Happy Monday! We are reading the Bible chronologically this year, using the plan you can find here. I love reading the Bible all the way through. Each time, God shows me something I never saw before or that I didn’t pay very much attention to before. I pray this is happening for you as well and that you’ll share with us! If you didn’t start from the beginning, you can jump in any time or comment on any post!
Do you know what would be comical if it wasn’t so horribly, wretchedly sad? Adam and Even and the serpent in the Garden when God asks what just happened. It plays out like a sitcom. Adam points to Eve. “Her fault.” Eve points to the snake. “His fault.” And the snake? You just know that serpent is gloating.
Except… this is no sitcom. It’s the single most tragic event in the history of the world and definitely far from funny. Humans flagarantly disobeyed God and destroyed their relationship with him as well as launching the destruction of creation. And they couldn’t even own up to it to His face.
Know what, though? The blame game didn’t stop there.
And Esau said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright, and now look, he has taken away my blessing!”
Genesis 27:36a (NKJV, emphasis mine)
Uhm, back up a second there, Esau. Just a chapter or so ago, you were STARVING, remember? I mean, FAMISHED. To the point of DEATH. Oh my GOODNESS. And that soup of your brother’s was the ONLY THING in the WORLD that could save your LIFE. (Man, do I wish there was such a thing as a sarcasm font.) Esau, big old buff hunter that he was, turned into a bit of a diva in Chapter 25. Rather than make his own stew or cook his own game, he traded off his birthright like it was nothing. He disrespected his father and God for nothing more than a bowl of soup. Did he expect no consequences?
We won’t debate Jacob’s morality here, because that’s not what’s on the table today (no pun intended). Suffice it to say, he’s pretty questionable himself.
The problem is, Esau never takes responsibility. His birthright isn’t gone because he traded it away, but because Jacob took it. Or so he says… and likely believes.
Isn’t that the way we behave today? We are so quick to blame someone else for our failings. We all do it. Ooh, how can I get out of this? Quick… blame something… anything. Being in trouble is uncomfortable, so we look for the quickest way out.
The problem is, as a society, we’ve taught our children that actions don’t have consequences. We swoop in and rescue. Ask the teacher why he or she “gave” the kid an F as opposed to why the child “earned” an F. We run red lights. We run up credit cards. We figure we’ll deal with the consequences later.
Sort of like Esau. He was hungry now… that birthright wasn’t a thing until later.
So what do we do? We start with ourselves. We stop making excuses. Stop taking actions that we can deal with “later.” We were given today. We were given Jesus. Let’s start living like He is what is important, like He is our center. Then those things that we feel we have to take shortcuts on or blame each other for all fall away in the light of what really matters.
Have you ever been the recipient of a “pointed finger”? How did you handle it? And should it have been pointed at you all along?
-JB
This week’s plan:
Monday–Genesis 41-42
Tuesday–Genesis 43-45
Wednesday–Genesis 46-47
Thursday–Genesis 48-50
Friday–Exodus 1-3
Saturday–Exodus 4-6
Sunday–Exodus 7-9
Leave a Reply