The Stolen Birthright
Genesis 27:35,36 But he said, “Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing.” Easu said, “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob? He has deceived me these two times: He took my birthright and now he’s taken my blessing!” Then he asked, “Haven’t you reserved any blessing for me?”
Jacob and Esau were twin sons from Isaac and Rebekah. Esau was born first and with this position came special blessings. The first born would have the majority of the inheritance and the blessing of the father as well. I assume that this was the practice, because if the father would die early the elder son would be more apt to take over the responsibilities of taking care of the mother and the rest of the family. At any rate this practice caused problems with these two brother as it has with so many other families that practiced this means of inheritance.
Jacob decided to do something about it, so one day when his brother came home from hunting he traded a bowl of soup for the right to his brother’s inheritance. Esau took the offer and ate the bowl of soup probably as fast as he could. Granted this was not very smart on behalf of Esau, but we don’t know how old Esau was either? He may have been ten years old as far as we know. The Bible doesn’t say. It really seems unlikely that a grown man would give up so much for a bowl of soup! At any rate it was legal in Jacob’s mind and evidently in Esau’s as well. If this wasn’t enough to cause division between the brothers, Jacob now decides to get the majority of Esau’s blessing from his father as well. Now many might say that a blessing doesn’t mean that much, but in the eyes of the Jewish families and in God’s thinking it is very real and it does matter a great deal. And this is why I have always prayed blessing on my family and others everyday, since I became a Christian and learned I could do this. And I can testify that it works! Even though my family and friends do not know why they are blessed so much I believe it is because I have asked Jesus to do this for me. After all James 4:2 tells us that we have not because we ask not. I believe!!!
Well, as I used to tell my daughter, “For whatever it’s’ worth”, here it goes.
Gal 6:7 says, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.” And in Lk 6:37 it says, “Do not judge and you will not be judged. Do not condemn and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven.” Jacob’s practice of deceiving others would come back on him many times in his life. He would constantly not only reap the anger and resentment that his deceiving caused, but others began to deceive him as well. Even his own family tried to deceive him and brought great sadness to him.
So where does this bring us? Sadly to say that one of the greatest culprits in doing to others what we don’t want done to us is the church. Maybe it is because we consider ourselves to be family and that gives us somehow the right to be so judgmental with those that we say we love. Maybe it is just something that Satan gets a kick out of inspiring us to do, because it hurts the Lord so bad to see his children doing this! Whatever the reason it is wrong, and it always seems to come right back on us. Maybe God does this in hopes that we will stop bringing others down and start lifting them up. After all it seems to be Satan’s liking to bring people down. So, since he is so good at it maybe we just need to leave that to him! I would like to say that I have never been judgmental or done things to others that I would never want to have happen to me. We are all human aren’t we? But that is not a good excuse, especially when dealing with those we say we love.
In house gossip and destructive criticism never stays in house. A lot more than one person has left the church, because of the things said about the pastor or other people in the church family. No doubt they think that they are next and they could be right! As Christians and certainly brothers and sisters in Christ we need to be very careful about what we say and do, because it always has a way of coming back on us. And like with sowing any seed, the harvest is usually greater than the seen sown. In other word like my mother used to say, “When you point a finger at someone you have several fingures on our hand pointing back at you.” We see this when the righteous wanted to stone the adulterous woman, and Jesus said that the person that hadn’t sinned should cast the first stone. Well, they all walked away, because they knew they too had sinned more than they would care to admit. (Jn 8:1-11) Because Jesus has show us so much grace, shouldn’t we the church that has received that grace give it right back to others?
Prayer: Lord Jesus you know that I have struggled with judging others certainly in my heart, and you know that I am sorry. But Lord, I still need to not be doing it and your children don’t need to be doing it either. Please help us to be like you and show the grace that we so much want to receive. Thank you Jesus. We ask this in your name.
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