TD Jakes - Learning to Walk In The Birthright
Because Jacob’s fight didn’t start on the mountaintop in the dark—no, no, no, no—Jacob’s fight did not start there. Jacob’s fight started in the womb. When his mother birthed him into the world, he was in a fight; even when she was pregnant, there was such fighting going on in his mother’s womb that she had to pray and ask God what was happening.
Take a look at this text; I want you to really look at this. Take me to Genesis 25:21. Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was childless. Wait a minute, isn’t that funny? His mama was too. Isn’t it funny he married a woman like his mother? Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was childless. He had the faith to pray for a barren woman because he was born out of a barren womb. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebecca became pregnant. The babies jostled each other—or wrestled with each other—within her, and she said, «Why is this happening to me? What’s going on inside of me? What’s going on in my stomach?»
This isn’t just a kick and a jab; these folks are fighting. Can you imagine being a woman pregnant with twins, and they’re in a fight while your belly goes side to side? They’re kicking, doing martial arts, and everything in the world; they are fighting! And she says, «What’s going on?» So, she went to inquire of the Lord, and the Lord said to her, «Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated. One people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.» Now, that is interesting—the older will serve the younger. It’s interesting because it’s not normally like that. Normally, the younger would serve the older because the firstborn holds the blessing. But God says, «When all of this is over, the older will serve the younger.» That alone switches the birth order.
When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her home. The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment, so they called his name Esau. After this, his brother came out with his hand grasping Esau’s heel, so they called him Jacob—trickster, supplanter, conman—that’s what Jacob means. Isaac was 60 years old—look at that! —Isaac was 60 years old when Rebecca gave birth to them. These are the children of his old age, much like he is the child of an old man. He is 60 years old having a baby.
Now, I’m over 60, and the last thing I want my wife to come home and tell me is that the doctor said, «You don’t want to start raising children at 60.» But this is what has come up under his law. On the other hand, there’s a certain amount of pride in being 60 and birthing a child—the same kind of pride that Abram had when he had Isaac—the pride of saying, «Even in this season of my life, I am yet fruitful.» Jacob is born in this environment, and they named him because of how they found him. They found him fighting, and the Bible says that because he was snatching at Esau while coming out of the womb, they called him Jacob. Until you understand that part of the story, you won’t understand the rest of the story because what happens next is the fight not only for birth order but for the birthright—to understand who has the right to reign. Nature teaches, history teaches, and the period teaches that the firstborn should have the right to reign.
So, when they brought Esau to his father Isaac, Isaac loved Esau, but God hated him. Put a pin right there. Why does God hate Esau? That’s a strong word. Why does God hate Esau? Well, add that to Jacob pulling at him coming out of the womb. They called him Jacob because he had his hand on the heel of the firstborn child, and the old man intended to bless his firstborn. But the prophecy said the blessing would be on the younger of them.
Have you ever been in a situation where you weren’t even in line for the blessing? Where it didn’t look like it was going to be you? You were not the favorite; you were not the least likely; you were not the preferred; you were not the one. Not only in your family, in your neighborhood, in your school, in your house, in your life. Have you ever believed God for something, and the odds were against you? The odds are against Jacob. Sorry, guess what? They forgot that old Jacob is a fighter, and the fight started in the womb. What we do not know is what happened in the womb. We don’t know who was supposed to be first. We only know who came out first. That’s all we know. We know who came out first.
Now, when we look at this next deposit we’re going to make in this next phase, we’re going to get down to the birthright in Genesis 25:29 through… we will begin to understand that the fight that started in the womb now continues outside the home because Jacob says, «It ain’t over.» Somebody say, «It ain’t over.» Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. He said to Jacob, «Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!» That is why he was also called Edom. Jacob replied, «First, sell me your birthright. Let’s finish what we started.» «Look, I am about to die,» Esau said. «What good is the birthright to me?» It’s still fighting, but Jacob said, «Swear to me first.»
So, he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau some bread, some lentils, some cornbread, some collard greens, some rice, some potato salad, and some sweet potato pie. He ate and drank, then got up and left. So, Esau despised his birthright. He gave away his birthright, but the Bible said that it wasn’t his in the first place. Wonder why the Bible says Esau sought repentance with many tears but found it not? See, sometimes somebody else has got something that is rightfully yours. Y’all gonna get it in a minute. Let me put it in biblical terms: «I’ll give you houses you didn’t build. I’ll give you vineyards you didn’t grow.»
Somebody may be living in what’s going to be your house. Somebody may be driving what’s going to be your car. Somebody may be in an office that’s going to be yours; they just don’t know it yet. You may have to fight for it, but God said it’s rightfully yours. I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. All I know is that the way Jacob handled it is totally opposite to what the angel said to Rebecca. For the angel said to Rebecca that the older would serve the younger, and that reverses the order.
Hear me right now: God is getting ready to reverse the order. You’ve got to be careful in this season who you walk past because God is getting ready to reverse the order. You’ve got to be careful who you look down on because God is getting ready to reverse the order. Just because I don’t seem like I have it doesn’t mean that I’m not about to get it. The last shall be first, and the tail shall be the head. God is about to reverse your honor, and I admit I’ve never really liked Jacob. I think Jacob was an embarrassment to the family.
I always preach Jacob from a negative perspective because of this tricky pull he and his mama did together to scam the old man out of the birthright; she had him dressed like he was hairy. She hadn’t changed his voice before coming into the room; an old man couldn’t have seen. He fooled around and blessed the wrong son—or was it the wrong son? Isn’t it funny how God will move whatever He has to move and manipulate whatever He has to manipulate to put you in place to line you up for what’s next in your life?
And I want to talk to some folk who have a strange testimony. I want to talk to some people that weren’t born to be what you ended up being, but God just kind of started moving things around and switching things up, and you ended up someplace, and you said, «I don’t even know how I got here.» Jacob finds himself in a place with his brother that even though he has the birthright, it doesn’t feel right. He has the birthright, but it doesn’t feel right because Esau hated Jacob over what happened, which put a cloud over the birthright. And he also got the blessing, and the problem with the blessing is Jacob was dying when he gave it. He told Esau, «I only had one.» So, the Jacob we see in our text has the birthright and the blessing, but he hasn’t lost the struggle.