And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by … our Father Isaac.
The election of Jacob and the rejection of Esau
1.Not personal, but national.
2. Not to eternal salvation, but to earthly privileges.
3. Not determined by works, but by grace.
4. Not intended to establish the doctrine of unconditional election to eternal life and the predestination of others to eternal damnation, but the unconditional election of the Gentiles to the benefits of the gospel and the national rejection of the Jews. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
Lessons from the case of Esau and Jacob
1.As in Rebeeca’s womb there was a striving between Esau and Jacob, so in every true Christian there is a combating between corruption and grace; and as Esau is the elder, so is corruption.
2. As in Isaac’s family there was a profane Esau as well as a godly Jacob, so is the visible Church a mixed company, as our Saviour teaches by divers parables. Examine how thou standest in the Church, whether as an Esau or as a Jacob.
3. Esau is Isaac’s eldest son, yet rejected. Birth, degrees, and blood are to be regarded, and are especial favours of God, yet they further not election. As it was rather a disgrace for Esau to come of virtuous parents, because he was no better, so do thou account of thyself; then isthe blood of thy famous ancestors thy credit when thou art like them in virtue. Better the honour of our families should begin than end in us.
4. Esau is disinherited, and yet God gave a law that the firstborn should not be deprived of his birthright, namely, without just and weighty cause. (Elnathan Parr, B.D.)
For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of works, but of Him that calleth.--
God’s sovereignty
1.He has the indisputable right to determine the conditions of individual life.
2. Exercises the right freely without reference to future conduct.
3. Does not thereby interfere with the possibility of personal salvation, but provides for it.(J. Lyth, D.D.)
Election: how to be regarded
The doctrine ought never to be a stumbling-block in the way of your entertaining the overtures of the gospel. Leave it to God Himself to harmonise those everlasting decrees, by which He hath distinguished between the elect and the reprobate, with His present declarations of goodwill to one and to all of the human family. Your business is to let the decrees alone, and to cast your joyful confidence upon the declarations. Should an earthly monarch send a message of friendship to your door, must you reject it either as unintelligible or unreal because you have not been instructed in all the mysteries of his government? Because you cannot comprehend the policy of his empire, must you therefore not receive the offered kindness which has come from him to your own dwelling-place? And ere you can appreciate the gift which he holds out for your single and specific acceptance, must you first be able to trace all the workings and all the ways of the vast, the varied, superintendence which belongs to him? It is truly so with God, who, although presiding over a management which embraces all worlds and reaches from everlasting to everlasting, has nevertheless sent to each individual amongst us the special intimation of His perfect willingness to admit us into favour; and must we, I ask, suspend our comfort and our confidence therein till we, the occupiers of one of the humblest tenements in creation, and only the creatures but of yesterday--till we shall have mastered the economy of this wondrous universe and scanned the counsels of eternity? (T. Chalmers, D.D.)
The means and end of predestination
Upon the principles of Christian predestination, you are still not less inconsistent; because you go about to separate two things which are inseparably joined together, viz., the end and the means which lead to it; and then you fly to the old threadbare objection of Papists, Quakers, and Arminians--“if I am elected, I shall be saved, do what I will; if I am not elected, I must be damned, do what I can.” Now, this is the abuse of the doctrine, but by no means the doctrine itself, holiness of heart and life being the middle link of that chain which connects God’s eternal decree with the execution of that decree in the salvation of all His elect. And if you can cast your eyes upon the Christian world in general, you will find that real practical religion is more to be found among those who adopt the Scripture plan of predestination than among those who reject it. But let us have recourse to a familiar illustration of the point in hand. When archbishop Chicheley founded All Souls’ College, in Oxford, he made a decree that they who in future times were founder’s kin should succeed to the fellowship of that college, in preference to all others. This decree is inviolable in the choice of the candidates; but I never heard of one that intended offering himself who reasoned after this manner: “ If I am founder’s kin, I must succeed, do what I will, or even whether I offer myself or not.” No; but they all go about to prove their pedigree and relationship to the founder, and for this purpose they anxiously search the old book entitled “Stemmata Chiciliana,” and apply themselves diligently to their probation exercises, in order that no requisite may be wanting on their parts. Now, my dear--, produce your pedigree, and learn your exercise, and the thing is done. Take but the same pains (though surely you ought to take more) to prove your relationship to the great Founder of the universe, whose decree is that none shall partake of His spiritual blessings but those who bear a relationship to Him through faith in Jesus Christ; apply yourself to the study of that old book the Bible, from which alone you can trace your descent, and study your exercise as becomes a candidate for a heavenly fellowship with God and glorified spirits. Set about this in earnest, and I will venture my own soul upon the safety of yours; for though I cannot climb up into heaven to read God’s decree, yet I shall be very certain, from that middle link of the chain which is let down upon earth, that it is in your favour. (Sir Richard Hill, M.A., letter to a friend.)
The Divine call
Theword “calleth,” when applied to moral agents, assumes the possession of free will. They are“called,” not compelled or necessitated. According to the nature of the case, a “call” may assume the form either of a summons or an invitation. It may sometimes be allied to a commandment, sometimes to an entreaty. In the case before us, where reference is to prerogative, which in its inner ethical content may be either welcomed and prized, or spurned and stamped under foot, the call may be essentially of the nature of a Divine invitation. Some of God’s greatest blessings He simply provides and confers without sending forth an invitation. To the enjoyment of others, He gives invitation, and, as it were, says, “Ho, every one! come ye.” Some such invitation is addressed to persons, some such to peoples. And in both cases invitation may pave the way for further and ulterior invitation. They who “have,” in the sense of accepting what has been proffered, and of keeping andprizing what they have got, to them shall be given, and they shall “have” more abundantly. Invitation to them will follow invitation, till the highest blessing isreached; and they find in their delightful experience that blessed are they who areGod’s invited guests to the everlasting banquet of bliss. To all the highest blessings there is a Divine “call” or “invitation” “For whom He did foreknow … them He also glorifies” (Rom_8:29-30). (J. Morison, D.D.)
