So Esau is born first. He's all hairy like this and I carry mantle So I like a joke. He's a little baby Ewok that's born and then Jacob is born next His name is the supplanter or he who supplants because he's holding on to Esau's heel after all those months of fighting in the womb He's not giving up. He's tenacious and that's really important by the way for the kind of character that Jacob is he never gets up He's always fighting.
He's always striving. So that's really really important Keep that in mind for the rest of Jacob's story But now let's see how Jacob really lives up to his name in the first instance when he tries to supplant or successfully supplants his brother's birthright And that brings us here to chapter 25 verse 29 and following So let's read that and then I want to share a couple of different insights on this because a lot of people will say about Jacob He's he's a villain right a lot of people don't have good feelings necessarily about Jacob his name is the planter He who supplants he's this he's very deceptive and he's a trickster and all this stuff But I want to present to you the particular perspective from the greater context of scripture that he's really not all that bad in fact His heart is in the right place. Yes, he doesn't do everything perfect But honestly he isn't the villain that people paint him out to be so let's read this verse here really quickly These few verses and then share a few different points and then it'll be important for when we get momentarily here in about 10 15 minutes When we get over to chapter 27 this scene is going to be extremely crucial So let's read this chapter 25 verse 29 says once when Jacob is boiling potage He saw came in from the field and he was famished and Jake and he saw said to Jacob Let me eat some of that red potage before I'm famished therefore his name is called eat him because eat him means red as we discussed Even he saw when he was born he was hairy like a little baby He was born all red like one old friend of mine He saves like a little like a little elmo right so but the meaning of red eat him here is also because of his potage So I'll hold that into your brain for a second then Jacob said first film your birthright He saw said I'm about to die of what uses a birthright to me Which is obviously exaggeration which I'll say Jacob said swear to me first So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob then Jacob gave you saw bread and potage of lentils and he ate and drank and rose and went on his way Thus he saw it despised his birthright Alright, so let's talk about this so you saw has sells his birthright for this red potage It says he despised his birthright and so this kind of remember I said to you before earlier on names mean things right Jacob Yaco of his use of plants you saw is also known as eat him not just because he was a little red baby when he was born But because of what he does in this instance It's an indication of the character of you saw in being willing to sell this birthright here Now we talked at the beginning of this lesson about the importance of firstborn sons about how there's a steam in scripture How God often overlooks the firstborn son for whatever reason usually because they're unworthy and goes to a younger son Well the firstborn son would receive the father's birthright and blessing or rather receive the authority from the father and the birthright and the blessing What's the difference between the two of them? Well, you're not sure I have it for you the birthright was a double portion of the father's estate So father dies and then he divides all of his estate to his children But the firstborn son will receive a double portion the blessing was a spiritual inheritance It was a spiritual inheritance of obligation and authority to spiritually provide as the priest of the family on behalf of all the rest of the family So he would become the father figure so to speak and a real sense honestly to spiritually provide and protect for everyone else here in the family And this this is a special in this line of promise that we've been talking about this blessing of the priesthood and the spiritual authority Really is given to God to Adam then it goes from Adam to Seth to Noah to Shem to Abraham Isaac and now here It's supposed to go to Esau, okay So there's a very special line of promise that is being passed down through the line here So they're supposed to come together the birthright and the blessing and keep that in mind for when we get here in couple Chapter down the road Chapter 27 the birthright and the blessing supposed to go together It can be separated which I'll show with you in the end of our Exodus Bible study This is kind of what Jacob really does amongst his sons Which we'll see with Judah and with Joseph, but that's down the line for right now Keep in mind the birthright and the blessing usually go together and it goes to the firstborn son Why is it because the firstborn son is lucky he gets a double portion of the material inheritance?
This is awesome. I get all this money and flocks and all this stuff and I'm in charge now on the priest I have the authority No, it's not just simply because you're the man on top It's because you're supposed to take care of your family You get a double portion of the material inheritance because you're supposed to provide for the needy within your family within your tribe If someone is a widow or an orphan or someone is poor or whatever it might be You're supposed to provide for them and you receive a material inheritance to do that You as the priestly figure of the family bothers the firstborn son. You're gonna pray for the family You're going to intercede on their behalf offers sacrifices on their behalf So it's not just yes on the firstborn son This is great look at all that I get like you're the firstborn son and you have an obligation and a responsibility to provide for everyone else That's entrusted to you Okay, so this is the the purpose of the blessing and the birthright that's gonna go to the firstborn sons now Esau here sells his birthright as we just read even it says he despised his birthright Because he doesn't care about it And this is the point that I really want to emphasize that so many people get wrong Jacob is not doing anything necessarily underhanded in asking his brother for that birthright He said to sell me the birthright and Esau agrees now Esau is the one at fault here Jacob didn't put a gun to his head didn't have guns as anachronistic I know they put a spear to his neck and say give me your birthright Esau with full knowledge and both consent freely sold that birthright and this is what makes Esau such an idiot and so stupid because keep in mind Jacob is not the only person around with food, okay? Isaac, okay, their father is now the head of the entire tribe They're very wealthy.
There's many people within his tribe because he inherited everything from Abraham There are tents all around so I do not think it is a stretch of the imagination Where if Jacob says to Esau, sell me your birthright because I have this you know this food here and smells great Don't you want it? Esau if he cared about the birthright and all the responsibilities that came with the birthright and the blessing He could have just punched younger brother Jacob in the nose and said forget it This is my birthright and go next door to the tent nearby where ever and get some food there But the point is he doesn't care about his birthright and so it's like yeah, yeah He swears an oath I swear an oath I'm gonna give you this birthright It doesn't mean anything to me nor does anything that the birthright comes with the obligations that comes with the birthright That doesn't mean anything to him either, but this is the interesting thing Jacob does want it So Jacob's heart is in the right place. He does want this position I think you could you know speculate a little bit I don't think he wants it purely for selfish means but he does want to be in this position to be able to provide for the family spiritually Material he wants to be the one in charge maybe it's not completely untainted by sin But he does desire this blessing he does want to be in the line of promise this line that comes from Abraham Okay, and of course all the way to Adam before him Esau doesn't want it He despises it Jacob does want it and the guilt is entirely esauce so at this point in the story I think it's a very arguable demonstrable Jacob's not doing anything wrong He desires it Esau doesn't Esau's not coerced in any way shape or form He just doesn't care and this is in fact what Hebrew chapter 12 says here in your notes verse 16 through 17 I've reproduced it for you Saint Paul says see to it that no one be immoral or irreligious like Esau Who sold his birthright for a single meal for you know that afterward when he desired to inherit the blessing He was rejected for he found no chance to repent but he saw it with tears So it's a Paul or the author that he was which I would say is Saint Paul says like he's being immoral and irreligious He despised his birthright. He doesn't hear anything about it.
Jacob desires it and so he acquired it And so yes to a certain extent he supplants his older brother in his position He takes the authority and the position of the firstborn son to himself But Esau's not worthy and that's the big takeaway point in this first story Which will continue to develop in chapter 27 which we'll see after we see the stories of Isaac and Abimalek here But another good point about Esau's character is that he takes multiple lives which is a very big problem So we're not there yet But in chapter 26 verse 34 we get to hit really quickly It says when Esau is four years old he took to life in Juneth hit tight as well as boss him off another kid tight Look at these are Canaanites really and these women made life bitter for Isaac and for Rebecca So taking two Canaanite women is a problem This is an echo of like lomik if you remember back in Genesis chapter 4 lomik the descendant the sixth in line after Cain Takes two wives such as he chose or he's the first biggomist Esau is a biggomist like lomik was and he doesn't marry within his kinsmen he marries Canaanite women Which is also bad if I can remember everything we talked about with the sons of God and daughters of men the two lions would be Intercrossing interconnecting so this is a big no no He's taking the wives such as he chose and also before I forget even later on he marries another woman making him a polygamist So very very bad reflection on his character these marriages make life bitter for Isaac and Rebecca He is not worthy in his character and in his actions selling his birthright and of course as we saw we opened up this lesson Isaac has this preferential love for Esau which is going to blind him to all these imperfections All right, but before we continue on you know with a blessing the stealing of the blessing which Jacob does to see this father Which is definitely no no we'll talk more about that Let's go into the stories of chapter 26 with the parallels between Isaac and Abimalec and then his father Abraham and Abimalec And see basically how Isaac goes into the footsteps or walks the footsteps walks in the shoes of his father Abraham There's a bajillion parallels in chapter 26 between Isaac and his father Abraham. I am Dr Nick, thank you so much for watching this clip. I hope you enjoyed it if you did and you want to access the entire lesson in the entire Course come visit us over at scripture intuition.com and join our community of students You'll be able to access all of my courses in the audio library plus you'll be able to access my live courses whenever I teach a new topic on scripture Or the Catholic slave. God bless you