Isaac was now getting old, and he loved Esau the best of his two sons, because Esau often brought him a wild animal from his hunting, and would cook it for his father and make it into a savoury dish. But Rebecca loved Jacob the best; and in after years, through her making him such a favourite, she had the greatest sorrow of her life. One day Esau came in from a long journey, and though he had succeeded in catching and bringing home an animal, he had had nothing to eat for a long time and as he got near to the tents where they all lived, he saw his brother Jacob sitting eating a bowlful of red pottage, which he had just made for himself. Esau was very faint and hungry, with such hunger as you and I, dear children, have probably never felt. Very likely he had tasted no food that day, and perhaps not the day before. The sight of the steaming bowl of pottage made him feel as if he would give anything he possessed for some of it to stop the pangs of hunger. Now I am sorry to tell you that Jacob had a very mean character. Though he truly loved God and wished to please Him, his natural character was very shifty. So when his brother Esau asked him eagerly to give him his bowl of pottage, Jacob did not jump up and press it upon his hungry brother, but he thought it was a good opportunity to make a bargain! "If I do give it to you, sell me your birthright!" he exclaimed. Now among the Jews, the birthright of being the eldest son, God had made a great honour. It was most jealously guarded and taken care of; and God gave great blessings with it. But Esau did not love God truly in his heart, as Jacob did; he was busy with other things, and had never given it a thought that to love and serve God was more important than anything else. So he said to Jacob, "I am so faint for food that I am ready to die! What good will this birthright do me?" So Jacob answered, "You must give me your most sacred promise that you sell it to me for this pottage of lentils!" And Esau promised most solemnly; and so he sold his birthright! Then Jacob gave Esau some bread, and his pottage of lentils, and Esau ate and drank, and rose up and went away. And thus, he despised the birthright which God had given him. He was very very sorry afterwards, but he could not undo what he had done. I think this is a very sorrowful story, because there are so many people like Esau, who turn away from God's best gifts, and seek only the earthly things which will quickly pass away. Let the lesson to us, dear children, be to love God first and best of all—before food or clothes, or toys, or happiness—to put God first; and when we have Him for our own, He will take care that we shall have all we need to make us happy; and at the end "a Right to the Tree of Life; and we shall enter in through the gates, into the Heavenly City." XXXVI. The Ladder up to Heaven Though Jacob loved God truly, he was not very truthful, and had many faults.