Selfish ambition: Jacob's pitfall

I’m not sure what to make of the fact that Jacob appears to have been hassling with his twin brother right from birth. Some people seem to be born with the sort of “go for it” personality that makes them leaders and high achievers in the future. Sadly, unless their motivation and ambition is balanced by humility and godly character, these are often also the kind of people who end up destroying their own lives and leaving a trail of hurting people in their wake.

Interestingly, though, Jacob seems to be have been the quieter of the twins when the boys were growing up. He liked staying home and doing stuff around the house, while his brother Esau liked to be outdoors, doing things like hunting. And so it happened one day that Jacob was busy cooking a big pot of lentil stew, right at the moment when Esau arrived home exhausted from a day in the outdoors.

Now Esau had been the firstborn of the boys, so tradition dictated that he would inherit a double portion of the inheritance their father passed down to them. That’s what’s meant by the “birthright” of the firstborn son. I wonder if this seemed like an injustice to Jacob. After all, the “older twin” is a bit of a misnomer if you consider that twins are conceived and are growing in the womb at exactly the same time. I wonder if it seemed like a cruel quirk of fate that their position at the time of birth meant that Esau was born first and therefore technically the “older” of the two boys.

So when his hungry twin asks for a bowl of stew, Jacob grasps his opportunity and offers to give him the meal in exchange for his birthright. In his short sightedness, Esau swears an oath, giving Jacob the rights due to the firstborn.
There’s a difference between a birthright and a blessing. A birthright was an honour bestowed on the oldest son inn a family, and Esau carelessly gave his up in a moment of greed and impulsiveness. (Genesis 25: 34) A blessing could be given regardless of birthright, but a greater blessing was usually given to the son who had the birthright.

Jump forward two chapters, and a new drama is unfolding in the twins’ household. Their elderly father senses that his time on earth is drawing to an end, and begins making plans to bestow a blessing on his sons, beginning with Esau, the firstborn. If you’ve read Genesis chapter 27, you’ll know that Jacob and his mother mount an ambitious scheme to deceive Isaac and cheat Esau out of the blessing that would have been his.

Jacob may have got the blessing in that situation, but he paid a high price for it. He ended up so alienating his brother, that Esau wanted to kill him. Jacob had to flee from all that was familiar and precious to him: he was separated from his brother and his homeland for more than twenty years. He also discovered for himself the principle that what we sow, we reap, because he later found himself deceived and cheated multiple times by his uncle and father-in-law.

Ironically, it was never necessary for Jacob and Rebecca to engage in all that subterfuge. God had already given a prophetic word about great things in Jacob’s future. Was he aware of this, and made the mistake of trying to do God’s will in Jacob’s way? Or was he simply tripped up by his own selfish ambition - ambition that made him betray his own family and sent him on a 20 year detour before he could finally enter into his destiny?

It’s good to have godly ambition, but self-seeking ambition can be a trap for us. Let’s not take as long as Jacob did in learning to seek God’s will in God’’s way. He is more than able to lead us into all that He has purposed for our lives.