THE DOUBLE PORTION OF THE FIRSTBORN

In scripture the eldest or firstborn son inherited special privileges. The position was one

of great honor and responsibility. In the absence of the father he had authority over his

brethren. For example, in the Book of Genesis it was Rueben, the firstborn, who saved

Joseph from being killed by his brothers, Gen.37:21-22.

The firstborn also had special responsibilities, for he was accountable to the father for the

welfare of his younger brothers and sisters. Reuben was very distressed when he failed to

rescue Joseph from the pit. He tore his clothes and was ashamed to face his father, Gen.

37:29-30.

At the death of the father, the firstborn became the head of the home and received a

double portion as his share of the inheritance, Deut.21:15-17. If a man with four sons

divided up his inheritance, he divided the inheritance into five equal shares, giving two

shares to the firstborn and one share to each of the other three sons. In Bible times there

was a great distinction between a younger son and a firstborn son.

Firstborns Receive the Kingdom

Second Chronicles 21:1-3 also shows us this difference. Before King Jehoshaphat died,

he divided up his inheritance as follows: all his sons were given great gifts, but to his

firstborn son, Jehoram, was given the kingdom. There is a great difference between

wonderful gifts, and receiving the throne. The throne is for kings! And although all

believers are called to become kings and priests (Rev.5:9-10, Ex.19:6), there are reasons

why believers can disqualify themselves from their high calling.

Firstborns in the New Testament

The message of the firstborn is also an important theme of the New Testament. Consider

the following scriptures:

• In Romans 8:28-29, Christ is “the firstborn among many brethren.” Jesus is our Elder

Brother. He has authority and power over us, His younger brothers and sisters. He is the

head of the Church. He is honored and obeyed.

• In Colossians 1:15-17, Christ is “the firstborn over all creation.” He has power and

authority over the whole creation and universe, for He created them. His Name is above

every other name, Phil. 2:9-11. He has authority over all men, angels, principalities and

powers. He is King of all kings, and Lord of all lords.

• In Colossians 1:18 and Revelation 1:5, Christ is “the firstborn from the dead.” Jesus

has complete power and authority over death. Death fears Him and bows before Him.

Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life, and has the keys of death and hell, Rev.1:18,

Jn.11:25.

• In Hebrews 12:22-23 we read of “the Church of the firstborn [ones.]” In the original

Greek the firstborn is plural. This speaks of believers who are firstborn ones among their

brethren. These are given a double portion.

There are certain ones among God’s people whom God selects to be firstborn ones

among their brethren. These shall have a double inheritance, a double portion of

God’s Spirit, and double honor. Also, they will have double responsibility to look

after the welfare of their younger brothers and sisters in Christ. Will you or I be a

firstborn? Will we qualify to become leaders with these blessings and

responsibilities, or does God have to look for someone else? Let us look at several

examples of men who were firstborn among their brethren, and the reasons they

were chosen.

JOB

“...the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.” -Job 42:10

Job was a man who received the double portion. He was truly a firstborn, a leader among

many. In fact, the Lord said, “There is none like him on the earth, one who fears God and

shuns evil,” Job 1:8. God gives the double portion to men and women who are good role

models, to those whom others can pattern themselves after. God looks for people of

excellent character, whose lives can be reproduced in the lives of many others. He will

take that man and reproduce him in the lives of others. He will make him their elder

brother. Therefore, God will give him a double portion to bear the added responsibility of

being a firstborn among many brethren.

A Home in Order

Job had balanced priorities. In Job 1:2-5 we can see that he was a family man! I have

seen over the years that a man who fails as a father in the natural will fail as a spiritual

father, also. This is confirmed by God’s Word which states, “For if a man does not know

how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God,” 1 Tim.3:4-5.

The first qualification for holding a spiritual office is a marriage and home that is in

order, 1 Tim.3:1-7; 3:12; Tit.1:5-9. If we fail in natural things, such as with our marriage,

children, finances, or our secular work, we then disqualify ourselves from spiritual

promotion. How we handle natural responsibilities indicates how we will do with

spiritual responsibilities, Lu.16:10-12.

Therefore, a qualification for being a firstborn among many brethren, is that our home is

in order and at peace. The Church members must be able to see that Christianity really

works in the home of their pastors and leaders. Remember, the Church is simply a

collection of families. If Christianity does not work at home, it will never work at church.

Godly Character

Not only was Job a good role model for husbands and fathers, he also had many other

godly areas of character. He was sensitive to the needs of the oppressed and poor, Job

29:12-17 & 31:13-22. Job was morally pure, guarding carefully his eyes and emotions,

31:1-12. He was a man of vision with a sense of destiny. He knew where he was going

because he had direction and promises from God, 19:25-27. Job served God, not selfishly

for the benefits, but because he loved God. Job showed this when he declared, “The Lord

gives and the Lord takes away; blessed be the name of the Lord,” even after he had lost

everything, 1:21. Job was a man who became purged from the spirit of self-

righteousness, learning never to find fault with God, 42:1-6. These qualities in Job’s life

show us what God looks for in a man whom He will choose to be a firstborn.

ELISHA

“And Elisha said, “Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me.”

-2 Kings 2:9

Elisha is another classic example of a man who inherited the blessing of the firstborn. He

was not a son who inherited the blessing from a natural father, but from a spiritual

father—Elijah. The prophet Elijah had many spiritual sons. He raised up many young

men who would later become prophets to the nation. Elisha was one of those sons among

many brethren who were his peers and equals. Elisha, however, had several

characteristics that promoted him above his brethren.

Elisha was a servant! He was industrious, hard working, steadfast, and loyal. When he is

first mentioned in scripture, we find him laboring in the field with twelve yoke of oxen, 1

Kg.19:19. Elisha never allowed boredom or laziness to rule his life. He was a man of

purpose.

Also, he stood the test of time. For immediately upon receiving the call of God, he

forsook his past and dedicated himself to serving Elijah for many years, 1 Kgs.19:21 & 2

Kgs.3:11. Elisha was willing to take the low place. He submitted to the trainings and

disciplines of his spiritual father. Also, he overcame long periods of dryness and boredom

when nothing exciting seemed to be happening.

Elisha was wiser than his brethren, staying close to the side of his spiritual father. Elisha

did not commit the tragic mistake so many other spiritual sons make. Many “sons,” after

a certain amount of growth and success, believe that they have outgrown their spiritual

parents, and then have little use for them. Pride sets in as they assume that they have

become significantly superior to the spiritual fathers who have brought them up and

nourished them in the ways of the Lord. To the opposite of this, Elisha maintained a

relationship of love and respect for his spiritual father, Elijah. It was this close

relationship that qualified him for receiving the double portion of the Spirit that rested

upon Elijah.

Elisha never became arrogant or independent after receiving the good teaching and

prophetic mantle from his spiritual father, Elijah. He remained teachable and loyal to his

master right up to the time of their parting. By this time Elisha was no longer a youth, for

he was already bald, 2 Kg.2:23. God cannot give the double portion to men who are

disrespectful to their spiritual fathers, for they would reproduce the same in the lives of

many others. Men who receive the double portion are those who continue to honor their

father and mother, even when they become old.

We Choose our Levels of Relationship

Elisha’s peers could have had that same close relationship with their spiritual father, had

they so desired. Scripture says they followed afar off, 2 Kg.2:7. They were spectators

rather than participants of what God was doing. They, too, could have had the double

portion if they had been close enough to the prophet when he was taken up into heaven.

We have a similar account with the twelve apostles. John leaned upon the bosom of the

Lord Jesus Christ, becoming known as “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” Jn.13:21-26.

However, God has no favorites. The Lord wanted all the apostles to be as close to Him as

John, but they did not have the same desire. Surely, every one of us can be as close to the

Lord as we desire to be.

Elisha also passed the tests of rejection and discouragement. Elijah repeatedly told his

pupil to “go back,” or stay here while I go on, 1 Kg.19:20; 2 Kg.2:2; 2:4; 2:6. Elijah

continued to give him opportunities to find an excuse to quit and go home. Never once

does sacred scripture record Elijah encouraging Elisha to go on. But Elisha desired

something in his heart that would not be denied. He wanted a double portion of his

master’s anointing. He looked for no excuses to be offended. He refused to give up. He

plodded on through the years of boring service, 2 Kg.3:11. He kept his spirit open and

teachable to his spiritual father, and he maintained a love and respect for him even in the

maturity of his life. Then the moment came, after years of preparation and testings, to

receive the second mantle. Read 2 Kings 2:1-15.

“Ask what I may do for you, before I am taken away from you?”

Elisha responded to this question of Elijah by asking, “Please let a double portion of your

spirit be upon me.” Elijah replied to this and said, “You have asked a hard thing,” 2

Kg.2:10. As we have repeated over and over, a double portion of God’s Spirit means

double responsibility. It means a heavier load and a more difficult task to accomplish.

Elijah continued and said, “Nevertheless, if you see me when I am taken from you, it

shall be so for you; but if not, it shall not be so.” The double portion is only given to

those who are very close to the Lord and to their spiritual fathers. Elisha was close

enough to receive the second mantle. Other brethren who viewed from afar off did not

receive the blessing.

“Now when the sons of the prophets who were from Jericho saw him, they said, The

spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha. And they came to meet him, and bowed to the ground

before him,” 2 Kg.2:15. At the moment Elisha received the double portion, he become

firstborn among his many brethren. This distinguished him and set him apart. There

came upon him an authority that was recognizable, and they acknowledged that special

anointing and authority by bowing in reverence. Elisha had become their elder brother,

the firstborn among many brethren.

JOSEPH

“Joseph shall have two portions”-Ez.47:13

Joseph was a young man beloved of his father, Jacob. We may think that Jacob showed

favoritism among his sons, but he had a reason for making Joseph, his eleventh son, the

special heir. Joseph was very righteous and spiritual, even as a child. His brothers, on the

other hand, were evil, Gen.37:1-11.

Another point to consider is that God knows what every man or woman will do with the

promises and gifts He entrusts to them. This is the reason God chose Jacob instead of

Esau to have the birthright, even before they were born, Gen.25:22-26. God knew that

Esau, the elder brother, would take the birthright lightly. Therefore, God gave it to Jacob.

God had a very important plan for Joseph’s generation. There was going to be a great

famine in that part of the world and He needed a special man with unusual answers for

the coming crisis. But in order to become that special deliverer, intense preparation was

required. All of Joseph’s brethren failed the tests, although none of them realized that

God was testing them. They were unable and unwilling to pay the price. The cost of

being a deliverer to any generation is very high.

The Cost of Joseph’s Double Portion

Joseph was rejected by his brethren. In fact, their envy and hatred brought about a plot to

kill him, Gen.37:18-20. Being rejected by your brethren is painful enough, but they hated

him enough to kill him. Why was there such envy and jealousy among the brethren? It

was because of the kind of home they grew up in. Jacob married several women, and

there was constant envy and strife, Gen.30:1-16. Therefore, the children had the problems

of their parents.

Reuben protected Joseph by putting him in a pit, but in his absence Joseph was pulled out

and sold as a slave into Egypt. Therefore, in addition to growing up in an unhappy home,

he was rejected by his own brethren, sold as a slave, and exiled into a foreign country.

While in Egypt, he was accused of a crime of which he was totally innocent, Gen.39:7-

23. Thus, his reputation was ruined and he was cast into the dungeon for years. Yet God

was with him and was testing him, Ps.105:16-19, Gen. 49:22-24.

Thus, Joseph had to overcome a bad childhood and home life, rejection and cruelty of the

brethren, exile, slavery, loneliness, homesickness, sexual temptations, false accusations,

imprisonment, a ruined reputation, and many other injustices. In addition to all of these,

he had to wait during long and painful delays, and battle against tremendous doubt and

discouragement. Yet every injustice became his servant to move him closer to the

throne. Every delay, heartache, and difficulty was building iron into his soul, preparing

Joseph for the great task he was called to perform. Joseph fully understood that God was

using every injustice to bless and exalt him, Gen.45:4-8, 50:20. This enabled him to have

a great capacity to forgive his brethren and emerge as the firstborn with the double

portion from among all the brethren, Gen.48:5, 1 Chron.5:1-2.

THE LEVITES

“And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Take the Levites instead

of all the firstborn among the children of Israel.” -Num.3:44-45

God’s original purpose was to take the firstborn sons of every tribe and make them

priests to Himself and to the nation. The blessing of being a firstborn enabled a man to

have special access to God, and the privilege of handling the priestly affairs of God’s

sanctuary. Firstborns were given a special ministry to the Lord and to the people. That

special ministerial anointing opened up to them an understanding of the ways of God and

the Word of God.

After the shameful apostasy of the golden calf, however, God changed His mind.

Taking away the right of the firstborn from the other tribes, God gave it to the whole tribe

of Levi instead. When originally every firstborn of every tribe would have been priests

unto God and the people, God revoked their birthright and gave it uniquely to the Levites,

Numbers 3:6; 3:9-12; 3:41; 3:45; 8:6; 8:14-16; 8:18. Here we see the rejection of the

birthright by a whole nation.

As we have said before, we do not know when we are being tested. Moses went up the

mountain for forty days, and here was the test—the test of delay. Israel grew restless,

making a golden calf to be their new god. When Moses returned and beheld their

wickedness, he drew a line and demanded, “Who is on the Lord’s side?” (Read Exodus

32:1-28). The whole tribe of Levi quickly sided with the Lord and with Moses. The

Lord, through Moses, then commanded the Levites to take their swords and slay iniquity

in the camp, which the Levites obeyed.

God did not forget what happened at the foot of Mount Sinai. A whole nation had failed

the test. The Lord was so grieved with the fickleness and wickedness of His people that

He decided at that moment to take away their birthrights, and give it to a tribe who

honored and revered Him. God would not have an inconsistent, immoral, idolatrous,

and rebellious priesthood. God would not give a double portion of His Spirit to men who

handled the sacred things of God lightly. He looked elsewhere for a godlier people.

God observed the response of the tribe of Levi during the time of moral backsliding in

Israel. He saw in Levi a quality that would do the right thing, not the popular thing,

when the pressure was on. Levi was willing even to use the sword on his own flesh, even

on his own brethren for the sake of righteousness. These are qualities that are required in

firstborns.

How often, when something touches our own flesh, or our family, are we tempted to

compromise the word of God. We cannot be a firstborn if we are unwilling to use the

sword on our own flesh, or if we resort to sympathy or humanism on the moral issues of

our times, Jer.48:10.

Thus, God chose Levi to have the priesthood instead of all the other firstborns of Israel,

Deut.33:8-11. This was the transferal of the birthright from a whole nation to a single

tribe. God’s selection of Levi was at a time when the nation was unaware that they were

being tested. In Deuteronomy 33:9 the Lord observed that the Levites were more willing

to please God than even their closest friends and family.

THE LOSS OF A BIRTHRIGHT

The subject of the birthright is not just an outdated lesson from the Old Testament. The

New Testament also is filled with the firstborn message. New Testament believers are

warned and exhorted not to sell their birthrights as Esau (Heb. 12:15-17). May I suggest,

however, that it is irrelevant whether it came from the Old or New Testaments, for “All

scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for

correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete,

thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16-17). When Paul wrote this to

Timothy, he was referring, not to the New Testament, but the Old . The Old Testament

was the only scripture they had at that time. The New Testament canon was not formed

until 400 A.D.

Disqualified through Profanity

Esau is the prime example in scripture of those who sell their birthrights. Hebrews 12:16

tells us, “Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of

food sold his birthright.” He was termed profane. To be profane means to be irreverent,

disrespectful, and impious. It means to treat sacred things lightly and without care. Esau

despised his birthright by trading it for a bowl of lentils when he was hungry, Gen.25:29-

34. Esau lacked long-range vision, living only for the moment and his present appetites.

God saw what kind of heart he had, even before he was born. Therefore God declared

even before birth, “the elder shall serve the younger,” Gen.25:23. God determined to give

the birthright to Jacob because Esau treated it with such disdain. Esau had no fear of

coming short of the purposes of God for his life, Heb.4:1. Later, when he saw what he

had lost, he wanted it back with tears and wailing, but it could not be regained,

Heb.12:17. He had made his irrevocable decision to settle for an ordinary portion.

Disqualified through Immorality

We can read how Jacob’s oldest son, Reuben, was disqualified from the firstborn

blessings because he was morally unstable. His father said of him prophetically,

“Unstable as water, you shall not excel,” Gen.49:4. He committed incest with one of his

father’s wives, Gen.35:22. After that his father did not trust him. Therefore, Jacob took

the birthright away from Reuben and transferred it to Joseph, 1 Chron.5:1-2. Immorality

and incest makes a man unstable and untrustworthy, and it is possible to lose the

birthright because of this. We must cry out to God to cleanse our hearts of lust and vile

affections, or we could end up surrendering our crown.

Impatience, Rebellion, and Idolatry

“Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the

people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods that shall go

before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we

do not know what has become of him” Exodus 32:1

In Exodus chapter 32 we read about the loss of the birthright blessing by a whole nation.

It was given to the tribe of Levi instead. Things were just not happening fast enough for

Israel. They were in a dry, boring wilderness. Moses had been gone for weeks and God

was silent. They missed the “good times” back in worldly Egypt. The delay was

engineered by God to test the people. The Lord wanted to see what their motive was for

serving Him. Were they serving God for the excitement, the miracles and provision? Or

were they serving God simply because He is worthy, and because they loved Him? The

Israelites gave God His answer when they made a new god after only forty days!

Some lose their birthrights because of hastiness. The test of time is one of the greatest

evidences of our commitment to God. Many grow impatient and compromise the truth,

such as in choosing a wrong marriage partner, or in rejecting their life-long vow and

commitment to their mate. How important it is to be obedient on the question of marriage

in order to preserve for ourselves the right of the firstborn.

Remember, it was essentially the Levites (those with the birthright and double portion)

who ascended Mount Zion in David’s time. Those who met the qualifications for being

on Zion’s hill were mainly Levites, Psa.15:1-5, 24:3-5, 1 Chron.16:1-6. The summit of

Mount Zion is for the “Church of the firstborn ones,” Heb.12:22-23.

There are still certain ones among God’s people whom God selects to be firstborn

ones among their brethren. These shall have a double inheritance, a double

anointing, and also a double responsibility to look after their younger brothers and

sisters in Christ. Will you or I be a firstborn? Will we qualify to become leaders

with these blessings and responsibilities? By God’s grace, let us each press on

towards the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ!

-article by DR. PAUL CARAM. He is an international lecturer and author, whose

publications are used in over 50 countries of the world. Dr. Caram and his wife Betsy

have pastored in Ulysses, Pa. for 15 years. This article was condensed from his book,

"Job: Turning the Curse into a Blessing"