COME AS A CHILD LESSON 71 ESAU EATS AN EXPENSIVE MEAL

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

One day Esau went hunting and had no luck.  He must have stayed in the fields and the woods entirely too long without eating, just thinking that the next hour would bring him victory in the hunt.  He did not find the prey that he wanted to find.  He came back home empty-handed this time, and he wasn't very happy about it.   A long time had passed as he stalked his prey without success, and he was without food the whole time.  He walked into the camp feeling very tired and faint only to find Jacob standing over a fire, cooking a delicious lintel stew, one of Esau's favorite dishes!  

The aromatic scent drifted across the breeze over the fire where Jacob was preparing the meal.  Esau had never smelled anything like it!  Just what he was craving!  He was SO hungry!  He felt if he did not have food soon he would surely pass out.  He strolled into his brother’s kitchen area like a bull in a china shop and loudly proclaimed “Give me some of that stew!”

This must have completely annoyed Jacob who sat clean and orderly before the meal he had prepared for himself only.  He must have noticed that Esau smelled horrible after so many days on the hunt, being outside in the land without bathing or changing his clothes.  By now in their lives Jacob had grown very tired of Esau’s way of always barging into what was his and just expecting him to give it up.  Esau seemed to think since they were twins that everything was community property and he could just grab whatever he wanted whenever he wanted.  Why couldn’t he be satisfied with all the blessings that he had?  After all, Esau was the oldest (by a few priceless minutes) and the one who would inherit the birthright from Isaac. Why should he want what little was left over to Jacob?

Jacob must have pondered what a waste this inheritance of Esau was going to be.  Esau had no respect for people or possessions.  For Isaac to turn over 2/3rds of his possessions to Esau one day seemed tragic to Jacob who was probably a diligent worker, a detailed planner and a very careful steward.  He must have wondered why Isaac did not see this trait in Esau every time Esau came along charming him by bringing home the wild venison that he hunted down and cooked for him.  Isaac had been fooled into loving and favoring this son by a few stupid bowls of wild meat, venison to be exact, which Esau always cooked for him after his hunts.  Well, apparently there would be no cooking for Isaac today. 

All of this must have been in Jacob’s head when he answered Esau’s pleas for Jacob’s delicious, perfectly prepared dinner. 

“Let me buy your birthright for this bowl of porridge” said Jacob in total sarcasm, probably wondering if Esau could be that stupid or wondering if Esau could be as foolish as Isaac was being in favoring Esau's stews.  Jacob was merely being sarcastic, knowing that Esau would not even realize what he was saying.  Surely Esau would not answer “yes” to that question; or so Jacob thought in his irony and sarcasm.

He looked up to see Esau actually considering his question! 

Esau’s eyes were on the juicy stew made from well-feed beef and freshly

grown lintels.  It had been flavored with homegrown spices and herbs, with just the right seasonings to blend with just the right fat, giving the tender long-and-slow cooked stew an awesome flavor.  Esau’s mouth watered.  He had never smelled anything to equal this stew and his appetite was working overtime.  He had to admit to himself that Jacob was the best cook in the land.  He thought it was a stew perfect enough to feed any very royal king.  Why should he not eat this stew instead of his brother?  Surely it didn't matter as much to Jacob.  Had Esau not been the one out doing the work of chasing down wild game for their father to enjoy while his brother sat in the luxury of the tent and filled his belly?  After all, there his brother sat all calm, clean and rested, and Esau suspected their mother had spent the hours while he was away waiting on him hand and foot.  Esau thought about how very spoiled Jacob was.  He detested how his mother treated him.  All she could ever talk about was “Jacob did this” and “Jacob did that.”  She was brainwashed.  Why should Jacob have all the luxury of this day?  He did not deserve it.  Besides, Jacob had been here eating regularly every day and Esau was hungry!

So he wanted the birthright……it all went back to the birthright, everything did. 

So much of the birthright was simply spiritual blessings; nothing that would really matter to someone like Esau who did not actually believe that this God from which Abraham first received the blessings existed.  Why should he care if Isaac bestowed these same words to him by laying hands on him at the time near his death?  Would that bring his father back to him after he was gone?  No!  Then Esau would have to take care of all those his father had looked after all his life; Rebekah, Keturah, aunts, uncles, cousins, servants, DROVES of servants.  What did Esau need with all of these leaches?  It all evolved around the fact that this God they believed wanted this done.  Esau did not believe that this God even existed.  He was sick of them shoving Him down his throat.  It was nice to feel important sometimes, but this birthright was not going to be worth all the work and trouble that would be tied to it.  It would totally interfere with Esau’s freedom.  Esau did not like being told what to do.  He valued his freedom to come and go and often went away for days at a time.  He did not like being tied down with heavy responsibilities.  Things were hard enough now.  Inheriting the birthright would only make things more complicated and take away even more of his time.  He would never be able to just take off on a hunt for days at a time again.  

In so many ways, Esau actually detested his birthright. It meant that he had to learn cultured things and go to school and think about handling money and making investments and being responsible.  If he complained he was always reminded of the birthright and his responsibilities.   His parents kept trying to push him in this direction; or Isaac did anyway.  Rebekah was always busy with Jacob’s refinement. 

To Esau, all that mattered in life was that the sun rose each morning and he had a bow in his hand aimed at a large buck off in the field.  Life was the hunt and the hunt was life.  What else was there?  

He cared nothing for the dignitaries and the oh-so-proper people that his parents often invited to dinner.  They sat at the table and talked more than they ate.  They discussed religion and war and money.  He cared for none of that.  All he needed was an open field and the sunshine. 

Esau knew his brother Jacob was quite a different story.  Jacob was always Johnny-on-the-spot, holding on to Rebekah’s coat-tails, coming to the table with a million questions and a hunger to learn all the answers, impressing everyone with his knowledge of everything.  Esau thought him greedy, arrogant, never satisfied with what he had, always seeking more.  Now he was asking for Esau’s birthright. 

Esau paused for a brief moment to consider that the birthright did not really mean much to him, and he looked at the stew with longing eyes.  All Esau ever considered in life was the very moment that he was in at the time.  His only hesitation was the fact that, for some strange reason, he kept seeing Isaac’s face in his mind as he considered this. 

What would his father think? 

Did he even have to know?  

Esau had tried to tell Isaac over and over that he just was not interested in carrying out the family business. Isaac had always expressed to him that he should just be patient; that it would mean something to him one day.  Well, Esau was a grown adult man now, and that birthright still did not mean any more to him.  What he wanted was a good bowl of lintel stew.  Yes!  He would solve two problems at once.  Isaac need never be told, and Esau could fill his belly RIGHT NOW and be content.  Right now was all that ever mattered to Esau.  He gave no thought for the future, he let that take care of itself.  That was his philosophy!

“Okay, I’ll trade.”

Jacob could not believe his ears!  How foolish could a man be?  How could this excuse of a human being be his brother, much less his twin?  Such a man as this did not deserve his father’s hard earned fortune!

It was going to be a good day for Jacob.  

He had long pondered the words of Abraham to Isaac in the giving of the birthright.  How Jacob had yearned to be the one receiving such words!  Some day Isaac would repeat them to the son who owned the birthright.   Esau had been in line automatically to receive the very same words that Abraham had repeated to Isaac, the very words that God had said to him!  Jacob had memorized them, long from his childhood because his mother had often whispered them into his ear.

“I have made you a father of many nations.  I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations from you.  I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.  The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you, and I will be their God.”

The birthright contained this promise from God to all of Abraham’s descendants!  What could be more important?  Jacob realized this was a very sacred thing.  He also realized nothing was sacred to Esau.  Should he take this foolish bargain from his brother? 

Would it be wrong?

Well, maybe it was an opportunity for someone to make the birthright turn out the way it should.  His brother would certainly never follow through with any of it.  All would be wasted if Jacob did not take it!  Even the one third that Jacob stood to inherit would go down the tubes too with Esau in charge of everything.  He consoled himself with this fact, never considering the other part of the facts; that it would mean he would become the ONLY heir to his family’s great wealth which had been passed on from his grandfather Abraham.  He would tell his father this when the time came.  No need to rush.  There were years left to do it.  Someone had to protect Abraham’s blessing from Esau, and he might as well be the one to do it since his father was not going to ever say no to this undeserving but favored child named Esau. 

Jacob slowly dipped out the stew and handed a very full bowl to his eagerly waiting twin brother.  

For a few priceless minutes Esau enjoyed the best stew he had ever tasted.

Soon Esau had filled his stomach to the brim and lay snoring right in the middle of Jacob’s kitchen floor.  For once Jacob did not care.  He quickly ran off, smiling all the way.  He had a lot to confide, and he must find his mother to tell her all of the details.