An inheritance is a birthright, something promised to an individual for simply being born. Just like there is a natural inheritance through birth; there is also a spiritual inheritance through Christ communicated to us as believers through God’s word.
Jacob and Esau we’re sons of Abraham. Abraham was a man rich and favored of God because of his faith. Esau was the heir through birthright to inherit the blessings from his father as the first-born. However, because Esau became faint, he allowed himself to be deceived out of his birthright.
And the story goes as such:
“29And 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 (Genesis 25:29-34, KJV).”
To be faint means to be exhausted or weary. Too many singles have become exhausted and weary in waiting on the Lord doing everything in their power to live a life pleasing and productive unto the Lord, yet have become weary for not having their inheritance or promises from God come to pass yet.
However, that place of fainting can be a very monumental place. It’s in those places of fainting, and discouragement that Satan comes to cause us to despise what we already have in Christ, to lose faith on what we will have in the right time and season, and to give up on our inheritance in Christ altogether like Esau.
The Bible says in Galatians 6:9 not to faint in well-doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. Esau had fainted to the point of saying to himself that he was at the point of death. He didn’t think to himself that he was the grandson of Abraham, the very rich man who had a covenant promise from God. The man to which when he died gave all that he had to his son of birthright Issac (Genesis 25:5). Esau was actually next in line to receive the blessing and the inheritance of the first-born.
In that moment of fainting or weariness, it seems like a legitimate thing to despise what he has already through birthright for what he felt he needed, but when you really look at it, it doesn’t add up. With his family being rich and by being connected to his father as a blood-heir he could have eaten anything he wanted. There is nothing that his father would have held back from him.
Similarly, there is nothing that God our heavenly father will hold back from those of us who live out our lives for him. The Bible says that those that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.i It says no good thing will I with-hold from those who walk upright before me. ii We are God’s children. God owns everything and has the power to do anything, but it will happen in his time and season.
If we like Esau walk in our flesh and begin to despise what we have in Christ and began to sow to the flesh, then we will like Esau reap fleshly things frustration, regret, having to deal with the consequences of our decision.
“For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.” Hebrews 12:17
“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” Galatians 6:7-9
If we decide to place our value on the things that God values like Jacob, and sow to the things of the Spirit, then we will reap spiritual things all the way to our inheritance in Christ whatever our inheritance in Christ may be.
iThe lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing. Psalms 34:10 (NIV)
iiFor the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. Psalms 84:11 (KJV)
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