"Selling Our Birthright" January 15 Readings: Genesis 26-30

Today's Reading - Genesis 26-30

Background

The story of Jacob is one of redemption and transformation. You and I wouldn't have much liked him. He was a momma's boy and a schemer. They named him Jacob, a word that carried that meaning and he fulfilled his name. He manipulated his brother out of his birthright and stole the blessing of his father. When he fled north to Abraham's ancestral home, he was schemed against by Laban and married his two wives, beginning his family.

We also see here the beginning of the change of a man's heart. Exiled from home the deceiver gradually changes until that moment when he encountrs God and is made a new man (tomorrow's reading).

One interesting note is that Genesis foreshadows the conflict of the nations throughout time. Abraham's tryst with Hagar brought Ishmael to life - he is the father of the Arab peoples who have troubled the Jews for millennia. Lot's daughters were the beginning of Moab and Ammon. Now, you have Esau, the father of the Edomites.

Lesson - many of the troubles the Israelites experienced in their history were self-inflicted; the consequences of their ow n sin and bad choices!

Devotional - Selling Our Birthright

Jacob and Esau - what a mess they were! Jealousy. Rivalry. Anger and bitterness. This was not a functional family and it seemed to have started in the womb. These two were as different as night and day. Esau was a red-neck, out hunting and fishing and doing manly things. Isaac loved that. Jacob was a momma's boy, staying in the kitchen working on his culinary skills (Genesis 25:27).

One day, Esau the elder came in after a long day in the fields and he smelled a stew that Jacob was cooking. Being both famished and impatient, he had to have some of the stew. “Let me eat some of that red stuff, because I’m exhausted," he said.

Jacob was a schemer, and he immediately laid his trap. If Esau wanted some food, he was going to have to give up his birthright - his status as the family's firstborn, the one who would inherit and become the family patriarch.

No way, you might think. Who would give up such a wonderful thing as his birthright for a simple pot of stew? No one would be that foolish, would they? Meet Esau. Without a thought to the consequences, he made the deal, gave up his birthright and wolfed down the stew.

For a moment of fullness he sacrificed his future. He prized present pleasure and forgot the future consequences of his choices. How soon after the stew settled in his stomach do you think he began to regret the deal? He gave away the future for a bowl of stew! What a fool.

Every day we make choices - life is choices. We must often choose between what we want and what is right, between present pleasure and future blessing. Often, that which is right and best is not that which provides the moment of pleasure. We must choose to forgo that moment for the glory, the blessing of God that lies ahead.

We have a birthright - those who have been born again by the grace of God. The Father is at work in us to conform us to Christ and to bless us with his presence. We are destined to be like Christ. That destiny is settled by God's grace. But often, on a daily basis, we sacrifice our heritage, our birthright, for a bowl of soup. We turn from what God is doing in our lives to enjoy a moment of what this world offers. Make no mistake about it - this world can never offer us more than a bowl of soup. And that bowl is never worth our birthright!

Most of the decisions we have to make are between what is right and what we want right now. Right, or right now. Between the blessing and the bowl of soup. Which is it going to be? When you are in a moment of temptation, are you going to do what you want to do right now, to give in to your body's desires? Or will you resist the desires of the flesh and do what will bring a blessing in the future? Are we going to just enjoy life today, or invest in the things of the kingdom?

Esau was a fool because he exchanged he exchanged his birthright, his blessing, for a bowl of soup. Things of real, eternal value must never be sacrificed for the satiation of present urges. May we never be such fools!

Lord God, too often I have given over the blessings you hold for me to enjoy the flesh's stew right now. Forgive me of that sin, Lord. Empower me with wisdom to resist the stew and choose my birthright as a child of the Living God. 

Think and Pray

Do you choose what is right and good or what feels good right now?
Do you make your choice based on the blessing of God or on what you want and need?