Esau and Jacob were the sons of Isaac and Rebekah. Though they were twins, their destinies were different. Many readers of the Bible are surprised when they come to the New Testament and read in the book of Romans, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.” And so the question becomes, “Why did God hate Esau?”

In the story of Esau and Jacob, the birthright belonged to the elder son. The birthright in this case involved the birth of Christ, the One who would redeem man from his lost condition and restore him to his true relationship with God.

Esau “despised” the birthright. He put it down, and he turned it down. “Sunday School talk.” He considered the birthright to be “kid’s stuff.” Esau was a man’s man. Hunter. He-man. Esau had no time or use for the birthright. Esau had no interest in that which would make him dependent on God. He was self-sufficient.  He said, “Who wants a miserable birthright? Let Jacob have it.”

God can do nothing with a man who does not want God in his life. Such an attitude is the basis of sin; it sees God as irrelevant.

Jacob, though he was a cheater and had many faults, had a capacity for the spiritual. God could get in. Jacob could pray like this: “God, if there is any kind of blessing that you can give a person like me, that can make me different from what I am, that is what I want.”

God loved Jacob. He did not love Jacob for what he was but for what he could be.

And God never loved us for what we were. He loves us for what He can make of us. But if we leave Christ out of our life, what is there to love?

We are all one or the other…an Esau or a Jacob.