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Babylon's Responsibility and Failure--Part 4

The law of the hated son in Deut. 21 protects the oldest son from a father who prefers to give the family birthright to a younger son--something that was common in those days of polygamy. Wives were often jealous of each other and plotted to make their son the inheritor of the estate. The law made it clear that the oldest son could not be disinherited on the whim of the father.

The NASB below tones down the word "hated," because it is really more of a judicial hatred than an emotional one. It is better understood as being "unloved."

(15) If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved have borne him sons, if the first-born son belongs to the unloved, (16) then it shall be in the day he wills what he has to his sons, he cannot make the son of the loved the first-born before the son of the unloved, who is the first-born. (17) But he shall acknowledge the first-born, the son of the unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the beginning of his strength; to him belongs the right of the first-born.

Jacob and Esau were twins, but Esau was the first-born. Although this law was written down by Moses many years after the twins were born, it reflects the mind and will of God from the beginning. Thus, Esau had certain rights as the first-born son of Isaac.

Even so, the prophecy itself, given while Rebecca was pregnant with the twins, stated that "the older shall serve the younger." (Gen. 25:23). That was a statement of divine intent, but of course this did not mean that the law could be violated in order to establish the prophecy. In fact, this is the problem with understanding prophecy without knowing the law. We end up trying to fulfill the prophecy in an unlawful manner, and then we mess it up for future generations.

This is what happened in the case of Jacob and Esau. Isaac must have thought he was going to die soon, because he decided to pass the Birthright to Esau. Rebecca panicked and induced Jacob to pretend to be Esau in order to fulfill the prophecy by deception. The plan worked, but not without serious consequences that had to be rectified in the 20th century.

Throughout Scripture we are shown the violent nature of Esau and his descendants (Edom), who lived in Mount Seir. They were angry and bloodthirsty (Ez. 35:6) and constantly plotted a way to get back the Birthright and the inheritance in Canaan (Ez. 35:10). Isaiah calls it "the controversy of Zion" (Is. 34:8).

In other words, the Edomites were the original Zionists. They longed to inherit the land of Canaan and were angry that their desire was thwarted by Jacob's deception. They certainly did not believe the original prophecy given before the birth of the twins. They saw only that their rights were being denied, and they blamed Jacob without seeing the bigger picture.

If they had believed God, they would have understood Isaac's prophetic blessing in Gen. 27::40 and would have prepared their hearts to be worthy of the Birthright, so that when it was returned to them, they would have had the spiritual character to fulfill the responsibility of the Birthright--to become the Sons of God.

But instead, they allowed anger and bitterness to become part of their national character.

God then said in Malachi 1:2 and 3,

(2) "I have loved you," says the Lord. But you say, "How hast Thou loved us?" Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" declares the Lord. "Yet I have loved Jacob; (3) but I have hated Esau . . ."

Many have used this verse to justify their own hatred for those they think are God's "enemies." But in fact, God was telling us that He was going to protect the rights of Esau as the first-born son of Isaac in this matter of the Birthright. Esau, then, could not be disinherited until he had proved himself to be unworthy.

So the Plan of God, as proven by plain history, was to have Esau's descendants (Edom, Idumea, or Mt. Seir) conquered and absorbed by Judah in 126 B.C. They were forcibly converted to Judaism and within a century they were the most rabidly zealous Jews of all.

It is possible to forcibly convert people to a religion, but it is not possible to force someone to really know God or have a personal relationship with Him.

But God used this tactic to unite one fleshly religion with another. If you follow Paul's line of reasoning in Galatians 4:22-31, you see that the old Jerusalem is "Hagar," and those who adhere to that religious system are spiritual Ishmaelites. The Edomites were united with these spiritual "Ishmaelites" already by the time of Paul, and both had fleshly mindsets.

Once united, they were fully integrated in the next 1900 years to make them indistinguishable, except by observing their character. When the Zionist movement began a century ago, it was done by carnal means through stealth, deception, theft, and much bloodshed.

Many streams of prophecy were all fulfilled at the same time. The Edomites, who had desired the land of Canaan, finally fulfilled their dreams. The cursed fig tree of Judah, came back to life and was full of the fig leaves of self-justification. The Old Covenant ("Hagar") was revived and injected even into Church theology, making the New Covenant a temporary interlude to benefit second-class citizens of the Kingdom (i.e., non-Jewish Christians).

Probably the most significant prophecy of all is missed by the vast majority of Christians, because they do not know the difference between the Jews and Israel. They do not realize that the Birthright was actually given to Joseph, not to Judah. Joseph's sons were given the name Israel, the name given to Jacob by the angel who blessed him (Gen. 32:28; 48:16). In 1 Chron. 5:2 we are told outright that "the birthright belonged to Joseph," but it is buried in the genealogy of Reuben where no one can find it.

God's purpose, however, was to make it appear that 'Joseph" had been lost in "Egypt." In other words, the Israelites had been taken to Assyria and were the "lost tribes," even as Joseph himself had been lost in Egypt. The prophecy of Manasseh was about forgetting his father's house (Gen. 41:51). In other words, they would forget their identity as Israelites.

With the descendants of Joseph remaining "lost," and presumed dead, God was able to set up a reversal of the original problem with Jacob and Esau. Even as Jacob pretended to be Esau in order to obtain the Birthright by stealth, so also did the modern representatives of Esau pretend to be Jacob (Israel) in order to regain the Birthright by stealth.

That is the biblical history of modern Zionism, which becomes apparent by studying the law of God. The law of the hated son shows us that a first-born son could not be disinherited except he first prove himself to be unworthy. Hence, the next law in Deut. 21 reads,

(18) If any man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father or his mother, and when they chastise him, he will not even listen to them . . .

Such sons lose their rights, even if they are the first-born. The Edomite nation was such a rebellious son. When God chastised them, they only became more and more bitter. They refused to repent. And so God incorporated them into world Jewry and gave them the Birthright in 1948, along with the Birthright name Israel. This immediately placed upon their shoulders the responsibility to bring forth the fruits of the Kingdom.

They have now had 62 years to prove themselves worthy or unworthy. In 1948 they took the authority from Nimrod but did not fulfill the Birthright responsibility to be a blessing to all families of the earth.