Genesis 25:19-23 - Why is this happening to me?

25:19-21

We now move on to the story of Esau and Jacob, and Jacob in particular will dominate the rest of Genesis. Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah. So ages are still longer than the norm now, but are slowly reducing to what we are more used to. Like Sarah, Rebekah was initially unable to have children. Infact, a significant number of key figures in the Bible had problems bearing children. One of the key lessons is that it is God who “opens the womb”. This does not mean that biology doesn’t matter, but that ultimately the birth of children is in God’s hands. Isaac must have known the story of his own birth, so he prayed to the Lord, and the “Lord granted his prayer”. So Rebekah conceived.

25:22,23

We know that there was a struggle between Jacob and Esau. This struggle began in the womb, and continued after their death with the nations of Israel and Edom. Rebekah sensed the struggle going inside her womb,, and inquired of the Lord as to its meaning. The Lord explained things to her. He explains that two nations are within her womb. Most crucially “the older shall serve the younger”. This is an example of the sovereign choice of God, and it went against the normal social mores of the time.