Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #19 of Genesis, chapter 25, and we are going to read Genesis 25:33-34:

And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.

We have been spending some time looking at this historical event that took place thousands of years ago in the home of Jacob and Esau, twin brothers.  When Esau came in from the field, he was weary and about to faint.  He was very hungry and tired, and he did not feel like making anything for himself.  Jacob was sodding pottage, and Jacob offered him a deal, which he should not have done, but he did.  In offering the deal, Jacob was dealing proudly, but then Esau took him up on his offer, which he should not have done, and he sinned.  He disdained the birthright, and that was a very big deal because it was all related to the promise given to Abraham and Isaac, the promise of a seed and the promise of inheriting the land.  Remember it said back in Genesis 17:8:

And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.

Of course, this is a spiritual promise having to do with the new creation of the new earth, which the land of Canaan typified, but it was a promise to Abraham, and Isaac was the seed of Abraham, and that pointed to the “seed” (singular), the Lord Jesus Christ.  And all the seed (plural) would be counted for the seed in Christ and be recipients of the promise.  So all this is related to the inheritance which the firstborn son would receive.  He would get a “double portion.”  But to Esau, it was nothing.  Remember we read in Hebrew 12 where God comments on this whole situation in Hebrews 12:16:

Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.

One morsel of meat.  What a low estimation he had for the birthright!  In history, we sometimes hear of deals that transpired, like the sale of Manhattan by the native Indians, and the story goes that they sold it for trinkets.  Or, there was the sale of Alaska by the Russians to the Americans.  It was much more than trinkets, but considering the value the land possessed, it was bought very cheaply.  And what about Jacob purchasing the birthright for a bowl of pottage of some lentiles and bread?  “One morsel of meat,” is how God describes it.  Could there have been a worse deal made wherein Esau would get nothing?  Actually, even if he had gotten everything and he had made a better deal of gold, silver, land and cattle, and everything else thrown in, he would still have nothing, eventually, because it would all disappear as everything in this world does, because everything that is a part of this word is vanity, and that is the point that the Lord Jesus makes in Matthew 16:24-26:

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

Some men drive a harder bargain than Esau: “Oh, I am not going to sell my birthright for a bowl of soup.  That is stupid.  But give me a million dollars.”  So that is what they go after as they pursue money.  Or, someone else might say, “Oh, just give me the good things of life, a nice house and a family.”  And they pursue that all their days.  No matter what it is and no matter how grand the deal is or how little it is (like the pottage), it all comes to the same thing. “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world…”  Go ahead, have the whole world.  And today, I think God has made that available in some ways with the internet, where everything is right at your fingertips, where you can see and hear and experience through the lusts of the eye and whatever you want to experience, and it is all available in a moment of time.  But it is just complete vanity – it is nothing.  It is nothing. 

The gourmet meals go out in the draught.  It means nothing when you have tremendous experiences and visit faraway places.  So you have a memory of it, but after a while the memory fades.  And even the memory of it is nothing.  It has no value.  It has no weight.  It, too, will be taken from you.  The Bible says that when a man dies, “in that very day his thoughts perish.”  So what value is it to pursue these things, and to choose and prefer the things of the world, and after you have enjoyed and partaken of them, you are still left with nothing at the end of things?

On the other hand, if God grants us a new heart and a new spirit and makes us a part of the “church of the firstborn,” where we receive our new resurrected souls and we are fellowheirs with Christ, we have the promise of an everlasting habitation and eternal life, and an abundance of rich spiritual blessing that will be showered upon us for evermore.  But instead of enjoying the pleasures of the sins of this world for a short season, we struggle, and we have much tribulation and affliction, and we are often cast down, and our souls are vexed on a daily basis.  That is true.  But what is that in comparison to the “far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory”?  It is as nothing at all.  There is no comparison because it is of the greatest value.  You could pile the whole world on a scale with every desire, want, and lustful thought you have ever had in your heart, and on the other scale, put your soul that will live forever (if God has had mercy upon you), and then weigh the two.  And the soul will certainly have the greatest weight, even if you had a thousand worlds with their timelines attached to them, where they will run their course, and there would come a last day.  Then forget it – it is worthless.  Ultimately, it is a vain, empty worthless thing of nought.  So the bowl of soup really does picture everything in an accurate way.  Some people that might read this account might say that Esau sold his birthright for too little, but the point God is making is that the bowl of soup represents anything and everything in this world that you could desire, because it comes down to the same thing.  The soup will soon be gone and forgotten, and so will everything else.

So the low estimation that Esau placed on his birthright is one of the reasons the Lord goes on to say in Genesis 25:34:

Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.

The word “despised” is Strong’s #959 in the Hebrew, and it is found in 1Samuel 2:27-29:

And there came a man of God unto Eli, and said unto him, Thus saith JEHOVAH, Did I plainly appear unto the house of thy father, when they were in Egypt in Pharaoh’s house? And did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to offer upon mine altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me? And did I give unto the house of thy father all the offerings made by fire of the children of Israel? Wherefore kick ye at my sacrifice and at mine offering, which I have commanded in my habitation; and honourest thy sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the chiefest of all the offerings of Israel my people?

The Lord is addressing Eli, the high priest of Israel, whose sons were doing wickedly.  If you read the earlier part of the chapter, they were involved in all kinds of terrible, evil things, and Eli did not correct them.  So God was addressing the father, Eli, and He said in 1Samuel 2:30:

Wherefore JEHOVAH God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever: but now JEHOVAH saith, Be it far from me; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.

They were despising the commandments and statutes of God and the priesthood that God had established by not honoring Him in any way.  Therefore, God would “lightly esteem” them, which has the same idea: as they despised Him, He would despise them. 

Notice the wording, “lightly esteemed,” which could apply very well to Esau’s despising of his birthright.  He “lightly esteemed” it.  To give it proper esteem, he would have valued it much more, and as soon as Jacob said, “Sell me this day thy birthright,” he would have responded, “Do not dare to bring up that kind of thing and offer soup for my birthright.  I will go without or find something to eat myself.”  He would not even have considered it.  But he did listen and consider, and he actually sold his birthright because he lightly esteemed it.  In lightly esteeming it, he despised it.

We also read in 2Chronicles 36:14-16:

Moreover all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of JEHOVAH which he had hallowed in Jerusalem. And JEHOVAH God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place: But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of JEHOVAH arose against his people, till there was no remedy.

Here, God is summing up the response of the rebellious house of Israel throughout their history.  He sent His Word through messengers, the prophets, and they despised His Word.  They despised the message of Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Micaiah,  and so forth, the true men of God who were simply declaring the things that God would have them to say.  They were abused.  They were thrown into prison, and all kinds of terrible things happened to the prophets of God that were messengers of the Word of God.  So that helps us to understand what it is to despise one’s birthright. 

It goes along with the mindset and character of the unsaved when they are confronted and come into contact with holy things, the Word of God and the spiritual truths that the Bible presents.  In our day, it would be the message of the Gospel that went forth during the day of salvation; the message of man’s sin; the wrath of God upon them for that sin; the message of the timeline that indicated that they did not have much time; and the opening of the Scripture to reveal the very Day of Judgment in which the door of heaven would shut when the time would elapse, and there would be no more possibility of salvation.  And that Word was despised by many who called themselves the people of God.  They have a larger degree of fault because they should have known better.  But the Word was despised by the unsaved or the “Esaus” of the world.  These are the ones typified by Esau when God said, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”  You see, they also had opportunity to go to the Lord for the blessing and for the birthright, because if they were God’s elect, they would be found in the Person of the Lord Jesus, who is the firstborn from the dead.  And they would be counted for the firstborn son as well.  Instead, they mocked the messengers of God: “No man knows the day or the hour!  Get that message away from me.”   They ripped up the tracts, and so forth.  It is typical of mankind.  We know that when Jesus sent forth the seventy, He said in Luke 10:16:

He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me.

That would also be true of Esau who despised his birthright.  He was not despising Jacob.  Ultimately, he was despising God, so it is no wonder that the wrath of God came down upon him.

We read in Malachi 1:6-9:

A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith JEHOVAH of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name? Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of JEHOVAH is contemptible.  And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? saith JEHOVAH of hosts. And now, I pray you, beseech God that he will be gracious unto us: this hath been by your means: will he regard your persons? saith the LORD of hosts.

Our word is the word “contemptible.”  Here, God is indicating that they, again, are despising his commandments, statutes and Laws, and the way that things must be done to maintain the standard of righteousness and holiness.  And the priests of Israel despised that and, therefore, they despised God.

And, of course, the New Testament churches with their pastors, elders and deacons and spiritual leaders, likewise, despised the holy standard of the Law of God concerning the operation of the churches, the teachings of the Gospel, and the Lord’s Table and baptism.  And they added and subtracted to what the Bible said about those things, such as implying, or even directly stating, that grace could be imparted by partaking of the Lord’s Table, or that salvation could be obtained through water baptism, and so forth.  It was all a pollution of the Gospel.  It was the “fly in the ointment” and the grace of God was turned to man’s works, again, and again.  It was perverted and twisted and turned by the natural-minded people within the congregations whom God did not love – they were the tares among the wheat.

Let us look at one more passage in Obadiah where we read of Edom (who is Esau).  It says in Obadiah 1:1-4:

The vision of Obadiah. Thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH concerning Edom; We have heard a rumour from JEHOVAH, and an ambassador is sent among the heathen, Arise ye, and let us rise up against her in battle. Behold, I have made thee small among the heathen: thou art greatly despised. The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground? Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith JEHOVAH.

This is Edom’s judgment, and he was greatly despised.  In the pride of his heart, he had lifted himself up.  And remember that Esau was Jacob’s twin brother, the son of Isaac, son of Abraham.  They were the people of God in their day as God dealt with their family, and Esau or Edom is often used in the Bible to describe those that have identification with the true Gospel and the true God of the Bible.  So we saw in Hebrews 12 that after God said that Esau was a profane person who sold his birthright for a morsel of bread, it said in the next verse that Esau still sought the blessing, seeking it carefully with tears.  And, here, God is indicating that there would be no blessing for him.  He was hated and he would be destroyed for evermore.  This is basically what God is saying, and this will be the final judgment of unsaved mankind, as Esau represents them.  Yes – there is a time when they despise their birthright.  There is a time they will lose the blessing.  Then there will be a time of judgment, and a time of destruction, where they will go to non-existence and be annihilated.  They will not realize what has happened.  They do not realize what they have lost, and we can be thankful of that, but through the experience of it, they will “know” the judgment of JEHOVAH.