Where It All Went Wrong

Isn’t where you thought it was

Whenever you read the story of Jacob and Esau, it is easy to quickly pass by the part of the story most of us are familiar with: Esau giving up his birthright for soup. This mundane act of momentary desperation is what ultimately leads to Jacob being blessed by his father, Isaac; and it leads to the rest of the Old Testament playing out the way that it did.

The real trouble, though, doesn’t seem to be Esau’s want for the soup. Who wouldn’t want something to eat if they were starving? No, the real trouble arose when Esau took the bait laid out by Jacob and made an oath that he would later try to act as though he had never made.

And for all Of Esau’s flaws, this one seems to have been his ultimate downfall, and it is one that can be seen throughout the story of Jacob and Esau.

You see, though he had already made an agreement with his brother, he was still hoping that his father would be the final say and that his previous words to his brother would be null and void. It doesn’t take a theologian to know that in God’s story for the world, that isn’t how things go. Your words matter. If you say something and go back on it, it has consequences for those around you, and yourself. By going against your own words, you slowly deteriorate your own integrity, and ultimately your own mental and emotional well being.

Fast forward to Esau trying to take wives for himself and we see the same problem. He wasn’t content with just one wife, he immediately took two just for good measure. And when things fell out with his parents—especially with his mom Rebekah—he went to Ishmael thinking that marrying one of his daughters will fix everything. Basically, he was running around the desert trying to make vow after vow to fix his previous broken vows, and his words still rang hollow.

And what’s the problem with our words not having meaning? Well, if you go to Matthew 5-33-37 you’ll see Jesus giving a masterclass as to why you shouldn’t make an oath at all unless you know you can totally fulfill it—and most of the time, in most occasions, we can’t. The most important line, in my estimation, is verse 37 where Jesus says that going back on your word is evil. Yikes.

I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes my words mean nothing. Sometimes I tell people I can do things and I end up having to go back on my original promise. Perhaps if I do this one time, and one time only, things will turn out fine. But after a while, people will get tired of me. They’ll lose all trust, and I’ll be left all alone, to fend for myself.

This is where the beauty of the story really begins to emerge. You see, even in spite of our own brokenness, our own evilness, our own depravity, God still cares about us. He not only made us in the first place, but He also continually walks with us daily. When we mess up, He is still there. Because of Jesus, we don’t have to wear the burden that our evil words create.

The good news is that Jesus bore it all for you about 2000 years ago. You don’t have to do anything except for letting your yes be yes. If you tell Him yes, you might be surprised to find how much easier life feels when you no longer wear your own failures.

God still provided for Esau in spite of it all. He gave him a kingdom, a place to live, a family that loved him, and a spot in the story of humanity. Though he made mistake after mistake, running further from God every day, God still met him in the desert, trying to show Esau that what kept him and his people alive all that time wasn’t himself, it was Him.

There is hope for you today no matter what you have done. Jesus became the worst of the worst and already wore the shame that was meant for you so that you could rise victorious and see His father and yours.