Soup creative commons commercial via flickr username avlxyz

Today I had an early morning appointment to have some blood drawn for an insurance application. The appointment took place in my own home, and as the nurse finished drawing the blood, I found myself feeling faint. I had grown sweaty and hot. The room was starting to look fuzzy, and my ears were ringing. Because I have passed out on other occasions after having blood drawn, I knew what I was headed for. I asked my husband to get me some orange juice and crackers. While he was doing that, the nurse told me to lean over with my elbows on my knees and breathe deeply. Thankfully, these strategies averted a collapse, but that feeling of faintness was both miserable and scary.

After the nurse had left, my husband helped me over to the couch and sat me down. He had been reading the Bible, so I asked him to read it aloud to me. He happened to be reading the story of Jacob and Esau from Genesis 25, in the King James Version. The funny thing was, as he read, one word kept popping out to me. Faint. Esau is described as feeling faint after coming in from the field.

Esau sees that his brother has been cooking, so he says to him, “Feed me, I pray thee. . . for I am faint.” It is at this moment that Jacob, his cunning younger brother, sees an opportunity to take advantage of the situation. He agrees to give Esau the soup in exchange for his birthright. Definitely not a fair trade, but in his faintness, hunger, and exhaustion, Esau agrees.

I couldn’t help but think about how timely this reading was. I don’t think I’ve ever read this passage and felt truly sorry for Esau, but this time, due to having experienced a similar sensation, I did. Poor Esau — he made a bad choice. And he made that choice in a moment of weakness. I like to think that if I were in his position, I might have chosen differently. However, when I felt myself ready to keel over, I was begging my husband to hurry with those crackers and juice, so I can’t be so sure.

I came away from this reading with two lessons.

1. Don’t judge another person until you’ve walked in their shoes.

It’s easy to judge others for their poor choices, choices often made in moments of weakness. It’s even easier to judge them if you’ve never been in their position. We are not supposed to have a judgmental attitude toward others, but rather one of compassion. (James 4:11)

2. Do your best to avoid moments of weakness/faintness

In moments of weakness, we are much more likely to make poor choices. We cannot always avoid these moments, but oftentimes we can. Avoiding situations or places which we know will lead us into temptation is one place to start. We must protect our physical, emotional and spiritual well-being. Weakness in any of these areas could lead us to do or say things that we normally wouldn’t and that we will likely come to regret in the future.

I wonder if this story would have had a different ending if Esau would have left the fields earlier and come home before he was already feeling faint. If he would have recognized that he was feeling weak and done something about it before the hunger became too much to bear, perhaps he could have avoided making such a poor choice. I guess we’ll never know.

All I know is that I will never look at Esau the same way again. Instead of thinking of him as a bumbling fool (which is how he often gets painted), I will think of him as the man who allowed a moment of weakness to cheat him out of his greatest blessing. I will pray for the wisdom and strength never to find myself in the same situation. And I will try to do a better job at having compassion on those who have walked in his shoes.

Can you think of a time when you made a poor choice due to weakness/faintness?