Crystallization-Study of GENESIS(3)
Message Five
The Birthright
Scripture Reading: Gen. 25:29-34;Luke 4:16-19; Heb. 12:16, 23
I. Since God created man to express Him with His image and torepresent Him by exercising His dominion over all things, by birthevery human being has a birthright—the right by birth to expressGod and represent Him; however, every fallen person has sold thisbirthright by being independent of God—Gen. 1:26; 4:16-17; 10:8-11.
II. In the Bible the birthright is the special portion of the firstborn;according to the Bible as a whole, the birthright includes a doubleportion of the land, the priesthood, and the kingship—1 Chron. 5:1-2;Deut. 33:8-10; Gen. 49:10.
III. Before the foundation of the world, God chose and predestinatedJacob to have the birthright—Eph. 1:4-5; Rom. 9:10-13:
A. This birthright, which God intends to give to His chosen people, includesexpressing God, representing God, and participating in the kingdom ofGod—Gen. 1:26; Rev. 20:4, 6.
B. In Esau's despising the birthright and in Jacob's buying it, God exercisedHis sovereignty to fulfill the purpose of His selection—Gen. 25:22-26,29-34.
C. The shifting of the birthright from Esau to Jacob reveals that receivingthe birthright is a matter of God's predestination and sovereignty, notof our natural birth or endeavoring—Rom. 9:10-13.
D. Although Jacob had gained the birthright, he did not enjoy it until hewas transformed from a supplanter into a prince of God and becamemature; thus, Jacob is an example of enjoying the birthright in hismaturity—Gen. 32:28; 35:10.
IV. God had intended to give the birthright to Reuben, the firstborn,but Reuben lost it because of his defilement; the birthright wasshifted from Reuben to Joseph, who fled from that kind of defilementand received a double portion of the land—39:7-12; 49:3-4;1 Chron. 5:1.
V. According to Deuteronomy 20:1-20 and 21:15-17, spiritually speaking,fighting and the birthright are related, for only by fighting canwe preserve our birthright:
A. Since we preserve our birthright by fighting, if we do not fight, we willlose our birthright, even as Esau lost his birthright—Heb. 12:16-17.
B. As we are fighting for our birthright, we must learn to trust in theLord, not in ourselves, and realize that we are fighting for what He hasgiven us—Josh. 1:2-9.
C. It is our duty to fight, but we can fulfill this duty only by faith in theLord, believing that He has ordained us to fight and that He will fightfor us—23:3, 10; Eph. 6:10-11.
VI. The book of Ruth shows us how Boaz (a type of Christ) redeemedboth Ruth (a type of the church in redemption) and her birthright—1:16-18; 2:1; 3:2, 9-11; 4:1-17:
A. The birthright includes the right and position to enjoy Christ with theprivileges to be a priest to bring man to God and to be a king to bringGod to man—Eph. 3:8; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 5:10.
B. Boaz treasured the God-given birthright and was concerned not only forhis own birthright but also for that of others; he paid the price toredeem his kinsman's inheritance and married his kinsman's widow—Ruth 4:1-17.
C. It was due to Boaz's compassion on the poor and weak Ruth and hisredemption of her birthright that David, the king who established thekingdom, was brought in—v. 17.
VII. In Matthew 21:28-31 we see the shifting of the birthright from Israelto the church:
A. In Luke 15:1-2 and 11-32 the Lord likened the leaders of Judaism to thefirstborn son and likened the tax collectors and sinners to the secondson, but in Matthew 21:28-31 the Lord likened them in the oppositeorder.
B. This indicates that the Jews were the firstborn of God (Exo. 4:22) andhad the birthright; however, because of their unbelief the birthright wasshifted to the church, which has become God's firstborn (Heb. 12:23).
VIII. For the believers in Christ, the lost birthright has been recoveredin the New Testament jubilee—Luke 4:16-19:
A. The jubilee is "the acceptable year of the Lord," the fulfillment of thejubilee in Leviticus 25.
B. In our fallen life we lost everything, including our birthright and status,and we became slaves in captivity; we lost the right to enjoy our portionof Christ as the good land—Deut. 8:7-9; Col. 1:12.
C. The proclamation of the jubilee, the real and whole gospel, is a proclamationof release from slavery and of the recovery of our spiritual birthright;our lost birthright has been redeemed, recovered, and restored—Luke 4:16-19.
D. We need to spread the jubilee—the gospel of the New Testament, theproclamation of the release of the captives and of the recovery of thelost birthright—9:1-6; 24:47; Acts 26:18:
1. As revealed in the Gospel of Luke, the mingling of the divine naturewith its attributes and the human nature with its virtues to producethe highest standard of morality is for the New Testament jubilee—1:35.
2. In this jubilee we are freed from all bondage—the bondage of sin,Satan, the world, and the self—and we are freed into the full enjoymentof our lost birthright, the right to enjoy the Triune God inChrist—2 Cor. 13:14; Eph. 3:16-17.
IX. Hebrews 12:16 warns the believers not to be like "Esau, who forone meal gave up his own birthright":
A. Esau's birthright as the firstborn son of Isaac was the double portion ofthe land, the priesthood, and the kingship.
B. Because of Esau's profaneness in giving up his birthright, the doubleportion of the land was given to Joseph (1 Chron. 5:1-2), the priesthoodwas passed to Levi (Deut. 33:8-11), and the kingship was assigned toJudah (Gen. 49:10; 1 Chron. 5:2).
C. Hebrews 12:23 speaks of "the church of the firstborn":
1. We Christians, born of God, are the firstfruits of His creatures thatHe has reaped in His creation—James 1:18.
2. In this sense, we are the firstborn sons of God; hence, the church,composed of us, is called the church of the firstborn—Heb. 12:23.
3. As the firstborn sons of God, we have the birthright; this includesthe inheritance of the earth (2:5-6), the priesthood (Rev. 20:6), andthe kingship (v. 4), which will be the main blessings in the comingkingdom and which the profane, world-loving-and-seeking Christianswill lose at the Lord's coming back.
4. Eventually, this birthright will be a reward given to the overcomingChristians in the millennial kingdom—22:12; 11:18.
D. Today what we are privileged to enjoy in Christ is the foretaste of theblessings in the coming kingdom—Eph. 3:8; Rom. 5:17; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9:
1. If we do not enjoy Christ today as our good land, we cannot enterinto His rest in the kingdom and inherit the earth with Him—Heb.4:9.
2. If we do not exercise our priesthood today to contact the Lord andprayerfully minister to Him, we cannot fulfill our priestly duty inthe kingdom—1 Pet. 2:5, 9.
3. If we do not exercise our spirit with the God-given authority to ruleour self, our flesh, our entire being, and the enemy with all his powerof darkness today, we cannot be Christ's co-kings and rule the nationswith Him in His kingdom—Rom. 5:17, 21; Rev. 2:26-27.
4. Our enjoyment of Christ and the practice of the priesthood andkingship today are the preparation and qualification for our participatingin Christ's kingdom in the coming age—1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev.5:10; 20:4, 6.