Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3111
“And Esau said unto his father, Haveyou but one blessing, my Father? Bless me, even me, also, O my Father. And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.” Genesis 27:38.
You know the story of Esau and Jacob. [See Sermons #239, Volume 5—JACOB AND ESAU and #1718, Volume 29—CERTAIN SINGULAR SUBJECTS] Esau Was the elder of the twin sons of Isaac and
Rebekah. The birthright was his by right, but he despised it. He was a profane person who did not prize the hereditary privilege which was really his. He actually sold his right to it to his younger brother, Jacob, for a mess of “pottage of lentils.” Time rolled on and Isaac, feeling the infirmities of age creeping upon him, determined to give to Esau the blessing to which, as his elder son, he was entitled. Rebekah wanted the blessing to be given to her younger son and, therefore, resorted to a stratagem in order to make the poor blind father believe that Jacob was Esau—and in that way Jacob gained the blessing by fraud. When Esau came in and found that the blessing was given to Jacob—and that it could not be revoked—he cried bitterly and besought his father to give him “but one blessing.”
The whole story reflects no credit upon any of the persons concerned. It certainly brings no credit to Isaac—he was a true Believer in God, but he was a man of an easy-going, gentle spirit who did not control his household as he ought to have done. And it appears that in his later days he craved dainty dishes to tempt his appetite—“savory meat,” such as he asked Esau to prepare for him—and so he did not wait upon God for guidance as to the bestowal of his paternal blessing but, in direct opposition to the Divine purpose, determined to give the blessing to the son whom God had not chosen. It was a bad thing for the household to be divided as it was—the husband and wife at cross purposes—Rebekah seeking the blessing for her favorite son and Isaac preferring the bolder spirit of the wilder man. I cannot excuse either Rebekah or Jacob. They were acting very wickedly in trying to get Isaac’s blessing by fraud and falsehood. Neither can I justify Esau, for he was trying to keep what he had sold to his brother and what he had despised and contemptuously called, “this birthright.”
One thing is certain—God’s Providence, notwithstanding their sin, carried out God’s purpose! It was no business of theirs, as it is no business of ours, to try to fulfill God’s decrees. God would have managed the whole affair far better without Rebekah’s meddling—and the foolish mother would not have had to send from home her darling son, nor would he have had to go away as an exile to endure all that he had to endure at the hands of the grasping Laban! Still, God overruled the evil and His design was accomplished, as it always is and always will be.
My special purpose at this time is to take this exceedingly bitter cry of the disappointed Esau and use it for two purposes. First, by way of warning and, secondly, by way of encouragement, taking it then out of its immediate context.
I. First, I am going to use Esau’s cry BY WAY OF WARNING.
Beware, my dear Hearers, first, of ever giving up spiritual benefits for anything that is carnal, or bartering eternal blessings for anything temporal. Esau came in from the chase hungry and faint. Jacob’s mess of red pottage smelt delicious to him and when he begged for it as a starving man craves food, his crafty brother sold it to him in exchange for his birthright as Isaac’s elder son. Esau’s sin consisted in his willingness to sell the Covenant blessing at such a price as that—yet how many nowadays are selling their souls just as cheaply as Esau sold his birthright!
Some sell their souls for what they call “pleasure.” They say that they wish to be saved, but a little transient gaiety exercises more fascination over their minds than all eternal joys or the delights of present fellowship with God. The time
will come when they will rue their fatal choice and call themselves a thousand fools. But just now they sneer at anything like self-denial with a view to eternal blessedness and count that man wise who makes the moments fly most merrily, who is satisfied with the passing “pleasure” of the hour. Foolish creatures of the day, I would to God that you were only creatures of a day that would die like the insects of a summer’s evening! But for immortal souls to barter eternal happiness for present joys is folly indeed!
We have known some sell their souls for gain. They are making money in a dishonest or disreputable way. To become Christians, they must give up their business—and they frankly say that they cannot afford it. Their shop would never “pay” if it were closed on Sundays! Their trade would never “prosper” if it were conducted on Christian principles! Possibly it is an evil trade and the gain from it comes out of the vices of men. There are such trades—God save all of us from having anything to do with them! But with many, the glitter of the 30 pieces of silver is more fascinating than the Christ of God and, Judas-like, they take the silver, deliberately reject the Savior and so commit spiritual suicide.