Hebrews 12:15,16

PROFANITY

‘Looking diligently … lest there be any … profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.’

Hebrews 12:15

It seems to us, as we read the old story, to have been almost incredible folly in Esau to have flung away his birthright for so trifling a consideration as a meal.

I. But take a parallel case in modern life.—For any one now to cheat at cards is to forfeit the honour of a gentleman, yet for the sake of winning a little money men have been known to make this sacrifice. Well, there is a higher birthright even than that of an English gentleman which belongs to all of us as children of God; and this we recklessly cast from us when we allow our conduct to be dictated by the desires of the flesh. And I doubt if there is any one here who has reached manhood that could not tell of some who have ‘gone under,’ as we say, through not setting their hearts on higher things than the things of sense. I could tell you of some ruined by drink, of others ruined by gambling. And they were such bright boys, popular with every one. One’s heart goes out, like Isaac’s heart, to the young Esaus of the world—bright, passionate, strong, generous, frank, affectionate; but we know that without the fear of God all this charm will go to waste. ‘If only,’ we say, ‘God could be to them a living God, “about their path”; if they could but be taught not to be profane.’

II. What is the cure for the unspiritual view of life?—How may we save our young Englishmen from the failure of Esau? The horror of profanity is that it is so hard to cure.

(a) Our wills may be strengthened by prayer and watching; but if we are profane, if we never think of ourselves as God’s children, we shall have no desire to watch or to pray. If Esau had ever pondered the promise to make of him a great nation, could he have so lightly flung it from him for a moment’s gratification? Let us ponder God’s promises.

(b) Let us read the Book that tells us of our birthright as God’s children. Believe me, there is no protection against profanity like the reading of the Bible. For no one can read the Bible without the thought ever presenting itself and recurring, that God is interested in human life, that He has set a standard for it, that there are deeds which He hates and deeds which He loves, and that there are means provided by which man may be helped to live the life that God approves. To those who will read constantly in the Bible the thought of God as caring, loving, guiding, becomes a constant thought; and to have such a thought of God, to live under the sense of God’s good providence, is to have the strongest defence that we can have. May I urge upon all of you the habit of reading a few verses of the Scripture every night before you go to bed?

III. We must not suppose, because the Apostle is pointing his moral against Esau, that he is therefore holding up Jacob for our unqualified approbation. It must strike you that Jacob, in his own way, had to learn not to be profane before his life could be made a success. Jacob’s profanity was not of the careless, impulsive sort; it was calculating. He thought he could keep in with God and secure His blessing, and yet be dishonest; and God taught him by twenty years’ hard discipline that religion means righteousness. It is of the first importance for us all, whether we have the Esau or the Jacob temper, to flee from profanity; to understand and keep in mind what our birthright is—that we are children of God and brethren of Jesus Christ. Success in life, as we shall see more clearly at the end of it, is to bear a character that God can recognise as inspired by the Holy Spirit of His Son; and the only way to win this character is to live frankly and fearlessly as the children of God and the brethren of Jesus Christ.

Rev. Canon Beeching.

Illustration

‘It is quite plain that neither brains nor muscles alone, nor even these combined, really make up true manhood. Higher than both is character; and to each natural bent, to one as much as the other, the way is open to achieve character. To win character is the only true success in life, for that is to fulfil the purpose of the world. We are sent here with all varieties of physical and mental equipment, with all kinds of special powers adapted to special work; but for each of us, when life is over and the audit comes, the question must be, What in the process of living have we made out of all this raw material of desire and impulse, what at the end of the process are we ourselves? This old-world story, then, of Esau and Jacob is roughly the history of a success and a failure to win character; the success of Jacob, the failure of Esau.’