Esau did not consider his birthright as valuable as his physical appetite. Jacob bought the birthright for a bowl of soup. Download Free PowerPoint at www.Bibleguy.org

1. The World’s
most expensive
Soup
Genesis 25:19-34

3. The World’s most expensive soup
• Served at Kai, a
restaurant in London
• Cost: $214 a bowl
• Called: “Buddha Jumps
over the Wall.”
• Contents: abalone, quail
eggs, shark fin, scallops,
ginseng and gold
• But it’s not the world’s
most expensive soup

4. The World’s most
expensive soup
• was served about 4,000 years ago.
• was made of lintels and was red in color.
• wasn’t served in a restaurant and had nothing
expensive in it.
• But it changed the course of history.
• Was bought by a buyer with a weakness.
• Was sold by a shrewd brother that took
advantage of his brother’s weakness.

5. What was this brother’s weakness
His desire to satisfy his appetite now
without considering the cost.
Esau was a “child of the now”.

6. The danger of wanting it now…
The world (children of the now) wants
everything now.
– “We have instant coffee, instant breakfasts, instant
soup, instant oatmeal, instant pudding, and
microwave popcorn. We also have instamatic
cameras, cable Internet and e-mail, universal cell
phone coverage, cable TV, iPods, DVDs, Play Stations,
and Palm Pilots. We have become conditioned to “fast
food,” “Quick-Print,” and “Express Mail.”” (Keith Krell,
“Born to be Wild” sermon from bible.org)
– Add to this the desire for instant success, instant
health, instant good looks, instant spirituality, ….

7. Our World is all about the Now
Why Wait when you can get it now.
• Buy your dream house now…
• Get it on credit. Get it now, pay later.
• Rent to own
• Hunt big game now and easy
• Sex now (not after marriage)
The world profits off of immediate self-gratification.
But, getting it now cost so much tomorrow.

8. Abraham had many children of the
now but only one child of Promise
• Abraham’s Children of the now
– Ishmael had 12 sons
– Keturah had six sons
– The Child of Promise waits.
What was going on in the heart of Isaac and
Abraham? It was through Isaac that promises
would be passed, but they were surrounded
by everyone else's kids, children of the now.
The children of the now had so much.

9. Children of promise must learn not to be
Children of the now – Wait on God.
Our time is not God’s time.
He works His Will, in His Time and in His Way.
In the context surrounding Genesis 25,
Abraham had learned to wait,
Isaac is learning to wait,
and Jacob will learn to wait.

10. Isaac waited for the right wife
Genesis 2519 This is the
account of Isaac, the son
of Abraham. Abraham
became the father of
Isaac. 20 When Isaac was
forty years old, he
married Rebekah, the
daughter of Bethuel the
Aramean from Paddan
Aram and sister of Laban
the Aramean.
• She had to be from the
family of Abraham.
• She had to come from the
land of Abraham.
• He had to wait until he
was 40 years old to find
miss right.

11. Isaac had to wait to have
children
21 Isaac prayed to the LORD
on behalf of his wife
because she was
childless. The LORD
answered his prayer,
and his wife Rebekah
became pregnant.
• Rebekah, like Sarah,
was barren.
• Unlike his father, Isaac
didn’t go to a
concubine. He pleaded
with God.
• God answered.
Application: Don’t hurry it, don’t force it,
plead with God for it, and Wait.

12. …only to see his wife in pain
22 But the children struggled
inside her, and she said, “If
it is going to be like this, I’m
not so sure I want to be
pregnant!” So she asked the
LORD, 23 and the LORD said to
her, “Two nations are in
your womb, and two
peoples will be separated
from within you. One
people will be stronger than
the other, and the older will
serve the younger.”
• She had twice the blessing,
but twice the pain.
• They fought, even in the
womb.
• Like Isaac, she went to the
Lord.
• God answered:
– Two nations and separate
people.
– One people will be stronger.
– The older will serve the
younger. God reverses the
natural order.

13. They waited nine months…
24 When the time came for
Rebekah to give birth,
there were twins in her
womb. 25 The first came
out reddish all over, like
a hairy garment, so they
named him Esau.
• “The time came” – it
always comes in God’s
time.
• The firstborn was red
and covered with hair.
• Esau means hairy.

14. They waited for the second
26 When his brother came
out with his hand
clutching Esau’s heel, they
named him Jacob. Isaac
was sixty years old when
they were born.
• The second son held to
the older child’s heel.
• The name Jacob (ya‘ăqōḇ,
meaning “may He [God]
protect”) was selected
because of its connection
in sound and sense to the
noun “heel” (‘āqēḇ) or “to
watch from behind”.
• Isaac was married 20
years before their birth.

15. Different sons, different natures
27 When the boys grew up,
Esau became a skilled
hunter, a man of the open
fields, but Jacob was an
even-tempered man,
living in tents. 28 Isaac
loved Esau because he
had a taste for fresh
game, but Rebekah loved
Jacob.
• Esau was
– Hunter - hb. Sayid
– Fields
• Jacob was
– Even-tempered (quite,
peaceful, perfect,
blameless, complete)
– Living in tents
• Jacob’s love conditional
• Rebekah loved with an
ongoing love
Natural tensions caused by their temperaments,
likes, natures.
Tensions caused by parental favoritism and divided
affections.

16. The calm one becomes the hunter and
the hunter the hunted
29 Now Jacob cooked
some stew, and when
Esau came in from the
open fields, he was
famished. 30 So Esau
said to Jacob, “Feed me
some of the red stuff –
yes, this red stuff –
because I’m starving!”
(That is why he was also
called Edom.)
• One day he was
cooking (lit., “boiling,”
wayyāzeḏ) some stew
(“vegetable soup,”
nāzîḏ; v. 29) The words
play off of the word for
hunter – hb. sayid
Jacob is hunting the
hunter.
• Esau takes the bait.

17. Child of Promise vs. Child of the Now
31 But Jacob replied, “First
sell me your birthright.”
32 “Look,” said Esau,
“I’m about to die! What
use is the birthright to
me?” 33 But Jacob said,
“Swear an oath to me
now.” So Esau swore an
oath to him and sold his
birthright to Jacob.
• Jacob’s request has
been thought out, he
wants the promise.
• Esau trivializes the
promise
– Promise means nothing
in the presence of a
hungry man. Feed me.
– He sold the promise for
a bowl of stew.

18. The Moment is good, but …
34 Then Jacob gave Esau
some bread and lentil
stew; Esau ate and drank,
then got up and went out.
So Esau despised his
birthright.
• Jacob gave Esau what he
really wanted.
• The Child of the now lives
in the moment and will
trade it for the future:
– He ate, he drank, he got up
and he went out.
• His actions demonstrated
he wasn’t worthy of the
promise.

19. Children of the Now
• Want things that satisfy present desires and
loose out on the future blessings.
– Adam and Eve chose a peace of fruit over eternal
life.
– Cain, in a moment of anger, forfeited his
inheritance.
– Reuben (later in Genesis) will loose his
preeminence by sleeping with his father’s
concubine.

20. The Children of Promise
• Give up the morsels of the moment to gain
the riches of the future.
• They put the promise of God above all that
the present world can offer.
Jim Elliott said it well,
“He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep
to gain what he cannot loose.”

21. As a Child of the Promise
• Don’t trade the Promise of God for a bowl of
soup.
• Put God’s Promise above all your earthly
desires.

22. Matthew 6:19–21
19 “Do not accumulate for yourselves treasures
on earth, where moth and rust destroy and
where thieves break in and steal. 20 But
accumulate for yourselves treasures in
heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy,
and thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For
where your treasure is, there your heart will
be also.