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Jacob and Esau, any room was too small when they were together. Their first battlefield is theirmother’s womb.” “What shall I do?” Rebekah wonders in despair.So the problem of barrenness was solved, but a second problem presented itself. Today weprobably would try and solve that problem by consulting with an obstetrician, but Rebekah,taking the cue from her husband, decides to consult with God. So it says at the end of verse 22,“So she went to inquire of the Lord.” While we might think that she just went off and prayedsomewhere, that’s not what this word means. She went to make inquiry of the Lord. In otherwords, she went to someone who could make an inquiry of the Lord for her, probably a prophet.And the information she received back from this supernatural sonogram was more than sheever would’ve anticipated, because here is what God told her, verse 23: “Two nations are inyour womb; and two peoples will be separated from your body; and one people shall bestronger than the other; and the older shall serve the younger.”Rebekah receives three surprises when she gets back this word. The first surprise: She iscarrying not just one baby, but two. She has twins. The second surprise: These two boys aregoing to become two great nations. It says, “Two nations are in your womb; and two peoples willbe separated from your body.” Then the third surprise: The older shall be subordinate to theyounger, because it says in the last line there, “And the older shall serve the younger.”If that were true, then that would mean that God would be working in a way completely differentthan the cultural norms of that day. Back in ancient society, as is true in many parts of the worldtoday, it was the oldest son who had rank and privilege. All sons got a portion of the familyinheritance, but the oldest son, being the firstborn, got a double portion. That was just the norm.But you see here that God doesn’t often work in that way. In fact, the Bible is filled withexamples of this, where God works in contradiction to the norms of society. I mean, Ishmaelwas the oldest son of Abraham, not Isaac, but Isaac was the child of promise. Joseph was oneof the youngest sons of Jacob, but all of the sons bowed down to him. See, that’s just how Godtends to work. He works sometimes in contradiction to the norms of society.[Gauger:] And it’s there we are unfortunately going to need to hit the pause button in this, ourfirst opening week in a study on the life of Jacob, a fascinating life study that will continue hereon Moody Presents, and we’re hopeful that you’re able to join us. I think I find this study sofascinating because … well, Jacob is such a flawed person like myself that I kind of see myselfin him in some ways. Maybe you feel the same as you listen. Well, be encouraged. There is alot more from Scripture to learn, a lot more life lessons that we’re going to apply as we studyJacob through the great teaching ministry of Dr. Paul Nyquist. Let me remind you that at ourwebsite, moodypresents.org, you can hear today’s message again. That’s right, online audio isthere right now, so you can just click a button and hear it all again. We also have printedtranscripts you can download, share with a friend, email, pass along, enjoy them, and use themhowever you would. There’s no charge for that. Also at moodypresents.org, MP3s and CDs ofeach message are available for purchase. I’m Jon Gauger for producer Chris Segard, sayingthanks so much for joining us today, and I hope you’ll be back next week as we continue in ourseries on the life of Jacob, right here on Moody Presents.