What's Your Bowl of Soup?

Life of the Church

Good morning everyone, and welcome to our worship service.

It feels like it’s been a month since we were here last, so it’s good to be back in person today.

The county is in the middle of a pretty severe spike in Covid cases, though, so for the next few weeks we’re going to to treat things the way we treated them when we first came back inside almost a year ago.

So spread out a little if you can and put that mask on, and I’ll also be giving the benediction from up here so there I won’t cause a crowd on your way out.

Just a few other announcements to cover this morning as we begin.

The men’s ministry will be meeting tonight at 6:00.

We’ll also have a deacon meeting this coming Tuesday at 7:00. If you’re a deacon, please try to attend.

Della has some information about our baby bottles up here.

Also, Sue told me this morning that Milford Hartman is in hospice care at Augusta Health. He is currently unresponsive. Please keep him and his family in your prayers.

Sue, do you have anything this morning?

Opening Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank you for allowing us to be here as we worship you.

Thank you for each and every one of us for helping us to find time to come and hear your word.

Fill us with the knowledge of truth and give us the spirit of understanding, teach us on how to obey your word.

Give us the wisdom that comes from you so that we can know how to love each other, as we begin the service during this Sunday morning, be with us until we finish for we have prayed through Jesus’s name, Amen

Sanctity of Life

It’s been said that you and I and every person who’s ever lived are all reading the same book written by God. Those who have passed on from this life are simply just a few chapters ahead of the rest of us.

As we celebrate the sanctity of life this Sunday, we also remember those who left us this past year and now in heaven, smiling and joyful and warm and waiting for us all.

As I read each name, we will ring the bell:

Herbert Simmons saw the face of Christ on December 29, 2021

Leonard Lynch saw the face of Christ on December 28, 2021

Helen “Kitty” Marion saw the face of Christ on December 5, 2021

Kenneth Layton saw the face of Christ on September 19, 2021

Ellen Balsley saw the face of Christ on July 17, 2021

Eloise Allen saw the face of Christ on June 16, 2021

And Betty Eavers saw the face of Christ on March 26, 2021

We celebrate these loved ones, we celebrate the lives they lived and the love they had for us and for God, and we celebrate that the next time we see them, we will never say goodbye.

Sermon

There are a lot of traps a Christian can fall into that no one else does. We’ve talked about this quite a lot.

A Christian is more tempted more often and with more pressure than any other kind of person, because a Christian has more enemies than any other kind of person.

A person who avoids God has God as his or her only enemy. Life has its usual ups and downs, but there isn’t any pressure on someone who’s decided to just go with the flow, who just lives as the world lives. So the world’s not an enemy.

And that person who doesn’t believe in God also has an excuse for all the bad things they do. It’s not their fault, it’s their parents’ fault, or their upbringing, or their past, or their society. So their own conscience isn’t an enemy either.

And the devil, surely, is going to stay away from you so long as you don’t believe in God, because the devil has you right where he wants you. You’re not a threat to him, so he’s not going to be much of a threat to you. So the devil isn’t your enemy either.

It’s just God you’re up against, and there’s no better enemy to have than Him. Because He loves you. He chases you. He won’t let you go.

Once you accept God, though, once you tell Him that you don’t want Him as an enemy anymore, all of that gets flipped on its head.

Now all of a sudden you find trouble and temptation everywhere. Because now the world is against you, and now you’re often fighting your own sinful heart, and now the devil’s gaze turns straight to your direction.

But he’s a sneaky one, the devil. There are times when he just lashes out at you and you know it’s coming. You see it, you feel it, and all you can do is grit your teeth and pray to God to help you get through it.

But a lot of times, it isn’t like that. A lot of times he gets you slowly, carefully, precisely. And one of his favorite ways of doing that — and it’s a favorite way because it works so well and so often — is getting you to forget who you are and what you have in Christ.

It’s taking the most precious gift ever given — the saving grace of God’s own son and everything that gift means for your life and for eternity — and convincing you that it’s not a big deal.

Yes, God exists. So what? Yes, He sent His son to die for you so that all of the bad things you say and do and think aren’t enough to keep you away from Him. Big deal. There’s forgiveness in your life, and meaning, and genuine purpose. Who cares?

And this has quickly become the dominant thinking in this country. It’s not about atheism anymore. It’s not about someone saying they don’t believe in God.

The fastest-growing group of people now are actually called “apatheist”, blending the words “apathy” and “theism”, to describe someone who just doesn’t care whether God is real or not.

Doesn’t matter to them. Whether God exists or not and whether or not Christ did everything the Bible says won’t change a single thing about their lives.

It’s maybe the saddest thing I’ve ever heard, but here’s the thing: as Christians, we can sometimes act like that too. We can sometimes forget what we have to the extent that what we have is no longer important to our lives. And that includes even God’s promises.

One of the most famous stories in the Bible is about this very thing, the story of Jacob and Esau. It’s a story about one of the first promises God made to the line of Abraham, the promise of the divine birthright, and how Esau forgot all about the importance, the power, and the responsibility of that birthright.

Turn with me to Genesis chapter 25. We’ll be looking at verses 29-34:

Once when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was exhausted. And Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted!” (Therefore his name was called Edom.)

Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright now.” Esau said, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?” Jacob said, “Swear to me now.” So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

And this is God’s word.

Way back in Genesis chapter 17 is the first time that God introduces this idea of the birthright of the first born, which is called primogeniture. Abraham’s child Isaac was the first, and in Genesis 17 verses 18-21 we read this:

And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.

As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation. But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.”

To be the firstborn son was to receive the greatest blessing a person could imagine. The birthright was one of the institutions that God incorporated into the law of Moses, and the whole reason was two things: to promote order, and to provide for those in need.

The book of Deuteronomy commands every father to divide his inheritance when he dies. The firstborn son was to be given a double portion, so twice as much as the other sons. Women didn’t own property, and so they were dependent on male relatives. Usually that was their fathers and then their husbands.

But any unmarried sisters or widows without children would have to depend on this older brother after the father’s death. That’s why he was given the double portion, so he could care both for his own immediate family as well as his extended family.

But having the birthright was about more than property and money. It was a sacred thing that was just as much a spiritual position as it was a family one. In the case of God’s people, He would lead them through the patriarchs, or the fathers.

As the firstborn son of Isaac and Rebekah, Esau had the birthright of being the receiver of the Lord’s promises that were first given to Isaac. Those promises are found in Genesis 26:4-5. Here’s what those verses say:

Now there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar to A-bim-e-lech king of the Philistines. And the LORD appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I shall tell you. Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father.

“I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”

So because of Esau’s birthright, he would receive God’s own blessing. God would be with him. God would bless him.

God would make Esau’s descendants like the stars of heaven, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him.

All the nations, because it was this family, beginning with Abraham and continuing to Isaac his son and Esau his grandson, that Christ would come.

But look at what Esau does with that birthright, starting here in verse 29.

Esau was a hunter. Loved the lonely outdoors. He was a man’s man. Jacob was kind of the opposite. He liked staying close to home, and he was much closer to his mother than his father.

That’s why we find Jacob cooking stew on this day when Esau comes in from a long day in the fields tired and he’s hungry.

The Hebrew for the word “stew” is a thick soup made of lentils or small beans found mainly in Egypt and Syria, which was a pretty fair distance from where Isaac and his family live. So you can imagine that Jacob had come by these beans as a special treat.

And to someone who had spent the day since sun-up out in the wilderness hunting game, the smell of that soup must have been something that was completely tempting. Esau’s stomach is growling already when he returns to the family’s tents. As soon as he smells that food though, Esau must have have felt famished.

So he tells Jacob in verse 30, “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted!”

We get a hint here that Esau had never been fed this sort of stew before, because he doesn’t know the name of it. That’s why he calls the stew by its color — red. Those particular lentils and beans turned the color of the soup red.

We also get a hint of Esau’s emotional state. See that exclamation point at the end of that first sentence? The Hebrew is even stronger. The Hebrew writes that first sentence of verse 30 as, “Let me swallow some of the red pottage, this red pottage.”

He repeats that word “red”, and a lot of scholars think it’s written that way to show just how tired and hungry Esau was. It’s almost like he’s gasping—“That red mess, give me some of that red mess.”

Esau didn’t know what that food was. He didn’t know what it was made of. But he’s tired, and he’s hungry.

He’s exhausted. Esau is weak, and he feels like he’s wasting away. He was so tired that he couldn’t even feed himself, much less wait until all the food was ready for the family meal.

Now, everything you need to know about Jacob is found right in verse 31. He might grow up to be a patriarch. He might grow up to be a man of faith.

He may grow up to be a faithful servant of God, but right here he’s just kind of a jerk. Selfish. Conniving. And definitely not to be trusted.

He’s sitting there making this stew and his brother comes in stinking. And Jacob’s thinking about how Esau always stinks. Esau’s never dressed right. Always grunting and surly.

But this guy, Jacob thinks, this idiot, this bumpkin, is the one one who gets the birthright? This guy is the one who will be blessed by God instead of me? That’s not fair. He’s thinking, I deserve that birthright. You know? Mom says so.

Esau’s standing there saying, “Come on, brother, I’m tired and I’m hungry. Maybe you’d know a little bit about that if you ever worked a day in your life. If you acted like a man. I’m out there in the fields all day, fishing and hunting. You’re sitting here with pots and pans. Now give me some of whatever that mess you’re making is, I’m starving.”

Probably not the first time these two brothers have had this conversation. Esau’s always coming in from the wilderness talking about how hard he had to work or what danger he had to go through. But he really does seem hungry this time, doesn’t he? He’s literally gasping for a bowl of that stew.

So Jacob says, “You want a bowl of this stew? Sell me your birthright, then.”

Now we don’t know what’s going through Jacob’s mind here. Is he just kidding around? Is he trying to get Esau to think a minute about how really hungry he is? Or is he truly taking this opportunity to swindle his brother out of his birthright?

We don’t know. But we do know from this that the whole business of the birthright is constantly on Jacob’s mind. He’s always thinking about it, always griping about how unfair it is.

So he says “Sell me your birthright,” but notice that last word in verse 31, too — NOW.

Do it this second, Esau. I’m going to give no no time to think about it, just give me your answer right now. Don’t listen to anything your head might say, just think about how you feel. Think about how tired and hungry you are, and think about how good this stew is going to taste.

He’s a swindler, Jacob. He really is. He and his brother came out of Rebekah’s womb at almost the same time. Esau came first, and then Jacob came out grasping onto Esau’s heel. And Jacob’s been trying to get at his brother ever since.

He’s trying to trick his brother right here, isn’t he? If Jacob would have been a better brother here, a better person, and just given Esau some soup, none of this would have ever happened.

The Bible doesn’t gloss over any of this, but it also doesn’t seem to lay a lot of the blame on Jacob, does it? Why is that?

Every sin holds the same significance to God. Right? To him, murdering someone in cold blood and telling a lie is the same thing. The only one that stands above the others is to blasphemy the Holy Spirit. That’s the one there’s no turning back from.

But to us there are degrees of sin, and here — and in history — Jacob’s meanness, his conniving nature, is terrible. But it’s not as bad as Esau’s carelessness in what he’s about to do.

And we see that carelessness in the very next verse, verse 32: “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?”

Now, there’s so much in this verse to talk about. On the surface, Esau seems to say that he’s so hungry he’ll do anything for food, including trading his life’s greatest and most precious blessing for a bowl of stew.

Let’s look at this one first. Is Esau hungry? Sure. Is he starving? No. Is he about to die? Of course not, that’s ridiculous. He hasn’t eaten all day. Skipping breakfast and lunch isn’t going to kill you.

So what’s the real problem here?Esau’s going purely on emotion, isn’t he? It’s all about what he’s feeling. He’s turned his brain off. He’s not thinking, he’s just reacting.

And let me tell you this — as soon as you turn your brain off and let your decisions be made by your feelings alone, you’re about two seconds away from doing something you’re going to regret.

But there’s another part to what Esau says too, and it goes deeper than what he’s feeling in this particular moment. I’m talking about his way of life.

Like we said, he’s a hunter. A warrior. Esau lives hard. Every day there are all kinds of dangers out in the wilderness that threaten to kill him. Animals. Men. An accident.

The promise of birthright only took effect upon the father’s death. Well, who knows how long Isaac is going to live? That’s Esau’s perspective. What good is a blessing that will only be given in 20 or 30 years do for Esau now, considering he could die any day out there in the woods?

So we see another fault in the way Esau lived. He was impulsive, he lived his life by the passions of whatever emotion had taken hold of him in the minute, but the biggest and deepest problem that Esau has is on display right here. He doesn’t give a single thought to the future.

Not just his future in this world, but his future in the next one. Esau’s cases only extend to the moment, and in this moment, the most important thing he wants is to get a bowl of soup.

Jacob doesn’t give Esau time to think, even though Jacob could have given Esau all the time in the world, Esau still wouldn’t have changed his mind. So Jacob says in verse 33, “Swear to me right now, this second.” And Esau swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob.

It’s fascinating how some of the most world-altering events in history are given only a few words in the Bible. This is one of them. In seventeen words, an entire birthright is sold, a birthright that included being in the family of Christ himself.

It was over in a moment, but out of that moment came the course of both of these brothers’ lives from there on out. Everything that happened afterward could be traced right back to this conversation over a bowl of soup.

But notice Jacob here again. He doesn’t settle for Esau saying, “Fine, my birthright is yours.” He makes Esau swear it.

Now this is hugely important. This was a formal process in that time. To swear to something was more than to make a promise. It was on the same level as an unbreakable vow. It was law.

And here’s the saddest and most remarkable part of all of this. This act of Esau swearing to surrender his birthright to Jacob means that from this point forward, he would never give Jacob any trouble over it. He could not ask for the birthright back, and he would acknowledge Jacob as the future leader of their family.

More importantly, every blessing the birthright held would now be transferred from Esau to Jacob. And how could that be? I’ll tell you.

Because Jacob made Esau swear an oath, and in that culture every oath had to be sworn to God. God himself was the witness to Esau giving every promise that God had intended for him over to Jacob instead. All for one bowl of soup. That’s how little Esau cherished God’s promises.

Finally, verse 34. “Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.”

I have to say that for the longest time I thought that Esau despised his birthright after he’d given it to Jacob. He resented what he’d done, hated it, wanted nothing more than to get it back. Giving up that birthright ruined Esau’s life, so Esau despised it.

But that’s not true at all. There are two sentences in verse 34, and we can get a better understanding of the meaning by rearranging the words and adding the word “because”. So we can also read verse 34 like this: “Esau despised his birthright because he ate and drank and rose and went his way.”

Because there’s no regret here at all, is there? Esau eats and drinks and then gets up and goes on with his day like nothing at all has happened. He shows complete indifference, doesn’t he? There’s no regret, no sadness over handing over such a precious gift for such a small thing.

Take a minute to think about everything that happens as a result of this. Jacob tricks his father Isaac into giving him the blessing intended for Esau. Then Jacob has to run, because Esau wants to kill him.

But never once, never in all of this, does Esau ask for the birthright back. It’s his right after all, isn’t it? He’s the firstborn. But he never asks Jacob to return it, and he never goes to his father Isaac and says, “You have to do something about this, because that birthright is mine.”

Instead, we find later on when Jacob dresses as Esau and receives the blessing from Isaac, Esau has a completely different view of what happened here. Listen to Genesis 27:36:

Esau said to Isaac, “Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has cheated me these two times. He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing.”

Did you get that? Esau says that Jacob cheated him. He says Jacob took away his birthright. But is that what really happened? No.

Nobody can take your birthright. The only way you can lose it is if you give it away. And that’s exactly what Esau did. He gave away his birthright, because he never truly appreciated its value and its meaning.

All through Esau’s life to this point, he’s had the same attitude that a lot of us have — “So what?” “Who cares?” “Big deal.” It’s an attitude that’s easy to have right now when everything seems to be happening too fast and all at once.

The Bible has a word for that sort of attitude—“profane.” We use that word today to mean vulgar language. But the definition in scripture is much wider than that.

It means a lack of holiness. It means taking something beautiful and good and treating it with contempt, or worse, with apathy. To treat the things of God as ordinary is to profane them. It’s to despise them. It’s to show a lack of godliness.

And that’s exactly how the New Testament describes Esau. He was immoral for what he did, because all of his spiritual blessings and responsibilities meant nothing to him. And we’re warned to be sure we’re not like Esau. Listen to Hebrews 12:15-16:

See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.

Unholy like Esau. Don’t be unholy like him, the Bible says, because the fact is that we have a spiritual inheritance far more precious than Esau could ever imagine, but we give it away every day for nothing.

If we treat God’s blessings, God’s commandments, God’s will, God’s purposes, and God’s promises with an ounce less of appreciation than we out to have, we trade our birthright for a bowl of soup.

If we neglect the things having to do with our eternal inheritance because the common things of this world are so important to us, then we trade our birthright for a bowl of soup.

We’re made saints by the blood of Christ, but we content ourselves every day with rolling around in the mud.

Peter writes in his first letter that we have an inheritance that is imperishable, undefined, and unfailing, kept in heaven for us. Jesus himself told us that he is preparing a place for us to be with him in the mansions of his Father’s house.

And you’re going to give that up by focusing on the world instead? On things?

Every day we do it, don’t we? Every single day, the people Christ died for, those who accept his forgiveness and eternal life, give it all up and despise their birthright in Jesus.

There’s a warning to us here, and it’s a hard one. Don’t you ever take the grace of God lightly. Don’t you risk it all by embracing the temporary pleasures of this world.

Whatever it is, whatever you’re working for, saving for, praying for, whatever you have your heart set on, no matter how good and true it is, if it isn’t God, that’s your bowl of soup.

You can be hungry for it. Starving. You can think that bowl of soup will solve every one of your problems. You can even think it’s God’s will for you to enjoy that bowl of soup.

But it’s still just a bowl of soup, and because it’s a thing of this world, it isn’t eternal. It might be shiny and new now, but it’s going to rot and decay just like you will.

The Biblical commentator Matthew Henry wrote, “The gratifying of the sensual appetite ruins thousands of precious souls.”

He’s right. If we claim to be in Christ, we have to be on our guard because it only takes a second to trade all the eternal promises we have for all the temporary pleasures we think we need.

Every day we surrender our birthright as sons and daughters of God for the things that Paul speaks about in Galatians:

Impurity — what are you reading and watching, especially online?

Idolatry — what absorbs your heart and your mind more than God?

Anger and hate — what words do you use to the people you disagree with?

None of us know how much time we have left on this earth. Don’t squander your time arguing about meaningless things. Don’t waste your time on things that take you away from God. Don’t trade your birthright for a bowl of soup.

Because as Jesus says, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

The world is rushing by, and with every day comes the temptation to give a little less thought to God and his daily purpose for us. But we should never forget that both God and his promises are holy, and that we as Christians are expected to reflect that in our lives.

Let’s pray:

Father we’re so humbled, so thankful, so undeserving of the precious gift we have in Your resurrected son. But Father we also keep that gift so poorly sometimes. We ignore it when we should always keep it as the center of our thoughts. We dishonor it when Your praises should be on our lips. And we trade it for bowls of soup each day when we should regard it as the most precious thing we have, a gift that can never be taken away. Help us to ponder and hold dear Your eternal truths, and help us to use these against the temporary pleasures of this life. For it’s in Jesus’s name we ask it, Amen.

Benediction:

Now may the strength of God sustain us; may the power of God preserve us; may the hands of God protect us; and may the love of God go with us this day and forever. Amen.