In the story of Esau and Jacob, I often think that Jacob gets the short end of the stick. Our theological heritage has painted this son of Isaac into the usurper’s corner. Yes, Jacob means “supplanter,” but maybe, just maybe that was by design as a matter of who Jacob was not what Jacob did. God designed Jacob to supplant for His perfect purposes, to supplant the wicked and unrighteous.
It is often overlooked, but in Genesis 25:27, the text says, “Jacob was a perfect man . . .” Some of your translations may call him a “peaceful” or “plain” man, but the Hebrew is quite clear: “perfect, undefiled, upright,” or “wholesome.” It’s my belief that some translators could not harmonize their perception of Jacob as a smarmy usurper with someone “perfect,” so they compromised on “peaceful.”
But to the matter at hand.
It is an often-told story: Esau comes home hungry—some translations say “famished,”—and he flippantly trades his birthright as Isaac’s firstborn for a bowl of “that red stuff there” (Genesis 25:30). In a heartbeat, with no seeming regard for consequences, this father of the Edomites has not been supplanted; Esau surrenders his royal standing as technically, the Prince of the Holy Land.
Esau is not alone.
How often do we abdicate our royal standing to pursue earthly pleasures? How often do we chase after being right over being righteous? How often do we, like Esau, surrender our royal station for some of that “stuff” – whatever that “stuff” may be?
Lords and Ladies, you have been invited to eat at the king’s table. Yours is a position of high favor. A crown awaits you. Why settle for poverty and peasantry when you are of royal lineage?
“And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen” (Revelation 1:6).
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“A noble man devises noble plans and by noble plans he stands”
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