The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 13: Esau Sells His Birthright (2025)
Mon, 13 Jan 2025
Fr. Mike highlights the mystery of our brokenness and habitual sin as he unpacks the story of Esau selling his birthright. Today's readings are Genesis 25-26, Job 15-16, and Proverbs 2:20-22. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.
Hi, I'm Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we will read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today.
This is day 13. We'll be reading from Genesis chapter 25 and 26, from Job 15 and 16, and also from the book of Proverbs chapter 2, verses 20 through 22. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. As always, we're reading from the Revised Standard Version, Catholic edition of the Bible.
If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. Please subscribe to this podcast by clicking subscribe. You can also sign up for our email list by texting the word Catholic Bible to 33777. That's all one word, Catholic Bible to 33777. You probably know this by now. You've been listening to this.
You've been reading along with us for two weeks almost by this point. You probably could recite that to me. If you wanted to, but we are reading today, Genesis chapter five, chapter five, Genesis chapter 25 and 26.
Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah.
She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Madan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shua. Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan. The sons of Dedan were Asherim, Letushim, and Leomun. The sons of Midian were Ephah, Ephur, Hanak, Abida, and Eldaa.
all these were the children of keturah abraham gave all he had to isaac but to the sons of his concubines abraham gave gifts and while he was still living he sent them away from his son isaac eastward to the east country these are the days of the years of abraham's life a hundred and seventy five years abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age an old man and full of years and was gathered to his people
Isaac and Ishmael, his sons, buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron, the son of Zohar the Hittite, east of Mamre, the field which Abraham purchased from the Hittites. There Abraham was buried with Sarah, his wife. After the death of Abraham, God blessed Isaac, his son, and Isaac dwelt at Bir Lahairoi.
These are the descendants of Ishmael, Abraham's son, whom Hagar, the Egyptian, Sarah's maid, bore to Abraham. These are the names of the sons of Ishmael, named in the order of their birth. Nebaioth, the firstborn of Ishmael, and Kedar, and Abdeel, Mibsem, Mishma, Duma, Masa, Hadad, Tima, Jetur, Nafish, and Kedema.
These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names by their villages and by their encampments, 12 princes according to their tribes. These are the years of the life of Ishmael, 137 years. He breathed his last and died and was gathered to his kindred. They dwelt from Havilah to Shur, which is opposite Egypt in the direction of Assyria. He settled over against all his people.
These are the descendants of Isaac, Abraham's son. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac was 40 years old when he took to wife Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean, a Paddan Aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean. And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren, and the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebekah, his wife, conceived.
The children struggled together within her, and she said, If it is thus, why do I live? So she went to inquire of the Lord, and the Lord said to her, Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples born of you shall be divided. The one shall be stronger than the other, and the elder shall serve the younger. When her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in the womb.
The first came forth red, all his body like a hairy mantle, so they called his name Esau. Afterward, his brother came forth and his hand had taken hold of Esau's heel. So his name was called Jacob. Isaac was 60 years old when she bore them. When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man dwelling in tents.
Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob. Once when Jacob was boiling pottage, Esau came in from the field and he was famished. And Esau said to Jacob, let me eat some of that red pottage for I am famished. Therefore his name was called Edom. Jacob said, first sell me your birthright. Esau said, I'm about to die. Of what use is a birthright to me?
Jacob said, swear to me first. So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright. Now there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar, to Abimelech, king of the Philistines.
And the Lord appeared to him and said, Do not go down to Egypt. Dwell in the land of which I shall tell you. Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you, and will bless you. For to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands. And I will fulfill the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.
I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven and will give to your descendants all these lands. And by your descendants, all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves. Because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. So Isaac dwelt in Gerar. When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, She is my sister.
For he feared to say my wife, thinking, lest the men of the place should kill me for the sake of Rebekah, because she was fair to look upon. When he had been there a long time, Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looked out of a window and saw Isaac fondling Rebekah, his wife. So Abimelech called Isaac and said, Behold, she is your wife. How then could you say she is my sister?
Isaac said to him, because I thought lest I die because of her. Abimelech said, what is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife and you would have brought guilt upon us. So Abimelech warned all the people saying, whoever touches this man or his wife shall be put to death. And Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold.
The Lord blessed him and the man became rich and gained more and more until he became very wealthy. He had possessions of flocks and herds and a great household so that the Philistines envied him. Now the Philistines had stopped and filled with earth all the wells which his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father.
And Abimelech said to Isaac, Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we. So Isaac departed from there and encamped in the valley of Gerar and dwelt there. And Isaac dug again the wells of water which had been dug in the days of Abraham his father, for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham. And he gave them the names which his father had given them.
But when Isaac's servants dug in the valley and found there a well of springing water, the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac's herdsmen, saying, This water is ours. So he called the name of the well Isaac, because they contended with him. Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that also, so he called its name Sitna.
And he moved from there and dug another well, and over that they did not quarrel. So he called its name Rehoboth, saying, For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land. From there he went up to Beersheba, and the Lord appeared to him the same night and said, I am the God of Abraham your father. Fear not.
For I am with you and will bless you and multiply your descendants for my servant Abraham's sake. So he built an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord and pitched his tent there. And there Isaac's servants dug a well. Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar with Ahuzath, his advisor, and Phicol, the commander of his army. Isaac said to him,
Why have you come to me, seeing that you hate me and sent me away from you? They said, We see plainly that the Lord is with you. So we say, Let there be an oath between you and us, and let us make a covenant with you, that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you and have done to you nothing but good and have set you away in peace. You are now blessed of the Lord.
So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. In the morning they arose early and took oath with one another, and Isaac set them on their way, and they departed from him in peace. That same day Isaac's servants came and told him about the well which had been dug, and said to him, We have found water. He called it Sheba. Therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.
when Esau was 40 years old, he took to wife Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah.
Job chapter 15 and 16.
Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered, Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge and fill himself with the east wind? Should he argue in unprofitable talk or in words which he can do no good? But you are doing away with the fear of God and are hindering meditation before God, for your iniquity teaches your mouth and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
Your own mouth condemns you and not I. Your own lips testify against you. Are you the first man that was born or were you brought forth before the hills? Have you listened in the counsel of God? And do you limit wisdom to yourself? What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not clear to us? Both the gray haired and the aged are among us older than your father.
Are the consolations of God too small for you or the word that deals gently with you? Why does your heart carry you away? And why do your eyes flash that you turn your spirit against God and let such words go out of your mouth? What is man that he can be clean? Or he who is born of woman that he can be righteous?
Behold, God puts no trust in his holy ones and the heavens are not clean in his sight. How much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water. I will show you, hear me. And what I have seen, I will declare. What wise men have told and their fathers have not hidden to whom alone the land was given and no stranger passed among them.
The wicked man writhes in pain all his days through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless. Terrifying sounds are in his ears. In prosperity, the destroyer will come upon him. He does not believe that he will return out of darkness and he is destined for the sword. He wanders abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand.
Distress and anguish terrify him. They prevail against him like a king prepared for battle, because he has stretched forth his hand against God and bids defiance to the Almighty, running stubbornly against him with a thick, bossed shield. because he has covered his face with his fat and gathered fat upon his loins.
He has lived in desolate cities and houses which no man should inhabit, which were destined to become heaps of ruins. He will not be rich and his wealth will not endure, nor will he strike root in the earth. He will not escape from darkness. The flame will dry up his shoots and his blossom will be swept away by the wind.
Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself, for emptiness will be his recompense. Then Job answered, I have heard many such things. Miserable comforters are you all. Shall windy words have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer? I also could speak as you do if I were in your place. I also could join words together against you and shake my head at you.
I could strengthen you with my mouth and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain. If I speak, my pain is not assuaged. And if I forbear, how much of it leaves for me? Surely now God has worn me out. He has made desolate all my company, and he has shriveled me up, which is a witness against me. And my leanness has risen up against me. It testifies to my face.
He has torn me in his wrath and hated me. He has gnashed his teeth at me. My adversary sharpens his eyes against me. Men have gaped at me with their mouth. They have struck me insolently upon the cheek. They mass themselves together against me. God gives me up to the ungodly and casts me into the hands of the wicked. I was at ease and he broke me asunder.
He seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces. He set me up as his target. His archers surround me. He slashes open my kidneys and does not spare. He pours out my gall upon the ground. He breaks me with a breach upon breach. He runs upon me like a warrior. I have sewn sackcloth upon my skin. I have laid my strength in the dust. My face is red with weeping and on my eyelids is deep darkness.
Although there is no violence in my hands and my prayer is pure. O earth, cover not my blood, and let my cry find no resting place. Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven. He that vouches for me is on high. My friends scorn me. My eye pours out tears to God, that he would maintain the right of a man with God like that of a man with his neighbor.
For when a few years have come, I shall go the way from which I shall not return."
Proverbs chapter 2, verses 20 through 22.
So you will walk in the way of good men and keep to the paths of the righteous. For the upright will inhabit the land and men of integrity will remain in it. But the wicked will be cut off from the land and the treacherous will be rooted out of it. Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. We thank you again for your word.
We thank you for bringing us into this two complete weeks that we've been listening to your word, that we've been allowing it to shape our minds and our hearts, that we can have a worldview that is shaped by you, that we can look at this world in a way that is formed by you, not formed by the brokenness around us, but is formed by brokenness that's been touched by your grace.
Father, we ask that you please touch us in our brokenness with your grace. Make us whole, make us new, make us yours. In Jesus' name we pray. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
As we follow this story of this family, man, oh man, like father, like son, isn't that just the craziest thing where we have Abraham and Sarah twice say she is my sister to the king of Egypt and to Abimelech. And now here we have the story of Isaac and Rebecca doing literally the exact same thing to the exact same guy, Abimelech. you think, what is it?
What is it that leads us to do things like this? What is it that leads us to fall into the same trap again and again? It's one of the mysteries of the human heart is that, man, oh man, it doesn't even have to be father and son or mother and daughter or generations. It can just even simply be us in our own lives, how often is it that we fall into the exact same trap again and again?
We do the exact same thing, like we follow the same script again and again. When we trade in what we know is true, we trade in what we know is good for something that we actually know is less good, is less true. In fact, we see this with the story of Jacob and Esau, right? So Esau is the man of the field. He goes out and he gets a lot of venison. His dad loves him because he brings home game.
and Jacob is the quieter one, the kind of the more homebody, and his mom loves him. Rebecca had also received that word that the younger Jacob would be the greater. But here's this classic scene, classic scene where Esau's coming in from the field, and Jacob is making some porridge. Basically, it's a bowl of beans. This is lentil soup, essentially, red stuff, red porridge, lentil porridge.
And Esau is willing to trade away his birthright and his inheritance that as the eldest son, he would get the lion's share of all of his father's property and his father's inheritance. And he trades it in for a bowl of beans. I mean, think about this. And we think, how dumb is this? But have you ever been in that place where you're so hungry?
You're like, I don't, can't think of anything other than what's right in front of me. How many times have you been in the midst of temptation? We've been in the midst of temptation. We can't think of anything except what's right in front of us.
And we know, like, no, God, in saying yes to anything other than you, in saying no to you and yes to anything other than you, I am trading in the inheritance that you've given to me. You set me apart for heaven itself for something less than you, something less than heaven. But I want to think about that. Because I'm looking at the thing right in front of me.
This is the mystery of the broken human heart, the mystery of the broken human condition, whether that be generational, Abraham and Isaac, or whether that be in someone like Esau and in ourselves. Let's not also forget as a last thing, the deception in some ways, the manipulation we'll say, not deception yet, that's tomorrow. The manipulation of Isaac. Sorry, of Jacob. My goodness.
We have the desperation of Esau, right? He's willing to trade in his birthright for a bowl of beans, lentil soup, some red stuff. But also you have Jacob, who is the grasper, right? He's the one who's reaching above himself, beyond himself, who's willing to trade beans for a birthright. When he knows that Esau is just doing this because he's being impetuous. There's some manipulation.
There's brokenness in all of us, both on the receiving end and on the giving end. And so, once again, we come back to this need we have for God's grace. This need we have. Man, it's like, it's so easy. It's so easy to... Be outside of temptation and say, that's dumb. I can't believe anyone would ever do this.
And it's another thing to be faced with temptation and be in that place that is just like, man, I'm desperate right now. I'm willing to trade in the most important thing in my life, my deepest identity, my inheritance, my sonship or daughterhood with the Father for anything other than this. That's why we need God's grace so much. We need to be reminded of our ancestors as well.
And when we see their weakness, they're like a mirror and they reveal to us our own brokenness and our own weakness so that we can be more prepared to rise up in God's grace and face a new day. Speaking of facing a new day, I am praying for you this new day and hoping that you're praying for me. Please keep praying for each other because that is going to make this journey so much better.
Thank you.