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Patriarchs and Prophets
life to the service of God. Like Abraham, he must be obedient to the
divine requirements. In marriage, in his family relations, in public life,
he must consult the will of God.
Isaac made known to his sons these privileges and conditions,
and plainly stated that Esau, as the eldest, was the one entitled to the
birthright. But Esau had no love for devotion, no inclination to a reli-
gious life. The requirements that accompanied the spiritual birthright
were an unwelcome and even hateful restraint to him. The law of God,
which was 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 she read with clearer insight than did her
husband the character of their sons. She was convinced that the her-
itage 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 of the divine intimation that
the birthright should fall to him, and he was filled with an unspeak-
able desire for the privileges which it would confer. It was not the
possession of his father’s wealth that he craved; the spiritual birthright
was the object of his longing. To commune with God as did righteous
Abraham, to offer the sacrifice of atonement for his family, to be the
progenitor of the chosen people and of the promised Messiah, and
to inherit the immortal possessions embraced in the blessings of the
covenant—here were the privileges and honors that kindled his most
ardent desires. His mind was ever reaching forward to the future, and
seeking to grasp its unseen blessings.
With secret longing he listened to all that his father told concerning
the spiritual birthright; he carefully treasured what he had learned
from his mother. Day and night the subject occupied his thoughts,
until it became the absorbing interest of his life. But while he thus
esteemed eternal above temporal blessings, Jacob had not an experi-
mental knowledge of the God whom he revered. His heart had not been
renewed by divine grace. He believed that the promise concerning
himself could not be fulfilled so long as Esau retained the rights of the
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first-born, and he constantly studied to devise some way whereby he