By Olubunmi Adebayo
*One of the most weird and strangest negotiations that took place in the Bible is our focus today :*
*A person asking his own brother for food, and the brother replying that he should sell his birthright before he could give out any food to him.*
*The question is what should have prompted this type of response from a brother to his own blood brother?*
*To answer this question, it will be good if we define what negotiation is?*
*Negotiation is a dialogue between two or more persons or parties intended to reach a compromise. In business, it is normal, but in some other instances, especially in the example given above : Esau and Jacob negotiating birthright issues over food is one strange story taken too far.*
*Please read the story in some details :*
*Gen 25: [29] And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint:*
*[30]And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom.*
*[31]And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright.*
*[32]And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me?*
*[33]And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob.*
*[34]Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.*
*This is the first seeming commercial transaction in the Bible where a man sold what cannot be bought – this is where the strangeness started from.*
*You must understand that the two boys were different growing up together :*
*The Bible tells us in Genesis 25:27-28 that the boys were different one from another right from the womb :*
*Esau was a Field Man- A hunter, a bold self-assured man that was into ranging and adventures activities. A man that was loved by their father – Isaac because Isaac loved to ate of his venison. Esau was a man who lives by killing animals this moment and finishing everything here and there the next moment.*
*Jacob on the other hand was a man of the Tent. A man of the dwelling place — Gen 25:27. He was a plain, quiet, complete, calculating and patient man. Curiously, he was loved very dearly by the mother – Rebekah.*
*Though the two brothers came from same womb, grew up under the same father, yet they were carriers of two different values and ethics of life.*
*At this juncture, I will want you to pay attention to the weakness that prompted this strange negotiation – note two verses of our anchor text – 29 and 30 above :*
*”Esau came from the field, and he was faint…and he said feed me, I pray thee…”*
*Esau came from the FIELD — not from the altar of prayers, not from the tent of meditation and reflections. He had been hunting all day and caught nothing – that is the picture of a life of struggle without God.*
*He was FAINT – the Hebrew word is “ayeph”, meaning”exhausted, weary, empty”. This is different from being about to die. He was just hungry. But hunger made him exaggerate his mental and psychological state – “I am at the point to die” as we saw in verse 32.*
*This is how strange negotiation starts — when you are faint.*
*The devil never negotiates with you when you are full, prayed up, fasting loaded, self-assured. He waits until you are faint.*
*To be concluded tomorrow, God willing.*
Do have a blessed time before the Lord today🙏
©️ Olubunmi S Adebayo.
