Don't Despise Your Birthright

I think we can all agree that the citizenship issue in most countries around the world is messy. Citizenship and non-citizenship is just... going to have a thousand complicated nuances to work out, the majority of which I haven't even considered, and even tiny adjustments will have ripple-effects on outlying issues.

Genesis 25 records Abraham's death. It goes through a nice little listing of all his progeny, a blessing to historians: sons of Hagar - and through her - sons of Ishmael; son of Sarah - and through her - sons of Isaac; and then sons of Abraham's second wife, Keturah, one of his concubines. 

Out of Abraham's many sons, according to the law of primogeniture, there is only one legal inheritor: Isaac. "Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac. But while he was still living, he gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them away from his son Isaac to the land of the east" (Genesis 25:5-6).

The issue of inheritance, and through inheritance, rights and territory, extends waaaaay back in history. In this chapter in Genesis, we find ourselves in the thick of it.

Isaac and Rebekah find it difficult to conceive. Nearly twenty years of married life have passed, and they still have no children. Isaac prays about it. Not just, "Lord, thank you for this day. Please give us kids." No, it says: "Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife..." (25:21). Isaac interceded. 

Intercession: standing in the gap on behalf of someone else. Coming before the Lord and asking Him, specifically, to change the course of events from one thing to another. It's exactly what Jesus Himself does for us: "Christ Jesus, who died - more than that, who was raised to life - is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us" (Romans 8:34). We were bound for hell because of our sin. Jesus stands before the great Judge and says: "I died for my people. Here is My righteous and perfect sacrificial blood, and it covers over and atones for their sins. I have justified them. I have made their sins scarlet, so they are as white as snow."

Mind. Blown. What was impossible, Jesus stepped in and did for us. The whole, entire Gospel is built on this exact thing. This is the centerpiece. Jesus is the cornerstone.

But I digress.

Sort of.

Okay, back to where I was. Isaac intercedes for his wife Rebekah to have children. He clings to the promise that God had given his father Abraham, that he will be the father of many nations. Isaac honors that promise, he lives in it, he respects it.

God listens to Isaac's fervent intercession and opens up Rebekah's womb, and she becomes pregnant... with twins. Two for the price of one. You asked; I'll give you double the fun. :)

Apparently, it isn't so fun for Rebekah. Genesis 25:22-23 says: "The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, 'Why is this happening to me?' So she went to inquire of the Lord. The Lord said to her, 'Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.'"

Here, we've got the introduction to Jacob and Esau and another bombshell with the law of primogeniture. Esau, for the record, is born first, just before Jacob. As firstborn, he is given the right to inherit a double portion of Isaac's wealth. Jacob will inherit as well, but he will be given a half-portion of everything that Esau inherits. 

Or at least, that's how it's supposed to be.

Except.

So one day when the boys are young men, Esau goes hunting for supper. Jacob stays back in camp to help his mom with supper prep. 

This is such a perfect description of their at-odds personalities. If they lived today, Esau would be the rock-climbing outdoor enthusiast. The camp counselor. The river kayaker. The sky-diving jumper. The wipe-the-blood-off-your-knee-and-hike-on-er

Jacob would be the bookworm. The chef. The house tidier. The one who kills the spider that shows up in the corner of the bathroom.

Anyway, Esau goes hunting, and he comes back to camp, absolutely famished. Jacob's squatting next to the fire, stirring lentil soup. The smell of freshly baked bread is wafting over the area, and Esau just. can't. help. himself. "Give me some of that," he says.

Now, I have always loved the name Jacob, especially the nickname Jake. I don't know; it just seems so down-to-earth. Jake. "Hi, I'm Jake." It's friendly. If I was a boy, I wouldn't mind owning that name.

When Jacob comes out of the womb, he's clinging to Esau's heel, and the name Jacob becomes synonymous with "heel-grasper," or, more bluntly, "deceiver; one who deceives."

So, Heel-Grasper, or One Who Deceives, is squatting by the fire, and his brother Esau says: "Give me some of that; I'm starving!"

So, One Who Deceives says, "First... sell me your birthright."

Good lands. A bowl of soup for your inheritance. And I thought Starbucks was pricey.

Esau reasons, as a hungry man does: Well, if I die, I won't inherit anything anyway, so I may as well. He agrees.

Genesis 25 ends with this phrase: "So Esau despised his birthright."

This is so. significant! Esau's birthright is the covenant of God to Abraham that he will be the father of nations, that he will be given the Promised Land.

And Esau despises the covenant. He despises God's word. He despises the original promise that is to be the pathway of Abraham's descendants through the generations for all time.

He gives it away for a bowl of soup.

And Jacob takes it over. There are a whole lot of things that go into this: Isaac still has to give his official "blessing," which will happen later (and we'll see more deception taking place), and Romans 9 opens a big debate on the idea of foreknowledge and predestination (and as a result, I have avoided that chapter like the plague for years, because it makes me ask some tough questions). Not getting into that right now, maybe later. 

Right now, Esau despised his birthright. And because he did, the writer of Hebrews calls him "godless." 

Hebrews 12:14-17 says: "Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one misses the grace of God, and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears."

That root is what I was praying about this morning. The root is the despising of what God Himself has given us. Esau despised his birthright. Do we despise our birthright? What is our birthright?

"We are citizens of heaven where the Lord Jesus Christ lives" (Philippians 3:20). Our birthright is heaven; it's the kingdom of God. That's our territory! So WHY are we wasting time arguing over earthly territorial disputes. I'm not necessarily talking about actual country borders; I'm talking about where our focus lies.

The Kingdom of heaven is our inheritance, and as inheritors of that Kingdom, we should be doing everything we can to focus on it. That's what good inheritors of their father's estate do. They review their estate, meet with lawyers, secure property, go over finances, do everything they can to be sure it is safe.

They don't despise it. 

Y'all, that "bitter root" the writer of Hebrews talks about is abundantly clear in our conversations today. I'm talking about conversations right within the church. Exacerbated, no doubt, by vehement opinions over political parties, this "bitter root" is shown through our disrespect and our arguments and our clinging to "earthly kingdoms" we've set up that keep our focus off of the heavenly Kingdom, off of our inheritance.

When I pull up weeds out of the garden, I have to be so careful to pull them when they're still small, so that the roots of the weeds don't coil around the good plants. When I pull up the small weeds, it's not a big deal, because their roots haven't grown deep. But a "bitter root" is one that has taken over, coiled around the good roots, and when it is pulled up, other plants come with it.

We have a bitter root in the church, and when it comes up - and it will, because our God is a consuming fire, a refiner of silver - the kingdoms we have built are going to come up with it.

Which kingdom are we going to focus on? 

Don't despise your birthright.