Scripture Reading: Genesis 27:34

“When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with an exceeding great and bitter cry, and said unto his father: ‘Bless me, even me also, O my father.'” (Genesis 27:34)

Dearly beloved, can you not hear the dreadful cry of anguish that gushed forth from the innermost being of Esau!

Oh the grief, the sorrow that will fill the heart of the one who has lost that first and glorious birthright blessing!

Hebrews 12:17 says, “For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.”

For four thousand years Esau has suffered because he sold his birthright in a moment of uncontrolled appetite, always thinking he could still get the blessing. What a terrible disappointment to find that the blessing was included in the birthright!

A man once said to me, “I want the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but I do not want to talk in tongues.”

Another man, who was a Hindu, said to me, “I love Jesus, and I believe the teachings of Jesus, but I do not want to be a Christian.”

What they did not realize was that it was a “package deal.” You cannot have one without the other. It is like saying, “I want to be married, but I refuse to be any man’s wife.”

When Esau sold his Birthright he lost the blessing. The terrible, bitter cry of Esau rings down through the centuries, and God still hears it today.

God is a merciful and loving God. He is too great and good to turn a deaf ear to the faintest cry of the wayward sinner. How much less will God turn away from the agonizing, screaming wails of this young son of Isaac, and grandson of Abraham, who, in a moment of uncontrolled hunger, traded his birthright for a mess of pottage!

The Esaus of today, the Palestinians and the Arabs of the Middle-East are still suffering with their father, Esau. They are still calling out, “Bless me, even me also, O my father!”

And I believe with all my heart that in these last days God has a blessing reserved for Esau just as Isaac did.

In the Beginning by Gwen Shaw
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