Esau - the model of impatience
I have not so great a struggle with my vices, great and numerous as they are, as I have with my impatience. ~ John Calvin (1509 - 1564)
Are you in this good company? I am.
Time flows cheaply from the Throne of Grace, His abundance knows no end. The Lord alone carries His and our appointed times.
Men and their responses to waiting are vastly different, and likewise the outcomes.
Remember Esau, who exchanged his future for a bowl of broth?
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. (Genesis 25:29-34)
Seven reflections:
- Impatience is the fodder of personal 'injury' and forms ripples that will harm others too.
- Impatience injures both today and tomorrow.
- When I find roadblocks, speed bumps or deep potholes on my highway these are usually present to cause me to brake.
- We must recall the Lord's previous works in His appointed times.
- In waiting there remains a divine favor beyond any human measure - it is to permit the good Lord to order my life.
- Delays are a season of settling, and a re-ordering.
- Self-will may become the poison of waiting, but this is muted when striving ceases, for waiting has become as an oil to stroke the soul.
The Last Word:
There is little so costly as impatience.