And Esau said, Behold, I am going to die, and of what use can the birthright be to me?
Esau comes in from the field worn out and smells his brother's stew. He sells his birthright for one meal, arguing that a dying man has no use for a future. Two questions follow: what was he selling, and was he as close to death as he claimed?
So what was Esau selling? One writer lists three things:
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 verse gives us Esau's logic in his own words, and one writer takes that logic apart:
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!
The text says only that Esau was faint. His claim to be at death's door is his own reading of an empty stomach. One commentator presses the point with simple questions:
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?
Scripture's word for his state is milder than his own:
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.
The loss shaped the rest of his life:
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.
Jacob is no hero in this scene either:
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.
Christ also gave up what was His by right — but for the opposite reason:
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?"
- Appetite — Esau was faint, not dying. His own exaggeration turned passing hunger into an excuse, with food and family close at hand.
- Contempt — the natural heart values only what it can see. God's promise looked worthless next to a hot meal.
- Forfeit — he sold the family headship, a place in the line of the promised One, and the priesthood of the home. He never got it back. His later tears begged for the blessing; they confessed nothing.
- Bargain — Jacob wanted the right thing by the wrong method. He received the birthright despite his sharp dealing, not because of it.
- Contrast — Christ gave up His prospects, His glory and His kingdom too, but He did it so that He could die. He never asked what use His birthright was to Him.
And Jacob said, Swear unto me now. And he swore unto him, and sold his birthright to Jacob.
Two brothers strike a bargain over a bowl of stew, and the older seals it with an oath before he eats. The deal is quick. But commentators treat it as the turning point of both lives, and they press one question: what changed hands?
The birthright was not simply a larger share of the family estate. Writers connect it to the promise running through Abraham's family.
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.
Esau said a dying man gains nothing from a birthright. Writers read that excuse as proof that his heart had made its choice long before the stew was cooked.
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.
The same choice shows up elsewhere in Scripture.
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 asked for an oath. He used God's name to bind his brother, while slighting God himself.
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 lost the birthright here. Commentators differ over Jacob: one sees faith in his wanting it, another judges how he got it.
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.
One writer explains why a blessing grabbed by scheming brings no rest.
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.
Commentators sum up Esau in one term — profane — and explain what it means.
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.
The warning comes straight to the reader.
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 birthright — it placed its holder in the line moving toward the promised Seed; it "led to CHRIST."
- The bargain — Esau weighed an unseen inheritance against one meal and chose the meal. He had no faith, and only faith makes a promise precious.
- The oath — Jacob brought God's name in to bind a brother who feared God not at all, while slighting God himself.
- The gain — Esau lost the birthright; Jacob got it despite his scheming, not because of it, and found no rest in what he grabbed.
- The label — a profane person wants both worlds — the present enjoyed, the future still claimed.
And Jacob gave Esau bread and the dish of lentils; and he ate and drank, and rose up and went away. Thus Esau despised the birthright.
Genesis 25 ends with a meal that costs a man everything. Esau eats, gets up and walks off, and the story closes with one line of verdict. The question is not why Jacob bargained. It is how a man could value God's gift so little that a bowl of food outbid it.
The birthright was not a sentimental family honour. Writers who trace its content find several real privileges bound up in it.
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.
The verse turns on one word: despised. What makes it so serious is who gave the birthright.
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.
Esau was not truly about to die. He would not wait.
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!
Kelly presses further, asking what was waiting for Esau at home.
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.
The verse ends not with the deal but with how Esau walked away. That detail gives him away.
"He ate and drank and rose and went his way," refers, I think, to his profane indifference.
Behind the indifference lies a way of reasoning that many share.
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!
Esau's contempt did not begin at the cooking pot.
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 word profane describes a whole way of living, and the warning reaches past Esau.
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.
The chapter shows two failures, not one. Commentators are careful to say that Jacob's desire was right and his method was not.
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.
- Given — the birthright was God's own gift to Esau. That is why the verse says he despised it, and not simply that he traded badly.
- Craved — nothing forced his hand. He would not hold out another hour, and both brothers acted in the flesh: one grasping, one giving away.
- Despised — sight ruled him. What he could see weighed more than what God had promised, so eternity looked like nothing beside a meal.
- Indifferent — he ate, rose and walked off without a backward look. That is the mark of a profane man: God shut out of his thoughts.
- Warned — Jacob schemed, yet he valued what God had to give. Esau's sin is still open today: anyone who hears the gospel can despise the blessing.