You got to think that, as the boys grew up, they had heard the stories more than once around the dinner table. The stories of how God had appeared to their grandfather and told him to leave his country and to go to a new land that God would show him. That they’d be aware of how granddad had grown in wealth and power . . . how he had rescued his nephew Lot from marauding renegade kings . . . how he had interceded for Sodom and witnessed its destruction . . . and how, at a hundred years of age, he and his wife had been blessed with a son, the boys’ dad. And you think they would have known the promises made to granddad Abraham . . . the promises that through him and his offspring God would make a great nation . . . which would inhabit a great land . . . and would be a great blessing to all peoples (Gen 12:2-3; 15:5,18; 17:4,7-8; 22:17-18). You got to think they would have known the stories.

And so, you got to think that they understood the implications of being the sons of Isaac, the grandsons of Abraham. And you got to think that they understood the importance of the birthright of the eldest. Though they were twins . . . only one could be the oldest . . . only one could own the birthright . . . only one could expect to be the line through which God would specifically fulfill the promises he made to their grandpa. But, I guess understanding the birthright is one thing . . . valuing it is another.

Jacob got it . . . he knew the value of being top of the food chain when it came to the birthright. He knew that it entitled the his older brother, Esau, to a double portion of their father’s possessions and that it meant becoming the tribal or family head. And I think he probably got too that, through the birthright, came the passing of the baton of the great and awesome promises made to Abraham and later to his dad, Isaac (Gen. 26:3-4, 24). Jacob got it. Maybe Esau did too . . . but, says the Scriptures, he despised the birthright (25:34).

And while there’s whole set of questions surrounding Jacob the Schemer and the manner in which he extorted the birthright from Esau and eventually conned the blessing from Isaac, it’s Esau that has me thinking this morning. A guy born into privilege . . . a possessor of promises . . . whose priorities around satisfying his fleshly needs led him to sell out for a bowl of soup (Gen. 25:29-34).

He must have known his unique and blessed standing. The oldest grandson of Abraham the friend of God (James 2:23). The oldest son of Isaac, himself a son of promise through a miraculous birth to a couple of centenarians. Esau must have been told what was his as the firstborn. But, in the end, he was more desperate to find food for his stomach than he was to find fulfillment as the firstborn . . . in the end, the call of the flesh trumped the call of God.

And it occurs to me that I too have a birthright . . . not a lot unlike Esau’s. Now, mine isn’t through a natural birth but through a supernatural rebirth . . . through the work of Christ on the cross and by the grace of God. And, having been born again, I have received the Spirit of adoption by whom I cry out to God, “Abba (aka Daddy) Father” (Rom. 8:15). Because I am Christ’s, then I too am “Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise . . . an heir of God through Christ” (Gal. 3:29, 4:7). I too am a child of promise (Gal. 4:28) . . . a son of potential. I know the story . . . I know the promises . . . and, I know the temptation to sell out for a bowl of soup.

There are so many things that call out to the natural man . . . that seek to take priority . . . that try to deceive me to relinquish the pursuit of my birthright. So many voices offering up so much stuff that ultimately only “satisfies” for a season. So many pursuits promoted by empty promises to distract me from pressing onward for the real prize. So many schemes devised by my enemy that would entice me to compromise my calling in Christ in order to settle for a bowl of soup. Oh that I might be like Moses, refusing to be called the son of Pharaoh that He might own his calling as a son of God . . . “esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt” because he was looking for the reward of his birthright (Heb. 11:4-27)

What a birthright to be valued and pursued . . . what a Savior to praised and glorified . . . amen?