Parenting doesn't end when our kids turn 18.

Far from it.

We often find ourselves guiding our children well into their grown-up years.

But what happens when parental influence goes terribly wrong?

Today, on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindall opens the fourth chapter

in his biographical series called Fascinating Stories of Forgotten Lives. In Genesis 27,

we meet Esau, a son who couldn't catch a brain. His story reveals the devastating impact

of favoritism, the danger of impulsive decisions, and the wounds that

follow families for generations.

Chuck titled today's message, Esau, the Son who Couldn't Win.

Chapter 27 is clearly the most significant chapter in the story of the boy or the son who couldn't win.

I want to take our time through it, not too much, but enough for you to see four scenes as they unfold.

Much of this is familiar, I understand, but the first scene is Isaac and Esau, the older boy.

It came about when Isaac was old and his eyes were too dim to see that he called his older son,

Esau, and said to him, my son. And Esau said to the father,

here am I. Here I am. Isaac said, behold, now I am old, and I do not know the day of my death.

Now then, please take your gear, your quiver, and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me,

and prepare a savory dish for me such as I love and bring it to me that I may eat so that my soul may

bless you before I die. See, the father knows nothing of the exchange of the birthright. He's looking

forward to passing the blessing on to his older

son, whom he favors. So he says to the boy, let's eat this meal together that I might be

strengthened and I might pass along the blessing. What we have in this next section, 5 through 17,

...