Esau

After a long hiatus, I am restarting my blog!  Enjoy!

Uncommon characters in the old testament can be a fertile field for study for the Bible student.  All of us want to work on developing good Christ like character.  All of us want to root out sin and fight against it.  Some of these uncommon characters can help us toward that goal. 

One person that it is profitable to study is Esau.  He is often an after thought in studies about Jacob.  Jacob is depicted as the good guy and a “bible hero,” while Esau is depicted as the dirty, self-centered hedonist, with little concern for the future.  We must recognize through this study that there is some truth to this characterization of Esau.  But the picture is much more complicated.  In fact, Jacob is less saint than you realized, and Esau is probably a lot more like you and me than we may want to admit!  So, lets take a close look at Esau that we may become less like sinners and more like the Christ we want to emulate.

The first lesson we learn about Esau is rather shattering.  Its a great deal about the mercy of God, as well as His justice.  Romans 9:13 quotes the Old Testament so: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”  For Paul, Esau is an object lesson in the mercy of God.

Esau was a sinner by choice and by birth.  He was a born sinner, as the whole human race, save Christ, has been since Eve gave birth to her own children.  He was also a sinner by choice.  He sinned during his life, despising the good, and choosing earthly things rather than godly things.  He participated in Canaanite paganism through his marriages to Canaanite brides.  He cared little for the things of God.  This is what we know from scripture alone.  But we can also infer that he sinned in many ways simply because he was a sinner!  Just like us, if you think about it!  How many of us has, as our first thought, honoring and loving God?  How many of us want to please Him and seek His face all the time?  If you say that you do, then you just lied!  

The reality is that all of humanity seeks its own willful way.  Only when Christ comes into a life is the even the rudimentary beginning of truly God centered life.  And then its a long road to building a life that is more an more Christ centered, thinking God’s thoughts after him.

But this is where things get really strange to our minds.  Read the context in Romans 9:

1 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.”

“…before they had done anything good or bad….”  Think about that for a few moments.  Before they had made any choices.  Before they had “rejected God.”  Before they broke a commandment.  Before they looked upon a woman or a mountain or property or fatted calf with selfishness, before their first toy broken in a fit of self centered rage…  God had already made the most important decision.  God had elected to bless Jacob, before he had done any good thing.  And he chose not to bless Esau with a relationship with himself.  As we shall see, Esau certainly did reject God in his own turn.  But before that decision was ever made…indeed in eternity past, God had a elected to bless Jacob and not Esau.

Why was there a need for an election by God?  Why is it required that God had to choose to bless Jacob with His mercy?  As we have already pointed out, Jacob and Esau were both born sinners.  They were descended of sinners and members of a sinful race.  And they were both also sinners by choices.  Either of those conditions are sufficient to bring the condemnation of separation from God in the afterlife.  We are a race of rebels, who never have done anything worthy to earn or force God, or compel him to grant us a seat in his heaven.  So unless God intervene, and choose to grant mercy to some of our race, we are lost and without hope.

God chose to have mercy on Jacob.  Esau was not elected to receive mercy.

For some of us, that is hard truth to swallow.  We want to think that we did something  to gain God’s notice.  We want to think he was attracted to us, or he saw us do something good.  We want to think that somehow, we had salvation coming to us.  Maybe we credit ourselves with some inner movement of the soul, or some graciousness of spirit that we evidenced.  

Not at all.  It was, from eternity past, seeing us in our depravity, that God chooses.  And as part of that choice, he moves and works and prepares you for that day, when perhaps you thought it was you who had been seeking and found Him!  In actuality God has been pursuing you.  And even knowing that you would stray and be wayward affer you were awakened to new life, He still chose you. 

The amazing thing is, since you had nothing to do with your choice, and since God knows all ends, that means you have nothing to do with keeping your salvation.  He is the one who made the purchase and supplies the guarantee (Eph 1:14).  

Jacob, himself, was not a “saint” in the sense that he had earned his place at God’s table.  He was a cheat, a thief, and a terrible parent.  He himself struggled with belief when hard times came.  He needed the election of God.  He was no better than Esau, who was not so blessed.

So Esau, then, is for us a reminder of the kindness that God shows those who belong to Him.  “There but for the grace of God go I.”  That’s an old saying that certainly is true.  God saves us, changes our destiny, and makes us more and more His own as life goes on after salvation.  

Have you understood your need for salvation?  Do you recognize that, you too, are a sinner?  The amazing thing is God asks you, right now, if you believe in Jesus Christ and His payment on the cross.  And if say “yes” to Him, or have already done so, perhaps you did thinking that it was you that figured this thing out.  But then we look back, having “received Christ,” and realize that it was God himself who set the appointment time for your salvation, that he opened your eyes and made you aware of your need, and gave you the faith required to bring your salvation (Eph 2:8-9).  

There is more to be learned from Esau’s life.  For now, let’s just remember with gratitude that it is God who saves us from a just end in Hell.