Ignore or Honor

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

IGNORE OR HONOR

Gen 28:6-9

6 Now Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had sent him to Paddan Aram to take a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he commanded him, "Do not marry a Canaanite woman," 7 and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and had gone to Paddan Aram. 8 Esau then realized how displeasing the Canaanite women were to his father Isaac; 9 so he went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Ishmael son of Abraham, in addition to the wives he already had.

NIV

This is a sad story, but once again we are witnessing the workings of this dysfunctional family. Esau was Isaac’s favorite son and he enjoyed watching Esau become a man of the country, a hunter-gatherer, a man’s man, who could not only hunt but prepare the game he had shot with his bow and arrow. To hunt game with a bow that resembles nothing like bows we have today, but was simply a homemade bow and homemade arrows. It took skill and training to be able to hit a moving wild beast of the field. Is it any wonder Isaac liked him, he was a rugged hairy man, unlike his hairless mommy’s boy brother whose only talent might have been cooking stew. Now we see this anger of Esau against his brother turned on his father, getting revenge by marrying another woman that his parents would disapprove of, which is nothing more than ignoring rather than honoring his father. We see this lesson about honoring your parents so that you might live a long life in the land the Lord God is giving you. Although that is one of the Ten Commandments, if that was directed to the Israelites to obey that command they would live a long life in the promised land, it would seem that does not apply to us today, for we are not going to be living in Israel, the promised land. However, the paradise of God, our eternal promised land, could make this command relevant to us. Esau the favorite son of Isaac did not honor his father and mother, while Jacob, who deceived his father, however, obeyed his mother, did honor their commands and left to go to the family of his mother, to find a wife. Interestingly, we may or may not have been successful in honoring our father and mother in our younger years, however, we are going to live a long life, in fact, an eternal life, because we are honoring our Heavenly Father. We cannot ignore Him, as Esau did his father, we need to honor Him. He has commanded us to do certain things for his kingdom in honoring Him, we follow the lamp He has shown before our footsteps. Just as Jacob went where he was told, we are endeavoring to keep in step with the Spirit, walking on that path to the place God has directed us. It does not matter what we look like or any skills we may have been blessed with as long as we honor our Heavenly Father, give Him all the praise and glory for everything in our lives, putting our faith in Jesus Christ, we will live a long life in that promised land Jesus went to prepare for us. Thank you Father for all you do for us, in us, and through us, and we will always honor you.