Lentil Soup For Your Soul: Fair Trade?

The account of Jacob and Esau in Genesis 25 reminds us of a problem that we cannot blame entirely on the influence of a surrounding ungodly culture—although many in our culture have used our common problem for their profit.  The malady I am speaking is the all too popular “I-want-it-NOW! Syndrome.  The underlying character flaw might be described in secular terms as “shortsightedness”; its deeper theological spinoff is the temptation to trade the eternal for the temporal—to satisfy desires immediately without due consideration of the long-term implications.

In the Genesis account Esau returns from working the fields (backbreaking labor to be sure!  [side note:  Anyone who thinks agricultural labor is for whimps needs to meet my nephew David Schambach—truly a He-Man’s He-Man on the order of Hercules]  Esau is exhausted and famished, so he demands some of the soup that Jacob had made.  Now had Jacob been in a Christ-like mood, not only would he have unhesitatingly given him the soup with no strings attached (consider the difficulty of attaching strings to soup anyway), he also would have offered to cook him a steak and bake him a pie!  Interestingly, the pre-converted Jacob follows a “what’s-in-this-for-me?” track and offers to trade the soup for Esau’s birthright inheritance.  Esau, of course, caves in.

Daily we all face multiple decisions in which we are tempted to exchange the eternal for the temporal.  Jesus, our quintessential life-example, the author and perfecter of faith, faced (and overcame!!) the same temptation.  He could have amassed an uncountable number of followers—even worshipers—if he had chosen to operate from a position of power, if he had chosen to use all the prerogatives of deity at his disposal.  Flashy displays of his power would have had everyone—even kings and emperors—marching behind him in orderly fashion.  But this is manipulation and coercion; it is not the freely-offered love and loyal obedience that our Heavenly Father desires.  Jesus chose a better way:  Loving self-sacrifice.  This is the seed that produces the spiritual fruit for an eternal garden.  It is the only fruit that lasts!