YOUTH'S

MAGAZINE.

APRIL, 1841

JACOB AND ESAU.

CAIN stands out in infamous celebrity as the first man who practically illustrated both the heinousness and penalty of Adam's transgression, by taking the life of his brother. And Esau no less exhibits in himself the ignoble model after which have been formed all they who care not for the blessing of a Redeemer, and despise the promises of God. His example is an awful warning to every child of Adam. His character is not marked by any grievous viciousness, as that of Cain's. On the contrary, it is equal to that of the generality of men, and superior to that of many. It is marked with much kind and generous feeling, and especially with that rare and redeeming quality, the forgiveness of injury. In his case the wrong was gross and irreparable, and the more stinging, from the base fraud through which it was wrought. Yet this only makes the warning more fearful. In every case, indeed, middle characters are most instructive, because with much to warn, they have also something whereby to stimulate.

Esau's exterior was savage and rough, and his pursuits were in accordance with it. He became a cunning hunter, a man of the field, as Scripture expressively terms it. The chase absorbed all his mind, occupied all his thoughts. Such a life was irreconcilable with high religious feelings. There is no mode of life more adverse to them. The man is thus brought down to the level of the brutes

which he pursues. To outwit them is the highest exertion of his understanding. He adapts his mind to theirs, and glories in unravelling the doublings of their little cunning. His animal instincts and lower faculties are indeed quickened by the shifts and expedients of such a life. But this is always at the expense of the higher. They cannot coexist. They are the separate possessions of rude and of civilized man. The continual variety attending such a pursuit creates an impatience and caprice which is utterly opposed to the calm, steady character of the servant of God and ruler of fellow-men. He must be formed in a very different school. God and man must be the objects of his pursuit, and the Spirit of God and the mind of man, being ever tracked by his mind, continually will lead it to higher and higher ground. Such was the school of Jacob, who, in utter contrast to the man of the field, was a dweller in tents. He was a domestic man, a contemplative man. He was forming himself for the due exercise of the privileges of the first-born. His habits were qualifying him for the duties of the civil and religious head of the family, and especially as a suitable transmitter of the glorious promises of God, which he had learned to appreciate. Esau on the contrary was as studiously disqualifying himself. He was frank and generous, as most hunters are; but he was also thoughtless, as they commonly are. He was an affectionate son; but he made his duty subservient to his favourite passion. He regularly supplied his father with food from the chase; but his duty went no higher. He saw no more in Isaac than what any of the unbelievers saw in their fathers. He beheld in him a just object of all his care and fond cherishing. But he saw not in him the channel of unspeakable spiritual blessings, which himself in due time should as heir transmit to posterity. Ever abroad as he was among the beasts of the field, how should he be taken from such company to be priest, and prophet,

and king? How should he rule and instruct? How should he intercede in prayer and sacrifice? How should he be the conservator of oracles which he cared not to understand? Thus was he preparing the way for his own deposition; and it shortly took place in a manner more disgraceful than has ever befallen deposed monarch since.

He came in one day weary and faint with the chase, and meeting Jacob with some pottage in his hand, entreated of him to give him that pottage. Jacob insisted on having his birthright in exchange; and so little did Esau appreciate it, (nay, perhaps, looked on its domestic and spiritual duties as a burden gladly to be put on another's back,) that he immediately sold it, and ratified the sale with an oath.

The very first thing which Esau did, on arriving at his father's age of marriage, was to take two wives from among the Hittites, a Canaanitish tribe. This caused great grief to his parents. But Esau was precisely that son which is the scourge of parents. He was utterly thoughtless. Such a character is too often too lightly dealt with. It is very commonly conceived to have great disinterestedness. This, however, is merely an appearance, arising from the person seeming so often his own enemy. Was he, or could he, ever be another's friend, (in the true sense of that word?) In fact, this is a case of the extreme of selfishness, which contracts even self to the self of the present moment, For the man of the next it has no thought. The apostle (Heb. xii, 16) has called Esau a fornicator and profane man, and well does he deserve the title. This act of his was a repetition of the buying the mess of pottage. Immediate gratification was all he sought. He cared not what evil, spiritual or moral, he brought into his family. He thought not of the offspring of his marriage. He thought not of the sorrow and displeasure of his parents. He thought not of God's will and commandments. A second time, there3

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fore, he threw away his birthright. He could not wait to go to the country of his own family, and thence take a believing wife, as his father had done. He must at any rate incontinently indulge his passion. His marriage, therefore, was unblest by father, and by mother, and by God. It was unlawful in every way; it was in reality no marriage. If he were fruitful and multiplied, then he replenished the earth with an idolatrous offspring. It was no other than fornication and profaneness.

When Isaac was one hundred and thirty-seven years old, and his sight had failed him, being in daily expectation of death, he one day sent for Esau, and told him to go to the chase and procure him some venison, that he might eat, and bless him before he died. He still looked upon him as his successor in Abraham's blessing. He had indeed disobeyed his injunctions, and brought a slur upon his title by his marriage; but God had not declared his displeasure, and the sale of his birthright was most probably never known to Isaac. While Esau was absent upon his errand, Jacob, at his mother's instigation, disguised himself as to touch, and the smell of his garments, so as to pass for Esau. He brought him savoury food, and received the blessing of his first-born. "God give thee of the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine. Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee. Be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down unto thee. Cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee," Gen. xxvii, 28. Shortly after this had been irrevocably bestowed, Esau entered with his dish. On this ensued a scene of painful recognition. Isaac trembled exceedingly when his mind misgave him, and he found out the cheat which had been put upon him, and Esau burst into a lamentable cry of despair, when he found that the blessing had gone from him. He had returned faint and weary

from the chase, yet delighted with the thoughts of gratifying his aged father, and of receiving the blessing. He found himself forestalled in both. Well indeed may he weep and raise a bitter cry, and ask, "Hast thou but one blessing, my father? bless me also." But the blessing which carried on the promises made to Abraham was beyond Isaac's power of recall. One portion, it is true, Esau had in common with Jacob, the fatness of the earth and of the dew from heaven; the grossness he received, but none of the dignity or spirituality. His person was not made sacred, as was Jacob's, by the prayer, "Cursed be he that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee." On the contrary, he was to be, like Ishmael, a robber; he was to live by his sword: and, therefore, to have every man's hand against him. Jacob was invested with royal and priestly sacredness, as the progenitor of the great King and Priest, and Esau was allotted the adventurous and perilous life of the soldier of fortune. This was all which was left for him. Nothing better could he obtain. No wonder that his wrath was kindled against his brother, and was the more fierce, because he had been supplanted by disingenuous artifice. A wrong, committed by fraud, insults the understanding, at the same time that it wounds the heart. It is therefore less tolerable than one offered through open violence. Here, however, breaks out a good trait in his character, which shows a frank and generous temper. Although he determined, in the heat of his anger, to kill his brother; yet he did not coldly and resolutely make up his mind to it. He did not keep it secret and rankling at the bottom of his heart until occasion offered. He did not dissemble, and fondle his brother, so to dispel his fears, and keep him within reach until the favourable moment lying in ambush like the tiger, with his eye ever upon his victim, until the time for the fatal spring. But he gave his fiery indignation vent in words which were