Many years ago there were twin boys born, named Jacob and Esau, the children of Isaac and Rebekah.  Like their father, Isaac, and their grandfather Abraham, these boys were very important in the sight of God, because He had promised such wonderful things concerning Abraham's family.

The twin boys did not look alike and Esau was covered with red hair.  He was totally different from Jacob, who didn't have any hair on his body.  As Esau grew up he spent a most of his time hunting, and Isaac loved Esau very much.

Jacob however, lived a quieter life living in tents.  He was probably a farmer and raised sheep and cattle.  Jacob's mother loved him more than Esau, and God had revealed that Jacob was to be the one whom He would especially bless.  God loved Jacob because he believed that God's promises would come true.

This was the wonderful promise that God had made to Jacob's grandfather, Abraham, and to his father, Isaac.  This was very dear to Jacob, and he wanted to do everything he could so that that promise would belong to him.  In the Bible this promise is called the "birthright."

Esau thought the birthright belonged to him because he was born first and therefore was the older of the two.  But God had explained to their mother that he wanted Jacob to be the real heir of the promise.  No doubt Jacob's mother had told him all about this, and what God had said to her, so he was watching for an opportunity to secure the birthright as God desired.

One day when Esau had been hunting, he came home empty handed and very hungry.  Jacob had stayed at home and had cooked a delicious meal of what the Bible calls "pottage."  So when Esau came in from hunting, he asked Jacob for a meal of his tasty pottage.  Jacob told Esau he could have it if he would give him the promised birthright.

To Esau this seemed a very good bargain as he was hungry and a good meal was much more important to him than any promises God had made.  So he agreed to sell the birthright to Jacob!  However, Esau made a great mistake and would later regret it.

Years after this, when Isaac was very old, he wanted to give his blessing to the boy to whom the birthright belonged.  Fathers don't do things like that today, but they did when Abraham and Isaac and Jacob lived.  It was then the custom, when a father became very old, to call his family together and give them his blessing and remind them of the promises God had made to him and to his children.  When a blessing was given to a child by his father it could not be changed.

Isaac did not know that Esau had sold his birthright to Jacob, so he asked Esau to go out into the fields and kill him a wild animal for supper.   He told Esau that he wished to bestow his blessing upon him before he died.

In the meanwhile, Rebekah heard Isaac telling this to Esau, so she quickly called Jacob so that he could obtain the blessing from his father before Esau returned from hunting.  She told Jacob to kill a young goat and she would prepare it in a tasty way like his father loved.  Isaac was now very old and blind, and so he wasn't able to see whether it was Esau or Jacob who brought him his supper.

To make Jacob smell and feel like Esau, Rebekah dressed him in Esau's best clothes and tied some goatskins on the back of his hands.  And then Jacob carried the food to his father.

When Isaac heard Jacob's voice he asked which son had come to him.  Jacob lied and said that he was Esau.  But, when Isaac felt that Jacob's hands were hairy, Isaac was sure that it really was Esau, so he gave him the blessing.  In this way Jacob received the birthright from his father which he had bought from Esau.

From that day on, all the promises that God had made to Jacob's grandfather, Abraham, and to his father, Isaac, belonged to him!  Now he was to be the one whom God would use in His wonderful plan to make His promises come true!

Of course Esau was sorry later for what he had done, but having sold his birthright for the meal of pottage, it was too late to do anything about it!  It now belonged to Jacob, not only because God wanted him to have it, but also because he had bought it from Esau.  And Jacob appreciated it, because he believed the promises of God.

This is true today boys and girls, that whatever God has promised to us is much more important than getting something to eat when we are hungry, or satisfying any other craving that we may have.  So make sure you learn to obey God's Word, and seek to serve Him in all you do.  And then you can be sure that you will receive God's promises and His richest blessing will rest on you and follow you all the days of your life!

God bless.