As you know the past few weeks I have been seeking God's direction for my life, and I am finding that I am getting a lot more answers. When I get prayed over, I find that I generally get the same messages repeatedly. Last night (actually this morning, circa 1-2 am) I got prayed over by a man who never met me and knew nothing about my life. He reaffirmed that I was in a void point of my life and that I was not at peace with my situation, but reaffirmed that I would be out of that period of my life soon. This is the third or fourth time that I have received this message by someone who is not familiar with my situation, and though I find it comforting, there are still a lot of questions that need to be answered.
I am generally good about being patient and waiting, but I can only hold out financially for so long; thus I am rather curious about the next stage of life. What I found to be helpful was that I was reminded that the situation is not about me... we often times think everything is about us, but what about the people at our appointed destination that need our blessing. The pieces may not be in place yet, or the person that I am to replace may still be occupying the position. These things take time, and I just need to remember that.
Though I set out to talk about something different, I wanted to include that in my message since it is related. The main message that I wanted to talk about today was why it seems that people who honestly try hard at life seem to get the short end of the stick while others seem to walk through life getting what they want even if they do it deviously. It can be frustrating to some, and one verse that really stuck out to me was looking at the story of Esau and Jacob in Genesis 27.
When we look at how Jacob deceived his brother by taking his birthright, many people think, "how unfair!" Rebekah deceived a dying Isaac by dressing up Jacob as Esau so that he may receive the blessing. Jacob also convinced Esau to exchange his inheritance for some lentil stew and bred when he was exhausted. It seems that this deception was unfair, and that Esau was getting robbed of what was rightfully his as the older twin. But there is reason to believe that Israel would have never come into existence without Jacob's schemes.
Esau married wives that worshipped other Gods. Many people today have no problem marrying people of other denominations or religions, but back then marrying someone of other religious beliefs was a dangerous practice and had further implications. In this case, Esau married Hittites who worshipped many Gods, none of which was the God of Abraham and Isaac. If Esau was to continue on this path and the nation of Israel were to be formed from him, it would have failed due to Hittite influence. It was crucial that the nation of Israel was formed with like minded people. Though he tried to marry one of Ishmael's daughters later, it was too little too late to regain his father's blessing.
The second detail worth noting is that the birthright was everything to these people. The fact that he sold his birthright for a meal speaks volumes for how little he viewed it's value. Either that, or he was so short sighted that he would rather have the immediate gratification of food when he wanted it than to have an eternal blessing.
The third detail worth noting is that Esau was not exactly a poster child for founding a nation. Him and his Hittite wives made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah (Gen 27:35, 46), so they created many issues inside the house of Isaac.
When all of these things are considered, it may have been good that God allowed Jacob to deceive Esau. If he did not, the house of Israel would have looked completely different, if it would have existed at all. I am not saying this today to condone devious or deceitful acts, but instead to bring new perspective to why some things happen the way that they do. There is a big picture, and sometimes we do not have a grasp of it because of where we stand.
So that brings me to today. I am still waiting for everything to line up and wondering when it will, but at least I know that God has the big picture in mind and I know that he is able to use whatever he wants to get his will to work properly. I just have to wait for the opportunity like Jacob rather than trying to force my own destiny like Esau.
Thought that came to mind while reading this blog, Esau sold his birthright for a meal. Yes, he probably was very hungry, understandably, but a single meal is only a very short term fix for his hunger. It will not satisfy the long term, the rest of his life. It was definitely the "instant gratification" that so many of us choose over the delayed gratification which is always worth waiting for. God wants us to trust in Him and be patient to wait for His perfect will to come to fruition. It is truly what will gratify us beyond anything we could have hoped for. Jason, continue to trust, His eyes are upon you and your future is in His hands.
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