I often used to wonder why God was so unhappy with Esau; why the bible would say "Jacob I love but Esau, I hate". Anyway, this year, while studying the bible, I seemed to notice this one word that I didn't take notice of while reading the story of Jacob and Esau; that one word was contempt.
What is contempt? For those like me, I shall put it up for you.
CONTEMPT:
- The feeling that a person or a thing is worthless or beneath consideration.
- Disregard for something that should be considered.
In Gen 25: 27-34, a story is told about two brothers who were twins but had very different personalities and physical features; while one was outgoing and seemingly wild, the other was more of an introvert and a mommy's boy. Esau was the first of the twins and the outdoor person, while Jacob was the youngest and the mommy's boy.
One day, Esau went to hunt and came back hungry while Jacob stayed at home and made a nice pot of stew.
When Esau got back, he asked his brother for some of the stew, Jacob would not heed except Esau gave him his birthright which Esau did because he felt like he would die if he did not eat.
Behold, the verse that caught my attention:
Verse 34: then Jacob gave Esau some bread and lentil stew. Esau ate the meal, then got up and left. He showed CONTEMPT for his rights as the firstborn.
Do you remember in Exodus (Exodus 11:1-10) what God did to ensure that Pharaoh let the people go? He killed every firstborn of both man and animals. Why the firstborn? Because they were of grave importance.
In Exodus 13:1-2, you hear God instruct Moses to dedicate every first offspring of both man and animals to Him because they belong to Him.
So, here is my point, the first born position given to Esau was such an important gift and a privilege that had been given to him by God as a seal and mark of how important he was to Him but here is Esau, showing total disregard for something he should have considered with high esteem. In other words, he showed contempt for a blessing of God.
It is easy to look at Esau and just call him a fool as per would he have died if he did not eat that stew? He felt like he would die, but that was simply a feeling and feelings are not emotions we should make lifelong decisions based on.
Assuming he had decided to fast when the brother refused to give him or even went to a neighbor to ask for food or just behave like my older sister Didi and use her position as the oldest child to bully you and cause you to cave, he could have held onto his birthright but would he do it? No, Esau compromised and gave in for temporary pleasure. We all know he would not have died if he did not eat that stew.
He gave in to his brothers demand because he didn't know how important his birthright was but Jacob knew.
Let me bring it a little bit closer to him for us all, and this is what God asked me "How many times have I blessed you with something and you don't even know the value and are quick to give it out or treat it with contempt?" For some, God has given you a great spouse, but because you are so used to the person, you begin to treat them with less respect than they deserve, or you have kids and you just keep complaining about them, your parents are alive and you disrespect them because they have not given you as much money as you think you deserve or they have fallen out of grace in some way and you just treat them badly, you have friends and you just do not value them, the list is unending in all honesty but I got the point.
God has blessed us in so many ways and more often than not, we do not value those blessings or we allow over familiarity get to us and so we disrespect the gift and in that sense, the giver as well.
For everything we have in life, it is a blessing from God and a blessing He has withheld from some people but has given you.
Even though Esau was oblivious of his blessing and showing contempt over it, notice that his brother Jacob was well aware of it and had been waiting for any opportunity to present itself so he could take it.
Likewise, those blessings of God in your life that you are just devaluing, someone else very close to you is looking at it enviously and just praying for you to mess up in anyway so they can swoop down and grab it.
You look at your husband and be like ' it is just.... abegi, and you yell at him or ignore him or talk down to him. If God were to simply open your eyes, you would be shocked at how many girls so close to you are praying something goes wrong between you both so they can quickly come and take him and treat him better than you could ever imagine.
Please bear in mind that this same scenario applies for guys as well, so it's not just the ladies I'm talking about.
Anyway, to cut the long story short (cause my brother has warned me about lengthy posts), you need to always value all that God has given you and put in your life 'cause believe me, someone else is noticing how special they are and waiting for an opportunity to take them from you so Wise Up!!
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