Please use any or all of this sermon for God's glory
all Scripture is from the NLT
as always- I write like I preach so-----
You want to trade?
Genesis 25:29-34
For as long as I can remember I have liked trading
Whether it is horses and mules
Cows
Saddles and tack
Trucks and trailers
Guns
Pocket knives
Early in my childhood years marbles- and toys
I am sure many of you like trading also
Over the years I have made more trades than I can
Some good
Some bad
I will tell you that I have made some trades that even I could not believe
The best ones where when
Both parties walked away thinking they were the winner
So
In the law of trading
They were good trades
But
Other times
I acted on impulse
Did not check out thoroughly what I was trading for
Or did not know what I had
Traded a decent mount for a blind horse
A good heifer for gimp legged cow
An old but dependable truck for a newer on that ended up having a bad motor
You get the picture
Or even worse
I have made many trades
Where I walked away feeling I had made a good trade or even skinned the other guy
Only to find out that what I traded off
That thing I thought had little value
Was actually very valuable
That I had really missed the worth of what I had
This is where we find ourselves this morning in our continuing study of People relating to God
From Genesis
In our round pen this morning we took a hard look at how God can use people we often think he should not for this glory
We studied all about Jacob
And saw how he often followed the lead of his ancestors
And lied
Manipulated others to get what he wanted
Jacob and Esau made a trade
But in the trade we are going to look at this morning
It was his older brother Esau that made the dumb trade
Please open your bibles to Genesis chapter 25
I am going to read verses 19 -34 for you then back track and tell you the story leading up to today’s passage
19 This is the account of the family of Isaac, the son of Abraham. 20 When Isaac was forty years old, he married Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan-aram and the sister of Laban the Aramean.
21 Isaac pleaded with the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was unable to have children. The LORD answered Isaac’s prayer, and Rebekah became pregnant with twins. 22 But the two children struggled with each other in her womb. So she went to ask the LORD about it. “Why is this happening to me?” she asked.
23 And the LORD told her, “The sons in your womb will become two nations. From the very beginning, the two nations will be rivals. One nation will be stronger than the other; and your older son will serve your younger son.”
24 And when the time came to give birth, Rebekah discovered that she did indeed have twins! 25 The first one was very red at birth and covered with thick hair like a fur coat. So they named him Esau.[b] 26 Then the other twin was born with his hand grasping Esau’s heel. So they named him Jacob.[c] Isaac was sixty years old when the twins were born.
27 As the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter. He was an outdoorsman, but Jacob had a quiet temperament, preferring to stay at home. 28 Isaac loved Esau because he enjoyed eating the wild game Esau brought home, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
29 One day when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau arrived home from the wilderness exhausted and hungry. 30 Esau said to Jacob, “I’m starved! Give me some of that red stew!” (This is how Esau got his other name, Edom, which means “red.”)
31 “All right,” Jacob replied, “but trade me your rights as the firstborn son.”
32 “Look, I’m dying of starvation!” said Esau. “What good is my birthright to me now?”
33 But Jacob said, “First you must swear that your birthright is mine.” So Esau swore an oath, thereby selling all his rights as the firstborn to his brother, Jacob.
34 Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and lentil stew. Esau ate the meal, then got up and left. He showed contempt for his rights as the firstborn.
Focus with me for a second on verses 30-32
“I’m starved! Give me some of that red stew!” (This is how Esau got his other name, Edom, which means “red.”)
31 “All right,” Jacob replied, “but trade me your rights as the firstborn son.”
32 “Look, I’m dying of starvation!” said Esau. “What good is my birthright to me now?”
We studied about God fulfilling his promise of Son and heir to Abraham and Sarah last week
We saw how they waited for years to have God fulfill his promise’
The promised Son was Isaac
And now this morning we see that God’s promise was being fulfilled to Abraham
Though
Isaac and his wife Rebecca
We are seeing God’s plan to make Abraham a great nation continue with the birth of twin boys
The first born Esau
The second Jacob
I back tracked for just a moment because it is important to know that Esau was the first born Son
He was entitled to the birthright
This term is often lost on us
Our world
Our times
Our traditions and culture
Do not always understand or embrace birthright
But in biblical times this was very important and very significant
Esau as the oldest son had rights and privileges awarded to the oldest son
The birthright was the natural privilege of the firstborn son.
Receiving the birthright, the firstborn would become the head of the family
And
Would have charge of the family
Including the family property.
He would be responsible for the welfare of the younger sons
The widows of his father and brothers
And
Any unmarried sisters
He would hold considerable authority over the other members of the family.
Pretty much in cowboy terms
He was the head honcho
What he said went
In the biblical history of the family of Abraham the blessing that he received would also place him in a special covenant relationship with the Lord.
During the period when Jacob and Esau lived
God dealt directly with the heads of the families.
Many times in scripture we see god talking directly to the heads of the family
The Hebrews counted the blessing given by the father to be very important
They
Considered it an oral contract
That was just as binding as a written contract.
But
Back to Esau
By tradition
By law
He was entitled to the birthright and all that it brings
But
He either placed little value on it
Or
He had no idea what it was worth
So
He like many of us who have made bad trades
made one of the worst
Bone headed trades of all times
I have made some really dumb trades over the years
If you like to trade I am sure you have as well
If you are a sports fan, I am sure the list of bad trades by teams you like or love is building in your brain right now
Most everyone here has heard the legend of the Trade for the island of Manhattan with the Indians for just a hand full of glass beads
Bad trades
Bone headed trades
But
None so bad as this one
Look at verses 29-34 again
One day when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau arrived home from the wilderness exhausted and hungry. 30 Esau said to Jacob, “I’m starved! Give me some of that red stew!” (This is how Esau got his other name, Edom, which means “red.”)
31 “All right,” Jacob replied, “but trade me your rights as the firstborn son.”
32 “Look, I’m dying of starvation!” said Esau. “What good is my birthright to me now?”
33 But Jacob said, “First you must swear that your birthright is mine.” So Esau swore an oath, thereby selling all his rights as the firstborn to his brother, Jacob.
34 Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and lentil stew.
Esau
The elder son
The true heir to Isaacs’s family
The true heir to the covenant with God
Traded all this away for a lousy bowl of soup
I have often wondered why he would do such a thing
So I have prayed and studied and read and the following are just a few possible reasons that Esau would make such a horrible trade
First Esau could not see a tangible value in what was to be his
Unlike a horse or a truck or a trailer
Unlike a pocket knife
The birthright was a promise of things to come
The bowl of stew was a had very little value
But
He was hungry
He could fill his belly with it
He could hold it
The birthright not so much
How many of you got savings bonds for Christmas when you were little
How many of you at 9 or 10 years old would have gladly traded that piece of paper in that envelope for a toy on Christmas morning
Even a cheap toy
Same idea here
It boiled down to selfishness
He wanted satisfaction now
The stew could provide it
The birthright could not
2nd
The second half of verse 34 gives us another clue as to why Esau would make this bad trade
“He showed contempt for his rights as the firstborn.”
He did not appreciate
Or even worse
He did not understand the value of what was his
It was not tangible
It could not keep him warm
Could not feed him
He could not hold it
Carry it around
He wasn’t using it
So he had contempt for it
In order to truly get this we need to look at the definition of contempt
1. The feeling that a person or a thing is beneath consideration, worthless, or deserving scorn.
"He showed his contempt for his job by doing it very badly"
2. Disregard for something that should be taken into account.
So in a sense Esau simply ignored his birthright and its value
A decision that he later regretted
But one he made just the same
He made a bad trade
You may be saying to yourself right now
Preacher
I have made some bone headed trades in my life
Deals I wish I could do over
Things I wish I could get back
But never have I made a deal like this
I never traded something that valuable for something that insignificant
Really
Are you sure?
Let’s talk about a bad trade
Jesus Christ
The living Son of the living God
The savior
The messiah
Heir to the birthright of God
Did something very special
2000 years ago
He gave himself as a sacrifice to pay for our sins
And
In
Doing so he made it possible for us to have the birthright also
You see through the blood of Jesus
We are adopted into the family of God
As
Sons
And Daughters of the living God
Just Like Christ
And
With that adoption
Come certain privileges
Things of great value
Things beyond the possibility of figuring a worth
With Salvation we get
The promises
The birthrights
Just a few are
Love
Peace
Acceptance
Forgiveness
Joy
Mercy
Grace
Comfort
Hope
A future
Birthrights--Promises
Just a few of thousands of promises that God has made to his children
Those he has adopted through Jesus
But
We often make bad trades
We trade the future we find in the Lord for selfish life styles
A bright future for a dim one
Like Esau
We often show contempt for our birthright
Many trade a lasting Godly, loving relationship with a spouse
For a night of passion
Bad trade
Some trade true security found only in obedience to God for a fleeting moment of pleasure seeking to satisfy their own selfish desires
Chasing their own ideas
Bad trade
Most of us trade peace for turmoil when we don’t trust God fully
When we
Like Sarah, laugh at his promises
And
We try and do things our own way
Make it happen
Justifying our sins
Rationalizing our sin
Trying to normalize our sins
Bad trade
Sometimes we trade comfort for grief
Jesus tells us to bring him our burdens and he will give us comfort
But
We choose to try and carry them ourselves and find grief in the process
Or lay them down
Only to turn around and pick them back up
Bad trade
We trade true acceptance in Christ for the false acceptance of the world
Bending or breaking Gods rules
Trying to fit in with a sinful world
Bad trade
We trade joy- true joy in the Lord for an emotion called happiness that will soon fade away
I things , money, relationships- jobs
Bad trade
We make so many dumb trades when it comes to our relationship with God that if I preached for months I still could not cover them all
But
Every trade has a winner and a loser
One comes out to the better every time
Esau made a bad trade
But to Jacob it was a great trade
Jacob traded something of very little value for something of great value
Let me tell you about some good trades I have made
I traded Condemnation for mercy
That’s called grace
A gift from God through Jesus Christ
Good trade
I traded the darkness of this world for the light of The Lord
Good trade
I traded Guilt and damnation for forgiveness
In my original state I was an unforgivin sinner
But now I am a forgiven sinner
Still a sinner but with a new destination
Good trade
I traded selfishness- arrogance- pride in myself
For a devotion to Christ
Humility in Christ
I traded my pride for an understanding that the only thing that is good in me is Jesus
That in myself
I am nothing
But through Jesus
I am special
I am custom made
I am a Son
A true son of the Living Holy God
An heir to the birthright
An heir to the kingdom of God
Let me tell you about that trade
In 1985 I traded a life that was more worthless than that Bowl of red stew Esau traded for
A wrecked out
Messed up life
For
A new life
I traded Hell – fire – brimstone
Eternal suffering
For Heaven- streets of Gold
Eternal life
You tell me
I am pretty sure I got the best of that trade
Good trades
Bad trades
What kind of trades are you making?
Have you traded condemnation for salvation?
Have you traded Curses for blessings?
Have you traded sorrow for Joy?
Have you traded for Jesus?
Close from the heart
pray
