Esau's legacy and modern-day Nigeria (an Independence Day message)

Something was always curious to me about the multiple mentions of Esau's error in the Bible. He sold his birthright for a meal of pottage in the first book, Genesis. But he still gets mentioned long after that incident as a cautionary tale even into the New Testament, in the book of Hebrews 12:16:

"Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright"

With the above, one might begin to wonder: 

"No be just yam (or beans) this boy chop? He made a silly decision in the heat of hunger, let's rest!"

But I'm in love with how the Bible answers even the questions it generates - without fail, every time. And how much relevance the story of Esau holds for us and instructs us even up till our present day, heck, even up to today, being the 64th commemoration of the Independence of our home nation Nigeria.

Back to Esau. Many readers of the Bible remember him as the first born of Isaac, who lost his birthright (and long range relevance) to Jacob, also known as Israel. Some remember that he was the progenitor of Edom, the Edomites. Few have connected the dots to recognize that Herod - the ruler in Israel in the time of Jesus Christ who ordered the slaughter of the little boys in an attempt to kill the young Jesus because he was informed a king had been born - was an Edomite. Essentially a descendant of Esau. 

So the Herod dynasty - all 3 Herods in the Bible - were descendants of Esau. Herod the Great who ordered the Massacre of the Innocents (Matthew 2:16), Herod the Tetrarch who ordered the beheading of John the Baptist (Matthew 14:9-12), and Herod that killed James the brother of John, and imprisoned Peter (Acts 12:1-3).

Looking through the records of the Herods, a pattern shows up that connects them with their progenitor Esau. And that's an upside-down value system. One that fails to discern what's significant long term, and chooses the insignificant above the important. An elevation of the carnal or temporal over the eternal. A readiness to trade in the gold for a piece of shiny yellow plastic. 

It's a spirit that says "I'll turn in my covenant-backed lineage to get a little hot meal when I'm hungry". "I'll kill the Messiah of the world to protect my little royal throne". "I'll behead a holy prophet to save face with my political colleagues who heard a promise I made to my little daughter". When you think about it, it's a really warped, twisted value system. And that's likely why the error of Esau gets repeated as a cautionary tale.

Now back to our current day. The Esau spirit happens unfortunately to be alive and well, and when a country has leaders bedevilled with this spirit, it mourns. What other phenomenon describes a system that has no grouse allocating millions to luxury official cars, breaking the bank to renovate offices and official residences, splurging on overseas trips with bloated delegations while social and security infrastructure lies in ruins: students sit on floors on schools and learn under the rain and hot sun because of leaking roofs and lacking chairs; hospitals are overwhelmed and lack equipment, medicine and affordability standards to heal the sick and save lives; and road travel has become a daredevil endeavor due to incessant kidnappings - a fallout of a partially collapsed security infrastructure? Sounds like the Esau spirit at work, don't you think?

It would have been consolable if the Esau syndrome was only observable in the few members of the ruling class. But it's eaten its way through to the general populace. Herod the Tetrach's particular claim to infamy was that he knew John the Baptist wasn't a fake. He knew he was a real prophet, sent from God. But he was too concerned with saving face with the multitude that he had to acquiesce to the promises he made to his step-daughter. He couldn't afford to look weak or lose political capital by backing down. This brings to mind those that see black and call it white, just because its more aligned to their political inclination and the positioning they want to have in the eyes of others. Time and space fails to permit me to expound on the disaster this way of thinking has wreaked on our socio-cultural systems in this nation. How money worshipping has become the order of the day, in several social tiers. How every sort of societal vice has become excusable once it's ability to unlock profit has been established. It's related to the "leaven of Herod" that Christ warns His followers to beware of (Mark 8:15). 

This was supposed to be an Independence Day charge. The "leaven of Herod" that encourages a spirit of compromise, a swapping of the precious with the paltry, and elevation of defective materialistic value system and a trampling down on moral values has as the Bible warned "leavened the whole lump". Herodian or Esauic thinking is now so ingrained in how many Nigerians operate and conduct their daily activities, and nothing short of a mental/spiritual surgical operation might be required to expunge it completely. But we have no choice. The work needs to be done. To claw back our land, and the destiny of our generations to come, from the lot of the profane. God help us.