He hated his brother Jacob and determined to kill him as
soon as his father Isaac was dead.
[114]It seems rather strange that many Christian people have severely
criticized Jacob and his mother Rebekah in this transaction. It has
evidently been due to the fact that they were ignorant of the record. No
part of Jacob's action in connection with the birthright is
reprehensible. Everything with reference to Esau is reprehensible. God
subsequently showed that Esau pictured the peoples of earth who are
Christians in name only, but not in truth and in fact, who are
hypocritical, and who persecute the true Christians; while Jacob
pictured or foreshadowed the true followers of Christ who have been
misrepresented and persecuted by the merely nominal Christians. God
showed his approval of the conduct of Jacob and his mother Rebekah, and
showed that it was his purpose and intention that Jacob should receive
the blessing going with the birthright. Jacob had shown his great desire
for the birthright, which was merely a promise; while Esau had despised
it. Acting upon the advice of his mother, Jacob now fled from the wrath
of Esau; and as he went away, he lay down and slept at a place situated
north of the present site of Jerusalem and which afterward he named
Bethel, which means the house of God. There he had a dream, in which God
signified his approval of Jacob and pronounced a blessing upon him.
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