Sibling Rivalry

Genesis 25-36

We have now met Abraham the father of the nations of Yahweh; Jews, Muslims (who use the name Allah) and Christians. We are soon to meet his grandsons, Jacob and Esau. They are twin brothers who are two very different people. In the story of Genesis we see the origin of the animosity that you find in the monotheistic religions of today, mainly between Judaism and Islam. Jacob steals the birthright from Esau. Esau's descendents marry Ishamel's descendents down the line and the Prophet Muhammad is said to be a descendent of that family tree.

In Islam it is taught that Ishmael, the First-born son of Abraham, is the forefather of the Arab tribes of the middle east as well as the forefather of their prophet Muhammad. From what I can understand muslims believe that the refrences in Genesis 17:20 and 21:18 state this and they hold Abraham, Issac and Jacob up as important prophets of Allah. However, in Islam there are a few little differences from Judaism and Christianity. Muslims do not traditionally believe that Issac was the child that Abraham was going to sacrifice on the mountain. The Quran does not name the child, but there are those in Islam that believe it was Ishmael. Another difference is that they do not believe that Jacob stole the birthright from his twin brother Esau. They believe that since Jacob was a prophet of the One True God he would not have gotten his birthright through deception. Also, Issac being a man of Allah would have known the importance and greatness of his son Jacob and would not have given the birthright to Esau in the first place. Muslims also believe that Jacob is a patriarch of Islam equally (if not more) important than Issac or Abraham. Yet, I haven't found any indication that they believe in the Abrahamic Covenent regarding the land that God gave Abraham, or if they do they believe that that covenant includes the descendents of Ishamel and Esau as well as Jacob. It seems the sole importance of the Patriarchs in Islam is that they upheld the concept of monotheism in a land of polytheists and passed that tradition on to their sons who were the forefathers of the great Prophets of Allah.






Esau is an interesting character. His name is also called Edom, meaning red, and his decendents become known as the Edomites. I believe Esau means hairy, so these people probably had very hairy bodies. The Edomites are one of the major enemies of Israel as we will see throughout the Book.






Jacob will become known as Israel and the nation will be named after him. The twelve sons that he has will be the patriarchs for the twelve tribes that will emerge from these brothers and eventually be enslaved in Egypt, as prophecied to Abraham in Genesis 15:13-15. Jacob's story is interesting and I'm looking forward to it.