Appetite
I have always felt a little bad for Esau in this story. I generally pull for the underdog, and it seems like Esau is always getting the bad end of things in this story. He loses his birthright here. A little later he loses the blessing. Is he a little bit dense? Yes, of course he is. But that is one of the reasons that I can identify with him. He is a lot like me.
Last week we talked about the binding of Isaac, and how the story of the binding of Isaac is less about Abraham, and more about God seeing ahead for us. In between that story and this one, Abraham finds a wife for Isaac by sending his servant back to his homeland to find a good woman. He finds Rebekkah. Rebecca marries Isaac. Isaac loves Rebecca. Rebecca gets pregnant. The pregnancy is difficult. God tells Rebecca this is because she is having twins, and the two twins do not get along. In fact, they are fighting one another in the womb. God tells Rebecca that there are two nations in her womb, and that the older child will serve the younger child.
When the boys were born, Esau came out first. A fiery redhead from the start, and very hairy. The second child came out wrestling with the first, grabbing a hold of the heel of the older one. Rebecca and Isaac had their hands full with these twin boys from the start.
This part of God's word has taken on a whole new understanding for me since I have become the uncle of twin boys. My sister's sons Zachary and Garrett are adorable. They are almost four and a half now. They are good boys—most of the time. But twins are a different than other children.
One of things that is different is that there is this special bond with them from the beginning. A bond that only twins can have.
The other thing that is different is that there is this natural rivalry that they have from the beginning. When we buy presents for them, the rule is that we must buy duplicates of everything. If we buy a yellow toy car, we need to buy one for each. Otherwise, they will fight over who gets the yellow car and who gets the green one. Although they are starting to dress different now, we used to have to do the same thing with clothes. It was just easier for my sister, because if one gets to wear the spider man shirt, the other one is going to want to wear it too.
The rivalry also extends to attention. Especially when they were younger, if one gets the chance to sit on your lap, while the other one was going to want to be there too. If one shows you how high they can jump, the other wants to show you they can do the same. They are cute and adorable. But with twins, especially of the same gender, there is this natural rivalry.
Twins, sometimes right away and sometimes over time, tend to develop their own distinct personalities. Right now, Zachary is a little more adventurous. And my nephew Garrett is a little more affectionate.
In the case of our Bible story, the difference was more pronounced. Jacob was a mild mannered momma's boy who liked to work on things around the house and in the garace. Esaus was a "free-range" child who liked to roughhouse and run the countryside. Jacob was a lover. Esau was a fighter. Isaac, whom Rebecca first met as he wandered the fields aimlessly, like his rough and tumble first born boy. And Rebecca had a soft spot for the young boy Jacob who listened to her and chatted her up as she cooked, and was never too far away when she needed some help with something that her husband was becoming too feeble and aged to take care of.
Jacob and Esau grew up. Esau because a skilled hunter, passionate and impulsive. He was strong and powerful. But he was also impulsive. Jacob was a planner and a plodder, and occasionally a schemer as well. The intelligent and responsible one. And thus they were labeled by the writers of Scripture.
The story goes that there was a day when Esau had been out on the hunt, and from the sound of it he got skunked. And he was hungry. Very hungry. So he came into Jacob's tent and aksed him for some of his food.
Jacob, always looking for a way to take an advantage, makes Esau a trade. I will give you the soup if you give me your birthright. A birthright for a bowl of soup? Who would make a trade like that?
What is a birthright? A birthright is a ranking in the inheritance of a father's estate. A father would send his daughters off with dowries given to them to help support their families. But it is the sons that get the inheritance. Each of the younger sons would get equal portions of the inheritance. The oldest would get a double portion of what was left behind. Furthermore, the birthright allowed the holder of it to be the "alpha male" of the family. He is able to be the "patriarch" of the extended family as well as have twice as much wealth.
So, Jacob offers to sell Esau a bowl of stew in exchange for his birthright. Oddly, Esau, convinced he might die if he did not have the hot soup right then and there, sells his soup for ½ of his future inheritance.
At first, it is easy to empathize with Esau. He was hungry after all! The poor guy got swindled by his own brother. Shouldn't his brother have been more giving? Shouldn't his brother have been more compassionate?
The more I think about it though, it would also be easy to see things from Jacob's point of view. Who wants a hot-head like this guy running our family business? Jacob thought, "I am the one taking care of our ailing parents. I am the one seeing that the family wealth is taken care of. I am the one keeping the books on the family farm! Why shouldn't I use my influence now to make sure things are taken care of instead of letting Esau run around chasing animals and foreign women?
The truth is, the Bible neither makes the scheming of Jacob or the stupidity of Esau model behavior for us. But it does teach us through Esau's mistake.
The Bible teaches us that we need to control our appetites or our appetites will end up controlling us. We need to control our appetites, or our appetites will end up controlling us—and ruining us for that matter.
We have appetites for lots of things. Food. Bargains while shopping. Sex. Power. Control. Respect. Money. Violence. Achievement. Approval. Love. Anger. And appetites are normal things. Desires are normal things. But if we let them get out of control, they will destroy us.
Our culture tells us to pursue all our appetites. To live without restraint. To live without control. To go for the gusto. To get as much as we can get when we get it. The world steals our money by increasing our appetites.
These are things we all struggle with, including your pastor. But they are things we need to get under control.
Let me give you a little visual example. See this cup. It is a 32 oz cup for pop. Where I grew up we had a seven eleven nearby, and this was called a big gulp. It was the biggest drink we could buy. Now…there is the double gulp. 32 oz is not enough. We need a half gallon of sugar water to make us feel good.
Whether it is pop, or the newest kind of television, or the newest best deal while we are shopping—we are convinced we all need to have things bigger and better.
Richard Foster, a well-known leader in Christian discipleship, talks about these appetites like rivers. They are healthy if they are kept in their proper channels. But if left unbounded and unrestrained they can pour out all around us and cause all kinds of destruction and problems for us and everyone around us.
The Bible says that Esau came into Jacob's tent and said. Quick! Give me that red stew I am starving. It implies that he feels like he will die without the meal.
In Hebrew it is even more interesting. It is like..quick ….give me that stuff…that red stuff…I need it now…I am starving to death. Quick bullet statements indicating urgency and panic.
After he gets the meal the Hebrew says he ate with passion. The Hebrew words imply "swallowing", "gulping down" his meal. Then as the scene closes, instead of red stew, the Hebrew describes it as lentils and bread.
Isn't that the way it works with our appetites and desires?
It starts out "that good stuff..that red stuff…I have to have it."
It finishes as "lentils and bread".
You think you have to have that new truck…that beautiful new truck. You think of all the things you can do with that fancy new truck. You get it. You discover its just a car. Nothing wrong with a truck. But chasing your appetites after the finest truck you can ever desire can leave you with a bad credit rating and a repossessed car.
Sex and romance are good things. Very good things. But at some point you can desire what you do not have, and what is not yours. You build up in your mind what it would be like to be with someone else besides your spouse. Or you are a teenager, and you head off to college and think about what it would be like to be with that "perfect guy or gal" Whether that is through sex, or through some fantasy of what an ideal marriage should be like, or through dating that dream person. You pursue your appetites and find that person or relationship that you were obscessing over that looked so good is not as exiting and life giving as you imagined. What at first appeared like that good stuff…now is just lentils and bread.
You turn on the TV and the beer commercials and movies show you how great your life would be if you decided to go to the fun, crazy party with everybody getting drunk. You go to that party, and wake up with a headache and not able to remember whatever happened the night before. That good stuff…that red stuff has just become lentils and bread.
We can develop an appetite for criticism too. For a while we can feel really good and find it delicious to tell everybody how they are doing things wrong. It can feel wonderful for a moment to be able to see and find fault in everyone and everything. But then, we discover after a while that we have only become angry, self-righteous, and negative. Eager to find fault. Criticism cant fill that hole in our hearts either.
The truth is, letting our appetites control us in a spiritual quest poorly thought out. That is why advertisers try and sell cars, furniture, events and services from vacations to makeovers as spiritual experiences. They think they can convince us to sell ourselves short with stuff that cannot and will not satisfy, except for just a moment.
Perhaps it is helpful to think of it this way. The Bible speaks of life with Jesus like a meal. It speaks of it as a wonderful elaborate feast with the best of foods. When we go the way of Esau, it is like we would rather dumpster dive for cold, half-eaten hamburgers in the back of McDonalds than wait for the elaborate banquet to come.
Jesus speaks about himself as the bread of life and the living water that will satisfy our thirst. We try and fill ourselves up with habits, objects, and behaviors that will never satisfy us. Jesus calls us to reject those things and make room so he can fill our hearts with his love, his gifts, and his presence. These are the things that in the end can satisfy.
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
Amen.
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