by David Lipscomb<\/p>\n
The treatment of Esau and Joseph was sinful. It was done in a wrong spirit and for a wicked purpose. Jacob and the brethren of Joseph all suffered intensely for the wrongs they did.<\/p>\n
It would be difficult to conceive of a greater punishment than they endured. While they sinned, God overruled their sins to work out his own purposes and ends. He brought both Jacob and the brothers of Joseph to repentance and in their repentance they found a blessing.<\/p>\n
Both Esau and Joseph were disciplined by the wrong they endured. Joseph accepting it in a proper spirit, it brought good to him. He was without doubt unduly puffed up with his importance, and God, through His discipline, took it out of him and made him a true and humble servant of God, anxious to return good for the evil his blessing in spite of his wrong, and Joseph, through the wrong of his brothers, was schooled for his work.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by David Lipscomb The treatment of Esau and Joseph was sinful. It was done in a wrong spirit and for a wicked purpose. Jacob and the brethren of Joseph all suffered intensely for the wrongs they did. Jacob suffered in the exile from his family and the fear and dread of meeting Esau, and the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[1002,106,26,25,1096],"class_list":["post-83631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-correction","tag-discipline","tag-esau","tag-jacob","tag-joseph"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":92741,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-isaac-want-to-bless-esau\/","url_meta":{"origin":83631,"position":0},"title":"Why did Isaac want to bless Esau?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 22, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hey there. Regarding Genesis 27. Why does Isaac intend to bless Esau when the prophetic voice had already declared, \"The older shall serve the younger\" (Genesis 25:23)? Also, why does Isaac twice indicate that he suspects that Jacob is pulling a trick on him, yet does nothing? It seems\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8720,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-difference-between-a-birthright-and-a-blessing-as-in-the-story-of-esau-and-jacob\/","url_meta":{"origin":83631,"position":1},"title":"What is the difference between a birthright and a blessing as in the story of Esau and Jacob?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What is the difference between a birth right and a blessing as in the story of Esau and Jacob? Answer: Birthright: A birthright referred to a person's inheritance. For most of the world's history, the firstborn child of a family would receive an extra inheritance from his father. What\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26035,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/could-jasher-be-right-about-jacob-spending-14-years-with-eber\/","url_meta":{"origin":83631,"position":2},"title":"Could Jasher be right about Jacob spending 14 years with Eber?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 11, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: You wrote: The Book of Jasher claims that Jacob fled to Eber's home: \"And Jacob was very much afraid of his brother Esau, and he rose up and fled to the house of Eber the son of Shem, and he concealed himself there on account of his brother, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":93028,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/beware-the-hands-of-esau\/","url_meta":{"origin":83631,"position":3},"title":"Beware the Hands of Esau","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 4, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by William V. Beasley via\u00a0Sentry Magazine, Vol. 19 No. 3, September 1993 Rebekah and Jacob conspired to deceive Isaac and, thereby, to obtain the blessing intended for Esau (Genesis 27:1-29). God has never tried to whitewash the character of those who serve Him; He presents the bad along with the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29388,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-mahalath-a-canaanite-and-did-esau-marry-her-to-get-back-at-his-father-isaac\/","url_meta":{"origin":83631,"position":4},"title":"Was Mahalath a Canaanite and did Esau marry her to get back at his father, Isaac?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 2, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Was Mahalath a Canaanite and did Esau marry her to get back at his father, Isaac? Answer: \"When Esau was forty years old, he took as wives Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite. And they were a grief of mind\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7510,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-god-pick-jacob-for-salvation-before-or-after-he-was-born\/","url_meta":{"origin":83631,"position":5},"title":"Did God pick Jacob for salvation before or after he was born?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 29, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In regards to your article \"Predetermined Destiny\": First, after stating in paragraph five that God's selection of Jacob was made before Jacob was born, you turn right around and say that God's selection of Jacob was not made before he was born. Well, which is it? Did God pick\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83631\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}