In these verses we are told of the different
characters of the twins. Esau, the older brother was a skilful hunter. Whereas
Jacob was a peaceful man preferring an indoor lifestyle. He was a stayed home
guy. We are not told their age but they had grown and each became a man. Esau
was Isaac’s favourite, for he often brought to the father meat of the animals
he had hunted, deliciously prepared and cooked. Jacob being a home loving
person, had more time with the mother and was obviously the mother’s favourite.
The animosity of the two brothers was not helped by the way the parents
favoured each of them. As parents, it would be wise for us to consider being impartial.
What we do can impact the relationship of our children. When they see that we
treat each one equally, they will also learn to deal with others fairly.
The custom of the day was set to prefer the elder of
the two. When the father died, he was supposed to have a double portion of the
father’s inheritance. The younger would only receive a portion. So Jacob set up
to craftily swop his position with Esau. One day the elder brother returned
home from his hunting trip and was famished. Jacob had prepared a savoury and
inviting stew. Esau then asked for a bit
of what he had cooked to satisfy his hunger. Here Jacob set out to barter trade
for his birth-right. He asked Esau to transfer his birth-right as the eldest
son, to him. What was important to Esau was the hunger that needed to be
satisfied. He did not care for the position of his inheritance so he mindlessly
sold his birth-right to Jacob for a bit of food. Esau was controlled by his
appetite rather than the long term promise of God. His life underscores the
importance of self-control. We must not allow our appetite to ruin our life. Not
properly harness, our appetite will jeopardize and sabotage God’s plan for our
future. Self-control is a critical character we all must have to be successful.
It is one of the fruits of the Spirit that can be cultivated through a close
walk with God. Obviously Esau, skilful as he was in hunting, was unskilled in
controlling himself.
This account of course did not justify the craftiness of Jacob. He
should have lovingly given his brother a good meal without any demand. But he
showed how unloving and uncaring he was. What he wanted was to take advantage
of a poor brother’s basic need. He realized to his chagrin much later that it
had brought him endless nights of anxiety of trying to right the situation. In
Esau and Jacob, we see here the drama of two lives. One was conniving, the
other was careless. While he was conniving, Jacob was hungrier for the things
of God. It was ordained that way by God. Remember he came forth grabbing his
brother’s heel at birth. His character was already seen even at birth. He would
be given priority even if he did not connive to get his brother’s share of the
inheritance. God would have worked it out. But it’s the nature of us human to
do it our way and had often created something that we need to spend needless
effort undoing the wrong. Esau’s action speaks of the need to be careful to
guard our God-given inheritance. We need
to live a measured life carefully evaluating our God given role and then to
faithfully discharge it. We must never trade our calling by God for something
less, just to satisfy our freshly appetite. The call is for us is to be
faithful and live responsibly!
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