Victim or Villain?

A series on the story of redemption – Part II
The story of Esau
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Genesis 25:19-34;27:1-40 

[Everybody has a story. Even God has one. His is a story about love and redemption and faithfulness. In this series we are going to take a closer look at God’s story through the lives of the people that He touched. How their story became His story of redemption. And how your story is also a part of it.]

  

Have you ever been a victim? It’s happened to my wife and me a couple of times when someone broke into our home. There’s nothing worse than the feeling you get to pull into your driveway and see a stranger in your upstairs bedroom window.

 

As a victim you feel violated and helpless. You feel like someone has taken advantage of you; like you’ve been used. You want to retaliate; to make them pay; to exact justice. An eye for an eye.

 

At first blush, Esau appears to be the villain in his story. After all, he’s impulsive and vindictive. This led him to vow to kill his brother Jacob after their father died. It also resulted in him marrying a Canaanite woman who was the daughter of Isaac’s stepsibling rival, just to spite his parents.

 

But it’s also possible that Esau could be the victim. After all, when he was at his most vulnerable point of being tired and hungry, Jacob took full advantage of him by trading a bowl of stew for his birthright. Later, his mother orchestrated a plan to steal Isaac’s blessing from Esau. Who could blame Esau for reacting the way he did.

 

Victim or villain? 

You could probably argue both labels for Esau. However, Scripture casts him as a villain. In Malachi, the Lord clearly said that he rejected Esau and that his descendants were a wicked people. To confirm this, the prophecy of Obadiah is all about the judgement of Edom, the descendants of Esau.

 

So… what made Esau the villain?

 

In the ancient Near East, a birthright was the legal and social standard for an inheritance. In Hebrew law, the firstborn son actually received a double portion of inheritance and would assume leadership of the family – money and power.

 

For Esau’s family, the birthright also included the covenant of the God of Abraham and Isaac. This meant being the beneficiary of the promise of having countless descendants and the Promised Land. Primarily though, it was about redemption and relationship with God. By rejecting his birthright, Esau was rejecting God.

 

The author of Hebrews encouraged believers to be holy, to watch after each other and to “See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many”. Then he gave this warning.

 

¹⁶ Make sure that no one is immoral or godless like Esau, who traded his birthright as the firstborn son for a single meal. ¹⁷ You know that afterward, when he wanted his father’s blessing, he was rejected. It was too late for repentance, even though he begged with bitter tears.   Hebrews 12   NLT

 

Like Esau, we have a birthright. But unlike Esau, it can’t be traded.

 

²⁹ And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.            Galatians 3   NLT

 

Copyright 2024 Joseph B Williams

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