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.
This is very sad, but I think knowing about it is a help to you and me, dear children, because we see that in spite of all, God loved him and forgave him, and taught him as He led him through his long life, to try more and more to please Him in everything.
Jacob had bargained with his hungry brother Esau for his Birthright, and had got it from him.
After a time when Isaac, his father, was very old and was soon going to die, Rebecca heard Isaac asking Esau to go out hunting and bring him home some savoury meat, for he wished to bless him before he died.
Directly Esau was gone, Rebecca called Jacob to her, and together they planned to deceive Isaac, who was nearly blind with age, by Jacob's dressing up in Esau's clothes and pretending to be his first-born son.