GENESIS 27:30-40
Esau was bitter toward his brother because he had taken advantage of him twice. Desperate to
have something, Esau asked his father, “Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me?” (Gen. 27:36).
Isaac answered, “Behold, I have made him thy lord, and all his brethren have I given to him for
servants; and with corn and wine have I sustained him: and what shall I do now unto thee, my
son?” (v. 37).
Esau became more desperate and said to his father, “Hast thou but one blessing, my father? bless
me, even me also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice, and wept” (v. 38). Esau did not
weep because he was concerned about spiritual values, but because he could not change his
father’s mind.
Hebrews 12:17 says of Esau, “For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the
blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it [the blessing]
carefully with tears.” Esau was not repenting of his sin. He was trying to get his father to repent,
or change his mind, of having given the blessing to Jacob.
Esau was as much to blame for the loss of the birthright as Jacob was in securing it through deceit
and cleverness. Had it not been for Esau’s attitude toward his birthright, it would not have been as
easy for Jacob to take it from him. Let us be careful about our attitude toward spiritual truths.
Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up
trouble you, and thereby many be defiled (Heb. 12:15).
Theodore Epp
www.backtothebible.in