At the close of this chapter we are presented with some principles of a very solemn and practical nature. Jacob's character and actings will hereafter, if the Lord will, come more fully before us; but I would just notice, ere passing on, the conduct of Esau in reference to the birthright, and all which it involved. The natural heart places no value on the things of God. To it God's promise is a vague, valueless, powerless thing, simply because God is not known. Hence it is that present things carry such weight and influence in man's estimation. Any thing that man can _see_ he values, because he is governed by sight, and not by faith. To him the present is every thing: the future is a mere uninfluential thing,--a matter of the merest uncertainty. Thus it was with Esau. Hear his fallacious reasoning: "Behold, I am at the point to die; and what profit shall this birthright do to me?" What strange reasoning! _The present_ is slipping from beneath my feet: I will therefore despise and entirely let go the _future_! Time is fading from my view, I will therefore abandon all interest in eternity! "Thus Esau despised his birthright." Thus Israel despised the pleasant land; (Ps. cvi. 24); thus they despised Christ. (Zech. xi. 13.) Thus those who were bidden to the marriage despised the invitation. (Matt. xxii. 5.) Man has no heart for the things of God. The present is every thing to him. A mess of pottage is better than a title to Canaan. Hence, the very reason why Esau made light of the birthright was the reason why he ought to have grasped it with the greater intensity. The more clearly I see the vanity of man's present, the more I shall cleave to God's future. Thus it is in the judgment of faith. "Seeing then that _all these things shall be dissolved_, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness; looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, _according to his promise_, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." (2 Pet. iii. 11-13.) These are the thoughts of God, and therefore the thoughts of faith. The things that are seen shall be dissolved. What, then, are we to despise the unseen? By no means. The present is rapidly passing away. What is our resource? "Looking for, and hasting unto, the coming of the day of God." This is the judgment of the renewed mind; and any other judgment is only that of "a profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright." (Heb. xii. 16.) The Lord keep us judging of things as he judges. This can only be done by faith. CHAPTER XXVI.