And Esau said to Jacob, "Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am weary." Therefore his name was called Edom. But Jacob said, "Sell me your birthright as of this day." And Esau said, "Look, I am about to die; so what is this birthright to me?" – Genesis 25v30-32
Tiredness and hunger can be great motivating factors. They say never to go grocery shopping when you are hungry. I know better than to make any serious decision when I am tired. When our flesh is weak it is far too easy to make decisions based on the desire to satisfy that weakness.
Esau came in tired and hungry. His thoughts were for the immediate; the here and now. In a moment of fleshly weakness he was ripe for a making a foolish decision.
I can’t say that I blame him. He came in exhausted in the field and smelled a delicious pot of bean stew being cooked by his brother Jacob. I strongly suspect that this pot of ‘lentils’ was actually pinto beans and that there was a batch of cornbread cooking as well. Who wouldn’t be swayed by that! In that moment of physical weakness he threw it all away. He deceitful conniving brother told had a deal, ‘I will trade you your birthright for a bowl of stew.’ he said.
Poor old Esau could only think of the moment; ‘What good is my birthright if I starve to death? Okay, just feed me.’
Sometimes all of us have to deal with the temptation to make a short-sighted decision. The immediate ‘need’ can be so pressing in our minds that we ignore the possible long term consequences in order to satisfy the need.
I think we see an early picture of walking by sight as opposed to walking by the spirit here. Esau chose to walk, not by what he could not see, but by what he could see. He chose the temporary over the ‘eternal.’
We can laugh of Esau for his foolishness in trading his privilege of first born son for a bowl of stew, but do we do any better when we lay aside the importance of eternity for a few seconds of satisfying the flesh?
Oh, by the way, ‘famishment’ is a real word :-) .
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