Esau despises his birthright.

The boys grew up,  Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, but Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents. Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau. Rebekah loved Jacob. Now Jacob cooked a red stew and Esau came in from the field weary, and asked Jacob to feed him it. So they called him Edom, meaning red.  Jacob demanded Esau pay him by selling his birthright, the right of the firstborn. Esau tells him “Look, I am about to die; so what good is it to me?” Jacob then makes him swear,  and Esau eats and drinks and goes his way. “Thus Esau despised his birthright” (Genesis 25:27-34).

The favouritism shown by Isaac and Rebekah would prompt  many problems in the future. Esau's descendants (Edom) would refuse to let Jacob's descendants pass through their territory on the way to the promised land (Numbers 20:20). King David later conquered the Edomites and they served him, fulfilling the prophecy that “the older shall serve the younger” (Genesis 25:23; 2 Samuel 8:14).

To despise (verse 34), is to regard with contempt.  Esau had such little value for his birthright,  that he gave it up for a meal of stew. Paul could speak of those whose  “god is their belly,” by which he meant  those “who set their mind on earthly things” (Philippians 3:19). Moses, on the other hand, as a hero of the faith “refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God,  than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin” (Hebrews 11:24 ,25).

The expectation is that the believer be more like Moses than Esau. Paul instructs us “if then You have been raised with Christ, seek those things which are above (Colossians 3:1).  Likewise Jesus tells us “Do not labor for the bread which perishes, but for the bred  which endures to everlasting life” (John 6:27).  Jesus is the bread of life (John 6:27, 35).  He is the source and sustenance of our spiritual life, and the only means of being put right with the Father (John 14:6). We need to feed on His Word!

The Bible of course is constantly using the physical as a parable of the spiritual. So then Esau despising his birthright is a picture of the world despising the spiritual. Jesus as the Lamb of God was  despised and rejected by men, we did not esteem Him (John 1:29; Isaiah 53:1). He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him, but to as many as received Him,  to those who believe on His name, He gave the right to be called the children of God (John 1:11, 12). So then Jesus purchased an eternal birthright for those who believe and receive Him. We do of course also need to repent, for God does not despise a broken and contrite heart (Psalm 51:17).  

Father, Your command to redeem the time because the days are evil comes to mind (Ephesians 5:16). When the time is gone it is gone and can no longer be redeemed. Your Word tells us that Esau later regretted his choice and that “when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears” (Hebrews 12:17). Grant us repentance now Lord, break our hearts with the things that break Yours,  and we will give you the  glory in Jesus Name Amen