Saint or Sinner?

We've been enjoying a great discussion on the life of Jacob in the Ocheltree Group on Sunday mornings.  Yesterday, we explored the difference between a "Saint" and a "Sinner".  Both Jacob and Esau sinned.  In fact, Jacob's sins were more obvious than Esau's were.  So what made Jacob a "Saint" and Esau a "Sinner"? 

It's how they responded.

Everyone sins and everyone has sins committed against them.  It's part of being human to be lied to or lied about, to be betrayed, to have people break promises they made to you, deceive you, forget to do things for you.  And it's part of being human to be the one who is lying or deceiving or forgetting or failing or showing weakness instead of strength.

The "Saint" takes ownership in their part of the problem.  They recognize their own responsibility and confess to God, and, if necessary, to others.  Then, they allow God to chisel away at them, removing all the stuff that does not look like God, so, eventually, a "Saint" begins to look more and more like the One in Whose image he is formed.

The "Sinner" allows a bitter root to develop (Hebrews 12:15).  Instead of owning his own responsibility, he blames other people or God.  Instead of allowing sin's consequences to chisel away his own self-reliance or negativity or bad temper, he allows the pain to fester and absess, creating a pocket of impurity that can spread sin's infection to following generations.  Esau's line was known for violence, self-reliance and godlessness.  They sided against Jacob's descendants in conflict.  Eventually, Herod the Great, the notorious King who ordered the "slaughter of the innocents", or mass destruction of all of Bethlehem's baby boys when Jesus was born, would descend from Esau's line.

"Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its environs, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had ascertained from the magi.  Then that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled, saying,

'A voice was heard in Ramah,

Weeping and great mourning,

Rachel weeping for her childrern;

and she refused to be comforted,

Because they were no more.'"

Matthew 2:16-18 (New American Standard Version)

 

Interesting, isn't it?  While better judgment kept Esau from killing Jacob when he returned 20 years later, his bitter root lived on in his descendants. And this prophecy of the "slaughter of the innocents" mentions the murder of Rachel's children--Rachel was Jacob's beloved wife--the one he would meet as a result of running away from his brother's murder threats.

 

Jacob acknowledged his need to respect the commands of his godly parents and flee from Esau's anger.  And God met Jacob, as he was suffering the consequences of his own sin--separation from his family.  God promised Jacob his own presence on the lonely 600-mile journey and back to the land God promised to him and to Abraham and to Isaac.  (Genesis 28:13-15)

 

So what's the difference betwen a "Saint" and a "Sinner"?  Well...

 

It's not so much what we do, but what we do with what we do!

--Posted by Mama O.