It bothers some that Esau sought "repentance" and didn't find it. But what was Esau's situation and what was the "repentance" that he sought? Here the Free Church minister in Thurso, Caithness, explains and applies this difficult theme.

"Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected; for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears."

Hebrews 12:16-17

"Repentance" is a very important word for the Christian. The Westminster Confession of Faith states that it is "of such necessity to all sinners, that none may expect pardon without it". It is therefore of vital impor­tance to the Christian life, and the Bible tells us that if we repent, we shall be for­given. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unright­eousness." (1 John 1:9).

But what is repentance? The basic idea is that of turning from sin, that we have a change of heart with regard to our sin, and that we make sincere and deter­mined efforts not to repeat our sin. God accepts such repentance, allied to faith in Jesus Christ.

It may come as a surprise, then, to find that we have, in Hebrews 12:17, an example of someone who seemed to be sincere in repentance yet was rejected. Esau cries bitter tears and pleads for blessing, yet he is turned away. What does this mean? Does God sometimes reject the penitent sinner? Could it be that someone might come to God in genuine sorrow for sin and yet still not be saved?

When we examine these things more closely, we find that the "repentance" that Esau sought was not the true godly repentance which God requires. In order to under­stand this, we must look a little bit more closely behind the scenes.

Hebrews chapter 12 was written to encourage the Hebrew Christians to keep going in the midst of great difficulties. They have already been presented, in chapter 11, with a "great cloud of witnesses", men and women who kept going in the midst of great adver­sity as a result of the genuineness of their faith. Chapter 12 brings them to the example of the Lord Jesus Christ and exhorts them to look to Him, the "author and finisher" of faith. The writer then patiently explains to them that the Lord sends trials to chasten them, to train them towards Christian maturity as children of God. There­fore, it is important that they react well to these trials and difficulties, neither showing resentment toward God, nor giving up their Christian walk.

In the midst of this exhor­tation, Esau is held up as an example — not an example to follow, as in the cases of the "heroes of the faith" in chapter 11, but an example to avoid, as one who spurned the grace of God. To understand why this is the case, we must look at Esau's history, character, and the nature of his sorrow.

Esau's History⤒🔗

To have any prospect of understanding these verses, we must be aware of the events to which they refer. It would be good at this point, therefore, to take a few minutes to read Genesis 25:29-34 and the whole of chapter 27.

Just before the first of these passages, in Genesis 25: 23, the Lord promises Rebecca that the elder of her two sons will serve the youn­ger. It was thus the Lord's will that Jacob would have the birthright, that is, the status of firstborn son, a position which involved headship of the family. While Jacob undoubtedly used fleshly means to ensure that the Lord's promise was carried out, as his grand­father Abraham had attempted to do (see Genesis 16), it is also true that Esau was blameworthy in his rejection of his birthright. He was prepared to let it go in order to satisfy his appetite.

Some time later we read of Jacob's deception of his father Isaac. Cruel and sinful though this was, the final result — the blessing of Isaac upon Jacob — is once again, under the overruling of God in accordance with His will. At first sight, Esau is a pathetic figure. How pitiful are his pleas. "...he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry... Bless me, even me also, O my father." How bitter are his tears! How unjustly he seems to have been treated!

And yet, we have the New Testament, God-inspired assessment of Esau in our text, which is far from sentimental sympathy for Esau's plight.

Esau's Character←⤒🔗

The writer to the Hebrews uses two terms to describe Esau's character — fornica­tor and profane person. Some commentators doubt whether "fornicator" is meant to apply to Esau, because of the word's posi­tion in the verse. But Jewish tradition, with which the readers were probably familiar, held that Esau was indeed an immoral man. More importantly, the Scrip­tures themselves suggest this. Esau was a source of great grief and sorrow to his par­ents, Isaac and Rebecca. The cause of this grief was the fact that he married two Canaanite women (Genesis 26:35). These "daughters of Heth" were a weariness to Rebecca, but were also a sign of Esau's immorality. Instead of seeking to main­tain the spiritual heritage of his family, he is attracted to godless women. Even his subsequent marriage to Mahalath, daughter of Ishmael, was insufficient to redress the balance, but instead merely served to con­firm his immorality.

However, although there is some doubt as to whether Esau is described as a forni­cator in our text, there can be no doubt that the phrase "a profane person" applies to him. "Profane" means godless, irreligious, a person who is content to trample underfoot all that is sacred and godly. There is plenty of evidence of this godlessness in Esau. We have already mentioned his failure to maintain his family's spiritual heritage by marry­ing foreign women. But the greatest example of his pro­fanity was, as our text shows, his rejection of his birthright.

Esau had come in from the fields famished, desper­ate to satisfy his appetite on the red stew that Jacob was cooking. Jacob grasps the opportunity, and entices Esau into agreeing to exchange his birthright for the stew. Esau gives in because he is "at the point to die". What are we to take from this? Was he really about to die? After all, don't all say "I'm starving" — an exaggeration of the hunger we feel?

Whatever physical weak­ness Esau may have felt through lack of food, there is surely more to what he said than that. The real reason is found in Genesis 25:34, where we are told that Esau "despised his birthright". He counted it of no value. He was not interested in something unseen and which could not satisfy his physical appetite.

You see, the birthright was concerned with spiritual blessing, and future spiritual blessing at that. The promise had been given to Abraham, "And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing" (Genesis 12:2). According to Hebrews 11:9, this promise was transferred to his descendants. Esau could have had a part in this had he wished. However, he lacked the faith of Abraham, a faith that looked beyond the present world, a faith which "looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God". Sadly, for Esau, physical appetites were more impor­tant than spiritual privileges.

How many are like Esau. It was a serious danger for the Hebrew Christians to whom the Epistle was writ­ten, that preoccupation with this present world was draw­ing them away from the grace of God. How many are like Esau today, perhaps even in our churches — having the opportunity of eternal life with all its atten­dant spiritual privileges, and yet spurning it because they love this world and its pleasures.

For Esau, the result was deep sorrow.

Esau's Sorrow←⤒🔗

What of the "repentance" that Esau looked for? When the time came for Isaac's blessing upon his firstborn son to take place, Esau missed out because of the trickery of Jacob. He sought "a place of repentance" and sought it intensely and sin­cerely, with tears. What was it he sought?

He sought a change of mind on the part of his father Isaac. Suddenly, and too late, he realised the importance of his birthright, and was filled with regret that he had forfeited that blessing. He sought the impossible — that the bless­ing given to Jacob being can­celled, and that he receive it. He sought that the clock be turned back, that he should be able to undo the damage done by his despising of his birthright. His sorrow was intense but it was a sorrow of regret that he was now facing the consequences of his earlier actions. His sorrow was too late. He had despised his birthright and was rejected by God.

His sorrow, though real and intense, resulted in a descent into anger and mur­derous hatred. Contrast this with the "godly sorrow which worketh repentance" (2 Corinthians 7:7), and leads to a true fear of God and a determination not to offend Him by further sin.

But how does all this affect you, reader? Are you a churchgoer, perhaps even a member of the church? Were you baptised as an infant, on the profession of faith of your parents, and thus given a spiritual "birthright" by the gracious promises of God? Have you followed Esau's example of profanity or are you seeking to avoid it? Are you more interested in this world, and its pleasures, than you are in the eternal destiny of your soul? Have you repented of your sins and trusted in Jesus Christ for the forgive­ness of these same sins, or are you still committing them in open defiance of God? Are you submitting your life to the Lord Jesus Christ, or are you living it for your own pleasure?

Please remember that there will be sorrow sooner or later. There can be that godly sorrow which leads to true repentance, and results in the forgiveness of sin and the receiving of eternal life. That sorrow must be experienced in this life.

But there is another sorrow, as intense as Esau's, which last for eternity in that place where there will be "weeping and gnashing of teeth". A sorrow, not of repentance, but rather like Esau's, of regret, of lament for the unused opportuni­ties, for the times when the gospel offer was spurned and when the pleasures of this world held a higher priority than the welfare of the soul.

The Bible gives many examples of this:

• In Jesus' teaching, we hear, "what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" (Mark 8:36).
• In Jesus' parables, we have the sad case of the fool­ish virgins. As a result of their foolishness, they were forced to seek oil while the bridegroom was arriving. Imagine their grief when they returned to find the door shut and to hear these awful words: "I know you not."
• Among Jesus' disciples, we have the tragic case of Judas Iscariot, who, in his greed, betrayed his Lord for thirty pieces of silver and afterwards was filled with a pitiful remorse when he realised the enormity of what he had done — but he was too late.

Time would fail us to think of Balaam, or of Achan, of Demas or of "the rich fool", and others who, in some way or other, missed out on the blessing of God as a result of their love of this world and the desire to satisfy their desires for its pleasures.

Yet we need not be in the same position as such people. We still have time, although time is short. God's gracious offer of sal­vation still stands. What we must do is to repent, to follow the requirements of Isaiah 55:7:

Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

In that way, we shall be sure of avoiding the uncom­forted anguish of Esau.