Thanks to those who joined me in church recently for the resumption of our Bible Fellowship. Our lectionary has been re-telling the stories of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, so to learn more about the tribes of Israel, we have delved back into the Old Testament Book Genesis - looking at chapter 25.
Abraham had been promised by God that his ancestors would number like the stars, and in this chapter we start to see the fulfilment of the promise. We admired his stamina in taking on another wife after Sarah had died, and having six more children to Keturah! We saw that they each created their own tribes - and in preparation for his death, he gave a gift to each of his sons, sending them off to the east, away from Isaac. This ensured that they would not contend his inheritance when Abraham died. At the "ripe old age" of 175, Abraham died and his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him with his wife.
Ishmael fathered 12 tribes who would move to live in the region to the east of Egypt - and his descendants, the Ishmaelites, would live in open hostility to the tribes of their relatives from Isaac. Their birthright should have been to inherit the lands and possessions of Abraham as Ishmael was older than Isaac, but Abraham favoured Isaac, and the tensions existed for many, many generations.
Isaac married Rebekah, daughter of Penuel, sister of Laban, and after 20 years, and a great deal of prayers before God, Rebekah gave birth to twins, Esau and Jacob. Even before their birth they constantly fought and competed against each other - to the point where Jacob (the younger) was born holding the heel of his brother Esau.
This competitiveness and rivalry seemingly came to a head when Esau, the father's favourite son, came home from a hunting trip, starving of hunger. Not given to exaggeration or nothing, he discovered that his brother had a lentil stew ready, and he asked for a bowl, claiming that he was close to death! What may have started as a joke, Jacob asked for Esau's birthright as reward for the stew - which Esau seemingly handed over without an argument. His solemn oath meant that he had forsaken all his inheritance for a bowl of red vegetable soup!
The chapter concludes with a condemnation of Esau that he had "showed contempt for his rights as the firstborn". It is easy to feel that Jacob had manufactured the position, or had at least showed a certain skulduggery in his actions, yet the Bible chooses to condemn Esau for his actions rather than the younger son's actions. In today's world, such an agreement could easily be contested, but in Jacob's mind there was nothing left to contend! The deal was done.
In our discussion around this passage, we discovered that we too have been quick to sell our birthright in the sense that we have neglected the world around us to the point where it will be difficult to recover. Much as we talk about the environment, and our need to protect and preserve it, the church has been slow to take any significant actions. Perhaps it is we who will be condemned in the future by our ancestors for not taking a stand and making changes to protect their future.
We may not have sold out for a bowl of soup - but we have sacrificed much of the world for the luxuries we almost take for granted - rare elements in our phones, precious fossil fuels for our homes and cars, the plastic that pollutes the seas and oceans and that will outweigh the living organisms in the water in another ten to twenty years at present rates. Science talks of mining the Moon for fuel to send astronauts to Mars and beyond, and talk is rife of making bases on Mars.
In our present global pandemic, in which we have been forced to look at our actions towards each other, should we not re-focus our greatest scientific minds on finding a way to preserve this planet before we head off to the Moon, Mars and beyond? Perhaps we all need to start looking at our own actions and influences to make our Christian message more relevant to the planet, and not to walk on with no regard to the damage we are doing at present.
As for Jacob and Esau - much more is still to come! We will pick up the story again at the start of Genesis chapter 26 on 26th August 2020, at 8pm. meeting again in church.
Johnny
Comments
Post a Comment