as “the game was in his mouth”. What is involved in hunting and catching game? camouflage, tracking, trapping, stealth and deceit. Perhaps the true meaning of this verse is not just that Isaac ate Esau’s game that he trapped; but that the “game” (i.e. deceit!) was in Esau’s mouth. Perhaps Isaac loved Esau because Esau told him what he wanted to hear!
One day Esau came in exhausted from the field (the extra-Biblical Book of Jasher says that Esau had just killed Nimrod and Nimrod’s followers were pursuing him to kill him in retribution). He had such little regard for his Firstborn Birthright that he willingly traded it for a bowl of beans – perhaps with the thought that he would be killed very soon and that birthright would be useless to him then. As the firstborn, Esau’s birthright included: 1) the legal authority as head of the family, 2) the spiritual authority as “high priest” of the family, and 3) the double portion of all the material possessions of the family. By his actions, Esau showed he was interested only in the material possessions. So Jacob came away with Esau’s birthright.
Chapter 26
Yehovah spoke to Rebekah about the twins in her womb, but He appeared to Isaac here. Yehovah spoke to many people in the Bible, but He appeared to just a few:
Adam (in the Garden in the cool of the day)
Abraham (on the Plains of Mam’re)
Isaac (twice in this chapter)
Jacob (at Peniel)
Moses (at the burning bush)
Samuel & Solomon
The identity of Abraham’s Three Visitors on the Plains of Mam’re (Gen 18) seems to be deliberately blurred by the writer; initially there were three “men”; but two “men” went on to Sodom, and Abraham was suddenly speaking face-to-face with Yehovah. Likewise in the burning bush episode (Exodus 3), there seems to be another deliberate blurring of identities between the Angel of the LORD and Yehovah. From these (and other) episodes, the Rabbis concluded that there were “two Yehovahs” in the Tanach: One Unseen and One that was Visible to certain men. We, of course, recognize that the Visible Yehovah was the “pre-incarnate Yeshua” Who became visible and “tabernacled among men” (John 1:14).
Several earlier chapters were devoted to Abraham’s life and escapades; several chapters will be devoted to Jacob and his escapades; and most of the rest of Genesis then will be devoted to Joseph’s life and his escapades. But this single chapter gives us all the details that we know of Isaac’s life: it seems to be all about re-digging the wells that his father Abraham had earlier dug. Each time Isaac re-dug one of Abraham’s wells (that had all been given to Isaac by Abraham), Abimelech’s men came along and claimed it as belonging to Abimelech. So Isaac moved on to re-dig another of his father’s well, just to have the same thing happen again. How many of us would have responded in this manner? Even though I might be wearing a WWJD bracelet, my flesh would have responded much differently than Isaac. But we see at the third well, that Abimelech’s herdsmen did not take the well and, in fact, Abimelech recognized that Yehovah was blessing Isaac, and he (Abimelech) should have Isaac on his side. So he apologized (sort of) and made a covenant with Isaac.
The spiritual understanding of all this is: Yehovah’s calling is different for each one of us. Abraham’s calling was different from Isaac’s and both of those callings were different from Jacob’s, and his calling was different from Joseph’s. In the Natural, Isaac was re-opening Abraham’s wells so they would bring life-sustaining water again; in the Spiritual, he was re-establishing the promises that Yehovah had made to Abraham … so that the next generation (Jacob) could carry them forward to the generations after him.
Yehovah appeared to Isaac and said “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land of which I shall tell you.” This is one more confirmation that Isaac, as the Living Sacrifice, could not leave The Land (Sanctuary), as we will learn in the sacrifices detailed in Leviticus. Yehovah confirmed His Covenant with Abraham here to Isaac…He would give Isaac all the Land in which he dwells, and He “will make your descendants multiply as the stars of Heaven…” This was stated back in chapter 22 when Yehovah said, “Blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven [the blessing upon the Spiritual component of Abraham’s descendants] and as the sand which is on the seashore” [the blessing upon the natural component].
So Isaac dwelled in Gerar, in the land of Abimelech and the Philistines; and we see a repeat of Abraham’s encounter with Abimelech (from chapters 20 & 21). Isaac told Abimelech that Rebekah was his “sister”, just as Abraham said of Sarah (the word achot could just as easily be translated as “relative”…and probably should be in this instance). This story ended the same way that Abraham’s story ended…with Abimelech discovering that Rebekah was, in fact Isaac’s wife, and Abimelech restored them and allowed Isaac to raise his flocks and herds on his land. As his flocks and herds increased, Abimelech envied him for all of his possessions. So Isaac moved farther away, from Gerar to the Valley of Gerar… which, judging by its name, doesn’t seem to be all that far away. And Isaac discovered that the Philistines had filled in the wells that his father, Abraham, had dug; and he opened them again so he could water his animals. He called the name of these wells “Beershebah” (“Well of the Sevens”) which is still today the city of that name in Israel.
Chapter 27
This is the story that we are all familiar with: Jacob “deceiving” Isaac to get the blessing for the firstborn…but did Isaac perhaps allow himself to be deceived? Did Rebekah tell Isaac about Yehovah telling her that the older shall serve the younger? If she didn’t tell Isaac, then how did that end up in his blessing for Jacob?
The story starts with “Isaac was old and his eyes were so dim that he could not see”. He was physically blind…but was he also spiritually blind?? It’s interesting that Isaac felt he was approaching death and it was time to give the blessing to the firstborn; but we will see that Isaac died sometime after Jacob’s 20-year sojourn with Laban. So his death was not as imminent as he thought – but it was all in God’s timing!
Jacob showed that he was not a deceiver when he first resisted Rebekah’s elaborate plan for him to get the blessing of the firstborn. It was only after she took the responsibility for the deception that he went along with it. The key to the “deception” seems to be the use of animal skins and Esau’s “choice garment” to disguise Jacob’s smooth skin; and that garment just happened to be hanging in Rebekah’s closet! Going back to the Jasher chapter, I can’t help but wonder if this was the garment that Esau took from Nimrod’s lifeless body…the same garment that the Rabbis say was originally Adam’s and was stolen by Ham from his father Noah in Gen 9. All rabbinic speculation…but interesting nonetheless!
When Esau realized that Jacob had received the Blessing of the Firstborn, he pleaded with his father to bless him. But Isaac said that the blessing he placed upon Jacob would stand; and he blessed Esau with a blessing that said he would serve his younger brother…”and Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing…”
It was after Esau realized that Jacob had received his (Esau’s) blessing of the firstborn that he then called Jacob a deceiver …even attributing his selling of his birthright back in chapter 25 to deception. Esau became furious at the realization that he had missed the blessing of the double-portion – the only part of the firstborn rights that he was interested in. He threatened to kill his brother Jacob, and Rebekah suggested that Jacob should flee to her brother Laban for “a few days” until Esau cooled down. Those “few days” turned into 20 years, and Rebekah died, never seeing Jacob again – the consequences of the curse that she took upon herself for Isaac’s “deception.” It is interesting that the double-portion of the material blessing that was so important to Esau ended up in his hands anyway, because Jacob fled without a shekel in his empty pockets!
Chapter 28
Esau had already married two Hittite women (back in chapter 26) and Rebekah did not want Jacob to do the same, so she convinced Isaac that Jacob should take a wife from her brother’s house in Padan Aram. Isaac blessed Jacob (again) and sent him off to his second-cousin, Laban.
When Esau heard that Isaac & Rebekah were displeased at the thought of Jacob marrying a Hittite, he tried to please his parents by marrying again …. this time to the daughter of Ishmael. That’s not any better than marrying a Hittite, and not exactly what his parents had in mind for him!
With the completion of this Portion, we come to the end of Isaac’s story. We were first introduced to Abraham (Abram back then) in chapter 12; this week’s Portion is our only glimpse into Isaac’s life; and now (until chapter 36) we will focus on Jacob and his sons; and the rest of the Book will focus on Joseph. Notice the contrast between Isaac’s life (as we know it here) and Abraham’s and Jacob’s: both Abraham and Jacob traveled great distances to foreign lands, at Yehovah’s instruction; but Isaac spent his entire life in the Land of Canaan. Next week we transition to the adventures of Jacob.
The Haftarah portion is Malachi 1:1 – 2:7. This reading reveals God’s perspective on this continuing strife between Jacob & Esau. Even though Esau’s nation of Edom was destroyed 2,800 years ago, the “spirit of Esau” still exists today. We see almost daily now (it seems) attacks by “radical Islam” on Israel and the Western world; but according to the Prophet Malachi, God will avenge the deaths of His people by those who have that same “spirit of Esau.” We read from Malachi 1:1-5:
The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. “I have loved you,” says the Lord. “Yet you say, ‘In what way have You loved us?’ Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” says the Lord. “Yet Jacob I have loved; but Esau I have hated, and laid waste his mountains and his heritage for the jackals of the wilderness.” Even though Edom has said, “We have been impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places,” thus says the Lord of hosts: “They may build, but I will throw down; they shall be called the Territory of Wickedness, and the people against whom the Lord will have indignation forever. Your eyes shall see, and you shall say, the Lord is magnified beyond the border of Israel.’
The Brit Chadashah
Just as Rebekah experienced Esau (the natural man) & Jacob (the spiritual man) battling within her womb, today we experience this same battle. It takes place within each of us as our natural man battles against our spiritual man. The Apostle Paul speaks about this battle and reassures us that Yeshua has already given us the victory over the natural man who dwells in our flesh. We read from Romans 8:1-8:
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Messiah Yeshua, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Messiah Yeshua has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace, because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
This battle takes place not only within each of us – it is also taking place in the world around us, as the forces of evil (the Natural) war against the forces of good (the Spiritual). Even though men are killing men, it is a spiritual battle; and God has equipped each of us with Spiritual weapons (both defensive and offensive) through the Power of the Holy Spirit Who dwells within us! That same Power that gives us victory over our inner battle also equips us for our battle against the forces of evil in this World!