Don't Do It!

          Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees.  “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed. Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.  See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.  See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son.  Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done. (Hebrews 12:12-17)

          See that no one … is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son.  Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done. We may hear people rail against sexual immorality, but how often do we hear people discuss being godless like Esau? Part of the reason for this may be a lack of consideration of what that means.

          I checked a commentary. It noted that Esau’s reputation was as being godless, or as the King James apparently puts it, profane. He married Canaanite women instead of going back to his grandparents’ family and marrying some cousin (which was a custom at the time.)  But that’s not what is detailed as proof of his godlessness in this passage. According to the commentary, Esau was godless because he was willing to sell his birthright for a bowl of soup. The commentary goes on to point out that said birthright was his receipt of a double portion. As the elder of a total of two children, he would have received two thirds of the estate instead of the half we’re used to.

          This is a little confusing to me, because the Law had not been given that established the double portion for the eldest son. That came in Moses’ day, which is more than five hundred years in the future. This supposedly took place before (or perhaps during) the days of Hammurabi (1800 BC). There are folks who make a big deal about the supposed similarities between Hammurabi’s Code and the Law. I’m going to suggest that both drew on earlier cultural laws. I suspect that the idea that the eldest son held a special position goes all the way back to Adam and Eve, who were looking for that son who would save them from their sins. Cain disappointed them by killing Abel, so they turned to Seth.

          In other words, it is entirely possible that Hammurabi didn’t wake up one morning and say, “I think I’ll make up rules by which I’ll rule my kingdom!” It’s also entirely possible that when God handed down the Law at Mount Sinai, He didn’t scratch His whiskers and wonder, “Now, what sort of wild stuff can I come up with that they’ll have never heard of before?” The Code and the Law could well have been based on ideas that were much older. As C.S. Lewis wrote it in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, “Do not cite the Deep Magic to me, Witch. I was there when it was written.” The Law was written long before it was given on Sinai, and it was known to men.

          So when Esau sold his birthright, what was he giving up for a bowl of stew? Thirty-three percent of his parents’ estate? Is there anything in Scripture that suggests that giving up benefit is somehow immoral? That doesn’t have the ring of reality to it. But there was something that went with that extra thirty-three percent. It was responsibility. The eldest son was the family’s messiah – the clan’s ruler and priest. And Esau sold that right, the right to relationship with God, for a bowl of stew. Remind you of any other folks who save up their right to relationship with God for a bite?

          Here’s the really sad thing. As the eldest son, Esau could have commanded Jacob, or any household servant, to give him that bowl of stew. It was his by right. But he bartered for it. And later, as the passage above cites, he got tricked out of his blessing, and nothing he could say or do would change that. However, if you read Isaac’s prophecy about the Edomites, you’ll see that there is blessing there. And just to give you a little picture of that: Petra is in Edom. I’m not saying Esau built Petra, I’m just giving you some geographical context.

          So, let’s consider for a moment the idea that Esau didn’t just come home from hunting one day so hungry that he was sure he was going to die if he didn’t trade his birthright for some soup. He wasn’t a perfect son who had been fulfilling his responsibilities as legal and spiritual leader of the household. It’s not that he was willing to give up the land and the sheep, it’s that he was willing to give up his right to his relationship with God and its responsibilities.

          For what are we willing to give up our leadership roles in our families? For what do we gladly turn over our responsibilities as spiritual leaders in our homes? For food? Sex? Drugs or alcohol? A TV show (I’m going to watch ______ and no one – and I mean no one – had better make a sound or interrupt me unless the house is on fire or they’re ten second from dying.) As Screwtape points out in C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters, it’s not the big things that effectively come between God and us. It’s not that we’re tempted to murder. It’s that we’re tempted to eat, drink, have sex, or do something else that seems perfectly natural, and perfectly innocent – we’re just meeting a need that at the time seems important to us – and in so doing, we abdicate our relationship with God, and our responsibilities to Him and both to and for others (including ourselves.)

          It all goes back to the simple idea that sin separates – it separates us from God, from others, and even from ourselves, and when we choose it, we’re being like Esau. And God says, “Don’t do it!”