But we must not therefore assume that the preference given
to Jacob was merely arbitrary. God's freedom of choice is
only opposed to human claims and pretensions. The history
shows that it was controlled by reference to individualities.
Jacob is here related to Esau as Israel to the heathen. What
Lange says of Israel as a nation, On the Historical Character
of the Gospels, p. 9, is equally appropriate to their ancestor :
" From their mother's womb, from their deepest fundamental
life, they had already a predisposition to revelation, a genial
inclination for true religion."

Esau's appearance at his birth symbolized his individuality.
On this account it is narrated by the author, and for this reason
it determines his nanae.
Esau is the representative of a certain natural good-nature
and honesty, combined with roughness, passionateness, and
unsusceptibility for the higher. He is without resentment or
longings, a man who finds full satisfaction in the visible. Such
natures, even when grace has softened their hearts, are not fit
to be placed at the head of a development. ' One destined for
such a position must possess not only faith, but gifts ; but every
■^apicrfia presupposes a natural substratum, which is seldom
found in characters like Esau's.
Jacob's nature is much more complex than that of Esau.
