Derek Prince - What Did God Love In Jacob and Hate In Esau?
So now I don't know how we are doing but, Please ask Brother Derek to deal with the two closing questions on Page 20 of the study guide. These are my responsibilities, I put them in. I'm beginning to wonder whether I should have done it. Question number one, What did God love in Jacob and what did he hate in Esau? Okay? You've got to remember what I was teaching.
Now I'll give you my opinion. It's a very important question. I have a series of radio messages on called If You Want God's Best. It's also a little booklet. And I think I deal with this. You see, the interesting thing is by contemporary standards, Esau was the good guy and Jacob, as I said, was a heel. And I'm not justifying Jacob's treatment of his brother for which he paid a heavy price. But, first of all, let's read about Esau because Scripture's estimate of Esau is very different from what ours would be.
And Hebrews 12 verse 15: See to it that one comes short of the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled. And that root of bitterness that he's speaking about is a person. See that there's no one among you that answers to that description. And then it says: that there be no immoral or godless person, like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. So they put Esau in the category with the immoral and the godless. Why? Because he despised his birthright.
What did Jacob have in his favor in the sight of God? He appreciated his birthright. That's the great difference. And you see, if you want God's favor, you may be a Jacob, thank God He knows how to deal with Jacobs He takes time and He's ruthless, but He deals. But if you want God's favor you must have that characteristic that Jacob had. That you think the blessing of God is more worth than anything else in life. You esteem the call of God on your life as a priceless privilege. You believe in the promises of God.
See, Esau shrugged his shoulders, Well, what will the birthright do me? With the birthright went all the precious promises of God. In despising the birthright, Esau despised those promises. And there are lots of good guys around who don't do anybody any harm, pay their debts and yet they're classified with the godless and the immoral because they have no appreciation of what God has offered them.
If you want to really anger God, turn down His offer. If you study the New Testament, that's when God gets angry. He can put up with a lot of sins but when He goes to offer you His best at infinite cost, and you shrug your shoulders and say, I'd rather have a glass of whiskey, that makes God angry. That was the sin of Esau. To say one word, it's carnality. Just more concerned with the things of time than eternity; with the things of the flesh than the Spirit.