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
 
     In last week’s devotion, we paid particular attention to Esau’s shortsightedness as a caution against the same thing in our own lives. This week we want to look at Jacob’s role in the passage above. In today’s business terms, one might describe Jacob as using his leverage to get something he wanted. There isn’t any doubt he got the better end of the deal in this immediate transaction. Those who know the rest of the story, however, realize the path it set him on, one which eventually forced him to flee his brother and his home in fear for his life.
 
     It’s easy for us to criticize his actions, but it becomes uncomfortable when we are forced to consider whether our own actions as managers are mimicking Jacob.
 
     For example, it’s not unusual for managers to place greater demands on workers during periods of high unemployment because “where else are they going to go?” Often those demands take the shape of longer hours, or more intense workloads, or less vigilance in quality or ethics. In short, we sense a worker’s need, or fear, and use that need or fear as leverage to get them to commit greater hours to work at the expense of family. Or to work heavier workloads or more intensely at the expense of their health. Or to cut corners in quality or integrity in order to meet schedules.
 
     It’s also not uncommon for companies negotiating contracts to force worker concessions during those periods of employment uncertainty because “the workers get it back from us during the low unemployment times.” While that may be true, who stops the back and forth cycle?
 
     As Christians in positions of authority, we are not always able to prevent workers from being faced with difficult decisions about greater/lesser matters. Where we do have that authority, however, we ought to be diligent ourselves in determining the effects of the demands we place on our employees. Ultimate responsibility for selling his birthright falls on the shoulder of Esau, but Jacob’s role in tempting him, indeed in using the leverage of his “urgent need” to gain what was rightfully not his to take, was no less heinous an act.
 
     We must be ever aware of our roles as Christians, and the effects of our decisions and our actions on the people whom God has placed us in authority over.

 

--Randy Kilgore