Hebrews 12:15-17
“See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God….that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.” (ESV)
This has always been one of those really puzzling and heavy verses for me. Think about it. Why did Esau find no place of repentance for simply selling his birthright "though he sought it with tears," while someone like David found repentance for adultery and murder?
In the end, Esau’s life was marked by a refusal to follow God’s ways. He was always only concerned about what was in it for him in the moment. In fact, Genesis 25 says that he despised his birthright, because he thought a meal was more important in the moment. After he got what he wanted, he stood up from the table and went on about his business. It wasn’t until after he lost the blessings of his birthright to his brother, Jacob, that he finally repented. And even then he was only repenting to get back what he had lost.
David, on the other hand, was a man whose life was marked by a passionate love and pursuit of God. He knew that his sins had separated him from God, so when he finally repented (in Psalm 51), that broken relationship was restored. This is true repentance.
In the same way, Jesus, whose life (and death) was marked by a passionate love and pursuit of us, came to restore our relationship with God, which was broken by our sin. And if our repentance is based on anything other than that, we are missing the true meaning of repentance. And we will never find it...even though we seek it through tears. (2 Corinthians 7:10)
