The Spirit Of Esau And Recklessness

In this series of posts on the Spirit of Esau, we’ve looked at The Spirit of Esau, Why did God hate Esau?, and The Spirit of Esau and Legacy. We continue with a look at Esau’s Recklessness.

Text: Genesis 26:34

When Esau was 40 years old he married two Hittite women contrary to the instructions of his grandfather. They became a source of distress to Isaac and Rebekah.

Recklessness is the spirit of Esau. God hates a reckless lifestyle.

Today, in Isoko land in southern Nigeria, men are marrying two women at once. And they are very local men, with no substance. Recently, four brothers married at once. Two of them married two women each. I was wondering if they know the consequences of their actions?

I bought land from several families in my community. One family built a house with their money. One of them bought a car that is very problematic to repair. Today, he is a shadow of himself. The car is parked; he now does transport with a motorbike. One young man that inherited so many plots of land in the same community sold nearly everything and spent the money drinking and getting into trouble. He is like a fair-skinned mobile skeleton.

A reckless marriage is filled with thorns. You must definitely get pricked.

Now Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had sent him to Paddan Aram to take a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he commanded him, “Do not marry a Canaanite woman,” and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and had gone to Paddan Aram. Esau then realized how displeasing the Canaanite women were to his father Isaac; so he went to Ishmaeland married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Ishmael son of Abraham, in addition to the wives he already had. Genesis 28:6-9.

The recklessness of Esau was further exemplified by his decision to marry an additional wife from the family of Ishmael. It took him time to realize how displeased his marriages were to his parents only after Jacob was told not to marry like him. It must be very clear by now that Jacob did not rush into marriage like Esau; he took his time. Jacob, though, had his own challenges; he had to definitely pay for his deception by being deceived by the brother of Rebekah, his coach. Ironically, Rebekah died before Jacob returned; she did not eat the fruit of her deception.

Esau failed to do a SWOT analysis.

Israel was going to be a nation surrounded by enemies. In fact, history is replete with stories of battles the nation had to fight till date. Israel never forgets history and never removes her eyes from any existential threat. Please note that I’m doing an unbiased analysis of events and relating therm to contemporary events. A SWOT analysis is a deliberate and regular analysis of your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It is a very realistic, deliberate, and factual analysis; not an imaginary one like church folks do.

Esau should have been conscious of the story of their birth. The fight in the womb was, most probably, instigated by Jacob. Having known of the story of Jacob grabbing his heel to prevent him from coming out before him, he should have known how to live his life.

Rahab, the harlot, was very conscious of her environment. She sensed danger immediately one of her customers downed his drink quickly and left in a hurry. She acted proactively by hiding the spies on the roof of her house. She prepared her story, negotiations, and escape plans for the spies, and mobilized her family. She fully maximized her moments as I wrote in Maximizing Moments; no wonder Jehovah chose her. She became the great grandmother of Boaz, from where Jesus came from.

Esau should have sensed that his mother did not like him. If you are not cautious about your existential threats, you are a fool like Esau.

Even when his blessing was stolen, his parents became aware of his plans to kill Jacob after the mourning period for his father. Imagine Esau now planning!

It is written here that Esau said to himself. How then did the mother hear about his plot? He must have said it aloud and someone heard, without realizing that walls have ears, according to Ngugi Nwationgo in his book “Weep Not Child”.

Esau had a dysfunctional family and lifestyle.

Why was Esau cooking for himself when he had two wives? Why were his best clothes in his mother’s house at the age of close to 50 years? Genesis 27:15.

Esau Had Body Odour

He smelt like the bush (Genesis 27:27). Is it possible his mother was still washing his clothes because of the very predictable quarrels he was having with his wives? I know several men like Esau, who are dysfunctional and dirty; most times, they are grossly irresponsible, reckless, and dependent upon parents to do things for them, even in marriage.

An individual, who always depends on people to help him/her handle his/her responsibilities, and clean up the mess they leave behind, is like Esau. When you recklessly give birth to children and you expect people to take care of them for you, you are like Esau. When you fail to read your books and attend classes, and you expect people to aid you in exam malpractice, you are like Esau. If you get people to collaborate with you and rig elections, you are like Esau, Those who collaborate with you are like Rebekah; they have a price to pay too.

I know reckless women who don’t cook at home and are very dirty.

Esau Was Not Prepared For Opportunity

When the day for him to receive his blessing came, he had no capacity to harness the opportunity; he had no bush meat at home. His life of probability and chance happenings prevented him from preparing for the future. His reckless lifestyle, lack of value for reserves, and his abandonment of his covenant inheritance as a shepherd prevented him from getting his blessings. Ironically, the meat his father ate were from within the inheritance. He sold his acre of diamonds in pursuit of bush meat.

We shall subsequently look at the good part of Esau. Remember he was a thorn seed. There was the remnant of God in him, though; only that the seed was surrounded by thorns.

Africa has been behaving like Esau for a long time. Nearly everything is done by outsiders for us. The AU building in Addis Ababa was built and donated by China, we go for treatment in India, we train our senior military officers overseas. Our roads and bridges are constructed by foreigners. We like foreign guest preachers more than our more anointed African preachers. Almost everything, even to maintaining our refineries, is done by others. We import fuel from outside Nigeria after exporting the crude oil. We export cocoa and import chocolate. We export rubber and import common erasers. Our presidential candidates must travel to USA, UK, and France to address conferences and meet presidents before they can lead our people.

God deliver us from the spirit of Esau.

In the next post, we’ll look at The Seed of Esau—Would you have forgiven Jacob?

God Bless You.