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Discussion Forum : Scriptures and Doctrine : The Choice That Brought Regret (Genesis 25:19-34

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pastorfrin
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 The Choice That Brought Regret (Genesis 25:19-34


Thoughts for the Week
Mark Roth
http://www.anabaptists.org/clp/youth/

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A CHOICE THAT BROUGHT REGRET
(Genesis 25:19-34)

JACOB? WHY HIM?!

"Do you fully understand God's election of Jacob to be the
covenant bearer? I doubt whether I do! So if you have a
rock-solid explanation of the matter, I am very much interested
in hearing from you. In the meantime, I am satisfied with my
understanding, which I will introduce with this: Wasn't Jacob as
bad as Esau?

Take another look at Hebrews 12:16-17 before hazarding an
answer. Then weigh those verses with the information found in
Genesis 27:36.

"Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who
for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that
afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was
rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought
it carefully with tears."

"And he said, Is not he rightly named Jacob? for he hath
supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright; and,
behold, now he hath taken away my blessing."

God called Esau a profane person. This means he was a person
with base values, unconcerned with things of spiritual
significance. On the other hand, Jacob was a supplanter and a
deceiver from early on. Thus wasn't Jacob as bad as Esau? It
looks like it, eh? After all, I certainly would not want to say
that being deceptive is better than being profane! But let's not
hasten to conclusions.

I believe God rejected Esau because of his attitude toward the
covenant. Being a part of God's people meant absolutely nothing
to Esau (32-34). He commented, "What profit shall this birthright
do to me?" So he "despised his birthright" and sold it to Jacob.

I don't think Jacob pursued the birthright and the blessing just
for the challenge of beating his brother out of something. I
suspect that Jacob didn't want to be another Ishmael, cut out of
the special covenant. Jacob's connivings, maneuverings and
deceivings were definitely not God's way of securing his place
in the covenant, but his value of the birthright was right.

Tactics aside, let's personalize this. Are *you* a Jacob? Or are
you an Esau? At the time of your new birth, you received a
birthright. God expects you to guard it zealously and value it
above all else. Don't exchange it for a bit of nothing like Esau
did! He was so profane (base, common, low down) as to trade
something eternal and spiritual for something very temporal and
material. What about *you*?

Search the Scriptures and become acquainted with the glorious
facets of your birthright. Let me get your project launched with
just a few verses pertaining to this. Hebrews 11:16, 1 Peter
2:9-11, and 2 Corinthians 6:17-18 place us solidly among God's
special covenant people. In 1 John 5:11 God places it "on the
record" -- He has given us eternal life in His Son. Matthew
11:28 makes us beneficiaries of a rare commodity -- rest.
Hebrews 4:16 gives us bold, unlimited access to God's mercy,
grace and help. First John 5:4,18 promise us victory over the
world, the devil and our flesh. Colossians 2:10 promises
fulfillment.

Are you hanging on to your birthright no matter what? Do not
sell out for the "common stuff" of life!

ESAU PRIORITIES: JUST SAY NO!

Esau, a man absorbed with the present. Esau, a man distracted
by the temporal. Esau, a man driven by his passions. No wonder
Esau despised his heritage and his inheritance. No wonder he
settled for soup.

Now let's be as honest and sincere as we can. Here is our
question: What are some situations where we just might have
Esau Priorities? When might *we* choose according to material
"imperatives" rather than according to spiritual principles?

Money vs Service. Money is imperative in our society. Without
it we can't very well cover the expenses of living in the present
and preparing for the future. Even so, this imperative must yield
to the principle of service. Would you rather be a voluntary
service teacher on the Mexico mission field or a gizmo assembler
in an Oregon manufacturing plant? (Should your *rathers* have
anything to do with the matter, anyway?) The choice is between
$200 a month and $7.50 an hour. NO, IT ISN'T!! But I'll let you
determine what the real choices are. On the other hand, your
decision may not involve mission fields and manufacturing
plants. It may be as "simple" as donating your time (and
delaying a certain acquisition) to the deacon's remodeling project.

Pleasure vs Sacrifice. Fun is another imperative. Well, let me try
again with more palatable terminology. Rest, recreation and
relaxation are essential to our well-being. Whatever we call it,
the imperative of pleasure must yield to the principle of sacrifice.
It may involve giving up a softball-and-pizza evening to mow
the church cemetery and pull weeds in a widow's garden. I
know, that's really not much for sacrifice, but sometimes it is
those "small" ones that really defeat us.

Convenience vs Conscience. Dare we call convenience an
imperative? Perhaps not, but we certainly do dare *live* as
though it were precisely that! But the Christian must choose to
live by the principle of conscience, no matter how much that
may inconvenience us. Got any practical applications for this point?

Oh, one more thing. Did you notice that the first items in the
three sets above are not necessarily wrong or out-of-bounds for
the Christian? But then, neither is soup!

So there you have it, incompletely compressed into a few
paragraphs: Will you die for your spiritual heritage or will you
opt for the soup kitchen? I must remind myself here (and you
can listen in) that this question is not most accurately answered
in the monumental decisions, but in the normal decisions of
everyday life."


 2007/10/9 2:49Profile





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