Esau looked at the beans and weighed the options . After a brief thought or two , he sealed his destiny with these words : “ What good is a birthright if I ’ m dead ?” ( Gen . 25:32 THE MESSAGE ).
“ It means that the promise God made to Grandpa Abraham will pass through my side of the family .”
“ I get it . Now give me a bowl of soup !”
Esau would not have died . This kerfuffle bore him no threat . He was a hunter ; he would have survived . He was big and brawny , twice the brute his baby brother was . He could ’ ve coldcocked Jacob with a left hook and finished the soup before Jacob came to his senses .
But instead Esau “ shrugged off his rights as the firstborn ” ( Gen . 25:34 THE MESSAGE ). The verb translated as “ shrugged off ” connotes carelessness or contempt , “ despising something as useless .” The right of primogeniture was protected by law . A father could not give it to another son ( Deut . 21:15 – 17 ). The firstborn son , however , could forfeit or sell it . This is what Esau did . The birthright was , as far as he could see , an intangible object , invisible , out there somewhere . The beans were right there in front of him . So he agreed to the swap .
Not to belabor the point , but the burly brother could have so easily picked up his toothpick of a twin and said , “ Get out of my way . I ’ m first in line for everything , including this food !”
But he didn ’ t . He didn ’ t want the entitlement . He let Jacob have it . Years later Jacob would be called Israel , and Israel eventually became the father of the twelve tribes . One of his sons , Judah , fathered a lineage that gave birth to the Lion of Judah , Jesus Christ .
Esau was left with a bowl of beans and a legacy as the one who “ for one morsel of food sold his birthright ” ( Heb . 12:16 ). Esau took a shortcut .
And Jacob ? We cannot let the baby brother get off too easily . Is this the way God ’ s heroes behave ? Conniving ? Coercing ?
“ You know what this means , Esau ,” Jacob explained . “ When Dad dies , I get twice what you get .”
Esau tied a napkin around his neck . “ Twice , yes . Twice .”
Rebekah knew the older would serve the younger . Surely she ’ d told him . Did God ’ s plan need Jacob ’ s nudge ? Of course not . He could have waited for God to act . He should have waited . But Rebekah and Jacob took a shortcut .
“ It means that I ’ ll be first , not second .”
“ Whatever you say . Where ’ s the salt ?”
Jacob altered his voice to imitate the husky tone of his brother when speaking to his ill father Isaac : “ I am Esau , your first son . I have
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