JACOB AND ESAU.

"Watch by our father Isaac's pastoral door,

The birthright sold, the blessing lost and won,
Till Heaven has wrath that can relent no more;
The grave, dark deeds that cannot be undone.
"We barter life for pottage, sell true bliss

For wealth or power, for pleasure or renown;
Thus Esau-like, our Father's blessing miss,
Then wash with fruitless tears our faded crown."

Gen. xxvii. 1–46.

KEBLE.

I. SAVOURY MEAT.

ISAAC, whose earlier history was considered in our last, is now an old man, and is rapidly approaching the close of his career. It appears to have been customary, in patriarchal times, for a father to give his blessing to his children, after partaking with them of food prepared specially for the occasion. Isaac, then, sent

for his eldest son, Esau; and requested him to take his quiver and his bow, and go into th field and hunt for a wild gazelle, of the

of which he was to make savoury meat, such as his father loved, and to bring it to his father, that he might eat it and bless him before he died.

We can scarcely suppose that Isaac intended to overlook his other son, Jacob; but Esau was his favourite, and, being older than Jacob, was entitled, as Isaac probably thought, to the first blessing, or the blessing of the first-born: hence he gave to him this command, purposing, perhaps, to bestow a blessing on his younger son at another time.

It may appear remarkable to some that Isaac sent his son into the fields for venison, and not to the flocks, of which he had abundance, and where he could have obtained it much more readily. But in the East it is not customary for shepherds to slaughter their flocks for their own consumption; and a kid, especially, is rarely killed, except on the occasion of the visit of a stranger. The flesh of the wild gazelle, too, though differing but little from that of a kid, is highly prized in Oriental lands; and the venison made of it appears to have been Isaac's favourite dish.

Away, then, Esau bounded on his father's errand, anxious to secure the promised blessing. And now he is pursuing the prey upon the mountains,—an occupation to which he is much attached, his character and habits being somewhat similar to those of Ishmael. He would, we may be sure, lose no time; yet several hours would necessarily elapse ere he could accomplish his design. At length, however, his arrow pierced the game; and presently the animal fell bleeding to the ground.

But what happened meanwhile in his mother's tent? With Rebekah, Jacob was the favourite; and she, having heard the command of Isaac to Esau, contrived a plan by which to secure for her younger son the blessing intended by his father for the elder. “Go now," she said to Jacob, "to the flock, and fetch me from thence two good kids of the goats; and I will make them savoury meat for thy father, such as he loveth and thou shalt bring it to thy father, that he may eat, and that he may bless thee before his death." (Ver. 9, 10.)

The conduct of Rebekah was highly reprehensible; and Jacob himself objected to the

proposal. "Behold," said he, "Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man: my father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing." This objection, however, was not founded on the ground that such conduct would be morally wrong, but that it would place him in danger of his father's curse; and hence it was speedily overruled. "His mother said unto him, Upon me be thy curse, my son: only obey my voice, and go fetch me them." He did so; and in a little time the venison was prepared, and Jacob hastened into his father's presence.

II. THE BIRTHRIGHT SOLD.

But why did God permit this conduct? and why was Esau thus supplanted? To meet this inquiry, we must refer to a much earlier period in the history of the two brothers, and must look a little carefully at another event related in the sacred narrative.

They had already grown up to the estate of manhood, when one day Esau came in from the field faint and hungry. His brother Jacob