What is more satisfying than a delicious bowl of homemade soup? Whether it is vegetable soup made from fresh ingredients straight from a summer garden or cream of potato served on a cold winter’s evening, soup satisfies the physical appetite while it warms the heart and brings comfort to the soul.
It is not surprising, therefore, that soup played such an important role in the history of Israel. We all know the account in Genesis 25 when Esau came in hungry from hunting and asked his brother for a bowl of the stew that he was cooking. Unfortunately, Jacob (whose name means “Grabber”) used this opportunity to strip his older brother of his birthright and “grab” it for himself.
This account has been the source of a lot of speculation about why Esau was willing to sell his birthright for something of so little value as a bowl of soup. Some speculate that even though God had already given the land of Canaan to Abraham, Esau did not want to put forth the effort to conquer it and actually take possession. Others believe that Esau did not see the potential in the land that God had given his grandfather. He looked at the parched desert stretching out in every direction and saw no value in it.
While both of these points are well taken, I believe that there is an additional reason that Esau was willing to trade his birthright with such reckless abandon: Esau was hungry and tired and the soup smelled delicious. He wanted immediate gratification, and he got it. Although this event took place thousands of years ago, it is provides a very good illustration of how we Americans behave today.
In Genesis 27, we see Esau “weeping bitterly” because Jacob has tricked Isaac into giving him the first-born son’s blessing. “…he took my birthright, and now he has stolen my blessing,” Esau sobs. How often we find ourselves looking back at our own poor choices and blaming someone else for the outcome.
One of the problems with our society is that we want everything NOW. We demand instant gratification, and if we don’t get it, we feel cheated. This insistence on instant everything—from fast food to the most current information—is now accepted as a normal part of living in the twenty-first century. We have come to believe that impatience is a virtue.
Years ago when I was homeschooling my children, I read in one of their college texts about an experiment involving pre-school children. The children were given a series of “tests” to determine how long they were willing to delay gratification in order to gain a greater reward at the end. One of the tests involved having a child sit at a table with a marshmallow in front of him. The psychologist instructed the child that if he would sit in the chair for ten minutes without eating the marshmallow, at the end of that time he would be given two marshmallows. The tester then left the child alone in the room with the marshmallow. Some of the children immediately grabbed the marshmallow and stuffed it into their mouths. Others waited for a few minutes before succumbing to temptation and eating the marshmallow. A few waited the entire ten minutes and were rewarded with an additional marshmallow.
These children were tracked into adulthood to see how their willingness to delay gratification in order to receive a greater reward would impact on their lives. It was discovered that those children who were willing to delay gratification were better educated and more successful in their careers and relationships than those who were not. In addition, it was determined that the longer a child was willing to delay gratification, the more successful his adult life was likely to be.
If we were more willing to delay gratification, we could avoid many of the problems that result from self-indulgence. We must learn to wait patiently for God’s promises to come to fruition and remember that none of the men of faith spoken about in the Bible received all that God had promised them, but, ultimately, through their steadfastness, they provided an example for us and received an even better reward for themselves“…for God wanted them to wait and share the even better rewards that were prepared for us.” (Hebrews 11:40, Living Bible)
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