John Kitto Morning Bible Devotions: March 4

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John Kitto Morning Bible Devotions: March 4

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The Birthright

Genesis 25

The careful and thoughtful reader of Scripture has many gratifications which escape him whose reading is but cursory. Thus, the consideration of dates and ages is wholly overlooked by readers of the easy class; but these are carefully noted by the true student, who derives from them much interesting information. Let us see, for instance, how this applies here. Abraham survived Sarah thirty-eight years. Isaac was thirty-seven years old when his mother died; and as he was forty years old when he married Rebekah, we learn that the camp of Abraham remained for three years without a mistress. Again, Isaac was sixty years of age before his sons Esau and Jacob were born. Thus, for more than twenty years, the heir of the promises remained childless; and Abraham, but for his faith, must have been sorely tried by this second long protraction of the hope he most cherished. This is, among the trials of his faith, not recorded, and only discoverable by the comparison of dates. Again, as Abraham’s death is recorded before the birth of Isaac’s sons is mentioned, nine readers out of ten probably consider that Abraham was dead before his grandsons were born. But by looking at his age when he died, and comparing it with the age of Isaac when his sons entered the world, we see that Abraham not only waited twenty years before his grandsons were born, but actually lived to see them seventeen or eighteen years old; so that it is almost beyond a doubt that Jacob and Esau did, and certain that they might, have had much intercourse with their venerable grandfather. Whether the elder of the two profited much by this advantage, does not appear; but it is probable that Jacob, the younger, owed much of his strong faith in the Lord’s providence, to the example and instructions of the patriarch.

Although distinguished as elder and younger, the two lads were in fact twins—Esau having simply been the first to enter the world in the same birth. Yet if the distinctions of elder and younger are of value for social or other privileges, a few moments’ priority is as good as a priority of years. It is remarkable, however, how little value seems to be attached to these distinctions in the counsels of God. In fact, it is observable how very frequently, in cases of preference and selection, the choice falls upon the younger sons. The righteous Abel is the youngest son of Adam; Abraham is the youngest son of Terah; Jacob is the youngest son of Isaac; Joseph is the youngest but one of Jacob’s twelve sons; the favored Ephraim is the youngest of Joseph’s sons; Moses is the youngest of Amram’s Sons; David is the youngest of Jesse’s sons; and Solomon is the youngest of David’s sons.

The intended preference of the younger over the elder—of Jacob over Esau—was disclosed to the mother before the children saw the light, and was probably the source of the special regard in which she always held that son, while the feelings of the father inclined as strongly to his first-born.

The character of the two men, as they grew up, is very strongly distinguished, following remarkably the difference observed in their persons even at the birth. The eldest was rough, ruddy, and hairy—a description which implies great bodily strength, and a temperament which would incline him to exciting and hazardous pursuits. The juvenile appearance of Jacob is not described, but the silence implies that he was the reverse of his brother—smooth, tender, and feminine. As they grew up, the difference of character was shown in their pursuits. The quiet occupations and interests of pastoral life, which suited well the quiet temper of Jacob, became hateful to his more ardent brother, who gave his days to the chase, the excitement and violent exertions of which supplied the kind of rough stimulant which his impulsive temper required; and the bodily exercise which his strong and active frame demanded.

The character of Jacob will come often enough under our notice in the course of the ensuing days; but that of Esau, which will less require our attention, may be indicated in the words of a very able American writer—“Esau, it would seem, belonged to the class of rough sensual natures—men who, acting under the influence of present impulse, have no steadiness of character. They are distinguished by an imposing directness of conduct, the very opposite to anything deceitful or cunning. They have feeling and kindness; they readily forget an injury, and cherish no malice. Those amiable qualities are associated, however, with levity, sensuality, and passion, leading to acts of violence as circumstances may prompt.” Note: Dr. Samuel H. Turner, in his Notes on Genesis. Here, however, he much follows a German writer of high repute, named Dreschler.

This man, returning one day unsuccessful, weary, and famishing from his hunting, saw Jacob preparing a most savory mess of red-looking pottage. It was made of those red lentiles which at the present day form a dish highly relished in Syria and Egypt. Esau knew not its name, for his rough roving life left him but little knowledge of domestic cookery. But the sight of it was pleasant, and the odor overpoweringly engaging to a man ravenously hungry. He cried impatiently, “Give me some of that red—that red!” It is so rarely that any choice cookery is seen among those who dwell in tents, that it may be well understood that the mess was as valuable in the eyes of Jacob as it was tempting in those of his brother. Still Jacob was not personally a selfish man in small matters, though in large matters he sometimes sought, not by the most direct policies, the means by which his interests might be advanced; and we may therefore believe that he would not have grudged the loss of his choice meal, had it not occurred to him that the occasion might be employed for securing an object he had much at heart. Truly, he must have had no very exalted opinion of his brother’s sense of self-control, when he made to him the extraordinary proposal of exchanging this mess of pottage with him for his birthright. But he knew the man—he knew him to be of those to whom the present is all, and on whom the remote and the ideal make no impression.

The result does more honor to Jacob’s penetration than to his brotherly love. Esau closed with the proposal. “Behold,” said he, with a hunter’s exaggeration, “behold I am at the point to die; and what profit shall this birthright do to me?” The full effect of this declaration has not been well understood by those unacquainted with the East. We are apt to think he might have taken some bread and cold meat—anything in the way, to refresh himself, and stay his appetite, till a more substantial meal should be got ready; and hence the whole burden of his declaration is made to rest on his special fancy for Jacob’s red pottage. Now, it is true that he liked the pottage; but it would seem that his great desire for it was, from its being the only food to be obtained, with which to appease his rage of hunger. We have already explained (p. 217), that there is never anything ready in eastern tents, and scarcely in the houses, for a sudden demand; all has to be prepared, if a demand arises between the times of meals. Hence Esau knew that unless he obtained this pottage, he should have to wait some time—an age to a famishing man—until some food was prepared for him, or until the next meal-time came round. Probably, as Esau was returned from hunting, this was the last meal of the day, and it had been so usually expected that he would provide for himself from the game he had shot, that no preparation had been made for him; so that unless he obtained Jacob’s supper, or endured the delay of preparing another for himself at an unseasonable hour, he would have got no food until the morning. This was enough to act upon the mind of a man who lived so much for the present, and had so little value for his birthright as Esau. He consented; and, at Jacob’s demand, confirmed the transfer of his birthright by an oath.

It is impossible to approve of Jacob’s conduct in this matter. It was sinister and unfraternal, and it was more—it was unfaithful. He knew that all he sought had been promised to him by One, of whose faithfulness in all his promises he must often have heard from his grandfather. It was therefore his duty to have left the accomplishment to Him, in his own time, without seeking to aid, by paltry underhand policies, the purposes of God. But we must view the character of Jacob in its progress of development and formation. It is our fault that we view men at all times as one; whereas there is often as little resemblance between the same man in youth and in mature age, as there is between any two individuals who pass along the road. So the Jacob of advanced life—taught of God at Bethel, Mahanaim, and Peniel—matured by experiences, and tried by sorrows—is found to be a different man, in many respects, from the Jacob dwelling in his father’s tents, and under the influence and training of a sharp and unscrupulous mother.

But what was this birthright which Jacob so greatly coveted, and which his brother so lightly esteemed? The ordinary privilege of the first-born consisted in precedence over the other brothers, and in a double share of the paternal estate. Note: See Gen_43:33-34. Deu_21:17. 1Ch_5:1-2. To this, some add, upon doubtful reasoning, the privilege of the priesthood. But the early Jewish writers, who naturally felt much interest on the subject, and were well able to investigate it, think that the privilege which Jacob desired and obtained had nothing to do with present secular advantages, but had reference to that heritage of the promises made to Abraham, which was supposed to go to the eldest born. They appeal to facts which are decidedly in their favor. “As to power and authority,” says one of the writers (Abarbanel), “Jacob never exercised any over Esau, but, on the contrary, humbly and submissively addresses him as my lord, and styles himself Esau’s servant, Gen_32:5. And as to the double portion of Isaac’s property, so far from obtaining it, Jacob not only declares, with my staff I passed over this Jordan, but surrenders a considerable portion of his own property in the shape of a gift to Esau.” In fact, Esau, who “despised his birthright,” received his possessions earlier than Jacob; and he founded a nation without subjecting his progeny to any disgrace, like that which the Israelites sustained in Egypt.

To be the heir of the promise—to acquire possession of Canaan—to be associated with God in Abraham’s covenant—and, under it, to be the instrument of imparting a blessing to all the earth, were matters on which Jacob’s thoughts were fixed. It was not his own personal worldly advantage to which he looked; but the future welfare—temporal, spiritual, and eternal—of his progeny; and inasmuch as the man, inspired by exalted hopes and purposes, he who holds “large discourse, looking before and after,” is more entitled to our respect than the impulsive, sensuous creature who says, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die,” we cannot, even in this transaction, rightly understood, hold Jacob in light esteem, however deeply we may deplore and censure the unkind and ungenerous manner in which he acquired a human claim to that which had been his by divine right, before his birth.