“…And Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents.”
As I write this, I am in the process of reading about Jacob and his brother Esau and their exploits in Genesis. When he was born Jacob was holding onto the heels of his fraternal twin Esau and never stopped doing it. If you remember, he cheated Esau out of his birthright as the older son with some pottage, or red stew. Then he and his mother Rebekah cheated Esau out of the blessing that normally went to the older son. (You can read all about it in Genesis 25 and the ensuing chapters) When Rebekah heard that Esau was planning on killing Jacob because of his deception she sent Jacob to her brother Laban, who lived in Padan-Aram. Laban was as wily as Jacob. We read of all kinds of deceptions between Laban and Jacob. I might add here that Jacob, the deceiver, met his match in his uncle Laban. There is much more to the story, but I have related enough of the story to make the points that I want to make in this article. Read on: Often, we feel that we are not worthy to be used of the Lord in His ongoing work in the world. We are right because no one deserves to be used of God, but Jacob teaches us that He uses us anyway. When you feel that God cannot use you, just remember Jacob, who was a deceiver, and know that if God can use Jacob, He can use you as well. Remember, however, that Jacob changed as time went on after a dramatic encounter with God at Peniel. The point here is that no matter what your past has been, God will change you and enable you to serve Him in whatever way He wants you to serve. You might think that you do not have any qualities that would enable you to do anything for God. Remember this; God will have something for you to do in your church and community if you will just release yourself to Him to be used of Him. If God can use the man whose name was "deceiver” He can certainly use you. Surrender to His Lordship and see what He will do with you. Now, what about Jacob’s twin brother Esau? He was totally different from Jacob, for the Bible tells us that Esau was what we call “a man’s man.” He loved to hunt and was at home in the fields, while Jacob was a “stay at home” kind of guy. Why did Esau get such a bad deal by having his birthright stolen, and by losing the blessing that his father, Isaac, had to give? To get a picture of what was wrong with Esau, we need to go back to the stealing of his birthright. Esau had been in the fields hunting all day, and when he came in from the field, Jacob was making a mess of porridge. Esau was real hungry and wanted some of that stew, so he gave his birthright to Jacob for a mess of porridge. By this we know that Esau was a compulsive person who lived only for the moment. For example, when he was hungry and was about to faint from his hunger, he didn’t consider the future ramifications of giving up his birthright. The lesson for us is that we need to be careful about what we do in those trying moments of our lives. Satan loves to get us backed into a corner where he figures that we will compromise our faith. Like Esau, in a moment of hunger for the things of this world, we can make decisions that will affect the rest of our lives. We need to be aware that the decisions that we make now will affect the quality of the rest of our lives. We need to learn these two lessons from these brothers: God can and will use you in spite of your past, and He wants you to be careful about obeying your own sinful impulses. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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