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Scripture Reading: Genesis 25:20-34
At the time of the birth of Esau and Jacob, God rejected the line of primogeniture (the system of inheritance or succession by the firstborn, specifically the eldest son). Instead of the first- born, God chose the younger son.
This is quite unusual in the Hebrew culture where the firstborn son was highly honored.
At that time the choice was made, both were not born yet. Jacob had done no good, and Esau had done no evil. The choice does not rest upon birth. To make it more interesting, both were identical (the same, equal); they were twins – therefore it does not rest upon their birth.
Isn’t it beautiful that you are chosen not because you are white American or you are an European? Isn’t it a wonder today that God can choose a Filipino, an Indian or an African? And God makes that choice not based on our birthplace, our family background. When I went to America, I was told by a fellow Filipino that the whites are first class citizen, the blacks are second-classed citizens, the yellow skin and Filipino are third-classed citizens. In India there are so many caste systems. The highest caste is the Brahmins. They are the Priests. The lowest caste is the untouchables. They are the ones that clear the sewerage. Everyday there is a group of people that clears the faeces of the Indians. That is done by the untouchables. And if you are born in the lower caste, you can never rise to the level of the higher caste no matter how hard you try. The untouchable can never marry the Brahmins. God is such a wonderful God, that today He chooses us not because of birth or family background.
His choice also does not rest upon their character or their works. Jacob was not chosen because he was ‘better’ than Esau; he was chosen not by works but by the God who calls. Jacob’s future conduct did not even enter into discussion because it was unrelated to God’s choice. The choice rests upon the purpose of God, upon God who calls. John 15:16 says
Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you.
Definitely God’s choice of me over my brothers and sisters has nothing to do with my character and works. There are close to 100 million Filipinos living in this country and only 10%, I will say, are chosen to be true children of God. And the choice of God has nothing to do with you being a better person than those 90 million Filipinos. It has nothing to do with your character or your works. Actually if you want to compare with those 90 million Filipinos, many a time we lose out to them in terms of character and works. They have much better character and works than you have.
Therefore behind the history of Esau and Jacob and even our history stand the doctrine of Grace. There are no heroes between these two brothers, only sinners. Only God’s sovereign grace allowed us to be grafted into God’s family. It is a privileged to be a child of God. It is a privilege to be called of God and chosen of God. It is the grace of God that we are children of God.
What can we learn about Esau?
1 Esau’s Casualness
Esau’s casual handling over of his birthright affirms his carelessness and his casual attitude toward family and cultural tradition. “Carelessness” means “not paying enough attention to what one does and what one is”. It is to be negligent or unconcerned. The birthright of Esau carried with it the inheritance rights of the firstborn.
Many Christians today fall into terrible circumstances and situation simply because of nothing but carelessness. One of the scariest attitudes of Christian today is our causal handling of our birthright as children of God. The boys (Esau and Jacob) were different from the beginning – in appearance, personality, vocation, and spiritual values. The name Esau means ‘hairy’. His name is associated with his appearance. The Bible says Esau is a hairy man whereas Jacob is a plain person. Esau is outgoing, a good hunter and a man of the field. Some commentator even says that Esau is much more handsome than Jacob. Jacob on the other hand is a homely kind of guy. There is nothing wrong with Esau’s personality or vocation or his appearance. There is nothing wrong with Esau being hairy or a good hunter, outgoing or even being handsome. But there is something seriously wrong with Esau’s spirituality. When I talked about spirituality, I am not talking about a person being religious. There are many religious people in this country and yet they are cruel, filled with pride. To me a real spiritual person is who one truly loves God and yet is conscious of his sinfulness and his weakness and need of God. I know of people whose house is full of images of Jesus and Mary and yet he is so hated by all his children because of his cruelty and heartlessness. But it is very important to be spiritual.
How easy and how dangerous it is to regard spiritual things of lesser value than material things. I have witnessed so many people whom I am acquainted with, who started off very well in the Lord many years ago but today, have almost become an apostate simply because of carelessness in their lives towards spiritual things. When we become careless and casual about spiritual things, materialism will take hold of our lives and sit at the throne of our hearts.
Sadly, these acquaintances of mine are no longer serving God in the church; they are earning big bucks in the world, having many worldly assets but their personal lives and marriages are all messed up. They are not evil people to begin with. They are simply careless and casual about spiritual things.
The Bible has a lot to say about carelessness in our spirituality. The Bible talks about women that dwelleth carelessly. Isaiah 32:9-11 says
Rise up, ye women that are at ease; hear my voice, ye careless daughters; give ear unto my speech. Many days and years shall ye be troubled, ye careless women; for the vintage shall fail, and the gathering shall not come.
These women were thoughtless and careless and in their carelessness they abandoned God’s purpose in their lives.
Does that sound familiar? You are a Christian and then one day you received a text from a total stranger. The next moment you became pregnant and you are no more in church. It is simply carelessness. Or you are involved in the ministry in Evangel. Then one day your bakardas asked you to go out with them. The next moment you were ashamed to come to church. Probably you got involved with a man and you felt unclean. This is simply carelessness and thoughtlessness. I remember there was a lady in our church in the early years. Wow she was really full of potential. She was capable, had interest in God’s work. Pastor Lily and I were on the verge of approaching her to be fulltime. Then just as we were about to approach her, one of her relatives died and she had to go back to the province for the burial. In the province she met a married man, slept with him and bore children with him and became his kerida. So her future, her education, family are all affected. She is simply careless.
The Bible also talks about city that dwelleth carelessly. Zephaniah 2:15 says
This is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly, that said in her hearts, I am, and there is none beside me; how is she become a desolation.
Prov 19:16 says
he that dwelleth carelessly shall die.
Esau was such a man. Esau’s causal handling and his carelessness is manifested in him marrying two Hittites women that were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah. I think he did not give a lot of thoughts into his marriage. That is carelessness. Esau broke with accepted patterns of wife selection by marrying as we might say today ‘outside the faith’. To make matter worse, the Hittites along with the Mesopotamians and Egyptians constituted the three great powers that Israel faced in its early patriarchal days. They were enemies of God’s people. Cain too is another example of carelessness. He was careless in his offering to God. He didn’t take seriously his offering to God.
2 Esau’s Unspirituality
Actually come to think of it, Jacob had spiritual encounter with God throughout his life. He saw the heavens open and a ladder came down and angels going up and down the ladders. He had a vision of heaven and angels. He dreamed dreams. Genesis 28:12 says
he dreamed, and behold a ladder set upon the earth and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.
Later God taught him how to be prosperous in his business through dreams. He said in Gen 31:10
And it came to pass at the time that the cattle conceived, that I lifted up mine eyes, and saw in a dream , and behold the rams which leaped upon the cattle were ringstraked, and speckled and grisled. And the angel of God spake unto me in a dream, saying Jacob: and I said, Here am I.
The Angels taught him to bring the speckled cattle to the river to drink and in the process mated with the best of Laban’s cattle. Laban cheated his wages 10 times and in the dream the Angels taught him how to be more prosperous than Laban. Then he wrestled with God in Peniel when he entered into the greatest crisis of his life. Many people have never been broken by God.
Jacob paid tithes throughout his career life. Genesis 28:20 says
And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God: and this stone, which I have set for a pillow, shall be God’s house; and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.
Talked about paying tithes, Jacob paid tithes. If you are really spiritual you will pay tithes. There is God in all the stages of Jacob’s life. At the end of his life Jacob said his pilgrimage was really nothing to brag about. In Gen 47:9 Jacob says ‘Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been’. He doesn’t brag about pulling a trick on his old father. Instead he says he doesn’t measure up to his fathers. I ‘have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.’ Isn’t this a changed man? He is giving glory to God for his life.
On the other hand, for Esau, he had no spiritual encounter with God. It is very enlightening but very scary. Jacob had a relationship with God. But there was no happening between Esau and God. There was no dream, no vision, no tithing, no nothing between Esau and God. Esau is the opposite of Jacob. I want to say that we have to be very worried if we have never had even one vision from God, never dreamed a dream and known that the dream is from God, never been broken by God when we go through a crisis, never paid tithes to God throughout our Christian life. When we go through a big critical crisis, instead of being sorrowful over our sin, we get angry with people. We did cry but it was a cry of being found out.
Hebrew 12:6 calls Esau a profane person. The work ‘profane’ does not mean that he delighted in profanity, but that he was A man of the earth who lived for worldly things and nothing else
Esau had no understanding or capacity or desire for spiritual things. I do hear good comments from speakers who come and speak in our church. Pastor Lim and Bro. Kalafi said that our members are very attentive when it comes to the Word of God. I pray that it is true and hope that it is not because if you are not attentive, Pastor Lily, who pulls no punches, will single you out. But Esau is such a man that when a sermon is preached, he starts sleeping. He is always fidgeting. Another word is he is indifferent (uninterested, apathetic).
Esau had a lot of good qualities. With many good qualities, Esau was of the earth, therefore earthly. I never hear that he had seen visions of God. Or that he had dreams and God talked to him through the dreams. Or that he had a crisis and he wrestled with God and came out spiritually victorious. The only crisis he had was that Jacob stole his birthright but there was no mentioning of him complaining the whole incidents to God but only to his father and he came out angry, wanting to kill his brother. His cry was not to God but to a man. Actually as I was preparing this message, I realize that Esau never had a relationship, an encounter, a wrestling, a vision, a dream or a cry to God. Now I want to ask all of you that are seated in this church this morning – Did you ever have an encounter with God, a vision, a dream and a bitter cry to God (not to man) during the greatest crisis of your life? If you have not any of these, you are on dangerous ground.
We must remember that Esau was meant to enjoy the rich blessings that rightfully belong to him as heirs to Isaac. But he bartered away his spiritual and temporal rights for something not worthwhile (a mess of pottage). I believe that even if Esau had done wrong by selling off his birthright, if he had just come to God and repented and cried bitterly to God, not to man, God would have done something beautiful for him. We heard two weeks ago, the beautiful story of the lost elder son and the lost prodigal son by Bro Kalafi Moala and the tremendous God we serve. Under grace the penitent sinner who has wasted his substance has a Savior to turn to, and repenting of his sin, finds mercy. Esau even with his tears, found no mercy. Because his tears were not directed to God. God was not in his thoughts. Tears to God are godly sorrow. Tears to men are mostly earthly sorrow.
It is so important to have the blessings of God or how should I call it; the favor of God, the unction of God, the approval of God. Recently I have this observation. I realize that there is such a man, who despite his weaknesses and mistakes, is still blessed by God simply because he is called, chosen of God and has the approval of God, the unction of God and favor of God. I would rather be that man than be the other man. Esau was Isaac’s favorite; his father’s favorite. The Bible says in Gen 27:1-4
When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called Esau his older son and said to him’ “My son” and he answered, ‘Here I am’. He said, ‘Behold I am old; I do not know the day of my death. Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow and go out to the field and hunt game for me, and prepare for me delicious food, such as I love, and bring it to me so that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die’ Isaac’s desire was that his ‘soul’ would bless Esau.
It indicates how intensely passionate he was about in blessing Esau. This is more than saying ‘I desire with all my heart’. It was with his whole being. Isaac summoned from the very depths of his own soul and all the vitality and energy at his command in order to invoke God’s blessing upon Esau’. But if you are not in God’s good book then Prov 16:9 says
In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.
Prov 19:21 says:
There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the counsel of the Lord that shall stand.
Man proposes but God disposes. I come to this conclusion in life. That it is better to have God’s approval on us and to be specially called and chosen of God. It is better to be in God’s good book than man’s good book. It is better to long for and be in the position of God’s blessing, God’s favor, having the unction of God and the approval of God in whatever you do.
If you study the whole story of Isaac, Rebekah, Esau and Jacob, you will see that it is like a real life story. Everyone in the story sinned. No one looked good – not Isaac, not Rebekah, not Jacob, not Esau. The Patriarch, Isaac fought against God’s word to bless Jacob. The matriarch Rebekah through her favorite son attempted to manipulate life so as to ensure that God’s promise would actually happen. She and Jacob thought that God needed help, even if the help was dishonest and self-serving.
Esau, the patriarch’s favorite son, disregarded God’s word. Indeed he despised the promise. The little family was fraught with ambition, jealousy, envy, lying, deceit, converting, malice, manipulation, stubbornness and stupidity. This is the real life story of many homes today. Everyone in your family has sinned. The father, mother, brothers, sisters including yourself have sinned. Many are dishonest and self-serving. There is jealousy, envy, lying deceit, coveting, malice, manipulation, stubbornness and stupidity. But in the midst of it, be the Jacob. The person who loses the most is still Esau. Jacob turned out well in the end. Inspite of all who Jacob was, God fulfilled his promise to Jacob. All in all this is something of immense beauty and grandeur and that is the invincible determination of God to keep his word to Jacob who believes in God. Jacob has the true mark of a spiritual man. The true mark of a spiritual man is one whom the Spirit of God can teach and guide. Jacob could be taught and corrected.
Fellow brothers and sisters amidst our sins and our stupidities, the invincible determination of God is set to bring us to completion, to bring about his promise to us. Isaac and Rebekah remained the Patriarch and Matriarch of the promise. Not so with Esau. Why? Because Esau has no spirituality. I said that a real spiritual person is who one truly loves God and yet is conscious of his sinfulness and his weakness and need of God.
4 The Danger of Carnality
Hebrew 12:14-17 says
See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.
See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterwards, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears.’ Actually Esau tears appeared when he recognized that he had no chance to remedy his foolish actions. We must realize that carelessness and carnality are serious acts. Just as Esau’s tears did not earn a return to God for him, a deliberate turning away from Christ will lead to ruin and sorrow.
Esau and Jacob are to be considered representative characters. Esau typifies carnality, while Jacob typifies the man of faith. Esau has a restless nature that is a stranger to peace. This can be seen in the ways he chooses his wives. Actually Esau is a rebel. He doesn’t cherish his birthright. The birthright and definitely our Christian birthright is the most cherished possession in those days. It consists of Excellency of dignity and power, usually a double portion. In connection with the family of Abraham (we are Abraham’s spiritual children) there is a peculiar blessing attached to the birth right: it is spiritual, as well as temporal in its nature. This birthright is a spiritual heritage. It gives the right of being the priest of the family or clan. It carries with it the privilege of being the depository and communicator of the Divine secrets.
We know the secrets of God. It constitutes a link in the line of descends by which the Messiah was to be born. Jesus was to be our Savior. Look at Esau’s carnality. He says
Behold I am going to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me.
These words reveal the true nature of Esau. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit Heb 12:16 says
Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
The next time Esau is mentioned is at the close of Gen 26 when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri, the Hittite and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite; manifestation of carnality. How many today are, like Esau bartering Divine privilege for carnal gratification. Remember the unchanging law of sowing and reaping. Carnality is always in conflict with the spiritual man. Carnality is in conflict with the Holy Spirit. Carnality is at enmity with God. Carnality is found in the children of wrath. Carnality excludes one from the Kingdom of God. And carnality reaps corruption.
Romans 9:13 says
As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
This quotation was from the last book of the Old Testament, in the book of Malachi (Mal 1:2-3). This statement was not made until the two boys have lived their lives and two nations had come from them, which was about two thousand years later, and much history had been made. What I am trying to say is that this statement was made after we have seen the history of Esau and Jacob. A student once said ‘I am having a problem with this passage because I do not understand why God hated Esau. Then the teacher answered ‘I have a problem with that passage too, but mine is different. I do not understand why God loved Jacob?’
That is the big problem. It is easy to see why God rejected Esau, especially after we hear this sermon. He was a rascal; he was a godless fellow, filled with pride and from him came a nation that wanted to live without God and turned their backs upon Him. I can understand why God rejected Esau, but not why He chose Jacob. Because honestly like us, Jacob was not much better than Esau. But the Bible tells us that God made His choice according to His sovereign will. The choice of Jacob is the sovereign purpose of God. Is there injustice with God? No. This is His universe. He is sovereign, I am but a little creature on earth, and He could take away the breadth from me in the next moment. Like Jacob we just have to link ourselves to God, have a real relationship with God and God will fulfill all his promises to us. Today if we are Esau we have to repent and invoke God’s blessings upon us again.
End of sermon
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