ESAU'S UNKNOWN HEALING

Esau and Jacob were the twin sons of Isaac and Rebekah.  

Rebekah was unable to have children for twenty years.  Finally, Isaac prayed for her and she conceived.  [Genesis 25:22-27  -  All quotes from The Voice Bible unless otherwise noted.]

But the children she carried struggled and fought with each other until, in great pain, she exclaimed, “What is going on? Why is this happening to me?” In frustration she inquired of the Eternal One why this civil war was occurring inside of her.

Eternal One (to Rebekah): Two nations are growing inside of your womb,
and the two peoples will be divided in the future.
One will be stronger than the other,
and the older will serve the younger.

When it was time for Rebekah to give birth, she saw that she was carrying twins. The first came out red—his entire body like a hairy blanket—so they named him Esau. His brother followed with his hand clutching Esau’s heel, so they named him Jacob. Isaac was 60 years old when Rebekah gave birth to the twins.

When the boys grew up, they could not have been more different.

As the boys grew and developed, Isaac developed a special love for Esau, while Rebekah grew especially close to Jacob.  

Eventually, Jacob baited Esau and got him to trade his birthright for a bowl of stew.  Later, when Isaac was growing old and wanted to pass his blessing on to his firstborn son, Esau, Jacob and Rebekah conspired for him to steal Esau's blessing through deceit.  [See Genesis 27]

Esau hated Jacob with a fury, because his brother now carried the blessing his father meant for him.

Esau (to himself): The days of mourning for my father are approaching. When he has died, I will kill my brother, Jacob.  [v.41]

Rebekah learned of Esau's plans and persuaded Isaac to send Jacob to her homeland to find a wife.

Jacob spent many years in Paddan-aram where he worked for his uncle Laban and married Leah and Rachel.  Through his two wives and their servants - Bilhah and Zilpah - Jacob gained twelve sons [who eventually became the twelve tribes of Israel].  

After many years, God instructed Jacob to return to his homeland.  After an encounter with his uncle Laban, he began the long journey with his family, servants, and large flocks and herds.  As he got close to Canaan he was told that Esau was coming to meet him with 400 men.  Jacob was terrified!  He separated his family in groups along with his flocks and herds.  He sent an abundance of flocks and herds ahead of him as gifts for Esau to appease his anger.

Then, after laying his plans and securing his family as best he could, Jacob wrestled with a messenger from God all night.  The end result of this encounter was that his name was changed to Israel!

Finally, when he encountered his brother, 

 "Esau ran to meet him.  He embraced Jacob, kissed his neck, and they both cried."  [33:4]

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Well, that's a surprise ending!  What happened to the anger that Esau had felt toward his conniving brother?  What happened to his plan to kill Jacob?  

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We don't have an answer to that question!  The Bible gives no explanation for the change that Esau apparently experienced!  Somehow, he had forgiven his brother, Jacob, and was able to genuinely welcome him back to their homeland.  After much persuading from Jacob, Esau did finally accept the VERY GENEROUS gifts that Jacob presented to him:

• 200 female goats
• 20 male goats
• 200 female sheep
• 20 rams
• 30 milk camels and their colts
• 40 cows and 10 bulls
• 20 female donkeys and 10 male donkeys

Although the presentation of these gifts may have impacted Esau, the narrative leaves us with the impression that somehow God had brought peace to Esau's heart long before this moment.

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Does time heal?

There's little doubt that time does allow us to adapt to unwelcome circumstances.  With the passing of time, we gain perspective and realize that we can move forward in spite of our anger, hurt, loss, pain!  

Esau wanted desperately to please his parents!  But when he married two Hittite women, he brought a lot of pain to Isaac and Rebekah [27:46].  This was part of Rebekah's reasoning for sending Jacob away to find a wife!  

Now Esau saw that his father, Isaac, had again blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan-aram to find a wife there, instructing him not to marry any of the Canaanite women. He learned, too, that Jacob had gone there just as his father and mother both wanted. So, realizing his father did not like his Canaanite wives, Esau went to see Ishmael and took Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael (Abraham’s other son) and the sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife in addition to the two others.  [28:6-9]

Esau wanted to please his parents, but everything he did seemed to disappoint them.  He surely must have felt like a failure!  Yet somehow, through the many years that Jacob spent in Paddan-aram, Esau came to peace with the situation.  

Instead of holding on to hatred and bitterness, he seems to have found a way to be satisfied with the life that God had given him.  He welcomed his brother back with a hug, a kiss and tears of joy.  

The only other time that Esau shows up in the biblical story is when he and Jacob meet to bury Isaac together [Genesis 35:28-29].  

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Lord of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Esau,

Esau's sub-story reveals that even when we're not the main character in the plot, You still keep Your eye on us and help us to resolve the conflicts and dilemmas of our lives!  You are so awesome, kind and generous!  Thank You for this sub-plot of Esau's.  Thank You that his life didn't end in bitterness and hatred!  Thank You that You found a way to bring peace to his heart and life!

There are many in our world today who are like Esau!  They feel like they're the sub-plot in their family!  They feel neglected.  They realize that they didn't get their parent's blessing.  They're angry and distracted by plans to get even.  They're jealous.  They need You, Gracious God!  They need to hear Esau's story!  They need to realize that Your resources are unlimited and Your grace is readily available!  

Find them, Lord, and heal them.  Remove the bitterness and replace it with satisfaction and peace and joy!  You can do this!  You've done it for many - including Esau!  Praise Your Holy Name.

Amen

A HORRIBLE CHAPTER

When I was leading churches I always encouraged new believers to start reading the New Testament.  I wanted them to meet Jesus as soon as possible and learn of Him and from Him.  Starting with the Old Testament raises so many questions for someone who is not yet grounded in their faith.  It's best to encounter the Old Testament along with a guide who can unpack many of the difficult passages.  

Genesis 34 is a difficult passage.  

Jacob and Rachel have arrived back in his original homeland.  We know that Jacob has twelve sons and one daughter, Dinah.  It is likely that at least some of them are young adults at this point.  The culture of that day was made up of family systems that lived together and supported one another.  [Keep in mind, these events took place 3700 years ago.]

Jacob had settled near Shechem in Canaan and purchased land from the sons of Hamor the Hivite.  

The chapter begins:

Now Dinah, the daughter Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the women of the land.  When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of that area, saw her, he took her and violated her.  His heart was drawn to Dinah daughter of Jacob, and he loved the girl and spoke tenderly to her.  And Shechem said to his father Hamor, "Get me this girl as my wife."  [vs.1-4]

Jacob quickly hears that his daughter has been defiled.  When his sons came in from the fileds and heard what had happened they were filled with grief and fury.  

Hamor came to visit Jacob and asked him to allow Dinah to marry his son, Shechem.  He further suggested that their tribes intermarry.  Then Shechem said to Jacob and his sons,

Let me find favor in your eyes, and I will give you whatever you ask.  Make the price for the bride and the gift I am to bring as great as you like, and I'll pay whatever you ask me.  Only give me the girl as my wife.  [vs.11-12] 

They responded deceitfully that they couldn't intermarry unless the Hivite men submitted to circumcision.  

Shechem was so in love with Dinah that he lost no time in doing what they said.  Then, he and his father persuaded their fellow townsmen to do the same.  

All the men who went out of the city gate agreed with Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male in the city was circumcised.  [v.24]

Three days later, while all of them were still in pain, two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, took their swords and attacked the unsuspecting city, killing every male.  They put Hamor and his son Shechem to the sword and took Dinah from Shechem's house and left.  The sons of Jacob came upon the dead bodies and looted the city where their sister had been defiled.  They seized their flocks and herds and donkeys and everything else of theirs in the city and out in the fileds.  They carried off their wealth and all their women and children, taking as their plunder everything in their houses.  [vs.25-29]

Jacob was angry with Simeon and Levi and expressed his fear that they would now be a target for the Canaanites and Perizzites who lived in the land.  Shortly after this, God told Jacob to move to Bethel and settle there...

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It would be seventeen hundred years later that Jesus would teach a different way of responding.  

Anger always tempts us to take matters into our own hands.  Anger breeds violence.  Retribution elicits counter-retribution and the cycle repeats itself ad infinitum.  History proves this again and again.  

Jesus' teaching seeks to break this pattern before it takes root!  He assures us that God is always watching and has a way of evening the score without our action increasing tension and deepening rage.  

The Apostle Paul clarifies this for us:

Do not repay anyone evil for evil.  Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.  If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.  Do not take revenge my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written:  "It is mine to avenge;  I will repay," says the Lord.  On the contrary:

"If your enemy is hungry, feed him;  if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.  In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."  

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.  [Romans 12:17-21] 

This sounds like an unreasonable request - doesn't it?  

Someone does something terrible to me, and I'm supposed to be kind to them and leave it to God to settle the accounts?  

History - recent and ancient - provides examples of this practice:

• Corrie Ten Boom forgives the soldier who treated her (and her sister) so badly in the concentration camp.
• Jake DeShazzar goes back to Japan - where he had suffered violently as a prisoner - and brings the Gospel to the people as a missionary for Christ!
• Back in October of 2006, a gunman took Amish hostages and shot eight out of ten girls (aged 6–13), killing five, before committing suicide in the schoolhouse.  On the day of the shooting, a grandfather of one of the murdered Amish girls was heard warning some young relatives not to hate the killer, saying, "We must not think evil of this man."

We have choices!  We can perpetrate the evil and continue the violence, or we can entrust the matter to God, receive His comfort and set an example for our world.  

Ever-loving, always graceful God,

What You ask of us is hard!  It seems like vengeance is hard-wired into our nature.  

In the moment of crisis, so fill us with Your Holy Spirit that we will be enabled to make wise and godly choices.  Restrain our hands from violence!  Fill us - in the moment - with godly mercy!  

In confidence that You will never fail us...Amen.

 

 

 

WHEN THE BAD GUY GETS WHAT'S COMING TO HIM

Revenge movies are a genre that seems quite popular with the general, American population:  Taken, The Count of Montecristo, Gran Torino, True Grit, Gladiator, Man On Fire, and I'm sure you could name more.  We seem to enjoy seeing the bad guy get what's coming to him.  

Genesis 29, gives us that kind of satisfaction.

In this chapter, Jacob comes to the end of his 500-mile journey and arrives in the land of Haran.  He comes to a well with a large stone over it.  A beautiful shepherdess arrives with her father's sheep.  Her name is Rachel and her father is Jacob's mother's brother, Laban.  Jacob is overtaken with his good fortune and introduces himself.  He rolled the stone away from the well and watered his uncle's sheep.  

Rachel ran to tell her father the good news and he came to warmly greet Jacob.  After a month of Laban's hospitality, they strike a deal.  Jacob will work for Laban for seven years;  in return, he'll be allowed to marry Rachel.  

So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.  [29:20]

Laban prepared a feast of marriage and that evening,

...he took his daughter, Leah and gave her to Jacob, and Jacob lay with her...When morning came, there was Leah!  So Jacob said to Laban, 'What is this you have done to me?  I served you for Rachel, didn't I?  Why have you deceived me?  [29:23,25]

There it is!  The moment we've been waiting for.  The deceiver is deceived!  Justice is served.  Jacob got what was coming to him.  Ahhhh - how sweet it is!  

Laban explains to Jacob that it is not the custom of his people to marry the younger daughter before the older.  He tells Jacob to fulfill the marriage week with Leah and THEN he can have Rachel as his wife.  BUT, he must agree to work for Laban for another seven years!  This is the point in the movie where the audience is in the aisles high-fiving one another!  

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God ALWAYS evens the scales!  He is a just God!  He may not do it in the way we desire or according to our time-frame, but He does do it!  

In the last chapter of Job, we see that Job got back twice what he had earlier lost.

After a horribly painful and humiliating death on a cross - there was a magnificent resurrection!

Paul suffered innumerable sufferings [II Corinthians 11:21-30], but he was also given a tour of Heaven while still alive on this earth that no one else (except perhaps John) has seen [II Corinthians 12:2-4].

Listen, if you have suffered - and I know many of you have - keep trusting Jesus and He will balance the scales and see you through!  Don't abandon your faith!  Your faith in Him is the key that unlocks His promise of deliverance!  

In her classic novel, Hinds' Feet On High Places, Hannah Hurhard persistently reminds us that God will come to us in a moment's notice when we are in trouble [If you haven't read this classic - you might want to].  

Pour out your heart to Him in your grief, pain and injustice.  This just God NEVER LEAVES YOUR SIDE!