Esau Sells His Birthright

Story: Esau sells his birthright

Passage: Genesis 25:29-34

Characters: Jacob, Esau

Summary: Esau was hunting and was famished. He found Jacob cooking red stew and he asked for it. Jacob said Esau must first give him his birthright. Esau traded his birthright for some stew.

Notes: This is an interesting story. God told Rebekah before the twins were born that the older would serve the younger. Here we see God allowing that to play out. Esau was doing what he did best, hunting. Jacob was doing what he did best, cooking. Esau thought he was going to die without the stew. I sort of doubt he really was dying honestly. I think he was exaggerating a little bit. Some people think that when Esau said he was about to die, he actually meant that he would die down the road so there was no use for a birthright. I personally don’t think that is what he thought. Whatever the case though, he did not respect the birthright at all. He gave it to Jacob without thinking and then when he had eaten, he just got up and left like nothing had happened. A birthright was more than just getting the biggest inheritance, it was also very spiritual. Whoever possessed the birthright would become the next spiritual leader of the family. While it didn’t make sense at the time why Jacob would be chosen over Esau to be the spiritual leader, we see in later chapters that while Jacob’s actions were questionable at times, his character was far superior to that of Esau. Esau gave up a possession with eternal significance for a meal which would last him part of a day. After this story, Esau was known as Edom, which sounds like the Hebrew word for red. I wonder if people called him that to make fun of him for his decision.

Questions: Was Esau really about to die? Did Jacob really come up with that that fast, or had he been scheming for a while? Did Esau care about his birthright?

Lessons: Oftentimes we exchange something of eternal importance for a temporary pleasure. We see an extreme case of this here, and it is obviously portrayed as Esau made a big mistake. We should try and learn from his mistake and truly value the eternal gifts which God has given us. When we sin and put ourselves above God we are foolishly choosing the temporary pleasures of this world over eternal Lord of the universe!