Genesis 25:30

New International Version (NIV)

“Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?”

For meditation

Sometimes we make decisions that nag us for a lifetime. The question of what may have happened had the decision been different often becomes our constant judge. I remember an experience in New York City. Laid off from my job about a month before our second daughter was born, I picked a temporary job from the students’ notice board at Pace University where I was studying for my MBA. The interview with the marketing company on Madison Avenue went well, and I was asked to start the following Monday. When I returned home, my former job had called me back to work that very night. The decision was between the promise for a good career in the future and the bellhop position at the hotel I worked for that offered better for my needs at the time. I have always looked back with regret and wondered what my life would have been had I decided for Madison Avenue. I am sure Esau can identify with me on this one.

His was the birthright of his father – the covenants and promises of God to Abraham, Isaac, and his father, Jacob. The nation of Israel, the kingship, prophetic lineage, and the ancestry of Jesus Christ were his for the taking. However, he bargained them all away for a fleshly craving – a morsel of bread (Gen. 25:29-34).

“Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I am famished!”

 “First sell me your birthright.”

“Look I am about to die … What good is the birthright to me?”

“Swear to me first.”

With that expensive bargain, Esau lost the opportunity of eternity, which his tears at his father’s bedside couldn’t recover from Isaac (38). That infamous day established a dangerous rivalry between the two brothers and their ancestors throughout the Old Testament. The Hebrews writer calls Esau sexually immoral and godless (Heb. 12:16).

Today, many believers are trading their precious inheritance in Christ for the conveniences of life and momentary fleshly desires. The unfortunate thing is the unseen linkage between those bargains and the days the enemy comes for his share of the deal. If only we could remember! Maybe they will properly inform our future decisions – if we have conscience. But that’s why the examples of the failures of men like Abraham, Lot, Esau, Judah, and David are recorded “as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come” (1 Cor. 10:11). We don’t have to make the same mistakes they made before we learn.

1. So, what is your pressing need today?
2. What are the options opened to you?
3. What yardstick are you applying to your decision process?
4. Have you carefully considered its future ramifications on you, your family, nation, and the world?
5. Do you have eternity in mind?

I pray your decision will be right and you will spare yourself the nagging questions for the rest of your life.

May the Lord help you!

Shalom