Listen now to God's sufficient word, reading Genesis chapter 25 verse 27 through the end of the chapter. When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man dwelling in tents. Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game. But Rebecca loved Jacob. Once when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was exhausted. And Esau said to Jacob, Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted. Therefore his name was called Edom. Jacob said, Sell me your berth right now. Esau said, I'm about to die. Of what use is a birthright to me? Jacob said, Swear to me now. So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright. Sins are reading in God's Word. Let's ask His blessing and help on it. another word of prayer Lord our Lord we do come tonight seeking to hear your voice and we pray that as we've heard your word now that your spirit would press it home in our minds and in our hearts give us eyes to see give us ears to hear and give us hearts to understand and believe all that you have recorded here for us in your word lead us in paths of righteousness that we might bring honor to your name in Jesus name Amen. Have you ever got a deal on something because the seller didn't know what they had? I just didn't know what they were selling was worth. You sometimes see news stories. Every few years it seems you'll see a news story about some valuable artwork that was sold in a Goodwill or something like this. The people who received it, they didn't know the significance of it, so they priced it for a dollar. Somebody buys and it's worth $500,000. You'll see these stories from time to time. I recently experienced something on a lesser scale like this myself. Maybe you've been to McKay's, a used bookstore, whether in Knoxville or Chattanooga or elsewhere. I was recently in McKay's myself and I just happened to spot a set of books on the shelf which Buy them online, a couple hundred dollars. They did not price them accordingly. I bought them for $12. So those pretty quickly went into the cart. They didn't, I don't think, know what they had. They could have gotten more. Even in a used market, they could have gotten more than they got from me. And on occasions like that, the buyer feels like they have experienced a real triumph, a real triumph. You have won. You have won the interminable struggle between buyer and seller, and it is a joyous day. Though, if the seller realizes what has happened, then it's probably not a cheerful or joyful day for them. We find something like this common experience, at least somewhat common, we find something like this experience in our text tonight. Because here in Genesis chapter 25, towards the end of the chapter, we find a growing Jacob and Esau engaged in a bit of bargaining, cutting a deal. wherein Esau ends up selling something which really was priceless for mere pottage, to use the somewhat archaic language of the King James. He sells something of inestimable worth for a bowl of soup. Now, to consider why this is significant, it's worth doing a little bit of review of what we saw last week. Perhaps you will recall that last week we read about The conception of Isaac, Rebekah, as they prepared to give birth to Jacob and Esau, and that conception, that pregnancy, was an answer to prayer. Because like Isaac's mother, Sarah, Rebekah was barren for quite some time. For 20 years they tried to have children to no success, and then the Lord finally gave them conception, and it's a joyous occasion then the pregnancy turns difficult. It turns rough. And we read this interesting description of the children in Rebecca's wombs bashing against each other, great pain and distress. And in that moment of trial, Rebecca went to the Lord and sought a little bit of explanation as to what was happening to her. And he revealed to her a very important mystery in verse 23. I'll read it for you again. And the Lord said to Rebecca, two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided. The one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger." Probably not what Rebecca expected when she went and inquired of the Lord, but that's what the Lord said. And we began to see an initial fulfillment of that prophecy at the end of last week's passage as we witnessed the birth of Jacob and Esau. Esau came out first, he was the firstborn, but Jacob quickly followed, holding on to the heel of his brother, trying to get ahead. That would be a sign of things to come, as we will undoubtedly see in our text tonight. The question, however, that was lingering, or should have been lingering in your mind, at the end of last week's text was, How was it, or how is it that Jacob is going to get the upper hand? How is it that the younger is going to come to rule over the older? And while there's much to say in answer to that question when you take into this whole narrative within the book of Genesis into account, this story provides us a partial but a very significant answer to that question. Because in these verses, which we read just moments ago, we see Esau making an unholy, short-sighted, and deadly deal which results in his forfeiture of his birthright, which belonged to him as the firstborn of Isaac and Rebekah. And the result of this forfeiture, this loss of his birthright, is going to give Jacob an advantage over him. And it's going to result not just in material loss, though it will entail that, but it's going to result in spiritual loss as well. And because it involves that sort of spiritual loss, the New Testament recognizes, and we ought to recognize tonight, that this story provides a warning to all who would lightly esteem the inheritance which is available to us in Christ. This is really a story about not underestimating what you have, particularly what you have for the Lord through the merits of Jesus Christ. And with that theme in mind, we want to approach this passage in two parts. We're going to see in verses 27 and 28 a deepening divide between the two brothers and then a deadly deal which they strike in verses 29 through 34. A deepening divide and a deadly deal. We deal first with the deepening divide between them in verses 27 and 28. This is a transitional section between the prior story and the one which we read in 29 through 34. We now move from that moment when the boys come out of the womb to an occasion when we read the boys have grown up. Now we don't know exactly how old they are at this point in time. They're still referred to as boys rather than men, but they're grown up. So this may refer to events which began to take place And they were teenagers or even what we might think of today as young men in their early 20s. We don't know exactly. It's not important. But the point is they're no longer small children anymore. And so who they are going to become becomes apparent as they develop their own personalities, as they begin to exhibit their own characteristics and show what sort of men they are. And really, these two verses provide a very pointed contrast between the characters of Esau, the firstborn, and Jacob, his brother. We read first of Esau, the firstborn. We're told here that when the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field. The picture which is painted for us of Esau, he's the outdoorsy man's man. He was often away from home. He was often on the hunt. We know from his birth that he was a hairy man. He was a real ruffian, a brute, we might say. And so we might think that, no, there's no way that Jacob could get an advantage over him, especially when we read this description of Jacob as a quiet man, dwelling in tents. In contrast to his brother, Jacob is a homebody. who probably begins taking up the family trade, dealing with herds and flocks around the homestead. He likes to stay around his tent, doesn't like to travel too far from home, in contrast to his brother. So Esau is, you know, he's shopping at Bass Pro Shops, and Jacob's going to the mall, okay? I don't know, that's not a great example, but it came to me in the moment. So sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. You get the idea though. They're very different types of gods. And this is going to become significant because of the division it begins to sow within the family. that the differing attributes found in these two boys leads to subtle cracks in the relationships between them and their parents. We read in verse 28 that Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob. Isaac grew to favor Esau. This is not to say that Isaac didn't love Jacob and it's not to say that Rebekah didn't love Esau. No, the point is that they each had their favorite. And Isaac favored Esau because he was apparently a foodie and he enjoyed eating the game which his son hunted. Who wouldn't? A wild game dinner every night. That's what Isaac loved about his son and he enjoyed participating in and cheering on the hobby of Esau. On the other hand, Rebekah grows to favor Jacob. Now we're not actually told here in the text why Rebekah favors Jacob, but we can take a couple of guesses. Maybe that Rebecca is always hearing in the back of her mind that promise which she heard from God. That it's going to be the younger son who is going to end up on top. That he is going to be the one who receives the favor of the Lord. That may have been it. It may have simply been the fact that he had chosen a more tranquil domestic life. He's around the homestead more often. So it may simply been that she spent more time with Jacob. We're not told exactly, but you can begin to see a pairing off within the family. Isaac and Esau, Rebecca and Jacob. And maybe you've experienced something like this before. subtle distinctions between the ways in which people are treated within a family. These are the sorts of divisions and dynamics which can become problematic if they are allowed to fester, if they're not handled wisely. I don't think it's necessarily wrong to bond more closely with one family member than another. Some of this happens naturally, but when those divisions are not handled well, they can lead to great heartache. And that's exactly what we're going to see within the family of Isaac over a number of years. And in this case, that growing division may suggest that Isaac had not taken the word of God as seriously as he should have. He is favoring the son, which the Lord has already decreed that will not be favored in the long run by him. And so Isaac is not wisely handling this sort of division and distinction of personality within his family. But as we look on this snapshot in time of the relations within the family, we do see that growing divide. It's setting the scene, the stage for problems to come. And we see the first of those problems, verses 29 through 34, in this striking of a deadly deal. And once again, it's unclear when this particular story took place. It's not all that important. But it is important that we recognize that this story exhibits the properties which have already been assigned to the boys by the text. What we've just read in verses 27 and 28 set the stage for us. Because what happens, beginning in verse 29, happens after one of Esau's hunts when Jacob was sitting at home cooking. They're acting, they're playing the parts. They're playing the parts. And we see the occasion on which this particular incident took place in verses 29 and 30. Once when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field and he was exhausted. And Esau said to Jacob, let me eat some of that red stew for I'm exhausted. And therefore his name was called Edom. So we find in this record Esau coming home from what was apparently an unsuccessful hunt. I mean, maybe he killed something and he was too tired to handle it and to cook it up. But either way, he comes home at the end of his hunt, he's exhausted, he's exerted himself, he's hungry. And so very naturally, he looks to his brother who's cooking some sort of red stew, The Hebrew here is somewhat amusing. He really says something more along the lines of, just give me some of that red. Give me some of that red. Because this is appealing to him. He's hungry and Esau tends to be associated with red. In the story we saw last week, he came out red and hairy. Which again, not sure what exactly is going on there. But we're told that He's named Edom because of his redness and also because of his propensity for things like red stew. The word Edom sounds like the Hebrew word for red. And so we have a play on words here. But the point here is that Esau comes in and he makes a mundane request to his brother, which we would expect would be greeted with brotherly love and generosity. Here you go, buddy. That's not what happens. Because Jacob, with all of his time sitting around the house, he evidently had a lot of time to think. We're going to see over the next several chapters that Jacob was something of a calculating man. And so he did a little calculating when his brother came in, and he realized that there was an opportunity here to be taken. And so he offers his brother a deal in verses 31 and 32. He tells his brother, Esau, I'll give you some stew if you'll sell me your birthright right now." Evidently, this was not the first time that Jacob had thought about this. A little context, though, helps us understand what's going on here. Remember, Esau was the firstborn brother. Even if only by a few seconds, he was the firstborn. And in the ancient world, including the world of the Bible, The firstborn had a right to a larger share of his father's inheritance, thus the birthright. Later Mosaic law, Deuteronomy chapter 21, is going to regulate what that means by saying that the firstborn was to receive a double portion in comparison to everyone else. That law has not yet been given yet, so we don't know just how much Esau stood to inherit. We can surmise that it was quite a lot though. Remember, what Isaac would be passing down to Jacob and Esau was what he had received from his father plus whatever he accumulated. We know that his father had been financially prosperous. He had a great deal of herds, and flocks, and silver, and gold, and treasure, and Isaac was no slouch himself. And so the birthright of the firstborn would have been a sizable inheritance, both financially and spiritually, because attached to all of those treasures, attached to all of those riches, were the covenant promises which God had given to Abraham. Whatever the birthright entailed exactly, we do know that Jacob wanted it. The heel grabber, which we witnessed at the birth, he's ready to make his next move to get ahead of his brother. And we might expect Esau to be offended at this request. And in fact, I think it's fair to say he should be. It should have been insulting to Esau that his brother would offer him a bowl of stew for his inheritance. That's insulting. But instead, Esau treats it, in this moment, as a light matter. Weary from the hunt, tired, short-sighted, he says to his brother, I'm about to die. Of what use is a birthright to me? I'm not going to live long enough to inherit it. And in this pivotal and life-changing moment, we find Esau only concerned with his immediate circumstances, his hungry belly, his carnal desires. That's all he cares about. And isn't it true that as sinful creatures we are so easily consumed with the satisfaction of our flesh, our instinctual desires to fill our belly, to put shelter over our head, to clothe ourselves. These things become all-consuming. Our immediate needs loom so large on our horizon. And at times, when we begin to feel desperate, we start making foolish decisions to meet those needs. And Esau's need for a hot meal in this moment caused him to forget about his future, and indeed it caused Esau to forget about his soul. And so as he treats this matter lightly, Jacob is ready to pounce. And a deal offered becomes a deal accepted in verses 33 and 34. Unfortunately for Esau, just as his guard was at its lowest, Jacob's guard was sky high. He's feeling alert. He's feeling calculated. He smells blood in the waters. And so he seizes the moment. Jacob said to him, swear to me now. Swear to me now. He asks his brother to swear to him that he will sell the birthright. Am I hearing this right, Esau? If I give you this bowl of stew, you'll give me the birthright. Swear to that. And rather than having second thoughts, as Esau should have, he swears to his brother. He swears to his brother, thereby giving up his birthright, his father's inheritance. tossed in the trash for a bowl of soup. And what kind of soup? This is interesting. We read that Esau swears to him. He sells his birthright to Jacob. And then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew. And we're not talking about Ted's famous chili. We're not talking about beef stew. This doesn't even have meaning. This is poor people food, you know, even in the day. Lentils, you know, this is food for commoners. And so this is not even a delectable meal that Esau throws it all away for. Piece of bread and lentil soup. And he gets up and he goes away. Only later will Esau realize what he's lost. He does not see it here, at least we're not given any indication that he has. In this moment, he clearly doesn't know what he had. He does not know what he has sold. And so he eats, he drinks, and he leaves. And while we might ponder the morality of Jacob in this story, who seems to take advantage of his brother, in a moment of weakness in order to gain. He's very selfish. He's cold. He's calculating. He's not looking out for the needs of someone else. But the narrative only explicitly condemns Esau, saying that he despised his birthright. In other words, Esau is condemned at the very end of this story for thinking too lightly of his God-given rights as the firstborn. He squandered them. Think about this. God got to decide which son came first. And God is going to regulate the way that firstborns inherit. And so, in that sense, God had made, not just Isaac, but God had made Esau the firstborn inheritor. But he despises his birthright. So the question which we have to deal with a little bit at the end of this passage is, why was Esau's despising of the birthright so significant? I mean, this story treats it very matter-of-factly. He sells it for nothing and then he goes away. But it's significant because what Esau stood to inherit, as we've already mentioned, it was no ordinary birthright. Esau stood to inherit the covenant birthright. passed first from Abraham to Isaac, and eventually would be passed from Isaac to one of his sons. It was a birthright and inheritance endowed with great spiritual significance and important for all future generations. God had placed his promises upon this inheritance. And surely, Esau knew about all that. You think Isaac had not told his sons? You think that their grandfather Abraham, who was still living when they were born, if you actually add the numbers up, we mentioned that before, you don't think Abraham relayed some of the stories to them? These boys must have known what the Lord had promised to the sons of Abraham. But Esau either did not believe or he did not care. He did not believe it or he did not care about it. And thus Hebrews 12 condemns him, as we've read tonight, as unholy Esau. Unholy Esau who sells his birthright for a single meal. And Hebrews chapter 12 tells us that later on Esau is going to desire his father's blessing. That blessing which should have accompanied the birthright. He would seek that blessing with tears. We're going to see that later on. there would be no chance to repent and right his wrong. It was too late. The deal was done. The deal he had made when he felt near to death would prove to be spiritually deadly to him. And Hebrews uses this in context as a warning to those tempted in the early church to return to Judaism when oppressed, when hardship came their way. when they felt the pangs of persecution and trial as Christians. They were in danger of turning back because they were in danger of undervaluing what they had in Christ. The worry in Hebrews is that these Christians, or at least professing Christians, they don't know what they have. They're in danger of turning back. They're in danger of giving up Christ, who is so much better than anything in the Old Covenant, for short-term convenience. Brothers and sisters, that ought to cause us to sit at attention. Because this actually in some ways dovetails nicely with our sermon this morning. That in some ways this passage is also about guarding the deposit. Because this passage also warns us that we must not be like unholy Esau selling a great spiritual inheritance for the fleeting pleasures of this life. It's not worth it. We are called, as Hebrews chapter 12 teaches us, not to be like unholy Esau who gives it all up for momentary reprieve, a slightly better position in this life. We must not do that, but we must press forward and obtain the grace of God. Hebrews chapter 12 says, don't be like unholy Esau, don't fail to obtain the grace of God. We must press on to obtain that grace and strive for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. You see, the problem is that so many people fill the churches in this country every Sunday. They've made a profession. Their name is on the rolls. They were baptized at some point. They seem to stand to inherit. The problem is that so many of them, well, they don't know what they've got. They don't know what they've got. They've made an outward profession. They've walked the Christian walk for a while, but they don't actually know the value of eternal life in Christ. They don't actually know the value of forgiveness through His blood. They don't actually know His love, His righteousness, His blessing, His peace. So many today are nominally Christian. They're outwardly Christian. But when you drill down and you give them enough time, what you find is really their hearts are set on this world. We think, for example, of Demas in the New Testament, who was one of the associates of the apostles, who Paul says that Demas went away from us because he loved the world. He loved the world. And there are people that come and they sit in church and they profess Christ, but then they show at the end of the day what they really loved was the world. And so they sell their birthright for a single meal if the right temptation comes along. If the right enticement comes along, if the right pressure is placed upon them, if the right temptation is presented to them, they'll walk away, they'll leave all that they've professed for something far less because they didn't know what they had. They don't actually understand the inheritance. They've never truly placed their hands on Christ by faith. And I pray, as we prayed this morning, that it would never come to that for any of us. Because what we stand to inherit through Christ, that son of Abraham, far surpasses the birthright of Esau. What Esau stood to inherit from his father was a type, it was a shadow, it was a passing glimmer of the real substance of the thing which we have in Jesus. Because through Jesus, that whole Abrahamic covenant with all of its promises, all of its pleasures, all of its joys, all of that is fulfilled in Jesus. And so let us, therefore, having read this count, rightly esteem our inheritance in Christ. Let us rightly esteem the Christian inheritance promised by God in His Word to all who are in Christ, those who possess the spirit as a guarantee. Because that inheritance, what is available through the gospel, is better than anything that this world can offer. Next to him, next to Jesus, everything else is pottage. It's all a bowl of lentil stew. And so let us cherish him, cling to that which is ours in Christ, as we await the full inheritance. Let us pray.