Nothing quite upsets
the Christian like the realization that she is not her own. The mental assent of it is comfortable and in
ways pleasing but the working out of it is discombobulating. As soon as you give Christ your life it is
His and He may not work it out the way you want it. Like a ball of clay in the hands of a master,
you will be reshaped until the Lord is satisfied; not until you are fine with
how things are. Esau was
"hated" by God not because he was such a foul person but because he
never had God in mind as he went about his business. He lived for his own today and not any
further. Jacob in his complicated
passion, wanted all God had and more.
Jacob could work for Esau if he might have the birthright and lose his
father's affection if he could get the blessing. In the perversity of his
scheming, always Jacob had at the front the vastness of God and the Lord
blessed Him in his madness. Before we
see something in God and Jacob that was never there; it must be reminded that
Jacob was clay and the reshaping of him took a lifetime. While Abraham had the faith to give at God's
command his son Isaac freely, the Lord stripped Jacob without warning of each
delight he treasured. First it was his
mother, then his sweetheart Rachel and finally his beloved son Joseph. At each point Jacob could do nothing to take
back the lamb on the altar. His hands
were tied and he was left to wait out the terrible reworking of his heart until
God was finished with him on it. Jacob
was not his own and this became dreadfully clear to him with each lamb God took
from his grip. You can wallow in self
pity over the shape God is pounding into you or you can be satisfied with the
mercy God has to not leave you as an Esau "hated" but reworked like
Jacob "loved".
...so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping
it as seemed best to him.
Jeremiah 18:4 NIV
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