Ok...follow up to my original question about Esau and Jacob?

Question

I read the links and the actual bible verses (most of Genesis, actually). Here's what I came up with:
Esau was a hard worker. Jacob helped his mom around the house. Esau had such a rough day one day, that he thought he might die, and he asked his brother for some food. Jacob held the food for ransom. Esau, thinking he might die without some food, said ok. Brothers being what they are, he maybe thought his brother was being a jerk, but wasn't really going to try to take his birthright....he was wrong.
Then, with the blessing...it was a blessing specifically for ESAU. Isaac checked several times to make sure it was Esau and not Jacob. When Esau got back, after doing what his father asked, he found out he had been robbed of his blessing too! And it says he cried about it, so he DID care....
Now, someone said the person who told me the story must have been Muslim, because they think Esau was right. (He's a Baptist, btw)
I think Esau got a raw deal: does that make me a Muslim?

Answer 1

Esau was coming home, Im sure he didnt really think he was going to die... no other food around and that was the only meal ever?

Imagine you're a mother, and you gave gave one of your children your engagement ring, and the other child your wedding ring when you were old and dying. One child comes home from work while the other was home all day taking care of you and making dinner. The first child says "let me have some dinner" because they're hungry, the other says "I will for moms engagement ring" The other trades the ring for dinner... which child wanted your ring more? No one said that Jacob was right for tricking his father into giving him the birthright but... it was rightfully his since Esau gave it up for food.

What would have happened if Esau said "yeah right... just give me a bowl of stew"? I dont assume he would have starved to death, might possibly have to fight for the food but he just gave the birthright away with no problem.

Answer 2

Mira,
"I think Esau got a raw deal: does that make me a Muslim?"
I think that you are a muslim if you believe that the Quaran is true.

Esau was idle with his words at the very least. I think that if it's true, God counted it when Esau said it.

But don't be too hard on Jacob. His mom put him up to it. If Jacob was bad, his mom was twice as bad. And don't get me started on Jacob's uncle! His uncle was the worst.

But why all the concern about that? What's the big deal? God worked it out. All the tribes of Israel were born through him.

And the concern is interesting when you put muslims to the mix. Jacob was a decendant of Isaac, and Ishmael. The concern vividly puts the birthright promise through Isaac, as it should be.

Those muslims tend to get that part mixed up.

Answer 3

The story was written by a Jew Moses actually. He wrote the first 5 books of the Bible. And you are only a Muslim if you believe in their belief system, as is a Christian(etc.). It is a story in the Bible everyone thinks Esau got the short end of the stick...that was the whole point.

Answer 4

Esau despising his birthright has more to do with his lack of respect for the sacredness of his birthright. I think we may be losing something here in the translation but appears to me as if he thought so little of it to begin with that it was something that could be traded for the gratification of the flesh. If he had the respect for what the birthright held for him, I think he could have trusted God enough to supply the lack he experienced in the flesh by praying for God to supply him. However because he was not quite where he should have been in his relationship with the Lord , then obviously he would also have little regard for all things sacred and that would include his birthright. My opinion, but it seems like the only way to make sense of this story for me.

Answer 5

It does not make you a Muslim for believing Esau was right. Jacob was the thief, but he was also in the line of the promise. Esau's lineage died out. Ishmael, Abraham's firstborn was the child who became the patriarch of the Arabs, not Esau. Esau's line was all but wiped out by the children of Israel (Jacob).

Answer 6

There is a metaphor there about how God's firstborn (the Jews) rejected their birthright (by rejecting Jesus) and it was given to gentiles. It was God's plan all along to bring salvation to all through the Jewish people, and He has not turned His back on them because the Bible says that when the full number of gentiles has come in, then the hearts of the Jews will again turn to God.

Answer 7

No, you are not a Muslim. The idea was that something as important as a birthright shouldn't have been sold for a bowl of lentils. Chances are he wouldn't have died if he hadn't gotten the food, so to gamble his birthright for it was unwise.Some people fast for thirty days and don't die, he hadn't gone nearly that long.

Answer 8

I didn't see your first question, but the problem with Esau was that he would eventually beget a blood line of descendents (the Edomites) who would oppose Israel and align themselves with the enemies of Israel.

God, of course, knew all of this in advance, so he allowed Jacob to obtain Esau's birthrite and made it possible for Jacob to eventually found the nation of Israel.

Here's a passage from Psalms where this is detailed:

Psa 83:1 A canticle of a psalm for Asaph. (83:2) O God, who shall be like to thee? hold not thy peace, neither be thou still, O God.
Psa 83:2 (83:3) For lo, thy enemies have made a noise: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head.
Psa 83:3 (83:4) They have taken a malicious counsel against thy people, and have consulted against thy saints.
Psa 83:4 (83:5) They have said: Come and let us destroy them, so that they be not a nation: and let the name of Israel be remembered no more.
Psa 83:5 (83:6) For they have contrived with one consent: they have made a covenant together against thee,

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Psa 83:6 (83:7) The tabernacle of the EDOMITES (descendents of Esau) and the Ishmahelites:
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Moab, and the Agarens,
Psa 83:7 (83:8) Gebal, and Ammon and Amalec: the Philistines, with the inhabitants of Tyre.
Psa 83:8 (83:9) Yea, and the Assyrian also is joined with them: they are come to the aid of the sons of Lot.
Psa 83:9 (83:10) Do to them as thou didst to Madian and to Sisara: as to Jabin at the brook of Cisson.
Psa 83:10 (83:11) Who perished at Endor: and became as dung for the earth.
Psa 83:11 (83:12) Make their princes like Oreb, and Zeb, and Zebee, and Salmana. All their princes,
Psa 83:12 (83:13) Who have said: Let us possess the sanctuary of God for an inheritance.
Psa 83:13 (83:14) O my God, make them like a wheel; and as stubble before the wind.
Psa 83:14 (83:15) As fire which burneth the wood: and as a flame burning mountains:
Psa 83:15 (83:16) So shalt thou pursue them with thy tempest: and shalt trouble them in thy wrath.
Psa 83:16 (83:17) Fill their faces with shame; and they shall seek thy name, O Lord.
Psa 83:17 (83:18) Let them be ashamed and troubled for ever and ever: and let them be confounded and perish.
Psa 83:18 (83:19) And let them know that the Lord is thy name: thou alone art the most High over all the earth.

I hope this helps.

Answer 9

This commentary may shed some light on this incident:

Gen_25:29-34
A characteristic incident in their early life is attended with very important consequences. “Jacob sod pottage.” He has become a sage in the practical comforts of life. Esau leaves the field for the tent, exhausted with fatigue. The sight and smell of Jacob’s savory dish of lentile soup are very tempting to a hungry man. “Let me feed now on that red, red broth.” He does not know how to name it. The lentile is common in the country, and forms a cheap and palatable dish of a reddish brown color, with which bread seems to have been eaten. The two brothers were not congenial. They would therefore act each independently of the other, and provide each for himself. Esau was no doubt occasionally rude and hasty. Hence, a selfish habit would grow up and gather strength. He was probably accustomed to supply himself with such fare as suited his palate, and might have done so on this occasion without any delay. But the free flavor and high color of the mess, which Jacob was preparing for himself, takes his fancy, and nothing will do but the red red. Jacob obviously regarded this as a rude and selfish intrusion on his privacy and property, in keeping with similar encounters that may have taken place between the brothers.
It is here added, “therefore was his name called Edom,” that is, “Red.” The origin of surnames, or second names for the same person or place, is a matter of some moment in the fair interpretation of an ancient document. It is sometimes hastily assumed that the same name can only owe its application to one occasion; and hence a record of a second occasion on which it was applied is regarded as a discrepancy. But the error lies in the interpreter, not in the author. The propriety of a particular name may be marked by two or more totally different circumstances, and its application renewed on each of these occasions. Even an imaginary cause may be assigned for a name, and may serve to originate or renew its application. The two brothers now before us afford very striking illustrations of the general principle. It is pretty certain that Esau would receive the secondary name of Edom, which ultimately became primary in point of use, from the red complexion of skin, even from his birth. But the exclamation “that red red,” uttered on the occasion of a very important crisis in his history, renewed the name, and perhaps tended to make it take the place of Esau in the history of his race. Jacob, too, the holder of the heel, received this name from a circumstance occurring at his birth. But the buying of the birthright and the gaining of the blessing, were two occasions in his subsequent life on which he merited the title of the supplanter or the holder by the heel Gen_27:36. These instances prepare us to expect other examples of the same name being applied to the same object, for different reasons on different occasions.
“Sell me this day thy birthright.” This brings to light a new cause of variance between the brothers. Jacob was no doubt aware of the prediction communicated to his mother, that the older should serve the younger. A quiet man like him would not otherwise have thought of reversing the order of nature and custom. In after times the right of primogeniture consisted in a double portion of the father’s goods Deu_21:17, and a certain rank as the patriarch and priest of the house on the death of the father. But in the case of Isaac there was the far higher dignity of chief of the chosen family and heir of the promised blessing, with all the immediate and ultimate temporal and eternal benefits therein included. Knowing all this, Jacob is willing to purchase the birthright, as the most peaceful way of bringing about that supremacy which was destined for him. He is therefore cautious and prudent, even conciliating in his proposal.
He availed himself of a weak moment to accomplish by consent what was to come. Yet he lays no necessity on Esau, but leaves him to his own free choice. We must therefore beware of blaming him for endeavoring to win his brother’s concurrence in a thing that was already settled in the purpose of God. His chief error lay in attempting to anticipate the arrangements of Providence. Esau is strangely ready to dispose of his birthright for a trivial present gratification. He might have obtained other means of recruiting nature equally suitable, but he will sacrifice anything for the desire of the moment. Any higher import of the right he was prepared to sell so cheap seems to have escaped his view, if it had ever occurred to his mind. Jacob, however, is deeply in earnest. He will bring this matter within the range of heavenly influence. He will have God solemnly invoked as a witness of the transfer. Even this does not startle Esau. There is not a word about the price. It is plain that Esau’s thoughts were altogether on “the morsel of meat.” He swears unto Jacob. He then ate and drank, and rose up and went his way, as the sacred writer graphically describes his reckless course. Most truly did he despise his birthright. His mind did not rise to higher or further things. Such was the boyhood of these wondrous twins.

Answer 10

Not at all. I think any decent person has to wonder why this was allowed or is moral.
In judaism, there is much discussion about it. Not a simple topic at all.
cheerio