33 But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob.
Right in the middle of Jacob manipulating his brother so that he could steal his birthright, there is integrity at work. Esau takes an oath to sell his birthright to Jacob. This is a verbal agreement, and as far as we know, there are only the two of them in the room. There are no witnesses. Esau could easily deny it in the future. But this shows a great contrast between the character of Esau and that of Jacob. At this moment Esau is demonstrating more strength of character than Jacob. The birthright was extremely valuable in those days. The firstborn son got twice as much of the inheritance than the other sons. Esau is hungry and tired and Jacob takes advantage of this situation. Esau is apparently so focused on his physical need at this point, all other considerations are put on the backburner. So the price of this stew is very high. Today it might be like someone trading their 40 room mansion for a Big Mac. I doubt Esau would die if he waited a few more minutes for nourishment. He is just in such a hurry and he values his inheritance so little, that he is willing to give it up for such a small price. The politicians who have been in the news lately concerning their affairs have made a similar transaction. They have traded their wives, families, reputation, and career for a few minutes of elicit pleasure. The cost of these rendezvous probably was only considered for a moment before the acts were committed. Each of them probably rationalized their behavior. Each probably thought they could get away with it and not get caught. So the cost to them was so small that they entered into the bargain. And then as they got away with it the first time, they thought they beat the system, so they continued. If the first phone call had been discovered, the consequences would have been relatively small. But since they escaped notice, they continued down the path. One of the lessons we can learn from Esau is that we must consider the cost of our actions and pay attention to what we find. We can also learn to intervene early when we suspect something is going on. Early is better. Jacob valued his brother so little that he was willing to manipulate him in order to get what he wanted. If we are the Jacobs of the world, we need to look out for the interests of the other person and not be so concerned with our interests.
The Arnold Journey 