Esau et Jacob

«I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob, And I hated Esau.» Mal.1,2-3. «What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.» Ro.9,14. The Bible tells us that God loves righteousness and hates wickedness (Ps.45: 7).

So therefore, if our righteousness is imputed to us through faith (Ro.4, 3), wickedness is imputed through unbelief to those who do not believe.

And faith is manifested through repentance. John the Baptist said to the Jews who claimed to be saved in themselves: “Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father” Mt.3,8-9.  That is the pride which generally causes lack of repentance: we are sons of Abraham, God is with us, we are the successors of Peter, we believe the end time message, we are with such man God, etc., taking God’s things for granted! Esau who had the pride of the eldest son felt in him no need to repent or to seek God with all his heart.

But God is spirit, and his promises are not transmitted through the flesh, or social or human relations, but from a righteous heart to another righteous heart. He is a righteous judge who searches the minds and hearts (Jr.11, 20). When the love of truth is at the heart background, there is righteousness, but if it is indifference and carelessness, this amounts to wickedness. God who searches the hearts and reins, who knows the end of a thing before it begins, and declares things long before they happen (Is.46:10), saw Esau and Jacob even before their birth. He saw in Esau a renegade who takes the promises of God for granted and with extreme lightness and complacency, put simply, a nasty one, and he hated him long before his birth. He saw in Jacob a man who, as David, seeks God, struggles with God, desperately thirsts for the promises of God in his heart, and is willing to do anything to possess them. Jacob was righteous in the sight of God, and God loved him long before his birth.

We men have our way to recognize a succession which is not the way to God. For us, the carnal and social relationship is taken into account. For God, it is the spiritual relationship: namely from righteous heart to righteous heart, or else from wicked heart to wicked heart. Isaac had the same heart as his father Abraham and, to God, only Isaac was Abraham's son and heir of all the promises. Then Isaac had two sons in the flesh, one had the same heart as his father Isaac, and the other one was wicked. Jacob was the successor of his father Isaac and heir of all the promises.

Centuries later, John the Baptist appeared in the spirit and power of Elijah. Many people came to be baptized, and he, being a prophet, identified among them snakes - Pharisees and Sadducees - and boldly told them: “O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” Mt.3,7.  They are of the lineage of Esau, the same spirit that we have identified in Esau: the game is over, everything is earned, because we are children of Abraham. With prophetic eye he saw snakes instead, because in reality their lineage goes back up to the old serpent who falsified the Word of God already in the Garden of Eden.

While they do not love the truth and so be saved, and the holy wrath of God is hopelessly waiting for them, they make to themselves a false sense of security: I am the eldest son of Isaac, son of Abraham, we have Abraham to our father, we are not illegitimate children, we have one Father, God, we're the successors of St. Peter, we are the children of those who reformed the Church, it is we who have received the last prophet, we are with the Ministry of Matthew 24.45… but who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? It is violence that takes it over (Mt.11, 12)! not so vain pretensions.

Jacob used all the violence it took, even deceit. As the Lord saw the crowds follow him without being aware of the violence it takes, turned to them and said “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.”  Lc.14,26. Jacob had comprehended this, there was nothing on earth, not even his own life, which could match the price of God's promises, and he fought headlong to secure possession thereof. We must produce fruits worthy of repentance, i.e. give up everything we have most valuable down here, starting with our religious idols, and concentrate all our heart to him who shed his blood for the redemption for our souls.

Still the Lord showed us the value of our salvation in this way: “Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.” Mt.18,8-9. And to give us the possession of this life, God had to offer his only son as a sacrifice for us.

When your friend fishes you out of an extremely delicate situation (which would cost you life imprisonment or death), and you cannot repay him, the minimum is to recognize full well in the depth of your heart the price of the favor provided, and the gratitude in the heart is revealed outside through attitude and behavior. But if you respond, "Well, this is quite normal, he is my friend! he just had to do that!" you manifest by that very fact that you're renegade! In families, there are also well-behaved children who are grateful for the effort and work that their parents force on themselves to bring them up. As per acknowledgement in the bottom of their heart, they realize that they need to do whatever is possible to honor their parents. But there are also renegade children who take everything for granted and say “but you're my father, right? Did I ask you to beget me?”

This coincides exactly with the parable of the ten virgins (Matthew 25:1-13), of whom some were wise and the others were crazy. Those who were wise knew that their virginity was not enough to get into the wedding hall. They used violence to ensure they had oil in their lamps upon the arrival of the bridegroom. The foolish were intoxicated with their virginity which meant everything to them, so intoxicated that while taking their lamps they did not care to take the oil. Their virginity led them so crazy that they had need of nothing any longer, “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” Rev.3,17.

Those who hunger and thirst for God in the bottom of their hearts apply their hearts to seek him, to seek the Truth, even when they believe they have already found him. Whereas David had already been anointed king over Israel and God walked with him, yet he still continued sighing, “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is” Ps.63,1.  God loves those that thus seek him in their hearts, but he hates the wicked.

People are intoxicated with belonging to their churches, as Esau was intoxicated with being the eldest son of Isaac, without worrying about being reconciled with God in Truth. The Lord has done a lot for us. If we just acknowledge this fact, then we should hate whatever we found in the world, namely our family and religious idols, and our own lives. We should, as Israel, wrestle with God and win. But the presumption of spiritual status that religious intoxication and craze create in the heart prepares man to hear this reaction of the Lord “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” Mt.23,33. Let everyone assess the price of their lives. As for mine, it is worth the blood of God himself, which is more than the fame, honor and social considerations that all the world's religions would provide me with.

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