Do you know what we don’t realize? We don’t realize the ramifications of our actions. Want proof? Well, we’re in Genesis 36 this week. We’ve been talking about Jacob and Esau for a while, and you can review what happened between them in the previous chapters, if you wish. Basically, Jacob (who would become Israel), tricked his father into giving him Esau’s blessing. In his rage, Esau plotted to kill his brother, and Jacob was force to flee his family. Now he’s back, and he has made peace with Esau. But tucked into Genesis 36 among Esau’s family tree, there’s an interesting little verse:
Genesis 36: 12a (GW)–Timna was a concubine of Esau’s son Eliphaz. She gave birth to Amalek for Eliphaz.
One tiny little two-sentence mention would rock the nation of Israel’s world generations later. Most believe the Amalekites descended from this Amalek. Should that be true, the division didn’t end when Jacob and Esau embraced a chapter or so ago. In fact, that division sewed a seed that lasted… and lasted… and lasted. This blog isn’t long enough to detail everything that happened between the Israelites and the Amalekites, but they clashed repeatedly and violently.
Then, generations later, we find Saul battling the Amalekites. His arrogance had already landed him in some hot water with God, but when he was ordered to destroy the nation once and for all, he didn’t. And Samuel had to slaughter their king after Saul essentially built an altar to himself. Division, once begun, trickled down from two brothers to the final ruin of the first earthly Israelite king.
Our sins have a cost. It may not be as dramatic as this, but there is never any action done in a vacuum. And it seems as time passes, it’s like a snowball, gaining momentum and mass as it rolls by. That’s something we seriously need to be aware of, because the consequences exist in the physical and in the spiritual, sometimes for eternity.
-JB
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