
A Mess of Pottage
When I was in Grade 1, I had an army green marker that I just loved. I used that army green marker to draw army tanks and airplanes and all kinds of army stuff, and I revelled in the realization that the kid who sat next to me was slightly envious of my green marker.
I, on the other hand, was envious of the Hot Rods he brought to school every day. You know, those spicy, greasy pepperoni sticks that I loved but which my mom never bought for me when I was a kid?
Day by day, he sized up my marker, and I sized up his snacks. And one day, he made me an offer. He would trade me a Hot Rod for my army green marker.
I very clearly remember looking at them and thinking they were about the same size, so it seemed like a pretty good deal. So I said yes, and we swapped, and I revelled in the spicy meat I had longed for for so long.
But then it was over—quicker than I expected. I had no more Hot Rod, and no source of future Hot Rods. And he had my marker. And guess what? The next day, he had another Hot Rod. And an army green marker. I had neither.
That was my Esau moment, when I traded something valuable and long-lasting for something short-lived. And we're going to look at Esau's actions and what we can learn from them today.
1. The Birth (vv. 24-26)
But first, we need to actually meet. Jacob and Esau. When we left off last week, Rebekah was still pregnant and their role reversal had just been promised. So in verses 24-26 we come to their birth.
“When her days to give birth were completed, behold, there were twins in her womb. The first came out red, all his body like a hairy cloak, so they called his name Esau” (Genesis 25:24–25).
Esau had some uncommon genetics going on. He seems to have what is known as hypertrichosis, where someone's body is completely covered in hair—sometimes known as "werewolf syndrome."
And unfortunately, we can't escape from the animal-like association here. The narrator here tells us that Esau's body was like a hairy cloak. Where did hairy cloaks from from? Animal hair. Later on Jacob is able to mimic Esau's skin with a goat hide. And these details are included here, not just because they're strange, but to set up those future events.
There's also the suggestion that Esau's animal-like external appearance will be matched by animal-like behaviour, which we are going to see more of this morning.
So Esau, the hairy red one, is born. And verse 26 tells us that after this—making very clear this is the second born—the brother came out with his hand holding Esau's heel.
This is a remarkable event for many reasons. Typically, when twins are delivered, there's a delay between them, sometimes a lengthy one. I was going to go into a bunch of detail here about monoamniotic vs diamniotic twins but suffice it to say this is extremely unique.
And we're supposed to see some significant foreshadowing in this event. Jacob's hand on Esau's heel is almost like he's saying, "No, don't leave without me. I'm supposed to be first." Every younger child knows the feeling of "wait for me!", but it's especially weighty here with God's words to Rebekah about the older serving the younger. Jacob is scrambling for first place from the beginning.
Second, there's also the imagery of sneaking up behind someone to grab them by their foot, tricking them, tripping them.
That's actually where his name comes in. The name יַעֲקֹב may have originally had the sense of "God protects" but is also related to the word for "heel," and so in this sense is taken to refer to grabbing someone by the heel—in other words, coming up behind them to trip or trick or take them out of the way so you can take their place.
And so in more ways than one, Jacob's hand on Esau's heel gives us a picture of the kind of behaviour we'll come to expect from Jacob.
2. The Boys (vv. 27-28)
Our next major stop in the passage comes in verses 27-28 which introduces us to the boys as they grow up. And not surprisingly, though twins, they become two completely different kinds of people.
Verse 27: “When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents” (Genesis 25:27).
Now we live in Nipawin, surrounded by the great outdoors, and being a skillful hunter sounds pretty good to us. We might be tempted to read verse 27 as suggesting that Esau was a real man, whereas Jacob was a bit of a weakling.
But the reality is a big more surprising than this. In the Biblical story, men who spend most of their time out on the field hunting are not necessarily viewed in the most positive light.
The last person in the Biblical story who was described as a great hunter was Nimrod, the mighty man who founded Assyria. Assyria, which was long a source of enemies and opposition for God's people. So this isn't exactly someone you want to be like.
On the other hand, dwelling in tents isn't a negative attribute. It doesn't mean that Jacob stayed inside playing video games all day. It just means that he did his day's work and then went home to his tent at the end of the day.
And particularly, living in a tent as associated with having flocks and herds. Genesis 4:20 speaks about those who dwell in tents and take care of livestock. And that's what we see with Jacob's father and grandfather Abraham. They were nomadic, moving around with their flocks and herds, but pitching a tent which they went home to at night.
So the difference here isn't between a real man and a weak man. The difference is between Esau, the hunter-gatherer, and Jacob, who practiced agriculture.
And we probably recognize agriculture as a more advanced and developed form of civilization than hunting and gathering. Hunting is a fine hobby, but we recognize that living in the field, hunting full-time, is not a great way to build wealth and culture.
And that's even reflected in the word here for Jacob. We read that he's a "quiet" man. It's really interesting, because this is the only place in the Old Testament this Hebrew word is translated as "quiet." Other times, it has the sense of "perfect" or even "blameless." Bible scholar Bruce Ware suggests that here it has the idea of being civilized or well-cultured.
Jacob wasn't a softy. We know from later on in his life that he was strong and knew how to work hard. He just preferred sleeping in his own tent each night instead of out somewhere on a hunt tracking the latest game.
It's interesting how their parents reacted to these career choices. Verse 28 says that "Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game." The Hebrew here is actually a bit rougher, and we could translate it, "Isaac loved Esau because of the game in his mouth."
Either this is a fairly rough way of describing Isaac with a mouthful of meat, or it's picturing Esau returning home like a lion with a fresh catch in his mouth. Either way, this isn't necessarily painting Isaac in the best light here. He prefers one son over the other because he has a thing for wild meat. That seems pretty shallow.
On the other hand, we read that Rebekah loved Jacob. We're not told why. No doubt she remembers God's pronouncement about the younger son ruling. No doubt Jacob dwelling among the tents gave him a chance to build a better relationship with his mother. But we're not really told much.
At best, this is painting a picture of a slightly dysfunctional family. Parents, we know that picking favourites among your children is really unwise. And this weird alliance of Isaac and Esau vs. Rebekah and Jacob is going to cause some serious trouble before too long.
3. The Birthright (vv. 29-34)
Then, in verse 29, we get to the main event in our passage today. It starts innocently enough. "Once when Jacob was cooking stew."
We find Jacob cooking. If you think that cooking is woman's work, this might confirm your suspicion that Jacob is less than a full man.
But back before the machines and factories of the industrial revolution, most men worked closer to home, and the line between "men's work" and "woman's work" was not quite as thick as it was in 1950's America. Women did tend to prepare food for their families more often, but right in the Bible we read that Lot (Gen 19:3) and Gideon (Judg 6:19) both prepared food for their guests.
So there's nothing that odd about seeing Jacob cooking food, especially since he wasn't married yet. Maybe the sheep were out to pasture, and Jacob is getting supper ready.
And then he hears footsteps, maybe a rustling at his tent door. It's his brother, Esau, coming in from the field where he had been out hunting. And verse 29 tells us that "he was exhausted." How many miles had he covered, how many days had he spent out under the sky, how many animals had he bagged? How long had be been awake, and how long had he been walking that day?
We don't know, but anybody here who has hunted or gone backpacking or camping knows that it doesn't take too much of an imagination to picture Esau coming back from a hunting expedition totally exhausted.
And apparently he's also hungry, because he says to his brother in verse 30, "Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted!"
Esau wants some food. That much is obvious. But our English translations can obscure just how crude and abrupt his actual request is. First, his word for "eat" is not the usual Hebrew word for eat. It's not used anywhere else in the Bible but in later Hebrew is used for feeding animals.
And when he talks about the stew, he doesn't actually use the word "stew." He literally just says "this red red." As in, this red stuff.
Taken together, it all sounds a bit rude. Robert Alter translates Esau's language this way: "Let me gulp down some of this red red stuff, for I am famished." In modern language, it might be something like, "Gimme some of that red stuff, I'm starving."
Verse 30 inserts a comment here—"Therefore his name was called Edom." "Edom" became one of Esau's names and the name of the nation that came from him, and it sounds a lot like the Hebrew for "red." The red man craved red stew and forever after his descendants lived in the shadow of these events.
So what does Jacob do? Here's someone coming to your tent who needs food. Not just a stranger, but family. What should Jacob do? What did Abraham do with his guests? What about Lot? What about all of the cases we've seen and heard about Middle Eastern hospitality?
"Come in, brother, rest, let me feed you." That's what Jacob should have done.
But this heel-grabber has other plans. You can almost see the lightbulb above his head and the look in his eyes as he realizes what kind of opportunity he has here. His brother, vulnerable, needing his help. You don't waste a good opportunity like that.
So he says to his brother, in verse 31, "Sell me your birthright now." The birthright was Esau's legal claim to the double portion and all the rights and privileges of being the firstborn son.
And Jacob is basically saying: you can have some of this red, red stuff, but it won't be free. The price? Your birthright. I get to be the firstborn from this point forward.
The fact that he comes out with this so quickly suggests that he's been thinking about this. Ever since his little fingers tried to keep his brother in the womb, Jacob has been longing and seeking and probably even scheming for how he can take his brother's place as the first born.
And here's his chance. Let's just be clear: this is a pretty dirty thing to do. Taking advantage of someone when they are weak and vulnerable is not honourable in the slightest.
Esau, on his part, doesn't see what a birthright has to do with anything—but especially to his empty stomach. Verse 32: “Esau said, ‘I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?”’” (Genesis 25:32).
A birthright is all about what you're going to inherit, and that doesn't mean much if you're on death's door, right? Esau's statement is somewhat accurate here. What good is a birthright if you're about to die?
The thing is, he's not about to die, is he? If he was literally about to die, he wouldn't be there right then, having that conversation. He wouldn't have come in from the field to Esau's tent if he was literally in the last stages of death from starvation. If he was literally about to die, the bowl of stew he's about to eat would have killed him.
He's hungry, he's weak, and the smell of the cooking stew is probably driving him nuts, but he's not actually on the verge of death.
But it probably feels that way. Just like we'll often proclaim "I'm starving" when supper is a little late. We exaggerate our need for food as if it's way worse than it is.
Esau feels like he needs food, and he needs it now. His birthright doesn't feel very important right now. So he says, "Sure, whatever, that means nothing to me right now."
But Jacob isn't going to let this transaction happen so easily. Verse 33: “Jacob said, ‘Swear to me now.’" In other words, let's make this official. Prolonging Esau's hunger, dragging it out, but making sure that this is a real, legal transaction.
And Esau goes along with it. "So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob” (Genesis 25:33).
I wonder what Jacob was feeling at this point. He had overcome his birth order and was now the legal heir to a double portion of Isaac's inheritance. He's now the legal firstborn. His scheme worked. I wonder if he could even believe it.
And having secured his position in the family, having taken advantage of his brother, now he finally shows him hospitality. Verse 34: “Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew." Aww, isn't that nice? He threw bread in for good measure. How kind.
What about Esau? Same verse: "...he ate and drank and rose and went his way." We get four staccato verbs here that picture Esau gulping down his food, drinking something, and then just getting up and leaving.
How long did that bowl of lentils last? How long until his stomach was full and he's off on his way and it's all over so fast? What it he had waited just a little bit longer until he made it back to his own tent? Or what if he had just said "no" to Jacob's demands, calling him out for how ridiculous he was being? What if?
But he didn't. The bowl of stew is gone just like that, just like his birthright.
And verse 34 ends by saying, "Thus Esau despised his birthright” (Genesis 25:34). Esau valued a bowl of stew—or a "mess of pottage" as one old preacher called it—more than his birthright. And more to the point, it wasn't even the bowl of stew. It was getting that bowl of stew right now that mattered to Esau. Mattered more than his inheritance and all that would come with that.
4. Key Takeaways
So what have we seen today? We've seen the birth of Jacob and Esau, the nature of these two boys as they grew up, and the episode with the selling of the birthright.
And there's two major truths that we're going to take home with us today. The first looks at this passage as a whole, and the second zooms in specifically at this last episode.
a. God's Sovereignty
First, this passage also shows us how God's sovereign choice works its way out in history.
Last week, we heard how God chose Jacob over Esau before either of them were born and had done anything good or bad.
And today, we see Esau foolishly throwing away his birthright. And we might ask, did Jacob end up inheriting Abraham's promise because of God's choice, or because of Esau's sin?
And the answer is yes. In this one episode, Esau is acting and making his decisions, and behind it all, in a way we don't see or can understand, is a sovereign God accomplishing His purposes.
It's like Joseph saying to his brothers, "You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good." He didn't say, "God saw what you were going to do and worked it into his plan." He said, "There was an event. You had a meaning for it, and God had a meaning for it. Your meaning was evil, but God's meaning was good."
This is what we meant last week when we said that our choices and God's sovereign will are compatible. It's not like they are opposites that cancel each other out. They are two meaningful ways of describing the same event.
Esau's willing choice to give up his birthright, and God's sovereign choice to make Esau serve Jacob, are two compatible ways of describing this event.
And of course, we recognize that God's sovereign choice is the foundation here. It's not like our choices are on the same level as God's choices. He's the king and He's deciding how this will go.
How does it work that Esau freely and foolishly throws away his birthright, but his chosen sin fulfils God's plan? I don't know how it works. Just that it does. As much as Jesus' death, when “Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel" gathered together against Jesus to do whatever God's hand and plan had predestined to take place, like Acts 4:27-28 says.
And let's also be reminded—just in case we think that God rejected Esau because He knew in advance how bad he would be—how terribly Jacob acts in this passage. Who is worse: the starving man or the calculating trickster who takes advantage of him in his weakness?
God's choice is not about turning away good people, but about showing grace to undeserving sinners. And the same is true for you and I today.
b. The Nature of Lust
Secondly, specifically looking at this last episode, we want to consider how Esau's behaviour is a textbook study in the nature of lust. And what first tips us of to this, if we missed it in the passage itself, is Hebrews chapter 12. Beginning in verse 15, we read this:
“See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no ‘root of bitterness' springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy 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, though he sought it with tears’” (Hebrews 12:15–17).
The author of Hebrews is warning his readers about various kinds of sins, and in particular he zeroes in on sexual immorality, which he connects to unholiness.
And I just want you to think: if you had the whole Bible at your disposal, with all of the possible examples found in these pages, and you wanted to give a negative example of sexual immorality and unholiness, someone who you could say, "Don't be like this," who would you pick?
Maybe David and Bathsheba? Samson and Delilah? Solomon and his 1,000 women? Aren't there more clear examples?
But out of the whole Bible, the author of Hebrews picks Esau. And I think that's because Esau, in just a few short verses, actually demonstrates the nature and behaviour of lust as just good, if not better, than any other example in Scripture.
Think about the things we learn about lust here in these verses. I see five aspects.
First, we see how lust, especially physical lust, involves over-emphasizing your physical appetites. Esau felt hunger in his belly and it was all he could feel. It was all he knew. It consumed his attention and his focus. He felt like he was dying, even though he wasn't. He gave his appetites more credit than they actually deserved.
Second, lust often brings with it an overblown sense of urgency. We feel like we need something, and we need it now. Esau had no sense of time, of patience, of waiting just a bit longer. He was crazed to have his needs met right then and there.
Third—and you'll see how these all overlap somewhat—lust throws off our priorities. We feel like meeting this craving is the most important thing in his world, and nothing else matters. We forget about all the consequences.
That connects to the fourth aspect, which is that lust makes us stupid. It silences the voice of reason. In the throes of lust, Esau was not thinking clearly. Lust makes us turn aside from careful thought and rigorous logic. It just wants to feel good, and that craving is the only voice that matters.
Fifth, lust's reward is so short lived. Verse 34 points to how quickly this was over. He eats, drinks, gets up and leaves and that's it. All for a few minutes with a bowl of stew. Lust is so short-lived.
And these same principles we see in Esau apply to all kinds of lust, especially lust for another person. And we need to see how literally insane it is. We need to see this, because we live in a culture that celebrates lust and tries to make it seem beautiful and even noble.
Just think: we could take those five aspects of lust we just discussed, add the words "oh baby" at the beginning, and we have ourselves a top 40 hit. "I want you so bad, I need you right now, being with you is everything, I don't care about anything else, I'd trade the whole world for one night with you."
Our culture worships lust and has whole industries working to make it seem appealing. Our culture fights for the right to murder unborn babies to protect their unrestricted access to lust.
But let today's passage remind us how crazy this all is. Look at what Esau lost for a few minutes with a steaming bowl of stew. How many people have lost careers and marriages and more for a few minutes in a steamy hotel room?
And it's all over so fast, and you're left with nothing but regrets.
And sexual lust isn't the only kind of lust that this applies to. Esau's craving for lentil stew is a tragic picture of other lusts that tug at us. Such as, lust for food.
We live in a culture dripping with excess, drowning in gluttony. Think of the sensuous food advertising we're exposed to, the slow motion shots of greasy, sugary temptation that move behind the menus in the restaurants. How many of us have gone through the drive-through, or dialled up the delivery place, with Esau's craving thrumming in our stomachs?
We know about eating healthy and that what we're doing isn't really great, but we don't really care because all we are thinking about is our grumbling stomachs that we need to fill right now, and we're not thinking about the cost.
And you might be thinking, "Well, that's easy for you to say, skinny guy with a special diet."
Let me let you in on a little secret, in case you're not aware: the relationship between food consumption and body weight can vary significantly from one person to the next. And sometimes skinny people can be more gluttonous than anybody else. They're just able to hide it.
For much of my life I could indulge in whatever I wanted to eat, as often as I wanted to, eating way more than my fair share. Going back again and again to the buffet line until my stomach was in pain, eating entire club-sized bags of potato chips in one sitting, filling up on MacDonalds before bed just because I wanted to. I had a craving for meat that rivalled any ancient Israelite, and I just happened to have a metabolism that meant I didn't show any of it.
It was a hidden sin, and one that our culture kind of laughs at. You might think that me talking about all that food I ate is funny. Think of the guys who have gotten famous on YouTube for eating huge amounts of food. We're entertained by gluttony.
And we shouldn't be, because gluttony is driven by the lusts of the flesh and we need to take it seriously. Proverbs 23:20 groups "gluttonous eaters of meat" with drunkards. We recognize that it's a problem to drink too much, but have no problem with eating too much; but it's the same sinful impulse behind both.
Gluttony is a big deal. Just think: the sin that plunged humanity into darkness an act of eating. "When the woman saw that the tree was good for good, and that it was a delight to the eyes..." (Gen 3:6). Think of how Esau traded his birthright—and today, we are worshipping a Messiah who is Israelite instead of Edomite—because of food.
We know that it's not wrong to enjoy food. It's not even wrong to enjoy fast food, in appropriate amounts. 1 Timothy 4:4 says we can receive everything God with thanksgiving. There are appropriate times to feast.
But we need to recognize that lust for food is as poisonous to our souls as any other kind of lust.
And the call for us today is to see where lust—any kind of lust—takes us. And to root it out of our lives violently.
I guarantee you that Esau's lustful choice this day was not the first time he'd given in to his cravings. This is the behaviour of a man whose character had been chipped away by years of caving in to every desire of his appetites. And when it came down to the ultimate challenge he had no capacity to say "no."
We need to daily fight lust by the power of the Holy Spirit. To trust that what God promises us in His word is better than what lust whispers to us. To use the sword of the Spirit to put to death the deeds of the body (Rom 8:13).
And one way we can do this is to practice saying "no" to our bodies. Remember Jesus' words, "when you fast" (Matt 6:16). Fasting has been a universal practice among the people of God throughout all time. If you can't imagine going a day without food, or even just skipping a meal, what does that suggest about the grip that your appetite for food has on you?
Maybe that's a practical step some of you should take. This week, skip one meal. And use your hunger as a built-in reminder to pray. Or switch out one unhealthy food in your diet for something that you know is better for you. Take a step towards taking control over your appetites, instead of letting your appetites control you, for the sake of training yourself for godliness. And for remembering, as Jesus did in his hungering days in the desert, that man shall not live on bread alone.
This is why it's not ironic for us to move from this discussion into an act of eating. In the table, hear again the invitation of Jesus: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst’” (John 6:35).
Our greatest need is not our next meal but the Bread of Life, the perfect firstborn Son who never gave in to lust, not even after 40 days of hunger in the wilderness. And who offered Himself on the cross for us, his broken body and shed blood making atonement for all of our lusts, all of the times we've ignored His warnings and caved in to our cravings.
The one who we can turn to in our hour of temptation, who intercedes for us before the Father, who by His Spirit is able to supply all the power and the strength that we need to say "no" to lust.
So turn to Him again today. Repent of your sin. Taste of His grace. Remember His crucifixion and look forward to the day when we will eat and drink with Him in His kingdom.
And until then, we turn ourselves back to Jesus again as the only one who can truly satisfy us.