these children being born and Paul says neither one of
them having done evil or good had done anything before they
were born God said Jacob hath a love that he saw hath a hated
that the purpose of God according to election might stand and so
there was two children in her womb And we dealt with that a
little bit last week. But tonight I want to talk about
the birthright. The birthright. Look down here
in verse 29. And Jacob sawed pottage. That
means he cooked it in a pot. And Esau came from the field
and he was faint. And Esau said to Jacob, feed
me, I pray thee, with that same red potage, for I am faint. Therefore was his name called
Edom. So whenever you read Edom in
the Old Testament, that's Esau they're talking about. That's
the nation that he became, Edom. And Jacob said, sell me this
day thy birthright. And Esau said, behold, I am at
the point to die, and what profit shall this birthright do to me?
And Jacob said, swear to me this day. And he swore unto him, and
he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and
pottage of lentils, and he did eat and drink, and rose up and
went his way. And Esau despised his birthright. The Lord God had revealed His
will concerning these brothers. He said there's two manner of
people in your world. Two nations. One's going to be
stronger than the other. And the younger, the elder is
going to serve the youngest. The firstborn is going to serve
the last one. And it was no secret and they
both knew this. This has been, they no doubt
talked about it in their home or in their tent where they live.
They talked about this, what God had revealed to Rachel and
Isaac concerning these boys. And by keeping this in view that
they knew this, this was no secret. God told her and she thought
about this and Isaac knew about it. You know, so there's two
nations in your womb, two men or people in your womb. And they
had two different natures, two different characters, just like
in us. Two natures in us. And then they struggled in the
womb and in our hearts. But by keeping this in view,
that this was no secret, that they knew this, this was known
among them and known by these two men and their mother and
their father. It will help us understand what takes place here
in these verses. Now the brothers, they enter
into a bargain. These two brothers enter into a bargain. And all
their contrast in their appearances, boys, continued on in their character
as men. But look what it says here. Jacob
sawed pottage, and Esau came from the field, and he was famed.
And these two fellows, they looked different in their appearance.
When Esau was born, he was hairy all over. And Jacob wasn't. And Esau grew up to be a cunning
hunter, a man of the field. Jacob was a plain man living
in tents. And what they did daily, what
they did daily expressed their natures and their temperaments.
Like it says there that Jacob was a plain man and he dwelt
in the tent. And in fact here he was cooking.
He was doing the cooking. He was fixing a meal. So he dwelt
in the tent. Esau was a man of the field.
He was a man who stayed out and hunt all the time and did all
those kind of things. And so he was out doing according
to his nature and his temperament. And Isaac was in the... Jacob
was in the tent and he was doing according to his nature and his
temperament. So here they are, Esau comes in from the field.
He's been out doing whatever he does. And he comes in hungry
and he comes in tired. It says there that he came in
and verse 29 came from the field and he was faint. That means
he was very, very weak. Very weak. That's what it means. He comes in hungry, he comes
in tired, he comes in very weak. And the smell of that food is
enticing him. Enticing him. And so he said
to his brother, he says, oh, listen, he said to Esau, Jacob,
feed me. You feed me. I'll pray some of
this red and red pottage, this lentils. And he said, sell me
therefore this, give me this same red pottage for I'm faint.
I'm so weak. I'm so weak. I'm so very weak. And all he didn't know what it
was. He just said I want some of this. Whatever is red and
I want some of it. He didn't even know what it was.
And old Jacob, Jacob had been waiting for this opportunity.
Just been waiting for this. And he knew exactly how to deal
with his brother Esau, because they had different temperaments
and different characters. And he knew how to deal with
his brother Esau. And look what he says therefore
in verse 31. And Jacob said, sell me, sell
me this day thy birthright. You're the eldest, sell me your
birthright. Now I'll tell you what, what
would it take for you to sell your birthright after you've
been born again by the Lord Jesus Christ? The birthright you have
as an heir of God. The birthright you have as that
new nature that's put in you. And the birthright carried with
it an incredible amount of blessings. All the blessings that come to
the firstborn and the birthright. It included, when you was the
first born, it included all temporal and spiritual blessings. Everything. God blessed a man temporally,
and He blessed a man spiritually. And I'll tell you, look over
here in Deuteronomy, in chapter 21, in verse 17 with me, look
at this. It carried with it a double,
double portion of the inheritance. It carried with it a double,
double portion of the inheritance. You know, Isaac was the only
son that Abraham had. So he was heir of everything.
Christ is the only son that God had. And he was heir over everything. Everything in this world was
given over to him. All power, all authority. Everything in this world is controlled
and owned by the Lord Jesus Christ. Every soul that's born, every
man that's born, everything on this earth, Christ Himself. God
turned over the reins of this universe and this government
into the hand of His blessed Son. And He's the heir. The only
one there is. And the only way you and I will
get anything from God Himself is be an heir with the Lord Jesus
Christ. Being born by the Spirit of God,
being joined to the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the only way
we'll... You know what the first thing
we inherited when we became believers? We got eternal life. That's the
first thing we inherited. The God Lord said, My Father
hath power in Himself to give life, and He hath given it unto
the Son, that He hath life in Himself. And the Lord Jesus Christ
said, I come to give life. And the first thing we got from
the Lord Jesus Christ and from God the Father is life. Is life. And that's what these
two men got from their mother and their father is life. And
remember, Isaac was a special born son. But here we're talking
about the first birth. The first birth and the birthright.
Look what it says here in verse 15. If a man had two wives, one beloved and another hated. Boy, it would be awful to be
married to one wife and you love another you hate. But that's
what it says here. And they both have borne him
children. both the beloved and the hated,
and if the firstborn son be hers that was hated, the firstborn
son was her that was hated, then it shall be, and I don't say
the man hates her, but the other woman probably did, then it shall
be when he maketh his son to inherit that which he hath, that
he may not make the son of the beloved firstborn before the
son of the hated, which is indeed the firstborn. But he shall acknowledge
the son of the hated for the firstborn." Now listen to this,
"...by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is
the beginning of his strength. The right of the firstborn is
his." So when you had a firstborn, he got double what everybody
else did, double. double what everybody else did.
And here's something that the birthright included. It included,
made them the head of the family. Head of the family. I mean, they
made all the decisions for the family. They ruled over the family. And it made them the head of
the family and even of a tribe. When Jacob had his 12 sons, every
time they mentioned those tribes, they said, He is the father of
the father of the father of the father of the son of the son
of the son. And they always went back to the firstborn of that
tribe. And that's why he says the firstborn
is always the one who is the head of the family and the tribe.
And the birthright also included this. The birthright included
him being the priest over the family. The priest over the family. And the spiritual head of the
family. He could go on behalf of the whole family. He could
go to God on behalf of the whole family. He could go to the Father
and to God Himself and offer sacrifices for the family. That's
what Job did. He said, perhaps all of his sons
and daughters were always out working, doing things. And remember
one day, it says there, it said, he went up to offer sacrifices
for perhaps his sons and his children had sinned and he went
to offer sacrifices. He was the firstborn of the family
and he offered for his family. So I tell you what, it was a
very, very, it was something to have the birthright. It was
something to have. And our Lord Jesus Christ as
Him, the firstborn of God, He is the head of the family. Oh my goodness. He's the head
of this family, ain't He? Christ who is the head. And not
only that, but He's the priest of His family. He's the spiritual
head of his family. But Esau, and Jacob and Esau
both knew this. They knew what the birthright
was worth. But Esau evidently didn't care for his position
as firstborn or his family privileges. Look what he said in verse 32. Old Jacob said, sell me this
day thy birthright. And Esau said, behold, I'm at
the point of death, at the point to die, what profit shall this
birthright do me? Oh my, he didn't care for his
position as the firstborn. He didn't care about his family
privilege and how he would be the one that had a double portion
from his father. And it says here I'm at the point
to die, that's not what he says, I'm gonna die one of these days,
that's what that means. I'm going to die. That's what
it says in the margin. I'm going to die. I'm going to
die. And when he looked at that, he
said, I'm going to die. So he said, what good will the
birthright do me if I'm dead? Won't mean nothing to me. He
said, if I'm not a living, the birthright won't mean anything
to me. So he just looked at it and said, well, I'm going to
die. The birthright ain't going to amount to nothing to me. So
he said, what good will the birthright do me? And I tell you what, this
shows his disregard, his indifference. to the position and the privilege
that went with that birthright. It says back up there in the
last part of verse 34 that Esau despised his birthright. Despised
it. Anybody else would take all night
to have this birthright? To have this wonderful privilege?
To be head over the family? To be head over the tribe? But
oh, he showed his disregard and indifference to that position
of the birthright, the privilege that went with the birthright.
And he saw, he saw, sell me your birthright. And he said, I'm
at the point to die. And Jacob calls him for a solemn
oath. And look what Jacob said to him. Verse 33, Jacob says,
swear to me this day. He said, I want an oath. I want
an oath. Swear to me this day and he swear
unto him and then look what he said. He sold his birthright
unto Jacob. Sold his power, sold his privilege,
sold his position, sold all the things that went. Behead over
the house, behead over the family, be the priest, give a double
portion, be greatly blessed of his father and everybody that
had any decisions to make they would come to him and ask him
before they ever did anything but oh my and then it looked
like it says in verse 34 then Jacob gave Esau bread and potage
of lentils and he ate and he drank and he rose up and went
his way Now let's talk a little bit about the character of these
two men. Character of Esau and Jacob. When you first look, look
what Jacob's like. It said here in verse 27, or
excuse me, Esau was like. And the boys grew and Esau was
a cunning hunter and a man of the field and Jacob was a plain
man dwelling in tents. Now it's two seasons that come
along around here. Deer season comes along. And
boy, if you ain't out with red on you, don't go to the woods,
you get shot. And the second one's turkey season. And I'm
telling you, everybody and their brother goes. Scott Richardson
down here one day, he needed his tire fixed. We went to town
to get a tire fixed. And we like to never found a
place to get his tire fixed, and you know why? took off work
that day, it's the first day of deer season. Scott said, well,
I didn't understand that because they do that up there too. But
that's what it was. And that's the way Esau was.
He was a cunning hunter. Cunning hunter. And I tell you
at the first look Esau, we say is a good man. He is a good man. He is a good man of the world.
Man of the field. Boy, he's frank, he's warm hearted. Come in, what was wrong with
him, he just tell you right up, he said, I'm hungry. And he's
every inch of a man out in the field, hunting, working, doing,
he's a man of outside. And we say in this neck of the
woods, we say he's a good old boy. That's what we say, he's
a good old boy. But the truth is, he wasn't any
of those things. He wasn't any of them. And if
you don't believe me, look with me over at Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. Look what
God says about him over here. Oh, we say he's a good old boy.
But he wasn't either. The truth was he was sensual.
Sensuous. Sensual. He is profane. And look what it said about him.
and verse 16 Hebrews 12 16 lest there be any fornicator
or profane person as Esau who for one morsel of meat sold his
birthright and you see how he says he's a profane person For
you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited
the blessing, he was rejected. And he found no place or no way
to change his mind, though he sought it carefully with tears. And it said here he was a profane
man. And you know what profane means? It's the opposite of being holy.
It's the opposite of being sacred. It's the opposite of being holy
and sacred. It's outside the temple, unholy,
outside the sacred structure. He's profane. And here's Esau's problem. Esau's
earthly life and everything about him, his life was bound by this
earth and by his flesh. By his belly was his God. God was not in his thoughts.
When he came in there to sell his birthright, he didn't think
anything about God. And God himself was the one who
set the birthright to the double portion and the firstborn had
the birthright. God set that. God established
that fact. God established that double portion.
And God was not in his thoughts. You know what he was interested
in? An instant gratification. He come in, I'm hungry. And if
that's what it takes me to get something to eat, this is what
I'll do. I'll sell it. I'm hungry. I need to eat. The birthright
don't mean anything to me if I ain't got something to eat.
He was only interested in instant gratification. What I want right
now. And if he got what he had right
then, then he was gratified. And then he'd go his way. He
saw no value in God's gifts. No value whatsoever in God's
gift. He said, I can't live on promises. Give me something to eat, something
to drink. Tomorrow I die. That was His life. And I'll tell
you what, that seems like the life of 99% of the people in
this world today. My children, some of your children,
my grandchildren, that's their life. Oh my, what I want today,
what I can get today. And you know all you've got to
do is get them long faced, is that they come to you and you
tell them no. That's all it takes to get their
face to get about that long. Just say no. Oh, but anything spiritual, anything
future, anything intangible were unreal to him. He didn't think
about the future. He didn't think about spiritual
matters. He didn't think about the intangible things like the
birthright and spiritual head of the house and being able to
be the priest over the house. Those things were unreal to him.
Everything present, what he could see right then and deal with
right then, that was the only thing that was real to him. And
here's the truth of the matter. Here's the truth of the matter.
And this is what people don't understand. When you reject Christ,
and men and women reject Christ, and pay no attention to the Gospel,
and do no attention to Christ, and do not interested in Christ,
and that's the thing that bothers me. I'll just let you know something
bothers me. We have three services here a
week. And people have children. And
they have grandchildren. And they're interested in one
service a week. When they can be here three services
a week and set an example for their children, set an example
for their grandchildren and be here and say, yes, I'm going
to go worship God because that's my life and I want it to be your
life. Would that not be a right thing
to say? That troubles me. That troubles
me. I took mine all the time, but
I tell you what, I took them most of the time when everything
we believed was wrong. And God have mercy on them and
me too for the example I set upon. But in truth, here was
what Esau was. He was God's enemy. He was God's
enemy. He despised the birthright. And
God said, you get a double portion. You're the firstborn. But he
was passionate. He was impulsive. He was incapable
of looking. He did not have the ability to
look at eternal things. He only could look at the temporal
things. He couldn't see past, life, what
he wanted right now. That's an awful state to be in,
ain't it? And Jacob wasn't much better. You notice he was just waiting
to let the hammer down on his brother. But Jacob's character,
first look at him, he isn't very likable. He's not very attractive
as a person. Esau seemed to be. But Jacob
didn't. He was twelve and tens. Jacob
was a man's man. Jacob was a mama's boy. Isaac
loved Esau, mother loved Jacob. That's what it says. But oh my,
he sat in that tent and he done whatever it was that he did.
He was a cool man, a calculating man. He could restrain himself
and keep himself in check for years and years and years. When
he went down to his mother's brother Laban, He went over there
to live and he stayed over there for a long time. He went over
there and began to work for his uncle, Laman. And he worked seven
years for a wife. Seven years! Old Laman gave Jacob
some of his own medicine. Gave him the homely girl first. And old Jacob said, well, He
worked seven more years, 14 years to get the woman that he wanted
to marry. You're talking about a fellow in control. A fellow
that could control his emotions and control his restraining self
and he could keep himself in control for years and years.
And he did it for years. But oh, when the opportunity
presented itself, he knew exactly how to take advantage of it.
Because see, he really understood and appreciated the birthright.
He really understood it and appreciated the birthright. And I think most
of us as believers, most of us here tonight, we truly, truly
appreciate our Lord Jesus and Him being the only begotten Son
of God, being the heir of all things, and then the things that
He gave us. I really truly understand what
it is. And you know our Lord says, what
will it profit a man if he gets the whole world? And when He's talking about the
whole world, He's talking about the world as it seems to Him.
If he gets everything that he wanted in this world, If a man,
if he wanted to be wealthy, he got wealthy. If he wanted to
have power, he got power. If he wanted prestige, he got
prestige. If he wanted honor, he got honor.
If he got everything in this world that he ever wanted, and didn't know God, what would
it profit him? And that's what Esau thought
about it. But now Jacob wasn't that way.
Jacob understood if I have the birthright, if I have the birthright,
then I'm going to be head over this place. I'm going to be head
over Esau. I'm going to be head over the
family. I'm going to have the power. I'm going to have all
the wealth. I'm going to have a double portion.
He understood. When the opportunity presented
itself, he really understood and appreciated. But the way
he went about it, wasn't good and didn't have any principle
about it. He said, sell me. God had done promised him. God
had done promised him that he was going to have the birthright.
He told him that when he was born. God had done promised him,
but he decided I don't want to wait. And you'll find this about
Jacob's character as we go on to study Jacob. But he said,
sell me. God had done made the promise
to him, you got the birthright. You got the birthright. I'm going
to give it to you. But he said, sell me. It's not
a good way to go, it's a despicable way. But here's another thing
about Jacob. He was constant in his character.
Whatever Jacob was, he was that way all the time. But Esau wasn't. Esau was inconsistent. Today,
he despised his birthright. Tomorrow, he wants it back. And
one day he's totally indifferent about it. Tomorrow he's crying
over his loss. One day he wants it, one day
he don't care. One day he wants it back, the
next day he's crying over it. But oh, Jacob was tenacious.
Jacob was persistent. Now, let's look at this. Let's think about these two men.
That's their character. Oh, my character. I'd rather be Jacob as Esau,
I tell you that. In fact, blessed is the people,
happy is the people who has the God of Jacob for their God. That's how it's described in
the Psalms several times. But lessons, let's look about
Esau and the lessons. Now, you know, the real proof
of having life is in a person's character, personal character. What type of life they have.
What their nature is like. What their life is like. And
what their true state of mind is like. What their nature is
like. What their character is like. And what Esau did revealed
the true state of his heart. The true nature of his character. When he was tested. When he was
tested. It showed that he only cared
for one thing in this life. Nothing for the life to come
and you know how God tested him in the verse little things God
test us and God tried him in the supreme test of characters
found in just the little things He come in hungry And he desired
food That's a little thing having a meal is such a little thing
That's such a little thing We'd get up and eat breakfast. We'd
stop for lunch and we'd have supper. And then most of the
time we'd have snack after supper before we'd go to bed. We like
to eat. There's no sense in getting together
if we can't eat. But that's what happened to him.
He was hungry and desired food and that was such a little thing.
Yet it was the means of testing and revealing Esau's real character. How sad, how sad a strong man
like Esau, a strong man like Esau who could, couldn't wait and sold his birthright for a
meal, for a piece of bread and a bowl of lentils. Oh, it's the little foxes. Solomon
said it's the little foxes that spoil the vine. And oh how necessary,
how necessary in life to subdue this flesh. The scriptures talk
about mortifying this flesh, make dead this flesh and feed
the spirit. And I tell you, beloved, the
spirit must be fed and it must be nourished or it will cause
this flesh or cause us to fail miserably. And it has me many
times over the years. That's why Paul said, I keep
my body under subjection. Lest when I preach to others,
I myself should be accursed away. I tell men one thing and I go
do something else. And the one thing needful, you
know what it is? Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and His righteousness and all things will be added unto
you. And here's the thing with Esau. God wasn't even in his
thoughts. God had no place in his heart,
in his life. And in the beginning, God. Now,
let's see about Esau, Jacob. Oh my! Here's the first thing
we want to learn from Jacob. It's necessary that what we do,
we do it by the right principle. We have the right principle.
His desire was right. God told him he was going to
have the birthright. But the way that he got it was wrong.
And it made him and Esau enemies for years. But his way was wrong. He said, sell me your birthright. And people say, well, the end
justifies the means. Not in this instance. Jacob from
here on, he's known as a conniver, as a supplant. And I'll tell
you, you know, to do things by the right principle. It says
in the scriptures, a man will swear to his own hurt. If you
tell a man you're going to do something, And if you can't do
it, you've got to go and tell that man, I don't have the power,
I don't have the will, I don't have the ability to do it. But
if you can do it, stand by it. Whatever it costs you, you've
got to stand by it. That's what the scriptures tell
us plainly. And not only is it doing everything necessary by
the right principle, but the value of waiting on God. I told
this, I think I said this last week. Wait on God. When you don't know what to do,
don't do nothing. Don't do anything. And oh, God
will do what he promised. Esau didn't care about the promises
of God. He cared what he needed right
then. But Jacob, God promised Jacob the birthright. But Jacob
wouldn't wait for the Lord to fulfill his promises. Jacob believed God's word, yet
he wouldn't wait on God's time. Wouldn't wait on God's time.
But oh my, wait on God, wait on God. There's nothing, nothing
worse. You know, over the years, I'm
sure you all have done this too. I've gotten myself in some messes,
especially when I was younger. Being impulsive. Doing things
and That's why I don't do this much anymore. If I do, it's going
to come out wrong. I have to say, Lord, if you get
me out of this mess, please get me out of this mess. Lord, have
mercy on me and please save me from this situation I'm in. And I tell you what, you have
to wait until He breaks you out of it. And after you get in them
situations a few times, you'll start down that road and you'll
say, oh, wait a minute, I've been there. I've been there,
I'm not going that way this time. No, no. You know, that's what
faith and patience does to you. You know, living teaches you
some things, and the trials of God teaches you. And if God makes
a promise, you wait, just wait. He gonna keep it. Abraham waited,
and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited.
And he said, Lord, I don't have her there yet. Oh, you will. Well, Sarah said, she got tired
of waiting. She said, oh, we need a child. Go get Hagar. Oh, that was a mistake. What
an awful, awful situation he got himself in. That caused him
trouble. Caused his home trouble. Caused
Sarah trouble. Caused every male trouble. Caused
Isaac Charles and the whole family trouble. Why? Wouldn't wait on God. Wouldn't
wait on God. Oh, faith and patience. And let
me wind this up saying this. There's only one place where
there's true life. True life. And where true living really
exists. And that's God in a man. That's the only true living there
is. That's true living. When Christ
comes in a man, sets up his abode in a man's heart, And God comes
in a man's heart. And God moves in a man's heart.
That's living. Everything else is just life.
That's living. And this is real life. Like Brad prayed tonight.
God brought a group of people, a body of believers together.
That they're here because Christ in them is the hope of glory.
That's the true life. And I tell you, if you're talking
about life, and enjoying life, and enjoying God's blessings,
and understanding that you got empty hands, and God puts in
your hands what He wants you to have, and when He puts it
in your hands, you hold loose to it because He put it there.
He put it there. True living is God in the heart. That's real living. Sitting with
believers and talking and conversing and enjoying one another over
a cup of coffee or over a meal or sitting after the service
and standing around and talking for a while. That's life. That's
real living to me. That's really living. His life, the life of Christ
and the life of God in a man, that's the absolute highest supremacy
you can have in this world. God in our heart as our Savior. God in our conscience as our
Master. Christ in our life as our Lord
and as our Master, the one we worship and bow to. And oh, you
talk about giving hope and assurance. is that we have this spiritual
life. We don't despise, oh my soul
we cherish this life that God gave us. We cherish this spiritual
life. We desire this spiritual life. And the greatest fear we have
sometimes is that oh God please don't let me be deceived and
be lost. I don't want to miss Christ. I don't want to be like Esau
and live according to his flesh. I want to live on the promises
of God given to us in Christ. That's life. Esau didn't have
it. Jacob did. And we'll see how
Jacob was. And I tell you, enjoy it. Enjoy
this life. Enjoy it. I tell you what, it's
been a while since I said this. But I have yet to meet the person
that God has blessed more than me. I have yet to meet him. And I have yet to meet the person
that enjoys living more than me. I enjoy life. I enjoy living. You know why?
Because Christ Christ in us. What a life it is to live. What
a blessing it is to have. Amen. Our Father, in the blessed, holy,
glorious name. Oh, the blessed name. Precious
name. Saving name. Sacred and holy
name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, we bless you for the day.
How loving, how loving, how patient, how tender you are with your
people. What a blessing it is for you
to speak to our hearts, reveal ourselves to ourselves, and to
warn us, and to warn us what not to do, how not to act. Oh Lord, thank you for teaching
us these things. And Lord, as these dear children
of God, these dear saints of God, the redeemed, the living,
I pray your blessings upon them. Pray for grace to be given to
them in abundance, strength to be given to them
for the day, and light for their hearts and
their minds. And I ask it for myself, too.
We bless you in Christ's holy name. Amen. Amen. He's the Savior of my soul. Jesus, my Jesus. He's the Savior of my soul. He's the Savior of my soul. Jesus Jesus Jesus He's the Savior
of my soul He's the Savior of And bless His name. Bless His
name. See you Wednesday, God willing.
Lord bless you.