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ence does not earn anything-that is only what we
owe
to
God. A birthright requires no qualification.
lt
is a right
by birth.
What the Blrthrlght Conferred
Just what special material inheritance was passed on by
the birthright few have understood. Yet it conferred the
richest, most valuable material inheritance ever passed
from father .to son-the most colossal wealth and power
ever amassed by man or empire! The magnitude of this
birthright is staggering!
'
This legacy guaranteed, unconditional–
ly, multitudinous population, untold
wealth and material resources,
national greatness and world power.
It
includes all the first phase of God's tremendous
promises to Abraham. This legacy guaranteed on the
authority of God Almighty,
unconditionally,
multitu–
dinous population, untold wealth and material re–
sources, national greatness and world power!
Not only had God promised that a world-dominant
nation and a company, or commonwealth, of nations
whose peoples descended from Abraham would be as
populous as the grains of sand of the seashore-as the
stars in multitude; not only did He promise they should
possess the
gate
(Fenton translation: gates) of enemy
nations, which alone signifies world dominance and
power; but the birthright finally included vast material
wealth and unlimited national resources. That was made
plain in the blessing given to Jacob, as we shall soon see.
The Blrthright Denled to lshmael
Except in cases of divine iotervention, which occurred
three times, the inheritance of the birthright fell auto–
matically to the eldest son in each generation.
Isaac was chosen by the Eterna! to inherit both the
sceptre and birthright. Abraham had other sons. lshmael
was the eldest. But God chose Isaac, and "Abraham
gave all that he . had unto Isaac" (Gen. 25:5). Isaac,
however, was Abraham's firstborn
lawful
son. Ishmael
was the son ofHagar, Sarah's Egyptian handmaid.
Abraham loved Ishmael and desired for him to have
the birthright. "And Abraham said unto God, O that
Jshmael might live before thee!" (Gen. 17: 18.)
Sarah his wife was barren. "And God said, Sarah thy
wife shall bear thee a son indeed ; and thou shalt call his
name Isaac: and
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will establish my covenant with him
for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.
And as for Ishmael, I ... will make him fruitful, and will
multiply him exceedingly ... and 1 will make him a
The
PLAIN TRUTH December 1978
great nation. But my covenant will
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establish with
Isaac . : ."(verses 19-21).
Regarding the future nation to spring from Ishmael,
the angel of the Eterna! had said to Hagar: "He will be a
wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every
man's hand against him; and he shall dwell to the east
[correct translation] of all his brethren" (Gen. 16: 12).
Two clues are given here: l) Ishmael's descendants
were to become a great nation but the birthright nations
were to be greater; and 2) they were to dwell to the east
of their brethren- that is, of Isaac's descendants who had
the birthright. The children of Ishmael have become the
Arabs of today. The nation and company of nations who
hold the birthright must, therefore, be larger, wealthier,
more powerful, and must be found geographically west
of the Arab nations.
Abraham was the human type of God the Father, and
Isaac of Christ. There are many parallels. Space prohi–
bits expounding them here, except to note that if we are
Christ's we are Abraham's children (Gal. 3:29), and
Abraham is the
''father
of the faithful" (Gal. 3:7); that
Abraham was called on to be wílling to sacrifice his only
(legitimate) son (Gen. 22:2) even as God gave His only
begotten Son, Jesus Christ, for the sins of the world; that
Isaac's wife Rebekah is a type of the Church, and she
had to fall in !ove with him and accept him as her
husband before she saw him with her eyes; and that
Isaac was born
by promise,
and by a miracle from God,
even as Jesus was miraculously born ofthe virgin Mary.
Isaac had twin sons, Esau and Jacob. Esau was the
firstborn, and therefore the legal inheritor of the birth–
right. But Esau undervalued it and sold it to Jacob.
Esau Sells the Blrthright
God had chosen Jacob to possess these promises befare
the twins were born. But Jacob, influenced by his mother
instead of waiting on the Eterna!, resorted to deception
and took it from Esau.
The Eterna! had said to Rebekah, regarding Esau and
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acob, tha t they were the beginning of two nations-"two
manner of people.... the one people shall be stronger
than the other people," said God, "and the elder shall
serve the younger" (Gen. 25 :23).
Their descendants, then, were to become two different
types of people. The story of Jacob's premature and
deceptive acquisition ofthe birthright continues, in Gen–
esis 25:27-34.
"And the boys grew: and Esau was a cunning hunter,
a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain roan, dwelling
in tents. And Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his
veoison: but Rebekah loved Jacob. And Jacob sod pot–
tage [boiled porridge- Fenton's translation]: and Esau
carne from the field, and he was faint: And Esau said to
Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage;
for l am faint: therefore was his name called
Edom."
"Edom" means, literally, "red soup," and is so trans-
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