Will we sell our birthright?

by:Teresa LeNeave

One decision, one choice we make, often sets the course of our lives, or even a nation. I think about the stories in the Bible and how if they had tweeted their choice, just slightly, history would have been so different.

I'm thinking of a particular story that most people are familiar with. The one involving Jacob and his brother Esau. Jacob was a homebody, while his brother Esau was an outdoorsman. Esau loved the woods. He loved hunting. More than likely he was a provider of much of the meat his family ate.

After one of his hunting trips, he returns home, tired, dirty and starving. The smell of hot soup cooking on the fire, took his breath away and apparently his ability to make good decisions, too.

In the story, he asked his brother Jacob for some of his delicious soup, but the selfish and self-serving Jacob saw an opportunity to take something of great value from his brother. He told him he could only have soup if he sold him his birthright in exchange.

Now, you must remember the firstborn's birthright was of great value. The fact that he would sell it for a bowl of soup is beyond comprehension. Especially, when you realize he sold a lifetime of birthright for a temporary bowl of soup that was a very little value.

Here's a grown man who knows how to take care of himself in the woods; knows how to survive in the outdoors yet, for a measly bowl of soup he sells the most valuable possession he owns.

He trades his future for something of very little value. And even more amazing, he trades it for something that will be gone in just a few hours. In a very short time he would be hungry again.

How ironic is it that we are very much like Esau? The Bible asked, "What will you give in exchange for your soul?" But, like Esau , we are often willing to give up the peace of our souls for temporary satisfaction.

A grown man who knew he could have gone in the kitchen and made himself some soup, was willing to sell out his future for something right before him.

He took the easy way out. He had no idea he was choosing temporary pleasure for a lifetime of pain. Sadly, once he had his fill of stew, his senses returned and he begged to get his birthright back but Jacob knew the value of what he had and was not about to give it back.

Sometimes we can't think of nothing past the thing in front of us. The things we want. Our brain is powerfully amazing and it just seems to pull us in the wrong direction, but think God for Grace. For that I am so grateful.

There is an old song that says love grew where the blood fell. God's love has never diminished. Esau didn't live in the dispensation of grace, but we do. All our sins and shame are covered by the blood of Jesus when we call on him. For that I am so grateful.

Humans have a terrible weakness for trading something of great value, for something of little value. Esau is one of the best biblical examples of someone who made a single choice that affected his entire life and the entire life of a nation.

In the very near future, we're going to have some tough choices to make, and we need to ask God to help us make those choices: because choices we make today always determines our tomorrows.