Forfeit

In Genesis 49, Jacob is nearing the end of his life and gathers his sons around him to offer a blessing. This is a monumental moment when he prays over his sons and leaves an inheritance of wisdom for their future. The tradition is that the oldest son will take over as the leader of the family after their father's death, but Jacob instead gives that honor to his fourth son, Judah. Reuben, Simeon, and Levi were all older than their brother, but their willfully sinful actions caused them to lose the right to lead the family.

We have to be aware of this risk as leaders today. We can make decisions that will cause us to forfeit our right to lead in our marriages, our families, and in our calling. This doesn't negate God's grace that covers over our transgressions, but it does reinforce the principle of consequences for decisions.

Father's Blessing

As I'm reading in Genesis, I read through the story where Isaac blesses his sons Jacob & Esau as his health is failing. Honestly, their relationship is less than ideal and typifies many rocky family relationships that we would identify with today. Nevertheless, Isaac has a wish to bestow his blessing on them and does so even though his sons aren't exactly bastions of integrity. After receiving his father's blessing Jacob left his home for two decades before returning home in time for his father's death. The thing that struck me is that Isaac didn't wait until his deathbed to bless his children. He gave them God's direction & prayer with time still on the clock.

This is a vivid example for fathers today. It causes us to question the way that we are interacting with our children.

• Are we blessing our children daily or waiting for a sentinel event?
• What words of encouragement, promise, and truth do we speak into their lives each day?
• How are we influencing their perception of God as Father through our attitude towards them?
• What are we waiting for?

There is no time like the present to speak positive life into your children and help set them in a God-focused direction. Don't wait for a graduation, wedding day, or death in the family to give your children a blessing. Positive daily investments produce lifelong blessings.

Give It Away

In Genesis 26 there are two brothers named Esau & Jacob. Esau was a hunter and spent most of his time away from home pursuing wild game. Jacob was the opposite of his brother in many ways and didn't venture from home very often. Esau had been hunting one day and returned extremely hungry and found Jacob who had cooked up some stew. While Esau begged Jacob for something to eat, his brother turned this to his advantage. He asked that Esau give up his rights as the firstborn so that he could eat and Esau flippantly acquiesced. 

It's hard to imagine giving up the birthright as the firstborn for a simple bowl of stew, but it honestly wasn't about the price that was being asked. It was more about Esau's disregard for the importance of the covenant that God had made with Abraham (their grandfather). This trade might seem incredulous to us, but I would argue that we do the same thing on a regular basis. We forfeit greater things for temporary pleasures because we don't realize the greatness of what God offers. Because of our shortsightedness we're not willing to set aside something good for what is best.

We participate in activities that we know are not spiritually or physically healthy, but do so for the immediate gratification it brings. We hide behind the illusion of busy schedules and being financial providers instead of spending invested time with our spouses & children. We convince ourselves that next month will be when we start tithing, serving, reading our Bibles, praying, and exercising because this month is just too busy. 

The concept of trading away a blessing from God for a bowl of soup is completely foreign to us, but we don't have the right to judge Esau. Far too often, we share his guilt in abandoning God's promises for the brief satisfaction found in physical pleasures and spiritual apathy.

Faithful Persistence

Genesis 19:29 "So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, He remembered Abraham, and He brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived."

Lot wasn't rescued because of his great faith, in fact, history doesn't paint a picture of a man with a high level of integrity or mature character. This family was rescued by the faithful prayers of Abraham.

Who are we desperately praying for? What family members, friends, and co-workers are we asking God to rescue? I recognize that salvation must be an act of free will, but we can still be in persistent conversation with God for their protection. Even when we don't see the immediate results, we have to continue to petition God to save the people we care about. We'll find that as God rescues them from their current circumstance they may have their eyes opened to the grander vision of salvation He is offering.

Short Sighted

I decided to read through the Bible using a chronological Bible this past weekend (not reading the whole Bible in a weekend-I just decided to start then) and I am in Genesis 25 this morning. In it is a familiar story of Jacob & Esau-the brothers that never really got along with each other and were a precursor to two nations that are still at odds.

It is the passage where Esau comes in from hunting and Jacob has been cooking. Esau is famished and begs to have some of the food that is waiting and Jacob is willing, but only if Esau will renounce his birthright. He is asking Esau to give up something very important, but in the future, for a short-term, yet immediate benefit.

Isn't this what Christians do today? Don't we focus so much on the short-term benefit and the best decision for "right now" that we forget about God's promises down the line? We find ourselves staring at our feet instead of looking down the road and trusting & believing in what God says.

When we are short-sighted we:

• spend our money on what makes us immediately happy regardless of the consequences
• react emotionally to situations and lash out at others instead of considering their heart
• neglect our children because we are tired instead of treasuring the time we have
• put off getting serious about investing in our intimacy with God because tomorrow there will be more time
• let other people go on mission trips
• live as a part of a church for the social interaction instead of the discipleship factor
• treat God as a "fix" for a immediate problems instead of letting Him be the God of our past, present & future

I don't want to be Esau. I don't want to be so short-sighted and fixated on the pleasure of the moment that I forego the long-term plans He has for me. I don't want that for my children or my wife.

God didn't want that for Esau either & He certainly doesn't want that for His church.