Selling Out

 29 Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. 30 He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” (That is why he was also called Edom.[f])
 31 Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.”
 32 “Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?”
33 But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob.
34 Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left.
 So Esau despised his birthright.

Today my daughter, Peri, and I were talking about the escalating price of oil and fuels, and how there is a tremendous transfer of wealth that has been taking place, as the west continues to buy oil from middle East oil producing nations, and as greedy corporations have closed American factories outsourcing millions of jobs, etc. Although we ourselves are sitting on vast natural resources-iron, minerals, petroleum, natural gas, & coal resources and have pioneered new forms of energy, we have allowed ourselves to be put in the place of selling our birthrights, for something that cost the sellers next to nothing. America was once the world's industrial leader, a Judeo-Christian nation seeking and trusting God, producers, lending to other countries, with no trade deficits, budget deficits- because we did not have moral deficits. Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren in 1954 wrote, " I like to believe we are living today in the spirit of the Christian religion. I like also to believe that as long as we do so, no great harm can come to our country." ... but no longer. So many have gone their own ways ("there is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death"), this country mirrors biblical Israel, as God's chosen people turned away from him, chasing idols and forsaking the Lord. Esau traded his God-given birthrights, and all that it implied and its promise, for next to nothing, a moment of satisfying a hunger craving, feeding his belly and instant self gratification. Esau had the power and the resources, but he failed to use his knowledge (My people perish for a lack of knowledge), he chose to do things his way. Ya'acov (Jacob), the "trickster", did not just happen to be making this delicious aromatic stew coincidentally, it was purposeful, he had premeditated this plan, layed a trap of sorts for Esau, he desired to gain the birthright...he understood it's power, privilege, and he wanted it.
As born again awakened followers we have a birthright, we are the sons and daughters of the living God, and it is not for sale!
Remember who you are in the Lord, and remember to use the resources and gifts you have according to the purposes of the One who gave them to us. Let's not sell out to the world, but instead be SOLD OUT for God alone.

One thing I ask from the lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the lord and to seek him in his temple.
Psalm 27:4