#175: Esau The Beloved

 

And Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob. Gen 25:28

By the grace of God, today we will be looking at the Esau syndrome that plagues many of us who desire earnestly to do God's will, but oftentimes, our passion comes in the way.

To set the context of today's key verse, if we go a few verses behind, we see that Rebekah was barren vs21. Isaac prayed for Rebekah vs21. God answered his prayers and Rebekah is pregnant with twins vs21. Before they are even born to have done anything right or wrong to win God's favour (Rom 9:10-13), God tells Rebekah that the older would serve the younger vs23 (Malachi 1:2&3). It is plausible that Rebekah must have told her husband what God had revealed to her. It is also plausible that Isaac must have probably got a revelation from God too on this matter. (These are not explicitly said in the bible and so we must be careful how we use these plausible scenarios). But our anchor text says that Isaac loved Esau. Why would Isaac love Esau and how is this relevant to us today?

Two chapters later, Isaac tries to pass on the blessings to Esau (Gen 27:2-4). But God frustrates his effort to do so and the blessing (Gen 27:27-29) is passed on to Jacob instead (even though Jacob's means of getting the blessing - deception and lies is not a moral example). How is this important to us today?

Well, we all have our beloved "Esau". There is a business that God's blessing is not on, but we are pursuing; there is a relationship that is not honouring God, but we are investing our emotions into it; there is a plan that we are bent on executing, even when we know that God has nothing to do with it - He was not the initiator of the plan, neither has He given His consent. For Esau, Isaac loved him because he ate out his game. Same way, we have reasons why we pursue our "Esaus". But how long will we fight God's will? This is what God says and it is why we must quit fighting to have our way:

I am the God and there is no other;

I am God and there is none like me,

Declaring the end from the beginning,

And from ancient times things that are not yet done,

saying, "My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasures." Isaiah 46:9&10

We will look at examples from the other Patriarchs - Abraham and Jacob as they both had similar stories in their walk with God:

For Abraham, I will just highlight Lot and Ishmael.

When Abraham and Lot separated, it was a difficult decision. It was for the sake of peace, but otherwise, he would have rather had Lot with him. Lot was Abraham's nephew; an apparent heir. All the while God had been talking to him about being the father of many nations; since he had no child due to Sarah's barrenness, you can understand why when Abraham was setting out in obedience to God's call, he set out with Lot whom he loved as an heir (Gen 12:5). We know this was not God's plan. The fascinating thing about Lot's separation is that, as soon as Lot left Abraham, God explicitly made Abraham realise that he was presently at the centre of His plan for him:

And the LORD said to Abraham after Lot had separated from Him: "Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are - Northward, Southward, Eastward and Westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth so that if a man could number the dust of the earth,, then your defendants also could be numbered. Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you." Gen 13:14-17

When Abraham had Ishmael, he loved Ishmael. God had to remind Abraham that Ishmael was not part of His plan for him and the covenant (Gen 17:17-22). when it was time to send Ishmael away, it was a great struggle. Thank God he finally did. And by God's grace available today, we will do likewise from today as God convicts us daily of these beloved Esaus. One of the fascinating things is that God could only test Abraham's faith in Him through the sacrifice of Isaac only after Ishmael had left. If Ishmael was around, sacrificing Isaac would have been easier and less of a sacrifice despite the loss in that he had something else to fall back to - Ishmael. And frankly speaking, one of the reasons we hold tight to our beloved "Esaus" is to give us buffer - an extra option. But God wants to be our only option.

Finally, when Jacob wanted to get a bride, he served his uncle for seven years and got Leah instead of his beloved Rachael. One could argue that this was the will of God for him (note that Judah and Levi who are key tribes in God's covenant relationship with Israel were sons of Leah; anyway, this is debatable because the bible once again does not explicitly say this). But Jacob was bent on getting his way; so he invested another seven years of his life to get it. He eventually got it, but Rachael was not fruitful. as a matter of fact, God seemed to be blessing Leah, more than Rachael (Gen 29:31). But this did not deter Jacob. How tenacious are we to even the things that God has made barren. Interestingly, Leah gets to outlive Rachael the beloved. Jacob's wrestling with God was not a one-day event. I think he got to this understanding that his life was spent toiling instead of trusting God:

And Jacob said to Pharoah, "The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty years; few and evil have been the days of my life, and they are not attained to the days of the years of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage." Genesis 47:9

May God open our eyes to see the shadows of what we are pursuing outside of Him and cause our hearts to submit to His will and purpose.