The Esau Nation

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[Audio] Our Esau Nation

The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents. Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob. Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.” “Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?” But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright. -Genesis 25:27-34

Many Biblical stories are trotted out as being directly relevant to us in the present day. The parable of the Good Samaritan is routinely used by the left as a justification for letting the Third World pour into America and pilfer our welfare programs; incorrectly, it turns out, for the reasons identified by Johann Kurtz in Leaving a Legacy. On the other side, the tale of Sodom and Gomorrah is routinely cited by conservatives as why we ought repress degeneracy, particularly of the sexual sort; Slouching Towards Gomorrah by Robert Bork is representative of the argument. Back and forth the hurled tales go, forever. “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”, the camel trying to fit through the eye of the needle, the ethnic cleansing of the Canaanites…many stories seem relevant, or at least needing to be addressed.

One is often left out, however. That is the story of Esau, which is often ignored despite the fact that it seems to best symbolize how America came to its present predicament, and the spirit that led us here.

After all, who was Esau? He isn’t described as being cruel, wicked, or black-hearted, Nor is he described as being base or cowardly. Unfortunately for him, avoiding such sins wasn’t enough to save his birthright; his fecklessness cost him everything.

As a firstborn son, he was to be the heir of Isaac and, through him, God’s people. He was to be the progenitor not just of the Israelite nation, but of the line that culminated in Jesus. Such was his right by birth.

But then his fecklessness cost him that. Returning from a hunt with the pangs of hunger stabbing into his stomach, he let its wants guide him. He let his appetites devour his birthright, his chance at having a great and honorable progeny. And so, exaggerating his needs—hunger woes that had to be satisfied—as he did so, he fecklessly traded all that could have been his for a bowl of mush. Some lentils were deemed more meaningful than all that could have been his, so he handed over that eternal inheritance for a bowl of soup because he overestimated his needs.

Such cannot help but come to mind in the grey and dreary present.