Living Like Esau
by Heather Koerner
If you remember your Genesis, Jacob and Esau were twins. Esau, being the older twin, had the privilege of the firstborn — which meant he got extra money (a double inheritance share) and extra rights and responsibilities (family spiritual leadership). Jacob set out to gain both Esau's birthright and blessing. The blessing, Jacob gained by deceit. In fact, Jacob's very name means "deceit." But the birthright, Esau sold.
When Esau returned from hunting, he demanded some of the tasty lentil stew that Jacob was cooking. Not so fast, my brother, Jacob replied. There's a price for this lentil stew — your birthright.
"Look, I am about to die," Esau said. "What good is the birthright to me?" So he swore an oath that Jacob could have his birthright and all its privileges. Then, the Bible tells us, Esau despised his birthright.
Really, I saw, that's the crux of the matter: Esau despised his birthright.
He was given something of honor, something of spiritual significance, and he traded it away for something of little, and only temporary, value.
In Hebrews 12, the writer doesn't call Esau stupid, though it was certainly a stupid thing that he did. The writer calls him "godless" — ouch. In the King James version, it translates as "profane," from the Greek word meaning heathenish and wicked.
Esau wasn't a big red oaf. It wasn't that he didn't know any better or that he made an honest mistake. He wasn't a child. He knew that what he had was of value. But he chose not to value it.
In the past, I would try to justify Esau. Maybe he was just really, really, well, you know, really hungry. The Bible doesn't tell us, but I think what I've come to realize is that it doesn't matter.
Whether Esau hadn't eaten for hours or for days, he still had choices. He may have been able to get food from other members of the family, or servants, or grabbed some berries from the nearest branch. But even if we assume that Jacob's stew was the only thing to eat for miles, and that Esau was so weak he was about to faint — does that justify it?
God's Word is clear that it does not. Esau's birthright was something to be cherished, never sold.
As Bishop Joseph Hall, an English bishop from the 1600s, said, "There was never any meat, except the forbidden fruit, so dear bought, as this broth of Jacob."