Esau's Weeping was not Repentance (Gen. 27:24-40)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12-11-2006

 

My Worship Time                                         Focus:  Esau’s Weeping was not Repentance

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                    Reference:  Genesis 27:34-40

 

            Message of the verse:  “34  When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, ‘Bless me, even me also, O my father!’  35 And he said, ‘Your brother came deceitfully and has taken away your blessing.’  36 Then he said, ‘Is he not rightly named Jacob, for he has supplanted me these two times? He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing.’ And he said, ‘Have you not reserved a blessing for me?’  37 But Isaac replied to Esau, ‘Behold, I have made him your master, and all his relatives I have given to him as servants; and with grain and new wine I have sustained him. Now as for you then, what can I do, my son?’  38 Esau said to his father, ‘Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father.’ So Esau lifted his voice and wept.  39 Then Isaac his father answered and said to him, ‘Behold, away from the fertility of the earth shall be your dwelling, And away from the dew of heaven from above.  40 ‘By your sword you shall live, And your brother you shall serve; But it shall come about when you become restless, That you will break his yoke from your neck.’”

           

            I think that the Bible can be understood as God working through sinful people to bring about His plan, and this is the case that is seen in this section of Genesis.  God had promised Isaac and Rebekah that the covenant blessings would go through Jacob, who was the youngest son of these twin boys, with Esau being born first.  It can be seen that the second birth has been the one that God had chosen many times in the book of Genesis, and it is possible that this could be seen as all people need a second birth or to be “born again” in order to be children of God. 

           

            Dr. Wiersbe points out that there are many times when Jacob gets a bad rap from believers today, and they do not look at the good things that Jacob had done, but only look at the fact that he was a person who used trickery to accomplish what he accomplished, but there are many good things about Jacob that a believer today can look up to and even copy after him in doing.  Jacob was a man who knew that God had said that the covenant blessings would be his and he went after them because his father was going to give them to his brother.  He was a hard worker who worked 20 years for his wives and also for his animals and did not trick Laban for them.  He was a man who grew closer to the Lord especially after wrestling with Him one night.  He was a man who was faithful to the Lord in passing on the blessings to his sons and grandsons at the end of his life and was buried in the cave where Abraham was buried along with Leah his wife.

           

            Esau was a man who had two wives that were heathens and this hurt his parents, he was a man who sold his birthright for some food, and then got tricked out of the covenant blessings with food also, blessings that were not rightfully his, and then he cried over the fact that he lost them, but in the end did not seem to care that much about loosing them.  Hebrews 12:16-17 are God’s commentary about this, “16 that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal.  17 For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was

rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.”  These tears that he shed were not tears of repentance, similar to the tears that Judas cried.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  It is not good enough to feel bad about a wrong doing, but I must repent and trust God to forgive my sins, as 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

 

The Word of God has been convicting and challenging to my heart as I read and studied it this morning.

 

My Steps of Faith Today:  Continue to trust the Lord to lead me and guide me, as I know that I do sin yet I also know that God’s Word teaches me to repent and trust the Lord to forgive my sins, and to stay in fellowship with the Lord so that He can use me for His purposes.