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The scriptures. May God
bless the reading of His holy word.
Moses
sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom, saying:
"This
is what your brother Israel says: You know about all the hardships that have
come upon us. Our forefathers went down into Egypt, and we lived there many
years. The Egyptians mistreated us and our fathers, but when we cried out to
the Lord, He heard our cry and sent an angel and brought us out of Egypt."
"Now
we are here at Kadesh, a town on the edge of your territory. Please let us pass
through your country. We will not go through any field or vineyard, or drink
water from any well. We will travel along the king's highway and not turn to
the right or to the left until we have passed through your territory."
But
Edom answered: "You may not pass through here; if you try, we will march
out and attack you with the sword."
The
Israelites replied: "We will go along the main road, and if we or our
livestock drink any of your water, we will pay for it. We only want to pass
through on foot—nothing else."
Again
they answered: "You may not pass through."
Then
Edom came out against them with a large and powerful army. Since Edom refused
to let them go through their territory, Israel turned away from them.
Numbers
20:14-21
This ends this reading
from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
You may remember the
following three scripture passages from a prior message when we studied the
Book of Genesis and the birth of twin boys to Isaac and Rebekah. They all lend
understanding and background to the verses from Numbers, chapter 20:
This is the account of Abraham's son Isaac.
Abraham became the father of Isaac, and Isaac was
forty years old when he married Rebekah,
daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan Aram and sister of Laban the
Aramean. Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was
barren. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. The
babies jostled each other within her, and she said, "Why is this happening
to me?" So she went to inquire of the Lord.
The Lord said to her, "Two nations are in your
womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be
stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger."
When the time came for her to give birth, there were
twin boys in her womb. The first to come out was red and his whole body was
like a hairy garment; so they named him Esau. After this, his brother came out,
with his hand grasping Esau's heel; so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty
years old when Rebekah gave birth to them.
The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a
man of the open country, while Jacob was a quiet man, staying among the tents.
Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob.”
Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in
from the open country, famished. He said to Jacob, "Quick, let me have
some of that red stew! I'm famished!" (That is why he was also called
Edom.)
Jacob replied, "First sell me your
birthright."
"Look, I am about to die," Esau said.
"What good is the birthright to me?"
But Jacob said, "Swear to me first." So he
swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob.
Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew.
He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his
birthright." Genesis 25:19-34
____________________
When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he
could no longer see, he called for Esau his older son and said to him, "My
son."
"Here I am," he answered.
Isaac said, "I am now an old man and don't know
the day of my death. Now then, get your weapons—your quiver and bow—and go out
to the open country to hunt some wild game for me. Prepare me the kind of tasty
food I like and bring it to me to eat, so that I may give you my blessing
before I die."
Now Rebekah was listening as Isaac spoke to his son
Esau. When Esau left for the open country to hunt game and bring it back,
Rebekah said to her son Jacob, "Look, I overheard your father say to your
brother Esau, 'Bring me some game and prepare me some tasty food to eat, so
that I may give you my blessing in the presence of the Lord before I die.' Now,
my son, listen carefully and do what I tell you: Go out to the flock and bring
me two choice young goats, so I can prepare some tasty food for your father,
just the way he likes it. Then take it to your father to eat, so that he may
give you his blessing before he dies."
Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, "But my brother
Esau is a hairy man, and I'm a man with smooth skin. What if my father touches
me? I would appear to be tricking him and would bring down a curse on myself
rather than a blessing."
His mother said to him, "My son, let the curse
fall on me. Just do what I say; go and get them for me." So he went and
got them and brought them to his mother, and she prepared some tasty food, just
the way his father liked it.
Then Rebekah took the best clothes of Esau her older
son, which she had in the house, and put them on her younger son, Jacob. She
also covered his hands and the smooth part of his neck with the goatskins. Then
she handed to her son Jacob the tasty food and the bread she had made. He went
to his father and said, "My father."
"Yes, my son," he answered. "Who is
it?"
Jacob said to his father, "I am Esau, your
firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game so
that you may give me your blessing."
Isaac asked his son, "How did you find it so
quickly, my son?"
“The Lord your God gave me success," he replied.
Then Isaac said to Jacob, "Come near so I can
touch you, my son, to know whether you really are my son Esau or not."
Jacob went close to his father Isaac, who touched him
and said, "The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of
Esau." He did not recognize him, for his hands were hairy like those of
his brother Esau; so he blessed him.
"Are you really my son Esau?" he asked.
"I am," he replied.
Then he said, "My son, bring me some of your game
to eat, so that I may give you my blessing." Jacob brought it to him and
he ate; and he brought some wine and he drank. Then his father Isaac said to
him, "Come here, my son, and kiss me."
So he went to him and kissed him. When Isaac caught
the smell of his clothes, he blessed him and said, "Ah, the smell of my
son is like the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed. May God give you of
heaven's dew and of earth's richness—an abundance of grain and new wine. May
nations serve you and peoples bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and
may the sons of your mother bow down to you. May those who curse you be cursed
and those who bless you be blessed."
After Isaac finished blessing him and Jacob had scarcely
left his father's presence, his brother Esau came in from hunting. He too
prepared some tasty food and brought it to his father. Then he said to him,
"My father, sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your
blessing."
His father Isaac asked him, "Who are you?"
"I am your son," he answered, "your
firstborn, Esau."
Isaac trembled violently and said, "Who was it,
then, that hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it just before you came and
I blessed him—and indeed he will be blessed!"
When Esau heard his father's words, he burst out with
a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, "Bless me—me too, my
father!"
But he said, "Your brother came deceitfully and
took your blessing."
Esau said, "Isn't he rightly named Jacob? He has
deceived me these two times: He took my birthright, and now he's taken my
blessing!" Then he asked, "Haven't you reserved any blessing for
me?"
Isaac answered Esau, "I have made him lord over
you and have made all his relatives his servants, and I have sustained him with
grain and new wine. So what can I possibly do for you, my son?"
Esau said to his father, "Do you have only one
blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father!" Then Esau wept aloud.
His father Isaac answered him, "Your dwelling
will be away from the earth's richness, away from the dew of Heaven above.
You will live by the sword and you will serve your
brother. But when you grow restless, you will throw his yoke from off your
neck." Genesis 27:1-40
____________________
Jacob looked up and there was Esau, coming with his four
hundred men; so he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two
maidservants. He put the maidservants and their children in front, Leah and her
children next, and Rachel and Joseph in the rear. He himself went on ahead and
bowed down to the ground seven times as he approached his brother. But Esau ran
to meet Jacob and embraced him; he threw his arms around his neck and kissed
him. And they wept. Genesis 33:1-4
____________________
These final verses from
Genesis appear to signal that full reconciliation had taken place between Esau
and Jacob despite the latter's evil, sinful, deceitful actions toward his
brother. For Jacob not only took away Esau's birthright but then stole his
blessing on top of that and all this left a bad taste in Esau's mouth, a bad
taste that he would carry with him to the nation of Edom where he reigned and
led his people.
Now you know how this
connects to today’s passage from the Book of Numbers for we see where it was
the Edomites and their territory that stood between Israel and the Promised
Land. Indeed, the quickest way to Canaan, the king's highway, passed through the
nation of Edom but the Israelites didn’t dare take liberty to pass through without
authorization.
This is why we find Moses
sending “messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom” with the following
request:
“This is what your brother Israel says: You know about
all the hardships that have come upon us. Our forefathers went down into Egypt,
and we lived there many years. The Egyptians mistreated us and our fathers, but
when we cried out to the Lord, He heard our cry and sent an angel and brought
us out of Egypt. Now we are here at Kadesh, a town on the edge of your
territory. Please let us pass through your country. We will not go through any
field or vineyard, or drink water from any well. We will travel along the
king's highway and not turn to the right or to the left until we have passed
through your territory."
This ask seemed simple
enough. All the people of Israel wanted to do was simply pass right through
Edom safely, promising not to take anything or damage property. They were
hoping that the king of Edom would trust them but there was the matter of
Israelite’s ancestor, Jacob, who would later find his name changed by God to
Israel. The Edomites would have known well that what Jacob/Israel ended up with
was rightfully Esau’s and now, the people of Israel wanted to pass through? It’s
easy to see where they weren’t ready to give the Israelites what they wanted.
For the king of Edom
replied to the Israelite request with the following:
"You may not pass through here; if you try, we
will march out and attack you with the sword."
Clearly, the Edomites didn't
trust Israel. Their founder had experienced deceit first-hand and so the
Israelites would have been considered a potential threat that couldn’t be believed.
This is why we find the king promising military action if Israel entered
without approval.
Well, we see where the
Israelites weren’t about to give up and so they asked a second time, once again
assuring the Edomites that they just wanted safe passage. This time though, they
added that compensation would be paid if there was any Edomite water. Despite
this, Edom persisted in their denial, even going as far as coming out against
the Israelites “with a large and powerful army." It was this show of force
that convinced the people of Israel that they would have to find another way to
get to Canaan and so the scriptures tell us that they turned away from Edom and
carried on.
So what is the takeaway
for Christian believers today?
Hopefully, we will all see
how destructive the fallout can be when we willingly choose to deceive another
person, especially when we take something from them that isn’t rightfully ours.
For just as Esau's negative experience with his brother Jacob/Israel went on to
carry over to the Edomite nation that he founded, leading them to not trust a
future generation of Israelites, so too can our negative actions have a
tendency to carry over to others, leaving us with a tainted reputation.
Maybe this has happened to
you or someone you know.
In this passage from
Numbers, chapter 20, the people of Israel was learning a valuable lesson, for
as the old saying goes today, “what goes around, comes around”. They had failed
to trust God and it cost them 40 years of additional desert wandering before
entering Canaan. Their reputation was firmly established as a complaining,
disobedient, stiff-necked people and they lived up to that reputation. And so
at Edom, they learned what it felt like to not be trusted.
In the end translation, honesty
and integrity in character will always be one of the best characteristics of a
Christian, characteristics that can be installed and nurtured through the Word
of God and the leading of the Holy Spirit when we submit to them. They will
make us like Jesus and result in a life that is pleasing to Him and trusted by
those we serve.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS:
Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might
be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to
TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
