Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” (That is why he was also called Edom.) Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.” “Look, I’m about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?” But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he (Esau) swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob. --Genesis: 25:29-34
 
     When we read Jacob and Esau’s story in the Old Testament, we find deceit and greed in almost every part of their early lives. Jacob, who would later be blessed by God, tempted Esau this time and then stole his father’s blessing intended for Esau another time; hardly character worth emulating. Indeed, Esau seems at best to be impetuous, and at worst, dull-headed.
 
     But notice what happens in this passage. Esau, whose birthright could not be challenged, sells that which was significant to satisfy his immediate, short-term need. Ignoring Jacob for the moment (we'll look at him in next week’s devotion), focus on the error of Esau in this encounter. Were there no other ways he could satisfy this hunger he expresses so vividly in the passage?
 
     Before you snicker at Esau’s shortsightedness, are there any parallels in your own life?
 
     Many of us complain our jobs demand so much of us that we're forced to sacrifice our family life to meet those demands. Certainly in today’s marketplace--where shareholder return often trumps employee morale and job security--the pressures of work are great. But who are we serving when we yield to those demands? Rather than resisting, or discovering alternate ways to meet the short-term demands, or even refusing to do so in some cases, are we simply acquiescing?
 
     It’s not only in the conflicts between work and family that we sell the greater to satisfy the lesser. When pressed to do something we know is questionable at work, we can be heavily influenced by the penalties of taking a stand. When our work output isn’t monitored, we can be lax in the level of effort we render to our employers, rationalizing it as “balancing the scales” for the times they “demand too much of us”. (Do two wrongs really make a right?)
 
     We hear later in the Bible that God loved Jacob and despised Esau, and we're often puzzled by this thought. Yet in this passage Esau demonstrates vividly where he places value. In pursuit of immediate gratification, he devalued that which had immense value.
 
     Each day, those things of greater value—family, integrity, competency, quality—may be challenged in our own work lives. We must prepare ourselves for those moments ahead of time, so the choices we make reflect our commitment to the greater over the lesser, no matter the urgency of the temptation or pressure looming before us.