080 - April 2010
BAD TRADES
Esau was the first born and was entitled to special blessings and birthrights. One particular day, Esau arrived home and was very hungry. He asked his brother, Jacob, for some porridge, to which Jacob offered the porridge in exchange for Esau's birthright.
"And Esau said, "Look, I am about to die. What good is the birthright to me?" (Genesis 25:32)
Desires and selfish ambitions can sometime cause people to make bad trades. We trade birthrights for a bowl of porridge. We exchange our character for a few minutes of carnal itch and we cash in our principals for a bit of fleeting power. And, sadly, we swap relationships and friendships for a few bucks.
We all do it. Think about it - you are not immune. We are all vulnerable to the porridge. A bit of hunger, lust, power and money can cause us to act unwisely.
We used to have a small camera shop and I remember a friend who brought in a Polaroid camera that he had acquired. He asked me for instruction. So, we spent an hour in the shop talking photography and explaining the operation of his camera. Five minutes after he left, I wanted some chewing gum and I ran to the pharmacy that was 10 doors down. There he was, my friend, standing in the checkout line with 5 packs of Polaroid SX-70 film in his hand. I asked "What'd you do that for?"
He embarrassingly declared that he has saved $3.00!
I've also been "cashed" in for some large bowls of porridge:
Twice for over $2,000 and, more recently, for a whopping $4,500.
So I figured I am doing quite well. It appears my "friendship dollar value" is growing... from a few packs of Polaroid file to almost $5,000.
1 Timothy 6:10 "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil..."
Money can cause people to act strangely and behave unlike their seeming character. It makes them do funny things!
The porridge makes people do funny things!
To satisfy a fleeting urge, we make reckless decisions. Cravings and greed and jealousy raise their ugly little heads and cause us to see unclearly. We become blind and exaggerate a bit of hunger into an imagined doom... the payoff resulting with a bad trade!
Oh yeah, and one more thing - Never trade an eternal birthright in Christ for a temporal moment of carnal urgency. That's the ultimate bad trade.
More dreadful than the Red Sox selling a young Babe Ruth for a few cursed dollars.
You can say that again.
