Hearts&Nations

"And He (God) has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being..." (Acts 17:26-28, Deut. 32:7-8, Job 12:23). There isn't a nation or group of people in the world for whom God has not ordained a time that they should find and know Him. The nations are not about race, as we read here in Acts, but about the blood of all life, and the heart of worship. In this week's Sabbath reading portion called Toldot, or "generations/genealogy", from Gen. 25 through 27, it seems to me that the LORD is teaching a principle that can be a mystery to us. The starting verse is: "This is the genealogy (toldot/yalad - descendants, results, proceedings, generations, genealogies, account of men and their descendants, origin of things/to bear, bring forth, declare pedigree, gender, birth, midwife, lineage) of (aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega [see Rev. 1:8, 21:6, 22:13, as relating to Jesus Christ]) Isaac, Abraham's son." (Gen. 25:19). The concept of toldot, as we know from scripture, is very important to God and His plans. He makes careful mention of who begat whom. There is an additional meaning of the Hebrew word toldot that captures interest in regard to this Sabbath's reading portion. Toldot also includes the root meaning "wicked bringing forth iniquity, to bring forth fraud, iniquity". Isaac and his wife, Rebekah, had twin sons, Esau and Jacob. The LORD made a separation and difference between the two brothers that will carry through their generations forever. Esau, the elder brother, sold his birthright to his younger brother, Jacob, for a serving of lentil stew. Scripture says that Esau despised his birthright as the elder son (Gen. 25:34). Esau later sought the blessing as his father's favorite, but it was too late (v. 34-37), and when he discovered this, he threatened to kill his brother, Jacob. Esau's hatred of his brother carried down the generations, as we will see, and Jesus would also warn of this hatred (Mt. 5:21, 1 Jn. 3:14-15). Jacob was sent to his mother's family to find a wife, but Esau married local Canaanite women, and then a daughter of Ishmael (Gen. 28:8-9). Before Esau married the daughter of Ishmael, we read: "When Esau was forty years old, he took as wives Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite. And they were a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebekah." (Gen. 26:34). The Hittites descended from Ham, a son of Noah, and Ham's son, Canaan. The Hittites were a very ancient nation of people whose name in Hebrew means "fear, terror, dismayed, break in pieces, discourage, beaten down, shattered, broken, break down by violence, confusion and fear". Abraham, Esau's grandfather, would not accept any free land from the Hittites for the burial of Sarah, his wife, but insisted on paying them market price in silver, with the transfer done by deed in front of witnesses (Gen. 23:12-18). He was very cautious in dealing with the Hittites, and perhaps he would have been very shocked to find that his grandson had married into that nation. According to Jewish oral history, but not mentioned in scripture, Esau's wife, Judith, was also known as Oholibamah/Aholibamah (meaning "tent of the high place") because she built altars in the high places, or bamot, for idol worship. There is further mention of her as a matriarch of Esau's children in Gen. 36. We had the initial problem with Esau regarding his despised birthright and intention to kill his brother because of it, and now we see Esau has begun a toldot, or genealogy, with the Hittites. As we saw in part of the definition of toldot, this will be a matter of the "wicked bringing forth iniquity" throughout history. In another portion from this Sabbath's Toldot reading, the prophet Obadiah will speak the judgment of the LORD against the descendants of Esau, which became the nation of Edom. While Esau and Jacob struggled against each other even from the womb, that struggle continued between the two nations that would come from them: Edom and Israel. When Israel was travelling through the wilderness under Moses, Edom refused to sell them anything to help them survive, nor to allow the Israelites to cross their territory (see Num. 20:14-20). When Judah was taken away into Babylonian captivity generations later, Edom took advantage of it, and settled onto their land near Hebron. Obadiah wrote the judgment of the LORD: "In the day that you stood on the other side - in the day that strangers carried captive his forces, when foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem - even you were as one of them. But you should not have gazed on the day of your brother in the day of his captivity; nor should you have rejoiced over the children of Judah in their day of destruction; nor should you have spoken proudly in the day of distress. You should not have entered the gate of My people in the day of their calamity...nor laid hands on their substance...You should not have stood at the crossroads to cut off those among them who escaped; nor...delivered up those among them who remained..." (Obad. v. 11-14). The LORD said to Edom: "The pride of your heart has deceived you...You who say in your heart, "Who will bring me down to the ground?" (v. 3). For their violence against their brother Jacob/Israel, "...shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off forever...and no survivor shall remain of the house of Esau,' for the LORD has spoken." (v. 10, 18). Present-day nations should heed the warning as to how they should treat Israel, especially during Israel's times of trial. Obadiah said: "For the day of the LORD upon all nations is near. As you have done, it shall be done to you; Your reprisal shall return upon your own head." (v. 18). Scripture tells us that the LORD sets the boundaries of the nations, and we read here that the LORD sees the condition of the heart of a nation. Edom continued to carry the hatred of a brother in their hearts as their forefather Esau had done. After the Babylonian captivity of Judah, mentioned above by Obadiah, the Edomites inhabited a portion of Judea, and that territory was called Idumea. Herod the Great was an Idumaean/Edomite who married into what was left of the once-ruling Jewish Maccabee family, and whom Rome supported as it declared Herod to be "King of the Jews". Although Herod was also said to be half-Jewish through his mother, he was no doubt one of the most blood-thirsty tyrants of his age, and killer of the children of Bethlehem as he unsuccessfully sought to destroy the baby Jesus. His son, Herod Antipas, also known as Philip Tetrarch, who had previously ordered the execution of John the Baptist, had Jesus mocked and beaten in his court before Christ's death (Lk. 23:6-12). Here again we see the wickedness in the heart of Esau against his brother, Jacob/Israel, carried to a future generation. In another portion from this Toldot Sabbath reading, the prophet Malachi also wrote the Word of the LORD against Edom: "They (Edom) may build, but I will throw down; They shall be called the Territory of Wickedness, and the people against whom the LORD will have indignation forever. Your eyes shall see, and you shall say, 'The LORD is magnified beyond the border of Israel'." (Mal. 1:4-5). The LORD traces their history of wickedness back to Esau (v. 3). History tells us that the Edomites had turned their backs on any knowledge of the LORD, the God of Israel, the God of their grandfather, Abraham, and their father, Isaac, and had instead worshipped a false god called Qaus, or Qos. However, the purpose of the Book of Malachi was not to write the judgment against Edom, but to indict God's own people, His own nation, Israel. Even as the LORD pointed out to Israel that He had graciously loved and chosen them, Jacob, long ago instead of Esau, saying to them, "I have loved you", Israel had stopped loving the LORD in return. Even though the nation was still carrying out its worship of the LORD, God knew the resentment that was secretly harbored in their hearts. He said that His priests despised His name! They expressed their contempt for Him by bringing to Him their least, rather than their best (v. 7-8). They treated the LORD with less fear and honor than they treated their political leaders. The LORD's name was profaned, as the LORD saw that in their hearts they said: "The table of the LORD is defiled; and its fruit, its food, is contemptible'. You also say, 'Oh, what a weariness!' And you sneer at it, says the LORD of hosts." (v. 12-13). By the end of the Book of Malachi, the LORD prophesied of a work that He would do to cleanse, purge, refine, and renew their hearts towards Him (Mal. 3:1-3). God's people of the heart do not worship and give to Him to fulfill a religious obligation only, but to express their love and understanding of Who He is, and what He has done, and will do, for them. The LORD sees the hearts of the people and the nations. Finally from this Sabbath, the Book of Proverbs contrasts the paths of the wicked with those who learn the ways of the LORD: "Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of evil...For they do not sleep unless they have done evil; and their sleep is taken away unless they make someone fall. They eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence. But the path of the just is like the shining sun, that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day...give attention to my words...Keep them in the midst of your heart; for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life." (Prov. 4:14-23, excerpt). Others may judge by the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart (1 Sam. 16:7), including the heart of a nation. What are our hearts revealing of us to the LORD, and what is the heart of our nation revealing to Him? This is His promise: "All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before You." (Ps. 22:27). If you would like to know more about the LORD's dealings with the toldot generations, the nations, and the people, you can pray with me: "Heavenly Father, You are King over all of the earth. You have set the nations, and You will weigh them in the balance. You promised Abraham to make of him a great nation, and that all of the nations of the earth would be blessed because of him. Your Son, Jesus, the returning Messiah, will rule the nations with a rod of iron. Let my heart be cleansed and filled with love for You, and let my manner of life reflect that love and worship. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit so that Your Word would dwell in my heart as an inward circumcision, an inward renewal. I pray also for my nation. It exists because, at the appointed time, You created and set its boundaries so that my nation would know that You are God. Help the heart of my nation to turn back to You as we seek Your face, and Your forgiveness. I thank You, Father, in the name of Your Son, Jesus. AMEN."