Tuesday, November 15, 2011

There's somethin stinky in the heir


“Now the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel--he was indeed the firstborn, but because he defiled his father's bed, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph, the son of Israel, so that the genealogy is not listed according to the birthright.” 1 Chron. 5:1

What a tragic story about Reuben.  He missed out on his incredible birthright because of his pride and immorality.  Reuben slept with his dad’s woman, which was also the mother of two of his brothers.  Gross.  The firstborn was supposed to be the spiritual leader of his siblings but Reuben totally blew it and this resulted in a life that never really amounted to much.  No prophet, no judge, and no king ever came out of the tribe of Reuben.  Because Reuben’s character and integrity was flimsy, the authority and leadership that would have been his had to be spread among the rest of the brothers.  Tragic indeed.

Was it worth it?  Was it worth sabotaging his entire lineage for a little temporary pleasure?  No way.  Reuben could have been great and many amazing leaders could have come through his descendants but that honor went to others who had strong character and solid integrity.

One of my upcoming projects is to record a series of videos of my mother telling her life story.  This will be the first video storyline in my family and I’m excited to start it.  It gets me thinking.. what is MY story looking like so far?  How’s my character and integrity?

This story shakes me up.  I don’t want to look back on my life and realize that I missed out on God’s best for me and my family because of a little temporary selfish pleasure.  I don’t want my great great great grandkids to look at my video story and see that Gramps didn’t amount to much because of wasting time or fooling around with stupid stuff.

The Lord wants to do amazing things through you and your family.  Mine, too.  Is there anything blocking that from happening?  Are we shooting ourselves in the foot?  Is pride stinking up the place?  What hidden junk needs to be thrown out?

Let’s learn from Reuben’s mistake.  Our decisions are not only affecting our present situation, not only affecting our future, but actually affecting people who haven’t even been born yet.  Let’s sober up and get goin.  There’s work to be done, first in us, and then around us.  We have a birthright (Rom. 8:17) so let’s claim it and walk in it.