Esau's worldliness serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of prioritizing temporary, material desires over eternal promises. Esau, described as a man of the field, loved the things of the world and lived for immediate pleasures. In contrast, Jacob dwelt in tents, symbolizing a focus on an eternal dwelling place, believing in the promise given to Abraham. When Esau, weary from the field, impulsively sold his birthright to Jacob for a mere stew, he despised the important rights, responsibilities, and honors that were his by birth. He considered them unimportant, showing no regret after satisfying his fleshly cravings and carelessly going his way. This attitude of Esau is further highlighted as profane, treating what God considered holy as common. By prioritizing his temporary needs over his rights as the firstborn and his responsibilities as heir to the covenant blessing, Esau forfeited his inheritance. Later, when he sought to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, finding no place for repentance despite his tears. This serves as a warning that we too must beware lest we count as unimportant what God considers sacred and holy, risking the loss of our inheritance by focusing on worldly desires rather than eternal promises.

Esau was a skillful hunter and a man of the field while Jacob was a mild man dwelling in tents. Esau came in from the field weary and asked Jacob to feed him with red stew. Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for bread and stew of lentils after declaring that he was about to die so the birthright meant nothing to him. Esau despised his birthright. Esau's major problem was that he could not properly discern what was truly important. Esau's complete attention fell on whatever was before him at the time and thus he took no thought of the future whether of blessings or problems or consequences. Esau is a classic example of a despiser of good. Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing and said in his heart that the days of mourning for his father were at hand then he would kill his brother Jacob. Esau's attitude toward Jacob was a root of bitterness.

Esau was simply worldly. Because his interests were not the same as God's, he paid little or no attention to the things of God. He is one of the Bible's major portraits of a worldly person. Esau's major flaw in character reveals itself in his careless disregard of the high value of his birthright in favor of an immediate sensual satisfaction. Esau was a man who could not see two blocks down a straight road on a crystal-clear day. Because immediate concerns dominated his life, living by faith was extremely difficult for him. Either he had no vision, or his personality demanded instant gratification. Moses writes that Esau despised his birthright. Despise is a strong word, meaning to be scornful or to treat with contempt. Paul judges him as profane, which marks a person as irreverent toward what is sacred. Esau displays his profanity by treating something hallowed, his birthright, as if it were common. Esau further demonstrates this perversity in his thinking in his choice of wives. He is unconcerned about God, the things of God and the future. His mind is elsewhere; he is worldly. God's Word depicts Esau's worldliness through the medium of eating. Eating something he desired at the moment meant more to him than a tremendously valuable gift of God. If Esau looked ahead, the immediate loomed large and more important for him, and the spiritual aspects of life appear to have been completely unimportant to him. He could not control himself to wait patiently on the Lord because he did not highly value the things of God. He thus lacked proper vision.

Esau's worldliness appeared in his impulsive and unholy lifestyle that placed immediate physical needs above any future inheritance. After a failed hunt that left him tired, hungry, and thirsty, Esau returned to camp and sold his birthright for bread and a bowl of lentil stew prepared by Jacob. He ate, drank, arose, and went his way, showing that he despised the birthright. The only reality for Esau was the present moment of hunger and thirst. All promised lands, wealth, rank, and spiritual blessings remained unreal to him because they lay too far ahead to satisfy his flesh right then. Esau wanted instant fulfillment of his desires rather than any delayed reward. This pattern of living for the here and now caused him to trade an entire inheritance for a single meal. His actions demonstrated that anything placed ahead of the birthright, whether hunger, thirst, or fleshly satisfaction, becomes the equivalent of that bowl of lentils.