Chapter 17. Genesis 25 and 27. Jacob and Esau.
GOD gave two sons to Isaac and Rebekah. Their names were Esau and Jacob. Esau, the eldest, was red and covered with hair, and as he grew up, became a cunning hunter; while Jacob was quiet and liked to remain in his tent. Isaac loved Esau best, because this son brought him venison, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
One day, when Esau had been hunting, he came home tired and hungry. He found Jacob in his tent eating pottage, and begged him for some. But his brother said: “Sell me this day thy birthright.” Esau answered “Behold, I am at the point to die; what profit shall my birthright do to me?” And he sold his birthright to Jacob, who gave him bread and pottage of lentiles, and he ate and drank and went away. He thought only of the enjoyment of the moment caring nothing for the future. Wasn’t he foolish to give up so much that was to have been his for a mess of pottage? By the right of the first-born, Esau would have received the title to the land of Canaan, which God had promised to Abraham and his children forever.
Many people, like Esau, think only of the present, neglecting or despising God’s word and promises. He tells those who have become His children through faith in Jesus’ blood, that they have become His heirs, joint-heirs with Christ, meaning that the glory which the Lord Jesus will receive from God, we shall share with Him, if we accept Him as our Saviour. But if we prefer everything else to the Lord Jesus, and put off thinking about Him, we are despising His offer, and His warning is: “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?” Esau despised his birthright and preferred “a morsel of meat” to God’s promises, but Jacob looked forward, by faith, to the time when these promises should be fulfilled as he knew they must be, since God had said so.
When Isaac had become very old and blind and he knew he must soon die, he called Esau, and said to him: “Take thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field and take me some venison; and make me savory meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat; that my soul may bless thee before I die.” When Rebekah heard Isaac speak to Esau, she called Jacob and said: “Go now to the flock, and fetch me from thence two good kids of the goats; and I will make them savory meat for thy father such as he loveth and thou shalt bring it to thy father that he may eat, and that he may bless thee before his death.” But Jacob said: “Esau my brother is a hairy man and I am a smooth man; my father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon me and not a blessing.” But Rebekah answered, “Only obey my voice, and go fetch me them.” So he went and brought them to his mother, who cooked them and made savory meat such as Isaac loved.
It is right for children to obey their parents, when the parents tell them to do right, but not when they tell them to do wrong. Jacob knew it was wicked to try to deceive his blind father, and although he had now the right of the firstborn to the blessing, and although Rebekah had been told by God, at Jacob’s birth, that he should rule over his brother, both forgot God’s power to give Jacob the blessing, without their help and scheming to bring it about. If he had trusted God, he would have spared himself many of the sorrows which he had to bear afterwards. “Be not deceived,” says the Apostle Paul to the Galatians, “God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
Rebekah took Esau’s clothes and put them on Jacob, and the skins of the kids on his hands and neck, and sent him to take the meat and bread to his father. Jacob went in and said: “Arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may blessing.” Isaac answered: “How is it that thou hast found it so quickly, my son?” And Jacob said: “Because the Lord thy God brought it to me.” Isaac, then told his son to come near him and he felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are lie hands of Esau.” And Isaac said, “Art thou my very son Esau?” and Jacob said, “I am.” Jacob now brought the meat and wine, and when Isaac was refreshed, he called Esau to come and kiss him. Jacob came near and his father kissed him and smelled his garments, and blessed him, saying that God would make him rich, and people would serve him, nations would bow down to him and he would be lord over his brethren. Blessed would be everyone who blessed him, and cursed, those who cursed him. All this was fulfilled when the Israelites, Jacob’s children, afterward possessed the fruitful land of Canaan and became a powerful people.
Isaac finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob went away. Esau was now come home, and he brought the venison to Isaac; for he did not know what his brother had done. When he asked for his father’s blessing, Isaac asked him wondering: “Who art thou?” Esau answered, “I am thy son, thy first-born Esau.” Then Isaac trembled when he realized he had given away the blessing he intended for his first-born. Esau wept bitterly, and begged for a blessing too; but Isaac told him, that although his blessings would be many, Jacob would be greater than he. This made Esau very angry and he thought his father would soon die, and then he would kill his brother. When Rebekah saw that Esau hated Jacob, and wished to kill him, she told her younger son to flee to her brother Lahan in Haran, and to remain there until Esau’s anger should have spent itself. But to Isaac she said she did not wish to have Jacob take a wife from the daughters of the land where they lived, so Isaac blessed Jacob and sent him to Padan-Aram, there to get a wife for himself.
ML 05/16/1909