Esau came in from the field exhausted and hungry. His brother Jacob was cooking red stew and Esau, so tired he could barely speak, shouted out “Let me gulp down some of that red stuff!” (Gen. 25:30). Jacob replied that he was willing to part with some stew on one condition; that Esau give him his birthright. Esau told Jacob he was on the point of dying, what use was his birthright? And so, Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of stew. The writer goes on to say, “Thus Esau despised his birthright.” (Gen. 25:34).

Imagine giving up something that important for a bowl of stew!

The writer to the Hebrews explains Esau’s sin with the words, “that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.” (Heb. 12:16). Esau’s birthright should have been something special that he cherished. Instead, he counted it, as Hebrews says, as something unholy – common or mundane. The writer adds that it is like being sexually immoral. In the heat of a moment, when one’s basic instincts take over, that’s when people do sexually immoral things which can destroy lives. For the sake of a moment of pleasure, whether it’s a bowl of stew or sex, we can give up a lot of things which should be far more important to us.

Years later the prophet Malachi wrote to Jacob’s descendants. He reminded them that God “loved Jacob  but Esau I have hated” (Mal. 1:2-3). However, using the same Hebrew word for when Esau despised his birthright, God told them through the prophet they “despite my name.” Jacob’s descendants also said, “the Lord's table may be despised” (v6-7). In other words, Jacob’s descendants were acting more like Esau than Jacob.

Everyone has their own bowl of stew. It’s that thing in your life that you place at such a high priority level and is so important to you that you’re in danger of selling your birthright for short term gain. How do we overcome these temptations? The answer, as always, is faith. Faith tells us that no matter how tasty that bowl of stew is it’s worth sacrificing for something far better.

Don’t be like Esau but spare a moment for Jacob. He was really no better than his brother. The difference, though, is that God worked with Jacob to build his faith and we’ll begin talking about that next time.