3.065 Can We All Just Get Along?

In Matthew 5, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth and the light of the world, reminding us that our lives are meant to preserve, illuminate, and point others to Him. This season on Savory Salt, we'll walk through the Old Testament, one verse and one thought each day. Perhaps these moments will add greater savor and brighter light to our lives as we seek to truly live as Savory Salt.

Hello, my friends. It's a new day with new opportunities. Choose ye this day whom you will serve.

Can we all just for eternity? No? Okay then.

Let's dive into our reading today. We've been reading this week Genesis chapters 24 through 33. And as we go along to the week here, I'm trying to find verses inside of each chapter, but it means that the end of the week is going to run out of chapters.

And so, but you know, we're going to do our best with it. You're going to, I'm going to trust that you do your readings as I've always trusted for you to do and have your studies inside of here. We're going to do a little disclaimer on the front end of this one.

And that is, I'm going to bring in some of my experience from a professional side of things as I have worked with a small business development. And primarily inside of the development of small businesses that are family owned businesses. Now you may kind of be catching a theme inside of Genesis 24 through 33 here when it comes to family dealings, especially when it comes to inheritances and passing on the blessings and who gets what.

Did you kind of see some of that inside of our readings here? If not, I don't know that you're reading along inside the chapters this week. Let's take a look at our verse, kind of get a context here, and see if we can put a thought together that perhaps changes the way you see your family inside the world today.

Our verse for today comes from Genesis chapter 27. Jacob and Esau have gone through this experience. Jacob has been blessed by Isaac before Esau and now he has the birthright and the blessing.

We're going to talk just a little bit about that in a second. And here we have the reaction of Esau after not receiving the blessing. And remember, after giving up the birthright, this is what it says in 27 Verse 41: "And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him.

And Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand, then will I slay my brother Jacob." Now the anger and the hatred that Esau has for his brother here is so high that he is going to seek his death, right? We've seen this in scriptures before. We've seen it with Nephi and his brothers as well, with a very similar situation here as Nephi was the younger brother.

Here Jacob's the younger brother and Esau doesn't like it. Now we got to put a couple of pieces together, and I got to do it as quickly as I can. So, I hope I can connect these.

First of all, in Genesis 25, we see Rebecca understands something from the Lord. She is told from the Lord that the younger brother of the two, these two that are in her belly, these two nations that are going to grow, that the elder is going to serve the younger. She realizes that there's a leadership thing happening here.

And then whatever happens inside of Genesis 27, I know how it reads. I don't know the answers and the interpretation, but I know that as Jacob receives this blessing, however it reads, it has to be done inside of the principles of wielding the priesthood worthily, right? The Lord's not going to pass on his covenant and his priesthood in such a way that is, as it's currently read, that Jacob's like sneakily doing it.

I don't know exactly how this pans out, but I know that Rebecca knows in her heart that the Lord has told her the younger brother's going to be the leader here. Now the second piece to this, and this is where I come into my professional kind of experiences. I've seen more families torn apart over inheritances in my career because of this moment that Esau has.

He believes he's been cheated. He believes his brother has cheated him. I don't know all of your circumstances with your family, but I do know this: The Lord is trying to link us all as families eternally.

And yet I watch on a secular scale as families destroy their earthly relationships with each other, primarily with siblings, upon the deaths of their parents. And though they may not get as heated and angry as Esau does here to the level that he wants to slay his brother, I absolutely have watched relationships deteriorate to the point that siblings will no longer talk to each other over the things of the world. The Lord's message for us inside of this, and it's coming, this is kind of a part one to this message.

The Lord's message is we can continue our relationships far longer than we ever would have than we can continue our possessions on this earth. That is worth digging into and spending some time in. And right now that's about as deep as I can get for this one.

My friends, I know the Lord passes on his covenants and his priesthood worthily and honestly. He does it righteously. And that's something worth digging into and wrestling with inside the story this week.

That's all for today, my friends. You and I have come here for such a time as this. Step forward in faith and let's be savory salt. We will be here tomorrow and we hope.