Esau and his birthright
I have been contemplating today the story of Esau and his relationship with his brother Jacob. (Genesis 25) Esau is tricked into selling his birthright for a bowl of stew and bread. Jacob, the second born twin, has already been designated the child of promise, but he exploits his unfair advantage (a hungry brother) to get what has already been promised. One of the books I have brought with me was Post Christendom by Stuart Murray and I happened to be re-reading the part where he describes Christians in post Christendom being more wary about the perceived compromise of Christian truth through exposure to other Faiths than to the subtle erosion of values through complicity with secular society. The book is now 5 years old and I believe that perceptions have moved on, but it still makes the valid observation that subtle changes are harder to resist. Like the frog in the pan which is gradually brought to the boil, we don’t notice gradual change until it is too late. I found myself today agreeing with someone’s personal mission statement - to enjoy life and be happy. Nothing wrong with that, but the goal of personal satisfaction, although desirable, is not really my game plan. Like Jacob we are invited to live as people of promise, so we don’t have to earn other people’s approval by necessarily agreeing with what they say, particularly people we are keen to impress! We already have our inheritance guaranteed. It is not our earthly masters we need to worry about, (although we honour God by doing our work well) but our heavenly one.

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