Genesis 25

Jacob and Esau...

Previous post: Genesis 24

This week, in Genesis 25, we find the story of the death of Abraham as well as the birth of Jacob and Esau.

Keeping with my theme of trying to read through these Genesis chapters as if I’d never read them before, nothing really stood out to me until I re-read the last part of the chapter: the part about Jacob and Esau. For starters, we see yet another miraculous birth from a barren woman. And, there’s a pretty big contrast between how Abraham handled he and his wife’s infertility and how Isaac and Rebekah handled theirs. Abraham and Sarah tried to force God’s promise to happen via sex with a servant girl. Isaac prayed. Maybe he’d learned a lesson from his father? Who knows? That’s a pretty easy lesson to follow: if you ever find yourself presented with the options of A) praying; or, B) having sex with your wife’s maidservant, you should choose option A.

Anyhow, that’s probably important to note, but here’s my main takeaway from Genesis 25: it comes from the famous story of Esau selling his birthright for a bowl of soup. First, a quick rehash:

Esau returns home from a hunting trip. Apparently, it’s been a long and challenge trip because he is absolutely exhausted. He finds Jacob cooking up some stew. Esau, acting like a stereotypical eldest child, demands that Jacob give him some of the stew. Jacob’s response: “Sure. No problem. I just need your birthright.” Esau is taken aback but is like, “Dude, I’m about to die anyway from exhaustion and starvation if I don’t get some food in me. That birthright doesn’t do me much good if I’m dead. Sure. Take it.” Jacob says, “Ok. By pure coincidence, I happen to have the contract drawn up and a notary present. Just initial here, here, here, and here; and, sign and date at the bottom.” Esau signs, eats, drinks, and walks away…probably with a bit of a feeling of, “I feel like I might have overreacted a bit there…”

Ok so, that wasn’t exactly how the story went down, but you get the gist of it.

At its core, this is a lesson on impulsivity. We humans have a bad habit of trading what we want most for what we want now. Esau is saying to God and to everyone else: I don’t need the inheritance. I can attain everything myself. I can find my own joy. I can find my own fortune. I can find my own peace. Bad impulse.

We’ve seen quite the pattern of this issue so far, and we’re barely halfway through the first book of the Bible.

Adam takes the fruit from Eve. “I don’t need God. I’d feel complete if I had the knowledge of good and evil.” We do the same thing today, by the way. We don’t need God. We’ve got knowledge. We’ve got TED Talks and Google and YouTube—ironically, all on an iPhone…that happens to have a picture of a piece of fruit with a bite out of it on the back. Humanity really hasn’t progressed all that much in all these years. Adam tries to gain satisfaction in his life with knowledge by way of a bite of fruit. Bad impulse.

Cain tries to satisfy his jealousy with murder. He kills Abel in Genesis 4. He doesn’t need God. He thought he would feel better and feel a sense of justice if he followed his inner impulse and killed Abel. Bad impulse.

We’ve already talked about Abraham. Abraham didn’t like God’s timing. He impulsively took the maidservant from Sarah in an effort to create his family his way rather than God’s. Bad impulse.

Tower of Babel. It’s a whole group of people saying, “We don’t need God. If we can just build this tower, we would feel complete and successful.” Bad impulse.

Now, we come to Esau. Esau trading his birthright for stew is a continuation of the narrative of the perils of impulsivity. Adam sold out for knowledge. Cain sold out for vengeance. Abraham sold out for sex. Humanity sold out for pride and power. And Esau sold out for soup.

Of course, we all want wisdom, knowledge, success, and blessing. But, we’re impulsive. We continually try to do it our way rather than God’s.

Enter Jesus.

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.

The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’” Luke 4:1-4, NIV

And with that, Jesus sets the example for how to handle impulsivity.

He’s essentially saying, “This ends here. Impulsivity ends here. Selling out and selling short ends here. Satan’s stranglehold over humanity and that thing he does where he convinces people that immediate things are better than God’s eternal blessing…it’s over. It’s finished. Man doesn’t live by impulsivity or what feels good alone, but on the word of God.”

One more note. Later on, in the book of Luke, we see another story of impulsivity. It’s in Luke 15:11-32. It's the story of the prodigal son. The story of the prodigal son almost seems to be a continuation of Esau’s story. This is where impulsivity leads—where it leads when we “follow our heart” and do what “feels right” or “what is right in our own eyes”…when we follow our desires rather allowing the Bible to guide us. We give up inheritance for living on impulse now. Fortunately, forgiveness waits in the end. What happens when we sell out for knowledge or vengeance or sex or pride or power or soup? What happens when we realize our mistake, when we feel the emptiness, when we feel utterly helpless, when we feel the crushing weight of our own impulsive bad choices, when we run back home unworthy of forgiveness but desperately needing it? What do we get? Rejected? Turned away? A bill to be paid? A lecture? No. We get a loving embrace. Forgiveness. Celebration. Redemption. Grace. Not because we deserve it but because Jesus bought it. Today, we get grace when we sell out for soup. All we have to do is run home and ask.

This week’s AI rap summary:

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™