Two Nations in Your Womb

Who are the two nations in Rivkah’s womb?

Rivkah waited twenty years for children. When she finally became pregnant, it hurt. “And the children struggled together within her; and she said, ‘If it be so, why am I thus?’ And she went to inquire of Hashem” (Genesis 25:22).

Hashem’s answer is not only about two baby boys. It is about the whole of history: “Two nations are in your womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from your bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger” (25:23).

Not two families, two nations. One would come from Yaakov (Jacob), and one from Esav (Esau). Rashi tells us how they would live together: “They will never be great at the same time. When one rises, the other falls” (Rashi on 25:23).

In this shiur we will follow those two nations through history: how Esav became Edom, how Edom became Rome, and how Rome became the Christian empire of Europe & the USA. Then we will ask what the prophets say about Esav’s future, and how we live as Yaakov while we wait.

Who was Esav?

“And the first came out red, all over like a hairy garment; and they called his name Esav” (25:25). Every word here becomes a name.

• He was red, admoni. Later he asks for “that red stew,” and the Torah says, “Therefore was his name called Edom” (25:30). Edom means “red.”
• He was hairy, se’ar. His land would be called Se’ir (Seir), the hairy, wooded mountains south of the Dead Sea.
• Yaakov came out holding his heel, akev. That is where the name Yaakov comes from (25:26).

“Esav was a skillful hunter, a man of the field; and Yaakov was a plain man, dwelling in tents” (25:27). Esav lives by what he can catch and take. Yaakov lives in the tent, which our sages understood as the tent of Torah study.

But the Torah does not draw Esav as a cartoon villain. Our sages say he honored his father better than almost anyone. Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel said, “I served my father, but Esav served his father more than I did.” When Rabban Shimon served his father, he wore old clothes. Esav put on his finest clothes to serve Yitzḥak (Devarim Rabbah 1:15). And when he lost the blessing, Esav “cried with a great and exceedingly bitter cry” (27:34). The Midrash says Hashem did not forget those tears. Many years later, Mordechai had to cry the same “loud and a bitter cry” in Shushan (Esther 4:1; Bereshit Rabbah 67:4).

So what went wrong? “Thus Esav despised his birthright” (25:34). He traded what was holy and lasting for what he wanted right now. Hebrews warns us not to be “a profane person, as Esav, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know how afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected” (Hebrews 12:16–17).

What were the two blessings?

Yitzḥak gave Yaakov the blessing of rule: “Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you; be lord over your brothers” (27:29).

Esav got a different blessing, and it came with a sword: “by your sword shall you live, and shall serve your brother; and it shall come to pass when you shall have the dominion, that you shall break his yoke from off your neck” (27:40). Notice the strange promise at the end. Esav will serve, but there will be times when Esav rules over Yaakov. Rashi explains when: “when Israel will transgress the Torah” (Rashi on 27:40). When Yaakov forgets who he is, Esav rises.

Yitzḥak also said the words our sages saw as the key to Jewish history: “The voice is Yaakov’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esav” (27:22). Yaakov’s strength is in his voice: prayer and Torah. Esav’s strength is in his hands: the sword.

How did Edom become Rome?

Esav’s family became the nation of Edom, south and east of the Land of Israel. More than a hundred years before Yeshua was born, the Hasmonean king Yoḥanan Hyrcanus conquered the Edomites, then called Idumeans, and made them be circumcised and live as Jews (Josephus, Antiquities 13.9.1). Their land became part of the Jewish kingdom.

Then Rome took over the Land (63 BCE). And the man Rome chose to be king of the Jews was an Idumean: Herod, the son of Antipater the Edomite. Esav’s family now ruled over Yaakov’s, with the power of Rome behind it.

Think about the story of Yeshua. When he was born, a king from Esav’s family tried to kill him (Matthew 2:16). When he died, a Roman governor sentenced him, Roman soldiers nailed him to a Roman cross, and a Roman sign hung over his head. At the beginning and the end of Yeshua’s life, the hands were the hands of Esav.

In the year 70, the Roman general Titus destroyed the Temple and Jerusalem. After the Bar Kokhba revolt, the emperor Hadrian renamed Jerusalem Aelia Capitolina and renamed Judea Syria Palaestina, to wipe out its Jewish name. Palaestina comes from the Hebrew Pelishtim, the Philistines: Israel’s ancient enemies, the people of Goliath. By Hadrian’s time they had been gone for centuries. Naming the land of the Jews after their old enemies was meant as a slap in the face to the Jewish people.

That is why our sages called Rome “Edom”:

• The last chief of Edom. One of the last chiefs of Edom is “chief Magdi’el” (36:43). Rashi says, “This is Rome.”
• The pig. “The boar out of the wood does waste it” (Psalm 80:14). The Midrash says the boar is Esav, that is, Rome. When a pig lies down, it stretches out its split hooves, as if to say, “Look, I am kosher.” Rome robbed and killed while it looked like justice (Bereshit Rabbah 65:1).
• The fourth beast. Daniel saw four beasts, four empires. The fourth was “dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth” (Daniel 7:7), and it “shall devour the whole earth” (7:23). Rabbi Yoḥanan said, “This is wicked Rome, whose name has spread through the whole world” (Avodah Zarah 2b).
• When one rises, the other falls. If someone tells you Caesarea, Rome’s capital in the Land, and Jerusalem are both destroyed, or both thriving, don’t believe him. If he tells you one is up and the other is down, believe him (Megillah 6a). Two nations, never great at the same time.

How did Rome become “Christendom”?

Around the year 312, the emperor Constantine took up Christianity. The faith that began with a Jewish Messiah and Jewish Scriptures became the religion of Rome, and Rome reshaped it. In 321, Constantine made Sunday the official day of rest. In 325, at Nicaea, the church cut Easter loose from Passover, and Constantine wrote, “Let us then have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd” (Eusebius, Life of Constantine 3.18). By 380, this Roman form of Christianity was the official religion of the empire.

Here is something many people have never noticed. The church fathers also read Parashat Toldot, and they read it backwards. Around the year 200, Tertullian opened his book against the Jews with our verse, “the elder shall serve the younger.” The elder, he said, is the Jewish people, and the younger is the Christians (Tertullian, Against the Jews 1). The church was Yaakov, and the Jews were Esav.

That reading is called replacement theology: the church replaced Israel. And the hands that held it were heavy. Crusaders killed whole Jewish communities along the Rhine in 1096. Jews were forced to wear badges, falsely accused of murder, locked in ghettos, and expelled from England in 1290 and Spain in 1492. This went on for centuries, all in the name of Jesus, the Jew from Nazareth. So the Jewish people called Christian Europe “Edom” too. Galut Edom, “the exile of Edom,” meant life under Christian rule.

We need to say this carefully. Many of us came to Torah out of churches, and many of us have Christian family and friends who love Hashem and Israel. We are not talking about them. We are talking about a system that took a Jewish faith, cut it off from its roots, and used the sword against Yaakov.

Did Hashem change His mind about Yaakov?

The haftarah for Toldot answers in its first lines: “‘I have loved you,’ says Hashem… ‘Was not Esav Yaakov’s brother?’ says Hashem. ‘Yet I loved Yaakov, and I hated Esav’” (Malachi 1:2–3). And the same book promises, “For I am Hashem, I change not; therefore you sons of Yaakov are not consumed” (Malachi 3:6).

Shaul (Paul) quotes Malachi in his letter to believers in the city of Rome. Hashem chose Yaakov before the twins were born, “not of works, but of Him who calls” (Romans 9:11–13). Then he asks, “I say then, has God cast away His people? God forbid” (Romans 11:1). He warns the gentile believers in Rome, “Do not boast against the branches. But if you boast, you do not bear the root, but the root bears you” (Romans 11:18). “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance” (Romans 11:29).

Read that way, the Keter / Brit Hadashah / New Testament itself warned Rome against what Rome later did.

What about the church that kept the Sabbath?

Ruben and I both came out of the Seventh-day Adventist church, and some of you did too. So let’s talk about it honestly.

The Adventists saw something true. Daniel said the fourth kingdom would “think to change times and laws” (Daniel 7:25), and they pointed to Constantine’s Sunday law. They kept Shabbat when almost no other church did, they teach their children the Bible, and many won’t touch pork. We are grateful for that.

But here is the irony. They came out of Rome on the Sabbath, and kept Rome’s teaching about Israel. Tertullian made the church Yaakov and the Jews Esav more than a hundred years before Constantine’s Sunday law. Replacement theology is older than Sunday.

Adventist teaching says Israel’s time as Hashem’s chosen nation ended in the year 34, when the seventy weeks of Daniel 9 closed with the stoning of Stephen. It says the promises to Israel were conditional and passed to the church, which is now “spiritual Israel.” So the Jewish people and the land of Israel have no special place in Hashem’s plan. Let’s test that by the Scriptures.

“Israel’s time ended in the year 34.” Daniel’s seventy weeks were decreed “upon your people and upon your holy city… to bring in everlasting righteousness” (Daniel 9:24). Their purpose is Israel’s redemption, not Israel’s rejection. And Shaul wrote Romans around the year 57, more than twenty years later. If Israel’s time had ended, this was the place to say so. Instead he wrote, “blindness in part has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the gentiles has come in. And so all Israel shall be saved” (Romans 11:25–26). In part, and until.

“The promises were conditional.” Not the covenant with Avraham. Between the pieces, only Hashem passed through, as “a smoking furnace and a burning torch” (Genesis 15:17), while Avraham slept. And Hashem tied Israel to the sun and moon: “If those ordinances depart from before Me, says Hashem, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me for ever” (Jeremiah 31:36). The sun still rises every morning. Even when Israel sins, Hashem promised, “I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break My covenant with them” (Leviticus 26:44).

“The land doesn’t matter anymore.” Hashem gave it “for an everlasting possession” (Genesis 17:8), and promised, “I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up” (Amos 9:15). Yeshua said Jerusalem would be trodden down “until the times of the gentiles are fulfilled” (Luke 21:24): until, not forever. When the disciples asked, “Master, will you at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” he did not say “never.” He said, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons” (Acts 1:6–7).

“The church is spiritual Israel.” In Revelation, the woman crowned with twelve stars is Israel (Revelation 12:1). The twelve tribes are counted by name, and only after that does Yoḥanan see “a great multitude… of all nations” (Revelation 7:4–9). Gentiles who come to Messiah do not replace Israel. They are joined to “the commonwealth of Israel” (Ephesians 2:12, 19). The root bears them.

Again, this is about a teaching, not every Adventist. Ruben’s late mother, Judy, was an Adventist, and she supported our Messianic Jewish faith. Some Adventist teachers today are speaking out against replacement theology too. Our prayer for our Adventist families is simple: you already came out of Rome on the Sabbath. Come all the way home, to the Sabbath and to Israel.

Is there anything good in Esav?

Yes. Rashi notes that the word for “nations” in our verse can be read gei’im, “great ones,” hinting at two great friends from these two nations: Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, who completed the Mishnah, and the Roman ruler Antoninus (Rashi on 25:23; Avodah Zarah 10a–b). Even between Yaakov and Rome, Hashem left room for friendship.

The Torah commands, “You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother” (Deuteronomy 23:8). The Rambam, writing in the twelfth century, saw a purpose in Christianity. He wrote that the spread of Christianity “will only serve to prepare the way for Mashiach’s coming,” because “the entire world has already become filled with the mention of Mashiach, Torah, and mitzvot” (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings 11:4). Through the church, the Bible of Israel and the hope of Israel’s Messiah reached the ends of the earth.

The Midrash explains why the pig, Rome, is called ḥazir. It comes from laḥazor, “to return.” In the end, the pig will return the crown to its rightful owner, as it says, “And saviors shall come up on mount Tziyon to judge the mount of Esav; and the kingdom shall be Hashem’s” (Vayikra Rabbah 13:5, on Obadiah 1:21).

We are seeing the beginning of that. In 1965 the Catholic Church rejected the charge that the Jews as a people were guilty of Yeshua’s death (Nostra Aetate). Many churches have turned from replacement theology, and millions of Christians pray for Israel and are coming back to the Torah. Some of them are part of our own congregation. Esav is starting to bring the crown back.

What do the prophets say about Esav’s future?

The prophets speak about Edom more than about almost any other nation. And they speak about the end.

Obadiah, the shortest book in the Tanakh, is entirely about Edom: “The pride of your heart has deceived you… Though you exalt yourself as the eagle, and though you set your nest among the stars, thence will I bring you down” (Obadiah 1:3–4). The eagle was the symbol carried before Rome’s legions. Edom’s sin is named: “For your violence against your brother Yaakov shame shall cover you” (1:10). And so is the rule of judgment: “as you have done, it shall be done unto you” (1:15). The book ends with Mount Zion facing the mountain of Esav: “But upon mount Tziyon shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness… And saviors shall come up on mount Tziyon to judge the mount of Esav; and the kingdom shall be Hashem’s” (1:17, 21).

Yaakov himself pointed to that day. In the next parashah, Vayishlach, he tells Esav to go ahead, “until I come unto my lord unto Se’ir” (Genesis 33:14). But the Torah never says Yaakov went to Seir. When will he go? Rashi answers, “In the days of the Messiah,” quoting Obadiah (Rashi on 33:14). The meeting of the brothers is not finished yet.

Isaiah saw someone coming from Edom: “Who is this that comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Botzrah?… I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save.” Why are His clothes red? “I have trodden the winepress alone… For the day of vengeance is in My heart, and the year of My redeemed is come” (Isaiah 63:1–4). Now listen to how Yoḥanan (John) describes Messiah’s return the same way: “he was clothed with a garment dipped in blood… and he treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God” (Revelation 19:13, 15). It is Isaiah 63. The red one, Edom, will meet the One whose garments are red with judgment, and the King will come back from Edom victorious.

Daniel saw the fourth empire as iron, ending in feet of “iron mixed with miry clay.” Then a stone “cut out of the mountain without hands” struck it, and “the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed” (Daniel 2:41–45). In Daniel 7, after the fourth beast, “one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven” and received “dominion, and glory, and a kingdom” (Daniel 7:13–14).

Revelation describes Babylon, a woman sitting on “seven mountains,” “that great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth” (Revelation 17:9, 18). In the first century, everyone knew which city sat on seven hills. Kefa (Peter) seems to use “Babylon” the same way (1 Peter 5:13).

So the prophets agree. The last kingdom of this world carries Esav’s character: the sword, pride, and religion used as a disguise. It falls, and “the kingdom shall be Hashem’s.”

A warning belongs here. Every generation has tried to put a name and a date on Edom’s last king, and every guess has failed. The Torah gives us the shape of the story, not a calendar.

Will Esav ever come home?

Here is the most beautiful part. The prophets do not only speak of Edom’s judgment. They also speak of a remnant of Edom that belongs to Hashem. Amos says, “In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen… That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by My name” (Amos 9:11–12).

When the apostles met in Jerusalem to decide how gentiles could join the people of Messiah, Yaakov (James), Yeshua’s brother, quoted this very prophecy, as the Greek has it: “After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down… That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the gentiles, upon whom My name is called” (Acts 15:16–17). In Hebrew, Edom (אֱדוֹם) and adam (אָדָם), “mankind,” look almost the same. Without the vowels, they differ by one small letter. Either way, people from Esav and from every nation will be called by Hashem’s name.

Before Babylon falls, a voice from heaven calls, “Come out of her, my people” (Revelation 18:4). Hashem does not judge the system without first calling His people out of it. So there are two futures for Esav. The empire of the sword will fall. But the brother who weeps, who honors his father, who brings the crown back, will be welcomed home. “Esav ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him; and they wept” (Genesis 33:4). That embrace is a picture of the end.

How do we live as Yaakov while we wait?

Here are three things to take home.

First, keep the voice of Yaakov strong. The nations once asked a philosopher, Avnimos HaGardi, how to defeat Israel. He said, “Go past their synagogues and study halls. If you hear children’s voices there, learning Torah, you will not defeat them. Their father promised them, ‘The voice is Yaakov’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esav’” (Bereshit Rabbah 65:20). Remember Rashi: Esav breaks the yoke only when Yaakov leaves the Torah. Our protection is prayer and Torah, in our homes, with our children.

Second, don’t sell the birthright. The world offers Esav’s trade every day: comfort for faithfulness, a little more money for Shabbat, fitting in for the commandments. Every time we choose Hashem’s way over the easy way, we are Yaakov. Every time we say, like Esav, “what profit shall this birthright do to me?” (25:32), we trade the future for a bowl of stew.

Third, don’t hate Esav. “You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother.” Some of us carry hurt from churches. Some of us carry fear from history. But the call is “Come out of her, my people,” not “hate them.” Our job is to show our Christian friends and families the Jewish Yeshua, who said, “Do not think that I have come to destroy the Torah, or the prophets” (Matthew 5:17). Some of them are already on their way to Seir to meet us. Let’s meet them with an embrace.

Two nations struggled in Rivkah’s womb, and they are still struggling. But Hashem has already told us the ending. A kingdom made without hands will fill the earth. The Messiah will come from Edom in red garments, victorious. The brothers will embrace. And heaven will say, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Messiah; and he shall reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 11:15).

“And saviors shall come up on mount Tziyon to judge the mount of Esav; and the kingdom shall be Hashem’s.”

Shabbat shalom.