Home › blog › "So Esau despised his birthright"
Back To Blog

"So Esau despised his birthright"

  • user notice: The custom_breadcrumbs_nodeapi() function called token replacement with an array rather than a string for $text in /var/home/oscodaba/public_html/sites/all/modules/contrib/token/token.module on line 263.
  • user notice: The custom_breadcrumbs_nodeapi() function called token replacement with an array rather than a string for $text in /var/home/oscodaba/public_html/sites/all/modules/contrib/token/token.module on line 263.

Considering our lifestyle priorities

Submitted by dave on Tue, 02/01/2011 - 12:12

 Genesis 25:34

“So Esau despised his birthright.”
It has been common to hear about bad Esau. Who would sell their birthright for a bowl of stew? Isn’t that terrible?
But, wait a minute! Before we get too critical, let’s remember what the Bible says about you and me. In Romans 8:17 we read; “Now if we are children, then we are heirs— heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” That verse is telling us that we are inheritors of God’s blessings right along with Jesus Christ Himself. That is our birthright.
Like Esau, though, we are often more impressed with our immediate needs than with something that sounds sort of like, “pie in the sky, by and by.” After all, I have bills that MUST be paid, things to buy, places to go and people to see. What good is spiritual discipline compared to the urgent needs in my life now. Our “hunger” is acute. As good as my spiritual development is in theory, it takes a back seat in comparison to meeting our urges in the here and now.
Because we don’t really believe that we are now spiritual beings, we continue to live according to human mandates. We can’t deny ourselves. We may feel that to do so would be the end of life. Esau thought the birthright would do him no good if he died from his hunger.
I think I need to ponder once again what it means to have a “new life” in Jesus Christ and to be an heir together with Him. Am I prioritizing His values, or simply tacking on some church words to an otherwise common life of self-gratification?