"Dismissing his Birthright" - Sermon for July 16th, Lectionary 15

Sermon:

Text:

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who works in the midst of struggles.

            Jacob is my favorite Old Testament figure. His son Joseph often steals the spotlight as his story tends to be a little more cinematic and we have many movies about his selling into slavery in Egypt, but the story of Jacob is one of God’s blessing, God working, and especially one of someone who is in the midst of real life situations. We start with a familiar situation, like Sarah before her, we find Rebekah unable to bear children. Once again, the roots of the chosen people of God are dealing with the one who has to bear the children which will lead to descendants as numerous as the sands, being unable to bear children. Let’s read two verses from our text.

“²¹Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord granted his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived. ²²The children struggled together within her; and she said, “If it is to be this way, why do I live?” So she went to inquire of the Lord.”

            Rebekah is unable to have children so Isaac prays and asks God to intercede. When we face difficulty, when we are suffering, are pained and hurt, in cases of infertility feeling worthless or broken, we should turn to prayer. Will prayer 100% lead to results? No, unfortunately no, but we ask God to be with us on the road, the journey through that time. In all of life’s situations we should to turn to God in prayer. I love the hymn, What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear, what a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. So, Isaac prays and God answers, but then as Rebekah is pregnant, it seems like it’s a very difficult pregnancy, The children struggled within her. And it seems not just, oh feel them kicking! It’s to the point where Rebekah asks, If is to be this way, why do I live? So bad she wonders if death would be better. So, like Isaac, she turns to God, and God answers.

            ²³And the Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples born of you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the elder shall serve the younger.”

            This section tells us a couple things, one Esau and Jacob begin their wrestling and fighting well before they are even born. In the womb the hostility begins. As we continue their story, it doesn’t stop anytime soon, in fact it continues well after them, the people of Israel, descendent from Jacob, are frequent combatants with the people of Edom, descendent from Esau. In their birth, Esau is even described as coming out very red, the word red is the same root as the word Edom in Hebrew, virtually a letter off. Jacob comes out grabbing his brother’s heel, from with his name comes, heel and Jacob also coming from the same root word, in English, to supplant, the heel is where you plant yourself as you walk.

            So, from the very beginning of Jacob’s story, we have two brothers as different as different can be, one hunts, one sits, one is fair skinned and not hairy, the other as hairy as you can imagine. One thinks things through, the other acts on impulse. And through it all the conflict of who is first comes to the fore. Esau is first born, he should receive all the benefit of that, but it’s Jacob that God said would be greater, Esau the elder shall serve Jacob the younger. It is a trend of God, the eldest, the one traditionally the one with all the power, is often not the one whom God chooses. God doesn’t work through the powerful, the ones with all the might, God works through the lesser ones, the weak, the outcast. We saw this with Isaac picked over the elder Ishmael, we see it here, we’ll see it with Jacob’s second youngest son Joseph picked over his elder brothers, David the youngest is chosen over his elder brothers. Just because tradition says you’re the number one, doesn’t mean that’s who God will work through.

            And so we start the conflict, the last section of our text today is the first of  the interactions between Esau and Jacob that lead to that elder serving younger. Esau comes back from hunting and is so famished that he demands some of that red stuff to eat. Isn’t even able to identify what it is, just red stuff. Interestingly another play on the word for his descendants Edom, red. Jacob is rather shrewd if you are on his side, or rather sneaky if not cheating if you’re against him, in response to Esau’s hunger. He doesn’t just give food to one who is hungry, but talks Esau into giving him his share of inheritance. Jacob has tricked or traded his way to getting not the smaller 1/3 share, but the whole. The interaction ends,

“³³Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. ³⁴Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank, and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.”

            I am intrigued by the idea of despised his birthright. That faced with this severe hunger Esau would so easily throws off his right. I can’t imagine that I would do a thing, that I couldn’t wait for the couple more minutes to find something else to eat? We do it though, not the exact same, but similar. We see something we want, and we give everything up for it. We see something that our inmost nature thinks we need then, now, not a second later, and we’re willing to do anything for it. It’s again the concept of sin. We see the newest thing and think, that will solve my problems, and it may, it alleviates the hunger, but it causes the loss of other. The things we turn to in life, the things we trust in over and above God, alleviate temporary hunger, but it causes the relationship to be broken. It causes sin. To look at our Gospel, this would be the seed that falls on the rocky soil, the things in this world give life briefly, but then they let down and fail. What Jacob strives for in this text is the good soil, to see the long picture. To not give into fleeting earthly temptations, but to seek the blessings of God always. Esau doesn’t see that, so turns to the easy fix, and turns from his birthright.

            But, the thing about sin, about breaking relationship with God, is that the breaking only occurs one sided. We may turn away, we may break off, but God never will. Esau may dismiss his birthright, but his Father Isaac still loves him, he may lose his blessing, he may be the elder, whose descendants are not the chosen people of Israel, But God still blesses him, at the close of their whole story together Esau and Jacob are blessed, they are both filled with abundance through God. In this story of life, of fighting and shrewdness and cheating, God still works, even in the midst of conflict, God still works, in the midst of the difficulty of life, God still works. So, pray, seek God’s blessing, and work to be Good soil, but always remember it’s not you that causes you to become good soil, it’s God at work, God continually sowing the word upon you, God feeding you, nourishing you, watering you that matters. In the midst of all that life brings may you know that.