Esau came in from the field faint and hungry. Jacob had cooked a pot of stew, and Esau wanted some. Jacob named his price.
The birthright.
An inheritance was being placed beside a meal, and Esau’s attention stayed on his appetite. What good would the birthright do him, he asked, if he was about to die? Jacob required an oath. Esau swore and sold him the birthright.
Then Jacob gave him bread and lentil stew. Esau ate, drank, got up, and went his way.
The meal was finished. The trade remained.
Genesis closes the account by telling us that Esau despised his birthright. Something lasting had been surrendered for something he could finish eating.
An immediate desire can make tomorrow’s cost seem terribly far away. A lie promises escape from an uncomfortable conversation. An angry sentence promises the satisfaction of landing a blow. A familiar destructive habit promises a little distance from whatever hurts.
We want the first part of the transaction. Tomorrow can sort out the rest.
We treat our future self like an unloved roommate who can clean up after us. Eventually, we discover that the fellow left holding the broom has our name.
Choices and consequences come together. We can choose an action without having authority to choose everything that follows it. A lie may cost trust. A cruel remark may remain in someone’s memory long after our temper cools. Money spent feeding a destructive habit is money unavailable for the people depending on us.
Wisdom looks past the attractive first line and reads the bottom half of the receipt.
Paul uses the picture of sowing and reaping. He warns about sowing to the flesh and encourages believers to keep doing good without growing weary. The harvest may take time. Its delay gives us no reason to pretend the seed has changed.
God’s judgment reaches farther than the consequences we can see. Faithful people also suffer, and wrongdoers sometimes appear to prosper. Our circumstances alone cannot tell the whole story of someone’s standing before God.
He knows the whole story—including the choices we wish we could take back.
Christ came to save sinners. Eternal life is God’s gift through Him. We receive that gift by faith, bringing our guilt to the Savior who bore the cost we could never pay.
His forgiveness gives us a new direction, though some earthly consequences may remain. Trust may need rebuilding. People we harmed may still be hurting. Mercy gives us reason to face those things honestly and begin doing what is right.
We can acknowledge the damage without continuing to create more of it.
There is room for the next truthful answer, the apology, and the quiet decision to leave a destructive habit unfed. None can purchase forgiveness. They belong to the new direction mercy makes possible.
Esau’s meal reminds us how quickly an appetite can name a foolish price. He ate, drank, and went his way, but the bargain reached beyond his hunger.
The pleasure may be immediate. The consequences come in the same package.
“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” —Galatians 6:7
—Jeff Wager
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