Alliance Baptist Church

Genesis 27:1-28:5

TODAY IN THE WORD

Jan Dahlin Geiger, a financial planner in Texas, says that the average inheritance is spent within five years. This makes sense with smaller amounts of money that people use to pay off a car loan or mortgage. But some beneficiaries of large bequests manage to spend even vast sums quickly. John Harvey, seventh Marquess of Bristol, died at the age of 44 after spending about $70 million on drugs and parties. In our reading today, we discover another young man who didn't value his inheritance and gave it up. The story of Jacob and Esau demonstrates that our choices reflect our values.

Jacob and Esau were conceived as God's answer to the prayer of their father, Isaac (Gen. 25:21). Tension flared between the brothers from the very beginning, even before birth. Esau reflected the preferences of his father; Jacob was Rebekah's favorite, and he mirrored her activities and interests. Genesis 25:29-34 describes the fateful exchange that revealed the priorities of the two brothers. Esau, tired and hungry, demanded some stew from Jacob. Jacob, seeing an opportunity to manipulate his brother, insisted that Esau trade his birthright for stew. The birthright was more than just a financial inheritance. It included spiritual blessings and the designation as the favored son through whose line the blessings would flow. Esau was willing to sacrifice long-term blessing for short-term satisfaction. He valued material things like stew over spiritual blessings.

The events in our passage today happened some years later. It seems that Esau had forgotten about his oath to trade his birthright for lentils, and now desired the blessing of his father (v. 39). But Jacob and Rebekah had not forgotten, and they enacted a scheme to deceive Isaac and ensure that Jacob received the blessing of the birthright. The Bible doesn't candy-coat the methods used by Jacob and his mother. Later in life, Jacob was painfully deceived by his own sons (see Gen. 37:29-35). Despite his lies and deceit, though, God honored the blessing given by Isaac, and Jacob became the father of the twelve tribes of Israel.

TODAY ALONG THE WAY

You might be worried about what sort of legacy you will leave your children and grandchildren. Perhaps you've seen your 401K or other investments plummet in the last year, and you fear you won't have the financial resources you expected. A financial inheritance can be a blessing, and we should exercise wisdom with our financial planning. But even greater is a legacy of spiritual values and priorities. All of us can strive to pass that along to our loved ones, no matter the state of the stock market.