Giving up the Blessings of God to Satisfy Worldly Passions

Esau’s Birthright and the Pull of Worldly Appetite

Jacob said, sell me your birthright now. Esau said, I am about to die. Of what use is a birthright to me? Now let me ask you a question. Have you ever been so hungry you felt like you were going to die?

Is it usually an exaggeration? Do you think this was an exaggeration? Probably. He's probably not starving to death. But he is a man who demonstrates through this that he is led about by his passions.

He's led about by his belly. In fact, I want to just very quickly, if you don't mind, turn in your Bibles very quickly over to Hebrews 12. We won't be there long. I just want to show you something. Go to chapter 12, verse 15.

Esau as a Warning Against Unholiness and Bitterness

Because the writer of Hebrews looks at this moment in Esau's life and he says, here's the type of man he was. And he uses this moment to point to the type of man Esau was. Verse 15, it says this. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up or causes trouble, and by it many become defiled.

And that no one, verse 16, is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. And it goes on to talk about how he begged for repentance. And we're going to talk about that in two weeks when we get to chapter 27.

But notice what it says about Esau. It says this demonstrated his unholy character. It demonstrated his unholy attitude towards life because he was a man who was willing to put the things of this world in front of the things of God.

Trading the Things of God for Momentary Satisfaction

The birthright, that birthright was something that God gave to the firstborn and he was willing to jettison it simply to fill his stomach with a mouthful of porridge. Now again, I could spend all day on this.

We could spend three weeks on this. But how many of us just are willing to abandon the things of God for a mouthful of porridge? How many of us misworship for no other reason than we just didn't feel like getting out of bed?

Oh, and now I've hurt your feelings. Okay. But understand this. We so often are willing to replace the holy things of God with what satisfies us in the moment. And the writer of Hebrews says that is a picture of unholiness.

That is a picture of worldliness, of fleshliness. That we'd be willing to give up the things of God for the satisfaction, a momentary satisfaction. How long do you think that stew stayed in his stomach?

Not long. And yet we notice, going back to Genesis, that he swore an oath to give up the birthright privilege for a mouthful of pottage. This is hugely significant on a practical level. How many of us are so willing to abandon the things of God for meaningless things?

For trivial things? For a mouthful of pottage?