Genesis - Chapter 25

Back in Genesis 17 we learned that God’s covenant with Abraham was to be carried on through Isaac.

Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.

This was the birthright available to Isaac and his descendants.  And this is the birthright that Esau sold to Jacob for a bowl of stew. It says at the end of the chapter that Esau despised his birthright.

In the New Testament we read that God loved the world so much that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should have eternal life.  The birthright to be children of God is available to all. But many “despise their birthright”, and so do not receive it.  Others, like Jacob, desperately seek the birthright, and so become heirs of the Father.