One day when Jacob
was cooking some stew, Esau arrived home from the wilderness exhausted and
hungry. Esau said to Jacob, “I’m starved! Give me some of that red stew!”
(This is how Esau got his other name, Edom, which means “red.”)
“All right,” Jacob
replied, “but trade me your rights as the firstborn son.”
“Look, I’m dying of
starvation!” said Esau. “What good is my birthright to me now?”
But Jacob said,
“First you must swear that your birthright is mine.” So Esau swore an oath,
thereby selling all his rights as the firstborn to his brother, Jacob.
Then Jacob gave Esau
some bread and lentil stew. Esau ate the meal, then got up and left. He showed
contempt for his rights as the firstborn.
Genesis 25:29-34
There are so many things that we will have the urge to want
the moment we see it. This weekend, I
found myself looking at the newest iPad where my immediate impulse was to buy
it even though I had another one at home.
“It’s the newest version,” I told myself. Having realized that it is not within my budget
to do so, I resisted, and turned away.
That being said, I looked back to find the genesis of my anxiety;
Facebook. One of my favorite past times
found a way to identify my purchasing habits, and through it, inundated me with
advertisements and suggestions that often times seem subtle and other times
more direct. Either way, it builds a
desire that without its prompting may not have even existed. Working for a technology company, you realize
the benefits of technology. For a day
this past weekend, I also have found that it is not always a good thing. Much like money is written about in 1 Timothy
6:10 (For the love of money is
the root of all kinds of evil.
And some people, craving money,
have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows),
use of technology can either be good or bad.
We must be vigilant seeking God’s counsel in all things so
that we properly guided spiritually. Last
week’s verses talked about the life of Jacob.
We go a little further back in his life not speaking of him but instead
his brother Esau. Esau’s birthright as
the firstborn was to inherit his father’s responsibilities and authority. However as we see in today’s verses, Esau was
consumed with hunger and it is safe to say impatient. As such, he sells his rights to his younger
brother. We often find ourselves doing
similar things trading in future blessings for what we want now. Speaking from experience, it is not easy to
get out from under that habit, but if we learn to seek God’s counsel not only
with obvious things like finances but with relationships with family members
and friends and situations at work and home, we gain wisdom from the
experience. Furthermore, we keep
ourselves available for much greater blessings from God down the road!
God’s time is very different from ours. We often will want things our way right
now. While sometimes we are given such
provisions, we must always ask ourselves if it is truly God’s provision or are
we putting our timing ahead of His. The
answer lies in the relationship between God and you, but if we do not pray and
seek His counsel, we risk like Esau the possibility of missing something far
greater in the future. What decision is
God asking you to exercise more patience?
Do you seek God’s counsel on important decisions? My prayer is that we exercise wisdom to
understand that sometimes God’s blessings are all about timing. Amen.
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