The old epicurian philosophy which says, let us eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die, expresses the philosophy of Esau.
Coming in from the field faint and hungry, Esau said to his brother, feed me with potage and Jacob replied, sell me thy birthright. Esau then said, I am at the point to die and what profit shall this birthright be to me?
"In many ways Esau was a likeable character," columnist John R. Gunn writes that, "he was the kind of man we would call today a good sport. He was probably very popular with his friends. He was frank and generous and in this respect stands out in favorable contrast with his cunning and double dealing brother. And yet, with all his good qualities he had one weakness which spoiled his whole life. He was ready at any time to barter away everything he had to gratify the appetite of the moment. He could not pass up a present pleasure for the sake of a future good."
You pity Esau, you say, "how stupid he was" and yet how many times some of us have done exactly the same thing. Here is a temptation against which we all need to be on guard - the temptation to throw away some greater future good to possess some lesser present good. The man who weakly yields to every impulse of the moment will find sooner or later that he has sold his birthright at a cheap price. Let us each one be careful every day to avoid repeating Esau's stupid blunder.