Despised
Genesis 25:34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.
It just really seems unfair. You wouldn’t think something as important as Esau’s legal right to the blessing and inheritance of his father could so easily be bartered away. How legitimate could this really be - the spouting off of a famished hunter, blinded to the gravity of his decision by the magnitude of his hunger? His father favored Esau, after all, and he couldn’t possibly see this as any more than brotherly jesting. It was just a figure of speech you know- ‘I’d give my birthright for just a bowl of oatmeal’. It couldn’t possibly hold up in a court of law. All these arguments would seem to be somewhat valid, and yet for them to even be considered is to greatly devalue the greatest asset/treasure/virtue that was Esau’s privileged possession. Something as precious as this should have been kept far away from any possibility of compromise or loss. If it were really seen as the incredible heart treasure that it should have been, there would have been nothing that could have persuaded him to let go of it.
So, how did it come to this, that the first born could come in after a long day’s hunt, quickly trade his birthright for a bowl of porridge, eat, and get up to walk away without even a contention over the details of the transaction? (I’ve often wondered if this were the only food available, because Esau’s foggy reasoning makes it seem to him that unless he had just the food Jacob had prepared, he would surely die and the birthright would be no good to him anyway. You would have thought that other food was surely nearby, though, as Jacob was probably cooking this at their home where there should have been a sufficient supply. Esau should have been able to just go to the store house and get something, but he wanted this prepared meal and he wanted it now.) Maybe after having grown up with the concept of a birthright, but never really getting to experience its benefits yet, it had come to be more of a fantasy than a reality? Maybe his passion for hunting and for the life of the field had lessoned his appreciation for things of the camp and all those ‘city folk’ ways, along with what would be defined as his birthright. And most certainly he, like the rest of us so often are, was caught up in the expediency of the moment and the importance and value of ‘now’ over any extended worth. The greatest tool in closing the deal was the belief that it had to be done right there at that moment. Life itself was hanging in the balance. For whatever reason or for many of them, Esau had come to this place that he would reveal his true valueless feelings regarding the right to great privileges and wealth that was his from birth. His actions would declare that in reality, compared to other passions in life, he despised it.
The life we’ve been born into in Christ has come with a birthright that touches every part of living. We’ve been given direct access to the supply room and there is no good thing that is withheld from those who walk according to the requirements of this birthright. There are, however, opportunities that come our way throughout each and every day to trade the incredible wealth of our birthright for what might seem to be a requirement for the moment. Our flesh cries out for things to which it has become addicted. Our souls long to taste the sweetness of revenge through actions and simple gossip. Passion for things of this world blinds us to their true value in the eternal perspective. Somehow we’re made to feel that there’s a part of us that will just die if we don’t partake of the porridge. In reality, the partaking itself is what brings death to the greatest treasure and the greatest opportunity of our lives. The price is a great one for things of such menial and temporal importance, and the much better choice is the one that preserves our right that is directly connected to a relationship with the One from whom all true blessings flow. How often do we sit down to eat of what our stomach has demanded at the expense of our righteousness in Christ and thus despise the very thing that Jesus gave His life to provide us?
There is an opportunity today to hold onto and preserve our eternal right in Christ by refusing the demands of the world around us and the stomach pangs that would insist that there is no life without their gratification. True life and real treasure will be ours with the embrace of our righteousness in Christ over every other alternative and we’ll be able to grow in the abundance that is our right in Him.
