The “transaction” for the firstborn birthright, which Esau sold to his brother, Ya’akov (Jacob) for a bowl of lentils in Genesis 25 is completed in Genesis 27 with a second ruse devised by their mother, Rivkah (Rebecca), to get Yitskhak (Isaac) to bless the correct son. This pattern of switching blessings at the last minute appears repeatedly in the Bible and has ramifications for the modern-day descendants of these two sons.
Apostle Sha’ul the Asked For becomes Paul the Rest-maker in his first missionary voyage, stopping in Cyprus. There he meets a truth-seeking official and a “truth”-peddling Jewish sorcerer. How could a Jew be involved in the occult, and where do we see such corruption of the truth today?
After Sarah’s death Abraham had other children as well and we learn how his estate was divided up between his heirs. We also learn how Yiskhak (Isaac) deals with his status as a wealthy patriarch in a hostile land and how his two sons start fighting over Yiskhak’s estate before they are born and continue fighting over it when they are adults. The fight appears to end with Esau “despising” his birthright. But does this really end the dispute?
We start to see how closely connected the lives of Samuel, Saul, Jonathan and David truly are. All these men’s lives were shaped and irrevocably changed by the events surrounding the High Priest Eli and the confiscation of the Ark of the Covenant. We also see the beginnings of David’s quick rise in stature from a modest shepherd boy to a royal court entertainer and finally a leading warrior in Saul’s army.
We learn about the Near Eastern customs of how to find a wife for a prominent family. From Abraham’s request to Rivka’s acceptance, Isaac is not a part of this story until the very end when Isaac greets Rivka as acknowledges her as the wife God has chosen for him.
It’s no coincidence God frees Petros (Peter) from jail during Passover/Unleavened Bread, which even at that time was understood to be a removing of “sourness” from one’s life. In Acts 12, the “leaven” of Herod and of the leaders was shown to be “spoiling” Israel.
In Ex. 3:14, God tells Moshe to identify Him to the elders of Israel as, in Hebrew, “‘Ehyeh ‘Asher ‘Ehyeh.” It’s translated various ways, such as “I Am Who I Am” and “I Will Be Who I Will Be.” Richard Agee explores the teaching of The Name.