Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Tuesday February 20, 2007

Sunday past I continued my series titled, "Life Defining Decisions" with "Esau's Choice" the horrid story of a wasted, destructive and disobedient life. Esau is mentioned some 85 times in the scripture and unless I missed something, only one verse has anything decent to say about the man.

A glance at the long story will tell you that Esau was most definitely cheated by his brother Jacob and engaged in serious deception against his Father with the aid of his mother. That Esau made a decision based on instant gratification is beyond dispute. The scripture asserts that Esau despised his birthright. As with most people who are defrauded by someone they trust, he learned to murderously and bitterly hate his brother Jacob. His hatred was so open that his mother sent Jacob away from home to prevent fratricide. In short order Esau became a terrible sinner against the Lord. Hebrews 12:15-17 tells the sad tale of this profane man. The writer of Hebrews lets the cat out of the bag by noting in passing that Esau had a root of bitterness and from this root sprang his destructive life style. He was a 'man of the world' in the largest sense. Long years after the damage was done the story of Jacob and Esau meeting clearly demonstrates that Esau finally got over being cheated by Jacob, and further shows that Jacob never got over cheating Esau.

Over many years I have watched the harvest of bitterness ruin many lives. I am thinking as I write of one especially gifted man who is ruining his testimony, his health and life due to bitterness.

In life we all do things that upon reflection we are not proud of. Esau certainly was not proud of his weakness in permitting Jacob to cheat him. Jacob seems to have been ashamed of himself and lived in fear of Esau all the days of his life. One simple lesson from both men is: Do NOT take advantage of a brother. Do NOT desire instant gratification so intensely as to permit your greed to cost you dearly.

I'm sure that most will assert that Esau's Life Defining Decision was his decision to sell his birthright for a 'morsel of bread.' Could be for doing this was a serious, one time act with eternal consequence. Yet, the choice to be consumed by bitterness was certainly a life continuing choice to be eaten alive with the musing, the ruminating, the 'chewing of the cud' of murdering Jacob many times in his heart. This choice destroyed the bulk of his life.

Life, for Jacob, Esau and you has many choices. When these choices are hard, you can become bitter or better, the choice is yours.

My little girl, now a mother of two children quoted something from a tape she was listening to by Ruth Graham:

"Harboring bitterness and resentment is like drinking poison and hoping the other person will die."

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2007 Use with credit.

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