The value of telling ourselves "no"

In my daily Bible reading this morning, I read the story in Genesis 25:27-34. It is in that place we are told that Esau came in from the fields famished. His stomach was growling from hunger and Jacob, his brother, was cooking some delicious soup.

 

Here's how the brief encounter played out:

 

One day when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau arrived home from the wilderness exhausted and hungry. Esau said to Jacob, "I’m starved! Give me some of that red stew!" (This is how Esau got his other name, Edom, which means "red.")
"All right," Jacob replied, "but trade me your rights as the firstborn son."
"Look, I’m dying of starvation!" said Esau. "What good is my birthright to me now?"
But Jacob said, "First you must swear that your birthright is mine." So Esau swore an oath, thereby selling all his rights as the firstborn to his brother, Jacob.
Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and lentil stew. Esau ate the meal, then got up and left. He showed contempt for his rights as the firstborn.

 

If we aren't familiar with the "rights of the firstborn," we won't think much of this exchange. Let me tell you some of the things that Esau gave up for a bowl of soup:

• The firstborn son would receive a double portion of the father's estate - twice as much as his siblings.
• He may have become the patriarch over the family clan upon his father's death.
• He would have received the special blessing and affirmation of his father that was far superior to anything his siblings would have heard.

Esau gave all of this up ... for a bowl of soup that was devoured in only a few minutes! This is so animalistic, isn't it? An animal doesn't have a conscience and therefore has not moral compass to tell it what is right or wrong. If it has a craving and an opportunity to satisfy that craving, it does it. When Esau treated his birthright so frivolously for what he immediately craved, we don't see the epitome of manhood. We see the shell of a man who is acting like an animal. He cannot say "no" to his cravings regardless of the ramifications.

While we stand in judgment of Esau's foolishness, I know all too well my own propensity toward such stupidity. I suspect you do, too. What cravings do you know that you should say "No!" to but instead say "yes" and then reap the consequences?

Remember this: One of the many ways that we are set apart from the animal world is our ability to tell ourselves "No!" If we cannot tell ourselves "No!", we're acting just like our pet dog who keeps getting into our garbage no matter what consequences we continually administer. Depend upon God's Holy Spirit inside of you, if you are a believer, to tell yourself "No!" to what would dishonor you and rob God of glory.


"Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God." (Romans 8:12-14 New Living Translation)