Sarah lived to be 127 years old. After her death Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah. She bore him six sons, and from this marriage came the Midianites. Moses married a Midianite some 500 years later! Abraham died at the age of 175, and his sons, Isaac and Ishmael, buried him in the cave of Machpelah where Abraham had buried Sarah.
Chapter 25 records the generations of Ishmael and Isaac. Ishmael was Abraham's son by Hagar. The Ishmaelites made Arabia their home and became known as the Arabs. Thus, Abraham was the father of the present Arab nation, as well as the father of the Jewish nation.
Verses 24-34 record the birth of Jacob and Esau to Isaac and Rebekah. Since Esau was the firstborn of these twin boys, he was Isaac's natural heir, but God chose Jacob to be the transmitter of the precious heritage. In verse 23 God told Rebekah that "the elder shall serve the younger." Rebekah loved Jacob, while Isaac loved Esau. Isaac was about 137 years old now. His impatience to give Esau the blessing suggests his own carnal plans, not God's will.
Had he forgotten God's Word that "the elder shall serve the younger," or was he trying to change God's plan? Rebekah had been told by God that Jacob would receive God's blessing, yet she schemed and plotted to make sure Esau was left out. And certainly Jacob knew of God's promise for his life. Yet he listened to his mother instead of God. Jacob would pay dearly in years to come for his sin, as would his mother. She never saw her son again. Esau deliberately acted to hurt her, and her bad example before Jacob cost him twenty years of trial. The result of this sin of unbelief was a division in the home. Rather than trusting God to do what He said He would do, God's Word and timetable were doubted, and the entire family suffered because of unbelief and disobedience. When Christians take things into their own hands, they can expect the result of their disobedience to be something less than pleasant!
