And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him.- Gen_27:41.
1. The second point in the progress of Esau's ruin is this: His passion made him the prey of the first designing man he came across, who happened to be his own brother. As Isaac becomes old, his eyes grow dim. He takes this as a premonition that his end is approaching, that his course is well-nigh run. He summons Esau that he may prepare him a meal of venison before giving to him the covenant blessing. The fraud that was practised by Rebekah and Jacob is well-known. Isaac unwittingly gave Jacob the blessing; but having given it, he felt by the prophetic impulse which was upon him that he had been Divinely guided. “Yea, and he shall be blessed.”
How intensely pathetic is the scene in which Esau, arriving, flushed and eager from the chase, at his old father's bedside, finds suddenly that the elder son's benediction has been given away from him during his absence, and with “a great and exceeding bitter cry,” entreats for it in vain. There he kneels, the stalwart, sun-embrowned sportsman, sobbing like a child for the blessing-his title to which he had once thoughtlessly surrendered for a “morsel of meat”-and sobbing to no purpose, unable, for all his passionate yearnings after it now, to recover the lost good; unable, for all his passionate pleadings for it now, to wring it from the aged patriarch, who fain would have bestowed it and could not.
Esau could scarcely desire the blessing more earnestly for himself than his father desired it for him. But much as they both desired it, Isaac could not give the blessing to his firstborn, because it was no longer his to give. Father and son would have given all they had at that moment in order to obtain their desire, but it was utterly in vain. The blessing was gone already: it was no longer open to disposal. Esau found a loving father and a repenting heart, but he found no room to bring the repentance in. The repentance was there, but no words could unsay the solemn words of blessing spoken by Isaac to Jacob when Esau was not there. Esau might have found room for the repentance if he had cared to seek it in due time. Either when he recovered himself after he sold the birthright, or any time before he married Canaanitish wives, or even after his marriage, during those thirty-seven years while his conduct was a grief to Isaac and Rebekah, he might have inquired what rules God had given for the chosen people, and severed himself, if necessary, from the connexion which stood in his way. For more than forty years Esau had opportunity for repentance, but he neglected it, he despised it, he did not heed it, and he let the time go by. At last he had no warning. He went out from the presence of his father, secure of his blessing; he came back, and lo, it was gone! Henceforth Jacob stood in the place of Esau.
Esau seems to have made in his own mind a certain distinction between the birthright and the blessing of his father. It is not easy to see what he meant by this, inasmuch as the blessing went with the birthright; and, in so far as it was a spiritual as distinct from a temporal blessing, it had (as Esau well knew) been promised by God to Jacob. But at all events the question of inheritance seemed to rise fully before Esau when his father fell sick and was thought to be dying: and an entire change came over him in consequence. He had cared nothing for it before; had even asked in contempt, “What profit shall this birthright do to me?” But now the thought of Isaac's death, and of what would happen to him afterwards, made all look different. To lose it and all that it covered; to lose the place of the elder son and the heir; to lose the double share of the inheritance, and see Jacob take it; to lose whatever else might be meant and included-these things were bitter to his soul. It was no matter that he had sold them all already; that he had made his bargain; that he had had his own named price. He could not bear to lose them now. And so the big, strong, foolish man bursts into a fit of weeping, and cries, “Bless me, even me also, O my father!”
His sorrow was not godly sorrow, but merely remorse on account of the temporal advantages which he had forfeited. His bitter grief was not on account of having despised the religion of Abraham and made light of the worship of Jehovah. While there is much in his character to admire, we have no hint to show us that God was in any of his thoughts. It was this that rendered his repentance unavailing. He had no thought of having injured God. He thought only of the injury done to himself. It was his own personal loss that caused the exceeding bitter cry. There is nothing, therefore, in this rejection of Esau to lead us to suppose that it was done on mere arbitrary grounds. Isaac and Esau were alike disappointed. Esau saw only the supplanter, and vowed to be revenged. Isaac saw God in the matter, and trembled.
Of all the parties in this transaction none is more to blame than Esau. He shows now how selfish and untruthful the sensual man really is, and how worthless is the generosity which is merely of impulse and not based on principle. While he so furiously and bitterly blamed Jacob for supplanting him, it might surely have occurred to him that it was really he who was supplanting Jacob. He had no right, Divine or human, to the inheritance. God had never said that its possession should go to the oldest, and had in this case said the express opposite.
Besides, Esau had sold his birthright, and all its privileges, to his brother, and now he ought to have at least informed or reminded his father of the transaction when he proposed to give him his final and prophetic blessing. The sale of the birthright carried with it all the rights of primogeniture, and included the blessing of Abraham's seed in whom all the nations of the earth were thereafter to be blessed. In consenting therefore to present himself for the blessing of the father, he was breaking faith with his brother Jacob. But when he discovered that Jacob had by fraud secured that which ought now to have been voluntarily surrendered to him, we observe further indications of an unsanctified spirit. A spirit of unholy rage and fierce revenge seems to have possessed his soul. Disappointment did not work remembrance of sin, and lead to an acknowledgment of the righteousness of Providence; it produced rage and complaining, and that sorrow of the world which worketh death. His own misdeeds are forgotten in the crafty transaction by which he regards his brother as having defrauded him of his right. He is loud and vehement in his regrets, revengeful and impious in his heart, cruel and unjust in his threatenings. “Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him: and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then will I slay my brother Jacob.”
2. Esau, we find, got some blessing-the sort of blessing he was fit for. He loved his father, and he was rewarded. “And Isaac his father answered and said unto him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above; and by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck.”
Jacob's blessing contained temporal abundance, temporal rule, and spiritual blessing, the main points plainly being the rights of primogeniture. Esau's, in the first part identical with his brother's, was different afterwards by the want of spiritual blessing; God's gifts without God, the fruit of the earth and the plunder of the sword, but no connexion with the covenant of God. He was to live the free hunter's life which he loved; and we find that he soon became the head of a wild powerful tribe, and his sons after him. Dukes of Edom they were called for several generations; but they never rose to any solid and lasting power; they never became a great nation, as Jacob's children did. They were just what one would expect-wild, unruly, violent people. They have long since perished utterly off the face of the earth.
3. There is one pleasing incident recorded of Esau-his reconciliation with Jacob. When they met some years after, Esau in his new life had forgotten all, and he met Jacob as if nothing had happened. His anger was gone, he felt no envy of his brother's riches, he was even unwilling to accept his present. If, when he set out with his four hundred men to meet Jacob, there was any anger remaining in him, it was all dispersed at the sight of his brother. A quick change of feeling is quite consistent with his warm and impetuous character.
Esau's anger, while it lasted, was dark and fierce, and during the mad fit it was wise to keep out of his way. “Being wrought,” he was “perplexed in the extreme,” like another man of simple, heroic character. His impetuosity made him dangerous. But he was not a man who nursed his wrath. No one would call him sullenly vindictive. If ever he declared that he would do something desperate to an enemy, and did not do it at once, he invariably forgot that he meant to do it at all. He was as changeful in his hatred as in his love. He lived in the passing moment; his blood quickly boiled and quickly cooled: and he was as easily led into good as into evil.1 [Note: J. Strachan, Hebrew Ideals, ii. 36.]
4. At Isaac's grave the two brothers Jacob and Esau met for the last time. Then their ways parted asunder. They became nations, and, centuries after, these nations met when Israel, on his way from Egypt to Canaan, stood at the gates of Mount Seir, asking permission to pass through the borders of the inhabitants of Edom, Esau's people. Moses reminded the king of Edom of the consanguinity of both peoples and of Israel's troubles in Egypt. But the king refused to allow them to pass through, and came out against Israel with a strong hand. The suspicion against Israel was too strong. Here Israel bore the sin of their ancestor, who had taken unfair advantage of Esau. No word of blame against Esau finds expression in the Mosaic records. We read only: “Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border.” Also, later on, Israel is exhorted to treat Edom as a brother. Thus Israel was obliged to make a long and wearisome detour round Mount Seir, crossing the border of Edom in the east. Here they could have revenged themselves for Edom's refusal. The country was different, and Israel's force would have overwhelmed Edom's. But Israel acted after the Lord's command, and passed in peace through the country, purchasing food and water from the Edomites. Moses' politics were directed by the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God is a Spirit of reconciliation. Here Edom was rewarded for Esau's noble conduct towards his brother Jacob by Israel's considerate action. Thus recompense has absolute rule in the history of these nations.
