Bill Fitzhenry's Thoughts For Today…

Understanding important truths from the Bible….

Genesis 27:30-41; 28:6-9; Malachi 1:2-3 ESV

The brothers, Esau and Jacob, are not the only important brothers in the Bible. In Genesis four, the sad account of Cain and Abel introduces the Bible reader to what can happen between brothers. But Esau and Jacob, along with their posterity, continue to be major contributors to Bible history and theology. God’s choice of Jacob is an absolute proof of His sovereign election according to Paul in Romans 9.

There are some features about Esau which are common to the lost. These are:

1. Esau does not have a spiritual nature therefore he does not value spiritual necessities. He casually barters away his spiritual birthright. Genesis 25:29-34

29 Once when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was exhausted.

30 And Esau said to Jacob, "Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted!" (Therefore his name was called Edom.)

31 Jacob said, "Sell me your birthright now."

32 Esau said, "I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?"

33 Jacob said, "Swear to me now." So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob.

34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

2. Without a spiritual nature he thought he could have the blessing of Abraham which was a spiritual blessing without the birthright. Genesis 27:34-36

34 As soon as Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry and said to his father, "Bless me, even me also, O my father!"

35 But he said, "Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing."

36 Esau said, "Is he not rightly named Jacob?For he has cheated me these two times. He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing." Then he said, "Have you not reserved a blessing for me?"

3. Esau, being no more than a natural man, sought to please his father’s and mother’s spiritual desire for success for their sons. Genesis 28:6-9

6 Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram to take a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he directed him, "You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women,"

7 and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and gone to Paddan-aram.

8 So when Esau saw that the Canaanite women did not please Isaac his father,

9 Esau went to Ishmael and took as his wife, besides the wives he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth.

4. Without a spiritual nature Esau never understood repentance and never repented. Hebrews 12:16-17

16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.

17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

5. Esau never had spiritual discernment. His best effort was never more than what a person raised in a good family would do. Esau must be evaluated in the light of I Corinthians 2:14. In fact we all must be.

14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.