In the opening of this chapter, Abraham's second marriage is set before us,—an event not without its interest to the spiritual mind, when viewed in connection with what we have been considering in the preceding chapter. With the light furnished by the prophetic scriptures of the New Testament, we understand that after the completion and taking-up of the elect bride of Christ, the seed of Abraham will again come into notice. Thus, after the marriage of Isaac, the Holy Ghost takes up the history of Abraham's seed by a new marriage, together We have already referred to the remark of some one on the book of Genesis, namely, that it is "full of the seeds of things;" and as we pass along its comprehensive pages, we shall find them teeming with all the fundamental principles of truth, which are more elaborately wrought out in the New Testament. True, in Genesis these principles are set forth illustratively, and in the New Testament didactically; still, the illustration is deeply interesting, and eminently calculated to bring home the truth with power to the soul. At the close of this chapter we are presented with some principles of a very solemn and practical nature. Jacob's character and actings will hereafter, if the Lord will, come more fully before us; but I would just notice, ere passing on, the conduct of Esau in reference to the birthright, and all which it involved. The natural heart places no value on the things of God. To it God's promise is a vague, valueless, powerless thing, simply because God is not known. Hence it is that present things carry such weight and influence in man's estimation. Any thing that man can see he values, because he is governed by sight, and not by faith. To him the present is every thing: the future is a mere uninfluential thing,—a matter of the merest uncertainty. Thus it was with Esau. Hear his fallacious reasoning: "Behold, I am at the point to die; and what profit shall this birthright do to me? What strange reasoning! The present is slipping from beneath my feet: I will therefore
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