John Calvin Commentary Genesis 25:29

"And Jacob boiled pottage. And Esau came in from the field, and he was faint." — Genesis 25:29 (ASV)

And Jacob sod pottage. This narration differs little from the games of children. Jacob is cooking pottage; his brother returns from hunting weary and famishing, and barters his birthright for food. What kind of bargain, I ask you, was this? Jacob ought to have satisfied his brother's hunger of his own accord.

When asked, he refuses to do so: who would not condemn him for his inhumanity? In compelling Esau to surrender his right of primogeniture, he seems to make an illicit and frivolous compact. God, however, put Esau's disposition to the test in a matter of small importance; and furthermore, intended to present an example of Jacob’s piety, or (to speak more properly) he brought to light what lay hidden in both.

Many indeed are mistaken in basing Jacob’s election on the claim that God foresaw some worthiness in him, and in thinking that Esau was reprobated because his future impiety had rendered him unworthy of divine adoption before he was born. Paul, however, having declared election to be gratuitous, denies that the distinction is to be sought in human individuals; indeed, he first assumes as an axiom that since mankind is ruined from its origin and devoted to destruction, whoever is saved is freed from destruction in no other way than by the mere grace of God.

Therefore, that some are preferred to others is not on account of their own merits; but since all are equally unworthy of grace, those whom God, of His own good pleasure, has chosen are saved. He then ascends still higher and reasons thus: Since God is the Creator of the world, He is, by His own right, in such a sense the arbiter of life and death that He cannot be called to account; but His own will is (so to speak) the cause of causes.

And yet Paul does not, by reasoning this way, impute tyranny to God, as the sophists frivolously allege when speaking of His absolute power. But since He dwells in inaccessible light, and His judgments are deeper than the lowest abyss, Paul prudently urges acquiescence in God’s sole purpose, lest, if men seek to be too inquisitive, this immense chaos should overwhelm all their senses.

Therefore, some foolishly infer from this passage that because God chose one of the two brothers and passed by the other, the merits of both had been foreseen. For it was necessary that God decree that Jacob should differ from Esau; otherwise, he would not have been unlike his brother.

And we must always remember Paul's doctrine that no one excels another by his own industry or virtue, but by the grace of God alone. However, although both brothers were by nature equal, Moses represents to us, in the person of Esau, as in a mirror, what kind of men all the reprobate are, who, being left to their own disposition, are not governed by the Spirit of God.

Meanwhile, in the person of Jacob, he shows that the grace of adoption is not idle in the elect, because the Lord effectually confirms it by His calling. From where, then, does it arise that Esau puts his birthright up for sale, if not from this: that he, being deprived of the Spirit of God, relishes only the things of the earth?

And from where does it happen that his brother Jacob, denying himself his own food, patiently endures hunger, unless it is because, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, he raises himself above the world and aspires to a heavenly life?

Hence, let us learn that those to whom God does not grant the grace of His Spirit are carnal and brutish, and are so addicted to this fading life that they do not think of the spiritual kingdom of God. But those whom God has undertaken to govern are not so entangled in the snares of the flesh as to be prevented from being intent upon their high calling.

From this it follows that all the reprobate remain immersed in the corruptions of the flesh, but that the elect are renewed by the Holy Spirit, so that they may be the workmanship of God, created for good works.

If anyone should raise the objection that part of the blame may be ascribed to God because He does not correct the stupor and the depraved desires inherent in the reprobate, the solution is ready: God is exonerated by the testimony of their own conscience, which compels them to condemn themselves.

Therefore, nothing remains but that all flesh should keep silence before God, and that the whole world, confessing itself to be liable to His judgment, should be humbled rather than proudly contend.