Privileges

“So Esau despised his birthright.”
Genesis 25:34c

We don’t hear the word birthright used very often in our culture. While we might understand the general sense of the terminology, I don’t think we appreciate the weightiness that the word brings.

During the era of the Biblical patriarchs, the birthright was the right of the first born. It entitled him, upon his father’s death, to be the leader both judicially and spiritually of the family and he was given a double portion of his father’s inheritance. As head of the house after his father's death, the eldest son customarily cared for his mother until her death, and he also provided for his sisters until their marriage

The birthright was something that was sought after. Take the case of Esau and Jacob. Esau if you recall sold his birthright for a bowl of stew. He had come in from hunting, famished, longing for something to satisfy his hunger. Jacob, knowing his brother and recognizing an opportunity when it is right in front of him, negotiated a bowl of porridge for what would have been Esau’s heritage. Against all sound reason Esau gave away his birthright to satisfy his appetite.

“So Esau despised his birthright.”

I started to ponder about all the countless opportunities I have had to despise my spiritual birthright. As a New Testament Christian, I have been given certain privileges that are woven into the fabric of my inheritance in Christ. I have been adopted into His family, I have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ, I have been graced, forgiven, redeemed, delivered from darkness, been given gifts to serve with and that is just a fraction of what I have as my spiritual heritage. But do I sometimes despise my position as a daughter of the King.

As I thought about what Esau relinquished in this account with Jacob, I realized that he very possibly gave up a whole lot more then just his right as leader in his family. He might very well as given up his right to be in the lineage of Christ. God had a very special blessing in store for Esau if he could only put aside his own screaming fleshly desires. The need to minister to his physical needs for the moment clouded out any sound reasoning. He literally handed over what God had ordained for him as the eldest son of Isaac. I was stunned, than I wondered.

Do I give up what God has planned for me so easily when my flesh is making itself known? Am I so near sighted that I am willing to put aside a wonderful blessing God has ordained just for me because I am too tired, too insecure, too overwhelmed with my own agenda, too busy looking at what I can’t do rather then what I can do…..the list is endless. Am I so quick to give up when things get hard that I am willing to forgo the amazing thing that God might have in store for me as the daughter of His lineage?

I almost did, until someone said something to me that shook me to the core….giving up is not an option. It just sounded so final. I realized that if I want to walk in the heritage that God has already planned for me, I am going to have to come to terms with the fact that giving up is not an option. There will be times when I am faced with an Esau moment, where my flesh will want to give up and opt out for what is easiest. It is best that I learn to get past those times when my old nature cries for relief. I need to learn how to walk through them and not away from them if I want to keep my heritage secure.

But I am not alone in my struggle, I have one who has gone before me that I can follow and this gives me great encouragement…..and it turned out pretty good too.

“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but make himself nothing; taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness. And be found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee would bow, and in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Phil 2:5-11