Abraham dies “in a good old age, an old man and full of years,” and Isaac and Ishmael bury him in the cave of Machpelah. Like Sarah, Rebekah is barren, and “Isaac pleaded with the LORD for his wife, because she was barren; and the LORD granted his plea.” The children struggle together within her, and the LORD tells her that two nations are in her womb, and the older shall serve the younger.
The twins are as different as can be. Esau is born red and hairy and becomes a skillful hunter, a man of the field. Jacob comes out holding Esau's heel and becomes a mild man, dwelling in tents. The family is divided by favoritism: “Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.” Favoritism in a home always sows pain.
One day Esau comes in from the field weary and asks for Jacob's red stew. Jacob says, “Sell me your birthright as of this day.” Esau answers, “Look, I am about to die; so what is this birthright to me?” He eats, drinks, rises and goes his way. The verdict of Scripture is plain: “Thus Esau despised his birthright.” He traded a spiritual inheritance for one meal.
Genesis 26 is Isaac's own chapter. In a famine God tells him not to go down to Egypt, and repeats to him the promise given to Abraham. Isaac repeats his father's mistake and calls Rebekah his sister, yet God blesses him, and he reaps a hundredfold in the same year. When the Philistines fill his father's wells with earth, Isaac patiently digs them again. After quarrels over two wells he names the third Rehoboth, saying, “For now the LORD has made room for us.” That night the LORD says, “Do not fear, for I am with you.”
In Genesis 27 Isaac is old and his eyes are dim, and he plans to bless Esau privately. Rebekah overhears and plots for Jacob. Jacob dresses in Esau's clothes and covers his hands with goat skins. Isaac says, “The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau,” and he blesses Jacob. Every member of the family sins in this chapter. Esau weeps with a loud and bitter cry and plans to kill Jacob, and Rebekah sends her favorite son away — and as far as Scripture tells us, she never sees him again.