A BAD BARGAIN
by Alexander Maclaren
'And the boys grew: and Esau was a cunning hunter,
a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents. And Isaac
loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison: but Rebekah loved Jacob. And
Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint: And Esau
said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am
faint: therefore was his name called Edom. And Jacob said, Sell me
this day thy birthright. And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die:
and what profit shall this birthright do to me? And Jacob said, Swear to me
this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then
Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and
rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.' -- GENESIS
xxv. 27-34.
Isaac's small household represented a great variety
of types of
character. He himself lacked energy, and seems in
later life to have
been very much of a tool in the hands of others.
Rebekah had the
stronger nature, was persistent, energetic, and
managed her husband
to her heart's content. The twin brothers were
strongly opposed in
character; and, naturally enough, each parent loved
best the child
that was most unlike him or her: Isaac rejoicing in
the very
wildness of the adventurous, dashing Esau; and
Rebekah finding an
outlet for her womanly tenderness in an undue
partiality for the
quiet lad that was always at hand to help her and be
petted by her.
One's sympathy goes out to Esau. He was 'a man of
the field,'--by
which is meant, not cultivated ground, but open
country, which we
might call prairie. He was a 'backwoodsman,'--liked
the wild
hunter's life better than sticking at home looking
after sheep. He
had the attractive characteristics of that kind of
men, as well as
their faults. He was frank, impulsive, generous,
incapable of
persevering work or of looking ahead, passionate.
His descendants
prefer cattle-ranching and gold-prospecting to
keeping shops or
sitting with their lungs squeezed against a desk.
Jacob had neither the high spirits nor the animal
courage of his
brother. He was 'a plain man.' The word is literally
'perfect,' but
cannot be used in its deepest sense; for Jacob was
very far indeed
from being that, but seems to have a lower sense,
which might
perhaps be represented by 'steady-going,' or
'respectable,' in
modern phraseology. He went quietly about his
ordinary work, in
contrast with his daring brother's escapades and
unsettledness.
The two types are intensified by civilisation, and
the antagonism
between them increased. City life tends to produce
Jacobs, and its
Esaus escape from it as soon as they can. But Jacob
had the vices as
well as the virtues of his qualities. He was orderly
and domestic,
but he was tricky, and keenly alive to his own
interest. He was
persevering and almost dogged in his tenacity of
purpose, but he was
not above taking mean advantages and getting at his
ends by miry
roads. He had little love for his brother, in whom
he saw an
obstacle to his ambition. He had the virtues and
vices of the
commercial spirit.
But we judge the two men wrongly if we let ourselves
be fascinated,
as Isaac was, by Esau, and forget that the
superficial attractions
of his character cover a core worthy of
disapprobation. They are
crude judges of character who prefer the type of man
who spurns the
restraints of patient industry and order; and
popular authors, who
make their heroes out of such, err in taste no less
than in morals.
There is a very unwholesome kind of literature,
which is devoted to
glorifying the Esaus as fine fellows, with spirit,
generosity, and
noble carelessness, whereas at bottom they are
governed by animal
impulses, and incapable of estimating any good which
does not appeal
to sense, and that at once.
The great lesson of this story lies on its surface.
It is the folly
and sin of buying present gratification of appetite
or sense at the
price of giving up far greater future good. The
details are
picturesquely told. Esau's eagerness, stimulated by
the smell of the
mess of lentils, is strikingly expressed in the
Hebrew: 'Let me
devour, I pray thee, of that red, that red there.'
It is no sin to
be hungry, but to let appetite speak so clamorously
indicates feeble
self-control. Jacob's coolness is an unpleasant foil
to Esau's
impatience, and his cautious bargaining, before he
will sell what a
brother would have given, shows a mean soul, without
generous love
to his own flesh and blood. Esau lets one ravenous
desire hide
everything else from him. He wants the pottage which
smokes there,
and that one poor dish is for the moment more to him
than birthright
and any future good. Jacob knows the changeableness
of Esau's
character, and is well aware that a hungry man will
promise
anything, and, when fed, will break his promise as
easily as he made
it. So he makes Esau swear; and Esau will do that,
or anything
asked. He gets his meal. The story graphically
describes the greedy
relish with which he ate, the short duration of his
enjoyment, and
the dark meaning of the seemingly insignificant
event, by that
accumulation of verbs, 'He did eat and drink, and
rose up and went
his way: so Esau despised his birthright.'
Now we may learn, first, how profound an influence
small
temptations, yielded to, may exert on a life.
Many scoffs have been directed against this story,
as if it were
unworthy of credence that eating a dish of lentils
should have
shaped the life of a man and of his descendants. But
is it not
always the case that trifles turn out to be
determining points?
Hinges are very small, compared with the doors which
move on them.
Most lives are moulded by insignificant events. No
temptation is
small, for no sin is small; and if the occasion of
yielding to sense
and the present is insignificant, the yielding is
not so.
But the main lesson is, as already noted, the
madness of flinging
away greater future good for present gratifications
of sense. One
cannot suppose that the spiritual side of 'the
birthright' was in
the thoughts of either brother. Esau and Jacob alike
regarded it
only as giving the headship of the family. It was
merely the right
of succession, with certain material accompanying
advantages, which
Jacob coveted and Esau parted with. But even in
regard to merely
worldly objects, the man who lives for only the
present moment is
distinctly beneath him who lives for a future good,
however material
it may be. Whoever subordinates the present, and is
able steadily to
set before himself a remote object, for which he is
strong enough to
subdue the desire of immediate gratifications of any
sort, is, in so
far, better than the man who, like a savage or an
animal, lives only
for the instant.
The highest form of that nobility is when time is
clearly seen to be
the 'lackey to eternity,' and life's aims are
determined with
supreme reference to the future beyond the grave.
But how many of us
are every day doing exactly as Esau did--flinging
away a great
future for a small present! A man who lives only for
such ends as
may be attained on this side of the grave is as
'profane' a person
as Esau, and despises his birthright as truly. He
knew that he was
hungry, and that lentil porridge was good, 'What
good shall the
birthright do me?' He failed to make the effort of
mind and
imagination needed in order to realise how much of
the kind of
'good' that he could appreciate it would do to him.
The smell of the
smoking food was more to him than far greater good
which he could
only appreciate by an effort. A sixpence held close
to the eye can
shut out the sun. Resolute effort is needed to
prevent the small,
intrusive present from blotting out the transcendent
greatness of
the final future. And for lack of such effort men by
the thousand
fling themselves away.
To sell a birthright for a bowl of lentils was plain
folly. But is
it wiser to sell the blessedness and peace of
communion with God
here and of heaven hereafter for anything that earth
can yield to
sense or to soul? How many shrewd 'men of the
highest commercial
standing' are making as bad a bargain as Esau's! The
'pottage' is
hot and comforting, but it is soon eaten; and when
the bowl is
empty, and the sense of hunger comes back in an hour
or two, the
transaction does not look quite as advantageous as
it did. Esau had
many a minute of rueful meditation on his bad
bargain before he in
vain besought his father's blessing. And suspicions
of the folly of
their choice are apt to haunt men who prefer the
present to the
future, even before the future becomes the present,
and the folly is
manifest. 'What doth it profit a man, to gain the
whole world, and
forfeit his life?'
So a character like Esau's, though it has many fine
possibilities
about it, and attracts liking, is really of a low
type, and may very
easily slide into depths of degrading sensualism,
and be dead to all
nobleness. Enterprise, love of stirring life,
impatience of dull
plodding, are natural to young lives. Unregulated,
impulsive
characters, who live for the moment, and are very
sensitive to all
material delights, have often an air of generosity
and joviality
which hides their essential baseness; for it _is_
base to live
for flesh, either in more refined or more frankly
coarse forms. It
is base to be incapable of seeing an inch beyond the
present. It is
base to despise any good that cannot minister to
fleeting lusts or
fleshly pleasures, and to say of high thought, of
ideal aims of any
sort, and most of all to say of religion, 'What good
will it do me?'
To estimate such precious things by the standard of
gross utility is
like weighing diamonds in grocers' scales. They will
do very well
for sugar, but not for precious stones. The sacred
things of life
are not those which do what the Esaus recognise as
'good.' They have
another purpose, and are valuable for other ends.
Let us take heed,
then, that we estimate things according to their
true relative
worth; that we live, not for to-day, but for
eternity; and that we
suppress all greedy cravings. If we do not, we shall
be 'profane'
persons like Esau, 'who for one morsel of meat sold
his birthright.'
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