The Cost of a Birthright

Happy weekend guys, trust you are doing great today?

Many a times we loose something that belongs to us dies to our careless attitudes. We need to be careful how we live our lives.

In Genesis 25:19-34, Esau purchased the most expensive bowl of soup anyone could ever buy. His momentary satisfaction cost him so much more than a few heads of cattle and some coins. Esau’s birthright as firstborn son was a double portion of everything his father would leave behind upon his death. However, it also meant that the firstborn replaced his father as the patriarch of the family – the priest and the judicial authority for the family unit and their servants. BibleStudyTools.com shares that Esau gave up even more than that, unfortunately. In an article by Emma Danzey, we are told, “Esau was born first and thereby became legal heir to the family birthright which included, among other things, being heir to the Covenant between God and Abraham. This birthright was a link in the line of descent through which the Promised Messiah was to come (Numbers 24:17-19)… Esau selling his birthright indicated his lack of respect for the position and privilege in which he obtained. His careless treatment of his God-given blessing shows his true focus was on temporary desires over a lifetime blessing.” How might history have been different if Esau had not “despised his birthright”?

While we might adopt an heir of judgementalism about how Esau handled the growling of his stomach, many of us, if not all of us, have done the same thing. We trade God’s blessings (which require patient faith) for instantaneous and often temporary satisfaction. God says “Wait;” we feel like waiting will surely be the end of us and take the first thing we see. We sell God’s plan for us for a simple bowl of soup.

Esau wasn’t thinking of the future in the moment when his brother laid out the price of the meal. All he could think of was the moment. The moment may feel so big in our eyes. It can be hard to trust God when something is missing in our lives. Esau claimed he was dying and had no use of a birthright, but was he? Could he really not have lasted another few moments that it would have required for him to go to another tent and procure food? Sometimes we feel like the moment we are in is all that there is. This struggle, or pain, or perceived lack consumes our thoughts to the point that we downgrade the very promises of God. Esau could have been the descendent of Abraham through which the Messiah would come. Instead, he is little more than a hairy footnote in history, but a great lesson for us today.

“For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their stomach, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.”
Philippians 3:18-19

Have a great weekend #blurts