Foolish Decisions: Consequences and Forgiveness
Our reading for Wednesday, January 9, 2013: Genesis 25:1-26:35 Click here to open
My selection: Genesis 26:34-35 When Esau was forty years old, he took Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite to be his wife, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah.
My reflections: Esau made bad choices and he made them consistently. He let his hunger cloud his wisdom and sold his birthright. Unlike his father, Isaac, he did not allow his father to play any role in his choice of a wife. He married two Hittite women possibly defying his parents’ advice and certainly ignoring family tradition. Together Esau and his wives, Judith and Basemath, “made life bitter” for Esau’s parents. He is off to a bad start in life.
Perhaps you live today with the consequences of regrettable decisions. The truth is, in small and large ways, we, as sinners, all live with such consequences. Some of these consequences cannot be alleviated at all. We bear them like indelible scars. But whether or not the consequences can be alleviated the sinful choices that caused them can be forgiven. Christ died to save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). Believers, those who recognize their sin, repent, and trust in Jesus Christ’s death for forgiveness, are delivered from the guilt and debt of offenses of every kind.
My challenge: Bear the inevitable ongoing consequences of your sin but do so with the confidence that by believing in the One who saves His people from their sin you do not bear the guilt of that sin. As you face important decisions, do not be an Esau, who did it his own way, but seek to act wisely by studying the Bible, making use of the means of grace, and by listening to godly counsel.
Our reading for Thursday, January 10, 2013: Genesis 27:1-29:14 Click here to open