Welcome codek,
You bring some good questions!
I would like to qualify further what brother BoG has answered.
We have to remember that no-one had victory over sin in the fulness described by Paul in the New Testament, until after Jesus Christ had come, died, risen, ascended, and our Father had poured out the Holy Spirit in a measure previously unprecedented, upon repentant humans.
So, to suggest that all the processes of human life - such as desiring to know God, choosing a wife or not being able to have children - are BECAUSE of sin, when we see all these being successfully pursued by others who also were 'sinners', is a faulty conclusion. God did not withhold these blessings even from Adam who sinned first.
Instead, God found a way to continue communicating with Adam, although it cannot have been the blissful fellowship they had enjoyed before the Fall. God covered Adam and Eve's nakedness to overcome their embarrassment as much as to protect His own sight of their fallen condition. He loved them.
Regarding Esau, he had other priorities by his own reckoning, based on the desires of his flesh. And yet his grandfather Abraham, who had had everything a man could desire (great earthly riches and an exceptionally beautiful wife) was willing to up sticks and comply with God's call to leave his abiding place, for a 'blessing' - that invisible, intangible, life-transforming gift from God. Abraham was [u]not[/u] after the [i]land[/i] first of all.
Rebekah becomes more interesting the more we get to know her brother (through how he treated Jacob), because obviously, they grew up in the same household, with the same parents.
Note the thing that brought that brother chasing after Jacob many years later, (although he did mention the disappearance of his daughters), was the loss of an household idol.
Note who had taken it, and who prevented him finding it, and how. These people all merely showed what Jesus later defined in John 8:44. We know that there is, through Christ, grace and power in His death, to be cut off from that original fatherhood of our first spiritual/natural birth.
Note also, that although Rachel cried out to Jacob 'Give me children or I die', it was more of a prayer to God. He Himself had brought her to the end of her natural self until she naturally desired the increase which only can come from Him.
Regarding Leah, for all that she may not have had Rachel's 'figure', she had 'soft eyes'. She was gentle and God chose to grant to her to become the mother of Judah, from whom our Lord Jesus [i]naturally[/i] descended.
If I may be absolutely blunt here, isn't this an extremely insensitive question?
Just think about it. Jacob had been in love with Rachel since the first time he saw her. He did not immediately begin to work for her, but when he did, he had to serve seven whole years as a dowry (seeing he had no money. He was totally dependent on her father for protection, should Esau come looking for him. He had nothing to lose and everything to gain.) He adored Rachel. How many times in [u]seven years[/u] do you think he may have dreamt about the day she would be his wife? Then, on the morning after the wedding, he wakes up and discovered LEAH lying beside him? You think he ought to have been happy? Everything in me wants to say 'GET REAL!!!' He had never - not once - [i]fancied Leah![/i] She was not on his list of possible wives. Neither do we know how [i]old[/i] she was, to not have been married to another already.
Regarding Rachel, there are similarities between her and Sarai, who also could not have children until God helped her. (Gen 25:6) I think there [i]is[/i] a link between idolatry and barrenness, because idolatry is deeply rooted in unbelief.
(Read right through Leviticus 18, to the bit about childlessness. Is this a way of protecting the next generation from being subjected to the same abominations?)
God wanted to use these women, and He needed to get their attention so completely, that they knew the special children which came from them, were His very particular blessing upon them.
Now, before you worry about the fact they had divided loyalties, when you get to it, you'll find that so did Solomon. But he also desired God's blessing, and so God blessed him. This differs starkly from Saul's attitude, for which cause God [u]removed[/u] His blessing from him.
Back to Easu. When he and Jacob finally meet, he is so rich, he wants to refuse Jacob's gifts. Basically, he had got what he wanted out of life. Whereas Jacob is still grappling with God, and what it means to serve Him in reality, and still reeling from wrestling all night in Peniel. These two outlooks on life are poles apart.
By the time Jacob comes to be blessing his own grandchildren (Joseph's sons), he seems to have come to an understanding about God's ability to overlook the natural order, (ie the best (double portion) blessing to the firstborn) and, in his prophesy, he pronounces [u]God's[/u] blessing upon the boys indiviually and specifically.
We see, therefore, that God is after the heart, and, we do know that Jacob repented, effectively, by asking God to protect him, and promising to serve Him if he would, very soon after deceiving Isaac and having to run away in fear of his life. So, both God, and Jacob, got what they wanted from the relationship with each other. Awesome!
