Hebrews Chapter Twelve, Lacking Repentance

 

Hebrews 12:16 lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. [17] For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.

 

Esau’s history begins in Genesis 25:21. Rebekah was barren, and Isaac prayed the Lord for a child. God granted Isaac his petition, and Rebekah gave birth to twins. When her pregnancy proved difficult, Rebekah likewise prayed the Lord, and He answered her by saying, “Two nations are in your womb; and two peoples will be separated from your body; and one people shall be stronger than the other; and the older shall serve the younger,” Genesis 25:23, NASB.

Esau was a carnal man, dwelling in his father Isaac’s tent. He cared nothing for the spiritual, or what was future; he cared for the moment and what he could enjoy immediately. Thus Jacob successfully (and with little effort) swindled Esau out of his birthright, Genesis 25:31-33. Esau’s presence with Isaac is symbolic of the unsaved dwelling with the saints in the church. That is, when the saints gather, or wherever they gather, the unsaved flock too for reasons apart from the salvific message of the gospel. It is no small irony when reading Genesis that if one considered the lives of Jacob and Esau in an unbiased light, I believe Esau presents himself as a more sincere person than Jacob, the con artist. But character or works are insufficient to determine one’s eternal destiny. Jacob recognized the value of spiritual things, and things future and he sought them diligently, while Esau cared nothing for them and was driven only by what whimsy ruled the moment.

 

So as not to delve too deeply into the history and bad blood that lay between Esau and Jacob, we will focus on the narrative of the birthright. Mind you, I am not defending Esau’s character. The writer here refers to him as a fornicating, profane man. His descendants, the Edomites, would go on to become an inveterate enemy of Israel, with God declaring of them, “I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau,” Malachi 1:2, 3, KJV. Esau saw nothing of tangible value in the birthright, and thought nothing of it, to surrender it to his brother for a mere meal. Then, when Jacob was blessed in his brother’s stead (again by duplicity) Esau began to comprehend that he had lost something vital, Genesis 27:38. But even then, according to the revelation of this passage he did not want the birthright for the right reason. The English structure of the NKJV’s wording might be slightly misleading in verse 17. Esau wasn’t seeking repentance with tears; he sought the birthright. The NIV renders this portion, “Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done.”

 

Repentance can generally mean to change one’s mind about an attitude or stance. The writer relates that Esau found no place for this, though it is foundational for one’s adversarial relationship with God. One must first repent of our hostile view of Christ and His gospel before belief can be reality. The Jews Peter addressed were called on to repent because of their view of Jesus in the weeks prior, and how they consented to His unjust murder, Acts 2:38. One cannot believe what one rejects, so repentance is in order. Not that repentance is another requisite to salvation; rather, repentance is part of believing the gospel because it means admitting our error and dispelling it, replacing it with God’s truth as the gospel reveals it.

 

There is a connection between the root of bitterness causing trouble and defilement and Esau, the profane fornicator. As Esau, a carnal man, dwelt in Isaac’s tent, so too do men like him, serving carnality rather than Christ, whose presence in the church serves to hinder its witness and defile the saints. It can do nothing other, because the unsaved man does not have the Spirit of God abiding in him, so his presence brings into the church worldly and Satanic wisdom. One cannot eat from God’s table as well as that of demons, we are told, 1 Corinthians 10:21. The motivation for a Christian’s behavior toward others is selfless, sacrificial love, summarized neatly by Paul when he wrote, “Let no one seek his own, but each one the other’s well-being,” 1 Corinthians 10:24.

 

The root of bitterness that is personified by Esau, resulting in defilement comes from self-interest. An inordinate preoccupation with self, a breeding ground for carnality, is what the unsaved bring into the church. Their moral barometer is not governed by the Holy Spirit as sound doctrine elucidates; it is grounded in self, which is subjective and biased toward one’s personal (and limited) views. Esau sought the blessing, but not reconciliation. He did not value the blessing for what it genuinely was. He became convinced that it would add to his wealth, but didn’t perceive its true value. Jacob did. The writer cautions the Hebrew Christians to avoid this root, and likewise those that propound it, so that the church may be pure doctrinally and morally.