Lean In // 5 minutes
What do you reach for in the grocery store checkout lane?
Sample answers may include…
- Candy bar
- Gum
- Magazine
- A movie
- A drink (soda, water, energy)
- Toy
Leader note: When standing in the grocery store checkout aisle, what are the last second purchases your group members are most likely to make? Give everyone an opportunity to participate.
Look Down // 10 minutes
What does Esau want?
Sample answers may include…
- Esau is empty-handed and wants some of Jacob’s stew
- He is famished so he’s hungry
- He doesn’t want to wait: Quick…
- It looks like red stew (meaty stew) and wants it now
- He’s “desperate”—From famished (v. 29) to Look, I’m about to die (v. 32)
- The stew for his birthright
Commentary: Esau was a skilled hunter and a man of the open country (Genesis 25:27) so he had an appetite for meat. So, when he comes in empty-handed and see’s Jacob’s stew, he wants some of that red stew that he thinks is a meaty stew. Later in the story, it is revealed that Jacob only had bread and a lentil (bean) stew. However, what he traded was very costly. Esau’s birthright as a first son in Israel was a priceless thing. He was regarded as the first fruit’s of his father’s strength, dedicated to God, privileged during his lifetime, and received a double share of the inheritance. Esau’s birthright was priceless.
What does Esau get?
Sample answers may include…
- He wanted red stew (meaty stew) but he received some bread and some lentil stew
- He leaves dissatisfied: He ate and drank, and then got up and left
- He traded his birthright for a bowl of beans
Look Out // 10 minutes
What are the “birthrights” that people trade for “bowls of beans”?
Sample answers may include…
- Family for career
- Faith in God for trust in self
- Love/Intimacy for sex/pornography
- Character for financial gain
- Marriage for independence
- Health for busyness
- Community/friendship for independence/autonomy
- Identity for acceptance
Leader note: In the story, Esau traded away something priceless for a common, everyday meal. As you lead your group, help them to identify where they see people trading away the priceless for the common, everyday thing.
Look In // 15 minutes
Where do you feel tempted to make a trade?
Leader note: Help your group picture the priceless things or people in their lives. Then, ask group members where they feel a temptation to leverage those priceless things and people to satisfy a need. As the leader, you want to lead them to a place where they can see this temptation because the next question is about countering this feeling.
What could it look like to pause and give thanks?
Leader note: Often, our needs and wants demand that we satisfy them…immediately. Help your group imagine what it could look like to pause at such a place and counter the feeling with thanksgiving. Giving thanks is a powerful tool in shifting our focus off of what we do not have and rightly placing it on what has been provided. This could be a good place to have group members list some things that they are thankful for in this season.
Live It Out // 5 minutes
What if you regularly gave thanks in this season and beyond? Who might be impacted by a thanksgiving lifestyle?
Leader note: Help your group come up with a “Thanksgiving Plan” in this season. Perhaps, they could create an ongoing list of things or people to be thankful for and reflect on it daily. Collect ideas from the group and revisit it the next time your group meets.
Key Verse(s): Let all that I am praise the Lord; with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name. Let all that I am praise the Lord; may I never forget the good things he does for me. – Psalm 103:1-2 (NLT)
Key Thought: I want what I have; it couldn’t be better
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Learn More About Flow Questions: Check out Kenton Beshore’s book Ask in the Irvine Campus Bookstore for more on the Flow Question model.