Verse 29, And Jacob sawed pottage, and Esau
came from the field, and he was faint.
And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I
pray thee, with that same red pottage, for
I am faint.
Therefore was his name called Edom.
And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy
birthright.
And Esau said, Behold, I am at the
point to die, and what profit shall this
birthright do to me?
Now, will you notice this incident reveals, frankly,
the nature of both of these men.
Esau came from the field, he was outdoors,
and he was tired, he was exhausted.
Now, he's not starving to death, as some
would imply, and no one that had been
brought up in the home of Abraham is
going to get hungry.
There'd be something for him to eat.
The thing was, there was nothing prepared to
eat at that moment but this pottage, this
stew or soup that Jacob had made.
Jacob's the indoor boy, he's a good chef,
but not outdoors.
He just does his cooking inside.
And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I
pray thee, with that same red pottage.
Actually, it's not in the original.
For I am faint, therefore was his name
called Edom, and that means red, means earthy.
And this man, he just asked his brother,
Give me some of this stew.
Now, Jacob said, and he's a trickster, he's
a traitor, he said, Sell me this day
thy birthright.
Now, Jacob wanted that birthright.
Now, what was the value of the birthright?
Let's look at it for a minute.
In that day, it meant several things.
It meant that the one who had it
was the head of the house.
It also meant that the one that had
it was the priest of the family.
And in this family, it meant the one
that had it would be the one that
would be in the line that would lead
to Christ.
Now, do you think that Esau valued it
at all?
Jacob knew that he didn't, that he attached
no importance to it at all.
He didn't care about being the priest of
the family.
In fact, that's the last thing that he
wanted to do.
He just wouldn't do that sort of thing.
I feel today, sometimes when I hear Christians,
especially some man who's a Christian, they ask
him to do something, say, Oh, I'm not
a preacher, I can't do that.
Well, sure, you may not be a preacher,
but you see that there are too many
today that don't want to do that which
is spiritual.
They don't want to even give the impression
that they are spiritual, are interested in spiritual
things.
Esau, he didn't want to give that impression.
Anyone that would have called him deacon or
preacher would have insulted him.
He didn't want the birthright.
And he didn't care about being in the
line that led to Christ.
Fact of the matter is, no one could
have cared less than he did about being
in the line that leads to Christ.
And so Jacob sees that, and he says
to him, I'll tell you what I'll do.
If you'll give me your birthright, I'll give
you a bowl of soup.
And Esau says, I'll be very glad to
do it.
What profit is the birthright to me?
What I care about the birthright, it's not
worth a bowl of soup to me, the
value that he attached to spiritual things.
Now, the thing that's wrong about Jacob, of
course, God has promised him the elder shall
serve the younger.
The birthright's coming to Jacob in God's own
time.
Jacob, though, can't wait.
And so he reaches out to take that
which God has promised him, and he's taking
it in, let us say, a clever, tricky
fashion.
He should not have done it this way.
He should have waited for God to give
it to him.
But you'll find out this man can't wait.
And after all, this man operated on the
principle, what I can do myself, there's no
reason for me to look to God to
do it.
He felt thoroughly capable of taking care of
his business.
And he did pretty well as far as
the world would measure it at the beginning.
But there came a day when God really
sent him to college, and Laban was the
president of the college, and it was known
as the College of Hard Knocks.
And he's really going to learn a few
things in the College of Hard Knocks.
But so far, he's operating on the principle
that he's clever enough to get what's coming
to him.