We are quickly approaching our second video of this series. Many of you are working through the work book at your own pace and I pray that God is opening your heart and you are being pulled and stretched by the Holy Spirit. We will watch Video 2 on Thursday March 17th at 6:30. You are also still welcome to join us beginning March 7th at 6:30 at our Home Study. You have not missed anything and we will view the video's shown on Thursday nights as well, for those that can not attend Thursdays. Well lets dig into the next week of lessons !!!
Dear Father,
Prepare our hearts for what you have to teach us. Give us a hunger to learn more and to open you word and listen as you speak to us. I pray for each of my sisters that you will meet us exactly were we are and that each of us will grow deeper in our walk and our desire to please you.
The memory verse we are remembering this month:
"God is no mere human! He doesn't tell lies or change his mind. God always keeps his promises." (Numbers 23:19)
READ: Genesis 25: 29-34
To really understand Esau's role in the drama unfolding, we need to really understand what "birthright" meant culturally to this family.
"applied to certain advantages, privileges, and responsibilities of firstborn baby boys.... The advantages and privileges were that this baby became the object of special affection and would legally receive a double portion of his father's estate.
The responsibilities were that he was expected to assume the spiritual leadership of the family. He was also required to provide food, clothing and other necessitates for his mother until death and all unmarried sisters until their marriage."
Wow This is a pretty heavy double edged sword !!!
Some other scriptures that help us examine other firstborns:
Deuteronomy 15:19
Deuteronomy 21: 15-17
Luke 2:23
Hebrew 1:6
Revelation 1:5
What do you perceive Esau's role to be in all the drama that unfolds in these verses. Do you think he is exaggerating when he says he is dying of hunger? What is he willing to give up all for the sake of a meal?
I am so struck by this whole incident. I can feel Esau's impulsivity and narrow mindedness in his vision. How many times in my own life I have made rash decisions based upon my earthly needs and wants at the moment and not looked any further than the end of my nose. I know I am not alone in this at all. How often we ourselves have given away something of lasting value just to satisfy a momentary self serving need. Things such as relationships, integrity, self esteem, and even our souls.
Can you think of an example in your own life when you went for the short term satisfaction versus the long term benefit? What were the consequences and what lessons did you learn?
(take a moment at the end and share this info with us in blogger world by posting here or take the time and journal it or share it with God)
My prayer has been most recently that I have a deeper hunger for God? Isn't this what we all want, a Godly appetite. Psalm 107:8-9; Luke 6:21 and John 6:35 all talk about this. I find it fascinating at this point in my life, that I am just now realizing that I have missed so much of what God had to give me, all because of what I choose to give up to gain something else. And what I gained was just a deeper chasm and a greater need in many times the same area. God's promises never changed and he never took them away, my appetites were for the wrong things.
What is our birthright as children of god? How God must feel when he watches us take from the world, eat until we are full, get up and walk away. How he must get frustrated with his children, when he knows that what he has to offer us is so much more and that it would fill us to the point of overflowing.
Genesis 25: 34 tells us that Esau showed contempt for his birthright. 1 Samuel 17:42; 2 Samuel 6:16 and 2 Samuel 12:9 all show us that the thing that is despised ( in this case King David) all have great value.
How would you restate that last sentence of Genesis 25:34? " I have turned my back and devalued the most valuable thing I have, my birthright as a child of God."
Read Genesis 26: 34-35
Most parents are pleased when their sons marry, but what was the reaction of Isaac and Rebekah? We might think the problem was that there were 2 wives but the problem was that they were Hittites; they were from a tribe of Canaanites. Isaac's father Abraham had made sure that his son didn't marry a Canaanite. Reading Deuteronomy 7: 1-4 which was recorded many years later does still give us a clue to why this was a problem.
How would you sum up Esau's nature? If we learn by example, what is the strongest lesson he has taught you?
I love the prayer that Liz Curtis Higgs sums up this lesson with:
"Father, when I read the sad and stark words that Esau was rejected and could bring about no change of mind even though he sought the blessing with tears, I am so grateful that the same doesn't have to be said of me. Thank you that you do not reject me, that when I seek you in tears over my mistakes, you do not turn me away. Help me never to take for granted, or to treat casually, the blessing of being your child....."
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