Read Genesis 25.
After the death of Sarah, Abraham remarried and fathered six
more children. Then, "in a good old
age" of 175 he died. Now, the story
of Genesis shifts to the next generation with Isaac as the patriarch.
When Rebekah was pregnant, she became aware that something
unusual was taking place inside her body.
She asked, "Why is this happening to me?" (v.22) God answered her prayer by telling her that
she not only was giving birth to twins but these boys would be very different and
become two nations. Further, to continue
His covenant with Abraham, God chose the one who would carry on the
legacy. Esau and Jacob could not have
been more different.
Esau was the older and in that culture had full birthright
privileges of the inheritance. But in
the last line of the chapter his heart is revealed. "Thus Esau despised his
birthright." Yes, this did fulfill
what God had promised, but he was responsible for his own foolish actions. Some of the saddest words in the Bible are
recorded in Hebrews 12:17 concerning Esau: "For you know that afterward,
when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected for he found no chance
to repent, though he sought it with tears." He, like everyone else, leaves a legacy. Dr. Crawford Loritts, has said,
"A heritage is what we receive. A
legacy is what we leave."
Esau's legacy was that he sold his future in exchange for a
temporal desire of immediate gratification.
His descendants were the Edomites, who continued hostility toward Jacob's
family for hundreds of years. Even in
the Exodus, the Edomites rejected the Israelites from passing through their
land. The book of Obadiah is a prophecy
of God's commitment to wiping out the Edomites as a nation. It makes one wonder what God's plan for Esau
could have been if he had submitted himself to God instead.
Every day, the decisions we make and how we handle
relationships affect our legacy and those who will come behind us.
No comments:
Post a Comment