Personal Liberation - The Art of Forgiveness – Part II
I imagine Esau did not trust Isaac and Rebekah for many years. I doubt very seriously he trusts anyone else for an even longer period of time. His underlying skepticism arose from Esau’s distrust of Almighty God. Not able to assume responsibility for any of his actions in the midst of Jacob’s deceit and his parents’ betrayal, Esau looks to God. Esau ponders why God allows his misfortune to occur. Esau recalls that the laws of God establish the birthright and blessing. Should not God have ensured that His divinely ordained system be followed? Why did God allow this to happen? Why did not God intervene to stop Jacob’s schemes? These and other penetrating questions possibly consume Esau.
Twenty years elapse between Jacob’s escape from Esau’s murderous anger. That interim period finds both men in their individual wilderness experience of reflection, refinement and renewal. The Genesis narrative reveals very little about Esau’s happenings. I find this omission rather regrettable, although I recognize the author’s purpose in detailing God’s use of Jacob to expand His covenant with Israel. Nevertheless, that period of twenty years is as miraculous in Esau’s life as it is in Jacob’s. Esau finds genuine forgiveness for his brother.
However, Esau must travel the tough emotional terrain that begins with righteous indignation and ends with personal peace. Esau justifies his murderous anger toward his brother by insisting upon the correctness of his position. Jacob broke the Law of Almighty God in his two deceptive deeds. Rightly, Jacob should suffer the consequences of his actions. However, does that mean Esau must be the divine agent of punishment? Esau falls prey to the temptation of cloaking his anger in divine commands. He confuses his fiery emotions and potential misdeeds with the righteous character of God. The greatest danger of this mindset is its proclivity to justify sin in the cause of honoring God. Esau would have killed Jacob had not God intervened through the merciful acts of Isaac and Rebekah. Anger that results in a greater harm than the original offense does not equal the righteousness of Almighty God.
Righteous indignation produces plots of revenge. “Principled” anger usually insists upon an equally “principled” punishment. The one who determines the principles of anger always wants to see the punishment. Because “anger shuts off the light in the mind,” its intensity always causes some form of blindness. Esau’s justified rage toward his brother blinds him to the fact that he would leave his parents without a son. His thirst for vengeance did not allow him to see the consequences of his plans.
Esau’s refuses to allow for the possibility that Almighty God will adjudicate Jacob’s dastardly deeds. In his prideful righteous indignation, Esau considers his personal judgment as better than that of Almighty God. His dismisses the possibility that an all-knowing, all-powerful, ever-present and all-kind God is most capable of delivering judgments proportional to the offenses. What if God fails to use the “right” punishment? To prevent that possibility, Esau takes matters into his own hands.
Blaming others is a necessary component of righteous anger. Had Isaac and Rebekah done their part as conscientious parents, then Jacob could not have deceived his brother. I imagine Esau spent a considerable part of the twenty years blaming his parents. The text insinuates that he displeases them as a way of repaying them for their complicity in Jacob’s schemes. Whereas Jacob heads toward his uncle Laban, Esau runs to Ishmael and chooses a wife among his people. He probably does not speak to his parents for quite some time. He presumably holds them in contempt for this passive acquiescence of Jacob’s deeds and their direct role in letting this fugitive escape the wrath of Esau’s punishment. Uncritically reproaching others for our shortcomings is a distinctive feature of righteous indignation.
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