God's Choice

I never noticed/realised until this weekend, (even though I must have read it several times before) that Reuben squandered his birthright as the first born son of Jacob when he "went into" (slept with) one of his father's concubines.

All the patriarchs: Abraham, Issac and Jacob, saw the first fruits of their loins - the ones who they thought would be the primary heirs of their estates - the ones who they thought had it coming - passed over by God to another of his choosing.

Even though Abraham was a mighty man of faith, for some strange reason, he still hankered for Ishmael to be the chosen offspring.

Even though Esau had sold his birthright to his younger brother and even though God had said in a prophecy that the older would serve the younger, Isaac still sought to give Easu preeminence.

And now as mentioned above, Reuben had it coming to him, but foolishly threw it away.

In all of this, God witnesses three times that he does not work through the assumptions and ways of fallen humans like you and me to achieve his purpose. He is not impressed by what we are impressed by - accidents of birth, social position, wealth, looks, skill, intellect, good deeds etc.

He turns the tables on all the ways that we ascribe glory to one another and uses the least expected methods to achieve his ends.

God's choice, his election, is all about Christ - who, like Isaac Jacob and Joseph before him, was rejected by the so called wisdom of man, but who has become the heir - in this case, of the whole cosmos, seen and unseen.

God's wisdom is not to use the assumptions (strength) of man to work out his purposes in human history, but rather those things that we did not expect at all because we were too proud to see them.

Whether you're a Christian or not the standard is the same: when you realise you have nothing to offer God, your heart is in the best position to make an approach to him.

Take heart and be humbly bold. He'll give you his best.