Hebrews

Esau

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Conversations, Panels, and Sermons

Lesson: 31-33

Genre: Lecture

Track: 31

Dictation Name: RR198R31

Location/Venue:

Year:

Let us worship God. Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight it the desert a highway for our God. Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest. Let us pray.

Almighty God our heavenly Father, we rejoice in this blessed season that unto us a Son, a king, a child is given. That He is the everlasting Father and the prince of peace. Fill us with the joy of this blessed season, make us mindful that we are heirs of salvation, and that all things work together for good for us, because Thou art our Lord, our king, our redeemer. Bless us as we worship Thee, open our hearts that we may know Thee better, obey Thee better, and rejoice in Thee more and more. Grant us this we beseech Thee, in Christ’s name, amen.

Our scripture this morning is Hebrews 12:12-17. Our subject, Esau. Hebrews 12:12-17.

“12Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;

 13And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.

 14Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:

 15Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;

 16Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.

 17For 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.”

As we have seen, Hebrews is a letter written to the Hebrews within the church. They were facing a crisis, they believed in Jesus as their messiah king, but they could not accept Him as their high priest. And they were considering a return to the temple and the sacrificial system. And this letter was written to persuade them that such a course was absolutely wrong. We come now to the climax of that argument, and it is a very, very strong and blunt one. It is one which only a group of Jews, Paul and his fellows, could have written to fellow Jews.

Faith is declared by Hebrews to be the supernatural gift of God. Faith moreover is God centered. Modern Arminian teaching which presents faith as the solution to man’s problems saying: “Believe in Jesus and all your troubles will be over.” Is false. Saint Paul’s troubles began with his conversion, and this has been the experience of millions since then. In a fallen world, the man of faith finds the world warring against him, as David said: “I am for peace, but when Is peak they are for war.”

The Christian faces a double problem. First this fallen world hates him because he is a Christian, second God chastens and disciplines him as a son. It is the bastard who lacks discipline, the son is prepared for time and eternity, as an adopted son of God. Knowing these things, we who are strong are to strengthen the weak; verse 12 tells us to strengthen the discouraged hands and the feeble knees. We are to make sure that the paths of faith are straight or even, in order to prevent problems of faith to the weak, nor place a stumbling for the lame. Healing rather than stumbling must be our goal.

While conflict is at times necessary, normally we should follow peace with all men, and in relationship to God as verse 14 tells us, Holiness; without which no man shall see the Lord. All this is said to prepare the way to the reference to Esau in verse 15-17.

Now the reference to Esau is very important. It is a key in sense to the book of Hebrews. Esau was the elder son, and a logical heir to the blessing or the promise. The Hebrews were even more privileged to Esau, they were kinsmen of the same nationality as the Messiah, Jesus. If they returned to the temple and its sacrificial system in preference to Jesus, they were sinning far more flagrantly than did Esau. Esau or Edom, became an apostate nation or a plague to Israel. And even as the apostolic fellowship wrote, an Edomean or Edomite family, the Herodians, were ruling. Good Hebrews hated and despised there rulers, the Herodians. But here the clear implication is that their return to the temple would make them far worse than Esau and his line.

For all the care in wording, Hebrews here is very blunt by this analogy. The Hebrews who thought of returning to the temple and forsaking Jesus, were Esau magnified. Their sin is spelled out. First, lest any man fail of the grace of God, or fall back from the grace of God, coming up to it, confronted with the grace and glory of God, they turn away from it? This is a fearful offense. Since grace is a gift, those who perversely reject the gift are particularly wrong. By virtue of their birth they are the logical heirs, they are Hebrew’s. To receive the gif t of the Messiah redeemer and then turn their backs on Him is a fearful offense.

Bad as was the offense of the leaders of the people, who crucified Jesus Christ, the sin of those who followed and then turned back was at least as infamous. Second their problem in apostasy was a root of bitterness. This echoes Deuteronomy 28:18, where we are told the apostate knows himself to be a traitor, a Judas, and the result is a bitterness that consumes him, and it also defiles those around him.

Then Third, the reference to Esau now comes out openly in verse 16. Fornicator does not mean as in modern usage sexual offender, because in its Biblical usage it includes blasphemy and rebellion. It is analogous to profane, and so we are told: “Lest a fornicator” Or a profane man. It is literally someone outside the sanctuary, outside the faith. This means someone who is not governed by the faith; it would be absurd to say that Esau did not believe in God, he simply did not take God seriously enough to be ruled by him. In this he was like a great many people in the church today.

God was therefore to Esau to provide the overall government, and to meet Esau’s needs when Esau so deemed necessary. He was like too many churchmen now. Esau for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. Afterward, when Esau wanted to inherit the blessing, He could not do so despite his tears of repentance. He was rejected for the birthright.

Esau was sorry for his act, not for his false relationship to God, and there is a difference. Hebrews is very hard on easy-believism, no less here than elsewhere. God would have readily accepted repentance from Esau, as from any other sinner; but Esau sought to nullify what he had done rather than to repent for his sin. God does not repeal our past history. We cannot nullify the past, but we can remake the future. King Saul knew how false his course of action was, but he refused to change. He was unwilling to acknowledge God’s sovereign power, to replace him with David. The greatness of Jonathan was his acceptance of God’s will, and his readiness to accept David and to help David, knowing full well that David was going to replace him.

This tells us how great Jonathans faith was. Paul and the men around him were Hebrews themselves, so this was a painful statement for them to make. The whole of Hebrews is very carefully written to make as strong an appeal for their fellow Hebrews to worship their… to reconsider their considered apostasy, to change their ways, to become faithful believers. This is why I believe that although there were at times non-Hebrews in the apostolic company around saint Paul, when Hebrews was written, only the Jewish Christians worked with Paul in writing this letter. He did not want it to be more offensive to his people. Something coming from your own is a bit more acceptable than for a Gentile to tell the Jews they were Edomites, or sons of Esau, rather than of Isaac and of Jacob.

Thus it was a painful letter for Paul and his fellows to write, but they wrote it as carefully and as considerately as possible. Their full bluntness comes out when they tell them: “Are you going to be an Esau, or a Christian?” But even so, it is worded gently. It is strange that commentators have not seen the significance of this Esau passage. It was very fitting as applied to the Hebrews who were considering apostasy, but it is equally applicable to the church. Faith was for the Hebrews an option as it was for too many churchmen.

As the general letter continues, the Hebrews are reminded of Mount Sinai; when God gave the law to Moses. Their faith is no less a thing or power given them than was the law in Moses day. The fearfulness of that mount, and that occasion, far far surpassed by this present one. An apostate Israel then trembled before the mount, but neither the Hebrews addressed in this letter or the church trembles before Jesus Christ. This then is a general letter as relevant as ever, as applicable to the church as to those Jewish believers who considered apostasy.

Both are reminded: “Our God is a consuming fire.” The last verse of this chapter. Now it is an interesting thing, there are a lot of wishy washy people in our time for whom the gospel is one verse: “God is love.” Well, He is, but nine times including this usage in Hebrews, the Bible in Old and New Testaments tells us, our God is a consuming fire. An interesting fact. A very fine person with whom I was talking recently, said when I called a verse to his attention: “Well that’s only once in the Bible.” And I said: “Well how many times does God have to repeat Himself before you believe Him?” And he said: ‘You’re right.”

Now, our God is a consuming fire. Nine times the Bible tells us, in those words. Failure to understand this aspect of God’s being is failure to know Him. So, Paul and his fellows warn the Hebrew believers: ‘Take God seriously. Take Him at His word.” Let us pray.

Our Father we give thanks unto Thee for this Thy word. We thank Thee that Thou hast spoken; Thy word is truth, and Thy word declares that Christ is our great High Priest, our king, our prophet, our redeemer. Give us grace to hear and obey His every word, to rejoice in His grace and mercy. And in all things faithfully to hear and to obey Him, in Christ’s name, amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson?

Yes?

[Audience Member] The letter of Hebrews then is written to the people who came to Christ at one time, certainly not then to be taken over to the Jews today who have not known the grace of God at this point in their lives?

[Rushdoony] It is certainly applicable to them in that they are in a position of an Esau, but it was written to those who came into the church, but did not accept Christ as their High Priest, only as their Messiah King. So theirs was a limited or partial faith, not the wholeness of it. It’s an indictment of anyone who wants to have so much of the gospel and no more. You have probably met people who when you bring up something in the Bible that they don’t like: “Well, that’s a difficult text and I don’t agree with it, and besides it’s enough that I accept John 3:16.” Well, nowhere in the Bible are we told that you are a Christian only on the basis of John 3:16. You are not a Christian on your terms, but on God’s terms. Well, we must be born again. You must be born again into the wholeness of life, and you can be born again and be an idiot, and there are too many in the church who are not whole men and women in Christ, but idiots. Yes?

[Audience Member] That’s the great sin that besets them, they are a Christian only on their terms instead of God’s terms.

[Rushdoony] A great many, They want a no-growth religion. “Well I was born again, and that’s enough. I don’t need to be a theologian, I don’t need to understand all those difficult texts, I don’t need to tithe, or do this or that or the other thing.” In other words, “I can be a Christian on my limited terms.” And that’s hardly what it means to be a Christian. You may be one, but in the Greek text we have literally the word Idiotis. It refers to someone who doesn’t grow up in the faith.

[Audience Member] They have another cliché, ‘Judge not lest ye be judged.’ That’s one of their favorites.

[Rushdoony] We are told to judge with the proper standard, judge righteous judgement our Lord says. Yes?

[Audience Member] Just noticing Rush, in verse 17, where it says: “When he would have inherited the blessing” That reminded me of the covenant and the fact that the Book of Hebrews keeps coming back to this theme of Covenant faithfulness, and Esau’s denial of the covenant and covenant promises.

[Rushdoony] What he wanted was to inherit the blessing, that was it.

[Audience Member] Apart from covenant faithfulness.

[Rushdoony] Yes, apart from covenant faith. Yes?

[Audience Member] Regarding the whole issue of Jacob and Esau, and the focus on that story in… A lot of times the focus of commentators is on Jacobs dishonesty and he is often called a coward and a liar, who received the blessing by trickery, which kind of ignores the whole Romans point which was by the grace of God, is it even relative to bring in the character of Jacob when it was by the grace of God?

[Rushdoony] Well, there are actually sermons that have been preached, I’ve read them, and portions of books that have said that Esau was the better man than Jacob. Well, that’s saying: “I don’t agree with God.” And that’s a dangerous thing to do. So, what we have to recognize is that maybe Jacob was dishonest, although he obeyed his mother, and the mother said: “Let the sin be upon me.” And she was interested in keeping her husband from sinning. But at any rate, we know that God chose Jacob. Not because he was a perfect man, but he was God’s man. And God chose us not because we were the sweetest person on the block, but because we were His choice. And that is it. Choice determines things. We weren’t chosen by our wives because we were the prize pick of the state, we were chosen because they loved us. They chose us. So, the sovereignty of God’s choice cannot be questioned, and Jacob was his choice, and God knew Jacob better than we know him.

[Audience Member] They confuse predestination, because they are confused themselves.

[Rushdoony] Yes. Well, if there are no further questions or comments, let us conclude with prayer.

Our Father, we give thanks unto Thee for this Thy word. Keep us always from being like Esau, persons who put ourselves outside the faith while professing to be of it. Grant that in all things, Thy word and Thy spirit… [Tape Ends] [