There are quite a lot of lessons we can learn from the heroes of faith. Sadly, we sometimes choose the lessons we consider good enough to learn from and disregard the other lessons we consider irrelevant, old fashioned and arduous. Our inability to study those who have gone ahead of us to the point of emulating their positive traits and learning from their mistakes in order to avoid falling into the same error they fell into will only make us a generation of people who fail to learn the necessary lessons of life from those who have gone ahead of us.
One Biblical hero whose life cannot be overlooked is Abraham- The friend of God. Despite his flaws and inexcusable shortcomings, his life is an example of a truly blessed life. On his journey to greatness, he was careful enough not to make himself a perpetual user of others in order to get to the top or to have what he needed at any point in time. Whenever anyone offered him what looked free but in the real sense was actually a bait in disguise, he firmly avoided such. He was not greedy or insensitive to the motive behind the gifts that others offered him as he journeyed into greatness.
In Genesis 14, Abraham was informed of the attack on Sodom and Gomorrah, a land where his nephew resided at the time. He did not delay in heading out to rescue his nephew and everyone that had been taken captive. God gave him victory and he was able to recover all that the enemy camp had taken away, including his nephew and his possessions. As a way of saying thank you, the King of Sodom and Gomorrah offered him all the recovered goods, only requesting that the people that were rescued should be given back to Sodom and Gomorrah.
The truth is Abraham had the legal right to take as much as he wanted from the goods that were recovered because it was a normal thing for the one who goes to battle and wins to gather the spoil and take their own share out of it. As for Abraham, he was not going to let that happen, knowing fully well that God’s promise to bless him was not a lie and no human is supposed to lay claims to the divine blessings that God had promised him long before this time. God’s covenant with him was too great for him to put his trust in men for the fulfilment of those words, lest he gives room for any man to share in the glory that belongs to God and God alone.
Not all that is offered to those of us who are believers are blessings from God. There is a need to be sensitive to the gifts offered to us by the heathen lest they lay claim to been our source of prosperity, thereby belittling the hand of our God upon our lives.
Sometimes later in Genesis 23, Abraham had the opportunity to get a landed property free of charge in a land God had promised to give to him and his descendants but he refused to take the choice land from the citizens of that land at no cost because he was a man who had learnt to let God be God by allowing God do whatever He has promised to do without man having to help God( he learnt this the hard way though…)
It was shortly after the death of Sarah, Abraham needed a place to bury his wife and the Canaanites were willing to give him a space free of charge as a burial plot. Although a stranger in Cannan at that time, his relationship with the people of the land was cordial and they considered him as one of them which made them feel his pain, as they mourned Sarah with him and offered to let him have wherever he would love to bury his lovely wife without them having to take any money from him.
As much as this would have saved Abraham some money, he did not receive the land for free. He made his choice of land known and even after he had been told the worth and asked not to worry about the money, he insisted on burying his dead in a place he had adequately made payment for. So many of us would jump at the offer without thinking about it twice, after all, free things save us money. So bad is the way we jump at free things to the point of seeing it as our right( Abraham was very rich and had invested in the land of Cannan prior to this time, so he could see having a free land as his right ), so much that we may even end up leaving the allocated land unkept, or expect that the givers will take care of it themselves since it was in their country.
Just like Esau, quite a lot of people have sold their freedom just for the pleasure or satisfaction of the moment. If Esau understood fully well the trap he was getting into by receiving what was not a divine provision from God but a deceptive meal that was going to get him stuck in life, he would have thought twice about the free meal he was offered. How funny is it to think that you are smart because you can get whatever you want for free at the time you want it, only to realize later that you could have waited for God to take you through the process of having the same thing but in a grand style, thereby making your testimony a comfort and an encouragement to others.
Genesis 25:29-34
“And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint:
And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom.
And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright.
And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me?
And Jacob said, Swear to me this day, and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob.
Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.”
Before you give anyone the right over your life, time, vision, calling or ministry and any other area of your life as a result of your present desperation for freebies, ask yourself if it is truly worth it! Our God is more than able to sort His own if they will trust in Him for His blessings that no one can lay claims to.
God’s promises for everyone will definitely come to pass as it did in the life of Abraham but there is a need for us to realize that trying to help God, having fleshy strategic plans, becoming perpetual users of others and looking out for freebies just so we can quickly become “the blessed of the Lord” that He has already called us will only make us people whom others can boldly say ” I made you rich, successful, prosperous, relevant, etc”.
Genesis 22:17-18
” That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.”
God still blesses, not with irrelevant gifts but blessings that are always in line with His will for our lives if we will take our eyes off the gifs that we want for our edification, He will give us His blessings that come with no sorrow or trouble added to it. ( Proverbs 10:22)
Author Profile
- Temitope is the founder of thesoulmeal.com, an online platform that she shares with her God-given spiritual family and friends. She is a speaker, teacher and youth counselor. She is passionate about inspiring people to find their identity in Christ. Catch her interviewing inspiring leaders on Tongue of the Learned Podcast
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