Protecting the Sacred Thing: Jacob and Esau

[GreyJay]

I while ago, I listened to a sermon by Shane Willard (called "Bowl or Birthright," currently on YouTube if you want to check it out) that gave me a different perspective on the Jacob and Esau story. I'd like to share this with you now, because I've found what I learned to be very important in re-ordering my life, which was thrown into turmoil a number of months ago. The sermon is pretty dense as sermons generally go, but it's about how we as Christians can keep our eyes on the big picture, which is focusing on the sacred things God gave to us in our lives, instead of giving into our human nature in moments of temptation, thus jeopardizing the sacred things we should have been protecting.

When Esau traded his birthright for the bowl of food, I used to just assume that he was trading the possessions he would one day inherit for food in a moment of hunger. Really, though, birthright is a much bigger concept. Esau would have inherited the right to be the head of his extended family, taking on the responsibility of making decisions to care for and protect the people who meant the most to him in his life. By treating this sacred thing as something that was common and without value, Esau despised his birthright, trading it for something that filled a temporary impulse.

Willard says, "Iniquity is any time your attention gets hooked to something that isn't what God intended for your life. It goes against the birthright and despises it. It convinces us that the holy, sacred thing in our life is something very normal and very un-sacred, and so we treat something that is sacred as if it is common, thus we profane our birthright."

So our "bowl," is where our urges catch us, the thing that causes us to act like the sacred things in our lives don't even matter at all.

As some of you may have read in the post where I introduced myself, you know that my own profanity of the most sacred thing in my life led to disaster of my own design. I let depression dominate my life, and I let it become so inflated that it became my iniquity, my "bowl," the thing that hooked me and took my attention off the life God intended for me, and because of that, my wife decided to end our relationship. I did not take the time to remind myself the value of the sacred thing in my life, or take steps to make sure I was protecting that thing. I was just living from urge, to urge, to urge, and not protecting or valuing my "birthright," the honor and responsibility of making sure my wife felt loved and valued in our relationship.

So how do we protect the sacred things in our life?

So the way we fight iniquity is not by "fighting" iniquity, but by focusing on the sacred thing, and making the sacred thing larger will shrink the pull of the iniquity.  I made the mistake of trying to fight selfishness in the form of hopelessness, self loathing, regret, shame, guilt, and utterly failing, instead of focusing on the things that God has made sacred: grace, forgiveness, acceptance, vitality, life in abundance. If I had, I also would have protected my marriage. We need to know what's important, know why those things are important, and be intentional about focusing on them and protecting them, and that helps us to shrink the pull of our temporary impulses that will draw us away from the sacred things in our life.

Even though my wife may never choose to return to our covenant, I am determined to recognize and protect the sacred things in my life. For me now, that means my family, the church, a life of richness and vitality, and prioritizing the needs of others. I despised all these for many years, and now it's time for me to recognize their value, and the gift from God they are. The thing is, it's working. I'm not going to say depression is gone forever, but I have freedom from its impact on my life now, and it shrinks more and more as I learn to trust God that the things He made sacred actually are sacred, worth focusing on, and worth protecting. Depression is not gone, but its chains on my life are broken.

"Your life will either be a summation of you living for your birthright, or you living from urge, to urge, to urge." - Willard

So how about you? Let's be vulnerable with one another, and come to each other for support in the things that matter most.

What's your "bowl"? What's the thing that hooks you, and threatens to keep you from what God intends for your life? How do you shrink that thing in your life?

And what's your "birthright," the sacred things God has gifted in your life, the things that lead to life thriving in richness and vitality, the things worth protecting? How do you remind yourself of the value of those things, and remind yourself why they're worth denying your urges that would draw you away from them?

 

Edited September 25, 2019 by GreyJay

[Jayne]

That's correct.  He sold his birthright because he didn't give two hoots about the responsibility that came with it.

The birthright and the blessing were two different things.

He received none of the birthright and a partial blessing.