23 And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.
I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen. Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son. And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. [Genesis 25:23] As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
I think that this can be said also of each of us as individuals that “two nations and two peoples are within you.” For there is a people of virtue within us, and there is no less a people of vice within us. “For from our heart proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, thefts, false testimonies” but also “deceits, contentions, heresies, jealousies, revelings and such like.” Do you see how great a people of evil is within us? But if we should deserve to utter that word of the saints, “From fear of you, Lord, we have conceived in the womb and have brought forth. We have wrought the spirit of your salvation on the earth.” Thus another people, begotten in the Spirit, is found within us. For “the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, gentleness, temperance, purity” and so forth. You see another people that is also itself within us. But this one is less; that one greater. For there are always more evil than good people, and vices are more numerous than virtues. But if we should be such as Rebekah and should deserve to conceive from Isaac, that is, from the Word of God, “one people shall overcome the other, and the elder shall serve the younger,” even in us, for the flesh shall serve the Spirit, and vices shall yield to virtues.
We must now take a look at the history of the city of God, as it takes its course from this point on among the descendants of Abraham. In the period from Isaac’s birth to his seventieth year, when his first children were born, there is one memorable fact: He asked God that his wife, who was barren, might bear him a child. God heard the prayer, and she conceived twins who leaped while still in her womb. She was troubled by the disturbance, and, asking the Lord, she received this answer: “Two nations are in your womb; two people shall stem from your body. One people shall be stronger than the other, and the elder shall serve the younger.”This is interpreted by the apostle Paul as an obvious proof of the working of grace: “For before the children had yet been born or had done anything of good or evil,” the younger was chosen, through no merits of his own, and the older rejected. So far as original sin goes, both were equal. As for personal sins, neither had any.
How then do the wicked serve the good? As persecutors serve the martyrs; as a file or hammer, gold; as a mill, wheat; as ovens, the baking of bread: those are consumed, so that these may be baked. How, I say, do the wicked serve the good? As chaff in the furnace of the goldsmith serves gold …. Therefore the wicked should not boast or extol themselves when they send tribulations to the good. For while they are persecuting the good in their bodies, they are killing themselves in their hearts. If the misfortune of an evil person affects a good person, the iniquity has already caused his own soul to decay. Therefore if in an evil spirit someone who is inflamed with the fury of wrath tries to stir up a good man, it is still doubtful whether the good man can be consumed with rage, but there is no doubt that the evil man is already glowing with anger. Perhaps that good man who is full of spiritual vigor and the refreshment of the Holy Spirit will not get excited, even if the fire of persecution is inflicted; but without any doubt the one who tried to arouse him cannot fail to burn with passion. Esau and Jacob were born of the one seed of Isaac, just as Christian people are begotten of our Lord and Savior’s one baptism and one womb of the church. However, just like Esau and Jacob, these people are divided into two parts because of their moral differences. For from the fruits of their works one part is known to be carnal, the other spiritual. For this reason, then, Scripture says, “The elder shall serve the younger,” because the number of the wicked is always greater than that of the good. So just like those two children in the womb of Rebekah, so these people will struggle in the womb of the church until judgment day, as we said above, while the proud resist the humble, while adulterers persecute the chaste, while drunkards whose number is infinite rail at the sober, while the envious rival the good, while robbers desire to destroy those who give alms like the irascible do the peaceable, and while the dissolute attempt to drag down to earth those who have a taste for heavenly things.
Good souls want to win over the evil, but the wicked long to destroy the just. It is the desire of the good that those who are bad be corrected, while the destruction of the good is the pursuit of the wicked. There is one class of the pious, another of the impious. The class of the good are raised up to heaven through humility, while the class of the wicked are plunged into hell through pride. For all those members of the Catholic church belong to Esau who are inclined toward earthly possessions, love the earth, desire the earth and place all their hopes in the earth. Whoever wishes to serve God in order to increase in honors or receive material profits is known to belong to Esau, that is, to earthly happiness. For in Esau carnal souls are understood, while spiritual ones are truly in Jacob. These are the two people whom the apostle clearly mentions when he distinguishes the carnal and the spiritual. As he says, “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are immorality, uncleanness, licentiousness, idolatry, witchcrafts, enmities, contentions, jealousies, anger, quarrels, factions, parties, envies, drunkenness, carousing and suchlike.” Behold the fruits of the people who belong to Esau. In the following passage the same apostle adds the fruits of those who belong to Jacob, saying, “But the fruit of the Spirit is: charity, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faith, modesty, continence.” Behold the spiritual works belonging to blessed Jacob, that is, to people who are pious.
The fact that we read “One people shall be stronger than the other, and the elder shall serve the younger” we do not see fulfilled according to the letter in Esau and Jacob. For Scripture does not mention that Esau served blessed Jacob bodily. Therefore we ought to inquire how this is to be understood spiritually, or how the elder shall serve the younger, for if this were not to happen holy Scripture would not mention it. Therefore if one pays careful attention, one will know how the elder people shall serve the younger in the case of Christians and Jews. The greater and older people of the Jews are proved to serve the younger, that is, the Christian people, for like servants of the Christians they are known to carry the books of the divine law throughout the world for the instruction of all nations. Therefore the Jews were scattered in every land, so that when we want to invite some pagan to faith in Christ by testifying that Christ was announced by all the prophets, and he resists and says that the holy books of the divine law were written by us rather than the Holy Spirit, we may thus have a means of refuting him with positive arguments. To such a person we may say, “If a doubt arises in you concerning my books, behold the books of the Jews, apparently our enemies, which I certainly could neither have written nor changed. Read them over, and when you have found in them the same thing as in my books, ‘Be not unbelieving but believing.’ ” In this way the elder people is known to serve the younger, for through their books the people of the Gentiles are invited to belief in Christ.
[AD 56] Romans on Genesis 25:23