THE K I N G ’ S BUS I NE S S
973
needed to purify his character from its baser elements and make him worthier of the divine blessing. He stood out at last Us one who had conquered himself and proved himself a servant of God.— Dummelow. v. 32. Esau said. There is a very unwholesome kind of literature which is devoted to magnifying the Esaus as fine fellows with spirit, generosity and noble carelessness, whereas at bottom they are governed by animal impulse and incapable of estimating any good which does not appeal to sense and that at onceJP-Maclaren. I am at the point to die. If i f had been so, was it not better for him to die than to live in dis grace; to die under a blessing than to live under a curse?— Henry. Esau’s insight into the future extended to his death only.— Delitzsch. What profit. He was ready to sacrifice the future and permanent good for the sake of imme diate and very transient gratification. That is what every one who rejects Jesus Christ, that he may .not have to sacrifice some immediate pleasure or gain, is doing>—Torrey. Esau lets one ravenous desire hide everything else from him.— Sel. Let us take heed that we estimate things according to their true worth.— Mac- laren. A ten cent piece held close to the eye can shut out the sun. Many shrewd men of highest commercial standing are making as bad a bargain as Esau.— Sel. v. 33. Sold his birthright. Esau stands for the mere man of the earth (Heb. 12:16-17). In many' respects a nobler man, naturally, than Jacob, he was destitute of faith and despised the birthright because it was a spiritual thing, of value only as there was faith to apprehend it.— Scofield. Anything than man can see he values because he is governed by his sight and not by faith. To him the present is everything and the future is the merest uncer tainty. He reasons: the present is slip ping from beneath my feet; I will
therefore despise and entirely let go the future.— C. H. M. The birthright of every child of Adam is eternal life in the second Adam (1 Cor. 15:22; Rom. 8:15). Many are Esaus and des pise their birthright and so perish.— Torrey. v. 34. Rose up and went. People are ruined not so much by doing what is amiss as by doing it and not' repenting it— doing it and standing to it.— Henry. Thus Esau despised his birth right. How profound an influence small temptations yielded to may exert in a life! How many of us are every day flinging away a great future for a small present.— Maclaren. Thus Israel despised the pleasant land (Psa. 106: 24). Thus they despised Christ (Zech. 11:13). Thus those who were bidden to the marriage despised the invitation (Matt. 22:5). Man has no heart for the things of God. A mess of pottage is better than a title to a king dom.— C. H. M. Where can you find a record of more wondrous things than in God’s Word? Does general history record two broth ers as kings or rulers of two different countries? The Bible goes MY farther than that and tells GIRLS us not only of two brothers as rulers each of a nation, but twin brothers as the founders each of a nation. (25:23) These were born to Isaac and Rebekah twenty years after their marriage, (cf. vs. 20, 26) and the story of the struggle of their appetites within them is one of the strongest lessens on temperance that we have. Both were intemperate to a marked degree according to their indi vidual characteristics. , Two brothers could not have been more different: They differed in appearance; they tell us that Esau was the more attractive, He was ruddy, strong, manly and courageous in bearing. Jacob was smaller, of dark smooth skin, cunning in eye and actions. They differed in
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter