Alright. I’m convinced.
Genesis 26 is backstory. It’s a flashback. It’s an excerpt from a previous time. Now I know it’s a stretch to say this because the narrative doesn’t typically break from the forward progress of time, but we do have some examples. Exodus 10:27-29 & 11:4-8 seem to be out of order, for instance. The earlier passage seems to occur after the later passage takes place. Another example of the text breaking from linear time is Genesis 2. Chapter 2:1-3 tells about Day 7 of creation, but then 2:4-25 goes back in time to revisit Day 6 with more detail. All of this is just to say, revisiting something from the past isn’t unheard of in the Torah. It is rare but it happens. We’d have to ask, though: why a flashback in Genesis 26?
Well first things first. What is flashback?
Flashback is a literary device used to create a background to the present situation. An author uses this device as an opportunity to provide insight and meaning within the story at hand. Flashback is one of the most common and recognizable writing techniques, and, when executed well, one of the most effective.
There is generally a trigger, something that causes the narrator to recall a particular event or detail from the past. The trigger is explored/explained in the flashback itself which serves to provide new information to the reader.
With this in mind, let me make the case that Genesis 26 is actually a flashback. Start by noting that Genesis 26 tells the story of Isaac and Rebekah living among the Philistines in a city called Gerar. The account says they lived there for a long time (26:8). And yet, no mention of their twin boys, Jacob and Esau, is made in association with their time in Gerar. In fact, the boys are not a factor at all! While Isaac acts like Rebekah is not his wife, not one Philistine asks, “Then who do these boys belong to?” Indeed, the whole charade between “unmarried” Isaac and “unmarried” Rebekah appears to be uncomplicated by the presence of kids. Of course, we can make perfect sense of this if we read it as a flashback, an excerpt from a previous time. When they lived in Gerar, they hadn’t had kids yet!
This would make sense of the Narrator’s storytelling, too. The flashback is triggered by Esau selling his birthright to Jacob in Genesis 25. “Esau despised his birthright” is the final statement of chapter 25. We turn the page to chapter 26 and suddenly the reader is transported back in time. Where do we land? We land at the moment that God goes to Esau’s father, Isaac, and endows him with all that was given to Abraham. In other words, when Esau trades away his birthright for a pot of beans, it’s as if the Narrator calls a time-out. He’s like let’s go back and understand the magnitude of this birthright. Because––clearly––Esau has forgotten it, or he underestimates it, or something. I don’t want you to do the same.
The flashback commences. We find ourselves witnessing a time from years past when Isaac and Rebekah are living among the Philistines in Gerar. They live here “for a long time” (Genesis 26:8). Their marriage is a total secret. The locals don’t realize the two of them are married because Isaac is lying to everyone, acting like his wife Rebekah is actually his sister. Why lie? Because he is afraid! He is acting out of fear. And this tells us something about him. It tells us that Isaac can sometimes lose sight of the big picture because what’s in front of him is the most pressing thing. He’s a godly man, for sure, but the danger in Gerar is clear and present, and God’s larger-than-life promises are, well, larger than life. So he loses sight of the big picture and decides to lie about his situation. And no one knows that better than his own wife, Rebekah, who has to pretend to be Isaac’s sister “for a long time.” She knows it’s deceitful on their part, yes, but the ends justify the means.
The flashback ends when we reach the final two verses in Genesis 26. We’re now back where we left off at the end of Genesis 25. Esau abruptly re-enters the frame. Esau thought little of his birthright the last time we saw him, and now we see him thinking little of his family name as he intermarries with the Hittites. Still, he is rubbing his hands together in anticipation for his father’s blessing.
Time out! Important context ahead:
Here’s the birthright and the blessing in a nutshell.
Birthright: the responsibility to take care of the family and the estate.
Blessing: the means with which to carry out that responsibility.
Whoever has the birthright (typically the firstborn son) needs to get the blessing,
because the blessing is the means with which to carry out the birthright.
because the blessing is the means with which to carry out the birthright.
In this case, the firstborn son should not receive the blessing because, legally, he is not the firstborn son anymore! Esau sold his his firstborn status to Jacob. Jacob took on the responsibility of the firstborn son through that transaction. So Jacob, now technically the firstborn, is the one to whom the blessing should go. And his mother Rebekah knows this with such certainty. (After all, God told her long ago that the older would serve the younger.) But Rebekah also knows her husband well. She knows that her husband can, at times, lose sight of the big picture. He did it in Gerar and he is about to do it again. If he gives the blessing to Esau, it will be a mistake he cannot undo. And so, with the courage she learned as an “unmarried” women living among the Philistines, it is decided: she will make a bold move. She will be deceitful, yes, but the ends justify the means.
In time, her husband would learn the truth. Isaac would learn that Rebekah was behind the scheme to switch Jacob for Esau. And Isaac would have been furious with her had it not been for one important discovery. He discovers that the birthright belongs to Jacob, not Esau! He discovers that Jacob has legally come to possess the firstborn status! So Isaac can’t be too angry with Rebekah, because Rebekah protected him from a terrible mishap. That is, to give the blessing to someone who does not possess the birthright in God’s eyes.
Still, a very daring maneuver on Rebekah’s part, to instigate this whole son swap, to risk her good name on a move so audacious. But she is no stranger to risk. She learned to accept risk during her long stay in Gerar, going out as a “single” woman among the Philistines. While Isaac was afraid, Rebekah learned how not to be afraid. She certainly wasn’t too afraid when she told her son Jacob, “My son, [if this ploy doesn’t work], let the curse fall on me. Just do what I say; go and get the ingredients [of the stew] for me.”
Can you see why I like to read Genesis 26 as flashback? Let me speak broadly.
Can you see why I like to read Genesis 26 as flashback? Let me speak broadly.
- God is the ultimate author. The Torah is His book. If a human author can use flashback as a literary device to tell a story more powerfully, why can’t God do it in His book?
- If Genesis 26 is a flashback, it makes sense of why Jacob and Esau aren’t a factor in Gerar. It explains why Isaac and Rebekah can pretend to be unmarried.
- Genesis 26 (the flashback) is wedged between Jacob’s receiving the birthright and Jacob’s receiving the blessing. In my eyes, it makes sense to go back in time at this moment because rewinding the timeline to visit Isaac and Rebekah in Gerar pertains to both the birthright and the blessing!
- We see the magnitude of the birthright that Esau so casually gave away.- Through the flashback, we see where Isaac’s blessing gets its teeth spiritually and physically.
- We see how Rebekah garnered the courage to make the decision she made, and perhaps why she was okay with a measure of deceit so long as the ends justified the means.
- We see why Isaac would have loved his wife even after she deceived him. After all, she had put up with his deception in Gerar for such a long time, and she’d done so at her own risk.
- Finally, reading Genesis 26 as flashback yields a window into a beautiful moment. Remember when the king of Gerar spies Isaac and Rebekah being intimate with each other in Genesis 26:8? I like to think this detail captures when their twins, Jacob and Esau, were conceived.
