Since God created man
to express Him
with His image
and to represent Him
by exercising His dominion
over all things,
by birth
every human being
has a birthright
—the right by birth
to express God
and represent Him;
however, every fallen person
has sold
this birthright
by being independent of God.
In the Bible
the birthright
is the special portion
of the firstborn;
according to
the Bible as a whole,
the birthright includes
a double portion of the land,
the priesthood,
and the kingship.
Before the foundation of the world,
God chose and predestinated Jacob
to have the birthright:
This birthright,
which God intends
to give to His chosen people,
includes
expressing God,
representing God,
and participating in the kingdom of God.
In Esau’s despising the birthright
and in Jacob’s buying it,
God exercised His sovereignty
to fulfill the purpose of His selection.
The shifting of the birthright
from Esau to Jacob
reveals that receiving the birthright
is a matter
of God’s predestination and sovereignty,
not of our natural birth or endeavoring.
Although Jacob had gained the birthright,
he did not enjoy it
until he was transformed
from a supplanter into a prince of God
and became mature;
thus, Jacob is
an example of
enjoying the birthright in his maturity.
God had intended
to give the birthright to Reuben, the firstborn,
but Reuben lost it
because of his defilement;
the birthright
was shifted from Reuben to Joseph,
who fled from
that kind of defilement
and received
a double portion of the land.
According to
Deuteronomy 20:1-20 and 21:15-17,
spiritually speaking,
fighting and the birthright
are related,
for only by fighting
can we preserve
our birthright:
Since we preserve our birthright
by fighting,
if we do not fight,
we will lose our birthright,
even as Esau lost his birthright.
As we are fighting for our birthright,
we must learn to trust in the Lord,
not in ourselves,
and realize
that we are fighting for
what He has given us.
It is our duty to fight,
but we can fulfill this duty
only by faith in the Lord,
believing that He
has ordained us to fight
and that He
will fight for us.
The book of Ruth
shows us
how Boaz
(a type of Christ)
redeemed
both Ruth
(a type of the church in redemption)
and her birthright:
The birthright
includes the right and position
to enjoy Christ
with the privileges
to be a priest
to bring man to God
and to be a king
to bring God to man.
Boaz treasured
the God-given birthright
and was concerned
not only for his own birthright
but also for that of others;
he paid the price
to redeem his kinsman’s inheritance
and married his kinsman’s widow.
It was due to
Boaz’s compassion
on the poor and weak Ruth
and his redemption
of her birthright
that David, the king
who established the kingdom,
was brought in.
In Matthew 21:28-31
we see the shifting of the birthright
from Israel to the church:
In Luke 15:1-2 and 11-32
the Lord likened the leaders of Judaism
to the firstborn son
and likened the tax collectors and sinners
to the second son,
but in Matthew 21:28-31
the Lord likened them
in the opposite order.
This indicates
that the Jews
were the firstborn of God (Exo. 4:22)
and had the birthright;
however, because of their unbelief
the birthright was shifted to the church,
which has become God’s firstborn (Heb. 12:23).
For the believers in Christ,
the lost birthright
has been recovered
in the New Testament jubilee (Luke 4:16-19):
The jubilee
is “the acceptable year of the Lord,”
the fulfillment of the jubilee
in Leviticus 25.
In our fallen life
we lost everything,
including our birthright and status,
and we became slaves in captivity;
we lost the right
to enjoy our portion of Christ
as the good land.
The proclamation of
the jubilee, the real and whole gospel,
is a proclamation
of release from slavery
and of the recovery of our spiritual birthright;
our lost birthright
has been redeemed, recovered, and restored.
We need to spread
the jubilee
—the gospel of the New Testament,
the proclamation
of the release of the captives
and of the recovery of the lost birthright.
As revealed in the Gospel of Luke,
the mingling
of the divine nature with its attributes
and the human nature with its virtues
to produce the highest standard of morality
is for the New Testament jubilee.
In this jubilee we are freed from all bondage
—the bondage of sin, Satan, the world, and the self—
and we are freed into the full enjoyment of
our lost birthright,
the right to enjoy the Triune God in Christ.
Hebrews 12:16 warns the believers
not to be like “Esau,
who for one meal
gave up his own birthright”:
Esau’s birthright
as the firstborn son of Isaac
was the double portion of the land,
the priesthood,
and the kingship.
Because of Esau’s profaneness
in giving up his birthright,
the double portion of the land
was given to Joseph (1 Chron. 5:1-2),
the priesthood
was passed to Levi (Deut. 33:8-11),
and the kingship
was assigned to Judah (Gen. 49:10; 1 Chron. 5:2).
Hebrews 12:23 speaks of
“the church of the firstborn”:
We Christians, born of God,
are the firstfruits of His creatures
that He has reaped in His creation.
In this sense,
we are the firstborn sons of God;
hence, the church, composed of us,
is called the church of the firstborn.
As the firstborn sons of God,
we have the birthright;
this includes
the inheritance of the earth,
the priesthood,
and the kingship,
which will be the main blessings
in the coming kingdom
and which the profane, world-loving-and-seeking Christians
will lose at the Lord’s coming back.
Eventually, this birthright
will be a reward
given to the overcoming Christians
in the millennial kingdom.
Today
what we are privileged to enjoy in Christ
is the foretaste
of the blessings in the coming kingdom:
If we do not enjoy Christ today
as our good land,
we cannot enter into
His rest in the kingdom
and inherit the earth with Him.
If we do not exercise our priesthood today
to contact the Lord
and prayerfully minister to Him,
we cannot fulfill
our priestly duty in the kingdom.
If we do not exercise our spirit
with the God-given authority
to rule our self, our flesh, our entire being,
and the enemy with all his power of darkness today,
we cannot
be Christ’s co-kings
and rule the nations with Him in His kingdom.
Our enjoyment of Christ
and the practice of the priesthood and kingship today
are the preparation and qualification
for our participating in
Christ’s kingdom in the coming age.
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7 replies on “The Birthright”
Prophecy note, 2 November 2014
We lost our birthright,
sold ourselves into captivity,
and became slaves.
We lost everything,
including our birthright and our status.
A person
who has not lost anything
would not look forward to
the year of jubilee.
In fact, to such a one,
the jubilee
might be a suffering.
But the one
who has lost everything,
including his land and himself,
would surely look forward to
the year of jubilee.
It is only through the resurrection of Christ
that our right to the enjoyment of God
is recovered.
When we believe in
the all-inclusive, victorious death of Christ,
we are released from
sin, Satan, and ourselves.
When we remain and live
in the resurrection of Christ,
we have the recovery of the right
to enjoy God.
This is the jubilee.
Christ with His death and resurrection
has brought in the jubilee.
Day 6
The Gospel of Luke also reveals
that in the Man-Savior we
have the mingling of the divine attributes
with the human virtues
to produce the highest standard of morality.
Throughout this Gospel
we see in the Man-Savior,
who is also the God-man,
the complete God and a perfect man,
the mingling of the divine attributes
with the human virtues.
The mingling of the divine nature with its attributes
and the human nature with its virtues
to produce the highest standard of morality
are for the New Testament jubilee.
In this jubilee
we are freed from all bondages
—the bondage of sin,
the bondage of Satan,
the bondage of the world,
and even the bondage of the self—
and we are also freed into
the full enjoyment of our lost birthright,
the right to enjoy the Triune God in Christ.
Christ’s death
has released us from sin and from Satan.
According to Hebrews 2:14,
Christ destroyed Satan
through His death.
If He had not destroyed Satan,
how could He release us from
Satan’s usurping hand?
Our release from bondage
is absolutely due to
the all-inclusive death of Christ,
a death that has released us
from sin and Satan.
It is only through the resurrection of Christ
that our right to the enjoyment of God
is recovered.
When we believe in
the all-inclusive, victorious death of Christ,
we are released from
sin, Satan, and ourselves.
When we remain and live in
the resurrection of Christ,
we have the recovery of the right
to enjoy God.
This is the jubilee.
Christ with His death and resurrection
has brought in the jubilee.
Esau’s birthright
as the firstborn son of Isaac
was the double portion of land,
the priesthood,
and the kingship.
Because of Esau’s profaneness
in giving up his birthright,
the double portion of land
was given to Joseph,
the priesthood
was passed to Levi,
and the kingship
was assigned to Judah.
We Christians, born of God,
are the firstfruits of His creatures
that He has reaped in His creation.
In that sense
we are
the firstborn sons of God.
Hence, the church, composed of us,
is called the church of the firstborn.
As the firstborn sons of God,
we have the birthright.
This includes
the inheritance of the earth,
the priesthood,
and the kingship,
which will be the main blessings
in the coming kingdom
and which the profane, world-loving-and-seeking Christians
will lose at the Lord’s coming back.
Eventually,
this birthright
will be a reward
given to the overcoming Christians
in the millennial kingdom.
Any worldly enjoyment, even one meal,
could cause us
to forfeit this birthright of ours.
Actually,
what we are privileged to enjoy in Christ
is the foretaste
of the blessings in the coming kingdom.
The proper enjoyment of this foretaste
will usher us into
the full taste of the kingdom blessings.
If we do not enjoy Christ today
as our good land,
as defined in footnote 1 on Hebrews 4:9,
how can we enter into
His rest in the kingdom
and inherit the earth with Him?
If we do not exercise our priesthood today
to contact Him and prayerfully minister to Him,
how can we fulfill
our priestly duty in the kingdom?
If we do not exercise our spirit
with the God-given authority
to rule our self, our flesh, our entire being,
and the enemy with all his power of darkness today,
how can we
be Christ’s co-kings
and rule the nations with Him
in His kingdom?
Our enjoyment of Christ
and the practice of the priesthood and kingship today
are the preparation and qualification
for our participating in
Christ’s kingdom tomorrow!
Day 5
What happened to us
in our fallen life?
We lost our birthright,
sold ourselves into captivity,
and became slaves.
We lost everything,
including our birthright and our status.
A person
who has not lost anything
would not look forward to
the year of jubilee.
In fact, to such a one,
the jubilee
might be a suffering.
But the one
who has lost everything,
including his land and himself,
would surely look forward to
the year of jubilee.
When the year of jubilee came,
he would rejoice
at being released
and recovering the right
to his portion of the land.
Every Israelite
was allotted a portion of the good land.
The good land typifies Christ.
Therefore,
to lose one’s right to the good land
is to lose the right to enjoy Christ.
Every fallen human being
has lost the right
to enjoy God as the tree of life
and the right
to enjoy Christ as the good land.
Furthermore,
every fallen one
has sold himself
to sin, the world, and Satan.
In Romans 7:14
Paul said of himself,
“I am fleshy,
sold under sin.”
Even Paul
had become a slave to sin.
All fallen people
have lost their right
to enjoy Christ
and have sold themselves
to negative things.
But the year of jubilee
indicates that we
can be released from bondage
and recover the right
to enjoy Christ as our portion.
After the Lord Jesus, the Man-Savior,
had been tested,
He began to minister.
At the start of His ministry
He declared
the jubilee, the acceptable year of the Lord.
This indicates
that the entire New Testament age
is actually a single year,
the year of jubilee,
the year for Jehovah
to accept fallen human beings.
The proclamation of the jubilee
is the real gospel, the rich and whole gospel.
A partial gospel tells people
that they are sinners
destined for hell,
but Jesus loved them
and died on the cross for them,
and that if they believe in Him
they will have eternal life.
This is
only a part of the jubilee.
The jubilee
is a proclamation
of release from slavery
and of the recovery of our spiritual birthright.
This jubilee
is the acceptable year of the Lord.
According to Luke 4,
the Lord Jesus
proclaimed the jubilee
on a particular Sabbath day in Galilee.
But during the centuries
that have followed,
the jubilee has been neglected.
Therefore, we need
a recovery of the New Testament jubilee.
Chapter 9 begins
another section of the Gospel of Luke,
a section concerned with
the spreading of the jubilee.
What is the jubilee?
The jubilee
is actually the gospel of the New Testament.
As we have seen,
this gospel
is the proclamation
of the release of the captives
and of the recovery of the lost birthright.
Now in chapter 9
we have
the start of the spreading of this jubilee.
Prior to this time,
the ministry was carried out
only by the Lord Himself.
But in 9:1
we have the spreading
through twelve others.
Therefore, beginning with 9:1
we see
the spreading of the ministry,
the spreading of the jubilee,
through the twelve apostles.
The thought of the spreading of the jubilee
underlies the record in 9:1-26.
Certain of the cases in 9:1-26
are found also in Matthew and Mark.
In Luke, however,
these cases are used
to point out
the spreading of the jubilee.
The jubilee had already been proclaimed
by the Man-Savior,
and this proclamation
continued until the end of chapter 8.
Now in Luke 9
the spreading of the jubilee
begins.
No longer is there just one person
proclaiming the jubilee.
Now twelve others
are sent out
to spread the jubilee.
Of course,
in 9:1-26
the words jubilee or acceptable year of the Lord
are not mentioned.
Nevertheless,
the underlying thought
is very much related to
the matter of jubilee.
Day 4
Now we come to the last case
of the shifting of the birthright in the Scriptures,
the shifting of the birthright from Israel to the church.
This is very important.
In Exodus 4:22,
the Lord said to Moses,
“You shall say to Pharaoh,
Thus says Jehovah,
Israel is My son, My firstborn.”
Although Israel was God’s firstborn,
Israel lost the birthright
because of unbelief.
According to Luke 15,
in the beginning of His ministry
the Lord still considered
Israel, represented by the Pharisees,
as the firstborn son
and the publicans and sinners
as the second son.
But according to the enjoyment in Luke 15,
it was the second son
who received the birthright,
for the second son
enjoyed the fatted calf, which is Christ.
This indicates
a shifting of the birthright.
By this
we see that the Pharisees
lost the enjoyment of Christ,
but the repentant publicans and sinners
gained this enjoyment.
This means
that they gained the birthright.
Toward the end of His ministry,
in Matthew 21,
the Lord indicated
that the repentant publicans, harlots, and sinners,
of whom the church was to be composed,
were the first son
and that the unbelieving Pharisees,
representing Israel,
were the second.
Matthew 21:32 says,
“For John came to you
in the way of righteousness,
and you did not believe him,
but the tax collectors and the harlots
believed him.
And you,
when you saw it,
did not later regret it
to believe him.”
Due to unbelief,
Israel, the first son,
was cut off,
and the second son
was grafted into the birthright.
Thus, the repentant and believing sinners
have become the constituent of the church,
and the church today
is called the church of the firstborn (Heb. 12:23).
We in the church
are a group of firstborn sons
who possess the birthright.
This birthright
gives us the right
to enjoy Christ to the fullest,
to be priests of God,
and to be co-kings of Christ.
Although we have the birthright,
the New Testament warns us of
the possibility of losing it (Heb. 12:16-17).
Be careful:
you may lose your birthright.
We have been recovered
to the enjoyment of the Triune God
as the tree of life
and of Christ
as our land, our portion.
The good land
is actually more mysterious
than the tree of life,
for the good land
is the fulfillment of the tree of life.
Adam did not eat of
the fruit of the tree of life,
but the children of Israel
partook of
the riches of the good land.
Today
we are enjoying the Triune God
as the tree of life,
and, even the more,
we are enjoying Christ
as the good land.
Praise the Lord
that we have an allotment of this good land!
According to Colossians 1:12,
this allotment
is the portion of the saints.
This proves that our birthright,
which had been lost,
has been recovered
in the New Testament jubilee.
In the jubilee
we also have been released from bondage.
Once we were captives,
but we have been released from slavery
and brought back to
the freedom of the glory
of the children of God.
This is
a further indication
that we are
in the New Testament jubilee.
According to Leviticus 25,
in the year of jubilee
everyone was restored to
his original condition.
Since the New Testament age
is the real year of jubilee,
this means
that God will restore us to
our original condition.
In Adam
we became lost,
and we sold ourselves to sin
as slaves.
But now Jesus, the Man-Savior,
has come,
and He has brought in
the acceptable year of the Lord.
This acceptable year of the Lord
is, in the New Testament, the fulfillment
of the Old Testament jubilee.
In this year
we are released,
and our lost birthright
is recovered, redeemed, and restored.
Day 3
Apparently,
the matters of fighting
in Deuteronomy 20:1-20
and the birthright
in 21:15-17
have nothing to do with each other.
However, spiritually speaking,
fighting and the birthright
are related,
for only by fighting
can we preserve
our birthright.
Since we preserve our birthright
by fighting,
if we do not fight,
we will lose our birthright,
even as Esau lost his birthright.
Those who do not fight
because they are concerned about
their house, vineyard, or spouse
or because they are fearful
will not share in the victory.
There will be
no spoil, no plunder,
for them to enjoy.
Because they do not fight,
they will lose their birthright.
In fighting
to preserve our birthright,
we must learn to trust in God.
In ourselves
we do not have
the strength or the capacity
to fight.
If we trust in ourselves,
we will not have any assurance
that we will be victorious
in the warfare.
As we are fighting,
we need to realize
that we are fighting for
what God has given us.
The good land
has been given to us by God,
but we still need to fight
against the enemies.
We should not only pray
but also fight.
Actually,
we are not the ones fighting,
for God goes with us
and fights for us.
Once the enemies
have been defeated,
the land
will be cleared
for our inheritance.
The principle with this fighting
is the same principle
that is found
throughout the book of Deuteronomy.
This principle
is that God wants us
to do certain things,
but He does not want us
to do these things
by ourselves.
It is our duty to fight,
but we cannot fulfill this duty
by ourselves.
We can fulfill our duty to fight
only by faith in the Lord.
We need to believe
that the Lord
has ordained us to fight
and that He
will fight for us.
We should simply take His word
and obey Him,
knowing that the outcome
depends on Him.
If we fulfill our duty in this way,
the Lord will be pleased.
Whenever the Lord asks us
to do something for Him,
He does not intend
that we
do that thing
by ourselves.
We are not able in ourselves
to do anything
that the Lord asks us to do.
If we try to do this,
the Lord might say,
“I do not ask you
to do something for Me
by your strength or ability,
for you do not have
the strength or the ability.
What I ask you
to do for Me,
I want you
to do by Me.
Learn to have faith in Me,
to trust in Me.
I will do everything for you.
I simply want you
to participate in My operation.
I want to do something
in man and with man.
For this,
I need to have man cooperate with Me.
If you cooperate with Me,
I will be able to do
what I desire to do.”
To do something for the Lord
not by ourselves
but by the Lord
—this is pleasing to Him.
In the book of Ruth,
Boaz typifies Christ
and Ruth typifies the church.
This book shows us
how Boaz redeemed
both Ruth and her birthright.
The birthright included
a double portion of the land,
the priesthood,
and the kingship,
that is,
the right and position
to enjoy Christ fully
with the privileges
to be a priest
to bring man to God
and a king
to bring God to man.
Ruth was Naomi’s daughter-in-law,
and both had lost their birthright
due to poverty.
According to God’s ordination,
the recovery of one’s birthright
required the redemptive effort
of a kinsman (Lev. 25:25).
Boaz treasured
the God-given birthright.
He was not only concerned
for his own birthright,
but also for that of others.
He paid a price
to redeem his kinsman’s inheritance
and married his widow.
It was due to
his compassion
on the poor and weak Ruth
and his redemption
of her birthright
that David, the king
who established the kingdom,
was brought in.
Day 2
If we remain in the church life
enjoying our birthright,
we shall share in
the coming kingdom
where we shall express God
and represent Him
for His purpose.
This is our birthright.
May we all be today’s Jacobs,
not today’s Esaus.
We should praise the Lord
for His selection
and thank Him
for His transformation.
Yet, we must be warned
to honor and respect
our birthright.
God was sovereign
in Esau’s despising and selling of the birthright,
in Rebekah’s ingeniousness in her partial love,
and in Isaac’s blindness in blessing.
All that Esau, Rebekah, and Isaac were and did
worked together for Jacob’s good,
that God might sovereignly fulfill
the purpose of His selection.
Praise God
for His sovereignty!
And thank the Lord
for His dealing with us
in every situation.
Jacob obeyed his mother
and deceived Isaac
into blessing him blindly.
As a result,
Jacob obtained not only the birthright,
but also the blessing of the birthright.
Jacob’s maneuvering, however,
was unnecessary.
If he had done no maneuvering or deceiving,
God would have had a way
to give him the birthright.
Apparently, Jacob’s maneuvering and deceiving
helped him to acquire the birthright.
Actually, it caused him to suffer.
From the time
Jacob deceived his father,
he never saw his mother again.
Although Rebekah loved Jacob,
due to her cleverness
she lost him
and never saw him again.
Jacob had to flee to Laban’s home
and suffer there
under his hand
for twenty years.
Through the case
of the shifting of the birthright
from Esau to Jacob,
we see that the birthright
depends on God’s sovereignty.
We also see
that we should never maneuver or deceive
in order to gain the birthright.
In other words,
there is no need
for us to struggle
for the birthright.
Jacob had the proper birth,
but at first
he did not have the birthright.
Eventually, he gained the birthright,
but he did not enjoy the birthright
until he had more growth of life,
until he was transformed
from a supplanter, a heel holder,
into a prince of God.
This transformation
comes from the growth in life.
When he was young,
he was a true supplanter, a robber.
He robbed his brother,
and he robbed his uncle Laban.
However, when he went down to Egypt,
the supplanting hand of Jacob
became the blessing hand of Israel.
Instead of supplanting,
he blessed.
He blessed
even Pharaoh,
the highest person on the earth.
At that time
the whole of Egypt
was under Jacob’s hand.
He could have taken anything he liked,
but he did not.
Rather, he stretched out his hand to bless.
He came down to Egypt
not to snatch, supplant, or rob
but to give and to bless.
He was
a truly matured man before God,
so he enjoyed
the birthright and the full sonship.
Reuben, the firstborn,
lost the birthright
because of his defilement.
The birthright was shifted
from Reuben to Joseph,
who fled from that kind of defilement.
God is just.
He took the birthright
from the one
who indulged in defilement
and gave it to the one
who fled from it.
(Although the birthright
was shifted from Reuben to Joseph,
Joseph received
only the double portion of the land.
He did not receive
the priesthood or the kingship.
Rather, Levi received the priesthood
and Judah, the kingship.)
No fornicator
will enter into the millennial kingdom
to have the fullest enjoyment of Christ
and to be a priest of God
and a king with Christ.
Only the overcomers
will share this enjoyment,
be God’s priests,
and be the co-kings of Christ.
Take heed:
defilement may cause you
to lose your birthright.
Day 1
Esau hunted independently of God.
Eventually,
for the purpose of
satisfying his appetite,
he sold his birthright.
All the people
who are independent of God
have sold
their human birthright,
the enjoyment of God.
Since God created man in His own image
to be His expression,
it means that,
by birth,
man has the right
to express God.
Thus, every human being
has a birthright, the right by birth
to express God.
However, nearly everyone
has sold his birthright
because of his independence.
What does it mean
to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus?
Repentance means
to have a change
in our thinking, in our mentality.
Formerly,
I was moving
in a certain direction
with my back turned toward God.
After I heard the gospel
I turned around.
To believe in the Lord Jesus
means to come back
to our human birthright,
to come back
to the enjoyment of God
and to the expression of God.
Genesis is
a book of seeds.
We shall consider
one of these seeds
—the seed of
the shifting of the birthright.
The birthright
is the special portion
of the firstborn.
In nearly every race of people,
especially in ancient times,
the firstborn in a family
inherited a special portion.
Among the ancient Jews,
this portion
was usually a double portion of the land.
According to the Bible as a whole,
the birthright includes
the double portion of the land,
the kingship,
and the priesthood.
The priesthood
brings people to God,
and the kingship
brings God to the people.
The book of Genesis
reveals that this birthright
can be shifted
from the firstborn son
to the second son.
In Genesis 25:22-26, 29-34
we see the shifting of the birthright
from Esau to Jacob.
Although Esau was the firstborn,
Jacob was predestinated
to have the birthright.
The shifting of the birthright
from Esau to Jacob
reveals that receiving the birthright
is a matter of predestination.
It does not depend on
our natural birth.
Although you may be an Esau by birth,
this does not mean
that you are predestinated
to have the birthright.
This is
absolutely a matter of God’s sovereignty;
it does not depend on us.
We must worship God
for His sovereignty
and say,
“O Lord,
we thank You
for Your sovereignty.
Everything depends on
Your sovereign predestination.”
We need to see
that Esau
despised and sold the birthright.
The birthright,
which God intends to give
to His chosen people,
includes three things:
expressing God,
representing God,
and participating in
the kingdom of God.
We all have been chosen
to express God in His image,
represent Him with His dominion,
and participate in His kingdom.
The practical kingdom of God today
is in the church life.
By our second birth
we all have obtained the birthright
that we might express God in His image,
represent Him in His dominion,
and participate in His kingdom,
both in the church today
and in the kingdom in the future.
Every regenerated person
has this birthright.
Like Esau,
many regenerated Christians
have despised their birthright,
loving the worldly enjoyments
and not caring for
the preciousness of God’s birthright.
If they cared for
God’s expression, representation, and kingdom,
they would stay in
the proper church life,
which is God’s kingdom today.
How we thank the Lord
that in the midst of today’s degradation
He has brought us into the church life,
where we are practically in God’s kingdom
and where we are practicing
how to express God
and to represent Him.
Here in the practical kingdom of God
we are enjoying our birthright.