Your Birthright

Since we left Abram in Genesis 15 – God gave him a son in his old age, told him that his descendants would be as many as the stars in the sky, and changed his name to Abraham. God keeps His promise to Abraham and reminds him several times.

The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God. Gen. 17:8

He reminds Abram again in Gen. 18:19 and Gen. 22:17-18. He also made this promise to Abraham’s son, Isaac in Genesis 16:2:5.

I don’t mean to be repetitive – but when God keeps repeating Himself – we better listen!

Now, Isaac had two sons, Esau and Jacob. Esau was the oldest and therefore entitled to the “birthright”. (You will have to read Gen. 25:19-24 and chapters 27 & 28 for yourself – it is very scandalous!) Gen. 25:34 says that Esau despised his birthright. Esau did not want what was rightfully his. He did not fight for his inheritance. He gave it away for a pot of stew.

There are three things we can learn from this story. The first is that God is sovereign. God had already chosen Jacob to inherit the promise He had made to Abraham and Isaac. The LORD spoke to Rebekah when she was pregnant and said, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.” Gen. 25:23

The second is that Rebekah and Jacob should not have taken matters into their own hands. When the LORD makes a promise to us – He will carry it out in due time!

The third is that God has a plan for our life and He has spiritual blessings that He wants to pour out on us! But, we can not fulfill His plan and experience the blessings if we refuse our birthright! You may be asking why it mattered if Esau gave up his birthright – after all, God was going to give it to Isaac to begin with, right? God knew in advance that Esau would sell his birthright.

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. Psalms 13-16

I absolutely love that verse. He knew us before we were born. And all of our days were written in His book before one of them came to be! Oh how He must love us! We are not here by accident or mistake. He has a beautiful plan for each one of us. We must take up our inheritance! We must possess our Promised Land!