Folks,
I know this is a day late, and some of you might be a little irritated that it didnt come out yesterday, but i just let it slip my mind. I got busy doing other things, and i simply forgot to do it. It happens, right? Am i the only one who forgets to do things? I hope not.
Anyway. So this Esau guy in Genesis 33 is a different kind of person. 20 years, before his reunion with Jacob, Esau was ready to kill his brother, who had stolen the blessing and birthright from him. For us, in 2010, this may seem like a trivial thing to quibble about, let alone fight or murder, but for the people in that time, the blessing and birthright carried so much. The inheritance. The right to choose where the family would go. The family, all the siblings, would work for the son who owned the birthright and blessing. And the patriarch even had the authority to choose the religion of the family. This was no small thing that Jacob stole. It was the very right, of Esau, to carve out a new chapter for his family, but Jacob swindled it away.
Fast forward 20 years, and we have this amazing scene. Yes he brought 400 soldiers with him, but i wonder if it wasn't just to offer protection for Jacob. Esau didn't have any intentions, from the reading at least, to do anything but embrace and love and welcome Jacob, his conniving, manipulative brother, back into the family. It was a sign of grace, acceptance, forgiveness, and above all, love. Godly love.
For any and all of you, i hope, this story should mirror a parable Jesus tells: the prodigal son. In the parable Jesus tells it to paint a picture of God's amazing love and forgiveness. Above all things, according to the parable, God rejoices when one sinner repents and returns home. Not only does God rejoice, but God wipes away the past, showers the repentant one with jewels of love, and lavishes the person with a robe of royalty: God's own child. We read the prodigal as a mirror into the soul of God, knowing that God truly is this good.
The parable is a teaching, a metaphor of God's love. It doesn't have to be a true story or real events. It is a teaching moment. So we can associate ourselves with a myriad of characters in the story. But in the narrative of Jacob and Esau, if we claim the Scriptures to be true, we have to believe this is an actual event, a real, historical experience. Not a teaching of God's amazing love and forgiveness. Not a teaching of repentance and trust. No. This is a true story with real people. And how does it go down? How does it unfold?
Esau forgives Jacob. Jacob cant understand it. No one would? Right? I mean if we had done someone the wrongs that Jacob afflicted to Esau, we would expect retribution and revenge. Why? Justice demands it. Right? Jacob expects Esau's wrath. But what he gets, instead, is Esau's love, acceptance, mercy, grace, and forgiveness. I believe this disarms Jacob so much, he probably had to spend some time processing Esau's godly actions.
And that's the power of being godly. When we choose God's way, which is the way of the father in the prodigal, the way of Esau in Genesis 33, when we choose God's way, we disarm those who have afflicted us. We remove their power over us. We choose the way of peace. We choose the way of love. And we choose the way of forgiveness. These choices empower us to be free. Free from the pain. Free from the wrong. And free to be who God created us to be, without the chains of anger, resentment, or revenge.
Esau's actions released Esau from the past. More than that, it empowered him to be free from Jacob's thieving ways. And God wants the same for all of us. If someone has wronged us, being alive it has happened, then God wants us to forgive and forget. Move on. Find peace in being who God created us to be. And let God work through what justice must be for those who have wronged us. When that happens, we find peace, true peace, in ourselves and in our world. Amen.
Shalom, Salaam, Peace,
jerry
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