Interesting article from an FFOZ email

Thought for the Week

We each posses some of Rebekah's travail, for within each one of us there are two natures wrestling one with the other. There is a little of Jacob and Esau within each of us because our flesh and our spirit are at odds with one another. There is within the believer the spiritual potential of Jacob. It is the potential to rise up, taking hold of the godly inheritance and become Israel. This is the redeemed soul, our new identity in Messiah. Yet there also lurks within each of us our old man, the bitter and angry Esau. He thinks only of satisfying his fleshly appetites, and he resents anything which prevents him from so doing.

Commentary

"Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the field, but Jacob was a peaceful man, living in tents." (Genesis 25:27). Previously, the only hunter described by the Torah is the wicked Nimrod. Esau's passions led him away from the home, and he found his delight in killing things. Jacob, on the other hand, is described as "a peaceful man, living in tents." Unlike Esau, Jacob's priorities are in the home and with the family.

It is ironic that Western culture places so much emphasis on sporting activities and other things which keep children out of the home. We seem to be adept at raising Esau's. Our culture is one that praises hunters, conquerors and achievers. We celebrate the Nimrod's and dismiss the Abraham's. We worship the Esau's and ignore the Jacob's. But the blessing of God will rest on the Jacob's who find their delight among the tents and with the family.

We are then told that Isaac loved Esau because "because he had a taste for game." (25:28). Literally, however, the verse explains that Isaac loved Esau because "hunting was in his mouth." (25:28). The ancient Jewish commentary Midrash Rabbah suggests that the "hunting in his mouth" should be understood as Esau's deceit of Isaac.

Rabbi Abbahu said, "He was a hunter and fieldsman, hunting at home and hunting in the field. He hunted at home by asking, "How do you tithe salt?" and he hunted in the field by asking, "How do you tithe straw?" (Bereishit Rabbah 63:10)

Thus Esau duped Isaac into believing that he was a righteous son concerned with matters of Torah, and this was the "hunting in his mouth" for which Isaac loved him. By fixating on minutia, Esau created an exterior impression of extreme piety. There is no requirement to tithe salt and straw.

Yeshua invokes this tradition when He rebukes certain ones among the Pharisees for a similar pretense of righteousness. While they ignored justice, mercy and faithfulness, they preoccupied themselves with tithing even their spices. In so doing, the Pharisees sought to show that their observance went beyond the requirements of the Torah. Yeshua applauds their stringency saying, "this you should have done," but He rebukes them for ignoring the weightier matters of Torah.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the Torah: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. (Matthew 23:23)