LESSON XVIII.—THE BIRTHRIGHT.
1. How long had Isaac and Rebekah been married when Jacob and Esau were born? Gen. 25:20, 26. 2. When these sons had grown to be men, what occupation did each prefer? 3. One day as Esau was returning from the field, faint with hunger, what did he ask of Jacob? Gen. 25:29, 30. 3. What did Jacob say? Verse 31. 5. What reply did Esau make? 6. How did Esau come to be in possession of the birthright? 7. What did it secure to him? 10. What mistake did Esau make that is made by many at the present time? 11. How have many destroyed their prospects for this life, and perhaps for the life to come? 12. What caused Isaac to go to Gerar? Gen. 26:1. 13. What did the Lord renew to him there? 14. What instruction did he give him? 15. How was Isaac prospered in that land? 16. Why did the Philistines wish to drive Isaac from the land? Gen. 26:16. 17. What trouble did he have with them about the wells that he dug? 18. Where did he finally settle? 19. What may be learned from Isaac’s experience in this land? Isaac and Rebekah had no children till they had been married twenty years. They then had two sons, Jacob and Esau. When these sons came to manhood, Jacob, like Abel, delighted in tending his flocks, but Esau was a cunning hunter. One day when Esau had been out hunting and had taken nothing, he became very hungry. As he was returning, he came to Jacob’s tent, and asked for some pottage which Jacob had been cooking. Now Esau was older than Jacob, and was therefore entitled to the birthright, which secured to him some very important privileges, such as the highest place of honor in the family, and the largest share of his father’s property. Jacob told Esau that if he would sell him his birthright, he would give him the food which he so much desired. Esau readily consented, saying, “Behold I am at the point to die, and what profit shall this birthright do to me?” So Esau despised his birthright. Esau preferred present enjoyment to future good, and how many make the same mistake. How many, by yielding to a momentary indulgence of appetite, passion, or love of the world, have destroyed their prospects for this life, and perhaps for the life to come. There was a great famine in the land of Canaan, and Isaac went to Gerar. The Lord appeared to Isaac in Gerar, and renewed to him the promises that he had made to Abraham his father. He told him not to go to Egypt, but to remain in that land, and he would be with him, and bless him. So Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year a hundred-fold. And the Lord blessed him, and he became very great, so that the people of the land feared him, and tried to drive him out of it. They drove him from place to place, claiming the wells which he had dug, till finally he came to Beersheba, where he was permitted to dwell in peace. From this we may learn that, although God will be with his people, and bless them, he often allows them to be troubled by the wicked people around them.