Don't Sell Your Inheritance

How important is your inheritance to you? The story starts in Genesis chapter 25. Isaac and Rebekah had two sons: Jacob and Esau. They were twins. As they grew up, one was a herdsman (sheep farmer) and the other was a crop farmer. One day Esau came in from the field and he was extremely tired and hungry. He knew it was meal time and asked Jacob for a bowl of his soup. Jacob offered it to him in exchange for Esau's birthright (inheritance). Since Esau came out first, the father's blessing and the bulk of the inheritance would go to him. But Esau didn't value his birthright so much as comfort and he agreed to give it to Jacob in exchange for a bowl of soup.

A few years passed and when Isaac lay dying on his bed, he was tricked into giving Jacob the blessing and inheritance that should rightfully have belonged to Esau. The effect of that trickery caused more grief and heartache than most of us can imagine.

Esau apparently was not really willing to give up the blessing and birthright because when he learned that it had been given to Jacob he wanted to kill his brother. Rebekah sent Jacob away so she would not lose her son.

Esau heard his father tell Jacob not to marry women of the local people because they were heathen (did not worship the true God). Out of rebellion and hurt Esau married one of the daughter's of Ishmael, his uncle. Ishmael was the son of Hagar, Abraham's wife Sarah's maid. Ishmael is the father of the Islamic peoples. Abraham is the father of the Jews.

The point is: if you despise your birthright/inheritance at a time of desperation, don't allow that to cause you to make a decision you will regret later. Many a family has been torn apart upon the death of a parent because no one cared about their inheritance until the patriarch or matriarch passed away. When one person takes care of a family member while everyone else finds excuses to stay away and take no part in visiting or caring for the aged parent(s), don't blow your family apart because the caretaker was the one who got the blessing. Families are supposed to love each other.