Understanding Hard Sayings in the Bible! Jacob Have I Loved and Esau Have I Hated! Part 6.2 (The Conclusion)

(Ver 1.2)  This is Part 6.2 and it will hopefully be the conclusion of the lesson on the “Hard Saying” concerning Romans 9:13 “Jacob I loved but Esau I hated”.  I will probably not be able to cover everything that I would have liked to cover on this subject because of the comprehensive nature of the information found in the Bible.  There are just so many scriptures in the Bible that are related to this subject that it would take many, many more lessons to try to cover them all, so I’m only going to hit a few of the high spots to point the direction for you to study the subject more on your own if you want to.  Please be advised that this is an advanced Bible lesson intended for spiritually mature Christians only.  It introduces subjects and topics that are over the natural heads of many people who call themselves Christians.  Therefore, evaluate yourself and become your own judge before you read this lesson.  I am not physically present as you read this lesson.  Nor do I control your natural thoughts, physical, mental or emotional reactions to new controversial spiritual things from God.  If you have not been a strong praying, Bible believing, church going, Bible reading and diligent Bible student type of Christian for at least 3 years then go and read someone else’s Bible lessons and not mine today.  This will be some new information and a new perspective and if you can see it that will be great, but if you cannot that is also fine.  I do not believe that anything I will say today is a salvation dependent teaching message.  In other words if you disagree with it, we can still both choose to be Christ followers walking in love towards each other without losing our salvation.   I have quickly learned that people see things differently even when looking at the exact same verses.  However, that does not mean everyone is right, it only means we are looking at the truth from different perspectives and placing our own interpretations on it.

A hard saying is any Bible verse of scripture that is difficult to accept because in its literal interpretation it conflicts directly with many other verses that you can easily read in the Bible. A hard saying is one that conflicts with another verse that we thought we understood completely.     This is the root cause to every Christian theological difference that is present in the Body of Christ today.  For example, in Jeremiah 3:8 and Isaiah 50:1, God says to Israel “I divorce you” and He writes her a bill of divorcement effectively ending the covenant.  These are clearly very hard sayings for many Christians to accept since they conflict with the concept of an eternal covenant with Abraham and his seed that is also a clearly stated reality in the Bible.  How do you begin to resolve these types of complex conflicts?   People either 1). ignore the Bible verses that are conflicting to embrace the scriptures that they like better, or they 2). attempt to explain them away as not saying what they actually say using their human reasoning, or they 3). actually do their homework, study and pray and ask God to resolve the problem conflict.  I vote for number three personally.

This is just one example of why so many people have learned to ignore the parts of the Bible that they do not understand in order to fully embrace the other parts that they think that they do understand.  However, that is not the correct way to interpret any of the verses in the Bible.  Ignoring any related verses and leaving conflicts unresolved makes our stated position of belief fallible and weak.  We must resolve every conflict and every verse that opposes each statement of individual truth in order to fully understand the entire truth.  Jesus told us if we “continue” in His word, then and only then we would learn the truth and that this truth that we learn would set us free (John 8:31-32).  Therefore a continual study of God’s Word is required to learn the truth.   It is progressive steps of increasing knowledge, understanding and wisdom with the help of the Holy Spirit and only that will lead us to know the actual truth which none of us know fully yet.  Did you hear anything that I just said?  These last two paragraphs might have been the most important information in this whole lesson.  Also, if you have not read the first lesson on this subject, please do not start reading the study in the middle, because you will have a much more difficult time understanding how we got to many of the conclusions that are being presented today.  Go back and start reading with “Part 6.1” and then come back here to complete the lesson.

The complexity of the Bible is far greater than what many casual readers can understand or grasp.  The Bible is not a history book, but yet it contains valid historical facts.  The Bible is not a text book, but yet it contains many lessons for life.  The Bible is not a calendar, but yet it contains a complete overview of human existence.  The Bible is an interwoven book of compound spiritual information written and wrapped in an understandable natural word environment.  Thus the Bible contains natural information and spiritual information interwoven together.  All of these natural words ultimately point us to the hidden advanced spiritual messages and meanings written to us by the most intelligent spiritual author that has never been seen by us.  Our author God has never done a book signing or a physical appearance to promote His book, yet it is still the most popular bestselling book of all time.  The Bible is a distinctively designed book of spiritual knowledge that only permits those who want to see the truth the vision to know and understand and to those that do not wish to see the truth there are many other alternative realities that are also presented as valid but incomplete choices.

God wrote the Bible in a way to allow every man the ultimate right to choose what they believed even if they are completely wrong and this is what I call the truth of God hiding in plain sight.  Here is another great problem that I have observed.  You can read the Bible and teach anything from it right or wrong.  That is why some people have even taught that abortion is allowable and permissible using scriptures from the Bible.  God has placed anything that you want to see in the Bible in some form and this further promotes the complexity of God’s Word.  However, that never means what you see in the Bible is the truth; sometimes it only means you might need to change what you are looking for or looking at.  It is like Jesus said, “Let him who has ears to hear, hear”.  We could also say “Let him who has eyes to see, see”.   Reading the words on a page does not give anyone the assurance that they have understood what they read.  People prove this every day.  When you read the Bible you must allow the Spirit of God to help you to understand what you just read.  So today, stop for a moment and pray and ask God for the spiritual eyes to see what He is saying.  Pray and ask God for the revelation knowledge of Jesus Christ hidden in His word.  Ask Him to change your natural perspective not to see as a mere man, but help you to see how He sees the Word.  That is what I do frequently and if you do the same God will honor your prayer of faith.  Let’s review what God hates:

Rev 2:6  But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

I wanted to confirm briefly what God hates with this verse to help you to see what I taught you in the first lesson.  Jesus says to the church at Ephesus you have hated what I have hated and this is a commendable and noteworthy action.  When I said that God does not hate Esau and that he must be a symbolic representation for evil deeds, this verse appears to help confirm that statement.  Jesus clearly does not say that he hated the earthly Nicolaitan people, but only their deeds.  We will be commended if we hate what Jesus hates and these are clearly the works of evil.  These are the written words of Jesus the Head of the church speaking to His body.  He implies that you better love the right things and hate the right things.  Therefore I believe Esau is a figurative representation and not a literal reference to a human man.

So what do Jacob and Esau represent figuratively speaking from our verse of Romans 9:13?  That is where we will focus today.  I’ll continue by researching Esau and what is recorded in the Bible about this man. If you go through your Bible carefully you will discover that God hides information not from us, but for us to find when it is time to be revealed, then the Spirit of God teaches us.  Searching for the name of Esau in the Bible you will find that it occurs directly around 85 times in 9 different books of the Bible.  You can find the name Esau in 82 verses in the Old Testament and only 3 times in the New Testament.  Yet the New Testament references help to reveal that Esau is a hidden greater reference that points us to a new understanding of the many Old Testament references.  The first occurrence of Esau is of course found in Genesis 25:25 and the last direct occurrence is found in the book of Hebrews.  Three prophets of God other than Moses directly wrote of Esau in Jeremiah, Obadiah and Malachi.  However, when you do a more thorough search of Esau in the Bible you will see him called by different names like Edom, Edomites and Idumea and thus Esau is being referenced by many other books of the prophets like Psalms, Isaiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Joel and Amos.   Clearly you can see that since all of these prophets wrote of Esau hundreds of years after Esau was gone that God is using Esau for something greater than just a historical reference to a dead man.  This is just a very common technique used by God to conceal spiritual information in the Bible.

Before I move further into the subject of Esau let me introduce you to something brand new that Jesus said that is also very relevant for us understanding the story of Jacob and Esau.  When we read the Bible we need to observe clues that help us to unfold the mysteries of God’s Word.  This is one of those types of clues that is so plainly significant that I want you to pay very close attention to what God says:

Joh 5:46  For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.

Wow that is a major statement of truth that Jesus just revealed to you.  Who wrote the book of Genesis?  Of course it was Moses.  I am personally convinced by what Jesus just said that all of the stories written by Moses in the book of Genesis point us to Jesus.  This statement that Jesus made must include the story of Jacob and Esau in Genesis.  Understand what Jesus is saying.  Since Jesus did not give us any specific story that He is mentioned in, we must conclude logically that His statement is an all-inclusive declaration not omitting any story that Moses penned.  Did you understand what I just said?  If Jesus would have just qualified the statement it would have limited the scope of the statement to a certain book, a specific story, a unique chapter, or some isolated verses, but since He did not do that, it represents a universal statement of truth.  I understand that in Jesus’ day that there were not any chapter or verse divisions so do not think I am being ignorant.  What I am saying is by Jesus’ own declaration every verse written by Moses has some relevance to Jesus in some known or unknown way.   Therefore, somewhere in the story of Jacob and Esau must be a descriptive reference to the hidden Jesus.  I called it a hidden Jesus because very clearly Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible and several of the Psalms and yet we cannot find the name of Jesus mentioned anywhere in these verses.  However, we can understand by Jesus’ own statement that these writings of Moses are about Him.  How can this be?  We must therefore, conclude that the words that are recorded by Moses have first a clear understandable message concerning things that we can read about and see while simultaneously hiding things about Jesus we cannot see.  God hides information in Genesis using several techniques and these include hidden typologies, symbolisms, allegorical content, foreshadowing and the many other methods of concealment found in the Bible to give us a hidden message about Jesus.  Here is another very important verse that will help to confirm what I am teaching you:

Luk 24:27  And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

This verse tells me plainly that the subject of Jesus must be hidden in the stories written by Moses like Jacob and Esau if Jesus had to explain them to His disciples.  To “expound” is a technical teaching term that means to give detailed explanation, expressive interpretation and complete understanding of the words that were written for anyone to read.  This clearly means what was written down by Moses from God was neither self-evident nor self-explanatory and that is the infinite complexity of the Bible being revealed.  Do you understand that?  Earlier I alluded to God’s eternal covenant with Abraham that is found in Genesis 15, but now by Jesus’ own self-proclaimed instruction this story written by Moses was a story about Him and now Christians only want to focus on a natural people on the earth that they can see and then they ignore the Jesus that they have never seen.  The Bible clearly teaches us in 2 Corinthians 4:18 “While we look not on the things that are seen, but the things which are not seen for the things that are seen are temporary but the things that are not seen are eternal”.  What are you looking at and focusing on today?  Can you see it in the natural?  I am on Facebook and I see Christians or at least people that say they are Christians and they are focused almost entirely upon carnal temporary things like the economy, the president, earthquakes, natural disasters, wars or the natural nation of Israel.  Can you see things like natural Israel?  Can you travel and go visit natural Israel? Is natural Israel on the news almost every night?  If you said yes to any of those questions, then they are all temporary and of no eternal consequence according to the written Holy Word of God.  Do not get me wrong or misunderstand me, I’m not against the natural nation of Israel; I pray that they would all get saved just like Paul did (Rom 10:1).   However, looking at temporary carnal things is why there is such great confusion in the body of Christ over prophecy and things that they do not understand in the Bible.  Sorry, for the side trip let’s get back to Moses.

I am personally convinced that we can see Jesus in some form in every story in the book of Genesis.  However the problem now becomes in allowing God to expound to us the hidden character of Jesus in these stories.  For example, I have easily found a hidden Jesus in the creation account from Genesis chapter 1 and He is never mentioned there by name at all.  I have found Jesus in a type of Adam in Genesis 2.  I have easily found Jesus in the type of Abel.   I have found Jesus in a pattern of Noah.  I have seen Jesus in the figure of Abraham.  I have seen Jesus in the figure of Isaac.  I have even found Jesus in the pattern of Ishmael.  I have seen Jesus in the figure of Jacob.  I have seen Jesus in a figure of Joseph and on and on I could go.  Realizing that God purposefully designed every word about each subject written in the Bible tells me that God utilized His extreme intelligence to His advantage in the selection process of which information He included and which information He excluded about each.  This represents complex creativity and extreme intelligent design beyond the capacity for human reasoning to create it. I have become convinced that every story that was selected in Genesis was carefully chosen for a greater purpose and a plan that points us to the Lord Jesus.  However, since we still do not fully understand the story we therefore do not yet comprehend God’s hidden connections to Jesus.  If you learn what I just said, this should radically change how you study the Bible; what you are searching for and what you see in every story.  I think I will start talking about Esau now with the last direct mention of Esau in the Bible found in the book of Hebrews:

Heb 12:16  Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.

Heb 12:17  For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

These are all very deep words about very deep subjects that I do not have the time to fully elaborate on.  However, notice that Esau is being compared to someone else not mentioned.  The stated term “as Esau” reveals a hidden comparison to an unknown or unnamed individual.  We are technically being warned not to become like an Esau.  We can take these verses personally as speaking to us and we should.  Esau is clearly given to us as an ungodly typology example for us not to follow.  There are several good points that need to be emphasized in these two verses.  God called Esau a “fornicator” and a “profane person” and neither are good descriptions or qualities to possess.  A “fornicator” is a term that means “to sell” as a prostitute.  Wow, that is a really tough subject.  Esau clearly sold his birthright in Genesis for just a meal from his brother Jacob, was that prostitution in the eyes of God?   A prostitute sells their body to fulfill the sexual desires of another.  The only thing exchanged is usually money or drugs, but neither participant gains anything of any lasting value.  Technically speaking more is lost than what is gained.  It is a very interesting concept where nothing is literally sold, but everything is usually sacrificed.  Clearly there is a comparative lesson in this concept to the subject of Esau.  God is teaching you that the natural gain of temporary substance is never sufficient for the loss of the eternal things that you have given away and cannot ever get back.   This is the stated moral to the entire story of Esau and Jacob.  Both Jacob and Esau gained temporarily, but one man gained an inheritance and one man lost his inheritance for a meal and neither were the same afterwards forever.  God is teaching us about a greater spiritual principle that is lost through a natural temporary short term gain.

How is this information related to our subject of Esau?  If you search the N.T. you will see that this word “fornicator” is used in around 10 verses and almost always it is included in a list of the types of spiritual beings that will not be saved.  Who is it in the Bible that will never be saved?  From my research and study of the Bible I have only seen that there are two kinds of spiritual beings that will miss out on God’s plan of salvation.  They are the angels that rebelled in sin and the people of the earth that missed or ignored the opportunity to accept Jesus as their Savior.  Out of these two distinctive classes of spiritual beings, which one could Esau represent?  Technically I believe Esau could potentially be a type or a pattern of either and possibly both simultaneously.  To me Esau represents a type of sin that God hates.  Both Adam and Lucifer are reported original sinners just in different dimensions.  Clearly Satan is found to be the first named sinner in the Bible but you do not read about his sin until later through the prophet Ezekiel and several comment that were made in the N.T.  What we can read in the Bible is that Satan left Heaven, the spiritual domain containing eternal life within the family of God for a temporary situation on the earth to rule.  That was not the wisest choice that Satan could have made.  What Lucifer did was very similar to Esau leaving his inheritance being the firstborn to sell it for a temporary gain.

The next word in Hebrews 12:16 that I want you to focus in on, is the one translated as “profane person”.  This is a fascinating Greek word.  It means to cross a door threshold as in exiting a house.  It comes from a root word that also means “foot” or “walk”.  This helps me confirm what I just said about Satan leaving heaven to come to the earth.  Also notice, what did Jacob grab a hold of when Esau was born first?  It was his heel or his foot.  Is this just a coincidence?  I really do not think so.  Esau represents the “foot” or the “profane person” that is attempting crush or to step on Jacob.  This word translated as “profane person” can also be defined as a “wicked” person.  Does that sound like anyone you know?   We will definitely explore these concepts more as we go. Finally notice in Hebrews 12:17 that Esau was supposed to inherit from his father, but God says he was rejected because there was no place for repentance.  What is repentance?  Repentance is based upon sorrow, but that is not repentance.  Repentance is technically a conscious decision to change or it can be associated with a committed behavior modification of an individual.  It is when you are going in one direction and you suddenly notice that it is the wrong way to go and you turn 180 degrees around to find the correct direction.  So Esau found no way to turn around even when he knew that he had made the wrong choice.  This is very bad news for Esau.

Do you understand now why I mentioned that angels cannot be saved?  No angel has the option for salvation or repentance.  Every angel that has left heaven with Satan has made their own temporary choice for a temporary gain and they will be forced to reap eternally the consequences.  It does not matter if they are sorry, if they ask for forgiveness or if they change to now try to be good.  Jesus did not become an angel to die to save the angels; Jesus only became a man to die to save mankind.  Adam also had no way of salvation until Jesus came and He made the way for us all.  What I want to do next is to go over a list of Bible facts found concerning Esau.  These are not all of the Bible facts about Esau, just some that I have chosen to emphasize for the identity of Esau:

Esau Bible Facts:

  1. Called a Nation of people (Gen 25:23)
  2. Called a Twin (Gen 25:24)
  3. Called to Serve his brother (Gen 25:23)
  4. Called a weaker people (Gen 25:23)
  5. Called the Firstborn (Gen 27:19, 32)
  6. Called the Brother of Jacob (Gen 27:11, 23, 30, 41, 42, Mal 1:2)
  7. Hated His Brother Jacob (Gen 27:41)
  8. Struggled with his brother Jacob in the Womb (Gen 25:22)
  9. Called a Red man (Gen 25:25, 25:30)
  10. Called a Cunning Hunter (Gen 25:27)
  11. Jacob grabs his brother Esau’s heel at birth (Gen 25:26)
  12. Sells His Birthright for food (Gen 25:30-32, Heb 12:16)
  13. Despised his birthright (Gen 25:34)
  14. Desired to kill his brother Jacob (Gen 27:42)
  15. Called a father of the Edomites in Mt Seir (Gen 36:9)
  16. Calamity (destruction) is coming to Esau (Jer 49:8)
  17. Deceived himself with his own Pride (Oba 1:3)
  18. Called a Fornicator (male prostitute, a seller of self) for temporary gain  (Heb 12:16)
  19. Called a Profane or Wicked man (Heb 12:16)
  20. No stated way to repent or to be saved (Hev 12:16)

Reading through these few Bible facts concerning Esau, does anyone come to your mind that this might represent?  There are several key descriptions that are more self-evident to me than others.  There are also some typology facts that are very difficult to accept.  For example, the brother fact, the firstborn fact and the selling of the birthright for a meal fact are all difficult complex concepts that are not clearly tied to anyone that I know of on the surface.  The selling of the birthright for food could potentially represent the created man Adam.  God told Adam not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  This tree sounds like temporary food or you could call it a meal.  Adam was the first man that purposefully chose to eat from this tree of the knowledge of good and evil and thus he sold himself into the hands of Satan for the temporary gain of a meal.  Adam also lost what he could never get back and he only gained what he never actually wanted.  This was a very similar concept to what happened to Esau.  However, the rest of the factual descriptions do not fit Adam very closely.  The reference to the heel of Esau is also a very strange fact and it is certainly a curious detail for God to mention in the birth of twins.  I do not know of anyone else in the Bible that this fact is mentioned.  Do you ever wonder why God includes such apparently minor trivial facts in the Bible?  There has to be a reason for this “heel” reference.  The “heel” has to mean something and grabbing the “heel” has to mean something.   If you search the Bible you will find that this Hebrew word translated as “heel” is not widely used, so it must hold some valuable information for us to understand about the type of Esau.  God must have included it for a greater purpose to teach us about Jesus.  We will therefore attempt to use it to make a direct connection to someone.

Let’s briefly analyze the reference to the heel of Esau and what it might mean.  The “heel” is a very specific part of the foot.  Throughout the Bible the heel or the foot of one man on another’s head has long since been used symbolically in the Bible as a representation for the defeat of the person underfoot signifying the victory of the one that has stepped on him.  You can search and find this repeatedly.  Look for words like “tread” or “trodden” and other words that are related to people walking into victory over an enemy.   From the symbolism of Esau coming out first and Jacob grabbing his heel, this tells me that Esau was symbolically trying to overthrow or defeat his brother from their conception.  It signifies a temporary defeat of Jacob.  In other words, I can see that the brotherly battle that originated in the womb represents a spiritual realm battle which has now transitioned into the natural realm.   The first time that “heel” is mentioned in the Bible is when it is used by God in a prophecy that He speaks directly to Satan.  Is that a coincidence?  I do not believe it is.  I believe the prophecy is at least an interesting reversal of the typology given to us in the Jacob and Esau story.  What I see is a prophetical end that will demonstrate a correction to what began in the spiritual realm a long time ago when it appeared that Satan had won.

Gen 3:15  And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

I literally do not have time to teach you what all of this verse means.  Just realize that here God is saying to Satan that he will end up defeated under the foot of the woman and the woman’s seed.  What I do want you to notice is the reference to the “enmity” or the implied “hatred” between two opposing factions, groups or we could possibly even call them nations as God called them in Genesis 25:23 speaking of Jacob and Esau.  You see I believe this verse is literally speaking about the Kingdom of God versus the kingdom of Satan.  One nation of the people of God will prevail over the other nation of people ruled by Satan.  Seed is often used as a reference for a nation of people in the Bible.  God told Abraham your seed will be as the stars of the heaven (Gen 22:17).  Looking at Genesis 3:15 closely we can observe two opposing types of seeds in a spiritual battle.  Not knowing what seed is causes many to miss the fact that Satan is stated to also have seed.  Did you notice in the list of Esau facts that he was called the “father” of the Edomites? A father is a male that has produced children through a female.  Uh oh? Was Satan ever called a father in the Bible?   I’m going to continue to tie in more verses using references to Satan to show you his direct connection to being a type of Esau:

Joh 8:44  Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

I believe you can clearly see that Jesus is saying that Satan has children which are called seed on the planet.  If you research the parables taught by Jesus you will find one about a subject called the wheat versus the tares.  This is a parable of two opposing types of seeds competing for the dominion of the same soil, one is a good and fruitful seed and the other is an evil and worthless seed.  The wheat seed is used to produce bread products and the other seed is just burned.  The seed type called the wheat was planted by God and the other seed type called the tares was planted by Satan the enemy of God (Mat 13:25-30).   These are figurative representations of the two opposite kingdoms we saw represented by Jacob and Esau on the earth today, one is the Kingdom of Light and the other is the kingdom of darkness (1 Th 5:5).  A kingdom is always a nation of people with a prince or king ruler.  God is Light and in him is no darkness (1 Jn 1:5).  Jesus is called the King of kings and He rules the kingdom of the Day.  Conversely, Satan is darkness and in him is no light and he rules the kingdom of the night.  Satan rules the darkness or night and Jesus rules the light or day.  Light is always stronger than darkness.  Light always prevails over darkness.  Are you beginning to see how Jacob and Esau fit the respective types and patterns for Jesus and Satan yet?  We will get there, but let me prove that Satan has a nation of people to rule:

Mat 12:26  And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?

Jesus is speaking, therefore we understand that Jesus knows the truth and always speaks the truth.  Jesus tells us very clearly that Satan has a literal kingdom.  A kingdom designates an implied nation of subservient people to rule and further implies that Satan is their ruler.  We could confirm this with many other scriptures but I do not want to make this lesson any longer than absolutely necessary.  So we are talking about several key terms in unison.  We have seen the first reference to “heel” in the Bible and its direct connection to Satan’s impending defeat.  From this verse in Genesis we have also seen the indirect mention of two nations of opposing people called the seed of the woman and the seed of Satan.  We have seen Satan called a father as well as a murderer in John 8:44.  What did Esau plan to do to his brother Jacob?  Was it not to kill him?  I am observing patterns that are undeniably rich with parallels between Esau being a type of Satan.  Let’s tie all of this into another prophecy that has direct relevance to our subject of the heel:

Psa 41:9  Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.

Here we have one of the very few verses in the Bible that mentions the same Hebrew word translated as “heel” which was connected directly to Satan in Genesis 3 and the description of Esau and Jacob’s birth. This verse certainly has specific ties to our story or Esau and Jacob by the direct association of the reference to “heel” and to the term “meal” that Esau ate from Jacob.  Reading this verse you would probably never know that it was a prophecy about Jesus unless you searched to find that this is the same verse that Jesus quoted to the disciples in the book of John when eating at the final Passover meal.  Let’s go to John and read the account:

Joh 13:18  I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me.

Jesus is talking to His disciples about His disciples.  Why is this verse connected to what we are talking about with the type of Esau being a potential type of Satan?  I believe it is tied in, because Jesus is the speaker and He is declaring someone’s heel that has been raised up against Him.  Is this not a parallel to the Esau heel being raised up against his brother Jacob?  Back up in the book of John and we will read this statement about one of the participants in the meal, it is very profound:

Joh 6:70  Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?

Jesus is telling the disciples I have chosen you and one of you is the devil.  While this cannot be literal, it does represent a figurative truth statement of a reality that did occur.  We know from this information and by searching the Bible that the Greek word translated as devil is used 38 times and the majority of time it is a direct literal reference to the spiritual being Satan.  Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness and this word for “devil” is this named tempter.  Both in John 6:70 and John 13:18 Jesus is speaking of Judas one of the twelve.  If you do a contextual review of the statement in John 6:70 you will see that this statement about Judas being a devil is in the context of Jesus teaching about He was the bread sent down from heaven and they must eat His flesh and drink His blood.  This is again a meal reference but these are all symbolic descriptions of spiritual truths.  Do you see the connection of spiritual things being described in natural things?  What I am saying without saying it is that Judas was not the devil incarnate, however he was a type of Satan and he was influenced and eventually possessed by Satan.

Think with me for a moment about why Jesus chose 12 disciples to be His first followers.  Jesus was a purpose driven man.  He did nothing by chance or accident.  He could have chosen any number of followers to begin, but He specifically chose 12 and that was a very recognizable designed pattern for something else.  I personally believe that this was another pattern for establishing Jesus to be a type of Jacob.  How many sons did Jacob have?  Were there not 12 sons that originated the 12 tribes of Israel?   But, here we have another twist in the puzzle.  We can clearly see in John 13 that Jesus was sitting at Passover with His 12 disciples and now He has called one of them the devil.  Why is the Lord Jesus sitting at a covenant meal with a representative type of Satan present?  You do understand that a meal is a covenant, don’t you?   People in the Middle East certainly understand this concept and they never eat meals with strangers until they get to know them.  They know by eating with them that they could be entering into a covenant with them and thus they could be joining themselves to their enemies unaware.  I believe that this is exactly what is happening here during the Passover meal.  I know this is very complex and very new to you.  I really cannot help that, you will have to dig deep and study if you want to know the truth.  Understand that when Esau ate the meal that Jacob prepared it was also a covenant meal and this was the same meal where we are told that Esau sold his birthright to Jacob.  Look at what happens to Jesus and Judas at the Passover:

Joh 13:26  Jesus answered, He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.

One of the disciples asked Jesus who is it that will betray you?  We can then observe Jesus taking a crumb of the unleavened bread and dipping it into the cup of wine and then giving it to Judas.  I know it does not say that, but these are two of the key elements of every Passover meal.  This was all done on purpose as a part of the plan to reveal the connection to other stories in the Bible.  Remember how we got here; we found the passover meal by searching for the occurrences of the word “heel” in the Bible.  To me it is amazing how God ties things together.  Now observe what is said to happen to Judas:

Joh 13:27  And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly.

As you should be able to see the spirit of Satan enters into the man Judas during the meal.  Thus Satan was participating with a covenant meal with Jesus the Spirit of God being inside of Him.  Jesus has just given bread to Judas after sopping it in the wine.  The bread and the wine constitute the symbolic covenant elements of the body and the blood of Christ.  Why is Jesus doing this?  And more importantly why is Satan letting Him do it and participating in it?  It would appear that Satan is despising his birthright by participating as Esau did with Jacob.  That is the way that I see it happening.  Can you see any of the typology of Esau selling his birthright and eating a meal prepared and given to him by his brother Jacob to eat?  If Judas represents the type of Esau then he is also a type of Satan that entered into him.  The spirit of Satan inside of Judas would certainly represent Satan selling his birthright to his brother.   Perhaps we need to connect what is transpiring with Jesus at passover to what transpired with Esau and Jacob.

Gen 25:34  Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.

You can clearly see three distinct things being mentioned as repeated patterns from what happened in the Passover meal with Jesus.  No Esau is not said to have had bread and wine but they are bread and a liquid soup substance and Esau we are told does eat and drink them and then rises and leaves quickly.  All of this happened in John 13 with Judas and Jesus.  Judas is given a morsel of food dipped in liquid by Jesus and he eats it and then he is told to go do quickly what he must do.  These are all very similar circumstances and substances to what transpires with Jesus, Judas and Satan.  Notice that Esau eats and God says he has despised his birthright by eating.  Esau gained a temporary meal to satisfy his hunger and lost the more valuable inheritance from his father.

What is want to do is just to go through a list of the key facts concerning Esau and show you now they relate to Satan using verses found in the Bible.  There are actually many ways to continue this study, by exploring the other references to “heel”, “meal”, “bread” and etc.  But this lesson is getting rather long and I just need to summarize the best that I can for you so you can continue the study on your own if you desire.  Go and read the scripture references that I give you and then see if they correspond to my descriptions of Esau and to Satan.

Esau

Satan

Esau is called a Separate Nation from Jacob’s nation (Gen 25:3) Satan’s kingdom is described to be separate from God’s kingdom (Luke 11:18)  The church is now called a Holy Nation (1 Pet 2:9)  This implies Satan’s nation is the opposite unholy one.
Jacob grabs Esau’s heel (Gen 25:26) Jesus claims fulfillment of Psalm 41:9 His old friend that ate his bread has lifted his heel against him (John 13:18).  Jesus was eating with Satan present.
Esau is said to hate his brother (Gen 27:41) Satan called the enemy of God (Mat 13:39)
Esau defeated himself because of his pride (Oba 1:3) Satan’s pride began his downfall (Eze 28:17)
Esau is called a father (Gen 36:9) Satan is called a father (John 8:44)
Esau called wicked (Heb 12:16) Satan is called the wicked one (1 Jn 2:14)
Esau desired to murder his brother (Gen 27:42) Satan would not have killed the Lord Jesus if he knew what would happen (1 Cor 2:8) Satan is called the murder (John 8:44).
Calamity and destruction coming to Esau (Jer 49:8) Satan will be thrown into the lake of fire (Rev 20:10)
Esau called a cunning hunter (Gen 25:27) Satan was described as a hunting roaring lion seeking whom he may devour (1 Pet 5:8)
Esau called the firstborn (Gen 27:19)  Esau came into the world first then Jacob came into the world. Lucifer called the son of the morning (early light or first light) (Isa 14:12) and God is Light.  Clearly Satan existed for ages prior to the appearance of the physical Jesus who was born nearly 4000 years after the fall of Adam.  Therefor Lucifer the son of the morning pre-existed the physical Son of God.
Esau when born was described to be red (Gen 25:25) Satan is symbolically linked to the figure of the moon.  The moon rules the darkness (Gen 1:16)_  The prophecy is given that the moon will turn to blood (Joel 2:31, Acts 2:20, Rev 6:12)  Thus Satan is symbolically linked to becoming red like blood.
Esau struggled with Jacob in the womb symbolically representing the spiritual battle that was taking place (Gen 25:22) Jesus said “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (Luke 10:18).  Satan comes against God in heaven in Revelation 12:7 and is cast down forever losing his place in heaven.
Esau called a weaker people (Gen 25:23) Jesus is called the greater spiritual one in 1 John 4:4 emphasizing that Satan is the lesser spirit that is in the world.  Again these are two kingdoms and two opposing spiritual realities.
Esau to become subservient to his brother (Gen 25:23) Jesus said in Matthew 28:18 that all power (authority) had been given to Him making Satan subservient.

I believe that Esau fits the pattern of Satan very distinctly.  Now I want to explore the Jacob facts given to us in the Bible.  There are technically too many references to Jacob and Israel to even begin to mention them all.  Jacob is mentioned in around 345 verses in the Bible and Israel is mentioned in over 2000 verses in the Bible.  I beleive this is another parallel that the Bible is pointing us to Jesus and not toa natural man or a natural nation.   Hopefully after you review and study the list you will begin to see how he precisely fits a pattern of Jesus.  Here is Jacob described to us in the Bible:

  1. The name Jacob means “heel catcher” (Gen 25:26)
  2. Called a separate nation of people than Esau (Gen 25:3)
  3. Jacob’s name is changed to Israel (He will rule as God) (Gen 25:28)
  4. Jacob had twelve sons (Gen 35:22)
  5. Jacob called “My Servant” (Gen 32:4 , Isa 44:1, 8)
  6. Jacob called God’s chosen (Ps 135:4)
  7. The children of Jacob called God’s “Chosen Ones” (1 Chr  16:13)
  8. Jacob called a father (Acts 7:32)
  9. Jacob called a co-heir (Heb 11:9)
  10. Jacob called My Chosen Seed of Abraham (Isa 41:8)
  11. Jacob described to give us natural water to drink from His well (John 4:12)
  12. God gives Power to Jacob (Hosea 12:4)
  13. God gives truth to Jacob (Mic 7:20)
  14. The house of Jacob shall be a fire (Oba 1:18)
  15. Jacob will take root, blossom and bud and bear fruit in the world (Isa 27:6)
  16. The house of Jacob will walk in the light of the Lord (Isa 2:5)
  17. God will show (reveal, explain) His word unto Jacob (Ps 147:19)
  18. Jacob went down to Egypt and died there (Act 7:15)
  19. Jacob is described to have had faith (Heb 11:21)
  20. Jacob is loved by God.  (Mal 1:2)

What I ‘m going to do now is to go through the list of Bible facts concerning Jacob that I have just given to you and show you how they can fit as a pattern of Jesus.  I would suggest that you go through and read them carefully, looking up the verses and studying them.

Jacob

Jesus

Jacob means heel catcher and grabs Esau’s heel (Gen 25:26) Jesus says “He that eats bread with me has lifted up his heel against me”   (John 13:18)
Jacob called a father (Acts 7:32) Jesus called the Everlasting Father (Isa 9:6)
Jacob had 12 sons (Gen 35:22) Jesus chose 12 apostles spiritual sons (Luke 16:13)
Jacob’s name changed to Israel (Gen 25:28) Jesus is given a new name (Rev 3:12)
Jacob called a servant (Gen 32:4 , Isa 44:1) Jesus called God’s servant (Isa 42:1, Mat 12:18) Jesus called the form of a servant (Php 2:7)  Jesus humbles himself and performs the deeds of a servant by washing the disciples’ feet (John 13:12)
Jacob called chosen of God (Ps 135:4) Jesus called chosen of God (Isa 42:1, 1 Pet 2:4, Mat 12:18)
Children of Jacob called God’s chosen ones (1 Chron 15:13) The church is called the chosen generation in the family of Jesus (Heb 3:6, 1 Pet 2:9)
Jacob is called a different nation of people than Esau (Gen 25:3) The church is called a “Holy Nation” a different people than the unholy nation of Satan (1 Pet 2:9)
Jacob called a co-heir (Heb 11:9) Jesus called co-heir with the church (Rom 8:7)
Jacob called the Chosen Seed of Abraham (Isa 41:8) Jesus called the one seed of Abraham (Gal 3:16)
Jacob described to give the people natural water to drink from the well (Jn 4:12) Jesus standing at Jacob’s well said “Whoever drinks from the water that I give, will never thirst”  Jesus was saying His well was the greater spiritual source of living water (Jn 4:14)
God will show (explain, reveal) His word to Jacob (Ps 147:19) Jesus grew in the wisdom of God (Luke 2:40)  Jesus observed to have great wisdom by the people he was teaching (Mk 6:2) Jesus expounded the scriptures to his disciples (Luke 24:27)
The house of Jacob called a fire (Oba 1:18) Jesus said “I am come to send fire on the earth” (Luke 12:49)
Jacob called a fruitful plant that had taken root and bears fruit (Isa 27:6) Jesus called the vine, the church is called the branches that bears the fruit (John 15:1-5)
The Chosen One, My Servant will be a light to the Gentiles (Isa 42:1-6) Jesus called the Light of the World (Jn 8:12, Jn 12:46)
God gives truth to Jacob (Mic 7:20) Jesus said He was the truth (Jn 14:6)
Jacob went down to Egypt and dies there (Acts 7:15) Jesus came down to the earth from heaven and dies in spiritual Egypt (Rev 11:8)
God gave Power to Jacob (Hosea 12:4) God gave Power to Jesus (Acts 10:38)
Jacob is loved by God (Mal 1:2) Jesus is loved by God (Mat 3:17)
Jacob described to have faith (Heb 11:21) Jesus Called the Author of Faith (12:2)
Jacob prevails over the angel (Gen 32:28) Jesus prevails over Satan (Rev 5:5)

There are just too many specific parallels between Jacob and Jesus for Jacob not to be a very specific type of the Lord Jesus Christ.  I have just seen too many Old Testament natural patterns that closely resemble the shadow pictures of the New Testament spiritual realities.  The imagery recorded in the Old is clear enough for us to see the outline of the New.  The shadow of the old is never the new real spiritual reality, just like my shadow projected on the ground is not me.  The new future spiritual reality however has been projected into the patterns of the historic old enough to make them recognizable.  The shadow of the old natural temporary will also always point us to the new spiritual eternal reality if we follow them closely.   The New Testament realities are the invisible spiritual things of God and thus God uses the natural occurrences found in the Old Testament to help teach us how to understand these new invisible spiritual concepts.  God says that the thing that has been is the thing that shall be again, that which was done is that which shall be done (Ecc 1:9).  Learning these concepts should help you tremendously to see things in the Old Testament with a completely new perspective helping to confirm that they all will eventually point us to Jesus.  Jesus is the reason for the whole Bible.  I did not cover everything that I would have liked to cover, but I gave you enough to get you started in the right direction.  The Bible is a gold mine of hidden revelation nuggets from God waiting to be found.  The deeper you dig into it and are led by the Spirit of God you will learn new things that you never could imagine were written there for so many years.  I hope and pray that you took something positive away from this very deep lesson.  I know I covered a lot in one lesson, but that is just the way it has been going lately.  I plan on talking about “Being Led by the Spirit of God” in the next lesson and continuing with that series that I never finished.  God Bless you until next time!

About agapegeek

Using the Bible to understand the Bible! Advanced Bible study for mature Chrisitians who want to grow.

Posted on January 31, 2012, in Bible Study, Hard Sayings, Understanding and tagged , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. 5 Comments.

  1. Thank you sharing such rich Spirit food. It ya definitely shape my way of looking at the word.

    I pray God bless you greatly

    Like

  2. You have make it very clear Papa and you have teaching me the character of the bible to such that when I read it ,the Holy Spirit will have good up hand to give me more revelation Glory and Praise be unto the Jesus

    Like

  3. Thank you, very inspirational, I have been searching for the deeper, hidden parallels in God’s. Word.

    Thank you much an God bless

    Sincerely

    Louis

    Like

  4. John Phillip

    Hi, I would like to ask a question regarding Matthew 22:12-13 and the wedding guest which was not wearing a wedding clothes for the feast. What does it mean when ” He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend ?’ The man was speechless.

    13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”

    I have two questions: 1) what these two passages mean and
    2)Why is it the man was allowed to enter the feast without wedding clothes in the first place?

    Like

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