Never Trade Down

Hebrews 12:17
17Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears.

The apostle Paul gave a stern warning against refusing God to the Jewish converts. He employed the story of Esau and Jacob from the point of view of Esau in the Old Testament. The Jewish converts were very familiar with the Old Testament and therefore would take the story to heart. In the Old Testament, Esau was born first but he sold his birthright to his brother Jacob for food.  He traded a life long blessing from God for something temporary and of lessor value. Basically, Esau did not value what the Lord had given him. And later, when he realized the value, he sought to reclaim his birthright but God would not answer his cry because he did not see the error in his mistake. He just longed to have it back. For God, motive is at the top of His list. Esau only cried because he wanted back what was lost, he did not see what he did as wrong and therefore was not truly sorry for his actions. Hmmm.....interesting. As children, when were caught doing something we had no business doing and we began to cry because we knew the punishment was coming, our parents saw right through our actions. They knew we were not crying because we were really sorry, we cried because we didn't want to be punished. But the only way we would really learn was to face the punishment. Trading a life long blessing for something as temporary as food is spitting in God's face. That's telling God that what He desires to bless us with isn't worth our time. But to later know the value of what we gave up doesn't change that we already made the decision to mishandle it. And if we didn't honor what God wanted to give us then, why would now if we never understood what we did wrong? The error would likely be repeated.  NOTHING is more valuable than our Lord and Savior himself!! And anything He decides to bless us with (including the Holy Spirit) we must count as grace to us, not because we deserve it, but because He decided to give it. Never trade down for fake pearls when He offers the real pearls from His own hand.