Esau: A Good, Tragic Example

May 28th, 2026
by Lance Waldie

Hebrews 12:15a-16 See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God 16 …that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal.

Recall that “see to it” (Gr. episkopeō) in v. 15 is a present active participle that modifies the main verb in v. 14 which is “pursue peace with all.” So, while a Christian is pursuing peace with all, they are daily seeing to it that “no one,” not them and no one they know of claiming to be Christian in Christ’s holy Church, “comes short of the grace of God” (v. 15). With this command in mind, attention is turned to an OT man who came up far short of God’s grace: Esau, the twin brother of Jacob and son of Isaac and Rebekah.

Verse 16 reveals two obvious, yet prevalent, sins that can destroy—and has destroyed—many a runner in the Christian race: the sexual and physical appetites. These two sins are easily seen in Esau, “who sold his own birthright for a single meal” (v. 16). Esau’s story can be found in Genesis 25:19-34. As a hunter of wild game, he came home one day hungry after a big hunt and found his twin brother Jacob cooking some lentil stew. Desiring to have some, he asked Jacob to serve it to him quickly since he was famished (Gen. 25:30). The crafty Jacob, seizing the moment, responded saying, “First sell me your birthright” (v. 31), for although they were twins, Esau was the firstborn (25:25) with the right of Isaac’s blessing. We might expect that Esau valued his birthright more so than his appetite, but no, for Esau responded to Jacob, saying, “Behold, I am about to die… of what used then is the birthright to me?” (25:32). Esau therefore chose a quick meal over the Abrahamic blessing.

In Hebrews 12:16, Esau is first depicted as being “immoral” (Gr. pornos) from which the English “pornography” is derived. Notably, nowhere in the OT is Esau called immoral, but the women he married were—the two Canaanite daughters of Heth (progenitor of the Hittites) whose marriage to Esau made life miserable for Isaac and Rebekah (Gen. 26:34-35).

Though the Bible says little about Esau’s immorality, Rabbinical tradition, both Palestinian and Hellenistic, paints the biblical red and hairy, man’s-man Esau as a slave to his sexual urges. Philo of Alexandria (20 BC to AD 50) in his Questions and Answers on Genesis observed this about Esau: “The hairy one is the unrestrained, lecherous, impure and unholy man.” Likewise, the Palestinian Targum on Genesis 25:29 depicts Esau as coming home famished on the same day he sold Jacob his birthright, claiming that “that day he had committed five transgressions,” one of which was adultery with a betrothed maiden. These accounts verify what the Hebrews author says about Esau, that he was a pornos subject to the whims of his libido. He was thus the epitome of the modern, testosterone-driven man’s man. Before he thought of anyone else, he thought of himself, his lusts driving and overwhelming him to be the pornos he inherently was.

Not only was Esau a pornos, he was a bebelos—“godless.” This Greek term depicts one who, although they might believe in God’s existence, they have no regard for God. John Calvin says of such men: “those in whom the love of the world so holds sway and prevails, that they forget heaven as men who are carried away by ambition, addicted to money and riches, given over to gluttony, and entangled with other kinds of pleasures, and give the spiritual kingdom of Christ either no place or the last place in their concerns.”

In sum, Esau was a hairy, red-headed ruffian who valued hunting for fun and food almost as much as the women with whom he fornicated. Today, he would have perhaps been called “Big Red” (since his nickname “Edom” means red), known as a tough man’s-man who knew many women, ate big, and drank liberally. Bereft of any thought of heaven, Esau was wholly earthbound.

Food For Thought
R. Kent Hughes says of Esau, “Instant gratification was his rule of thumb. He was void of spiritual values. Godless! Esau was like a living beer commercial—bearded, steroid-macho, with two things on his mind: sexual pleasure and physical pleasure—food, drink, sports and sleep. ‘Hey, you only go around once. You’ve got to get it while you can.’ He was the prototype of modern godlessness—like the forty-five-year old man who had spent all his post-college years devoted to money and when asked, ‘How is it with your soul?’ answered candidly, ‘My soul? I don’t even know whether I have one.’ Tragic!”