Chapter 12:   

Genesis 25:23 (KJV) And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.

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CHAPTER 12: Two Manner of People

 When I was growing up we did not have telephones, television or make trips to the supermarket every day to get supplies.  We lived on a ranch and raised most of our food.  Besides gardens, we raised chickens.  We would get several hundred chicks and grow them out for food.  We would get these young chicks in March and raise them under special heaters in a brooder house.  We would have to watch them and keep medicated water out for them and keep the chicks, which were being cannibalized out in a separate pen and treat them with iodine.  Toward the end of July, we would start eating some of these chickens as they would have grown enough by then to butcher. 

Usually when we would butcher these young chickens we would catch about ten or twelve.  We would have cauldrons of water boiling.  You would dip the chickens body into the boiling water and then the feathers would pick off real easy.  First someone had to kill the chickens.  My brother and I would line up with others holding two or three chickens.  We were taught to hold the wings against the legs and hand them to the chopper.  Holding the chickens this way, an adult would chop the chickens’ heads off on a chopping block and lay the body on the ground on the other side so the blood would all come out.  This was a little gruesome because after a about 20 seconds, suddenly these headless bodies would all jump up and start running around, falling over and of course running into things.  You would be picking headless chickens up as far as 80-90 feet away, after their bodies went through this series of spasms.  Then we would dip the bodies and pick the feathers.  This is where the saying “Running around like a chicken with its head cut off comes from”. 

Unless you have actually seen this sight, it is a little hard to imagine, but I assure you it did happen.  This analogy kind of reminds me of a lot of people running around trying to do things by human reasoning.  They are actually running around like they had their heads cut off.  The body was trying to do things without a head, brain, and eyes to guide it.  This is the way a lot of people approach dating and betrothal, just like they had their head cut off.  They certainly are not using the head they have.  So it is with siblings within a family.  Many end up going a totally different path than their other siblings.  Some have lives which seem devoid of a head guiding the life. 

Biblical Examples

 How well I know the principle of two manner of people within a family.  My family is a classic example.  I have taken a totally different path in life than my brother and we both were raised the same.  The Bible records the reason for the difference.  Yes, as amazing as this may see there is a scriptural reason for this wide discrepancy among siblings. 

Romans 9:10-18 (NKJV) And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac 11) (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls), 12) it was said to her, "The older shall serve the younger."  13) As it is written, "Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated."  14) What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God?  Certainly not!  15) For He says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion."  16) So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.  17) For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth."  18) Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens. 

From the beginning, God has chosen to work with some people, and with some he has not.  He chose not to work with Esau and the results, according to Paul, are to glorify God.  The end results of this is not discriminatory but for our admonition in the Church of God.  It is very hard to keep in mind that God is a Family.  It is very hard to appreciate that God designed laws to govern family life.  It is even harder to appreciate the tremendous opportunity one has to be chosen by Almighty God as one he calls. 

Ozzie and Harriet vs The Osbornes 

Forfeit the game & The Way of Give

 To be continued