Recovering our family birthright

In Genesis 25 to 33 the prizefight between Esau and Jacob is recorded. Rebekah was pregnant with twins who "fought with each other inside her." Esau, born first, won Round 1 to inherit the family birthright. Jacob, holding his brother's heel, was born a minute late and a birthright short.

Four thousand years ago, possessing the birthright meant ultimately becoming head of the family, a double portion of the paternal estate, and becoming progenitor of the family line. Considering their family's wealth and God's promises to Grandpa Abraham and Papa Isaac, Esau was a happy baby while Jacob drooled.

Round 2: Esau came home hungry from hunting so Jacob convinced his older brother to sell his birthright for some bread and lentil stew.

Round 3: Rebekah, who favored Jacob and knew the son with the birthright takes care of Dad's widow, connived with Jacob to trick Isaac into blessing his younger son while Esau was hunting. So Jacob managed to steal Dad's blessing from his big brother.

Round 4: Jacob wrestled all night with God because he needed God's blessing to face his sulking sibling after a 20-year separation.

Back to the prefight preliminaries: During Rebekahs' pregnancy, God told her that her sons would father nations and the older would serve the younger. God's omniscient, knows what he's going to do, and keeps his word. Always. That's worth remembering.

Our birthright as God's children includes healing. Not only did Jesus heal the sick in his day, he sent out his disciples -- first 12 and then 70 -- to teach, preach, and perform miracles. In Matthew 15:26, Jesus called healing "the children's bread" as he miraculously healed a girl because of her mother's faith. We are God's children and God wants to "give us this day our daily bread."

After Jesus ascended into heaven, his followers continued God's ministry of healing. The book of Acts records that God used Peter, John, the other disciples, Stephen, Ananias, Paul, Barnabus and the deacon Philip to perform miracles of healing and raising the dead.

Miracles and healing are our birthright. In 2 Timothy 3, Paul warned of a future time when people would "retain the outer form of religion but deny its power." I think that's a lot of today's Christians. Like Esau, they've sold their birthrights. They're sons and daughters, but they don't really expect God to heal them. They're either denying God's will to heal or his power to heal -- or both!

Jacob's not the only one in a prizefight. So are we. God promised in Isaiah 53 what he would do: "He [Jesus] was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed." We don't have to wrestle with God in prayer for what he's provided because Peter confirmed the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy when he wrote that by Jesus' stripes we were healed (1 Peter 2:24). God knew what he would do, told us, and kept his word. We're in the ring with Satan, but we can rise up against sickness and disease if we know God's word so we can stand in faith.

Psalm 103 promises that God forgives all our sins and heals all our diseases. Forgiveness and healing were provided in Jesus' atonement, but we receive them both by faith. As Jesus' disciples we have the power of his name. That's our birthright!

We can doubt and do without, or we can believe to receive. Like Esau, we can give up our birthright, or we can be like Jacob and fight for it.

June Seabaugh is a member of Christ Church of the Heartland in Cape Girardeau.