Jacob Failed by Promising and not Performing (Gen. 33:12-17a)

 

SPIRITUAL DAIRY FOR 03-01-2007

 

My Worship Time                         Focus:  Jacob Failed by Promising and not Performing

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                  Reference:  Genesis 33:12-17a

 

            Message of the verses:  12  Then Esau said, "Let us take our journey and go, and I will go before you."  13  But he said to him, "My lord knows that the children are frail and that the flocks and herds which are nursing are a care to me. And if they are driven hard one day, all the flocks will die.  14 "Please let my lord pass on before his servant, and I will proceed at my leisure, according to the pace of the cattle that are before me and according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord at Seir."  15 Esau said, "Please let me leave with you some of the people who are with me." But he said, "What need is there? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord."  16 So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir.  17 Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built for himself a house and made booths for his livestock.”

 

It seems that the only thing that Jacob wanted to do with Esau is to make sure that he would appease him so that he would not bother him while Jacob was living near to him.  Jacob said that he would come later to see Esau, but he now actually leaves in the opposite direction, and probably would never see him aging with the exception of seeing him when their father Isaac died.  Jacob promised Esau that he would come to visit him, but did not perform. 

 

Esau was not the one whom God chose to be in the line of the Messiah, and he and Jacob did not get along when they both lived with their parents, but it seems that in some ways Esau acted more righteous than Jacob, but in the end Jacob would be used of God in a more active way than before as God would continue to work in his life because he was the one God had chosen.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As I look at the life of Jacob there are some things that I do not want to do as he did, yet there are many good characteristics that I can copy into my life, yet these things in this chapter are not  some of them.

 

The Word of God has challenged my heart as I read and studied His Word this morning.

 

My Steps of Faith Today:  To trust my Lord to continue to work in my life to accomplish in me the things that He wants me to accomplish for His honor and Glory, to trust the Lord to keep me from sinning against Him, and to trust the Lord to continue to teach me contentment and to direct my path.

 

Memory verse for the week:  Ec. 1:14  “I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.”