Everyday you make a choice between what is immediate and what is ultimate. How you spend your afternoon, what you do with your next paycheck, what you eat for dinner, all of those are immediate decisions. If you’re not careful, you will spend your life consumed merely with what’s immediate, our eyes never lifting up towards what is ultimate. What’s the difference between the two? The ultimate is the sum of all of your immediate decisions, and if you’re not careful, pursuing what’s immediate will lead you to a place you don’t want to go to ultimately. Wasting away enough afternoons will lead you to a lost season of life. Overspending on enough next paychecks will load you down with debt, and splurging on enough meals will lead to long-term health problems.

Esau in the Old Testament learned this lesson the hard way. In Genesis 25, the oldest son of the patriarch Isaac, first in line for the birthright and blessing of his grandfather Abraham, traded it all away to his younger brother Jacob for a bowl of stew.

²⁹ Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. ³⁰ He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew!I’m famished!” (That is why he was also called Edom.)

³¹ Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.”

³² “Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?”

³³ But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob.

³⁴ Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left.

So Esau despised his birthright. Genesis 25:29-31

This is why God in the Old Testament is known as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob rather than Abraham, Isaac, and Esau. Esau sold his birthright (ultimate) for a bowl of stew (immediate). Don’t trade your future for a bowl of stew. What immediate choices are you making today, this week, that will lead you to a place you don’t ultimately want to go? Learn from Esau. Don’t trade your future for a bowl of stew.