Sibling Rivalry Bible Style

We got into this discussion last week in Sunday School, and as God would have it, I've just been reading Genesis the last few days anyway.

Then, as if to drive the point home further, my two oldest children came home Sunday and spent the entire afternoon fighting. As slugfests go, this one was pretty much one-sided -- Melody, by both accounts, was the aggressor. When I got to the bottom of it (as I normally do of course), the spark that started the fire was Coby agreeing to go outside and play with his little sister then promptly changing his mind, presumably to watch TV or bang out some Guitar Hero.

That set Melody off, and the end result was a pretty good pounding on her older brother. Coby, to his credit, decided to not retaliate other than to come tell me what had just happened. His shirt was off, so I could see the evidence there on his chest.

Long story short, Melody was to be grounded from the trampoline for a few days. To my knowledge she hasn't touched the trampoline, but I haven't been around much so who knows?

The little episode, along with the recent studies in Genesis, got me to thinking -- have siblings been going at each other since the dawn of time???

It started with Cain and Abel, and they didn't build up to it gradually. Cain, of course, got in trouble with God when he whacked his younger brother due to jealousy. But read more in Genesis -- Ishmael and his mom got kicked out of Abraham's house, just for picking on Isaac! That's a war that's still going on today over there, unfortunately.

Then, there's Esau and Jacob. In some ways I feel for poor Esau. His birthright got flat-out jacked by his pipsqueak, momma's boy little brother, and then Rachel and Jacob pulled the wool over Isaac's eyes, literally, when they took Esau's rightful blessing.

But whose fault was it, really? Had Esau not given in to the temptation of hunger, and not sold his rightful place in the family for a bowl of stew, well, Jacob would have been still just the little twin runt. Were you really starving, Esau? C'mon. And was Jacob's soup that good? With all that hunting you did, you'd think you might have a piece of jerky or something to tide you over...

We do that a lot in our own lives, though. We are famished spiritually, or we just gotta have that new toy or outfit, or we'll die -- no matter the cost. The temptation is just too great to settle for a bowl of hot stew, with a full meal most likely sometime in the near future if we could just wait. How might history have changed if God didn't see fit to allow Jacob to steal the birthright?

God has a thing for the second-born. It's all throughout the Bible. Joseph was his favorite even though he had nearly a dozen older brothers. David, of course, was just a shepherd boy whose older brothers didn't want him hanging around their army buddies. And so on and so on...

I love both my sisters. I know that at any time I can pick up the phone or visit them and they're there for me. But we had our knock-down-drag-outs growing up, mostly because they couldn't live with the fact I was the heir to the throne (now that's funny).

But reading Genesis, well, God kind of has me looking over my shoulder a little bit because I'm the firstborn. My advice to Coby now, judging by the beating he took Sunday from his little sister, is to do the same.