Immoral and Godless

See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled; that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. (Hebrews 12:15-16)

Immoral or godless – what was it about Esau that made him immoral and ungodly? He is not known for a lot of sexual perversion or even a lot of sexual activity. That is because morality is not primarily about sexual things but is about a state of mind. It has to do with the choices one makes of what is most important to them, where they are going to look to from which to receive life, value and identity for themselves.

One of the definitions of peace from verse 14 is “to set at one again”. This alerts me to covenant language, the term atonement. At-one-ment is all about relationships and the need for having close, healthy bonds with others and with God. And in fact that is what verse 14 is all about. What I see in the verses quoted above is an intensifying focus on the issue of living within or without a covenant bond. It is about the attitude of a person about what they think of and relate to a covenant. Their attitude toward a covenant reveals the level of morality that is within that person.

One reason that morality has become so much associated with sexual activity is because proper sexual activity is supposed to always be within the confines of a covenant relationship with a spouse of the opposite sex. Anything outside of that covenant is a violation of the covenant and is therefore immoral. But sex is by far not the only thing that violates a covenant even though we have come to nearly isolate covenant breaking to sexual issues. As I was saying, Esau is not known for being a prime example of sexual problems like many others in the Bible were, but he is listed here as being immoral. I believe that is primarily because of his callous and indifferent attitude toward the covenant of God with his family.

This whole concept of covenant is so foreign to most of us in our culture that we miss most of the significance of these words. We even have very vague, intellectual ideas of what a birthright was all about and so have a difficult time grasping the deeper implications of what was really going on with Esau. But the birthright was all about taking up the leadership responsibility of fulfilling the covenant terms and privileges that God had set up with Abraham and that was being passed down through the generations. Generally the first-born son was considered the one who was supposed to take this responsibility seriously and pass it along to the next generation – that was the accepted cultural norm. But as is shown in the Bible stories, God often chose to pay more attention to the condition of the heart than the order of birth.

From the things mentioned here the primary characteristic of immorality seems to be externalism. Esau wanted the external benefits of the birthright but scorned the internal morals; he did not want the character, just the power and wealth. When he was rejected (v. 17) he attempted to force himself toward repentance internally, but while he felt extremely regretful he simply had no internal capacity left for true repentance. He had destroyed that ability within him through years of rejecting the work of the Spirit on his own spirit and heart. He is an example of the condition of all who will be lost.

One of our greatest dangers and deceptions is the idea that we can repent anytime we want to. That is not true at all. We do not have repentance as an option lying on a shelf in our mental inventory that we can pull down at any time and utilize whenever things start to get too uncomfortable. That is what Satan wants us to believe so that he can keep us comfortable in our independence from God until it is too late to repent.

True repentance is a divine gift that must be initiated from the outside and must be accessed by a heart that is still capable of responding to the invitation of mercy. We have little understanding of how our heart really functions, but it seems clear that all of us can come to the point without even realizing it where we no longer have the internal capacity to accept the gift of repentance. We have lost the ability to appreciate the beauty and goodness and kindness of God that is the only access channel in our heart available for us to receive this gift. When that point of no return is passed by our heart, we most likely will not be aware of it until much later. But when our heart becomes so calloused and opposed to the truth about the goodness and purity of God's love that all we can believe is the lies about Him promoted by Satan, then the best we can produce on our own will be regret. Repentance can only be received via the Holy Spirit; regret is the cheap imitation that tries to be its substitute. Repentance is a gift inspired by choosing to dwell on and appreciate the beauty of God's character while regret is the selfish reaction of a heart deprived of satisfaction of its cravings for externals, pleasures and rewards.

Godless person in the Greek means someone who profanes a threshold covenant.

Esau's immorality was demonstrated by his obvious lack of value for spiritual internal substance. He only cared about his physical and emotional cravings for externals which always took precedence in his life. This is immorality and is the opposite of what God is like. And if you think about it carefully, the word godless simply means that one is not like God. But it is the character of God that is important to become like, not His apparent external trappings of power and royalty. That is exactly where Lucifer first fell into sin in the first place.

"You were the anointed cherub who covers, and I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; you walked in the midst of the stones of fire. "You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created until unrighteousness was found in you. "By the abundance of your trade you were internally filled with violence, and you sinned; therefore I have cast you as profane from the mountain of God. And I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. "Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I put you before kings, that they may see you." (Ezekiel 28:14-17)

Lucifer became Satan because he shifted his focus from internal values and wisdom to external beauty and intellectual prowess. That is the origin as well as the long track record of sin. It is the most common hallmark of the problem that makes up sin and that keeps us confused about reality and about God.

The following verses here in Hebrews continue the theme of external verses internal. It also contains illusions to Mt. Sinai where all the external display of power only produced the old covenant promises from the people that were nearly as strong as ropes of sand. The displays of power at Mt. Sinai interestingly are parallel to the exhibitions on that same mountain years later in the intense retraining of Elijah after his disastrous debacle on Mt. Carmel where he misrepresented how God relates to the use of power. It is an ongoing problem that we have due to our distorted value system inherited through our sinful nature, that we want external power and control but do not want the necessary character and internal structure needed to thrive in that environment of power.

Maybe this whole chapter is building to make the most important point of all – contrasting external power with internal Godlikeness. Power seems to be the greatest tripping point for God's people throughout all ages. And when we are tripped up by the allure of power and our subsequent weakness is then exposed, the great temptation is to afterwards fall into bitterness.

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