“Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.
Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled; lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.” (Hebrews 12:12-17, NKJV)
The Jewish Christians, to whom this letter is written, have been chastised a great deal over the last few chapters. While facing turmoil, they have struggled with whether or not to stay the course with God or to quit for something “easier.”
As they are being told to buck up and see it through to the end, they are given a reminder of a man from the Old Testament: Esau. It is found in Genesis 25. Esau was hungry and because of his shortsightedness he sold his birthright (that by which he claimed his inheritance) to his brother Jacob for a meal.
We have to be careful that we don’t allow the same shortsightedness to engulf our lives. Many people have sold their birthright to Heaven in order to get things of immediate fulfillment. Sometimes it has been sold for one’s job, or family, or money, or pleasure, or any number of other things. When it is sold, those who do so, like Esau, often don’t realize what they have lost until it is too late.
Are you selling your spiritual birthright for physical things?