It’s become the thing we talk about every time I see them.  My grandboys’ questions come rapid fire when they walk in the door, ”What does the ship look like, Ma’am?…Show me the map where we’ll stay!…Can I watch the video again?”  

I had no idea that booking a cruise with the oldest three for this summer would become such a thing now. But it makes sense when I think about it: school’s been canceled because of the ice storm and low temps these past few days. Other kinds of storms have arisen as well. When you don’t like the situation you’re in, having something wonderful to look forward to sure helps.

A cruise in the future doesn’t pluck us out of what’s happening today.  We’re simply encouraged that a warmer day is coming and that something exciting will take place. But of course, there will still be unpleasant things to navigate when that day comes.  The hope of it won’t pan out to be everything we’re wanting.

But there is a Hope that does pan out, beyond any hopes and dreams Disney spins. It’s a real hope that gets you through a lot of hard living. This is the hope only Jesus brings.

Genesis 36

Something’s gotta give: the land can’t support all their livestock. So Esau gathers up his family and herds and flocks and moves away from where he and Jacob have settled together in Canaan. And then the Bible lists Esau’s descendants, an impressive group of 12 sons that chieftains and kings descend from, Ge 36.

But why does God include them in the Bible, if the Bible is all about his covenant with Abraham through Isaac and Jacob, not Esau? Why include the family line of the son who wasn’t chosen–who was even unchosen through the deceit of the chosen–and was sent off to fend for himself without the birthright or blessing that was rightfully his? Ge 25:24-34, 27:1-41.

Esau’s bitterness and resentment are understandable, but being in God’s family has always been about having faith in him. It’s open to everyone.  Abraham, the great grandfather who started it all, believed God’s words to bless him. This is what made him right with God, not his perfect behavior, not his birth order, Ge 15:6, Ga 3:6, Ro 4:3, Js 2:23. 

Apparently, Esau didn’t get the memo–or read it. His family’s history would’ve been known to him, and he didn’t have to let the bitter pill Jacob gave him turn into a bitter root. He could’ve taken God’s plan to heart, that being included was by faith in God, not based on what his father Isaac said. Esau could’ve been God’s man regardless of his birthright or blessing by trusting him. God doesn’t turn anyone away who wants in, Joel 2:32, Ro 10:13.

Instead, Esau’s kin deliberately nursed his grievance. There’s so much bad blood between them, that by the time Israel and Judah are captured by foreign powers hundreds of years later, Edom (Esaus’s relatives) celebrates. And God holds them accountable for it. No one gets away with holding a grudge, even if the root of it started with the egregious injustice of a twin brother, Is 34:8-17.

Have you ever wondered why God chooses the schemer to be the ancestor of his favored people? Jacob’s even the man Jesus descends from. For all we know about Esau, he was the better choice—a man of the outdoors and openhearted, at least he was at their first meeting after Jacob stole his blessing, Ge 25:27-28, 33:1-4.

So why not Esau?

In case we didn’t get it in the story of Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, and Isaac, we’ve got it here all over again: God can take anyone, even the sniveling, nerdy mama’s-boy that Jacob was–the least likely and least lovely of the two brothers if you ask me–and transform him. Jacob could never say that it was because of any merit in him that God chose him. The list of his deceitfulness is just too darn long.

And this is good news this morning: no one merits God’s choice of them, because coming to God has never been about merit in the first place. If that were the criterion, who would make it? Ro 3:10.

It’s because of God’s kindness, his love, his forgiveness, and his patience that we’re grafted into God’s family tree. And it’s by being grafted into one of the puniest branches, namely Jacob, and into the strongest, namely Jesus, that we’re made sons and daughters who are transformed into lovers of the Father and one another, Ro 2:4.

I don’t have to hang my head about my stuff after seeing Jacob’s. And neither do you. The story of Jacob is a good reminder to both of us that it’s only because of Jesus that any of us gets to enjoy a relationship with God, Jn 3:16.

But it’s also a good reminder in the storms that come. No one is too far gone for God to pick up and turn around, even against their will, which seems to be how God did it for Jacob. He certainly wasn’t looking to God in any vital way before the meet-and-greet with Esau that made him desperate.

Like Jacob, God keeps making me desperate, too. But the troubles that come simply drive me deeper into him. I must need the wind and rain to bring me here, but this is where I find his eye in the storm. He’s my safe harbor, where the cruise ship and water slide are waiting.

Real hope doesn’t depend on deserving it.

Matthew 12:1-37

Life is hard.  We make mistakes.  We hurt those we love.  Others hurt us.  There are bills to pay and kids to raise and parents who age and need our help.  Jobs don’t fill us; pleasures don’t either.  Illness comes in and sideswipes our golden years.  Is this all that life offers—difficulty and disappointment, day-after-day?

We need a sure and certain hope, one we can count on regardless of our circumstances, regardless of our failures, regardless of what comes. A hope we look forward to with such certainty that it lifts us from the doldrums of now and makes the trouble of today bearable, even worth it, in the long view. It’s the same way the cruise lifts the grandboys and me today, only more so.

Jesus is our sure and certain hope. “Look well at my handpicked servant,” God said through Isaiah. Jesus quotes him and says, “the mere sound of his name signals hope, even among far-off unbelievers,” Mt 12:21 MSG.

Is it arrogant for Jesus to say of himself, “I’m the guy”?  It’s arrogant only if he isn’t.  If he is the big deal, the One we can put all our hope in, it’s truth to say it, truth we badly need to hear and believe.  

Jesus as our sure hope means our debt for sin is paid and the door to God is open 24/7. We get to visit anytime we like and hear what he says and tell him what’s up. We get his forgiveness and all the goodness the Spirit fills us with, but the best part is that he moves in and lives in us.

We’re never alone, never rejected, never abandoned, because “a bruised reed he will not break and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.” We’ve got his Spirit to comfort and teach us and to do the work needed to make us more of the person we want to be, which is the person he is. Who doesn’t want all this? Mt 12:20 NIV.

Real hope is found in Jesus.

Psalm 16

Desperation makes David run to God “for dear life.” But there, he finds friendship with other believers, security, delight, counsel, confidence, joy, relief, peace, and pleasures that don’t end. David’s overjoyed, “happy from the inside out and from the outside in,” Ps 16:1-3, 5-11 MSG.

But is this what life with God is really like?

I’ve tried to find other things to fill me, other “gods” David calls them, like relationships, food, fitness, causes, projects, material things–you name it. At first it’s exciting. You think you’ve found what you need, but eventually, it throws you on the ash heap, like everything else, empty and exhausted. David warns us that “the sorrows of those will increase who run after other gods.” Yep, exactly this, Ps 16:4 NIV.

Only God offers life that’s truly fulfilling.  

Real hope has no competition.

Prayer 

God, Feeling desperate is the thing most likely to send me to you, so maybe I should think of it as my friend, not my enemy. Keep me so focused on the hope of Jesus, so full of your Spirit, so thankful and joyful because you are my Father, that I don’t get bogged down in the mire around me. Thank you for being the hideaway I run to.

In Jesus’ name.

Proverbs 3:21-26

Proverbs agrees with David. Life with God is “safe and sound,” because he’s “right there with you.” No need for panic because of surprises or even missing a night’s sleep. He keeps you close; he’s got your back.

Passages from Genesis, Matthew, Psalms, and Proverbs are selected for today in The Yearly Bible.