Esau

People tend to identify themselves with other famous characters and personalities. Christians are no different. Some see themselves in David, others in Peter and others in Jacob. And of course, I see myself in one Biblical character.

I’m Esau.

Esau was the older twin brother of Jacob, sons of Isaac, son of Abraham. So they were children of the promise too. They were raised very close to their parents, but in a way that would create chaos between the family members: Esau was the father’s favorite and Jacob was the mother’s. Esau was (like some people call him) a man’s man. He was the outdoorsman, the handyman, the hunter, the survivalist, the bearded guy every man wants to be. He was reliable when it concerned to provide for his family, he was strong and devout to his father. He was the archetype of man every father wants to have as a son. The archetype every woman wants to have as a husband. And he knew that.

He only had one little problem. His desire to satisfy himself above all cost.

One day, after returning from hunting, he was starving to death, and fainting. His brother Jacob was cooking something, and Esau asked him for a bite. Jacob refused; asking in exchange Esau’s firstborn rights. In the Eastern culture and in some Western ways, the firstborn has the privileges of heritage of the family patrimony, and that’s a big deal. As the oldest brother, you carry the family legacy in your shoulders. What Jacob did was wrong, it was treacherous and low. But he bargained his brother with the deal: “Your future and legacy, for my lunch.” Literally, like that.

Esau accepted.

Esau exchanged the glory of his calling as the firstborn of his father, he forfeited his right to the family heritage, the family leadership. He renounced to the benefits of his father’s name and bailed on all of that, just because he needed a physical desire to be satisfied. He did so he could kill the crave of his body. He didn’t think about his future, his legacy, his name, his own father who loved him the most. He didn’t think about anything. Just himself.

I suppose that he didn’t pay attention to that experience at all, but in the short future, he lost the blessings that were prepared for him. He lost the blessings of firstborn rights. His brother cheated on him again, pretending to be Esau himself. But this was simply the main consequence of playing with the gift he was given by birth, and the Divine Providence of God showing him so. He begged and cried with tears of real repentance. But it was too late. (Gen 25:19-34; Gen 26:34-35; Gen 27:1-40)

I relate to Esau. A lot of men relate to Esau too. The reason it’s very simple: we are Esau.

We are him when we believe there is no one better than us. We are him when we believe that we can get away with everything we do. We are him when we look down the calling of being a son of God. We men, use to think that because we are Christians, we are gonna be fine; doesn’t matter what we do, because we are “our Father’s sons”. We believe that there won’t be consequences for our actions.

We are him, when we indulge into the craving of our own desires. We are him when we can’t exercise self-control over our own bodies and minds. We are him when we jump on pornography and masturbation, because “the need is too big to resist”. We are him when we cannot stop looking to women with lustful eyes, and we blame “our eyes” or “the way they dress”. We are him when we let our anger to flush out and hurt anybody, just because we feel the right to be angry. We are him when we put our own momentary satisfaction over anything else around or above us. We are him when we don’t even think about our future, our legacy, our name, our own Heavenly Father who loves us the most. We are him when we don’t think about anything. Just ourselves.

We are him when we put our desires over God’s plans and blessings for us.

Maybe Jacob cheated. But he stayed faithful into obeying God and his guidance by not selling himself over temporary things. Maybe Esau became a great nation himself too. But he lost the blessings of the Almighty God because of his bad choice.

This is the place we are: We have our “newborn birth rights” into one hand (Eternal Life in Jesus, Pleasures at His right hand forevermore, earthly blessings and His grace over you). We have the “lentils plate” (the temporary pleasure of sin; you name it: that shot of drugs, that bottle, that click on your favorite porn site…) on the other. It’s your choice

Be wise. Don’t be like Jacob, cheating your way toward the things you want. Don’t be like Esau, putting your flesh over the spiritual.

I see myself like Esau: The eldest brother in my family, already working, in a path of a good career, healthy, pretending to be sexy and manly (this is why I’m still single), loved by my parents. I see myself like Esau: In a path of blessings and responsibilities, working on ministry, growing in the way of the Lord. I see myself like Esau: a lot of times I’ve have chose to sin and to gratify myself with a momentary pleasure, over obeying God and glorify Him. I see myself like Esau: many times, I’ve decided in my mind to put myself first over God and others, despite all the things I already had. And now, I see myself now, thinking about the “what ifs” of God’s blessings: what kind of blessings God could have poured over me if I just obeyed that time.

Like Randy Alcorn said, “there is no time for the what ‘would have happened’, it is time to move on…”. And that’s the mentality we need to have. The Bible is written for our example. We have Esau’s example telling us to turn from our wicked and fleshly ways. We are called to be men of courage. And the first courageous battle we need to fight, is the one against ourselves.

Against Esau.