Photo by Josue Isai Ramos Figueroa on Unsplash
Why do so many heroes of the Bible act so poorly? All of the characters that we have met and spent some time with so far all had this tragic flaw at some point in their story. Adam was the literal first one. He was completely set up for success, but when given the temptation to sin, he did. The same went for Cain, the first born of Adam, until his brother did better than he did. Noah pursued after God for over a hundred and some years building a boat to save the world, but he couldn't escape the allure of drunkenness. Abraham started out with immediate obedience to what God commanded him, even if he did have some fits and starts along the way. In each of these flaws, however, it seems that they at least started well. Noah was a righteous man in God's eyes before the call to him went out. Abraham obviously started out well, and even the errors that he made along the way were only after much time of waiting and seemingly no move on God's part. This little episode is different. For the first time, we are getting an intimate look at these twins from the moment of their birth. We met Noah when he was already 500 years old. We met Abraham at 75 years old. Yes, we saw Isaac when he was born and again at probably 14, but there wasn't a whole lot of interaction with him. One has figured out a few things at this age. Yet here, we are meeting these men very early on. We are seeing them without the years of maturity and therefore getting to see God work on someone from the beginning. We will see our main point today: Bad starts don't have to have bad finishes Bad starts don't have to have bad finishes Rebekah has reached the end of her pregnancy—finally! The poor thing has had these twins duking it out in her womb for the last several months, and as the following scene will remind us, this conflict is only getting started. Moses, in a superb example of tight writing, gives us a peek into the need-to-know information of their respective characters. Birth day arrives, and Esau is the first out of the womb. While younger twins everywhere assert that being just a few minutes older doesn't matter, it does in this case. God has said that the older will serve the younger, and that definitely is here. Esau, the red and hairy one, so named because the Hebrew of Esau sounds like "hairy," enters the world first. Moses isn't including this because he is trying to give us a vivid picture, like modern journalism does. I heard this on a podcast this week where it seems that journalists instead of just interviewing someone and giving you the takeaways, they have to describe what the drive up was like and what the professor looked like! I've gotten so used to it that I didn't notice it until that was mentioned. Moses isn't doing that. In fact, the Bible never gives you something just to mention it. The Bible doesn't do tangents. It is there because it is important. Even the color of that stew in verse 30 is going to be important! Mentioning that Esau is a hairy man will be very important to the story in chapter 27. Next we have Jacob's entrance on the scene literally on the heel of Esau's. For this, he was named "Jacob" which can mean "heel-grabber" or "deceiver." Now, lest you feel like Isaac and Rebekah are just REALLY bad at naming children, Jacob doesn't *only* mean "liar." It could be a shortened form of a longer name that would have meant "may God protect" (Ross, 441). Because while the parents know that the younger is going to be served by the older, they don't know the future character of their sons, even if God does. Verse 27 skips ahead a number of years to reveal what kind of men they have become. Esau has become the man's man, the hairy hunter, master of the bow! Jacob on the other hand is called a "quiet" man. He is more your cultured guy, an indoorsy sort of fellow. His reputation is a "tent dweller" kinda guy, who, as we will see in a moment, knows his way around the kitchen. Now, let's pause here and think about who we might bet on (if we were given to such vices) on who is going to be the one to rule. If I were unfamiliar with God's promise to the twins that the younger would rule, my money would be on Esau. Up until the age of computers, nerds like Jacob and myself wouldn't have a chance. If you were to drop the tent-dwelling soup guy and the hairy, outdoorsman hunter into the wilderness with nothing but their wits and a bow, who are you voting to win? But this isn't going to go to our expectation! This next scene starting in verse 29 is going to show us how God is going to accomplish His will, and it won't be as cleanly as we would like it. Let's dive into the story to see why. Esau is coming back from a long day's unsuccessful hunt. He needs food and sees Jacob sitting there with some red stew. Jacob sees his opportunity and will only give the stew if he receives something in return, the birthright. Now, at first glance, Esau should have just laughed at Jacob for even thinking that this was a realistic price. The birthright was an exclusive privilege of the first born son in which they would receive a double portion of the family inheritance. Isaac, as we will find out in the next chapter, gets super rich and ends up in a similar position as Abraham in his life. Esau is set to receive two-thirds of that wealth with Jacob, as the second son by mere minutes, only getting one-third. Jacob is offering the opportunity to trade those numbers for some lentil stew and bread. In modern terms, this would be like trading real estate for a McRib. No one would be willing to make that kind of trade....right? Esau, however, does the unthinkable and agrees to the terms! Here is his reasoning: he is so tired and hungry that he is near to death. If he doesn't get that soup right now he is going to die. And if you are going to die, then an inheritance isn't going to do you much good, will it? You can't take it with you, so you might as well pawn it off for some soup. And that's exactly what he does! Verse 34 records that this is the way that Esau has despised his birthright. Obviously, he thinks so little of his place in the family and what he will inherit, that he will trade it for some soup. Can you think of anyone else who has traded the blessings of God for some food in Genesis? That's right, Adam and Eve. They looked around at all the blessings that they had in the garden, yet they thought that God was holding out on them. They wanted something that God said that they couldn't have and chose sinful knowledge over all the blessings of literal paradise. Let's get practical for a minute. What can we take away from this story? We rightly shake our heads at such bad trades, but we best not shake them too hard because we do the same thing every time we sin. Every time we sin, we despise the our new birthright in heaven. We have been granted an inheritance in heaven, the blessings of fellowship with God here on Earth, yet we often trade them for things far less valuable than soup. How many marriages have we seen sacrificed for the pleasure of pornography pixels? How many friendships have we sacrificed for a juicy bit of gossip? How have we traded our honesty for a few more dollars at the bottom line? Honestly, even these things are trivial examples of bad trades. The saddest trade is our joy in Christ for lesser things. Do you remember those times of consistent devotions? Do you remember what that joy was like? It felt like you were coming across water in a desert, but as time went on it became something that you just didn't have time for anymore. The longer it went, the guiltier you felt, and once the guilt set in, you stayed away. It has been well said that "this book will keep me from sin, but sin will keep me from this book." This can happen with seemingly good trades. We sacrifice our own joy with God in order that we might teach our children. I've seen ministers think that their ministry job ensures their spiritual growth when it doesn't. I've seen people sacrifice their ability to come to church because of youth sports and travel ball. Don't let the good take the place of the best, and that requires attention to your soul. Airlines will tell you that if the plane loses oxygen, you have to take care of yourself first before helping others. The same is true in Christianity. Attend to your soul first, and then out of that provision go and help others. We can't forget either half of that. This requires frequent check ins as well. Most of the time, we don't show our despising of our birthright in a single choice like we see Esau do. Once Esau sells his birthright, there is no real taking it back unless Jacob willingly gives it back (which he kinda does later, but we'll get there). This is a one time choice. Now, sinful choices like that CAN be made where everything is sold in one fell swoop, but most of the time, it is a slow fade. It's a gradual wandering away rather than a decisive sprint. As a practical measure, it would be a good practice once a quarter, four times a year, to sit down with your family and see where your priorities are. I don't mean restate that you think Church and family devotions is important. That should be a given. I mean four times a year look back at your calendar and your checkbook to discover where your priorities actually are. Are there busy seasons in your life where it is extremely hard to do personal and family devotions? Absolutely! There are seasons of caregiving of either small children or adult parents where there is hardly any energy much less time in a day. Even if all you are able to do is a verse of the Bible and a couple paragraphs a Daily Bread devotional, I don't want you to feel guilty. You need as much as you can get, especially in those times, but don't compound guilt because of life circumstance that are, and this is the key, truly out of your control. You have a new baby that keeps you up all hours of the night, and the only second to yourself you've got to give to a nap. Take the nap. Jesus slept, too. But if you are in a place where your screen time stats are WAY higher than they need to be for work, if you can tell me where every college football team ranks in the standings, if you can tell me the ins and outs of every political story, then you better be able to do just as well in explaining to me the ins and outs of your Bible reading. I'm not trying to make you feel guilty just so you feel guilty. I'm only trying to spur in you a realization that there is more to the Christian life than the weekend. There is more joy than what is found in the verse of the day app on your phone. Quit eating crumbs off the floor when there is a full meal on the table just above your head. Jesus doesn't just offer forgiveness; He offers Himself. If you have turned from your sins and put your trust in Him, you find forgiveness. Now lean into that gospel, see the beauty of Christ Himself and enjoy Him both now and forever!
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