Genesis 25:32 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Genesis 25:32

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‘Esau said, behold, I am at the point to die.’ Esau exaggerates his state in order to make a point. I am about to die from hunger. ‘What profit shall this birthright do to me?’ He does this in order to defend his too easy abandonment of what ought to have been precious to him. Shame forces excuses from the human heart. He destroys what he should have valued in order to pave the way for his sin and for the trampling of his conscience. It is a statement of non-belief, the careless talk of someone who is only worried about satisfying his immediate need, and is willing to do so at the expense of something that ought to be much more precious to him. Who cares about the birthright when there is something as pressing as gratification of hunger to worry about? It is an exchange that Jacob has caused him to make, and he utterly fails the test. In the letter to the Hebrews he is made to stand for all those who sacrifice the eternal for the present. ‘Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright’ (Hebrews 12:16). Because the things of eternity were so unreal, so insubstantial to him, he was ready to give them up for what meant must more to him: the filling of his stomach right now. He had his eye on the things of this present passing world, and so he is a type of every unbeliever. He dismisses the birthright, though it ought to have been very previous to him, for with it came the blessing of God.

Application

Life continually presents us with choices between the temporal and the eternal. The choices we make reveal what sort of person we are. In The Pilgrim’s Progress, Bunyan seems to have this passage in mind when he describes two characters, Passion and Patience. He has the Interpreter say to Christian, ‘These two lads are figures: Passion, of the men of this world; and Patience, of the men of that which is to come; for, as here thou seest, Passion will have all now this year, that is to say, in this world; so are the men of this world: they must have all their good things now, they cannot stay till next year, that is, until the next world, for their portion of good.’ In response Christian observes, ‘I see that Patience has the best wisdom, and that upon many accounts. First, because he stays for the best things. Second, and also because he will have the glory of his, when the other has nothing but rags.’

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Genesis 25:32 Commentary and Bible Study