“When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, “Bless me, even me also, O my father!”
Genesis 27:34
In the very moment, being famished, and the smell of Jacob’s tasty red stew filling the room, a very small thing, like a bowl of porridge, seemed more desirable to Esau than a much bigger thing, his birthright. Thus Esau despised his birthright, a big thing far off, for stew – a small thing immediately available. Unbelief is like that, it uses time and distance to distort the true value of precious things. To despise means to think little of, to be dismissive toward, and to disregard. Esau thought little of, and was dismissive of, the true value of his birthright – when it seemed far off. Esau was an earthy man, a hunter, a man of the fields – he lived in the moment and gave little thought to tomorrow. Better, he thought, was good stew right now when hungry, than a birthright which could only be enjoyed in the distant future.
Thus Esau became the model of unbelief. Unbelief lives only for what can be had in the moment of desire – even though it may be small and temporary. Faith, on the other hand, has the capacity to see something far off, reckon its true value, and decline an immediately accessible gain for a greater and eternal blessing. Esau, in his unbelief, was nearsighted so that he could not see the true value of a far off birthright. He did not have the capacity to wait for something better than the stew, when the stew was immediately before him. Faith beholds the promises of God and believes them, setting its hope upon them. It forsakes some pleasures, though they may be more immediately enjoyed, for the sake of greater ones which must be waited for, but will be far better – and enjoyed forever.
If Esau could only have endured his hunger for just a few hours he may not have had to lose his birthright. But he couldn’t. His desire for stew now blinded him to the immense value of his birthright. Soon, having satisfied his immediate hunger, he would be hungry again. His birthright was gone forever. But what did he care? He was no longer hungry, and the loss of his birthright wouldn’t change anything for him the next day, or the next, or perhaps for years beyond that. He did not miss his birthright because its blessings could not be enjoyed until the day of inheritance – and who knew how many years that would be? And so he went on after eating his stew no different than he had been before it – he got himself some good soup right when he wanted it – at no immediate cost whatsoever.
But when the day came, the day of receiving his father’s blessing, the loss was traumatic. Where was the stew now? Could he even remember how good it tasted? No he couldn’t, not with salty tears running down his face from the loss of his father’s blessing. He lost a terribly valuable thing when he bought that stew. And on the day of loss he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry.
Lord, please increase my faith so that your great and eternal promises are reckoned more precious and desirable than the immediate trinkets available to me each day. Lord even good things, if they should be sought for their own sake – will be rob me of future blessing. Let me look to Christ as so much richer, so much better than anything else, that I’d give away all earthly treasure to gain more interest in Him. Save me from the misery of unbelief. Deliver me through Christ. Amen.
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