Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread:"
The story of Esau should wake every one of us up, and sober us. He wasn't a bad man; his brother Jacob appears in the Bible to have been more of a crook than he, deceiving his old father, and also deceiving Laban. No such serious crime is recorded of Esau. We don't read of his stealing anything or telling lies. He is the fine biblical example of an upright, decent man who minded his own business and didn't hurt anyone else. But he despised his birthright, sold it, and lost it forever; and all his tears afterwards were for nothing. Paul points to him as a warning to all of us: Look "diligently lest anyone fall short of the grace of God ... like Esau" (Heb. 12:15, 16).
What was Esau's problem? The record doesn't indicate any crime: he didn't appreciate what God had given him in his birthright! He "fell short of the grace of God," that is, his heart wasn't moved by "grace," no contact was made. The "birthright" was the inestimable privilege of being a progenitor of the coming Messiah, the Savior of the world, to get his name listed in Matthew 1 or Luke 3 as shareholders with Christ in saving the world.
Through the birthright was to come the blessing of Abraham to whom God promised that "in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (Gen. 12:3). That didn't appeal to Esau; he was "profane," not that he necessarily swore curses, but his thinking and feeling were only worldly, untouched by the "grace of God." No tears ever came in his eyes; the thought of a cross on which the Prince of glory should die for the world was boring to Esau.
The Bible says something that on the surface sounds awful, "Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated," God said (Rom. 9:13). That doesn't mean that God rejected Esau; it means that He appreciated the devotion of Jacob and let Esau go his own way--let him have what he wanted. Esau illustrates John 3:18, he shows us what it means to "not believe in the name of the only begotten Son of God."
"Not believing" is not doing bad things necessarily; it is cold-heartedness, being "profane" in the sense of not being moved by the grace of God, nonchalantly watching Jesus die on His cross. It's what Jesus says permeates the church of Laodicea from top to bottom (Rev. 3:16-18). Yes, Christ loves everybody; but He can't force people to enter His kingdom who would only be bored if they got there. He has too much self-respect.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: November 8, 2000.
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