Those who know the Genesis 25 story about Esau giving up his birthright for a bowl of stew may question how Esau could have ever made such a flippant bargain. As the story goes in Genesis 25:29-34, Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came rushing in and begged for some of the stew. “Jacob answered, “First sell me your rights as the firstborn.” “Look, I am about to die!” said Esau. “What use to me are my rights as the firstborn?” So Jacob gave Esau the stew, and Esau, “ate, drank and went his way.” Many interpret this incident as Esau’s really stupid decision to trade his birthright for a simple bowl of stew because he was self-centered and boorish. But there is a much deeper realization that impacts your life.
Scripture says, “Thus Esau showed how little he valued his birthright.” The narrative informs us that Esau was not concerned with something that would happen after he died (i.e., the birthright). Esau likely knew that he wouldn’t see the inheritance in his lifetime, because of what God told Abraham in Genesis 15:13-16, that it would be after 400 years of oppression that his descendants would return to the land. Esau was saying that he had no interest in something that he would not see in his lifetime, nor did he appear to care about his descendants’ inheritance. Esau obviously put his immediate needs far above the birthright promise of a great covenantal future as the Chosen People of God. If Jacob had chosen as Esau who “ate, drank, and went his way,” there would be no nation of Israel—and no redemption for all people.
The birthright of the Jewish people is not fully realized until the Messiah returns—thousands of years after Esau forfeited his birthright and lost his familial blessing through Jacob’s deception. The apostle Paul, reflecting that not all are physical inheritors of the covenantal blessing, writes in Romans 9:10, “And even more to the point is the case for Rebecca; for both her children were conceived in a single act with Isaac, our father; and before they were born, before they had done anything at all, either good or bad (so that God’s plan might remain a matter of his sovereign choice, not dependent on what they did, but on God, who does the calling), it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger.” In the grand scheme of things, God, Himself foreordained the blessing, and the choice is His. Jacob and Esau also made also their choices. Herein is the point.
God choses people based on His own purposes and His desire to show grace to all. Ephesians 1:46 says, “In the Messiah he chose us in love before the creation of the universe to be holy and without defect in his presence. He determined in advance once that through the Messiah Jesus we would be his sons—in keeping with his pleasure and purpose—so that we would bring him praise commensurate with the glory of the grace he gave us through the Beloved One.” God’s election has nothing to do with what we would or would not do. God chooses us, then in response to His work in our lives, we choose Him. His choice is first, without God’s election, no one would ever turn to Him—we would all be like Esau, “eating and drinking and going his way,” concerned only with the here and now. Stew or birthright? It’s an eternal choice.
