Tag: Esau

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Genesis Devotions

Despising our birthright

Refusing God

“Look,” said Esau, “I’m about to die, so what good is a birthright to me?” 

…So Esau despised his birthright.” (32, 34)

As Isaac’s firstborn son, Esau had a birthright. These included special privileges such as a double-portion of the inheritance and leadership in the family after Isaac died.

But most importantly, it included the covenant blessings promised to Abraham and Isaac, not the least of which was a relationship with God.

But in an instant, Esau lost that birthright. He lost it because he despised his birthright, and instead followed his “flesh.”

This past Sunday, I gave a message in church talking about the “flesh,” and defined it this way: the instincts, desires, and feelings within us that pull us away from God.

In this case, Esau followed his desire for food, and threw away his birthright as a result.

It made me wonder, how often do we as Christians despise our birthright as children of God in order to follow after our flesh?

We have so many blessings from that birthright, among them a new relationship with God, a new identity as his children, freedom from our past, and access to his grace and power.

Yet do we truly value these things? Or do we ever despise them to follow our flesh?

For example, part of our blessing as God’s children is a spiritual family.

But is that blessing so important to you that you prioritize church on Sunday?

Or do you take church lightly, skipping it whenever there’s something else you really want to do that day?

Or do we ever indulge in our sins, saying, “I’ll just ask God for forgiveness later,” taking lightly the price Jesus paid for us on the cross?

There are so many ways that we despise our spiritual birthright in order to follow our flesh.

I don’t want to be that way.

I want to go against the flow of my flesh and embrace my birthright as a child of God.

How about you?

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Genesis Devotions

Seeing the face of God

Genesis

[Jacob] himself went on ahead and bowed to the ground seven times until he approached his brother.

But Esau ran to meet him, hugged him, threw his arms around him, and kissed him. Then they wept…

Jacob said… “I have seen your face, and it is like seeing God’s face, since you have accepted me.” (Genesis 33:3-4, 10)

Sometimes we wonder how God sees us.

Like Jacob sinned against Esau, we have sinned against God. And we wonder how in the world he could ever accept us.

The amazing thing is, though we may come head down, fearful, and awaiting punishment, God comes running to us like Esau, hugs us, throws his arms around us, and kisses us. In short, he accepts us.

In a lot of ways, Esau’s response to Jacob mirrors the father’s response in a famous parable Jesus told.

But while the son was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him. (Luke 15:20)

That’s what we see when we see our heavenly Father’s face:

Compassion.

Forgiveness.

Acceptance.

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Genesis Devotions

The grace of God

Genesis

I was just reading this passage this morning, and these were the thoughts that came to mind as I did so.

I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant…You have said, ‘I will cause you to prosper. (32:10-12)

Jacob said this as an heir of God’s promise to Abraham. But how much more can we say this of ourselves as Abraham’s spiritual heirs by faith?

None of us are worthy of God’s kindness and faithfulness to us. And yet by his grace God is determined to do good to us. (Romans 8:28-32)

For he thought, “I want to appease Esau with the gift that is going ahead of me. After that, I can face him, and perhaps he will forgive me.” (32:20)

Despite God’s grace, how often do we think of God as Jacob thought of Esau? How often do we feel we need to do something to appease him?

And even after attempting to do so, we still harbor some doubt on whether he will forgive us?

As with Esau, however, God needs no appeasing. Because of Jesus’ work on the cross, he is already appeased. And he already thinks favorably toward us.

But Jacob said, “No, please! If I have found favor with you, take this gift from me. For indeed, I have seen your face, and it is like seeing God’s face, since you have accepted me.

Please take my present that was brought to you, because God has been gracious to me and I have everything I need.” So Jacob urged him until he accepted. (33:10-11)

At this point, Jacob realized that Esau had already forgiven him. And so now his attempt at a bribe turns into a gift arising from a grateful heart.

And so with us.

All we give to God is no longer to win his favor but comes from a heart of gratitude for his grace and the fact that in Jesus, we have everything we need.

Each day, let us rest in this incredible, indescribable grace of God. And worship.

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Hebrews

The inheritance we have

Hebrews

We saw yesterday that the writer of Hebrews warned us not to be like Esau who tossed aside his inheritance because of his ungodliness and was unable to regain it though he begged for his father’s blessing with tears.

And we said that many people are like that today. God has offered them the right to become his children and heirs, but because of their love for sin and the things of this world, they reject the inheritance that could be theirs.

Why is that so bad? Because of just how awesome and precious that inheritance is, and the price that was paid so that we might take hold of it.

It’s hard to see the connection between verses 17-18 in the NIV, but there is one. Just add the word “for” at the start of verse 18. (It’s there in the Greek. For some reason, the NIV omits it).

The writer of Hebrews says,

[For] You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, because they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned.”

The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.” (Hebrews 12:18-21)

When God revealed himself to the Israelites on Sinai and gave them the first covenant that included the promise of an earthly inheritance, it was an awesome thing. There was a fire, darkness, gloom and storm, and a fearful voice.

And the people were commanded, “Don’t approach the mountain. If even an animal touches it, it must be killed.”

Even Moses was frightened to approach God on this holy mountain.

But all that said, it was a physical mountain. It was of this world. And the inheritance they received based on this covenant was only a temporal one.

Now though, we approach a completely different mountain, with a new covenant, and an eternal inheritance. The writer of Hebrews tells us,

But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God.

You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven.

You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. (22-24)

Note the differences here. We’re not going to an earthly mountain to approach God, but a heavenly one.

And we don’t come before God cowering with fear, but with rejoicing. Why?

Because while we come to a God who will judge all people, Jesus is our mediator, and he put the new covenant into effect with his own blood.

And while the blood of Abel cried out for justice and vengeance, the blood of Jesus rings out with a cry of forgiveness and mercy.

So we won’t be standing before God trembling in fear. Rather we will stand in wonder at his grace.

More, although this earth will one day be shaken and all old things removed, we will receive a kingdom that cannot be shaken and will stand forever. (28)

All this awaits us.

How then, can we be like Esau, and reject such an awesome inheritance paid for at such a great cost?

How about you? God offers you life. Will you accept it?

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Hebrews

Holiness

Hebrews

“Sure, I’m a Christian. I believe the Bible. I believe in Jesus.”

Many people in the church say this, and yet their lives don’t show it. They’re still living the way they always have, and there is no change or growth in their lives.

When pressed on this point, many say, “This is just the way I am. I’ll never change.”

Or, “You’re being too judgmental.”

Or, “Yes, but there are reasons for my actions. Surely God understands.”

Or, “I don’t believe that this part of the Bible is for today. It doesn’t apply to me.”

Or worse, “It doesn’t matter how I live. God’ll forgive me. So I’ll just sin, and ask for forgiveness later.”

But if there is no real change or growth in your life, and these are your attitudes, then it may be time to seriously question your Christianity.

Throughout church history, there have always been tares among the wheat. People who proclaim to be Christians, who even make confessions of faith and are baptized, but were never truly saved.

And that’s why I think the writer of Hebrews says what he does in this passage. He said,

Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. (Hebrews 12:14-15)

“Without holiness, no one will see the Lord.”

Do you believe that? You cannot live a willfully unholy life and still claim to be a Christian.

There is a vast difference between a person who truly mourns for their sin, yearns for holiness, and grows in holiness as time goes on, and the person who simply doesn’t care.

The grace of God is for the former. There is no grace left for the latter.

How can you claim the grace of God when all the while you’re spitting on the work Jesus did on the cross by indulging in sin?

And how can you claim to love God when you don’t care that you’re doing things that hurt him?

There were people like that in the time of Moses. Moses, in fact, warned about people like that, calling them “bitter roots,” and the writer of Hebrews alludes to this.

Moses said,

Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the LORD our God to go and worship the gods of those nations; make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison.

When such a person hears the words of this oath, he invokes a blessing on himself and therefore thinks, “I will be safe, even though I persist in going my own way.”

This will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry.

The LORD will never be willing to forgive him; his wrath and zeal will burn against that man. All the curses written in this book will fall upon him, and the LORD will blot out his name from under heaven.

The LORD will single him out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law. (Deuteronomy 29:18-21)

In short, there were people among the Israelites who thought that because God had made a covenant with the nation, that Israel would be his people and he their God, that they were now safe.

They thought that because they were part of the Israelite community, God would bless them even if they went their own way.

And Moses said, “No. Though they are part of this community, they are not safe. And God will judge them.”

More, he warned, “Expel such a person. His attitude will spread like bitter poison to those around.”

In the same way, many people go to church thinking, “Hey, I’m part of this church community. So God will bless me even if I go my own way the rest of the week.”

And the writer of Hebrews warns them, “That’s not how it works. God will judge you.”

Then he adds, “Don’t be like Esau who threw away his inheritance by seeking temporal pleasures. Though he later sought the blessing with tears, he was unable to get it.” (16-17)

So it is with us.

Many people will stand before God someday and seek the inheritance of the saints, but be unable to get it, though they shed many tears, because while they were here on earth, they spit on Jesus and his work on the cross by living selfish, ungodly, and unholy lives.

So take a good look at yourself. Do your attitudes show a love for God and a desire to be holy as he is holy? Or do you really not care?

If it’s the latter, you’re deceiving yourself if you think God will accept you, and you will end up missing the grace of God on the day of judgment.

Where is your heart?

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Genesis

Using people? Loving people?

Genesis

This is by far one of the more bizarre stories in the Bible.  And sad.  Jacob falls in love with Rachel, and her father Laban says, “If you work for me for 7 years, I’ll let you have her.”

That’s not really the bizarre part.  Jacob had nothing, and it was a custom in those days to pay a dowry to a bride’s father.

But then the bizarreness begins.  Jacob works the 7 years, and he takes his newly-wed, but veiled wife into his darkened tent, and when he wakes up the next morning, he finds out that it isn’t Rachel; it’s Rachel’s sister Leah.

Laban tells Jacob, “Well, it’s our custom to let the older sister get married first, but if you work 7 more years, I’ll let you have Rachel too.”  Jacob agrees and then marries Rachel.

But for obvious reasons, Jacob didn’t really love Leah, and the Lord saw that.  And so he allowed her to get pregnant, and she had three sons.  Leah’s words at their births are very poignant.

She named her first son Reuben which meant, “He’s seen my misery.”  And she said, “The Lord has seen my misery.  Surely my husband will love me now.”

She named her next son Simeon which meant, “Heard.”  And she said, “The Lord has heard I’m not loved, and so he gave me another son.”

The third son she named Levi which meant “Attached.”  And she said, “Now at last my husband will become attached to me because I’ve born him three sons.”

Rachel then got really upset because she had no children, so she gave her maidservant to Jacob to be another wife and to have children for her.

Then Leah got jealous when she was no longer having children, so she gave her maidservant to Jacob to be yet another wife and have children for her.  And this situation went on and on and on.

Why did all this happen?  Because Laban forgot one key thing.  People are to be loved, not used.

He used Jacob in order to both marry off his older daughter and to gain a profit from Jacob’s work.  He didn’t care that Jacob was a man with feelings.  And he didn’t care about the consequences to his own daughters.

You can see throughout these passages that he passed this way of thinking on to both his daughters who started seeing both Jacob and their own maidservants as tools in their own battle with one another.

Jacob wasn’t a whole lot better.  As the Bible says in Proverbs,

Under [this] the earth trembles…[and] cannot bear up…an unloved woman who is married. (Proverbs 30:21,23)

How do we see the people in our lives?  Do we see them as people that God loves and we should love?  Or do we simply see them as tools to get what we want?

So much pain comes into the world when people become tools instead of someone to love.

You see this in relationships sometimes with men claiming to love a woman simply in order to sleep with her.

You see this in marriage sometimes with people getting married simply because their partner happens to be rich.

You see this in the workplace sometimes with people using others as something to step on in order to advance in their career.

But when we see people that way, we not only degrade them, we degrade ourselves.

We were made to love and to be loved.  And by using people instead of loving them, we make ourselves something less than what God intended.

And that leads to misery, not only for the people we used, but for ourselves as well.

There’s an old song I love.  It says:

Using things and loving people
That’s the way it’s got to be

Using things and loving people
Look around and you can see
That loving things and using people
Only leads to misery

Using things and loving people
That’s the way it’s got to be

Using things and loving people
Brings you happiness I’ve found

Using things and loving people
Not the other way around

‘Cause loving things and using people
Only leads to misery

Using things and loving people
That’s the way it’s got to be
For you and me

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Genesis

Not enough

Genesis

It strikes me that Esau’s response to his parents in this passage is very similar to people’s response to God sometimes.

Esau married some Hittites, who didn’t believe in God, and it deeply upset his parents.

Esau didn’t even realize how upset his parents were until Isaac sent Jacob off  with his blessing, but telling him not to marry one of the Canaanites.

In order to gain favor from his father, Esau decided to marry someone who would be more acceptable to his parents.

He of course couldn’t go where Jacob went, so he went to what he felt was the next best thing:  the descendants of Ishmael.

But how much better that was in the eyes of Isaac and Rebekah is very debatable.

In the same way, many people often do things that deeply hurt God, and they don’t even notice it.

When they do, they try to make up for it, usually by doing some kind of good things to balance out the bad things that they did.  But in Isaiah, it says,

All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.  (Isaiah 64:6).

In other words, the good things that we do is simply not enough in the eyes of God to take away the stain of sin in our lives.

It’s like saying, “God, I’m really sorry for my sins.  But let me give you a present.”  And as a present, you give him dirty, filthy rags.

The picture Isaiah gives here is very graphic.  The word he uses for “filthy rags” is a “menstrual cloth.”  Do you think that anyone, no less God, would accept that as a gift?  Of course not.

Yet time and again, people come before God with the mindset that if they just do enough good things, God will accept them.  But it doesn’t work that way.

Let’s put it another way.

My two-year old daughter will sometimes offer me a kiss.  Usually, I’m very happy to accept that kiss.

But if she’s been eating spaghetti and there’s sauce all over her mouth, there’s no way I’m going to accept a kiss from her until that sauce is wiped away.  Her kiss is stained with the spaghetti sauce.

In the same way, we may try to offer things to God, but if it’s stained with the sin in our lives, God will not accept it.

How then can that sin be dealt with and cleansed? There’s only one way.  It’s through Jesus Christ.  In Romans 5, it says this:

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.

Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!

For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:6-11)

We were powerless to save ourselves.  Everything we did was stained by sin in our lives.

But while we were still powerless, Jesus died on the cross and took the punishment for our sin.

And because he took our punishment, we are saved from God’s wrath, and even more, we are reconciled to God.  Not because of our own good works.  But because of Jesus’  work on the cross.

Are you trying to win God’s favor by doing good things?

It won’t work.  Everything you do is stained by sin.

The only way to be made acceptable to God is to have your sins cleansed.  And the only way to have your sins cleansed is by putting your faith in the work Jesus did on the cross.

Will you put your faith in him today?

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Genesis

Do the ends really justify the means?

Genesis

There are a lot of questions I’d love to ask God about this passage.

First, how much did Isaac really know?

When God told Rebekah that Esau was to serve Jacob, did she pass that on to Isaac?  And if she did, how did Isaac respond?

Further, when Esau sold his birthright to Jacob, did Isaac hear about it, and what was his response?

Either Isaac knew nothing, and was just doing what he thought was right, or he knew everything, and there was something wrong about his attitude.  But as it is, we don’t know how much Isaac really knew.

Which brings us to Rebekah’s and Jacob’s actions.

I’m sure Rebekah told Jacob of what God has said.  The Bible doesn’t say this, but from Jacob’s actions earlier, taking Esau’s birthright, it seems that he had this idea planted from somewhere.

It could’ve come from himself, I suppose.  But it seems more likely that it came from his mother.  So in all probability, they both knew God’s promises.

But when Isaac was about to bless Esau instead, they both panicked.  And so they deceived Isaac into blessing Jacob instead.

Rebekah and Jacob succeeded.  They got the blessing from Isaac.  And it was God’s will to bless Jacob, not Esau.  But did the ends justify the means?

Well, look at the result.  Esau was so upset, he planned to murder Jacob.  Because of that Jacob had to flee for his life, and he never did see his mother again.

For a long time he had to live in fear of his life, and it was only many years later that he reconciled his relationship with Esau.

Lots of fear, lots of worry, lots of wasted years because of this one decision.

Which brings me to my last question.  Had Jacob and Rebekah done nothing, what would have happened?  Would God have intervened at the last minute and said to Isaac, “Jacob is the one you should bless?”

We don’t know.  And we’ll never know because Jacob and Rebekah took things into their own hands.

One thing I do know is that God always keeps his promises.  And he didn’t need Jacob and Rebekah’s help.

There may be times in our lives, when it seems we need to do something a little shady to get things done.

There may be times in our lives when we say, “But there was no other choice.  I had to do things this way.”

But when we try to force things apart from God’s will, we get into trouble.

Abraham and Sarah learned this with the birth of Ishamel.

And Jacob and Rebekah learned this with the incident of Isaac’s blessing.

How much regret have we had in our lives because we tried to force things to happen, instead of waiting for God to act.

As Proverbs 14:12 says,

There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.

And again, in Proverbs 3:5-6,

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

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Genesis

Nearsighted

Genesis

I remember being a kid and seeing everyone in my family wearing glasses.  It made me kind of jealous, believe it or not, and I wanted glasses too, so I didn’t really take care of my eyes.

I needed glasses by the time I was in second grade, I think.  Many glasses and contact lenses later, I really wish I had taken better care of my eyes.

Esau was definitely nearsighted when it came to his future.  As the firstborn son, he was entitled to many privileges as such, including a double-portion of the family inheritance, leadership over the family once Isaac died, and the blessings God had promised Abraham and Isaac.

But Esau despised these things.  He considered them of very little worth compared to the needs of the here and now.  And so in a split second, for a simple bowl of stew, he gave it all away.

It’s easy to criticize Esau, but how often do we despise the inheritance we have in Christ?

How often do we treat it as of little value, compared to our needs and wants of the here and now.  We spend so much time pursuing our career, pursuing money, and pursuing things, that we forget the things that are truly important.

Ultimately, there are only two things on this earth we can take with us into heaven.  Our relationship with God and our relationships with others who know Him.

These are the things that are eternal, and they make up a large part of our inheritance in heaven.  Everything else in this world will just turn to dust and pass away.

So why focus so much on what is temporal?

As the apostle John wrote,

Do not love the world or anything in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world.

The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.   (1 John 2:15-16)