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- 216 # ESAU SELLING HIS BIRTHRIGHT
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220 VERY boy in the class holds up his hand and is ready to answer when the question is, “Who were the sons of Isaac and Rebekah?”
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222 Esau and Jacob, of course. But can my young readers tell me why it is that all over the world, wherever Hebrew or Christian schools are found, there are a thousand little fellows who answer to the name of Jacob to one little fellow who answers “Present” when the name of Esau is called? Or did it ever occur to you to ask the reason why there are so many Patricks among Irishmen? I leave it with you to find out. Did you ever have a playmate called Nero or Herod? I venture to say you cannot remember one.
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224 All I will tell you is that there is a
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227 great deal in a name; that some names are odious and scandalous, “ill-seeming and bereft of beauty,” and no boy would care to answer to them; for to be hailed as Cain, or addressed as Achan (who was a thief), would make a boy feel shame. Oh, there is a great deal in a name! Perhaps a rose called by any other name would not and could not smell as sweet. A rose has every inducement to live up to its sweet name, to be as good as its name. I should hate to see a man called Washington hanged for treason to his country. And if a man named Caesar played the coward, it would shock our sense of fitness.
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229 Now there are few Esaus to be found in the rolls of names, and I will tell you why. Because young Esau had the first claim on a great boon, on a glorious privilege, and basely surrendered it, and ignobly threw it away to gain a mess of pottage, a present gratification of the senses, for he sold his birthright for a plateful of food.
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232 It was this way in olden times; it is this way now in Europe: that the eldest son of a king inherits his father's throne, or the eldest son of a nobleman his father's title and estates. It is called the right of primogeniture, or the right of the first-born to inherit. In our country we have no such law. Here younger sons are equal under law to the first-born, and sisters and sons share alike in his estate when the father dies. It is not so in all countries; it was not so in Bible lands. Esau, by virtue of being born a few minutes before his brother Jacob (they were twins, you know), was in the line of succession, was entitled to the covenant blessing, and on him rested the obligation of continuing the work begun by Abraham and Isaac. But Esau loved hunting and pleasures of the senses, and did not care for or concern himself about spiritual qualities, the covenant blessing, or the other world. Esau had no Abrahamic stuff in him. He had reverted to the heathen type, to Bedouin blood, and this world
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235 was good enough for him. So he chased game, and companied with his heathen neighbors, and was the favorite of his father. For Isaac did love Esau, because he did eat of his venison. There are fathers yet to be met with who have a marked tenderness for the successful son, who, with a weakness for venison or courage or handsomeness, ignore a plodding Jacob in favor of a brilliant and dashing Esau.
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237 But Rebekah loved Jacob, who was a plain man dwelling in tents, who cared for lentiles in the garden, the ailing lambs of the flock; a mother's pet, with domestic tastes; a timid nature, averse to rough sports and dangerous enterprises.
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239 And this partiality in the family was the beginning of the sore troubles and unhappy strife that broke up this home, filled Esau's heart with rage against Jacob, and sent Jacob fleeing for his life from his father's house. A curse rests on partiality in the family. It is the cause of much alienation and domestic
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