Christian Scientists, as many before them, have enjoyed gleaning the helpful lessons which are to be found in the story of Jacob and Esau. It has been the common view that Jacob was the more worthy of the two brothers because of his readier appreciation of the value of the birthright; and Esau's dullness on this point has attached to his name a condemnation as of a permanent unworthiness. This view may be somewhat unfair to Esau, especially in the light of Christian Science, which shows that all manner of evil can be and eventually will be abandoned.
Although Jacob was aware of the worth of the birthright and the blessing, he nevertheless viewed them from a material standpoint. He therefore sought to gain the first by preying on the weakness of his brother; and later, urged by, and responsive to, the duplicity of his mother, he falsely obtained from Isaac the blessing intended for his brother. His discernment of the worth of these things was rewarded, but not until his character had been much changed. An awakened desire to return to his homeland, whence his error had driven him, led him onward to that memorable struggle by the Jabbok ford where the essential nature of the birthright and the blessing was revealed in the light of spiritual sense. This subdued belief in materiality and made of him a new man, the Israel who as prince had power with God and with men, and had prevailed. This unfoldment had covered a period of years, involving changing views and troublous experiences, wherein was being wrought out a state of mind from which could be dissolved the duplicity and the greed which had obstructed the right sense of brotherhood and home.
But what of Esau during the same period? That he was not wholly unmindful of the worth of the birthright is evidenced by certain incidents. He had sufficiently awakened from his heedlessness at least to desire the blessing which, according to custom, was to be bestowed upon him by Isaac. And when he found that here again his brother, through subtlety, had deprived him of what was his by right, he sincerely besought his father: "Bless me, even me also, O my father.... Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me? ... Hast thou but one blessing, my father? bless me, even me also, O my father." And Isaac said unto him, "Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above ... and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck."
