u Rom. iii. 8.
Gen. xxv. 32. And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birth right do to me?
IT may be considered as a general rule, that no man abstains from any thing which he has purposed to do, for want of some excuse of expedience or
necessity to justify it. A melancholy instance of infatuation we have in the history before us ; an in- stance singular indeed as to the immediate act, but common, and almost universal, as to the spirit mani- fested in it. Esau, having come home from hunting unusually oppressed with fatigue and hunger, set his heart upon his brother's pottage ; and not only agreed to sell his birthright for it, but confirmed with an oath the alienation of that inheritance, to which, by primogeniture, he was entitled. To justify his con- duct he offered this vain and false apology, " Behold, I am at the point to die ; and what profit shall this birthright do to me ? " But the fact is, as the historian informs us, he " despised his birthright."
Let us then consider,
I. Esau's contempt of his birthright —
There were many important privileges attached to primogeniture among the Jews —
[The first-born was by God's appointment to have domi- nion over his brethren11, and to enjoy a double portion of his father's inheritance13. But besides these civil, there were also some sacred privileges, which he possessed. The Messiah, of whom he was to be a type, and who, in reference to the ordinances of birthright, is called " the first-born among many brethren c," was to spring from his loins d. Yea, in some sense, the firstborn had a better prospect even of heaven itself, than the rest of his brethren ; because the expectation of the Mes- siah, who was to descend from him, would naturally cause him to look forward to that great event, and to inquire into the office and character which the promised seed should sustain.]
But these privileges Esau despised —
[He accounted them of no more value than a mess of pot- tage : nor did he speedily repent of his folly and wickedness. If he had seen the evil of his conduct, he would surely have endeavoured to get the agreement cancelled ; and if Iris bro- ther Jacob had refused to reverse it, he should have entreated
a Gen. xxvii. 29, 37. and xlix. 3.
b This was not optional with the parent in any case. Deut.xxi. 15,17.
c Rom. viii. 29.
d In one instance this privilege was separated from the foregoing one ; and both were alienated from the first-born ; the former beinsr given to Joseph, and the latter to Judah, as a punishment of Reuben's iniquity in lying with his father's concubine. 1 Chron. v. 1, 2.