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Themes: Sin's Foolishness and Carelessness D.J.C. Esau is just one of many people in the Bible who were specially blessed in some way of God, but who foolishly lost their blessing by living only for the moment, and not considering the awful long term consequences. One of these was an Old Testament named Balaam, a man who was given the ability to speak the words of God, but who sacrificed this wonderful gift for a bribe. A man named Balak, who was the king of a nation that was afraid of God's chosen people, the Israelites, sent for Balaam to come to him and curse the Israelites in exchange for many gifts and a high place in his kingdom. God told Balaam not to go, but when Balak asked a second time he went anyway. When he met Balak, he first refused the king's bribe and would only bless Israel, but Balak offered more and more until Balaam finally gave in and told him how to destroy the Israelites. The end result of this was the death of twenty four thousand Israelites, and Balaam himself was killed as well.
Another famous example is Samson. From his birth he was intended by God to be a Nazarite, a dedicated servant of God. As he grew up it became clear that God intended to use him for great things, particularly as a great warrior against the Philistines, Israel's enemies. When the Spirit of the Lord was with him, he was capable of incredible feats of strength that included killing a lion with his bare hands and one thousand Philistines with only the jawbone of a donkey. But he fell in love with a woman named Delilah, and the Philistines offered her a great reward if she found out for them how Samson could be defeated. Samson foolishly told her, and the Philistines captured him, poked out his eyes, and made him their slave.
Our first reaction to stories like this is usually to wonder how these men could possibly have acted so carelessly and foolishly with something as infinitely valuable as a gift from God Himself. But did you know that you might be acting in the same way as Esau, Balaam, and Samson with a precious gift of God that has been given to you? Romans 6:23 says: "For the wages of sin is death, but he gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. " We all are born sinners and have no hope in ourselves of going to Heaven when we die, but God has given to us the most wonderful gift that He could have: His own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. When He died on the cross, he endured the punishment that we each deserve for our sins. Now, all that we must do to have our sins forgiven and receive eternal life is to simply accept God's gift to us, the Lord Jesus. But if you are not at all interested in trusting in the Lord Jesus for forgiveness from your sins, or would like to be saved from your sins "someday" but not "today", then you are making as foolish a mistake as Esau, Balaam, and Samson did. "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?" (Hebrews 2:3)
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