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4-29-2018 Weekly Message
The contemplation of the week: Psalm 34: 1-17
Text: Hebrews 12: 16-17
Theme of the Word: Am I Jacob? or Esau?

Esau and Jacob were conceived together in the womb of their mother Rebecca and were born as twins. They were competing to be born first, and Esau was born first. When Jacob was born holding the heel of Esau, so  he was called as Jacob.

God knew in advance what life they would live before they were born:
” I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob,

3And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.

4Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the LORD hath indignation for ever. “(Malachi 1: 2-4)

We have to realize how God loved Jacob, and hated Esau before they were born. In the perspective of man, Esau was a good son honoring his father Isaac with good food cooking the meat that he hunted.  On the other hand, Jacob was a scammer who interceded with the blessings of the firstborn, disguised as a mama boy with his mother..

But Rebecca the mother knew the thoughts of God, and helped Jacob to take away the birthright from Esau in the exchange of a bowl of food making use of the time when Esau returned from hunting in hunger.

When Esau returned from the hunt, Jacob said, ”   Sell me this day thy birthright.”  Esau swore to Jacob and sold his birthright to Jacob, saying that he was hungry and was about to die.

In the text, God said through  Apostle Paul:
”  Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.

17For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. “(Hebrews 12: 16-17)

We should realize Why God   speaks of Esau as a profane person? God was going to bless Esau a great blessing to make him the firstborn. If Esau had not sold his birthright, he would have received the name of the new name Israel that Jacob received . And his descendants would also have become God’s chosen people. He would have received the law from God, and Jesus Christ as his offspring would have been born into the world.

But he was not a spiritual person. He was ignorant of God’s dispensation in heaven and on earth through his fathers, Abraham and Isaac, and he was also a carnal man with no interest in God’s blessing. He did not even know how precious his birthright was and did not care for it

He deserved enough to be hated by God, for he was a totally carnal person only trusting his lust of flesh pursuing healthy and wealthy life. He didn’t understand the blessing given to his father Abraham saying “In thee all nations shall be blessed, and even not willing to realize what is the blessing. He was totally ignorant of the blessing of God giving eternal life through the Lord Jesus Christ to be born in his family. He thought of the great blessing as not worthy to be exchanged with one red bean soup.  God knew His character in advance and hated Esau.  God loved Jacob, for he knew how much blessing the birthright as even more than his life.  Therefore, God allowed Jacob to deceive his father Isaac with his mother Rebecca and receive the blessings of the firstborn.

            Esau and Jacob  were the descendants of Abraham. Apostle Paul testified that Christians who were born of the Holy Spirit in the Lord Jesus Christ  today are not Jews but are all descendants of Abraham:

” Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.

 ….9So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. (Galatians 3: 7, 9)

          In the church of God, the descendant of Abraham, there are two kinds of persons, as Jacob and as Esau.   Christians like Jacob are ones that deny themselves and take their cross as they follow the Lord Jesus Christ understanding what blessings God promises in Abraham and gives eternal life to all nations. They are the ones who volunteer to enter the narrow gate to endure the affliction, to preach the gospel of the blessing and to look forward to the blessing of the joint heir to rejoice  in the  kingdom with Christ.

           Those as Esau  are carnal Christian who follows the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye and the pride of life without knowing what the blessings of Christ’s kingdom. . They will realize the blessing just when the Lord appears in glory, and shall  seek blessings, but  there shall be no way to receive it.

           The Lord Jesus spoke beforehand through the Parable of pound about how he would speak to Christians like Jacob and like Esau when he come back as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Jesus will say to the man who earn ten pounds with one pound: ” Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities.” He will bless those who left five pounds saying, ”  Be thou also over five cities..”( Luke 19:17, 19)

           But to the  man who did not do anything but put it in a towel, he said, “
For I feared thee, because thou art an austere man: thou takest up that thou layedst not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow.

22And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow:” (19:22)

            Among the words out of the mouth of the Christians as Esau saying, “Does the Word feeds you?”  That’s right! The word of God feeds us! When the devil tempted Jesus, he said, ” If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.” (Matthew 4: 3) Jesus said, ”  It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. “(Matthew 4: 4).

            People  need food whenever they are hungry. However, because of the food, we have not to sell the birthright because of food. We must never neglect the promise given  to the children of God . This is the reason why we have to meditate deeply the blessings never neglecting that are  promised to us in the Word of God. Even if we live   on this earth passing  through the path of suffering, we should not become the same as Esau who sold the birthright with a food..

             Jacob escaped from Esau’s eyes, but in a terrible and cold wilderness he was hungry, and when he was asleep, he saw the heaven opened in the , and the ladder came down and the angels ascended and descended from it. God was standing at the top of the ladder, and said to Jacob,”  I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; “(Genesis 28: 12-15).

       Looking at the eternal blessings in God’s word like Jacob, spiritual Christians who live in a world like the wilderness can always live a life of hope in the presence of God even in their sufferings.

 Amen! Hallelujah!