Hello Steemians,
Birth right like most people would call it is the right of ownership of a future inheritance accrued to a child of the fathers possession by default from birth.
This word denotes the special privileges and advantages belonging to the first-born son among the Jews. He became the priest of the family. Thus Reuben was the first-born of the patriarchs, and so the priesthood of the tribes belonged to him. That honour was, however, transferred by God from Reuben to Levi ( Numbers 3:12 Numbers 3:13 ; 8:18 ).
A lot of people who does not really understand what birthright stands for, tends to devalue it and ends up loosing it completely. This was the case of Esau in the Old Testament, when he sold his birthright to his junior brother Jacob over a pouradge of yam.
Esau was born into a situation with great blessings. He wasn’t born into a pagan home, where his parents worshipped idols and abused him. He was the son of Isaac and Rebekah, grandson of Abraham, the friend of God. No doubt, during the first 15 years of Esau’s life, while Abraham was alive, his grandfather had taught him about God and His covenant promises. Surely that teaching had been reinforced by Isaac and Rebekah. Esau had great spiritual privileges. But he threw them away because he didn’t appreciate them.
Now, the big question is this, what actually did Jacob take away from Esau as birthright?
Because Esau devalued his birthright and possibly because their father isaac wasn't a very rich man therefore, what's there to inherit? Could have been part of the negative motivations that might have propelled him into falling prey of selling over his birthright to his younger brother neglecting the fact that no matter the rich or poor status of a father, he will always have and inheritance that will go to the first son as inheritance.
In the case of Isaac, the only asset of inheritance which he had as Esau's birthright was his final blessings. Now, someone would be tempted to ask, how did Jacob know that the final blessings of there father as Esau's birthright was worth more than the pot of porridge yam which he offered to Esau?
I tag that to be wisdom to understand value.
What if their Father Isaac had finally ended up pouring the blessings on the rightful owner Esau, after trading the pot of porridge yam for Esau's birthright?
Wouldn't it had mean a total loss for Jacob?
Here, you will come to agree with me that God honours agreement because that would have simply mean Esau eating his cake and having it back.
While people call it deceit, i call it wisdom.
You see, while Esau value the tangeable which was the food to quench hunger, Jacob valuabled the intangeable which was the blessings birthright.
While Esau was satisfied on a short term run, Esau got satisfied on a long term run.
To make answer to that question clear, Esau had exchanged the fatherhood of almighty Israel for a pot of porridge yam. Now it's pertinent to say that Jacob after taking Esau's birthright, God allowed the blessings to manifest in million folds thereby making Jacob the father of the great nation of the 12 tribes of Israel.
Who could have endure the level of pain in such cheap loss?
Value!!!
While some say that Jacob stole the blessings of Esau, i myself say that Jacob assumed what was rightfully his because the original owner of the birthright already made his decision and had sold it because he never valued it.
This take me to the question of, who amongst the two has the criminal minded the most?
Ideologically say, Esau had the criminal mind the most because what Jacob had gotten was a fulfilment of the trade he made with his brother and it was recorded in the scriptures that, Esau already made plans behind the back of Jacob to still take the birthright whichvhe already sold and when came back and saw that his birthright was already gone to his brother, was angry and wanted to kill him.
Now, the essence of this story reminds us of the need to acknowledge value as these three important lessons can be attributed to it.
(1) You can lose great blessings if you do not appreciate them.
(2) Small choices can have drastic consequences.
(3) It’s easy to grab for the right things for the wrong reasons and in the wrong way.
Thanks for your time and reading
See Ya Soon
