Hebrews 12:17 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Hebrews 12:17

Comments

Isaac did not reject Esau, but the way things worked out Isaac realised that it was the overruling of God that had led to Jacob supplanting Esau. Isaac trembled once he discovered what had happened, because he realised that God had intervened. And then the text says, ‘For he [Esau] found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears’, and the reading here in our Authorised Version does trouble many people, because they feel that it is possible for them to have done some terrible thing, and to have come in repentance before God, and yet to be rejected. The verse suggests to their minds that they may be rejected even though they have repented, because it is possible like Esau to seek that place of repentance with great feeling and with tears, and yet be denied it by the living God. But that, of course, is not the meaning of the verse, and no one need be discouraged by this verse. The Scripture repeatedly tells us the contrary – that if we come to Jesus Christ in full and sincere repentance, we will always be forgiven; we will always be cleansed, trusting only in his blood. There are two things we can say about Esau’s repentance. It is very likely that the text does not refer to Esau’s repentance or change of mind, but to Isaac’s. In the Genesis account, what Esau is focused on is getting his father to change his mind, that is, to repent. There is no evidence of Esau being sorry for his sin, or for undervaluing his birthright. So we read it like this: ‘For Esau found no place of a change of mind in Isaac, for Isaac knew it was the will of God that Esau was to be rejected.’ He could not persuade Isaac, his father, to change his mind and to reinstate him as the heir to the leadership of the family, though he sought his father’s change of mind carefully, most anxiously, with bitter tears.

Application

If we do not respect God, and reverence him, and seek him, and long for him, and trust him for grace now, then when the time comes when we would have inherited the blessing, then it will be too late. He will not change his mind. This fearful scene is set before us by the Lord Jesus Christ: ‘Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity’ (Matthew 7:22-23). We can call upon him in the hour of death as we cross into eternity and say, ‘Oh Lord, save me now’, but he will not change his mind and we will be condemned. That is what we should learn from this passage, not that we can be rejected even now even though we sincerely repent. So it is Isaac’s repentance that is in mind. It is the birthright that Esau sought carefully with tears, not repentance on his own part.

Nevertheless, there is also such a thing as wrong repentance in which we are not sorry for our sin but for the consequences that our sin has brought upon us. We may sense a loss of God's blessing upon our lives. We may sense that we are in trouble because of our sin, and we repent in order to be reinstated into the favour of God, but we do it not because we are sorry for our sin. It is possible some people even come to Christ on this basis. They tremble out of fear of going to hell, so they repentant of what might happen to them. Well it is good for people to be driven to a true repentance by fear of punishment and hell as you have got to repent of the sin, not just seek to avoid the punishment and sorrow over that.

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Hebrews 12:17 Commentary and Bible Study