Esau Gave Up His Inheritance

My Sweetheart found this little tidbit in Hebrews a couple weeks back, and it serves as a solemn warning to all of us:

“Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.” Hebrews 12:15-17 KJV

The bitterness and defilement issue quite deserves its own study, and immediately in the next verse we have this quick reference to a man that we often don’t think about a lot, which would be Esau. If we go back into Genesis we’ll take a quick look at the story:

“And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom. And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright. And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me? And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.” Genesis 25:30-34 KJV

If we take the story of Esau in a metaphorical sense, we would say that the food represents the temporary sin that we so often crave after; and the inheritance what he would have enjoyed for the rest of his life. Now he already had the inheritance coming to him, for as the firstborn it was as good as his (coming when his father died), just as we as Christians have our inheritance in heaven waiting for us.

Because we have such a hard time comprehending eternity, the 70 or 80 years that we generally get here on Earth really seem like a long time. Eternity is just too much to handle. Even when we talk about sin as a rewards issue as ES has to do, the consequences really seem dim and faded. After all, we can only see what we have here on Earth.

As Christians we do have an advantage here on Earth, for we have the earnest of the Spirit:

“In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.” Ephesians 1:13-14 KJV

Esau had his birthright to guarantee the inheritance, we have the Spirit. Esau gave up his inheritance for food; we can give up our inheritance with sin. In the case of Hebrews, bitterness, fornication, and being profane are specifically mentioned in there with Esau.

Now some may argue that our inheritance is within the kingdom of God, so that whoremongers, unclean people, and covetous men who are idolaters (Ephesians 5:5) can still go to heaven but not have an inheritance. Following that up, the outer darkness that Jesus talked about would also have to be within the kingdom, we’ll look at that another time. The problem of course, is that in Revelation 21:8 it explicitly states who is going to the lake of fire, including whoremongers and idolaters. First Corinthians 6:9-10 also refutes it.

Back to Hebrews, why would the unnamed writer bother to even mention such a thing if it did not have any salvation meaning to us? Not to mention that it says we can “fail of the grace of God”.

One may also argue that this isn’t written to Christians. That’s an argument that is used more than it should, because it turns the warnings from us to sinners who wouldn’t understand it anyway. Well, let us see if Hebrews was written to Christians or not.

“Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;” Hebrews 3:1 KJV

A partaker (Strong’s #3353) is a “participant, that is, (as noun) a sharer; by implication an associate: - fellow, partaker, partner.” They are also called “holy brethren”, not something that would be expected of a sinner.

“And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” Hebrews 12:5-6 KJV

This clearly identifies them as sons of the Lord. Thus to say that the recipients of Hebrews were unsaved is a pretty hard thing. Of course, since it’s in our Bible, we too are recipients of it, and to convince one of us that we are unsaved is a rather hard thing. It’s many times harder if you’ve had security preached to you over and over and you’ve bought into it. At what point do you pass from “saved and secure” to “never saved”?