Did God Reject Esau's Repentance? (Hebrews 12:15-17)

Esau’s Tears Were Over the Lost Blessing, Not Repentance

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.

Now I wanna say from the outset that this particular passage is apt to miss understanding. The first way that most people misunderstand this passage is they think that somehow Esau wanted to repent of his sins and be right with God and God held him back.

I wanna tell you right away that is not how you understand this passage but also I wanna say this that has never happened in the history of the world there has never been a person who genuinely wanted to repent of their sins who God held them back.

Calvinism and the Human Will

Now I understand you all realize we are reformed in this church meaning we hold to a Calvinistic understanding of salvation. And people say all well what Calvinism is is everybody wants to get saved but God only chooses a few.

That is not what Calvinism says. Calvinism says nobody wants to get saved. Nobody wants to come to a knowledge of the truth. Because the Bible says there is none who fears God. There's none who seeks after God.

That all have turned aside. All have gone their own way. There's none who fears God. But God opens the heart and draws the person in the only person who genuinely wants to repent. The only person who genuinely wants to come to Christ is the person whose heart has been changed by Almighty God.

The Grammar of the Pronoun “It”

That's what we believe. So what does it mean then when it says Esau when he desired to inherit the blessing he was rejected for he found no chance to repent though he sought it with tears. Well the word that is in question here is the pronoun it.

And if you remember from grammar school when you were learning how language works you'll remember that a pronoun has to have an antecedent. I understand today pronouns are a big deal of conversation and we don't want to get into that conversation right now.

But there used to be rules for grammar and a single person couldn't be a they them because there was a rule. If it was a plural pronoun it had to have a antecedent that was plural. If it was a singular pronoun it had to have an antecedent that was singular.

You guys understand how that works. The antecedent is the noun which is connected to the pronoun. Now Greek is a little different than English in that Greek has what are known as genders interestingly enough.

And the genders tie the pronouns to the preceding noun. So you have a masculine gender. And if a masculine pronoun is connected to a masculine noun then you know those two are connected. Or if it's a neuter noun and a neuter pronoun you know they're connected.

Or if it's a feminine and a feminine pronoun you'll know that it's connected in that way. And it's not always about men and women. It's more in line with just how the grammar works how the words work.

Like for instance the Holy Spirit the word pneuma is a feminine word in the Greek. But always always always the Holy Spirit is given a masculine pronoun he. So it's interesting that even though the word pneuma is feminine because the word is the Holy Spirit is he.

Esau’s Remorse Was Worldly Grief, Not Godly Repentance

Well in this case the it has two possible nouns that could be connected to it. The first noun is the word repent and the second is the word blessing. So reading it again 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.

Is it pointing to repentance. Or is it pointing to the blessing. I am convinced based upon grammar and upon the fact that I've read Genesis that it's talking about the blessing. Because the blessing is the thing he wanted it was the blessing that he wept over after he did not receive it he was not repenting of his sins before God.

He was weeping over the fact that he had lost the blessing. He believed he deserved understand the point. So it is worldly grief. Because he has lost a worldly blessing a worldly benefit. It is not godly grief that is leading him to repentance.

It is worldly grief that is leading him to remorse.