DECEMBER 13 "ESAU IS A SAD STORY"

 Esau is the sad story, that never gets better. Wouldn't make for a nice movie where everyone likes a happy ending. I think the problem with watching movies and always having a happy ending is we begin to identify life like that. It will work out, it will end well, it's all good. Well, that maybe Hollywood, and that may make a much better movie, but in real life, some stories, some lives are tragic saga's and sad endings. Isaac has two boys, Esau and Jacob. Esau comes from a good family, Esau has great opportunity, but something is in Esau, that is not right and he does not seem to do right, or chose right. He is like Cain whom God confronts and tells him, "if you will do right will you not be accepted as well?" Sometimes we make decisions that are going to set us in a certain direction and put us on a course we may not want to be on. Jacob, Esau's brother has his name changed to Israel. Esau never does return or get back on track, one bad decision leads to another. Esau purposely begins to marry women that are from tribes that Israel has always been at war with. Esau marries a Canaanite woman, Esau also married a Hittite woman. He joins in allegiance to the enemy's of Israel (Jacob) through marriage. "Because of the violence you did to your close relatives Israel". God is reminding the Edomites of who they are. They are from the blood line of Isaac, from the brother of Jacob, now named Israel. It's hard to believe how far Esau ends up straying and the great enemy he becomes of his own family. It all started one day when Esau sold his birthright to Jacob over a bowl of stew. "What good is my birthright". Jacob, no doubt took advantage of the situation, but God is able to work all things out, if Esau had limited this one bad decision. But Esau doesn't stop there, that bad decision, leads to another, Esau becomes estranged from his family and eventually becomes an enemy of his own flesh and blood. In our reading today, God is judging the Edomites, of who Esau is the father of the Edomites, for the crimes against their relative, Israel. Esau is the sad story, that never gets better. It's all decisions. There's an immense amount of Grace with God, for bad decisions, Lord knows, we all make them. The problem is not a bad decision, the problem is an incessant, almost determination, to keep making bad decisions that will turn our lives into the same story line as Esau, from bad to worse. Have you made some bad decisions in your past or recently? No problem, turn, get on the right path, choose to start making right decisions and God will bring you to a better place. Or, you can be like Esau, we can in spite of our bad decisions, defiantly determine to make more. Jacob, was by no means an Angelo or free of bad mistakes. Jacob had issues, but he was not bent on continuing in that direction, whereas Esau was. The problem is not God, the problem is not that there's no Grace, the problem is possibly you. Rather than admit to God, "you messed up, you made a bad decision, you sold you birthright" you insist on persisting on your course, rather than admit you messed up and ask God's forgiveness and Grace. Two brothers born from the same womb, from the same line of Isaac. Both brothers have issues, both brothers make bad decisions, but one turns to God, the others turns away from God. Are you Jacob or Esau is the question you want to ask yourself today? Will you turn to God and admit you've made a bad choice, a bad decision or will you be Esau and continue in your defiance and continue to build upon your bad decisions. If you're having a hard time deciding, read the rest of the story, the Edomites don't win, they are judged and destroyed by God. Esau never wins, you will never fight God and win. If only Esau had died to himself, but he didn't, he left behind the Edomites. Esau's always leave behind, unfortunately, a legacy of trouble and tragedy. I think of so many men that are incarcerated today or on their way to being incarcerated in the near future and as you get to know them you realize most of them came from a legacy, a lineage of the Edomites. What we produce, lives on after we die, for good or for bad. If the man or the woman today, that is bent of defiance would only think ahead and see their daughter, their son, their grandchildren one day be part of the Edomites, being destroyed by God, perhaps they would consider twice, the decisions and direction they are heading in. From one womb, came the Israelites (Jacob) and the Edomites (Esau) and these two nations are still at war today! The Palestinian/Arab war against Israel still rages on today. Esau is the sad story, that never got better, don't be an Esau, whatever you in life, don't ever chose to become an Esau!