Do you know any drama queens or drama kings? You know the type of person I’m talking about…everything is always over the top with them. If they aren’t feeling well, they aren’t sick, they’re going to die. If they have something good happen to them, they aren’t just happy but they’re ecstatic. They have very high highs and very low lows. They’re called drama queens or drama kings because their behavior is reflective of someone on stage overemphasizing a situation to get their point across.
Did you know there were drama queens and kings in scripture? Isaac’s son, Esau, is quite a drama king. He is big, burly and hairy. He is a man’s man. He loves the outdoors. He loves to hunt, but when he comes home from the hunt, the drama begins. I bet he could tell a story of the one that got away that would shame most fishermen and hunters of today.
In Genesis 25:29-34 we read of Esau coming in after a day of hunting. He finds his younger brother, Jacob, in the kitchen preparing a meal of lentil stew. Esau smells the stew and the drama begins. He demands the whole pot of stew his brother is preparing [Genesis 25:30 God’s Word translation]. He doesn’t just say he’s hungry and tired, but he says “I’m about to die….What good is my inheritance to me?” Well, if Esau is a drama king, Jacob is an opportunist and he uses Esau’s drama against him to gain what he wants. Jacob pushes the envelope demanding Esau to “swear on oath” that he is surrendering his birthright for a pot of stew.
Today the only time you ever seem to hear about birth order is when people are trying to label your personality type; however, it was a big deal in the Jewish faith in historic Israel. The firstborn male of any Jewish family had several rights and privileges not afforded the other children. “Primogeniture is the social custom of giving the firstborn son natural right to succeed his father as supreme head of the family.” This was like the passing of the crown from a king to his son. It came with power, fortune, and position. According to Deuteronomy 27:15-17 the firstborn son was labeled the principal heir, meaning he gained the majority of the father’s wealth, usually a double portion. While Esau flippantly agreed to the deal because he was hungry, Jacob held him to it at all costs.
We can easily see how Esau made a mistake. We may have even gone as far as to say we would never do anything like that, but we do it and we do it often. Our Father is the King of kings and the Lord of lord [Revelation 17:14, 19:16]. That means His Son, Jesus, is royalty. As children in the family of God, we are also royalty. As children of God we have the right to a great inheritance [1 John 3:1, Matthew 25:34, Acts 20:32, Ephesians 1:18]. Romans 8:17 says “Now if we are children, then we are heirs– heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory.” As children of God, we have an inheritance from our Daddy. He says in Ephesians 1:13-14 that the Holy Spirit is a deposit of the inheritance we will receive. He is our sources of power [Acts 1:8].
We trade our birthright, our ability to move with power and overcome the darkness of this world, with the enemy every time we believe him and walk in his ways instead of believing the Lord’s truth and walking in his ways. We wouldn’t dream of trading a million dollars for a dump truck of manure, yet we trade something of more value than a million dollars for things a lot worse than manure when we buy into the enemy’s lies and walk down his path.
Fortunately, we serve the God of restoration and we have the ability to take back what the enemy stole from us. We can resist the devil by the strength of the Holy Spirit, causing him to flee from us [James 4:7].
You are royalty. You have destiny. You have been set free and it is time to rise up as sons and daughters of the Most High and change the world!