It is not clear whether the transaction was seriously meant, or whether it only shows Jacob's wish to possess the birthright and Esau's indifference to it. At any rate, the barter was not supposed to complete Jacob's title, as is shown by a subsequent piece of trickery. Isaac's blessing was conceived to confer it; that blessing, if once given, could not be revoked, even if procured by fraud and given in error. The belief would fulfil itself, as far as the chieftainship was concerned. It is significant of the purely 'secular' tone of all the parties concerned that only temporal blessings are included in Isaac's words. (_c_) The Scripture judgment on all parties concerned. Great mistakes are made by forgetting that the Bible is a passionless narrator of its heroes' acts, and seldom pauses to censure or praise--so people have thought that Scripture gave its vote for Jacob as against Esau. The character of the two men. Esau--frank, impulsive, generous, chivalrous, careless, and sensuous. Jacob--meditative, reflective, pastoral, timid, crafty, selfish. Each has the defects of his qualities. But the subsequent history of Jacob shows what heaven thought of him. This dirty transaction marred his life, sent him a terrified exile from Isaac's tent, and shook his soul long years after with guilty apprehensions when he had to meet Esau. All subsequent career to beat his crafty selfishness out of him and to lift him to higher level. II. Broad General Lessons. 1. The Choice.--Birthright _versus_ Pottage. (_a_) The Present _versus_ The Future. Suppose it true that to both brothers the birthright seemed to secure merely material advantage, yet even so the better part would have been to sacrifice material present for material future. Even on plane of worldly things, to live for to-morrow ennobles a man, and he is the higher style of man who 'spurns delights and lives laborious days' for some issue to be realised in the far future. The very same principle extended leads to the conviction that the highest wisdom is his who lives for the furthest, which is also the most certain, Future. (_b_) The Seen _versus_ The Unseen. However material the advantages of the birthright were supposed to be, they _then_ appealed to imagination, not sense. _There_ was the pottage in the pan: 'I can see that and smell it. This birthright, can I eat _it_? Let me get the solid realities, and let who will have the imaginary.' So the unseen good things, such as intellectual culture, fair reputation, and the like, are better than the gross satisfactions that can be handled, or tasted, or seen. And, on the very same principle, high above the seeker after these--as high as he is above the drunkard--is the Christian, whose life is shaped by the loftiest Unseen, even 'Him who is invisible.' 2. The grim absurdity of the choice. The story seems to have a certain undertone of sarcasm, and a keen perception of the immense stupidity of the man.