A Divided Home

11/7/2006

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                 Focus:  A Divided Home

Bible Reading & Meditation                        Reference:  Genesis 25:24-28

            Message of the verse:  “24  When her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.  25  Now the first came forth red, all over like a hairy garment; and they named him Esau.  26  Afterward his brother came forth with his hand holding on to Esau’s heel, so his name was called Jacob; and Isaac was sixty years old when she gave birth to them.  27  When the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the field, but Jacob was a peaceful man, living in tents.  28  Now Isaac loved Esau, because he had a taste for game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.”

            One of the things that I can see in these verses is God’s grace, but I can also God’s sovereignty in these verses.  God does his will through sinful people, for the Bible says we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and the Bible also says that we all have a sin nature, or the old nature from Adam.  This of course is true of believers, as they are the only ones with the two natures.  By reading Romans 7-9 this morning right before I began this study it seems that I see this in a different perspective than if I had not read those chapters, but that is the way it worked out for me this morning.

             These verses tell of a divided home, and they also cover a lot of ground in a very few verses, for first we see the twins born and then we se them grown up.  “Esau probably means hairy, but he had another name, Edom, which means red.  The name Jacob comes from the Hebrew word (yaaqob) that means ‘may God protect’ but because it sounds like the word aqeb (‘heel’) and aqab (‘watch from behind’), his name became a nickname: ‘he grasps the heel’ or ‘he deceives.’” 

            Sr. Wiersbe tells of a friend of his who had a piece of paper under the glass on his desk which read, “Faith is living without scheming.”  This was not the case with Jacob, for he came out of the womb scheming and he continued that way until he fought with the Lord much latter on in his life, and it could have been at that time when he finally came to know the Lord in a personal way, for his life changed after that.

            “The fact that God had already determined to give the covenant blessing to Jacob didn’t absolve anybody in the family from their obligations to the Lord.  They were all responsible for their actions, because divine sovereignty doesn’t destroy human responsibility.  In fact, knowing that we’re the chosen of God means we have a greater responsibility to do His will.”  (From Dr. Wiersbe commentary on Genesis)

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  There are a couple of things that stick out to me in this section of Scripture and the commentary that I read on them, and that is the part where I don’t need to scheme to get what I think is the will of God done in my life, for faith does not need any scheming.  The second thing I want to take with me is the underlined statement above and that is that because I have been chosen by God to be His own, I have a great responsibility to trust Him and to try and make sure that I am doing His will in my life, after all it was all because of Him that I am His child.

The Word of God has presented a great challenge to me as I read and studied it this morning.

My Steps of Faith Today:  To live my life in the power of God’s Spirit, doing the things that are pleasing to Him, and to continue to ask the Lord to teach me contentment and to direct my path today.