Genesis 25:34 really spoke to me today as it sasys after getting the stew from Jacob “Esau ate and drank and went about his business, indifferent to the fact that he had given up his birthright.”  Esau gave up his inheritance to fulfill his desires.  He gave up his future for his present.  And he was indifferent to it, like it didn’t matter to him, like he didn’t even really consider what he was losing, what he was giving up, and the impact it would have on his life later.  Jacob gets a bad rap later on when he fools his father to get this birthright because when it came down to it, Esau valued a bowl of stew and some bread more than the abundance of riches his father had waiting for him.

And we’re all so often just like Esau.  We all have ignored our future with our Heavenly Father in light of our present day desires.  We all have made choices for today and are indifferent to what they are going to do in our lives down the road.  We’re indifferent to the consequences when it comes to fulfilling our desires.  Why are you going to throw away what God has for you for the worthless things this world has to offer?  Don’t let your desires overwhelm you.  Don’t make your choices based upon them rather than basing them on the eternal or long term impact they will have on your life.  Giving into a desire today may not wreck the inheritance that God has for you because you’re counting on His grace and forgiveness to wash over you (which it will).  But what if it wrecks your marriage? What if it destroys your relationship with your children or your parents or a good friend? What if it causes you to lose your job or makes your job more stressful or hurts the long term viability of your business? What if it leads you down the road to addiction and you won’t have control of your life any more? Today’s choice impact more than today.  Don’t be indifferent to what those choices are going to do in your life in the days and months and years to come.

So I wonder what I would do if I was in Abram’s shoes when God told him he was changing his name.  It doesn’t seem like a big change, really only 2 letters difference.  And then factor in why they chose names in those days.  Some parents would wait to name their children until they could understand them and their personality a little more because their names were suppossed to speak of who they were.  So when God says he is changing your name, it’s like He is saying he’s changing your identity, your personality, who you are.  Abram means “exalted father” and Abram was the heir to his people, but Abraham means the father of a multitude.  God was changing his name because God was promising him so much more than what Abram could ever find on his own.  God was making a covenant with the father of many, not just a father. 

The changing of the name was the sign of God’s promises.  Abram not embracing the change would have been like Abram not embracing God’s promise for him.  Have you embraced the promises God has for your life? Have you embraced the hope God has promised you, the joy God has given you, the love God extends to you, the peace God came to bring you? He’s not going to change your name, but He is going to change your life, change how you see the world, change how you overcome the obstacles of life, change your eternal future.  That’s a change I hope you all come to embrace instead of fighting to hold on to who you want your life to be.

“From His abundance, we have all received one gracious blessing after another.” John 1:16