The day of judgment for the nations is coming. Israel’s deliverance and pre-eminence will be
the result of this judgment. The nations
will receive their recompense, Esau is particularly singled out in this judgment. Remember that Esau sold his inheritance of
birthright for a mess of pottage. The
inheritance was the promise of God to his grandfather Abraham, passed to his
son, Esau’s father, Isaac. Esau,
however, had little value for that and God chose Jacob to receive what was, by
birth, Esau’s. In this judgment, even
what Esau had was going to belong to Jacob, along with the land of the Canaanites,
Noah’s grandchildren, who were cursed for the sin of their father. Let us never despise what the Lord has
promised to us as these men did.
The “prosperity gospel” has always existed. When Jesus speaks of how difficult it will be
for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven the disciples are
dumbfounded. They want to know, if this
is true, who might be saved. Their assumption
is that men of wealth are blessed by God and this is a sign of their favor in
his eyes. Poverty would then be the sign
that God has rejected someone. If that
theology is right, then rich people will also enjoy eternal favor. Jesus, however, contradicts that theological position
and the disciples are confused. His teaching
on the matter is at one with his command to the rich young ruler to leave all
his earthly wealth behind to inherit eternal life, “everyone who has left
houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my
name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.” The relative importance we give to things of
earth vs. eternal things speaks volumes about our value system. Our birthright is the cross, let us not
despise it in favor of anything else.
Let us consider all else as Paul did, as rubbish, in comparison with the
reward that awaits.
Peter helps us understand that our value system is messed
up. He says of Jesus that He is, “a
living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious.” If we can be so humanly wrong about something
like Jesus, the only man resurrected from the dead by God, how can we trust our
desires and insights in any other place?
In coming to Jesus we are called to re-examine all that we hold dear and
value in light of Him. We are called to
live not for the things we see with our eyes but that which God has promised
for those who believe in His Son, who share His estimate of value of the one on
that cross. We are a new people, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, we are called to be like His Son and we tend to
become like what we value.
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