A Bowl of Red Stew

A pot bubbles over a fire. The smell of lentils and spices drifts across the camp. A young man stumbles in from the open country, starving. And his brother, stirring the pot, has an idea.

Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah. But, just like Isaac’s own parents, they could not have children. So Isaac prayed for his wife, and the Lord answered him. Rebekah became pregnant. With twins. And these twins did not wait to be born before they started fighting. They struggled so hard inside her that Rebekah cried out, “If this is how it is, why is this happening to me?” And she went to ask the Lord.

“Two nations are in your womb. Two peoples will be separated from within you. One will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.”

When the time came, the first baby came out red all over, and covered in hair like a furry coat. They named him Esau. Then his brother came out, and his little hand was holding on to Esau’s heel. So they named him Jacob, which sounds like the Hebrew word for heel. Isaac was sixty years old. He had waited twenty years for these boys.

The boys grew up, and they could hardly have been more different. Esau was a skilful hunter, a man of the open country, always out with his bow. Jacob was a quiet man who stayed among the tents. And the parents took sides. Isaac loved Esau, because he loved to eat the wild game Esau brought home. Rebekah loved Jacob. Genesis says it plainly, without comment. You can already feel the trouble coming.

One day Jacob was cooking a stew. Esau came in from the open country, exhausted and famished. “Quick, let me have some of that red stuff, that red stew! I’m starving!” That is how he got his other name, Edom, which means red. Jacob didn’t reach for a bowl. He said, “First, sell me your birthright.” Esau threw up his hands. “Look, I’m about to die. What good is a birthright to me?” “Swear to me first,” said Jacob. So Esau swore an oath, and sold his birthright to his younger brother.

Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew. And notice how Genesis tells the next part, in a quick run of verbs. He ate. He drank. He got up. He went away. No second thoughts. No looking back. And then the narrator adds one sentence of judgment, the only one in the whole story. So Esau despised his birthright. Jacob had been grasping and calculating. Esau had been careless with something precious. Neither brother comes out of this scene looking good. And yet God’s words before their birth were already beginning to unfold.

So what exactly did Esau give away? In ancient Israel the firstborn son held a special place. When the father died, the law of Moses gave the firstborn a double share of the inheritance, twice what each of his brothers received. He usually became the head of the family after his father. In Abraham’s family, the birthright was also tied up with God’s promises, the land, the descendants, the blessing for all nations. Esau traded all of that for one meal.

Esau and Jacob, and the bowl of red stew. You’ll find it in Genesis chapter twenty-five, verses nineteen to thirty-four. Esau traded something lasting for something that would be gone in a few minutes. So here is a question to take with you. What is precious in your life that you might be tempted to trade for something quick?