Jacob and Esau
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gious life. The requirements that accompanied the spiritual birthright
were an unwelcome and even hateful restraint. The law of God, the
condition of the divine covenant with Abraham, was regarded by Esau
as a yoke of bondage. Bent on self-indulgence, he desired nothing so
much as liberty to do as he pleased. To him power and riches, feasting
and reveling, were happiness. He gloried in the unrestrained freedom
of his wild, roving life.
Rebekah remembered the words of the angel and read with clearer
insight than her husband the character of their sons. Convinced that
the heritage of divine promise was intended for Jacob, she repeated
to Isaac the angel’s words. But the father’s affections were centered
upon the elder son, and he was unshaken in his purpose.
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; the spiritual birthright was
the object of his longing. To commune with God as Abraham, to offer
the sacrifice of atonement, to be progenitor of the chosen people of
the promised Messiah, to inherit the immortal possessions embraced
in the covenant—here were the privileges and honor that kindled his
ardent desires.
He listened to all that his father told concerning the spiritual
birthright; he carefully treasured what he had learned from his mother.
The subject became the absorbing interest of his life. But Jacob had
not an experimental knowledge of the God whom he revered. His heart
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had not been renewed by divine grace. He constantly studied to devise
some way whereby he might secure the blessing which 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 the chase, asked
for the food that Jacob was preparing. The latter seized upon his
advantage and offered to satisfy his brother’s hunger at the price of
the birthright. “Behold, I am at the point to die,” cried the reckless,
self-indulgent hunter, “and what profit shall this birthright do to me?”
For a dish of red pottage he parted with his birthright and confirmed
the transaction by an oath. To satisfy the desire of the moment he
carelessly bartered the glorious heritage God Himself had promised