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The Beginning of the End
a religious life. The requirements that accompanied the spiritual
birthright were an unwelcome and even hateful restraint to him.
Esau regarded the law of God, the condition of God’s covenant with
Abraham, as a yoke of bondage. Determined to indulge himself, he
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wanted nothing so much as the freedom to do as he pleased. To him
power and riches, feasting and partying, were happiness. He gloried
in the unrestrained freedom of his wild, roving life.
Rebekah remembered the words of the angel and read the char-
acter of their sons with clearer insight than her husband. Convinced
that the heritage of divine promise was intended for Jacob, she re-
peated to Isaac the angel’s words. But the father’s affections were
centered on the elder son, and he was unshaken in his decision to
give him the birthright.
Jacob had learned from his mother that the birthright should
fall to him, and he was filled with desire for the privileges it would
confer. It was not his father’s wealth that he craved; it was the
spiritual birthright that he longed for. To commune with God as
Abraham had, to offer the sacrifice of atonement, to be a forefather
of the chosen people of the promised Messiah, to inherit the immortal
possessions included in the covenant—these were the privileges and
honor that he earnestly desired.
He listened to all that his father told him concerning the spiritual
birthright, and he carefully treasured what he had learned from his
mother. The subject became the focus of his life, but Jacob did not
have a personal relationship with the God whom he revered. His
heart had not been renewed by divine grace. He constantly thought
about devising some way to get the blessing that his brother held so
lightly, but which was so precious to himself.
Esau Sells His Treasure
Esau, coming home one day faint and weary from hunting, asked
for the food that his brother was preparing. Jacob seized the ad-
vantage and offered to satisfy his brother’s hunger at the price of
the birthright. “Look, I am about to die,” cried the reckless, self-
indulgent hunter, “so what is this birthright to me?” For a dish of
red stew he gave up his birthright and confirmed the transaction by
an oath. To satisfy the desire of the moment he carelessly traded the