The account of Jacob and Esau in Genesis 25 reminds us of a problem that we cannot blame entirely on the influence of a surrounding ungodly culture\u2014although many in our culture have used our common problem for their profit.\u00a0 The malady I am speaking is the all too popular “I-want-it-NOW! Syndrome.\u00a0 The underlying character flaw might be described in secular terms as “shortsightedness”; its deeper theological spinoff is the temptation to trade the eternal for the temporal\u2014to satisfy desires immediately without due consideration of the long-term implications.<\/p>\n
In the Genesis account Esau returns from working the fields (backbreaking labor to be sure!\u00a0 [side note:\u00a0 Anyone who thinks agricultural labor is for whimps needs to meet my nephew David Schambach\u2014truly a He-Man’s He-Man on the order of Hercules] \u00a0Esau is exhausted and famished, so he demands some of the soup that Jacob had made.\u00a0 Now had Jacob been in a Christ-like mood, not only would he have unhesitatingly given him the soup with no strings attached (consider the difficulty of attaching strings to soup anyway), he also would have offered to cook him a steak and bake him a pie!\u00a0 Interestingly, the pre-converted Jacob follows a “what’s-in-this-for-me?” track and offers to trade the soup for Esau’s birthright inheritance. \u00a0Esau, of course, caves in.<\/p>\n
Daily we all face multiple decisions in which we are tempted to exchange the eternal for the temporal.\u00a0 Jesus, our quintessential life-example, the author and perfecter of faith, faced (and overcame!!) the same temptation.\u00a0 He could have amassed an uncountable number of followers\u2014even worshipers\u2014if he had chosen to operate from a position of power, if he had chosen to use all the prerogatives of deity at his disposal.\u00a0 Flashy displays of his power would have had everyone\u2014even kings and emperors\u2014marching behind him in orderly fashion.\u00a0 But this is manipulation and coercion; it is not the freely-offered love and loyal obedience that our Heavenly Father desires.\u00a0 Jesus chose a better way:\u00a0 Loving self-sacrifice.\u00a0 This is the seed that produces the spiritual fruit for an eternal garden.\u00a0 It is the only fruit that lasts!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The account of Jacob and Esau in Genesis 25 reminds us of a problem that we cannot blame entirely on the influence of a surrounding ungodly culture\u2014although many in our culture have used our common problem for their profit.\u00a0 The malady I am speaking is the all too popular “I-want-it-NOW! Syndrome.\u00a0 The underlying character flaw…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pgc_sgb_lightbox_settings":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biblical-themes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robstarner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}