The Overtakers

I want us to consider a common trend we see when we read the Bible; the fact that frontrunners are many times replaced from the race.

Let me give us the example I want to use.

From the Bible, you realize that Esau and Jacob had fifteen years with their grandfather Abraham. It therefore meant that they had some quality times interacting. They therefore must have talked endlessly about Abraham’s call and the experiences pursuing it brought.

It is certain that Abraham deliberately focused on passing that spiritual DNA to the youngsters.

For I have known him, to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of Yahweh, to do righteousness and justice; to the end that Yahweh may bring on Abraham that which he has spoken of him. (Genesis 18:19)

He may have thought that only one grandson will carry the promise, the first born.

I suspect he talked a lot to the young boys, but looking at Esau more.

It therefore made Jacob a bystander, an onlooker of the promise grail.

You see, from the narrative, it appears that only Rebecca knew the promise that Jacob was the chosen one since we also see Isaac focusing all his blessings on the first born.

That must have created a great craving in Jacob to be included.

Just imagine being in a place that all things are equal but a few seconds apart mean you are left out of all those promises! But of course he was the less muscled one and must also have felt disadvantaged in every way.

His craving for inclusion was therefore very great. And that is why he started to scheme. Probably that is what created and drove that scheming.

On the other hand we have Esau, the natural leader, the positional leader, the entrepreneurial leader probably listening to all those stories by this ancient man and wondering why all the fuss. Why do they not focus on how to manage and increase that wealth so that even his younger brother can get his share without making him feel left out of whatever promise the old man was talking about?

We have one craving to get in while the one inside does not understand what that inside involves.

That is why he was easily tricked into selling his birthright. He simply did not see it as that valuable. Another thing that shows that Abraham and his discourses were simply stories was that he married wrong. Yet I am sure he must have known the pains Abraham went to to ensure that Isaac married right.

I am sure he realized too late when Jacob conned into his blessing what the promise was about because we can then see him weeping bitterly yet he didn’t seem to notice the same when he sold his birthright.

Jacob was an outsider who craved to be included in the promise. That desire is what God used to make him part of Abraham’s promise by allowing him to overtake his elder brother.

Let me illustrate with my own observation.

My first and second born are separated by almost seven years.

When I decided to teach my first born instruments (starting with guitar), I thought his brother was too young to hold it.

But he loved the guitar and so would watch as I taught his brother to hold chords etc. Then as we left he would take the guitar and relive my classes.

By the time I realized what was happening he was playing the guitar with his small fingers as well as his brother. And his drive to play instruments remains because of his drive. Today he does things with instruments that I can only imagine. It is only that I did not train them to compete and so have never wanted to know who plays better but the younger certainly has greater drive to learn. And of course each has his own guitar.

But I am talking about spiritual things. And there are some key verses you notice very few preachers ever touch on. And they are verses that describe the Jacob’s of any generation.

You shall seek me, and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:13)

As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants after you, God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? (Psalm 42: 1, 2)

We are here dealing with a craving that goes beyond a simple desire. The hunger Jesus spoke of in Matthew 5 is not a simple hunger. It is the hunger of the famished; the one who must eat or they will die.

Again, as I have been involved in discipleship, I have seen some people who were disadvantaged in all ways growing in leaps and bounds when the one I thought would thrive falling by the wayside.

You see, a deep hunger creates a determined and persistent pursuit. Where a normal seeker is content with a gift, the hungry will stop at nothing short of the prize.

And that is why we see Jacob risking his brother’s wrath to go back to his father since he was the link to the promise as opposed to Esau who didn’t mind establishing himself where he thrived. Success to Jacob was nothing outside the promise when to Esau the promise was not worth as much as success.

That is why we have people who will stop praying once their prayer is answered while others pray much more when the answer comes. Some become deep until they access the breakthrough whereas others are activated into greater depth by the breakthrough.

Some who had almost become church furniture as they seek the answer to prayer find more pressing things to do outside church once their prayer is answered while others find more reasons and resources to become more involved in church when their prayer is answered.

A pastor who was very involved in ministering to his congregation to the point of visiting them in their hovels and slums becomes an executive pastor when he is bought a nice car or phone so that people now have to book lengthy appointments to see him.

That is Esau and Jacob for you.

And I am not talking about backsliding or falling into sin. I am talking about a normal believer like me and you.

Only our consumption of God’s word can show us the person we are in these things.

In summary, Esau was content with what the promise could deliver while Jacob cared little with nothing other than the promise itself. It can be compared with many believers who are content with God’s gifts and the others who are desperate for God Himself. It is like the Israelites preferring Moses to listen for them versus Moses who had no issues being in the darkness of the mount for forty days without eating or drinking.

To one, the stretched out hand of God is their satisfaction and to the other nothing short of His face will satisfy them.

Are you a Jacob or an Esau?