WHAT GOES AROUND, COMES AROUND

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In Christ, Mark

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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

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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

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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

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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

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