Genesis 25:29-34.
Once, when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was exhausted. And Esau said to Jacob, Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted. Therefore his name was called Edom. Jacob said, Sell me your birthright now. Esau said, I am about to die. What use is a birthright to me? Jacob said, Swear to me now. So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.
A Scene in the Kitchen
Now this scene opens in a kitchen. Jacob stirs a pot of lentil stew while his brother stumbles in from a day of hunting. Esau's hunger is real and legitimate. We can hear the desperation in his voice. He says, let me eat some of that red stew. And Moses, who wrote this passage, links this request with his future, Edom, the red land, that will ultimately descend from him. The Edomites come from Esau.
And Jacob seizes his moment. He demands Esau's birthright in exchange for a meal. And Esau is driven by his appetite and agrees. And he swears an oath and he trades his future for a bowl of stew. And the story ends with a rather sober verdict. Esau despised his birthright.
Why This Simple Barter Matters
Now we might wonder why this simple barter matter should matter to us. Now, in a culture of theirs, in the ancient Near Eastern culture, the birthright carried a double portion of the inheritance of a family and also the family's leadership going forward. More importantly, in Abram's family, his birthright was tied to God's covenant promises. But Esau treats this gift, God's covenant promise, as being worthless.
But notice that in this text Esau is blamed for spurning his birthright rather than it praising Jacob for his craftiness. The verb here despised means to treat something as trivial. So Esau's hunger has so blinded him to the value of what he had.
The Temptation We All Face
Now the reality is we often face a similar temptation. We live in a culture that prizes instant gratification. When we crave comfort or we crave success, we often neglect prayer, neglect church and compromise our integrity. We trade the eternal joys we have in Christ for temporary pleasures. Like Esau, our hunger covers over the gift we have in Jesus.
The Seriousness of Oaths
But notice the seriousness of the oaths. Jacob makes Esau swear. Now in that world, a sworn oath was irrevocable. So once Esau had given his word, there was no going back. And this detail reminds us that our words actually matter. Jesus will later teach that we should have our yeses be yes and our noes be no. When we commit to something, whether that's our marriage vows, our church membership, our promises to our children, we should realize that these promises are kind of sacred. Esau's careless oath here shows us how little he valued his birthright and also the gravity of his word.
A Diagnosis of the Human Heart
At the heart of the story is a diagnosis of the human heart. It says here that Esau's impulsive appetite and Jacob's manipulative opportunism both reveal how sin has distorted their values. Now we might think that we would never make a foolish trade like this, and yet really we daily face choices between what is easy and what is right. Will we choose the momentary pleasure of gossip over the lasting joy of holiness? Will we trade our Sabbath rest for more productivity? This text invites us to ask, what am I willing to sell my birthright for?
God's Purposes Prevail
But the good news is that God's purposes don't ultimately depend on our goodness or the human heart, human merit. Jacob here schemes and Esau here is foolishly acting. But neither the schemes nor Esau's folly can derail God's plan. God had promised to Abraham that he would give him a land, that he would give him a great nation and that all the nations of the world would be blessed through him.
Pointing to Jesus
And so this point, this episode, in fact, points us forward to Jesus. Jesus was the true firstborn who did not grasp at his firstborn rights. He ultimately refused to turn stones into bread when he could have when he was tempted in the wilderness. Instead, he treasured his father's will over his own comfort. Ultimately, of course, on the cross, Jesus endured hunger and he endured thirst so that we could receive the inheritance that he deserved. And so in him we become co-heirs, joint heirs. Our birthright is secure in Christ, not because we deserve it, but because Christ paid for it. Even if we, like Esau, have despised our birthright, nevertheless it is secure because of what Jesus has already done.
How We Should Respond
And this then calls us to respond with how we live. You know, firstly, we should cherish our spiritual inheritance. We have already been adopted into God's family through Christ Jesus and our trust in him. We have already been forgiven for our sins. We are already part of God's family. We have already received the promise of a glorious future of eternal life with him. And so when temptations come our way, we need to remember that nothing compares to the all-surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus.
Secondly, this passage also calls us to take our promises seriously. Whether these are promises at our weddings, at our marriages, or maybe baptismal promises we make before the church saying we will bring up these children in the ways of the Lord, or even just simple promises that we make every day to people about what we will and won't do. We need to take these things seriously. They should reflect our position before God. They should show our integrity as people who have been made into people who follow Christ.
Finally, I think this story reminds us that we should come before God and ask for forgiveness for our impulsiveness like Esau and our manipulation like Jacob. Like Esau and like Jacob, we daily need God's grace. And so when we trust in Jesus, we actually are given the Holy Spirit. And so we can find the strength to refuse all these immediate gratification things and value instead the inheritance that's really been reserved for us in heaven. And that is a great gift that God gives us. So let's pray and thank him.
Our Father in heaven, we thank you for your election of us despite our flaws and the characters that do not deserve your love. Whether we are like Esau being impulsive and seeking instant gratification, or whether we act more like Jacob who schemes behind the scenes to get what he really wants out of life, we want to repent of that and bring that before you and ask for your forgiveness. We thank you that in Jesus we already have that forgiveness, that even these sins have been paid for, and that we can now live for you as your people. We thank you for all of this in Jesus' mighty name. Amen.