November 8, 2026

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“[When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb.] The first to come out was red. His whole body was like a hairy garment. Isaac and Rebekah named him Esau because he was hairy.” (Genesis 25.24-25)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

Names are interesting. Every name has a meaning and a story. From the beginning, God tells us His story in stunning revelation revealing Himself before ever giving the world His name. When we are told the name of God, YHWH, in the story of Moses and captive Israel, is represents the summation of all that had been revealed but not fully grasped by humankind. While Victor Frankl was considering “man’s search for meaning,” humankind was always searching for God. Theologically speaking, sin entered the world because humankind dared to consider (with prompting) that they were searching for themselves and thus become as God or a god themselves. So, we might stop and consider the very name of God given to Moses as the summation of God’s revelation in creation, I AM all. The entire story of creation is God’s signature like the signing of a check or a contract. His name is the bottomline of all life and living.

So, too, then we come upon Adam and, in a few verses following, Eve. Adam is named such because he is person made from the ground. Without question, Adam is “grounded” to the story of God’s plan of creation and salvation. Adam is rooted to the earth from which he was made. Yet, the earth is not his home in an understanding of living literally. Without the breath, in Hebrew ruach, Adam would just be “a man of the world.” However, when God breathed His own life into the form of man/humankind, Adam became more than that. He became a spiritual being as well as flesh and would dwell in the midst of others as such. What sets him apart from all others? It is his relationship with the creator living out his meaning and purpose for which he was created. Interesting to see that Adam’s first order of business in the garden where God had placed him was obedience to the task as steward of creation as a farmer, rancher, shepherd and as a man. Adam would be deemed righteous not solely by what he was intended to do but more so by what he was supposed to do. What was he not supposed to do? Of course, it was not to yield to the temptation of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The penalty of such disobedience was, of course, death. Apart from those first priorities, Adam’s next order of business was to name every living thing. He couldn’t have done that on his own because he didn’t possess enough knowledge of the world. However, he did possess the blessing of the Holy Spirit as inspiration. What did that knowledge reveal to him? That none of the things he saw, named and experienced firsthand matched to him. He was distinctly human and definitely not God. He was unique and, in the flesh, alone.

Then came Eve who was formed out of Adam just as Adam had been formed out of the earth. God breathed into her a breath of life as well and thus was created with meaning and purpose. She was given the name Eve meaning both “breath” and “life.” Her name was to be a reminder of her value derived from both God and “man.” As such she should be honored, protected and valued as a revelation of our true purpose to future generations. Yet, she was also created from “man” as “Adam” was created from the earth as all were created by God. In this, we find the hierarchy of our meaning and purpose. Paul iterates such an understanding in his writing to the church in Ephesus. We see the failure and consequences of not following this hierarchical relationship when the prime directive of “not disobeying God’s command” was, in fact, disobeyed. Eve was made susceptible to temptation by the failure of Satan to be in obedience to God by choice just as Adam failed in choosing to protect Eve from the serpent. Save for the grace of God, a death sentence would have been enacted. Instead, grace was extended but the consequences were clear: Adam would fulfill his call to be obedient to God by working the earth and Eve would be the mother of life giving birth to the next generation.

What does this have to do with Esau? Esau’s name literally meant “hairy.” When he was born, there must have been great physical distress because he was born with a reddish color. I remember when my daughter was born. In the next delivery room was a fourteen year old girl who was giving birth to her own daughter. Her story was a tragic one but with the support of her foster parents, she decided to keep the child. It was a difficult birth because of her age. Our obstetrician spent more time in her room, understandably, than with us. I remember standing at the window of the nursery looking at the babies born that day, there were fourteen, and seeing one scarlet red. She was the daughter born to the fourteen year old. Eventually she became less stressed and soon found her pink colored skin. I will never forget how red she was and all that it meant. I could relate that experience to how Esau may have been, especially knowing that he and his twin brother jostled with each other in Rebekah’s womb. Esau would be his father’s favorite because he loved the outdoors and he made his living off the land. In this he reflected the legacy of Adam who drew his life from the ground. It was a message of the consequence of sin as well as the grace of God who sacrificed a lamb to save Adam and Eve from the consequence of their disobedience. Mighty ones of God, there is a story to be seen in Esau that speaks to all of us. We must be reminded and learn from this history or be doomed to repeat it.

The story continues tomorrow.

TODAYS’ PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness endeavor, but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.