ESAU'S FOLLY
Sermon, April 18, 1999
Texts: Genesis 1:27, 3:1-6, 25:19-34; Hebrews 12:14-17
While visiting London some years ago, I purchased a book entitled The World's Greatest Mistakes. One amusing anecdote in that book was about a Mr. Lewis Grade, better known in Great Britain as international film and television magnate Lord Grade. Seems that Mr. Grade once visited a London theatre and saw a performance he considered to be magnificent. He was particularly enthralled by two of the performers. He rushed backstage after the show, congratulated the two performers and promised to make them big stars if they would sign up with him as their agent. In his excitement, he never even bothered to introduce himself! They understandably hesitated; after all, they didn't know who this unknown, impertinent man was who had brazenly entered the backstage area. They demurred, saying that they were happy with their present agent. Lew Grade then promised to double the money they were then getting from their present agent. The two performers then took interest, and were most enthusiastic about the offer; so, they accepted it there on the spot! Mr. Grade then asked them, "Who's your agent at the moment? I'll take care of contacting him for you." They replied, "Lew Grade." What was he to do? Being a man of his word, Lord Grade made good on his offer, even though he ended up paying an exorbitant price for a privilege that was already his. Because of his impetuousness, he ended up incurring a dear debt to pay for a contract that was his in the first place!
In a very real sense, that is what Adam and Eve did in the Garden. The temptation was that they would be like God if they would eat of the fruit. What Adam and Eve seemed to have forgotten is that being God-like was their birthright! (Genesis 1:27) "God created man in his own image, in the image of God He created him, male and female he created them"
(note the repetition, which is a Hebrew literary technique to denote emphasis). The bitter irony of the account is this: Had Adam and Eve patiently endured the testing in the Garden, they indeed would have been like God, with all the wisdom, insight and rights that would entail. The potential of being like God was already theirs; it was their birthright, they simply had to grow up into it through discipline and obedience. They did have a God-given desire to be like God; there was nothing wrong with the desire. However, the Deceiver manipulated that God-given desire, and led Adam and Eve to attempt to fulfill the desire in a way other than what God had ordained. Through disobedience born of this impatient desire to satisfy a longing, they lost their birthright. They sold their birthright for what amounted to nothing more than a piece of fruit. Like Lew Grade, through an impetuous act they sought to secure something that was already theirs. And like Mr. Grade, they ended up paying dearly for their impetuous action. The price tag of their action? The very thing they were trying to acquire. Because of their disobedience born of impatient desire to satisfy a God-given longing, they lost their birthright as children of God. The image of God in Adam and Eve was marred, defaced, broken; indeed, shattered. They squandered their birthright, as they were more than willing to believe the deception of the serpent.However, it is significant that this account takes place at the beginning of the Bible. The rest of the Scriptures speak of how God buys our birthright back for us, how He redeems us through Jesus Christ. Through Jesus Christ, God pays an exacting price to "buy back" for us what was squandered through the sinful disobedience of our representatives in the Garden. The end result of our salvation and sanctification through Jesus Christ is that we will one day be like God after all, "...we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him face to face (I John 3:2)," the image of God will be fully restored in each of us.
We read of another squandered birthright this morning, another birthright lost by deception and impetuous carelessness. Please turn to Genesis 25:19. Isaac, son of Abraham, and his wife, Rebekkah, were expecting. "When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment; so they named him Esau. After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau's heel; so he was named Jacob." Even before the boys were born there was intense rivalry between them
(unfortunately, as verse 28 intimates, the parents seem to have fed that rivalry in later years with their favoritism). Esau was born first, with a "hairy mantle" covering his body ... as you can see in the footnote, his name literally means "Hairy." He was probably like my oldest brother; Alan had the dubious honor of being sent home from school for not shaving... in the 7th grade. Esau fought his way out of the womb first; however, the second son comes out of the womb with his fist firmly wrapped in an iron-clad grasp around his brother's heel, almost as if to say, "Oh, no you don't! Me First!" (Most parents among you are familiar with that maddening game of "Me First!" kids seem to play every time they come to a doorway; it seems these two were doing that from the womb!) As you can see in the footnote, his name, Jacob, literally means "He who grasps the heel." Some of you may remember that "grabbing one's heel" is the Hebrew equivalent to our "pulling one's leg"--- the name Jacob figuratively means "deceiver, trickster." So we have the twin boys, Hairy and the Trickster. Even from birth, Jacob seemed determined to grab his brother's heel (or "pull his leg") and yank Esau out of his place of first-born privilege by trickery.As the story goes, one day Esau came in from the hunting fields, hungry. "Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. He said to Jacob, 'Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I'm famished!' Jacob replied, 'First sell me your birthright.' 'Look, I am about to die,' Esau said. 'What good is the birthright to me?' But Jacob said, 'Swear to me first' So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright." It seems Esau couldn't have cared less about his birthright, he considered it insignificant, and instant gratification of a bodily appetite seemed to be all that mattered to him. Reading between the lines a bit, imagine Esau saying, "I don't care about long-term consequences, I'm hungry now. I just want to be satisfied now. Why should I wait to indulge?" And Jacob pressed his advantage. There's nothing wrong with being hungry, and Esau was hungry! That is a God-given desire; however, Esau satisfied that desire by squandering something precious. As the text says, Esau despised his birthright as first-born son and heir of the covenant promises made by God to Abraham and Isaac. He despised this heritage in that he took it lightly, he treated it as insignificant. Because he took his birthright so lightly, he willingly sold out for a bowl of stew to satisfy a passing hunger.
Now let's give attention to Hebrews 12:15-17. "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." Other translations have "grace" of God as the "blessing" of God; I prefer this, as I think it is more faithful to the Greek and because it better parallels the Old Testament account of Esau: Esau missed out on his father's blessing, and all that entailed; the author of Hebrews admonishes, "Don't miss out on the Heavenly Father's blessing by imitating Esau." Don't miss out on God's blessing, the author of Hebrews writes, by being "sexually immoral" or "godless" like Esau. "Sexually immoral" or "godless" like Esau? Now, what does trading a birthright for a bowl of stew have to do with sexuality and godlessness? One might possibly understand how Esau could have been considered "godless", but "sexually immoral?" Again, we have a translation difficulty in the text. The adjectives translated in the NIV as "sexually immoral" or "godless" are actually nouns (not adjectives) in the original Greek. They might be better rendered as "fornicator" and "profaner, as indeed they are rendered by the King James translation. Let's take the second word first: the word "profaner" means one who trifles with what is precious and sacred, one who treats the precious and the sacred with contempt, one who treats the precious and the sacred lightly. Esau treated what was sacred and precious (his birthright) as insignificant; he showed contempt for it, therefore, he profaned his sacred birthright as a child of the covenant, as heir of the divine promises of God. "Don't be a profaner like Esau," the King James translation says. Just as Esau lost out on the blessing of his father because he treated his birthright as insignificant, the one who treats the things of God as insignificant is in grave danger of missing out on the blessing of the Heavenly Father.
Now for the more difficult translation: "Don't be a fornicator like Esau." The word, "fornicator," strictly means one who engages in sexual activity with another outside of the marital bond, but the word has an interesting derivation in the Greek. It comes from a root word that means "to sell" and carries with it the connotation of "selling OUT." The fornicator sells out or gives out something precious for something profane, something cheap. The prostitute does it in a very concrete way, bartering her sexuality for money, but one does not have to be a professional prostitute to "sell out" sexually. Anyone involved in sexual sin is involved in selling out something very precious to satisfy a present, passing desire; but, that's another sermon. The writer of Hebrews intimates that Esau sold out, he prostituted his birthright, he fornicated away something precious and irretrievable for a momentary and fleeting pleasure, for the sake of immediate comfort. "Don't be a fornicator like Esau." Because he trifled with what was precious and sacred, he sold out for a simple bowl of stew to satisfy a passing hunger, losing his birthright as eldest son and as heir of the divine promises of God. As the text tells us, Esau lived to bitterly regret his action.
The obvious implication is that we are in danger of selling out, of spiritual fornication, when we take lightly the things God calls precious. For example, the virtues of fidelity, integrity, honesty, loyalty, faithfulness are very precious to God. Many are the pressures in our culture to forgo these lofty ideals for the moral equivalents of bowls of pottage. Via billboards, cinema, the TV, etc. much in our culture presses for immediate gratification, immediate comfort, immediate indulgence even if it means flaunting traditions, breaking vows, cheating or lying to a neighbor, ignoring the needs of children, friends, and neighbors, and so on. Let us ask ourselves in every decision that we have to make: By doing what I am about to do, will I secure and keep God's blessing, or am I "selling out" a precious birthright to satisfy a momentary discomfort? The Scriptures promise that God will give us the deep desires of our hearts, He will fully satisfy our every longing, if we do things His way and wait upon His good timing. The author of Hebrews reminds us that the blessing of God is ours by birthright; let us not sell it out, let us not risk squandering that blessing for some fleeting satisfaction, for some momentary comfort. It just isn't worth it, for us or for our children! If we wait for God we wiII indeed be satisfied! Don't be like Esau, don't belike Adam and Eve, don't be like Lew Grade, all who paid exorbitant prices to satisfy fleeting desires. Let us not risk squandering that which is already ours by birthright as children of God.