31 BITTER CONSEQUENCES

This lesson emphasizes the intensity of the regret people feel when they realize they have made a mistake and there is no way to change it. They changed their minds too late. This sobering lesson should be understood by every one who wants to avoid such bitter consequences.

The day is coming when those that now make light of the blessings of a close relationship with God, and sell their right to those blessings for something of no real value. Those who will not so much as ask and seek now will soon knock, and cry, “Lord, Lord,” but it will be too late. It would be better that no-one would experience that, but especially leaders whose decisions influence and effect the decisions of others.

Isaac trembled violently when he was first made aware of Jacob’s deceit and Esau’s fate. Those that follow the choice of their own affections, rather than God’s plans, involve themselves in such complex and divisive perplexities as these. But Isaac is a man of God and soon recovers himself coming to terms with his own as well as his son’s error and therefore, though late, nevertheless does eventually ratify the blessing he had given to Jacob. He evidently did not attempt to recall the blessings. Either (1) he, himself, recollected the Word God earlier gave Rebekah and him, or (2) rather having found himself more than ordinarily filled and urged on by the Holy Ghost when he gave the blessing to Jacob, he realized that God did choose Jacob and, as it were, say Amen to it. Either way God intervened in Isaac’s mistake and God’s will was completed through Isaac’s own prayer of blessing. Can we. Christian leader, learn to be listening to the direction of the Holy Spirit in our praying even while we are in the act of praying. Especially when we are praying in public this would be important.

Isaac is now surrendered to the will of God, though it contradicted his own expectations and affection. He had a mind to give Esau the blessing, but, when he perceived the will of God was otherwise, he submitted; and this he did “by faith.” “By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future” (Hebrews 11:20).  Abraham had had a similar experience earlier, when he had asked God that Ishmael would be blessed. Both to Abraham and Isaac God said, “No.” May not God do what He wills with His own?

Jacob was confirmed in his possession of the blessing, and even though he obtained it fraudulently was satisfied with its validity; it was his. He surely could not have succeeded if God had not allowed it.

Esau was now cut off from that special blessing which he mistakenly thought to have preserved for himself even when he sold his birthright. We, by this instance, are given a very real illustration of a deep truth Paul writes about in Romans 9:11-16. “11 Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: 12 not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” 14 What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.” We may strive, but God does what He wants. We may be lowly, but God lifts whom He wills. Paul seems to allude to this story. Esau now had a desire for the blessing, and ran for it; but God who sowed mercy designed it for Jacob.

Those who undervalue their spiritual birthright, and can afford to sell it for a morsel of meat, forfeit spiritual blessings, and it is fair with God to deny them those favors about which they were careless. Those who will part with their wisdom, grace, faith and a good conscience, for the honors, wealth, or pleasures, of this world, however they may pretend a zeal for the blessing, have already judged themselves unworthy of it, and so shall their life-course be self determined. Those who lift up hands in wrath lift them up in vain. Esau, instead of repenting of his own folly, criticized his brother, unjustly charged him with taking away the birthright which he had fairly sold to him. He was angry with Jacob for the error he, himself, had made. People are not likely to receive answers to prayer who turn their resentments on others which they should turn upon themselves. They lay the blame of their unanswered prayers on others, when they should take the blame themselves. Folks who don’t seek until it is too late will be rejected. This was the ruin of Esau, he did not change his mind in time. As there is an accepted time, a time when God will be found, so there is also a time when He will not answer those who call on Him because they neglected their opportunity in the appointed season. Proverbs 1:28 gives us a fair warning: “Then they will call to me but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me,” The time of God’s patience and our opportunity-testing will not last always; the day of grace will come to an end and the door will be shut. Then many that now despise the blessing will seek it carefully; for then they will know how to value it. But they are too late and will see themselves forever at a loss.

“When Esau heard his father’s words, he burst out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me—me too, my father!” Did he realize he was too late when this happened? The worst of men know how to wish well to themselves; and even those who carelessly sell their birthright seem piously to desire the blessing. Desires for happiness, without a right choice of the end to which this choice is leading, or a right use of right means to obtain it take many to ruin. Some who aspire to Christian leadership never get there. Multitudes go to hell with their mouths full of good wishes. The desire of the slothful and unbelieving kills them. Many will seek to enter, as Esau, but will not be able, because they do not know that the way up is down, the way to promotion is humility, the path to blessing is abandoning other pursuits and seeking and focusing on only the blessing. Psalm 4:6 says, “Many, Lord, are asking, ‘Who will bring us prosperity?’ Let the light of your face shine on us.” It is the folly of many that they are content with the “good” and do not aspire for the “best,” as Esau here, who desired but a second-rate blessing, a blessing separated from the birthright. Wicked hearts think any blessing is okay as if to say, “I will accept any, though I have not the priceless spiritual heritage I could have had, yet let me have some blessing.” They are content with too little. Let us strive for the best.

Isaac did give him a blessing which was a good thing, and better than he deserved. It was promised that he should have a competent livelihood—the fatness of the earth, though not the dew of heaven. People who come short of the best blessings of the covenant may yet, it seems have some share of outward blessings. God gives good ground and good weather to many who reject His covenant and have no part nor lot in it. Esau would eventually recover his liberty. If Jacob must rule, Esau must serve; but he has this to comfort him, he will live by his sword. He will serve, but he will not starve; and, at length, after much war, he will break the yoke of bondage, and wear marks of freedom. This was fulfilled in the time of Jehoram when the Edomites revolted against Judah many generations later and gained their independence.

Esau’s blessing was far short of Jacob’s blessing. For him God had reserved many better things. In Jacob’s blessing the dew of heaven is put first, as that which he most valued, and desired, and depended on; in Esau’s the fatness of the earth is put first, for this is what he really wanted first and primarily. Esau has these, but Jacob has them from God’s hand: God give you (Jacob) the dew of heaven. It was enough for Esau to have the possession itself now; but Jacob desired it by promise, from covenant-love well into the future. Jacob will have dominion over his brethren: hence the Israelites often ruled over the Edomites. Esau will have dominion, that is, he will gain some power and interest, but will never have dominion over his brother: we never find that the Jews were sold into the hands of the Edomites, or that they oppressed them. But the great difference is that there is nothing in Esau’s blessing that points at the Messiah, nothing that brings him or his into the church and family of God, without which the fatness of the earth and the plunder of the field will not do much good for him. Isaac by faith blessed them both according as their lot should be. Jacob was blessed with a kiss, but not Esau. “So he (Jacob) went to him (Isaac) and kissed him. When Isaac caught the smell of his clothes, he blessed him and said, ‘Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed’” (27).

Esau bore hatred towards Jacob on account of the blessing he had obtained. “Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. He said to himself, ‘The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob’” (41). Esau followed the way of Cain, who killed his brother Abel because Abel had gained acceptance with God which Cain did not have. Esau’s hatred of Jacob, however, was a causeless hatred. He hated him for no other reason than that his father blessed him and God loved him. The happiness of saints is the envy of sinners. Whom Heaven blesses, hell curses. The psychology of envy and jealousy explains why unhappy unbelievers dislike happy Christians. It was a cruel hatred. Nothing less would satisfy him than to kill his brother. It is the blood of the saints after which persecutors thirst: “I will slay my brother.” How could he say that word without horror? How could he call him brother, and yet wish his death? The rage of persecutors will not be tied up by any family loyalties. He expected his father would soon die, and then positions must be tried and personal interests contested between the brothers, which might give him an opportunity for revenge. He was told he would live by his sword. “You will live by the sword and you will serve your brother. But when you grow restless, you will throw his yoke from off your neck” (40). But he thinks it not enough to live by his sword himself unless his brother die by it. He is hesitant to grieve his father while he lives, and therefore puts off the intended murder until his death, not caring how much he then would grieve his surviving mother. Those are bad children to whom their good parents are a burden, and who, upon any account, long for the days of their deaths. Bad men are long held in by external restraints from doing the bad things they would like to do, and so their wicked purposes come to nothing. Those who want to defeat God’s purposes will undoubtedly be disappointed themselves. Esau aimed to prevent Jacob, or his descendants, from having dominion by taking away his life before he was married, but who can cancel what God has spoken? Men maybe displeased at God’s counsels, but cannot change them.

Rebekah warned Jacob of his danger, and advised him to flee to Paddan-Aram for a while, and shift for his own safety. She tells him what she heard of Esau’s design, that he comforted himself with the hope of an opportunity to kill Jacob. “When Rebekah was told what her older son Esau had said, she sent for her younger son Jacob and said to him, ‘Your brother Esau is planning to avenge himself by killing you.’” What kind of comfort is drawn from the destruction of another, another’s life, reputation, health, success or whatever else. Do we draw comfort from even thinking about the loss someone else might experience? What kind of person draws comfort from something like that? Would one think that such a bloody thought as this could be a comfort to a man? Rebekah hoped that, if Jacob for a while kept out of sight, the disappointment which Esau felt so fiercely would eventually go away. She thought that the strength of passions is weakened and reduced by the distances both of time and place. She promised herself that his brother’s anger would turn away. But she had no guarantee of this. 

She suggested the idea of Jacob’s going among her relations to take a wife to Isaac. “Then Rebekah said to Isaac, ‘I’m disgusted with living because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes a wife from among the women of this land, from Hittite women like these, my life will not be worth living’” (46). She wants to have Jacob married to one better principled than the local Hittite wives like Esau had married. Jacob was himself very well fixed in his commitment and loyalty to God, so he could be protected from temptation by living among Rebekah’s God-fearing extended family members. He was a healthy grown man in need of companionship and yet possibly in danger of following the bad example of his brother. Who knows maybe the Hittite young ladies were pretty. We must not presume too far on human wisdom or resolution, not even of those children that are most hopeful and promising. As much as is reasonable they must be kept from temptation, out of harm’s way. So Jacob went north.

Rebekah was a planner, Isaac was slow to follow God’s plan, Esau had earthly motives, Jacob was right, but wrong.