PART 2 Why is Jacob
favored over Esau? Esau was a carnal man who was willing to give up his
birthright to appease his appetite and lost his blessing. Jacob was clever and
crafty, which we think of as not being very good character traits especially
since he used them to obtain a blessing from his father by deceit and
treachery. Why did God choose Jacob over Esau? The history of the carnal man of
uncontrolled appetites is a history of war and rebellion. It is a history of
corruption and injustice. Esau represents what is wrong with charismatic
leaders who cause young women to think things they should not and cause young
men to deliver up their common sense to follow blindly. He is a man of the
earth, a natural man.
1Corinthians
2:14 But the natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can
he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
The natural man is
lusty and everything he sees exists to serve him; either his appetites, his
sexual lust, or his need to dominate others for fear of being dominated
himself. He is praised in our literature and media and millions will follow
him. The trouble is that he would trade God’s inheritance for another meal,
approval and validation from others, and a chance to have what he wants at the
moment. He despises what he calls, “pie-in-the-sky religion,” and concerns
himself only with satisfying his immediate needs in the here and now. He could
not envision eternity for all he was worth. He cannot even perceive of the idea
of God usually. He is too busy putting food in his belly, perhaps a beer, glass
of wine, or liquor to his lips, or pursuing the latest tech gadget or get rich
scheme to even consider the fate of his soul. The question you should ask
yourself, young man, is, are you an Esau?
Hebrews
12:14 Follow peace with all men, and
holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: 15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the
grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby
many be defiled; 16 Lest there be any
fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his
birthright. 17 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.
On the other hand,
Jacob, though clever and resourceful, deceitful even, who will wrestle with God
Himself, can be molded into God’s man. Full of flaws himself, character flaws,
fearful and uncertain at times but obedient as often as he can be, in the end,
God’s choice of him to further God’s work of reconciliation, of bringing
mankind to God, bears fruit in Joseph and his brethren, the forebears of the
Hebrew “race” from whence the Redeemer of mankind comes and from whom God’s
ministry of reconciliation flows.
No comments:
Post a Comment