HEBREWS 24 See That No One Is Godless Like Esau (Heb 12:16-17)

“See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son.” (Heb 12:16)

“See that no one is… godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son.” (Heb 12:16)
 
Here, the key word of this verse is ‘godless.’ The Greek word for this adjective is βέβηλος (bebelos), which basically means ungodly and unhallowed. But it also means common and secular.
 
This word is the opposite of the concept of biblical holiness. So, in order to know the exact meaning of bebelos—godless—we first need to understand the biblical concept of holiness.
 
When you think about the word ‘holiness’ there are likely some images that come to your mind. You might recall the images of a holy congregation praising God together, Holy Communion, a choir in white robes, and more.
 
These images can convey the meaning of holiness to some degree, but there’s something more we need to know about holiness.
 
Simply put, to be holy is to be set apart. One of the verses that best shows what holiness means is found in Leviticus 20:26, which says,
 
“You are to be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.” (Lv 20:26)
 
When we say that God is holy, we proclaim that God is distinct and separate from everyone and everything. As Moses said, “There is no one like the Lord our God.” (Ex 8:10)
 
Likewise, God wants us to be holy. He wants us to live differently. God wants us to follow his way and his will, not the ways of the world. God makes us holy by setting us apart so that we can live holy lives that reflect his holiness.
 
So, I think the antonym of holiness is closer to common or secular. When we lose God’s calling to be set apart for his will and start to follow the ways of the world, we become like other non-believers around us. We become common and secular. That’s the meaning of ‘godless’ in verse 16.
 
In order to warn readers not to be godless, the author uses Esau as an example.
 
Esau’s Godlessness
According to the author, Esau serves as a model of those who exchange spiritual things for earthly satisfaction because he sold his inheritance right as the oldest son for a single meal.
 
We read his story in Genesis 25 and 27. Esau was the twin brother of Jacob, and he was the oldest son of Isaac. Scripture tells us, “the boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents.” (Gen 25:27)
 
Esau was like a man among men. His whole body was hairy, and he was an outdoorsman, a skilled hunter. In contrast, Jacob had smooth skin and he liked to stay at home. Isaac’s wife, Rebekah, loved Jacob more than Esau, and Jacob was obedient to his mom. But it seems that Jacob was shrewder than his brother.
 
One day, Esau came inside and he was very hungry. He saw his brother Jacob cooking some stew. So, he said to Jacob,
 
“Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” (Gen 25:30)
Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.” (Gen 25:31)
Then, Esau said, “Look, I am about to die. What good is the birthright to me?” (Gen 25:32)
 
Esau might have said it as a joke, but it wasn’t a joke to Jacob. So, Jacob required him to swear first. Esau swore an oath to Jacob that he would sell his birthright to him. Then Jacob gave his brother something to eat. By doing so, Esau sold his birthright for a meal.
 
Esau likely didn’t know what he had just done. He didn’t value the rights of the firstborn. For him, they were insignificant enough to trade for a meal. As Scripture says, “Esau despised his birthright” (Gen 25:34).
 
Esau’s birthright was his inheritance as the firstborn son. It was handed down from his grandfather, Abraham. But he abandoned the God of his father and grandfather by trading away his birthright. And this didn’t really bother him, which shows how little he valued it, and his disdain for it.
 
That’s why the book of Hebrews calls him a godless man. Instead of serving the God of his ancestors, he decided to be godless. But, the author is not saying that Esau was godless because of what he did. Esau easily sold his right as the firstborn son because he was godless. He didn’t really care about it. In other words, his godlessness led him to make such a decision.
 
Esau was godless because God wasn’t in his life. Esau was a skilled hunter and an outdoorsman. He might have thought that he was strong enough to take care of himself. Rather than relying on God, he trusted in his own power and ability. He didn’t think he needed God so he didn’t take God’s blessing seriously. In other words, Esau was godless because he concentrated on worldly things more than on spiritual inheritance.
 
Then, we might ask, “What’s wrong with being godless?” Why does the author of Hebrews warn us not to be godless like Esau?
 
There are some advantages to being godless. For example, unlike Christians, the godless person has extra time for their own pleasure. They can sleep in, play golf, go fishing, or do anything else they want to do on Sunday. They can put more time into self-improvement. They can study or work out.
 
One of the things that made me sad when I served as a youth minister in Korea was that many students didn’t come to church during their exam period. What was sadder, it was their parents who attended church and told them to study instead of going to church.
 
They likely told their children, “If you get good grades and go to a good college, God will be glorified. So, let’s just skip the worship service this week. There’s worship service every Sunday. And it wouldn’t really matter if you skipped one. But you don’t have much time to study for your test next week.”
 
Do you know what their parents really taught them by doing this? They taught them to exchange spiritual blessings for worldly values. In other words, they taught their children to value worldly things more than spiritual things. It’s no different from what Esau did.
 
Godless people, those who live without God, have extra money. They don’t have to give offerings or spend money on others. They don’t have to consider helping the poor and orphans around the world. What they have now is theirs. It’s the result of their hard work. They are the owner of everything they have. And it’s up to them how they use their money. It sounds good, doesn’t it?
 
Godless people have no moral or spiritual restraints on their lifestyles. Even though the Bible is not a book of ethics, it is filled with ethical standards. There’s a certain lifestyle that God wants his people to live. Godless people are free from all these restraints and commands. They are the lords of their own lives. They can do whatever they want to do.
 
They have no concerns about what’s really right or wrong because they have their own standards. A few years ago, I saw a movie called ‘Don’t breathe.’ In the movie, two men and a woman invaded an old man’s house to rob him. They thought it would be easy because the owner was blind. But it wasn’t.
 
The old, blind man was very strong and started to kill the invaders one by one. And while fleeing from the old man, they found that the old man was doing a very terrible thing in his basement.
 
When they asked how he could do such a horrible thing, he said to them, “There is nothing a man cannot do once he accepts the fact that there is no god.”
  
I think that’s how godless people think subconsciously. If there’s no god, there’s no absolute rule to follow. So, if you live godlessly, as if there’s no god, you are free from all the regulations and restraints of Christianity.
 
The famous Russian novelist Dostoyevsky once said,
“If God is not - nothing is morally wrong.”
 
So, it seems that godless people have more advantages in their lives than Christians have. If you don’t believe in Jesus, you can have extra time and money. And you’ll be free from all kinds of spiritual restraints.
 
Then, why should we believe in Jesus if it means we have to give up these advantages? The biggest problem for the godless is that they ultimately have no future or any hope for eternal life. They can enjoy their lives on earth because they think there’s no life afterwards.
 
Even though they are looking forward to their future, their future is limited to this world. Even though they have hope, their hope is also limited to this world.
 
Paul told the Christians at Ephesus that before they believed in Jesus they “were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.” (Eph 2:12)
 
At that time, they “followed the ways of this world… gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts.” (Eph 2:2)
 
And, in the same chapter, Paul describes those who were godless and lived without God this way.
 
“You were dead in your transgressions and sins… Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.” (Eph 2:1,3)
 
So, why should we believe in Jesus despite the difficulties and hardships it brings us on earth? Why must we not exchange spiritual inheritance for earthly satisfaction? That’s because the life we have in this world is not everything and we know that there’s eternal life.
 
Only those who believe this put their hope in God, not in the world, and enter through the narrow gate, denying themselves, and taking up their crosses daily.
 
As a godless man, Esau despised spiritual blessings and sold his right as the firstborn son just for a meal. He didn’t value the birthright God gave him.
 
But, true Christians are like the person who found priceless treasure hidden in a field and sold everything he had to buy the field. He didn’t do this because he was crazy or foolish, but because he knew the value of the treasure.
 
That’s the mindset we should have as Christians. Without it, we can’t really follow Jesus because following him must include laying down our own time, money, thoughts, plans and even our lives.
 
Let’s read one more Bible passage before we wrap up. Let’s read Php 3:7-9 together.
 
“But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him...” (Php 3:7-9)
 
Godless people like Esau don’t know how valuable the spiritual blessings Jesus gives us are so they despise them and don’t really care about them. Even many Christians live like that.
 
But, true Christians are those who truly understand the value of the kingdom of God and commit their entire lives to it.
 
Now, I want us to look back on our faith. Are you more like Esau or Paul? How valuable are spiritual blessings and God’s promises to you? Let’s listen carefully to what God warns us about through today’s passage.
 
And if there are areas in our lives that don’t include God or there are things that we prioritize over him, let’s humbly lay them down at the cross so that we can have true faith in Jesus Christ and follow him as his sincere disciples.