A lot of People have lost faith in God sometimes due to bad experiences. One can only imagine the hurt that a survivor of the Japanese disaster will be going thru. Loosing one's home, children, wife, probably no job and reduced to becoming a reciever of handouts will not make God the ideal candidate to call upon. A lot of people are going thru hell due to no fault of their own. A graduate who finished his/her studies with first class ,but hasn't been able to get a job after 4 years will look to the sky and say "From where cometh my help?".

This was a similar situation the Israelites were going thru in the book of Malachi 1:1-5.

1 A prophecy: The word of the LORD to Israel through Malachi.[a] 2 “I have loved you,” says the LORD. “But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?’
“Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the LORD. “Yet I have loved Jacob, 3 but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his hill country into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.”4 Edom may say, “Though we have been crushed, we will rebuild the ruins.”
But this is what the LORD Almighty says: “They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called the Wicked Land, a people always under the wrath of the LORD. 5 You will see it with your own eyes and say, ‘Great is the LORD—even beyond the borders of Israel!’

The people of Israel felt unloved, because of the suffering of the captivity, the shape of Jerusalem when they returned, the drought and economic instability, but God reminds them that they will recover. If He was against them, they wouldn't be able to bounce back. Why? Because God had made an everlasting covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob --- down to their descendants. What about Esau? Was he a descendant of Abraham and Isaac? Why did God Hate him? Why was he rejected?

Genesis 25:34 we were told how Esau eagerly took Jacobs bait and fell into the trap. He showed contempt for his birthright, considering it worthless. It is foolish to scarfice spiritual blessing to satisfy physical appetities. That is what Esau did.

Genesis 26:34-35 also told us that Esau married women from foreign tribes hence illustrating how unfit he was to lead a covenant people into God's blessing. Later He tried to marry a third wife to rectify the wrong, but by then the damage has already being done.


LESSONS

After 40days and 40nights of fasting Jesus was approached by the devil. The devil made him an offer 3 times and he rejected them all. To do this he set his mind on the eternal , and not the temporal,  Sometimes a believer has to make  sacrificial choices in which he/she must endure some hardship. But as a storm can never go on forever, it must cease. So hardship cannot go on forever.

CONCLUSION

Esau represents the line of Abraham's descendants who lacked the will to live in the spirit , but choose to gratify the flesh. His inability to control his carnal desires left him rejected by God as recipients of his promised blessing.

yommyuk:


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LESSONS

After 40days and 40nights of fasting Jesus was approached by the devil.

The devil made him an offer 3 times and he rejected them all.

To do this he set his mind on the eternal , and not the temporal, 

Sometimes a believer has to make had sacrificial choices in which he/she must endurance some hardship.

But as a storm can never go on forever, it must cease. So hardship cannot go on forever.

CONCLUSION

Esau represents the line of Abraham's descendants who lacked the will to live in the spirit and not the flesh.

His inability to control his carnal desires left him rejected by God as recipients of his promised blessing.

There are 3 main exploitations or weakness' for sin:

For all that [is] in the world,
the lust of the flesh,
and the lust of the eyes,
and the pride of life,
is not of the Father, but is of the world
- 1 John 2:16 KJV

The classic "Good for food, pleasant to the eyes and to be desired to make one wise!"