ESAU'S CHOICE
By
ROBERT GOVETT, M. A.
EDITOR'S FOREWORD.
[No
one can deny that Esau was a true son and the legal heir of his father Isaac
and that he was the firstborn of twins conceived by Rebekah,
(Gen. 25: 21-26).
Therefore, the Holy Spirit holds him up as an example, and warns regenerate
believers of the dire consequences that can befall them for like
behaviour.
Few
regenerate believers today are being taught the consequences of wilful sin and
disobedience after conversion; and it is evident from the Holy Spirit's
teaching throughout the word of God, that not all regenerate believers
will be 'accounted worthy' to receive a double
portion of the inheritance. Every regenerate believer, by virtue of
Christ's merits and imputed righteousness, receives the
"gift" of "eternal life", (Rom.
6: 23); but only overcomers, who constitute 'the
Church of the Firstborn' will inherit 'the
The
firstborn will not only become a ruler, he is also to become a priest in the
coming millennial
'If all Christians are to rule and reign
with Christ in the
Repentant
backsliders can be restored and forgiven; if they do 'the
will of God', they will be judged overcomers; for although "Many are called, ...
few are chosen"; yet - in spite of many past failures - the
last CAN BE the first! - first to be
resurrected and receivers of "an inheritance
from the Lord as a reward." (Matt.
19:30; Mark 10: 31; Luke 13: 30; Rev. 20: 4, 5; Col. 3: 24)
'Remember the startling fact that 'overcomers' are mentioned
in every one of the seven letters to the Churches.' (Panton.)
-------
"Lest there be any
fornicator, or profane person as Esau, who for a single meal sold his
birthright. For ye know that even when afterwards he wished
to obtain the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no room for repentance,
though he sought it out carefully with tears." (Hebrews 12: 16- 17).
How
marvellously has the wisdom of God adapted the deeds of old, to minister
lessons to us of this so different dispensation! How does the past, seen
from a right point of view, leap into light, like a mountain peak at the ray of
the morning sun!
The
favour of the ungodly generally sets in toward Esau. To their eye, he is
a plain, blunt, honest man; and Jacob a crafty hypocrite. There is a deep
reason for that, in God's choice of Jacob, and rejection of Esau.
The
enmity of the heart secretly rises against God. Was Jacob so bad a
character? Then God's choice was not determined by Jacob's goodness, but
sprang out of his grace. We have no need to defend Jacob in his acts of
sin.
But
Esau's character, weighed without prejudice, shows him to be a very evil
man. His profaneness is here set forth; a sin justly offensive to
God. His polygamy, designed to affect his parents, was surely evil
enough. His murderous feelings cherished against his brother, after his
own misconduct had parted with his birthright, should weigh heavily the balance
against him. An honest man would have consented to the loss of his
birthright. 'I sold the bed from under me; I must own
that it is my own fault, if I sleep on the bare floor!'
The
Holy Spirit has hung this offender in chains by the roadside as a warning [for
regenerate believers today]. May we
solemnly, at the foot of his gibbet, consider!
1.
ESAU'S SIN, AND -
2.
HIS PUNISHMENT.
1. ESAU'S SIN.
Profaneness
is a sin against God, the neglecting, violating, or despising of sacred
things. In its worst form, it becomes scoffing, the jesting with, and
ridiculing the words of God, his ordinances, and people.
The
opportunity to display this sin was afforded by Esau's birth. God made him the firstborn. Spiritual
privileges, not easily defined, were attached to the birthright. They probably consisted of -
(a)
The blessing to be bestowed by his inspired father.
(b)
The glory of having Messiah spring from him, and of being the Great Patriarch
of God's people
(c)
Had he been holy, God's name had been connected with his. Jehovah's title
had been "God of Esau," as now we
read "God of Israel," and the "God of Jacob."
The
history of the profane act is fully given. When hungry, unsuccessful,
faint, away from home, he sold his birthright, bartering spiritual things for temporal. His unbelief said, 'My
life is near a close. Food will save me.' Bread then is his
God! He trusts the red pottage. He has no faith in Jehovah!
Notice
the aggravations of the sin.
1.
He sells the birthright [of the firstborn] for so small a price. Little
enough were it, had he claimed to be supported all his life by Jacob. But "a single meal!"
He would hardly have parted with one of his arrows for that.
2.
He himself depreciates the article he sells. This discovers his
light thoughts. Was ever a man leading a glossy, fleet, beautiful Arabian
charger heard to say, to one who proposed to purchase - "Well, I don't think I shall want to ride her any more; so of
what use is this hack to me?" So does Esau, however!
His light estimate of the spiritual and eternal is written on the
surface. He must often have
despised it in his heart, ere the contempt appeared in his words. His
excuse is weak. Was he at the point of death? Better death with God's smile, than life
under his frown! But he was not at death's door while he held the
birthright. If Messiah was to spring from him, and as yet he had no son,
the birthright had kept him alive till then. But now he robs himself of his only guarantee for life prolonged.* He provokes the Most High to cut him off.
[* That is, ‘life prolonged’ in
the millennial kingdom, 1,000 years before the last general resurrection of the
dead at its end.]
3.
He sells with an oath. ‘Tis probable, that Esau's
word was not trustworthy. Lest he
should repent, [change his mind]
Jacob will revert his determination by an oath. Even at
this demand he halts not. That which would
have induced thought in many, does not make him hesitate. God is called
in as a witness of this evil deed; He is entreated to avenge the transgression,
if Esau would undo it, and would take back the birthright thus made over to
Jacob.
4.
He eats and drinks away the produce of his crime at a sitting! He
considers that he has had his value received and is content.
After-reflections do not rouse him to a sense of his sin. "He went his way," and forgot it, as if nothing
more remarkable had taken place, than the worldly barter of a hare for a
measure of wheat.
But
notice next -
2. HIS PUNISHMENT.
How
long a period intervened, ere Isaac's intention of giving the blessing was
expressed, we know not. The birthright was connected with the paternal
blessing, and the loss of the one entailed loss of the other. The two are
connected by Esau: "And he said, Is not he rightly named Jacob? for
he hath supplanted me these two times; he took away my birthright; and,
behold, now he hath taken away my blessing. And he said, Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me?" Gen. 27: 36.
The
blessing transmitted was that of Abraham; (Gen.
28: 4) and it carried with it advantages of temporal value, as well
as of eternal.
Now,
just at the time that these are to be
granted, Esau wakes up to a sense of their importance. He wishes to
receive the blessing.
His
father probably was not sensible of Esau's forfeiture of it. Esau himself
has forgotten, that it is his no longer. But God has not forgotten. And, -
"HE WAS REJECTED."
The superior blessing was refused
him. Refused by
his father! Refused to a favourite son! And by
that father's sudden change of mind, after his full intention of granting it had been
expressed! Nay, after Isaac was aware that a deceit had been palmed
off on him by the son he blessed? No curse on Jacob! Nor shall Esau
gain the blessing sought! "Yea, and he shall be blessed!" Mournful
words to Esau's ear! "Cursed is he that curseth thee"
- the words used by Isaac - shut the door against his launching malediction at
Jacob, even had he been so disposed.
We
have next presented to us the -
Reason
for his Rejection.
"He found no room for
repentance." To whose repentance do the words refer?
1.
To Esau's? Or,
2.
To his father's? We may view it advantageously
from both points.
1.
From Esau's side. But here a difficulty arises, 'May
not one repent always? As long as a man is living, is there not always
room for it? And did not Esau repent?' Yes! Of his folly. Not of his sin towards
God.
But
the expression is peculiar. It is, "He found
no room for repentance." The words seem
to mean, that there was no opportunity
by repentance to repair his loss.
In many cases repentance brings forgiveness, both from God and man; and undoes
the mischievous consequences entailed on the sin.
Thus (1) when the Ninevites
repented at Jonah's preaching, God's threats were recalled, and the city
spared.
The
repentant (2) prodigal son was reinstated in his father's house.
Thus,
penitent (3) Peter, after his denial, resumed his place among the apostles,
obtaining the Saviour's forgiveness. But not so here.
There was no opportunity afforded to repair the damage inflicted by his
sin. His birthright was irrevocably gone, and with it the blessing.
(A). He had received and enjoyed the good things
he coveted as the price of the blessing, and of the birthright itself.
He could not possess at the same time both the article sold, and the price of
its sale. And how poor and fleeting was the price! Indian chiefs
sold to the English settlers their hills and woods, dales and rivers, for
cloth, and axes, and fishhooks. But these soon wore out, got broken, and
were lost! The land abode
with its possessors. Even if the Indians had desired and been able to
purchase back their land at twenty
times the original price, they could not have obtained it.
(B).
Again, the birthright was not simply a thing lost, like the prophet's borrowed
axe. The article sold had become the property of another, and that
possessor was then more fully sensible than ever of the value of the right
acquired, and unwilling to part with it. To take it away,
were injustice to Jacob.
(C).
Esau had sworn it away.
There was, therefore, a third party to the contract. And even if Jacob had
been willing to sell it back, the mighty Umpire had refused. Esau had
invoked God's curses on himself, if he recalled the sale. There was no remedy then. The transfer
must stand good. Esau's tears
could not repair the loss.
2.
But now let us view the matter from Isaac's side. In view of the
difficulty which has been noticed, it seems most reasonable to regard the
repentance spoken of as referring to the father. Esau could not induce
his father to repent. The word had gone
out of his lips by inspiration, and it could not be recalled. There was no
room, on his father's part, to repent. He had spoken the will of
God. God would not alter. The blessing was clothing Jacob
already. No human hand could tear it off: not even his hand who had placed it there. Esau's attempt is made to
produce change of mind in his father. But he found him
immovable. The thing is done. 'The matter is
beyond my control' - is his father's virtual plea.
While,
then, Esau was sensible of his father's kindly leaning towards him, and
assailed his affection with the piercing petition of agonizing sorrow, with
"exceeding bitter cry," and with
tears, that so seldom dim the eye of the stern hunter, he could not
prevail. Thrice he cries to his father; but thrice the object of his
petition is refused. He troubles Isaac's heart, but cannot change
him. The highest wave of the earthquake
may leap upon the beach, tear up its sands, and shake them fiercely, but tis only for an instant; it must let them fall again, and
roll back denuded of them, to its depths.
Let
me apply the subject to disciples of the Lord Jesus.
This epistle is addressed to [REGENERATE] BELIEVERS, who "had
fled for refuge" to Jesus; to men who had in early days exhibited
great courage and endurance for Christ. The
apostle's appeal, then, is not made to hypocrites, or to the worldly.
The
Old Testament history, here applied to us, proves the same truth. Esau
was Isaac's circumcised son, born in the promised time as truly as
Jacob; twin-brother of the same father and mother. Even when
rejected and excluded from the chief blessing, he did not go away with a curse. He was still owned as a
son. "What shall I do unto thee, my son?"
He enjoyed a lower blessing, though
still shut out from the higher.
Be assured, then, that if like Esau you sin, like him will you be
punished! Consider a moment! How did he lose the blessing?
(1)
Not by profaneness. Was a peculiar spiritual blessing entrusted to
Esau? So is one to you. Might Esau's blessing be lost by misconduct?* So may yours. We are made by conversion
'Sons of God.' A higher standing is given
to us, than that possessed by Esau. Before us is
set the glory peculiar to the better covenant; Heb.
4. We are "the first-born."
We are the first redeemed to God out of
[*Luke 20: 35.]
But
you may think the thousand years of
glory a trifle. You may say, 'Let me only
obtain eternal life, and I am content!' You may think scorn of the
pleasant land, and give small credence
to the Lord's word [of warning].
You may entertain hard thoughts of God, as
if he had put you into circumstances too overwhelming for any to contend
against. You may, like
You
will bargain away your interest in
future glory for present worldly advantages. Your hopes of the [millennial] kingdom
being faint, and your ideas of it feeble, you will, like Esau, sell at a price
ruinously low; establishing to God's eye, and, at last, to all other's eyes
also, your profaneness. It will be like the heir of a dukedom, who has
fallen into poverty, and is obliged to live in the thatched cottage, and to
gain his living by his axe, selling his interest in the ducal palace, estates,
and title, in order to gain a hundred shillings for present need. Yet 'tis unlike that
transaction. For there were no profaneness in
that bargain. 'Tis one worldly interest
bartered for another. But, in your case, 'tis spiritual exchanged for
temporal things.
Thousands of cases of this
character are going on around us, seen and noted by
God.
1.
There is a minister with a conscience not at rest. He would tell you,
were you in his confidence, - 'I am troubled at several
things I am called to say and do. But what can one in my circumstances
do? I have a wife and a growing family, needing all I can give
them. If I throw myself out of my present sphere, how are they to be
supported?’ This is just Esau's spirit of unbelief. "Behold I am at the point to die, and what profit shall this
birthright do me?" If
he holds this ground, the living which he derives from his wounded conscience,
is the mess of pottage for which he sells his birthright.
2.
Here is a believing servant. She has some time out of place, and her
funds are exhausted. A situation of large wages in a nobleman's family
opens itself. All seems arranged with
the mistress. "Of what religious persuasion
are you?" she enquires. "A dissenter!" "O! I cannot take you then. You would suit me very well
in every other respect. But if you enter my service, you must go nowhere
but to church. I am so pleased with what I have seen of you, that I will
give you a day or two to think about it.” An ungodly clergyman
preaches there morality, not Christ's Gospel. But the world glitters, and
God's golden promises fade into tinsel. The world's false tinsel gleams
like gold. Have you never seen at a fair-stall, pictures of an actor all
glitter and glare, red, yellow, purple, blue, and gilding? The child is
caught by them. The father knows their worth. A penny,
or two-pence! But that quiet picture by Rubens, with
such depth of shade, and glow of light; that which the child passes by with
little regard, draws the father's eye; 'tis worth thousands!
How
now is the strife in the believing servant's bosom settled? Though she
has been immersed as a believer, and enrolled as a member of a
Is
not this Esau's choice anew? Is not this a case of the same kind of
principle? Yes! the higher station, the greater wages, are the
mess of pottage. The sale is as real
as Esau's. Both cannot be enjoyed together. The superior is sacrificed. The worldly benefit may be gained; but the [millennial] kingdom is lost!
3.
Here is a Christian tradesman, a bookseller. He finds competition closing
round him. His gains are small. His opponents in the same trade are
outstripping him. They are not troubled with his scruples: they can take
advantage in business which Christ condemns. But he has a wife and
increasing family. He does not "like to
sell novels, and plays, and cards. But
how is he to obtain a livelihood if he does not? Others will do it, if he
does not. These are days of peculiar difficulty. He must do as
others of his trade, or quit the field." If he does, here is Esau's
profane bargain over again. The
greater amount of worldly gain which he wins by compliance with custom, is his mess of pottage. Like that, 'tis swiftly passing away.
The earthly good is enjoyed, till death comes, or the Lord appears. Then,
the last farthing is paid. He, in his lifetime, has enjoyed his goods.
But there is a day to come,
which will enact over again the scene between Esau and his father.
The
trump has sounded resurrection! The saints are gathered to meet Christ
and his Father.* In that blaze of dazzling light, before the awful
presence of Jesus, a sense of the vast moment of the kingdom flashes into
instant light. What is the world
then, beside a place in the glory of Messiah? Night has ceased to
brood over the field of view. The traveller who lay down to rest at night
on the mountain brow, and had but dim imperfect glimpses of the scenery below,
by a crescent moon, wakes to find a broad, sublime landscape, leaf-clad in all
the glow of summer, glittering in the diamond dews of morn, vocal with choirs
of nightingales, girt with forests, grand with mountains, silvered by cataract
and river. How unlike its grandeur to his feeble fancies of the
evening! The sun has brought out all its
concealed beauty and majesty, and he stands in rapture.
[*
Judgment must take place in Hades, the place of the dead (Rev. 6: 9-11), before the First
Resurrection, (Rev. 20: 4-6).]
Even
so at a glance will the soul of
the disciple realise the value of the kingdom then! The desire
to possess a place in it rises like a blaze in a heap of dry piled furze.
The low thoughts of the past are vanishes, like the wreath of steam from the
railway engine. The previous quiet surrender of it as a hopeless thing, is all forgotten. Vividly does the soul feel;
earnestly pant for it.
Then springs to the lip the earnest appeal.
'O Lord, give me to partake thy glory! to
enter thy kingdom.'
Then
- [sometime after death, but before
resurrection] - will the Saviour recall to the
memory of the guilty the profane bargain of earth. The glory then beaming
was surrendered, to obtain the pelf of earth. That good has been enjoyed.
The bargain has been held to all the life long. The [firstborn’s]
birthright has been sold. The blessing gone! The choice between the
two was deliberately made, and firmly sustained. The [millennial] kingdom
is lost!
But
the soul cannot tamely give up so great a good. A sense of the awfulness
of losing so great a glory, and being shut out from other's joys and Messiah's
reign for a thousand years, shakes the soul. 'I in darkness, my brethern in
light! I left in sorrow, they bathing in
joy, a thousand years!'
An
exceeding bitter cry appeals to the Father in heaven! Tears flow, and the
utterance is half choked. 'Oh! admit me! Lord, I sinned! But admit me still! Shut me
not out in darkness, while thou reignest in light!'
'Tis vain!
The time of repentance is past. That is now. The time of sowing is over, then.
'Tis the hour of recompense
according to works. A firmer than Isaac decides. Did the
patriarch refuse to a favourite son, in spite of the yearning of nature?
God is then showing his righteousness; and his truth may catch no
stain. His oath to exclude such
from entering his rest, is in full force: Heb. 3. & 4.
Spite a love stronger than Isaac's, there is no moving Him. The bargain shall hold. 'Down,* profane Esau! the kingdom is lost!'*
[By
the use of the word ‘down’, it has been said
the author believed those resurrected at that time would return to the place of
the dead “in the heart of the earth” (Matt. 16: ): but Jesus says of those who
are resurrected at that time, “Neither can they die any more” (Luke 21:
35). Hence, it is unlikely they who have
immortal life, would be returned to Hades, the place of the dead!]
Let
us fear therefore - lest we should be "castaways"
from the glory to be revealed. Have we made Esau's profane
bargain? Let us break it off at once.
THERE IS ROOM FOR REPENTANCE NOW. Not then!
2.
I must say a word now to unbelievers [and
regenerate believers].
Do
I address a young man of ability and amiableness, the leader of his circle, who
has sought the laughter and applause of his ungodly companions, by scoffing
parodies of Scripture? Have you, young man, turned the words of God into
a jest? And, though conscience was wounded, and called on you loudly to
cease from so provoking God, did you still persist? 'Tis
perilous to play with God's edged tools. He who
in sport balances God's keen sword on his finger-end, must be an adroit juggler
indeed, if he does not wound himself.
Beware, [regenerate,
profane, wicked and disobedient]* scoffer! it has dealt
mortal gashes, to many a merry blasphemer!
Beware, O [unregenerate] profane man! What if God's patience [and long-suffering with your unbelief in His eternal
salvation, through faith in Jesus Christ] suddenly cease! Then, in one moment you
would be gasping your last; with terrible shriek your soul would take flight
from the awe-stricken assembly of the wicked! Damnation jested at a
distance, is one thing! Hell fire inhabited for ever** is another!
[* Num.
14: 20, 34; 16: 19. cf. Matt. 18: 32-34; 1 Cor. 5: 5. ** Rev. 20:
15. ]
I
beseech you, cease to mock, "lest," as the prophet says, "your bands are made strong." Lest you be given
over to Satan a prisoner, in chains never to be loosed. 'Tis frantic madness for a mortal to mock
God. He has all eternity to despise your tears, to mock your
groans.
And
in his justice he has threatened it to the impenitent. "I also will laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your
fear cometh." You are worse than Esau. You have more light, yet you sin
more. He did not ridicule religion. He only undervalued God's gift [prize].* Is Esau
lost? How should you, the more guilty escape?
I
turn to another case. You are quietly profane. You love the world
well: you are a man after its own heart. You have money enough, and are
esteemed a jolly companion. Your creed is, that
life was given us to be enjoyed. You
despise the silly Jacobs, who will not run with you, nor seek their good things
now.
You
mean to repent, however, at the last. You mean to enjoy the world as long
as you may, and just when the leaky brig is pitching head foremost, and
plunging with a whirlpool to the bottom, you will leap on board the life-boat
just alongside. But - "Time enough yet, to
go on with the world! On, rowers! pull down the
glassy, violet-fringed stream! We will moor the bark [bank], ere it shoots the precipice of waters!"+
-------
[+ This final section of the
author’s writing has been edited, and applied as a warning to the regenerate.]
+ You, anti-millennial Christian,
may mean to repent at some future day. Have you inquired whether God
means to ‘give’ it you, (2 Tim. 2:
25; Rev. 3: 3.)? Else
you may be cut off in bloom,
not knowing that wilful sins and disobedience can forfeit your millennial
inheritance! (Heb. 10: 26): a spectacle of
woe, a trophy of just vengeance for 1,000 years! The forbearance of God
may chance to last fewer years than you reckon on. And if it be
so, - "IF YE WILL HEAR HIS VOICE, HARDEN NOT
YOUR HEART." Repent to-day,
and he will forgive and strengthen you to attain the “Crown”
which your present behaviour and disbelief can lose! (Rev.
3: 11). "Our God will abundantly pardon." … “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish,” (Lk. 13: 3).
But
he has never promised to give you years for future repentance.
Your notes of hand and promises to pay in future, he esteems waste paper, the guarantee
of a fraudulent bankrupt.
Give deeds now! Not promises! Depositor! you
are overdrawing your account. Gambler with a kingdom, as an inheritance which can
be lost, stay the dice box! Stake not the ‘inhabited world to come’ on a throw! Have you
ever heard, what thousands untold, reckless regenerate ones such as you, have
lost? (Gal. 5: 21; Eph. 5: 5, 6): and are
now set forth as failed examples in the underworld? Num. 16: 33; 1 Sam. 28: 16-19; Luke 16: 23, 24.
Has
no death-bed ever been heard of by you? (or beheld,
perhaps?) leaving its ghastly scene darkly
photographed on the memory of the survivors? Have you never read of one
laying himself down to sleep, in spite of the neighbours' ringing, and
knocking, and alarms of "Fire! Fire!"
and waking up to escape, just as the flames encircled his bed, while the awful
cry burst forth from the lips of despair - 'Too late!
Too late! Oh that I had listened! But the time is past!
A circumstance I lately read may perhaps impress the
warning of to-day upon your heart.
One Sunday evening, at the Young Men's Prayer meeting in
So
much for procrastination! But for this delay, the entire crew and
passengers of the "
Has
not this a voice to you? The Spirit of God strives now with your hearts,
presses, urges you to flee for refuge to the Son of
God! You are crippled, ready to sink. And would
you say to the Spirit of Grace, - "Not yet! lie by me till morning!"
"A more convenient season will come!"
If you do, I warn you that the world's tempestuous sea will roll you farther
and farther away from God: and it may be that this is the last call God shall
permit to be given you. Refuse this, and you may sink, victim of
your own folly.
-------