In recent days as part of my prayer time I have been reading the part of the Book of Genesis which tells the story of Jacob. You might remember him, he is the grandson of Abraham and Sara and he is the son of Isaac and Rebecca.

 Jacob was a twin.  The Bible says that Rebecca had a difficult pregnancy in that the two babies within her were struggling with each other, even before they were born. Esau, the older child by a few minutes or so, is described as a rough brute of a man, while Jacob, his younger brother, was more refined. The Bible also details the fact that as Esau was being born, Jacob was holding on to his brother’s heel.  In fact, the name Jacob means “the one who trips up others” or “the trickster”.

 The two brothers were exact opposites of each other and, as siblings often do, they spent most of their lives fighting with each other. These brothers were certainly different: Esau was a man of few words, Jacob was more of a speech-giver and much more articulate. Esau, a rough and very strong, hairy man, was his father’s favorite. Jacob was slight in stature and a more refined kind of person. He was his mother’s favorite

One story that the Book of Genesis uses to describe their differences is the story of how Esau loses his birthright to his scheming younger brother.  This is how it happened:

One day Esau comes home from a rather unsuccessful hunt and he is very tired and very hungry.  As he arrives back at camp, he finds his brother Jacob is cooking up a pot of  stew. Esau is so tired and so hungry that he begs his brother for a bowl of the stew.

Now Jacob knows that his brother is not particularly bright and that he is tired and that he is easily tricked. So, Jacob promises to give Esau some of the stew in exchange for the birthright that every first born son had. The birthright gave the firstborn son the bulk of his father’s estate upon the father’s death.  Esau responds to Jacob’s proposition by saying, “What good is a birthright if I die today of hunger?”  With those words, Esau trades away his future because he cannot think beyond his immediate needs and so he loses out.

As I read that part of the story, I kept thinking about how ridiculously foolish Esau was. How could he give away his entire future for a meal?  How short-sighted. How stupid.  I just wondered how he could do such a thing.

The more I thought about all of this, however, the more I realized just how brilliant the Bible is in presenting this story, for Esau is a symbol for all of us. He represents us when we let immediate concerns keep us from thinking about anything else.

 How many of us are short-sighted when we are in the middle of some disagreement with loved ones, friends or even co-workers?  It is so easy to be so concerned about our own immediate needs or interests that we fail to see the bigger picture, isn’t it?  In other words, to use an old expression, “we may win the battle but lose the war” if we don’t pay closer attention to what life sets before us.

  Esau fell victim to his brother’s dishonest schemes because he could not see beyond the meal that Jacob had been put before him. Had Esau paid closer attention to what his brother Jacob was saying to him, he may well have thought things over and come to a different decision and had a much better life.