rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had
done.’
The Bible equates Esau’s actions to immorality and godlessness. And so here we
see that the other reason for losing our sonship, our inheritance, is godlessness and
wickedness. This is also the reason the prodigal son nearly lost his inheritance
forever. Fortunately for him he had a chance to repent. For in the spiritual
Kingdom, as long as we are living, God can forgive and receive us back when we
repent. But we could also wait until it is too late, when our conscience is too dead
to recognize sin and turn back to God. As the Bible says in 1 Timothy 4: 1 - 2, ‘ The
Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving
spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars,
whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.’ And again Paul admonishes us
in 1 Timothy 1:19 about ‘...holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have
rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith.’
Many of us will know what happened later in the story, in Genesis 27. Jacob and
his mother Rebecca began a deceptive takeover where Isaac, who was blind by
now, blessed Jacob and gave him Esau’s inheritance, believing him to be Esau.
Even though Isaac loved Esau more than Jacob, when the time came to bless his
sons, even he could not alter the purposes of God.
We read in Genesis 27:27- 29 ,^ ‘ So he {Jacob} went to him and kissed him. When Isaac
caught the smell of his clothes, he blessed him and said, “Ah, the smell of my son is like the
smell of a field that the Lord has blessed. May God give you heaven’s dew and earth’s
richness— an abundance of grain and new wine. May nations serve you and peoples bow
down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may the sons of your mother bow down to
you. May those who curse you be cursed and those who bless you be blessed.”’
Thus Isaac propagated on Jacob the same blessing his father Abraham had given
him. Later when Esau went for his blessing from his father, this is what Isaac said
to him in verse 37: ‘ “...I have made him lord over you and have made all his relatives his
servants, and I have sustained him with grain and new wine. So what can I possibly do for
you, my son?”’ It was done, and could not be undone. Again, sobering words about
how we treat our position of sonship.