Over the last couple of weeks we’ve looked at behaviors which cause us to “miss the grace” of God. First, there is the “root of bitterness,” which in the Old Testament context, is a person who apostatizes from the faith. But also there is sexual immorality and godlessness. Both of these our author attributes to Esau and his “despising” of the birthright (Genesis 25:27-34). He treated it lightly, of no importance or significance. It held little to no value for Esau.
Here in Hebrews 12 we read…
16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.
Our question this morning is: What happened to Esau? Did he lose his salvation? Why was he unable to repent, even though it deeply grieved him? If this is true, what about us when we sin, can we “sin away” our salvation?
Obviously Esau had done something very bad, despising something he should have valued greatly, but according to verse 17 repentance was unavailable to him. Does this mean we can sin away our salvation?
Let’s take this verse apart and see what we can discover. First, this verse tells us that this conclusion about Esau comes “afterward,” after the selling of his birthright.
The birthright normally goes to the firstborn, which was Esau. Passages like Deuteronomy 21:17 and 1 Chronicles 5:1-2 tell us the birthright involved both a material and a spiritual dynamic. The son of the birthright received a double portion of the inheritance, and he also became the head of the family and the spiritual leader upon the passing of the father.
The “birthright” was the privilege of being chief of the tribe and head of the family (27:29). In Isaac’s family, it entitled the bearer to the blessing of Yahweh’s promises (27:4, 27-29), which included the possession of Canaan and covenant fellowship with God (28:4).
This is what Esau traded away for a pot of stew, despising God’s gifts to him. Keil and Delitzsch say, “The frivolity with which he [Esau] sold his birthright rendered him unfit to be the heir and possessor of the promised grace” (1:269)
Later, of course, Esau desired to inherit the blessing that was part of this birthright. We find in Genesis 27 the story about how Jacob deceives his nearly-blind father Isaac into giving him the blessing. Although Isaac nearly caught Jacob in this lie, he ultimately thought he was dealing with Esau and said,
28 May God give you heaven’s dew and earth’s richness— an abundance of grain and new wine. 29 May nations serve you and peoples bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may the sons of your mother bow down to you. May those who curse you be cursed and those who bless you be blessed.”
When Esau arrived, after Jacob had left, and Isaac understood that he had been deceived Esau “burst out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me—me too, my father!” (Gen. 27:34). As our text in Hebrews 12:17 says, “he desired to inherit the blessing.” Moses goes on to record Esau’s grief…
35 But he said, “Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing.” 36 Esau said, “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob? This is the second time he has taken advantage of me: He took my birthright, and now he’s taken my blessing!” Then he asked, “Haven’t you reserved any blessing for me?” 37 Isaac answered Esau, “I have made him lord over you and have made all his relatives his servants, and I have sustained him with grain and new wine. So what can I possibly do for you, my son?” 38 Esau said to his father, “Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father!” Then Esau wept aloud. 39 His father Isaac answered him, “Your dwelling will be away from the earth’s richness, away from the dew of heaven above. 40 You will live by the sword and you will serve your brother. But when you grow restless, you will throw his yoke from off your neck.”
What Esau desired, and was grieving over, was missing out on the blessing that naturally belongs to the firstborn. Because he had “despised” his birthright, he also lost out on that blessing. Yes, he received a blessing, of some sorts, and went on to enjoy an enriched life, but he lost out on the spiritual side of God’s blessing.
As far as the central blessings of the Abrahamic covenant, Esau was “rejected.” This is a translation of the Greek word apodokimadzo, which means “to reject after testing or scrutinizing and finding the tested subject useless or worthless.” That he was “rejected” is speaking as an action which is final and complete with no second chance for Esau.
Our text says, “he found no chance to repent.” This doesn’t mean that he didn’t have the opportunity and did not try to repent. He likely did, at least in some sense. But it didn’t overturn the consequences of despising his birthright.
So Alexander Maclaren said:
His repentance did not alter the fixed destination of the blessing. His repentance, his change of mind as to the worth of the thing thrown away, and as to his own conduct in despising it, did not bring the thing back again to him. His tears did not obliterate what was done. He wished that it had been otherwise, but his wishes were vain.
The words he found no chance to repent could more literally be rendered “he did not find a place (topos) of repentance,” which could bear the meaning that there was no opportunity for him to change his circumstances. In this sense no chance to repent remained, but it is a NT principle that an opportunity for spiritual repentance is possible wherever there is a spiritual desire. It is in this sense that the gospel can be said to be based on a call to repentance. It may be wondered what possessed the writer to bring in the tragic history of Esau at this point of his discussion and the answer must be that Esau was regarded as one of the most striking examples of those who failed to appropriate “the grace of God.” (Donald Guthrie, Tyndale NT Commentaries: Hebrews, 258-9)
Had Esau sought forgiveness, he would have found it. But the consequences of his decision were irreversible. The blessing could not be restored to him. Like David, he could be forgiven for his sins, but he still had to face the consequences of his sins. As Leon Morris said: “It is not a question of forgiveness. God’s forgiveness is always open to the penitent. Esau could have come back to God. But he could not undo his act.”
This forfeiture of participating in the Abrahamic blessings was despite the fact that “he sought it with tears.” Esau was upset, as we saw in Genesis 27, about losing out on his father’s primary blessing. Verse 34 said he “burst out with a loud and bitter cry,” desiring a blessing from his father Isaac. And verse 38 reports that “Esau wept aloud.”
When Esau finally woke up to some extent and realized what he had forsaken, he made a half-hearted attempt to retrieve it. Just because he sought for it with tears does not indicate sincerity or true remorse. He found no place for repentance. He bitterly regretted, but he did not repent. He selfishly wanted God’s blessings, but he did not want God. He had fully apostatized, and was forever outside the pale of God’s grace. He went on “sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth,” and there no longer remained any sacrifice to cover his sins (Heb. 10:26).
So there definitely were tears. And if we examine our own repentance, doubtless we will be able to identify at least a few times when we repented with tears. However, we would also have to admit that most of the time it does not bother us that much. We just confess and then move on as a matter of business. Esau wept at his loss. Now he wanted that blessing.
Of course, Paul distinguishes, in 2 Corinthians 7, between godly sorrow and worldly sorrow. Possibly Esau’s sorrow was nothing more than grief over the consequences of his sinful choices rather than over his actual sinful appetites that caused him to despise his birthright.
10 Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. 11 See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter. (2 Corinthians 7:10-11)
So this passage has nothing to do with Esau’s “salvation,” or his relationship with God. What he lost was the privilege of possessing the blessings of the birthright. He didn’t lose his salvation; he lost the present enjoyment of what God had designed for him.
Of course, we realize that in the bigger picture, God had promised the blessing to Jacob. That was made clear when they were struggling in Rebekah’s womb. When such commotion was happening within her, Rebekah inquired of the Lord what was happening. Genesis 25:23 tells us, “the LORD said to her, ‘Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.’” That means that Esau, the one born first (Genesis 25:25), would serve the younger, Jacob.
In Romans 9:10-13, the Apostle Paul used this choice of Jacob over Esau before their birth as an illustration of God’s sovereign choice.
10 Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac. 11 Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: 12 not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
God chose, before either of them were born or “had done anything good or bad” to love Jacob and hate (in comparison) Esau. It had nothing to do with their character, actions, thoughts, affections, desires or choices. It was so “God’s purpose in election might stand.”
Some object, questioning the fairness of God making such a choice before Jacob or Esau were born. Yet we should regard the love and the hate God spoke of in Malachi 1:2-3 and Romans 9:10-13 as having to do with His purpose in choosing one of these two to become the heir of the covenant of Abraham. In that regard, God’s preference could rightly be regarded as a display of love towards Jacob and hate towards Esau. The real thought in Malachi 1 and Romans 9 is much more like “accepted” and “rejected” more than it is like our understanding of the terms “loved” and “hated.”
“A woman once said to Mr. Spurgeon, ‘I cannot understand why God should say that He hated Esau.’ ‘That,’ Spurgeon replied, ‘is not my difficulty, madam. My trouble is to understand how God could love Jacob.’” (Newell in Romans, Verse by Verse)
God’s message to us who are in the race is clear: to give free rein to our sexual and physical appetites will ruin our race and if that is the habitual practice of one’s life, it indicates that that person was never truly regenerate and did not possess the indwelling Spirit who sanctifies us. As Paul warned the saints in Ephesians 5:5-6.
5 For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient.
Don’t be deceived. If you live your life for lesser, material things, or sexual appetites, you will “lose your soul.” You will lose what is most precious for a few moments of pleasure.
“Esau’s willingness to give up all that was his as the firstborn son reflected a contempt for the covenant by which his rights were warranted. By descriptive analogy, he is representative of apostate persons who are ready to turn their backs on God and the divine promises, in reckless disregard of the covenant blessings secured by the sacrificial death of Jesus. The immediate reference is to the objective blessings of ‘peace’ and ‘holiness,’ specified in v 14. With the example of Esau, apostasy is further defined as a decisive rejection of God’s gifts” (William Lane, Hebrews 9—13, pp. 445-46
“To take a very simple example—if a young man loses his purity or a girl her virginity, nothing can ever bring it back. The choice was made and the choice stands. God can and will forgive, but God Himself cannot turn back the clock and unmake the choice or undo the consequences” (William Barclay, Hebrews, p. 210).
Our author is warning us against the foolishness of so many who for the sake of some momentary, fleeting pleasure, turn their backs on what is of eternal value. In the case of Esau it was the immediate gratification of eating to overcome his hunger. But in the case of others, it may be a one-night adulterous fling which results in the destruction of a marriage and the loss of a job and the soiling of one’s reputation. It may be a drinking binge that happens only once but results in a DUI or the death of someone in an accident caused by your intoxication.
Esau never repented of his sin, but only of the consequences of it. He never sought pardon of God, but only sought to inherit the blessing. (Charles Spurgeon, Spurgeon Commentary: Hebrews, 416)
God has given Christians special promises as well (e.g., His presence, promises, strength, provisions, fruitfulness, glorification, rewards). How might we “despise” these? By living primarily for the present rather than for the future.
Donald Gray Barnhouse, for many years the pastor at Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, has written, “History shows that men prefer illusions to realities, choose time rather than eternity, and the pleasures of sin for a season rather than the joys of God forever. Men will read trash rather than the Word of God, and adhere to a system of priorities that leaves God out of their lives. Multitudes of men spend more time shaving than on their souls; and multitudes of women give more minutes to their makeup than to the life of the eternal spirit. Men still sell their birthright for a mess of pottage.” (Barnhouse)
Esau represents perhaps the worst kind of person to imitate in the book of Hebrews. He doesn’t surrender his birthright because of persecution or harassment from others. He surrenders his birthright because he was hungry. He gave up what he should have treasured most simply because he had a physical, sensual desire that was more important. Esau had no regard for spiritual values, no need for God in his life.
While he thought better of it later, and even wept deeply over the loss, his forfeiture of the birthright and the blessing were final and complete. That devastating exchange takes place far too often in our Christian lives. That is why we need to be on the alert for each other, making sure that we don’t miss the grace of God by being sexually immoral and godless.
As vv. 12-13 said,
12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.
Grace Still Amazes 