Genesis 27:34
And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father. And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father.
The account to which the cry belongs is one in which the blessing of Isaac intended for Esau was obtained by Jacob through fraud and deception, and that obtaining of the birthright by fraud was sin. That deception caused Jacob to flee for his life after Esau threatened him, and the danger he later faced arose in part from his own sin. He had resorted to fraud to gain a birthright that was already his by God's promise, and Esau's cry was the harvest of hatred he reaped, proving that his deed reacted upon himself and that what a person does is the fruit of what he is and life's experiences are the fruition of his own thoughts and deeds.
Esau had rashly and recklessly sold his birthright, binding himself by solemn oath to give it to Jacob, so the blessing would have belonged to him had he not sold it. He had bartered it away for a coveted dish of food after long gratification of appetite let desire control him until the birthright lost its value and sacredness in his sight, thinking he could dispose of it at will and buy it back at pleasure. His great distress, bitter cry, and plea for his father's blessing on learning that Jacob had received the blessing he expected illustrate the anguish of discovering too late that a valued inheritance has been forfeited. His crying was repentance for that rash act when it was too late to remedy it, for when he sought to regain it even at great sacrifice he was not able to do so, and his bitter repentance was all in vain because he had despised the blessing and the Lord had removed it from him forever.
Blessing and prosperity could come from God alone, so that one who loved and reverenced God would be accepted and blessed while one who rejected God and followed a corrupt course would be rejected, and the privileges of the firstborn were not necessary for Jacob to receive God's blessing if he lived righteously. Jacob sinned through fraud but later repented, and God heard his prayer and mercifully preserved his life. That repentance came beforehand with no concealed wrongs remaining, and only because of it did God hear his later prayer, for without that repentance God would not have heard him.
The cry serves as a warning that those who trade their heavenly inheritance for selfish pleasures and harmful desires may seek repentance with tears when it is too late to recover what they surrendered. The case is left on record as a warning that sinners in the day of God who barter away their heirship to heaven for selfish gratification, hurtful lusts, and indulged appetite will likewise find no place for repentance although they seek it carefully and with tears. Deceptive dealing that turns a man from his rights and grasps all that can be gotten by deceptive reasoning, irrespective of agreements and of the result upon the disappointed and wronged, is an offense that God will in no case justify and will not excuse. The same deception of Jacob is practiced when men in high places of trust pervert right principles by selfishness and covetousness, show partiality and hypocrisy, handle men as machinery, bind their freedom, and turn the work out of straightforward channels into crooked paths.