Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews, Part 16: The Sins of Esau: No Birthrights for Bastards

Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews, Part 16: The Sins of Esau, No Birthrights for Bastards

Finishing his description of the faith of the Old Testament saints, Paul of Tarsus had referred to them as a “great a cloud of witnesses lying around us”, a reference to either the well-known past history of his Hebrew readers, or perhaps allegorically to the parchments upon which the accounts were written, lying around him as he wrote this epistle. In any event, Paul’s explanations were meant to describe how these Old Testament saints had acted upon their faith, and were therefore accredited for their actions.

Christians, even Identity Christians, sometimes see faith as some mystical substance which can rather magically save them regardless of what they may do in this world. They have it all wrong. While none of us are perfect, we must at least endeavor to keep the commandments of Yahweh our God and the expectations of Christ if we expect the favor of God. We can go back to our description of the Roman jailer in Acts chapter 16, which we had also discussed when we presented Hebrews chapter 4 here a couple of months ago. There we said, in part, that:

… as it is described in the Book of Acts, once the warden of the jail where Paul and Silas were kept realized the power of Yahweh, the God of Paul and Silas, when the earthquake had opened the doors of his jail, he went to Paul and inquired what it was that he must do to be “saved”. The jailer, who was about to slay himself fearing what would happen if any of the prisoners escaped, was a Roman pagan. Therefore he had no consciousness of the possibility of eternal life in Jesus. He only sought earthly salvation from the punishment he expected for which he nearly killed himself…. [But when he was about to do so Paul intervened and we read:] “28 But with a great voice Paul cried out saying ‘Do nothing evil to yourself! For we are all here!’ 29 And requesting a light he burst in and coming trembling fell before Paul and Silas, 30 and leading them outside he said ‘Masters, what is necessary for me to do that I be saved?’ 31 And they said ‘Believe in the Prince Yahshua and you and your house shall be saved.’”

When the jailer in Philippi was afraid that his prisoners escaped, Paul assured him that they were all present. The jailer must have been relieved, but feared his position and the Roman authorities above him, because of the circumstances, deciding that he should trust Paul he asked “what is necessary for me to do that I be saved?” When the jailer asked this, he had no concept of Jesus and he was ignorant of Christian concepts of salvation, being a pagan. He just didn’t want to lose his earthly hide. Paul’s perspective was different. Paul was confident the prisoners were not going to escape, so the jailer would not be punished, and he was indeed focused on the greater prospect of salvation in Christ. So Paul assured him that accepting the faith in Christ he and his whole house would be preserved, and Paul said this even though his house had not yet heard of Jesus, because keeping the commandments of Christ and loving one’s brother are the way to life in this world. Therefore speaking of the jailer of Acts chapter 16 we concluded:

The jailer being the head of his house, if he chose to keep the commandments of Christ then the household would follow by necessity. Turning to Christ, the jailer and his household would ostensibly keep the commandments of Christ, and that is the way to preservation in this life, by which the children of Israel can hope to establish the Kingdom of Heaven on earth….

Doing what Christ has commanded, Christians hope to be preserved in this world, and not only in the world which is to come. The jailer understood Paul’s words in practical terms, and not within the artificial paradigm which has been constructed by the denominational churches. Once again we can cite Paul’s words in Philippians chapter 2 where he said “14 Do all things apart from murmuring and disputing, 15 that you would be perfect and with unmixed blood, blameless children of Yahweh in the midst of a race crooked and perverted - among whom you appear as luminaries in the Society, 16 upholding the Word of Life for a boast with me in the day of Christ...”

The Old Testament saints must have been godly people who conducted their lives in a godly manner, or they would never have been accredited and they would not have made Paul’s list of noble examples. But that does not mean that they were perfect men and women, as all men sin and fall short of the glory of God. Yet throughout their lives each of them acted with the assurance that there was indeed a God to whom they were ultimately responsible and whom they actively sought, and that is Paul’s main point in chapter 11 of this epistle. With this, even Samson was able to overcome his enemies, although the result of his sin was his own death along with them. Samson had a vow of religious separation which he did not keep, and that is ultimately what killed him in the end.

Christians acting on faith must examine what Christ requires of those in the Faith. He commands Christians to keep His commandments and to proactively love their brethren. Therefore only doing those things can one be found walking the path to being accredited as these ancients were, and with that, one also hopes to also escape punishment for his sins in this world and the world beyond. Yahweh God is merciful.

With that, Paul also spoke of the struggle against wrongdoing, and the resulting discipline, or chastisement for sin, and he said: “’6 For whom Yahweh loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.’ 7 You endure discipline; as sons Yahweh engages with you. For what is a son whom a father does not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline, of which you all have become partakers, then you are bastards, and not sons.”

Here it is apparent that while sons are disciplined, bastards do not suffer such chastisement. But to many readers this seems like a contradiction, since it is also apparent that both sons and bastards alike may indeed suffer in the trials of this world. But the truth is that only the children of God are being prepared for the kingdom of heaven, and all of the others do not matter, except that they are the reason why the sons are punished in the first place, and it is also they through whom punishment is executed.

There are many examples of this in Scripture, but perhaps it is best summarized in Joel chapters 1 and 2. In Joel 1 the Word of Yahweh said “2 Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? 3 Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. 4 That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten.” But the insects are not actual insects, rather they are pejorative terms for people, those who devoured ancient Israel and those who would devour Israel in these last days, of which Joel is also a prophecy. Then we see the remedy mentioned in Joel chapter 2, where after a determined degree of punishment, “18 Then will the LORD be jealous for his land, and pity his people”, and therefore He assures them “25 And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you. 26 And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed. 27 And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed.”

Obadiah warns of this same punishment and recovery in different terms, where he wrote: “15 For the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen [nations]: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head. 16 For as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all the heathen drink continually, yea, they shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been.” Yahweh’s holy mountain being the children of Israel themselves, “all the heathen” are the same as the locusts, cankerworms, palmerworms and caterpillars of Joel. They shall be as though they had not been. Obadiah wrote when Jerusalem was already destroyed, so this has not been fulfilled since it was written. However seeing that the world has arrived at the circumstances described by the prophet, we await its fulfillment today.

So just as the bastard races were employed throughout the Old Testament as a scourge against the children of Israel whenever they had sinned, and just as it is described in the prophets, the bastard races remain the vehicle by which Yahweh punishes the children of Israel to this day. But where we see in the Revelation that these bastard races are the “flood from the mouth of the serpent” and the nations which Satan gathers for battle against the camp of the saints, we see that they are associated with Satan, and not with God. Therefore, in the parable of the sheep and the goats, only the sheep are preserved and only the goats are destined for the same destruction which has been prepared for the devil and his angels. They may at times suffer in this world along with the children of Yahweh, but their suffering is not for their correction.

The apostle Peter speaks of the trials of this life and the outcome of this present age where he writes in chapter 1 of his first epistle “7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” So he says in chapter 3 of his second epistle that “6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: 7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” This is the same fire prepared for the “devil and his angels” in the parable of the sheep and the goats, and the fire which all of the bad fish are thrown into in the parable of the net, and the fire which the tares are thrown into at the gathering of the wheat and the tares. Ungodly men are not sinful Israelites. Sinful Israelites, are the sons whom Yahweh seeks to correct and promises to have mercy upon. The ungodly men are all those of the bastard races, the goat nations, the bad-fish-kind, the tares planted by the devil which are among “Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted”.

So we read in Paul’s first epistle to the Corinthians, in chapter 3, that a man – meaning a man of Israel – building upon the foundation in Christ gold, silver and precious jewels can expect a reward in heaven. But a man building upon that foundation wood, hay and stubble has no reward, although, as Paul explains, he himself shall be saved. All of the children of Israel are saved because they all have the Adamic spirit which cannot be destroyed in the trials of this world. But no bastard can be saved because they are all ungodly in the first place. They are broken cisterns which do not have the Spirit which Yahweh imparted to the Adamic race, so when they are burned in the fire, allegorically speaking, there is nothing left to be saved.

Here in Hebrews 12:9, Paul continues in reference to the sons:

9 Accordingly we have had as disciplinarians our fathers of the flesh and we respect them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of Spirits, and we shall live?

Being subject to the Father of Spirits necessitates the subjection of oneself to the Law of God. For example, upon commending the Christians at Rome in chapter 16 of his epistle to the Romans Paul wrote “Surely that of your compliance has reached to all, therefore I rejoice concerning you...” because, as he had also taught them in that epistle, an acceptance of the Gospel meant a departure from sin, which is a keeping of the commandments of Christ. Even when Christians cannot overcome the passions of the flesh and sin, as Paul described in Romans chapter 7, they must consent to the law that it is good, and in that manner they can repent. Paul also explained that the law is spiritual.

Therefore he wrote likewise in Galatians chapter 5 where he said “18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”

The modern perverts found in the denominational churches claim to be “spiritual” and use that as an excuse to engage in all sorts of wicked behaviour. Christians should never accept such Sodomites and cretins, because being “spiritual” demands that one keep the commandments of Christ, which are the laws of Yahweh the Old Testament God. Entering the kingdom of God, men will have no choice but to depart from sin. Paul continues to speak of discipline:

10 Indeed they [earthly fathers] for [relatively] a few days had disciplined in accordance with that which is determined by them, but He [Yahweh] for a benefit, for which to have a share in His holiness.

The fathers of the flesh are natural fathers, who should have disciplined their sons as they grew to manhood. To these Paul compares discipline from God, which is for a much greater purpose. But this punishment of which Paul speaks is the same punishment prophesied for Israel in the Old Testament. If the children of Israel had maintained their holiness, which is the distinct separation from the other races, which Yahweh had required of them, there would have been no punishment.

In this regard, we read in Exodus chapter 19: “5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: 6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.” Then in 1 Kings chapter 8: “53 For thou didst separate them from among all the people of the earth, to be thine inheritance, as thou spakest by the hand of Moses thy servant, when thou broughtest our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord GOD.” These commandments still stand, as Peter reveals in his first epistle, and as Paul reveals here and in many other places in his writings – that ultimately the will of Yahweh will prevail and the children of Israel shall indeed be a separate people.

The fact that the children of Israel failed to keep these commandments to be separate are the reasons for the corruption and dissolution of the Old Testament Kingdom, which is clear in Numbers chapter 33 where the Word of Yahweh says: “55 But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell. 56 Moreover it shall come to pass, that I shall do unto you, as I thought to do unto them.” Ultimately, this is why we have Jews and Arabs and the other bastard races among us today.

In Leviticus chapter 26 the Word of Yahweh spoke of the punishments to come upon the children of Israel for their sins, and it says “23 And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me; 24 Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins.” So when these punishments were finally executed, as Yahweh says to Israel in Amos chapter 3, “2 You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.” This was the punishment that had been promised in Leviticus, and it was repeated again over a hundred years after Amos, in Jeremiah chapter 30 where Yahweh said: “though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished.” This is why the children of Israel required salvation, as Yahweh said in the preceding words “Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the LORD; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid. For I am with thee, saith the LORD, to save thee...”

Throughout his epistles Paul had written about tribulation and distress coming upon the world. Inevitably, he understood that it was due to the very fact that the children of Israel were to be punished for this predetermined period of time. Encouragingly, speaking of punishment for sin as opposed to life in the spirit, he wrote in reference to God in Romans chapter 8 that “16 That same Spirit bears witness with our Spirit, that we are children of Yahweh. 17 And if children, then heirs: heirs indeed of Yahweh, and joint heirs of Christ; if indeed we suffer together, that also we will be honored together. 18 Therefore I consider that the happenstances of the present time are not of value, looking to the future honor to be revealed to us.” So continuing to speak of this punishment he says:

11 Now any discipline for the present seems not to be of joy but of grief, though later returns peaceable fruit of righteousness to those having been trained [γυμνάζω, or exercised] by it.

And in that same chapter of Romans where Paul wrote of the “happenstances of the present time” not having any value compared to the “future honor to be revealed to us”, Paul continued by saying that: “19 Indeed in earnest anticipation the creation awaits the revelation of the sons of Yahweh. 20 To transientness the creation was subjected not willingly, but on account of He who subjected it in expectation 21 that also the creation itself shall be liberated from the bondage of decay into the freedom of the honor of the children of Yahweh. 22 For we know that the whole creation laments together and travails together until then.” Later, in verses 38 and 39 of Romans chapter 8, it is revealed that by saying “the whole creation” Paul means to refer to all of the children of Adam, whom he considers as a distinct creation in relation to other creations, such as angels, heights, depths, powers, principalities, etc., saying also “or any other creation”. Of course, in that passage Paul said nothing about other races of so-called people, ostensibly because of all so-called people, Yahweh only created the Adamic race.

For this same reason Paul had told the Corinthian Christians to be separate from all other people, in 2 Corinthians chapter 6 where he said “14 Do not become yoked together with untrustworthy aliens; for what participation has justice and lawlessness? And what fellowship has light towards darkness? 15 And what accord has Christ with Beliar? Or what share the faithful with the faithless? 16 And what agreement has a temple of Yahweh with idols? For you are a temple of the living Yahweh; just as Yahweh has said, ‘I will dwell among them, and I will walk about; and I will be their God, and they will be my people.’ 17 On which account ‘Come out from the midst of them and be separated,’ says the Prince, and ‘do not be joined to the impure, and I will admit you’. 18, ‘And I will be to you for a father, and you will be mine for sons and daughters, says the almighty Prince.’” There being only sons and bastards, and Israel being commanded to “come out from among them”, the other so-called races must be the “untrustworthy aliens”, “lawlessness”, “darkness”, “Beliar”, “the faithless”, “Idols” and “the impure”.

For this same reason Paul had also told the Galatians that the Law was their schoolmaster, to bring therm to Christ. But for this same reason we also read in the Wisdom of Solomon “23 For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity”, and Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 “22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” Those who doubt that “all Israel shall be saved” seem not to understand this larger picture, but the purpose of Yahweh has not changed since the foundation of the world. Next, Paul speaks to encourage the Hebrews to that same obedience to Christ for which he encouraged the Romans, the Corinthians, and the Galatians:

12 On which account you straighten up those drooping hands and flagging knees, 13 and you make straight courses with your feet, that the lame not be turned aside, but rather would be healed.

This calls to our mind the words of John the Baptist, recorded in Luke chapter 3: “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 5 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth...” Speaking allegorically, Paul informs us here that once a man walks a straight course, he may also help his less fortunate brother walk that same straight course. Otherwise perverting the way of truth, a man causes his weaker brother to also wander out of the way.

14 Pursue peace with all, and sanctification - which without no one should see the Prince.

Paul had similarly advised the Galatians in chapter 6 of that epistle where he said: “10, So then while we have occasion we should work at good towards all, but especially towards those of the family of the faith.” Likewise, in Colossians chapter 4 he wrote “5 In reference to those outside, you walk in wisdom, buying the time, 6 your speech always with goodwill, seasoned with salt. It is necessary for you to know in what manner to answer every single one.” In this manner Yahshua Christ also had advised his apostles, as it is recorded in Matthew chapter 10: “16 Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.”

But Paul warns us here that without sanctification nobody shall see the Prince, whether he be referring to the presence of Christ in heaven or the return of the Christ to earth. That sanctification demands the children of Israel reconciled to Christ in the Gospel to be a holy and separate people. So Paul distinguished the “family of the faith” in Galatians 6, made a reference to “those outside” in Colossians chapter 4, and told the Corinthians to “come out from among them” and “touch not the unclean” in 2 Corinthians chapter 6. Peter wrote to scattered Israelites turning to Christ and in his first epistle, and citing the books of both Exodus and Hosea he said to them: “9 But you are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, so that you should proclaim the virtues for which from out of darkness you have been called into the wonder of His light, 10 who at one time were "not a people" but now are the people of Yahweh, those who "have not been shown mercy" but are now shown mercy.” The punishment of Israel by God is followed by a promise of mercy, and that is the discipline of which Paul speaks here. Upon returning to Christ, now he exhorts them not to make the same mistakes that their ancestors had made:

15 Watching closely that not any are lacking from the favor of Yahweh, “lest any root of bitterness springing up” would trouble you and by it many would be defiled, 16 nor some fornicator or profane person, as Esau who for one meal sold his own birthright [P46 has “sold the birthright”; the text follows א, A and C, and also D, H, and the MT, which vary slightly].

This is a very important passage, one of the most important in all of Paul’s epistles, because it reveals Paul’s entire worldview concerning race and Scripture. Of course there are many other passages in Paul’s writings which do the same, but none so profoundly as this one. This passage also both explains and is corroborated by Paul’s statements concerning Israel, his kinsmen in Israel, Jacob and Esau found in Romans chapter 9. Examining this statement, the only valid conclusion is this: there can be no birthrights for bastards.

The Scripture says in Deuteronomy chapter 23 that “2 A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the LORD.” Where there is a similar command concerning Moabites and Ammonites in that chapter, the saying “even to his tenth generation” is explained where it is followed with the phrase “they shall not enter … forever.” If after nine generations a bastard is still a bastard, then we must start counting from one over and over again with the birth of each generation of bastard, and the counting never ceases so a bastard can never enter the congregation of Yahweh. The fools who claim that after nine generations a bastard is acceptable, in essence advocate the destruction of nine generations in Israel in order to try to get something good out of a bastard. These people who advocate these things can only be devils themselves.

[As a digression, we may not be able to tell all the bastards apart, and if we tried we might mistakenly and unrighteously condemn a brother. But we should consent to the ideal, and love the Law of God. Those who refuse that law, they prove themselves to be bastards.]

A “root of bitterness” is a spirit of rebellion, causing disobedience which in turn leads to sin. The phrase is a citation from Deuteronomy 29:18 as it is found in the Septuagint. There it is speaking in reference to the aliens which were put to flight before the children of Israel, which Paul had also mentioned here in chapter 11 of this epistle, and Moses is making a covenant, or agreement, with the people of Israel and exhorting them not to join themselves to the Canaanites. From Deuteronomy chapter 29 we read:

“7 And when ye came unto this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, came out against us unto battle, and we smote them: 8 And we took their land, and gave it for an inheritance unto the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half tribe of Manasseh. 9 Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in all that ye do. 10 Ye stand this day all of you before the LORD your God; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel, 11 Your little ones, your wives, and thy stranger that is in thy camp, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water: 12 That thou shouldest enter into covenant with the LORD thy God, and into his oath, which the LORD thy God maketh with thee this day: 13 That he may establish thee to day for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 14 Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath; 15 But with him that standeth here with us this day before the LORD our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day: 16 (For ye know how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt; and how we came through the nations which ye passed by; 17 And ye have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them:) 18 Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood; 19 And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst: 20 The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven.”

So where Paul is about to speak of the sin of Esau, he chooses to cite a verse where Moses exhorts the children of Israel not to serve the gods of the heathen. Joining themselves to the alien people, they certainly would be serving the alien gods, and that is exactly what Esau had done, so Paul refers to him as “a fornicator or profane person”, and apparently Esau was both of those things. The language which Paul uses also indicates that these things must be relevant to Christians today.

The sin of Esau was race-mixing. Many of the Judaized commentators of the denominational churches purport that Esau was merely worldly, or was a warrior who relied on his own strength instead of relying on God. While those things are true, they alone do not make Esau a profane person and a fornicator. Samson was also a brave warrior, Samson also married a woman of another tribe, Delilah of the Philistines, but Samson was praised by Paul for his faith, rather than being denigrated as a profane man and a fornicator. Samson was such a great warrior that he killed a thousand men with the jawbone of an ass. Today’s denominational so-called pastors, leading the sheep to the fornication of race-mixing, are themselves asses who kill countless thousands with their own jawbones.

Paul called Esau a “fornicator or profane person”. Except for some insignificant variations in the phrase where it says that he “sold his own birthright”, all of the ancient manuscripts are consistent in their readings of this passage. The word profane is from the Greek word βέβηλος, which is “allowable to be trodden, permitted to human use...of persons, unhallowed, impure...” and thus Esau was, because of his fornication: for Esau took wives of the Canaanites and Ishmaelites, who had ostensibly been mingled (i.e. arab) with the non-Adamic races. In Genesis chapter 15 it is evident that the Hittites and other branches of the race of the Canaanites had intermingled with the Kenites – the descendants of Cain, and with the Rephaim – the giants produced by the race-mixing of Genesis chapter 6, as well as a few other races which are not found in the lists of Noah’s descendants in Genesis chapters 10 and 11.

As for fornication, in verse 7 of his epistle, Jude defines fornication as the pursuit of different flesh. This is substantiated in 1 Corinthians 10:8, where Paul described as fornication the events of Numbers chapter 25 where it says that “1 And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. 2 And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods: and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods. 3 And Israel joined himself unto Baalpeor: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel.” Other illicit sexual acts may be considered fornication, and it may be said that idolatry is spiritual fornication, but the part about committing whoredom with the daughters of Moab is physical race-mixing fornication, which is the fornication which Esau also committed when he had taken Hittite wives. Elsewhere, this is also described in Scripture as the “error of Balaam”.

In Revelation chapter 2 we also see references to this type of fornication, both in relation to Balaam and the sins of Israel joining themselves to the daughters of Moab, and in relation to Jezebel, who is used as an allegory for fornicators. In this regard, it says in the message to the church at Thyatira: “20 Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. 21 And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. 22 Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. 23 And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.” So those who commit fornication suffer tribulation until they repent. But the children who result from such fornication are destroyed, because a bastard cannot enter the congregation of Yahweh.

For his fornication, Esau was destined to lose his birthright, and Jacob knew enough that it should be his own, because Esau could not have it. So Jacob engineered a way to make Esau forfeit it voluntarily, as we see in Genesis chapter 25: “29 And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint: 30 And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom. 31 And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright. 32 And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me? 33 And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. 34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.”

Esau did not despise his birthright because he wanted food. Rather, Esau had no problem using it to purchase the food because he thought so little of it in the first place. By the fact that Esau despised his birthright he might be considered profane, by some stretch of the imagination, but that certainly does not make Esau a fornicator, which is a serious offense for which twenty-three thousand Israelites were slain in one day, as Paul himself had also said in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. So we read at the end of Genesis chapter 26: “34 And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite: 35 Which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah.” The only thing that Esau did for which he was criticized by his own parents in Genesis and that may be considered fornication, was to marry these Hittite women.

But Isaac, for whatever reason, still intended on giving Esau the blessing of the first- born, which disturbed both Jacob and Rebekah to the degree that Rebekah schemed for Jacob to get the blessing instead, and he did. Jacob did no wrong, and wanted nothing to do with the scheme, protesting that he would be called a deceiver, and his mother relieved him of guilt, taking it all upon herself, as we read in Genesis 27, where at first Jacob is speaking: “12 My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing. 13 And his mother said unto him, Upon me be thy curse, my son: only obey my voice...” Taking advantage of his father’s blindness, Jacob received the blessing of the first-born, and after the deed was done and discovered, Isaac knew not to take it back. Rebekah then justifies her actions to her husband, and we read at the close of that same chapter: “46 And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth: if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these which are of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me?” Isaac must have agreed, and we read at the opening of Genesis chapter 28: “1 And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. 2 Arise, go to Padanaram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother's father; and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother's brother. 3 And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people; 4 And give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham.”

Many commentators miss this aspect of the natures of Jacob and Esau, that Jacob obeyed his parents and acted according to their desires, while Esau acted according to his own desires, not caring for his birthright. So Jacob inherited the blessing upon the provision that he took a wife of his own people, and he did.

Jacob was later renamed Israel, because he will rule with God. But Esau was renamed Edom, and the difference between the word edom and the word adam is only an artificial difference made by translators. Jacob represents the spiritual man who will overcome the flesh and rule with God, and Esau represents the fleshly nature of man which has no regard for the spirit, but only to fulfill its own fleshly desires. Paul contrasts these two natures of the Adamic man in Romans chapter 7 and elsewhere in his epistles.

Esau, not overcoming the impulses of the flesh, married women outside of his race, women which were forbidden by his parents, and for that he is a profane man and a fornicator. Paul, using such language in reference to Esau in his epistle to the Hebrews, is admonishing these Hebrews not to do such things. Therefore we see that the injunctions of the law against such race-mixing are still in full force and effect in the Christian Gospel. So Paul continues:

17 For you know that even afterwards, desiring to inherit the blessing he was rejected, for he did not find a place for repentance even though he sought after it with tears.

Writing this, Paul is referring to the events recorded a little further on in Genesis chapter 28 where it says that: “6 When Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob, and sent him away to Padanaram, to take him a wife from thence; and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan; 7 And that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Padanaram; 8 And Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father; 9 Then went Esau unto Ishmael, and took unto the wives which he had Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Abraham's son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife.”

So Esau realized his sin, but still could not do quite right. He had attempted to rectify the problem not by consulting with his parents, but by doing what was right in his own eyes and taking a daughter of Ishmael to wife. However Abraham was already told by Sarah to “Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.” And with this Yahweh agreed, telling Abraham “Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.” Hagar therefore being rejected, Esau could not find repentance taking a wife of the children of Ishmael.

Many commentators imagine that this plain interpretation of Scripture is somehow undone in Deuteronomy 23:7 where the King James Version says “Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite; for he is thy brother….” However it can be demonstrated that in many places the Hebrew letters for D and R were confused by the scribes, even throughout Genesis, and once that is recognized it is seen that Deuteronomy 23:7 may well have been read “Thou shalt not abhor an Aramean; for he is thy brother….” The words are one letter apart in Hebrew, and it is noted by Strong in his Concordance as well as by others that these two words were confused elsewhere.

Laban, the brother of Rebekah, was even called “Laban the Syrian”, Syrian being the word which the King James translators used wherever the Hebrew refers to an Aramean. The people of Arphaxad and Aram, both sons of Shem, were so close that Abraham’s own homeland was called Padanaram, or the Plain of Aram. Later in Scripture, in the time of David, the Israelites dwelt throughout the land of Aram from Damascus to Hamath, and later in history, Herodotus referred to the people of Judah as the “Syrians of Palestine”. They became indistinguishable, but the Edomites – the descendants of Esau – maintained a distinct identity until shortly before the time of Christ, when under the Romans they became known generally as Judaeans.

As the Word of Yahweh speaks in Malachi, Paul quotes in Romans chapter 9 and says “13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” Therefore we must accept our correction of Deuteronomy 23:7, because Yahweh God cannot be made to contradict Himself by the interpretations of man. In Romans chapter 9, Paul is alluding to the fact that the population of Judaea at his time consisted of both Israelites and Edomites, something which is corroborated in the histories of Josephus in great detail, which is also evident in the books of the Maccabees, and is mentioned by Strabo of Cappadocia in his Geography. This was also prophesied in Ezekiel chapter 35, that Mount Seir, the home of Esau, would become desolate, and the Edomites would move into the vacated lands of Israel and Judah. So Paul says in that chapter that not all of the people in Israel are actually of Israel, he professes that he is only concerned for his “kinsmen according to the flesh”, and he goes on to contrast Jacob and Esau. Doing this, he talks about two vessels made from one lump, one for mercy, which is Jacob, and one for dishonor, which is Esau. He then describes vessels of destruction, referring to the Edomites, and vessels of mercy, referring to the Israelites remaining in Judaea.

Those same Israelites are the Hebrews whom Paul is writing to here. So this particular passage where Paul sets out Esau as a fornicator also serves to further illustrate the reasons for what Paul had taught in Romans chapter 9. Giving our commentary on the Acts of the Apostles here several years ago, we established that the epistle to the Romans was written only a short time before this epistle to the Hebrews.

Here we are compelled to explain why Esau was not forgiven, but Judah was forgiven even though he also had a wife who was a Canaanite woman. He also had three sons by the Canaanite who could not have the inheritance even though one tribe came of them which was attached to Judah for a long time. The proof that the sons of the Canaanite woman could not have the inheritance is found in the fact that at the time of the birth of Pharez and Zarah, the sons of Judah by Tamar, the order of their birth was significant, and it was marked by the midwife (Genesis 38:27-30). Later the sons of Pharez ultimately inherited the scepter belonging to Judah, even though Pharez was younger than the children of the Canaanite.

First it must be said that Yahweh took advantage of Judah’s incontinence in order to express His mercy upon Judah. If Judah did not resort to a prostitute, which in at least one case was his own daughter-in-law disguised as a prostitute, then Pharez and Zarah would never have been born, Judah would have had no legitimate heir, and there would have been no tribe of Judah. Ostensibly, however, Yahweh had mercy on Judah because of the promises which He had made to Jacob, and He executed this mercy through Judah’s incontinence and in spite of Judah himself, using that incontinence to assure that there were indeed twelve tribes in Israel. So Judah received mercy on account of the promises which Yahweh had made to Jacob. For this same reason Solomon later obtained mercy, on account of the promises Yahweh had made to David.

But Judah was nevertheless made an example of in later Scriptures for having married a Canaanite, and in it we also see that this explains some of the reason for the later division in Judah at the time of Christ, where we read in Malachi chapter 2 an admonishment against the priests, and the Word of Yahweh says: “2 If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the LORD of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart. 3 Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it.” Malachi is the last of the prophets, and a prophet of the second temple period. But unlike Zechariah and Haggai, who were prophets of the time of Zerubbabel, Nehemiah and Ezra, Malachi came later. However, it is difficult to judge how much later since his work is not dated. But he was early, and apparently the priesthood was already being corrupted at this early time.

So the priests had evidently received this warning, as it says in the subsequent verses, because “7... the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts. 8 But ye are departed out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the LORD of hosts.” So Malachi is prophesying of priests who are not necessarily of Levi, where by saying that these priests had corrupted the covenant of Levi, Yahweh must mean that they were either race-mixing or that some of them were infiltrators into the priesthood. So He had told them that for their punishment, “I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces”

Then we read a little further on in that same chapter where they apparently protest and say: “10 Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?” And the answer is that: “11 Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god.”

So with this we see how the priesthood was corrupted, and this passage in Malachi is prophetic of the ministry of Christ as well, where we see His adversaries, some of whom were priests, had claimed in John chapter 8 that “we have one Father, even God”, but Christ told them that God was not their father. Here it is evident, that Yahweh God is not the father of bastards, and does not take credit for creating them. This also explains why Esau could not recover his inheritance, because bastards cannot inherit the kingdom of God.

So for His purposes Yahweh had mercy on Judah, but He did not have mercy on Esau, and Esau had no legitimate offspring by which to have any part in the inheritance of his fathers, Abraham and Isaac. For this, Paul had written in Romans chapter 9: “14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. 15 For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.” Then he says a little further on: “21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?”

And finally, he says: “22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction [the Edomites]: 23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy [the Israelites], which he had afore prepared unto glory, 24 Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Judeans only [these Hebrews, the true Israelites in Judaea], but also of the Nations [the scattered Israelites of Paul’s other epistles]?”

It is no different today, as Paul’s own words prove here. There are no birthrights for bastards, and all bastards are vessels of destruction, just as the offspring of Esau were described by Paul in his own time.