Devotionals

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"Jacob said, 'Sell me your birthright this day.'
"And Esau said, 'Behold, I am at the point of death. What profit will my birthright be to me?'
"And Jacob said, 'Swear to me this day,' and he swore unto him. And he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils, and he ate and drank, rose up, and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright."
--Genesis 25:32-34


I am so proud of myself. I've broken the single-handed repertoire. Up to this point I could count everything I can cook on one hand--grilled cheese and tomato soup, baked beans, hot dogs, baked beans AND hot dogs (a different food group), and fried egg sandwiches. Now, thanks to Kraft and Taco Bell, I've added a second hand.

It happened at the Save-A-Lot store. My wife Marie was struggling after her chemotherapy treatment last week. I'd gone down to get her some pineapple, one of the few fruits she can eat, but I was on my own. As I walked in the door, they caught my eye--bright red boxes of Taco Bell Home Originals (Rregistered Trade Mark) burrito dinners. As if I'd had an epiphany, I could almost hear the choir and orchestra in the background, bursting forth in rapturous accompaniment to my discovery. I could do this. And the dinners were only two and a half bucks.

With a surge of pride that came from the deep heart knowledge that I was about to make the leap to the next culinary level, I grabbed a box and headed back to pick up the shredded cheese and pound of hamburger the instructions called for. The anticipation grew as I strutted down the aisle. Two extra ingredients from different parts of the store. Wow. I was actually cooking.

Sunday I had my big chance. While Marie rested on the couch I prepared the hamburger and seasoning mix, making it a point to follow the instructions. Then it was on to the next step. Let's see, a heaping tablespoon of refried beans on the tortilla. Come on, a tablespoon? How was I supposed to taste the stuff? I smeared a generous portion over the whole tortilla, and then added three scoops of the seasoned meat on top. Of course rolling them up was hopeless by this time. I left it flat and tore open the foil envelope of Taco Bell Zesty Red Sauce.

Where did they come up with the term "zesty?" I couldn't even smell them. I went for the bottle of the zesty green sauce, the one that Marie and the girls bought in Mexico on a Girl Scout trip. The label reads, "La Anita Salsa Picante de Chile Habanero." Marie calls it the Green Death. I dribbled on the habanero sauce, relishing the acrid pepper aroma that blended with the other ingredients as it wafted up from the plate. That was more like it.

Creative cooking--what a rush. I wonder if the Culinary Institute of the Arts has any openings. Probably not. I guess I'll stick to writing and let the people who actually can cook do their thing.

Thankfully, Jacob and Esau, Isaac's twin sons, could fend for themselves in the kitchen. And the kitchen was where history would change.

Jacob was more the domesticated of the two, while Esau made a mean venison stew. But they fought. Though they were twins, they were about as different as two boys could be. They even made their mother Rebecca's pregnancy a nightmare. When she asked the Lord what was going on, He told her that she carried two mutually struggling nations in her womb (Genesis 25:22-23).

The boys lived up to their names. The minutes-older Esau, "Red," was covered in red hair, and became the outdoor guy. His brother grabbed his heel as they were being born, and became known as Jacob, the "Supplanter." True to his name, he grew to understand the intricacies of human character, and became a virtuoso in manipulation and avarice.

One of the turning points for both of them came when Esau came back from an unsuccessful survival trek, at the brink of starvation. He begged his brother for some of the food he was cooking. Jacob, never one to miss an opportunity, finagled Esau's birthright as payment for the food. He held out the carrot, and Esau bit.

Granted, Esau was starving. What good was a birthright if he wasn't alive to claim it? Still, he traded faith for want. Esau saw himself only in the present. He forgot that God had chosen his grandfather Abraham as a person by whom He would write history, and that as his grandson he was part of an unending historical legacy. He didn't take into account the fact that without a son in his old age, Abraham too was as good as dead. Yet God opened Sarah's ninety-year-old womb, and Isaac, Esau's father, was born. Esau was the son of the son of promise. He held the birthright that had come from the most pivotal man in history, the man through whom God would bless the nations.

Yet he missed the spiritual boat. In the end he lost both the birthright and his father's deathbed blessing, due in no small measure to Jacob's underhanded manipulations. But the book of Hebrews draws a deeper application from Esau's tragic life. The author urged his wavering Jewish readers to hold fast their profession of faith in Christ. Regardless of the outward circumstances, the race is a spiritual one. The author said they needed to be careful, "lest there be any fornicator, or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected, and found no place for repentance, though he sought it with tears" (Hebrews 12:16-17).

We all hit times when we're consumed by hunger, whether it's for food or any other of the multitudes of passions that can ravage us in a moment. Physical passions have a penchant for causing spiritual nearsightedness. That's when we need to keep our eyes on the prize and guard against sacrificing the eternal for the immediate.

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