LIFE SCRIPTS

The boys grew up. Esau became a skilled hunter, who loved to be out in the fields. But Jacob was a quiet man, who stayed at home. Isaac loved Esau. He liked to eat the animals Esau killed. But Rebekah loved Jacob. One day Esau came back from hunting. He was tired and weak from hunger. Jacob was boiling a pot of beans. So Esau said to Jacob, “I am weak with hunger. Let me have some of that red soup.” (That is why people call him “Red.” ) But Jacob said, “You must sell me your rights as the firstborn son.” Esau said, “I am almost dead with hunger, so what good are these rights to me now?” But Jacob said, “First, promise me that you will give them to me.” So Esau made an oath to him and sold his rights as the firstborn son to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil soup. Esau ate the food, had something to drink, and then left. So Esau showed that he did not care about his rights as the firstborn son.
Genesis 25:27‭-‬34 ERV
https://bible.com/bible/406/gen.25.27-34.ERV

Scripture colors the characters of these twins. Esau was more of an outdoor, bare-chested hunter while Jacob seemed more like a reclusive person confined to the tents. However, Jacob had a twist in his seemingly harmless character: he was a schemer. Esau’s love for the outdoor made him an impulsive person. He was a man who loved to be on the move. Other versions of scripture call him a man of the ‘open spaces’. He ventured confidently towards attaining his goals as any smart hunter would. Such was the state of his heart when he once came from the hunting ground hungry and tired only to find Jacob, the reclusive trickster making some delicious stew. It seemed as if it was one of those days when his hunting escapades had been fruitless. As any hungry man he asked for the stew from his brother but to our amazement, the seemingly ‘soft’ brother delivered a hard stance: he wouldn’t give him even a spoonful without him letting lose of his birthright. In other words, the soup was there, available and delicious but not for free. Esau, famished and agitated did what an impulsive hunter would do, seek to meet his needs at that point in time. He sold his birthright to Jacob in exchange for the soup. So what’s in a birthright? It was a positional right firstborns would have on issues of inheritance. However, what’s astonishing is the kind of high level trickery and cajoling Jacob used on his brother. Did God approve of it? Certainly not. God doesn’t contradict His word. However, something also striking comes out of Esau. He was a man who did not consider the important things as important. He was a man governed by the tyranny of the urgent. What would have resulted into blessings over his life, he relegated to the level of bean and lentil soup. He saw the immediate benefit. He did not choose to delay immediate gratification for the sake of greater future blessings. Our lives at times resemble the life of Esau. We seem to be eagre and ready to compromise our spiritual belonging for the sake of our immediate gratification. Esau despised his birthright the way we at times show little regard for our faith when we auction it on the platform of compromise: when we stand to lose on account of our faith, when it calls on us to practice a little patience on account of our faith, when we need to move the extra mile on account of our faith, our birthright, we at times toss it over the wall and gamble with sin since at that point in time, the ends justifies the means. The story of Esau, is a sad story. However, the story of Jacob is an even sadder story: That one chosen by God would stoop low to coerce his own blood brother to sell him his birthright. Jacob’s sin would follow him. Indeed it would stick to him even through his name. It would take the hand of God for him to undergo a divine transformation on encountering Him at Bethel and Peniel. However, the consequences of the injustice he meted upon his brother would probably have resulted into injustice meted to him by his own uncle, Laban. God’s hand and favor are on us. We are blessed. However, our blessedness is not a ticket to practise sin. If we do so, we’ll encounter consequences beyond our reach because sin always leaves a mark in our lives.