On a recent day, the morning Bible reading was the book of Obadiah.  It’s the shortest book in the Old Testament and it seems that it is not often read.  In it, the descendants of Esau, the Edomites, are severely judged.  I wondered about that as I listened to someone read it.  The punishment seemed quite severe and after all, Esau was Isaac’s oldest son and it seems that he was Isaac’s favorite.  So, what gives?  How would Isaac feel about his descendants being judged so severely?

Thinking about Esau’s life, there are two things that stand out.  Jacob conned Esau out of his birthright over a pot of lentil soup when Esau was hungry.  Then, he stole Esau’s blessing with his mother’s help when he pretended to be Esau.  I will never completely understand how Isaac could have thought Jacob was Esau.  How could goat skins really feel like someone’s hands?  Anyway, it happened, and Esau lost both the birthright and the blessing.  How do you think he felt?  

If we were to translate that story into modern times, it’s a tale that we hear over and over again.  The inheritance.  The will.  The anger between siblings over favoritism, either real or imagined.  Siblings or parent/child relationships broken forever.  

Did Esau keep that root of bitterness in his heart forever?  Did he pass it down to his children?  It certainly seems that he did.  Numbers 20:14 – 21 tells the story of how the Israelites begged Edom to let them pass through their land as they fled from Egypt.  They even promised not to touch anything that belonged to Edom.  They would drink their own water, and just go straight through.  Edom refused and forced them to go on a longer route to avoid passing through Edom.  So, we can see that even generations after Esau passed away, somehow he had kept that hatred in his heart.  Perhaps he told his children, and then they told theirs, etc.  Hatred can infect.  Perhaps the future generations didn’t even remember the reason for it.  They just had been told that the Israelites were evil people, and they carried on that belief.

So, what kind of bitterness, grudges, or hatred do we maintain in our hearts?  I think we all know of a family that was broken over inheritances or some perceived injustice.  I know such a family.  The daughter doesn’t speak to her own mother or brother even though the mother is in her late eighties.  The apparent injustice happened long ago. 

The next generation in that family is trying to mend all of those broken fences.  It’s like walking a tightrope between all of the injured parties.  In the end, hanging on to these grudges doesn’t hurt anyone but ourselves.  Let’s make sure that it doesn’t last another second.  Let’s make sure we don’t fill our children with our anger over a situation.  Let it go. Let’s forgive.

Jesus told his disciples, not just to forgive seven times, but seventy times seven. Then, imagine this scenario. A man being killed in a most excruciatingly painful and demeaning way, looks down at those who are killing him, then looks at his God father and says, “Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.” That man is our hero, Jesus, our Savior. He left this earth without a single grudge, not against those who killed him or even the one who betrayed him. He looked lovingly at the one who denied him three times and also forgave his worldly friends and disciples who abandoned him in his most vulnerable of moments. He forgave them all. As he did, so can we.

FORGIVE

70 X 7 = 490