And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to inquire of the LORD.
All Commentaries on Genesis 25:22 Go To Genesis 25
Caesarius of Arles
AD 542
Almost everyone accepts the fact that blessed Isaac represented a type of the Lord our Savior. Therefore Isaac prefigured Christ and blessed Rebekah the church, because although like the church she remained sterile for a long time, she conceived through the prayer of blessed Isaac and the Lord’s gift. Now the children struggled in her womb, and not tolerating this annoyance, she said, “If this be so, why am I pregnant?” Then the Lord replied to her, “Two nations are in your womb; two peoples shall stem from your body. One people shall be stronger than the other, and the elder shall serve the younger.” Indeed, as the apostle says, dearly beloved, “All these things happened to them as a type, and they were written for us.” Therefore Rebekah corporally conceived of blessed Isaac, because the church was going to conceive spiritually of Christ. Moreover, just as the two children struggled in Rebekah’s womb, so two peoples continually oppose each other in the church’s womb. If there were only wicked or only good persons, there would be just one people. In the church, so much the worse, good and bad people are found, two peoples struggling as in the womb of the spiritual Rebekah—the humble, indeed, and the proud, chaste and adulterous, meek and irascible, kind and envious, merciful and avaricious.
