A war for your worship: Craving Heaven or Earth?

Introduction

Thanks, Emily. We have been following the story of Abraham, his son Isaac, and now we embark on this story with Jacob and Esau. As you follow those stories, the Bible spends quite a bit of time on Abraham, then a very small window on Isaac, and then on Jacob and his son Joseph. We spend quite a long time in the Bible unpacking it. For this series, we’re going to finish at the end of Jacob and not jump into Joseph just yet. We’ll do that next year. At the moment, we’re just going to spend two weeks thinking about this drama between Jacob and Esau.

It’s a great story. It’s got all the elements of a great story. It starts off with a dramatized pregnancy. Imagine this story. There’s no ultrasound, so Rebecca doesn’t know that she has twins, but she can feel that she has twins. The story tells us that Rebecca eventually asks the question that every pregnant mom eventually asks: Why is this happening to me? She hears the answer no pregnant woman ever wants to hear. The answer is, there’s a war of two nations happening in your womb. And she says, “That’s what it feels like, a war of two nations happening in the womb.”

What’s crazier is when the babies are born, she sees the thing I think every mom never wants to see. The first one was very red at birth, covered with thick hair like a fur coat. That’s a child that only a mother could love. It’s the child that when you see it, you go, “Yeah, it’s a cute puppy.” I mean, child. It’s very strange. To make things worse, they give Esau a name just to make sure if you haven’t noticed he’s hairy. They just make sure you know that he’s named after hair. There’s a little footnote in our Bibles that says Esau sounds like the word hair. Lovely, right? Imagine being born as a hairy child and your parents decide to call you Harry or something like that, and you’re like, “As if I don’t have it hard enough at school already,” to call me Harry or like Bear Grylls to be called Bear. That’s the impression we get. It doesn’t seem that helpful to poor Esau that he is both hairy and called hairy.

It’s not much better for Jacob. They’re twins, so he comes out very soon after. We’re told so soon after that he’s hanging on to Esau’s heel. This is a wrestle of who’s going to be the firstborn. He’s trying to pull him back in on the way out, but he comes out soon after, gets another unhelpful name. We’re told in the footnotes that his name sounds like heel, but there’s another play on words that sounds like deceiver. Lovely, right? Imagine being called by your parents a name that sounds like deceiver. It’s like someone who’s known for thievery and they’re called Robert Banks because they rob banks, or someone who’s really deceptive and they get called Lou Sirill Fur, known as Lucifer. Kids have it hard enough with bad names, and you want to be careful about that.

The legend has it that the guy called Thomas Crapper made the flushable toilet famous. I don’t know if that’s true, and if it is true, I don’t know if the word was named after him or the other way around. Jet, our son’s stomach doctor, her last name is Poopy. She is Dr. Poopy. She asks for a lot of stool samples. It’s possible we’re pronouncing it wrong, which is awkward, but it looks like it says Poopy. That’s her name, the stomach doctor. It’s unfortunate, right? Maybe that’s destiny. You’ve got your job decided for you. Names are important and it’s difficult, and we get this real strong tie to who these guys are tied right through to what their names are. But even their whole character, even their whole picture, if you were writing this as a modern story, the characters are almost too predictable.

Esau: The Man’s Man

A Skillful Hunter

Esau, we’re told, is a man’s man. He’s the macho guy. Look at the words we’re told. Verse 27, he became a skillful hunter. He was an outdoorsman. We get this picture of this big hairy man’s man guy. When he wants to get a beard, he just does, and he’s got a beard just like that. That’s the picture we get of Esau. Jacob is the exact opposite. We’re told he had a quiet temperament. He’s the book reader, he’s the artist, he’s the chef. That’s the kind of picture we get from these guys. It’s all tied up in their birth order, what order they were born in. There’s a book written some time ago that says why firstborns lead the world and latterborns want to change it or something like that. There’s lots of thoughts on how your birth order impacts your character. There’s some evidence of it, although there’s a level of nature or nurture, right? Are you a leader as a firstborn because that was the way you were brought up as the oldest, or is it something that’s innate in you? It’s hard to know some of those things, but there are factors there, and I think this story has things that both firstborns and latterborns can relate to.

We get this picture of a firstborn being a leader, being reliable, being stable. You can imagine that a firstborn, some of you are firstborns, you say, “I’m reliable. I’m a leader. I’m stable.” Of course, the latterborn says, “That’s not what this story says. This story says you are a hairy ape.” I remember when I was a kid, my older brother went through puberty before me. I remember being in the bathroom brushing my teeth. He was in the shower, and I think he went forward and his hair stuck to the curtain. I could see it from the outside, and I thought it was his armpit, and I was like, “Puberty is disgusting. What is going on?” The firstborn is the hairy ape. That’s what I’m hearing in this story.

Rebellious and Innovative

The other one is the idea that the latterborns are rebellious. They’re innovative. They’re relational. Latterborns might say, “Yep. Yep. That’s me.” Of course, that’s not what this story says. This says they’re soft and a bit of a baby, which I think firstborns go, “Yep, that describes my younger siblings.” Mama’s favorite. This is the picture we get of these two characters. But something much more significant and something much more sinister is going on in this story. What’s really going on in this story that we read is a war for your worship. That’s what’s going on here. There’s a question underlying this story that at its surface looks quite simple and minimal, but actually at its depth, it’s asking a question: Will you feed your stomach, or will you feed your soul?

Esau: Feeding His Stomach Rather Than His Soul

Trivial Favoritism

The narrator of this story, the writer, has given us a glimpse into that early on. We see tensions in the family. We see wrestling in the womb. We see the way the parents relate to their kids. One of the things we see is the way Isaac favors Esau. The narrator points out something to us of just how trivial that is. Listen to this. It says, “Isaac loved Esau because he enjoyed eating the wild game that he brought home.” There’s lots of problems with favoritism in families. It’s probably a tricky thing because at different points different ones of us have felt different favoritism. Maybe questioned whether we were a favorite or not the favorite or this one’s the favorite. That’s always a bit of a tricky thing. What’s even more explicit in this story is not just how favoritism is unhelpful, but just how trivial it is that his favoritism is over the food he liked eating. Not because Esau’s a man’s man, not because he liked his character and they just got along better and he connected more with Esau than Jacob. The narrator tells us the reason he favors Esau is because he’s a steak guy and not a veggies guy. That’s the picture we get that Isaac likes goat curry and not lentil stew. The author here, I think, is directly highlighting to us just how trivial this favoritism is, how self-serving this favoritism is, and it sets us up for this story of what is going to take place.

Exhausted and Hungry

We’re going to look at this story in two weeks. This is the first part of the story. We’ll look at the next part. Jacob himself has a lot of problems going on. We’re going to skim over Jacob and really emphasize this is really this first part of the story is really a story of Esau feeding his stomach rather than his soul. We get this story of Esau coming home hungry. This is what we’re told. One day when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau arrived home from the wilderness exhausted and hungry. Note first of all the narrator tells us he’s exhausted and hungry. The narrator does not tell us he is starving to death. That’s the narrator’s opening. That is not how Esau sees it. Esau says whatever a kid at some point says when they’re hungry. He says, “Oh, I’m starving.” Verse 30, give me some of that red stew. Jacob says, “All right, betrayed me your rights as the firstborn.”

Trading the Birthright

Do you get the impression that Jacob’s had that one already loaded in the gun? This is like he’s been waiting for that moment. I’ll just wait for the moment where Esau’s really desperate, and then I know what I’m going to do. I’m going to ask him for his rights as the firstborn. You can imagine some of what’s going on here. We’re talking about twins that were born right one after the other, even hanging on to the other. Jacob is Esau is only the firstborn by a matter of minutes potentially. Yet, because of those minutes, because he was the first, because Jacob wasn’t strong enough to pull him back in and only got to be pulled out by him, then Esau is the one that gets the birthrights. You can imagine this is something that Jacob has loaded in the gun already. You can imagine this isn’t the first time it’s been discussed or thought about that he might trade to be the one that got the firstborn birthrights. Esau pushes it home. He’s like, “Look, I’m dying of starvation. What good is my birthright to me now?” I don’t know that he is dying of starvation. I think there’s a few clues in the text that says he’s not dying of starvation, but if he was, and if he did die, Jacob would get the birthright. Jacob might feel entitled to this. If you’re genuinely dying and I save you, then I essentially doing myself out of a birthright. How about instead of that we make a deal? I will save you but still give me what I would have got if I didn’t save you. Still give me that birthright. He says first you must swear to me that the birthright is mine. This is the two kids negotiating on who goes into the toilet first and like I’m busting and like no you have to make a promise that I get to sit in the front next time we go in the car. This is the kind of deal that’s going on. It’s a negotiation. Jacob wants to make sure that he gets these birthrights.

We’re told, verse 33, so Esau swore the oath, thereby selling all his rights as the firstborn to his brother Jacob. The narrator wants us to hear some of how trivial this whole journey has been. First of all, he hasn’t said that he’s starving, even though Esau said he was starving. The next clue is what happens after the meal. We’re not told, “So, Esau ate the food, regained his strength, recovered, and then got up and walk out.” The way the author tells us is he ate, he got up, and he left. Doesn’t really sound like a guy who was actually starving. Even more than that, it’s spelt out and completely to us that because of this, Esau hadn’t saved his life. Because of this, what Esau had done is shown contempt for his birthright.

Craving Heaven or Earth?

A Divine Heavenly Feast

This is important as we dig into the depth of this passage because of what Esau’s birthright is. Normally the birthright would be that the firstborn would get a double inheritance of what the other children get. It’s not that the other children would get nothing, but the firstborn would get a double portion of it. That’s not all it is for Abraham, Isaac’s family. Almost every chapter of the Bible that talks about Abraham’s life reminds us that he was given a blessing from God. Reminds us that God called him someone special. Reminds us that he’s going to be great, that his name will be great, that he’ll be the father of a great nation, and that all nations will be blessed through him. This birthright is destiny. This birthright is to be the family of God. What Esau is selling here is not just a double portion of his inheritance. What Esau is selling here is his place before God. That is why that’s a war for worship because this is a question of whether he wants a drive-thru happy meal to solve his instant problem, or he wants a divine heavenly feast with God. That’s what’s going on here.

What Are We Living For?

The question as we wrestle with this story is, are we craving heaven, or are we craving earth? Is this seeking God’s blessing, or is this filling our belly? While this story on its surface feels quite trivial, it is a significant question for us. It’s a question for them about their destiny. It’s a question for us about our destiny. What are we living for? What’s hard when we look at this story is to actually be reminded that there are times when we actually feel like we’re starving, not necessarily with food. Most of us probably never really have had the experience of truly starving for food, truly our life is on the line because of food. There’s many things in life that we might feel like we’re starving, like we need it, and if we don’t get it, we will die. Thinking particularly for some of you younger people with us today, there’s certain points in your life where you might really feel the desperation of something that you want. There’s moments in your life where the relationship that you desire with someone feels like it is your all, it’s consuming. It’s why so many love songs and heartbreaking songs are written around young people because it’s such an all-encompassing thing. You feel like if I don’t have this, I will literally die. Or anger in a situation that’s so overcoming that we can’t control ourselves, that we crave the desire to get back at someone or to find a way to hurt them, to gossip, to tear apart other friendships so that friends will connect with us and not them, or other moments where just being in the moment feels like it’s everything. Feels like connecting with our friends and doing the thing our friends are doing, no matter how much consequences there might be on us. It can be like starving, can’t it? It can be all consuming and blur our vision where we start to focus less on heaven and more on earth.

It’s not something that just ends in your teenage years. In fact, in some ways, the consequences get even higher as we head into young adult years where decisions you make can have long-term impacts on who you partner your life with, how you set habits in your life, the career choices you make, where your priorities land. The same thing’s true when you get your first job and you’re thinking about where your money goes. Those things that happen at the start are things that we consider each day and every week for many of us, how we set our priorities in our life. Those moments when relationships get tricky and once again we get pulled into this space where broken hearts, damage in our lives, people that have hurt us feel like an all-consuming thing, and we feel like we’re starving if we don’t satisfy our earthly desires in this moment, pursue the things that feed our belly right through into retirement and the question of how we prioritize what we live for in a time where we might not have a career that fills our days, but we now decide how we fill our days and whether we’re living saying, “I’ve earned this time to just live for myself and continue to feed our bellies rather than seeking God’s blessing. Continue to live for earthly rather than heavenly.

Embracing Our Destiny

The Bread of Life

The call here is for us to embrace our destiny by embracing Jesus. The very blessing that is given to Abraham that all nations will be blessed through him is the very blessing we grab hold of when we put our trust in Jesus. That is what our destiny looks like. We get a very similar story with Jesus. You might remember the story of Jesus when he is tempted in the desert. We’re told for 40 days he fasted. After 40 days the words I’m starving probably fit in that category. It’s a pretty significant thing. Satan uses that moment while he is hungry to tempt him to rest on himself and on Satan rather than on God. This is what happens. This is in Matthew 4. During that time the devil came and said to him, “If you are the son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.” Jesus in that moment, unlike Esau, doesn’t rest on something other than God, but points his heart to God. He says, “No, the scriptures say people do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” It’s because Jesus says that. It’s because Jesus chooses not to satisfy his earthly desires but keep his eyes on his destiny and on his heavenly father. It’s because that Jesus can call himself the bread of life. If Jesus had given in to Satan in that moment, then the salvation that he offers, the place that he offers to take our consequences of sin couldn’t happen. If Jesus had sinned in that moment, he could no longer bring salvation that he offers for sin. The very reason Jesus chooses God’s way rather than his own way or Satan’s way is the very reason that we can choose Jesus because he chooses us. That is why he can call himself the bread of life.

A Life of Choosing Christ

Often this is not just a moment where we choose right or wrong. The Bible acknowledges that as humans we make mistakes and that is why we need salvation because we do sin. This is about choosing God, and it’s a war of worship. It’s about living a life for him, not just in individual choices, but actually trusting him and his salvation, trusting ourselves to him. It’s not just moments of good and bad. It’s a life of choosing Christ. A great example of that is the famous Bible preacher Dietrich Bonhoeffer. You may know the story of Bonhoeffer. He’s very famous coming out of World War I leading into World War II. He is a pastor in Germany, a Lutheran minister in Germany. In his early days, he decides that he wants to go into ministry at the age of 14. He starts studying theology at the age of 14. He decides to start studying Hebrew so he can understand the Bible better. I didn’t even choose to study Hebrew at the age of 40, let alone 14. He has a heart for God, and early in his ministry, he starts speaking out against some of the unhelpful things he sees happening in Germany. He starts speaking out against the rising Nazi regime. He has an opportunity to go to London and study and work. He has an opportunity to go to America and study and work. He does that right up until the start of World War II, at which point he says, “I can’t be in the United States while my people in Germany are being crushed by the Nazi regime, and I need to go speak and minister to them.” At the start of World War II, Bonhoeffer, who didn’t want to fight for Germany, went to Germany to work as a minister in a church there. As the war took off, in order to avoid conscription and being brought into the army, he signed up for an intelligence department and he became a spy for Germany. History shows us that he became a double agent, and he used his opportunities to help undermine the Nazi regime, all the while still pastoring in his church and still teaching people the truth of Jesus.

One of Bonhoeffer’s passions right from the beginning was to help churches that were drifting away from the teaching of Jesus and pull them back to teaching about Jesus. That was part of what they called the neo-orthodox movement, which was to draw the church back to true teaching about Jesus. As the war continued on, he famously was involved in the Valkyrie attempt, a famous plot to kill Hitler that failed. The diaries of one of the officers was found out, and Bonhoeffer was collected with the other people who had been working against Hitler, and he was arrested. As the war rounded up in the final year of World War II where Germany had already lost and it was just the final bits of the war, he was executed as a traitor to his country. This is a man who knew what it was to crave heaven instead of earth. This is a man where had all the opportunities to try to fly under the radar, and he could have stayed in America where he would have been safe to preach about Jesus. Instead, he chose what he felt like was his destiny to seek God and pursue point others to God even in the most costly place.

Costly Grace

He writes in one of his books about what he calls costly grace, that is the cost of following Jesus. He calls he first talks about cheap grace. Cheap grace means grace that is sold on the market like cheap kitchen utensils. Cheap grace is preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance. It’s baptism without discipline. He’s saying cheap grace is something when someone just says I’m a Christian but actually it means nothing. When they just do Christian things but actually it’s not a transforming thing in their life. That’s what Bonhoeffer calls cheap grace. He points us to what he would call costly grace. Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field. For the sake of it, a man will go and sell all that he has. Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his very life, and it is grace because it gives a man his only true life. That’s what Bonhoeffer, a man who knew what it was to choose Jesus over and over again, to choose to crave what is heavenly over and over again. That is what he calls us to, to not live the way Esau did and to despise the opportunity and the promise we have in Jesus, but to pursue an eternal destiny to live each day. Pursuing Jesus, it’s not just following. Following Jesus is not just life with Jesus on the side. Following Jesus is life itself, both eternal but also the transformation that it should bring us as we seek to be a people that pursue him each day from the inside out.