Genesis 25:31–34

What makes Esau representative is this: he "despised his birthright." That birthright carried with it, among other things, a double portion of the inheritance (Deut. 21:17), rule over the family, and the privilege of passing on the "Blessing." He gives up all of it for a bowl of stew. He trades manhood for animal appetite. He exchanges immense spiritual wealth and privilege for a mouthful of physical satisfaction.

At the beginning Jacob had a claim to the inheritance in the grace and sovereignty of God. "The elder shall serve the younger" was God's decree in his favour. God did not let Esau's natural rights as the elder stand in his way. God's purpose of grace secured everything to Jacob. That was his only claim, but it was enough — just as it is ours. From simple confidence in this he turned aside. He tried to get his brother's signature on this title (Gen. 25:31), and then, by trickery, to get his father's as well. (Gen. 27)

Passing hunger led to the most serious results. Jacob had boiled a stew of lentils on the day Esau came back faint and starving (v. 29). This gave him the occasion. Jacob longed for that title. For his forefathers and his descendants it was bound up with blessing. He knew his brother placed no such value on it. So he took advantage of Esau's need to strike the bargain. "Feed me, please, with the red — that red there," said the exhausted hunter. "Sell me your birthright now," the unbelieving believer eagerly replied.

The birthright became the subject of a business deal. Esau showed himself to be a "profane person" (Heb. 12:16), saying, "What good is this birthright to me?" Jacob showed himself to be a man who valued the birthright, yet treated it as something to haggle over and buy at the lowest price he could. Esau despised the birthright and lost it. But there is no evidence that Jacob got it through this sharp practice. He got it despite that.

Yet possessing the birthright failed to give Jacob the assurance of the blessing it stood for. If it had, he would not later have gone along so readily with his mother's unworthy scheme to secure it for him. And why? He had grasped the desired mercy in a natural way. So he got none of the satisfaction he would have known if it had come to him in a divine way. A divine way always connects the soul with the Lord. If a mercy is not connected with the Lord, it may often make me more miserable. But if it is, if I know it flows from His love, the heart receives it in quietness and peace. The birthright, his father's blessing, and the vision at Bethel all failed to assure Jacob's soul of the reality of the portion he so prized and needed. Only the wrestling at Mahanaim, where God brought him into personal nearness and subjection, established him in the assurance of it.

To look down on God's promise of blessing is very bad. Now God makes a promise. If you, a sinner, believe on His Son the Lord Jesus Christ, God will forgive your sins and give you peace, joy, and everlasting life. If you despise this, not only do you lose this greatest gift, but later, even if you seek with tears, you may not get it... If you seek God now, you will find Him.

The birthright he sold carried three blessings: 1. The father's blessing and the place of head of the family; 2. The honour of being in the direct line of the promised One — Shem–Abraham–Isaac; 3. Acting as priest for the household. Esau despised all of this for a moment of bodily pleasure. Many follow him today. They could have greater blessings, but they love pleasure more than they love God.

The natural heart places no value on the things of God. To it God's promise seems vague, worthless and powerless, simply because God is not known… Man values anything he can see, because sight rules him, not faith. To him the present is everything; the future carries no weight — it feels like the flimsiest guess. So it was with Esau. Here is his mistaken reasoning: "I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?" What strange reasoning! The present is slipping from beneath my feet, so I will despise and entirely let go of the future? Time is fading from my view, so I will abandon all interest in eternity!

Why so impatient? Could he not hold out a quarter of an hour? The mother's tent was near; could he not wait long enough to ask of those who had never refused his cry of need — never put him off with a stone or a snake?

He exchanges immense spiritual wealth and privilege for a moment of pleasure. He is the standing example of the profane person who recklessly throws away the future while grabbing at the present… He does not seem to have been desperate for food: Scripture says he was "faint." He himself says he was "about to die," but this family was not known for accuracy.

Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of stew. He despised it. At that moment, present ease and relief were everything to him… He traded it away, and though he longed for his father's blessing and sought it with tears, he could never regain what he had lost… With a great and bitter cry he said, "Bless me, even me, O my father." But he said no word of confession about what he had done. He showed no penitent spirit.

The birthright became the subject of a business deal. Esau revealed himself as a "profane person" (Heb. 12:16), saying, "Of what use is a birthright to me?" Jacob showed himself to be a man who valued the birthright but still treated it as something to trade for, and to buy as cheaply as he could. Esau despised the birthright and lost it. But there is no evidence that Jacob got it by this sharp dealing. He got it despite that dealing, not because of it.

To seek something here would be to despise our heavenly birthright for a worldly life. We must watch carefully, so that no one becomes a profane person like Esau, who sold his birthright for one meal. How wonderfully the blessed Lord contrasts with this! True, He surrenders His prospects, His glory, His kingdom, as Son of Man; but not so that He may live. On the contrary, He gives them up so that He may die. He did not despise His birthright, or say, "Of what use is a birthright to Me?"

The birthright became the great test, and in their attitude to it we can see they were indeed two kinds of people. Jacob coveted it and Esau despised it. What was involved in the birthright? The one who had it was in the direct line, moving on toward that "Seed," in whom all nations were to be blessed. The birthright led to CHRIST.

His heart was never really on the birthright, because he had no true appreciation of the inheritance. He looked like the heir of God's promises, but that appearance was false. He had no faith, and only faith makes a promise precious. Then a crisis comes. The birthright now seems unreal to him, and he weighs it against the smallest or poorest scrap of earthly gain. He deliberately prefers the creature to the Creator... Meat was more to him than God.

Esau was the "profane" one. His hope and his heart were tied to life in this world, and to that only. He himself said, "I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?" Like the Gadarenes, and like Judas, Esau would sell his title to Christ. But Jacob had faith, and was ready to buy what Esau was ready to sell.

Jacob took advantage of it. He brought in God — whom he himself was selfishly slighting — to bind Esau, who had no fear of Him at all: "Swear to me now." And he did swear to sell his birthright to Jacob. Both sides acted in the flesh! It did not secure Jacob in the sight of God. Instead it became part of those evil days he later looked back on with shame and sorrow, when grace truly governed his soul.

Esau despised the birthright and lost it, but on the other hand there is no evidence that Jacob obtained it as a result of this sharp practice. He got it despite that sharp practice.

Owning the birthright did not give Jacob the assurance of the blessing it stood for. If it had, he would not later have gone along so readily with his mother's unworthy scheme to get it for him. And why? He had grabbed the mercy he wanted in a natural way. So he got none of the satisfaction he would have known if it had reached him in a divine way. A divine way always connects the soul with the Lord.

So we learn what a profane person is. He is someone who wants to hold both worlds. He wants to enjoy the present without giving up his claim on the future. This is by no means an uncommon case. It describes the worldly person who merely claims to be religious. His conscience has never felt the action of divine truth, and his heart has never felt the influence of divine grace.

Esau starts his worldly history by flinging lightly back in the face of God what His goodness had given him... every sinner has, in a certain sense, a birthright. You have been born into a world the Saviour has come to, and that Saviour came to save sinners. Suppose you do not receive Him. Suppose you hold on in the ways of the world, deluded by Satan, caring only for the things of this life. Then you simply follow in the footsteps of Esau.

The blessings of the birthright he sold consisted in three things: 1. The father's blessing and the place of head of the family; 2. The honour of being in the direct line of the promised One — Shem-Abraham-Isaac; 3. The exercise of the domestic priesthood. Esau despised all this for a moment of bodily pleasure. Many follow him today. They could have greater blessings, but they love pleasure more than they love God.

Scripture calls Esau a profane person for selling his birthright. It was a privilege God had given him, and he should have valued it as such.

No; he had to have the tempting food that instant. In his hasty self-will it seemed like death to wait a few moments longer. Sadly, Jacob took advantage of it. He brought in God to bind Esau, who had no fear of Him at all: "Swear to me first." Yet Jacob himself was slighting that same God for his own ends. … Both sides acted in the flesh!

But did he have no father who loved him, no mother to pity him and provide? Blame Jacob as you like for seizing the chance to get what he valued and Esau did not. And this was now clear: Esau would not stay hungry and thirsty one hour longer. "That red there" he had to have at once, whatever it cost.

"He ate and drank and rose and went his way," refers, I think, to his profane indifference.

The natural heart places no value on the things of God. To it God's promise is vague, worthless and powerless, for the simple reason that God is not known. So present things carry great weight in how people judge. A man values anything he can see, because sight rules him, not faith… What strange reasoning! The present is slipping from under my feet, so I will despise the future and let it go completely? Time is fading from my view, so I will drop all interest in eternity!

His heart was never on the birthright, because he never valued the inheritance. He looked like the heir of God's promises, but his position was completely false. He had no faith, and only faith makes a promise precious… The one value of his title was that it looked forward to God's favour. Yet Esau never enjoyed God Himself, so God was no strength to him in his day of trial. Food meant more to him than God.

The profane person is one who lives wholly for this world, and shuts God and His world out of his thoughts. Esau had not only done this but also had despised what was of God. When people go so far as to despise God and His blessing, they perish… In our own day and land, crowds are slipping into that same great sin over the gospel, and they stand on the brink of destruction.

Esau despised the birthright and lost it. But there is no evidence that Jacob got it because of this sharp dealing. He got it despite it.

Though Jacob used wrong methods to get the birthright, one thing is clear: Jacob valued what God had to give.