DAY 20 (Genesis 26-28): Previously, Jacob convinced his brother Esau to sell his birthright for a bowl of red pottage. Esau figured that a divine promise about distant descendants wasn't worth very much, because he would be long dead before it would ever matter. Jacob reasoned differently, perhaps because he had a vague awareness of his past lives as Adam, Noah and Melchizidek, and dimly understood that he would still be around to see the fulfillment of Yahweh's promises.