BULLETIN ARTICLE
4 August 2019
FOOD – GLORIOUS FOOD!
Singaporeans love food – all kinds – and we do have a fantastic range of them. I love food – we all do! But how far would you go for that plate of char kway teow, satay bee hoon or a bowl of ayam buah keluak? And what about the famous “Mao Shan Wang” (durian)? The craziest ones (smartest?) might travel to many “foody” locations across Singapore for it, to Johor Baru or even to Malacca. But would you sell your birthright for this glorious food?
In Genesis 25:29-34, Esau, the elder twin son of Isaac and Rebekah, in his famished state with hunger pangs sold his birthright to Jacob, the younger twin, for some of Jacob’s bread and red lentil stew. Lentils are legumes. It is a type of beans soup (“dahl” to many of us). We are not even talking about an expensive bowl of lobster bisque or clam chowder. Jacob must have been a chef extraordinaire for his lentil stew to be so enticing!
In the Ancient Near East culture of the days of “Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”, the eldest male child with the birthright was conferred the headship of the clan. He was given a double share of the family inheritance. Birthrights were thus very valuable. Furthermore, this was no ordinary birthright. It was the birthright of one descended from the line of Abraham, the chosen people of God who would inherit his blessings of salvation. Esau, being the firstborn of Isaac and Rebekah and the heir of the Lord’s promises, should have clung to his status steadfastly despite his momentary hunger pangs. At that point, he seemed indifferent to it. This indifference is seen in how the Bible describes curtly his actions: “He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright”. It was only much later that he regretted his action, but it was too late. Esau did not have the foresight to see what his descendants would become and how richly they could have been to be blessed by God had he preserved his birthright.
The New Testament book of Hebrews revisits this incident and draws for us a spiritual lesson from Esau’s action. Esau serves as an example of someone who falls from God’s way and becomes bitter and spiritually defiled. We are warned not to be “godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done” (Hebrews 12:16, 17).
As children of God, we too are given a spiritual inheritance in Jesus. All our spiritual blessings are centred on the person of Jesus Christ. Do we see this as valuable or do we like Esau despise it?
Meanwhile, are we enticed by the world’s culture and spending unhealthy amounts of time on food, social media, fame, fashion and the likes? Do we seek instant gratification and are we busy pursuing the temporary pleasures of this world, which may only satisfy us momentarily? Where do we invest our time and our energy? Are we centred on God’s kingdom priorities and heavenly treasures or is our focus on the earthly things that will perish? May God open our eyes to see the value of what he has given to us as our spiritual inheritance in Jesus Christ.
