You know to me, one of the greatest mistakes that we mortals make is giving up what we want most forever for what we think we have to have now, as illustrated by this story.

Even in the womb these two brothers were rivals, struggling and fighting against each other to the dismay and the discomfort of their mother.(*1) And in birth, well they were still battling for place.(*2) They couldn’t have been more different. The older brother, the birthright son, he was a hairy man and a – a cunning hunter, a man of the outdoors, while the younger brother was smooth-skinned and simple, a – a plain and homebody righteous man.(*3)

The older son was rebellious,(*4) impetuous, and headstrong. When it came time to marry, he married out of the faith directly against the wishes of his parents. It broke his mother’s heart.(*5) The younger son, on the other hand, gave heed to the counsel of his parents and patiently waited for the opportunity to marry the right person in the right way.(*6)

One day the older son came in from the fields and he was hungry, very hungry! “…Feed me…,” he said to his brother, “…with that same red pottage; for I am faint...”(*7)

The younger brother said to him, “…Sell me this day thy birthright.”(*8)

Well, that may not seem all that significant to us now, but in the ancient east, being the birthright son meant leadership of the whole family, even the tribe. And the largest inheritance of land went to the birthright son once the father was gone. And in the case of these two brothers, it meant even more than that. It meant title to the whole land of Canaan, and all of the other blessings presiding blessings of the Abrahamic covenant.

Well, this was the older brother’s response. “…I’m [I am] at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me?…”(*9) Thus he despised his birthright and sold it to his brother for a bowl of red soup.(*10)

His name was Esau, but you know ever after that his peers called him Edom, which means “red.” He received his name in remembrance of that soup for which he sold his future.(*11)

His younger brother was Jacob. Now, he too would later receive another name, this one from God. The name was Israel.(*12) By patience and determination, Jacob prevailed to become one of the most powerful men in all eternity(*13) and the father of an innumerable family – the House of Israel.

Indeed, my friends, small dumb urgent choices now can surely have big painful consequences later!