Birthright for sale

Genesis 25:31 - Jacob replied, "First sell me your birthright."

The birthright was a really big deal in those days. It involved the passing of the bulk of the inheritance from father to son and more.

I don't think Jacob's insistence on the birthright deal was something he thought up on the spur of the moment.

"Bowl of stew? Sure. No, wait. Uh...." [Thinking to himself] "What can I get out of this? His best bow and quiver full of arrows? No. That fancy robe Mom made for him? Nah. Got it...birthright!"

I just can't see him making the leap like that without having considered the possibility earlier and having built up the desire for it too. I wonder how often Jacob had thought of a way to get the birthright before this. Had he devised schemes of his own? Had he considered wheeling and dealing for it? If so, then Esau just played straight man to Jacob's punch line. Esau set it up; Jacob knocked it down.

"So Esau despised his birthright." I wonder if he ever gave it a second thought. Did he think, "Ach, no big deal. Dad will set things straight when the time comes. He likes me best. I got what I needed for now, and Jacob thinks he got what he wanted. I'll show him later!"

I wonder if the boys knew the prophecy about the older serving the younger that God had told their mother Rebekah before they had even been born. It's not something I would have told my kids.