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Apples of Gold
Radio Script for January 18, 2011
“Beware What You Pour Into the Family River”
Hello, I’m Doug Apple…with Apples of Gold.
He just “wanted” her.
He had his reasons.
No, she wasn’t his wife. She wasn’t anyone’s wife. She was his father’s “concubine,” if you want to use a biblical term, which is okay, since this is a biblical story.
The father was Jacob. His concubine was Bilhah, and the young man who wanted her was Jacob’s first born son, Reuben.
Being a first born son was a big deal in those days. You got the blessing. You got the inheritance. You even got the concubines.
But Reuben couldn’t wait. He wanted the concubine now, so he had her.
That’s just a blip on the radar of history, just one little deed, one little decision.
I doubt he prayed about it, or sought wise counsel. He didn’t exercise patience, and he didn’t look at the big picture. He just saw what he wanted, and he went for it.
And today, Reuben is a warning for all of us, to stop and think before we do something stupid. Our seemingly small actions send ripples into the future that affect our children and their children and on down the line.
I don’t know if Reuben tried to keep his dalliance a secret, but Genesis 35:22 says that Reuben “lay with Bilhah,” and his father heard about it.
The Bible doesn’t mention any immediate consequences, so maybe Reuben thought he got away with it.
But the boomerang finally circled back on the day old Jacob spoke his final authoritative words to his sons.
Genesis 49 starts well enough, with Jacob saying, “Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power.”
But then comes verse four. “Unstable as water, you shall not excel, because you went up to your father’s bed; then you defiled it…”
Ouch.
Rueben was the firstborn, but he lost the rights of the firstborn.
Now look at Genesis 42. It says that Reuben had two sons.
Oh wait. In Genesis 46 it’s up to four sons.
Reuben lost his father’s blessing, and it affected him and his four sons.
Now look at the census in Numbers chapter one. They counted only the men 20 years old and up, and how many were on Reuben’s family tree?
Over 46,000.
Reuben’s legacy, and his lack of that firstborn blessing, went from himself to his four sons, then on to 46,000 direct descendants, and probably over 100,000 if you count everyone.
So did any famous people show up in the line of Reuben? Oh yeah.
In Numbers 26, when talking about the family of Rueben, two names are highlighted: Dathan and Abiram. Unfortunately it’s a horror story about those two rebelling against Moses and the Lord. In the end God opened the ground and swallowed them up along with their families.
Another famous name in the line of Reuben is Shammua. He helped spy out the Promised Land, and came back voting against the Lord’s will to take it. That disobedience caused the Israelites to wander in the wilderness for 40 years.
When the 40 years was up, Joshua was ready to lead them across the Jordan River into the Promised Land, and who wanted to stay behind? The tribe of Reuben, among others. There was God’s Promised Land, the very place God Himself led them to, but what did Reuben want? To stay on the east side of the Jordan because they said it was good for livestock. (Numbers 32)
So the tribe of Reuben planted itself on the east side of the Jordan, and when the Assyrians finally invaded and carried people into captivity, who went first? Reuben and the others who refused to move into the actual Promised Land.
Now obviously lots of people made lots of decisions over hundreds of years for the tribe of Reuben, and they are all responsible for their own actions.
But I can’t help but wonder if things would have turned out differently if Reuben had not slept with that concubine. What if he would have kept his father’s blessing and maintained his rights as the firstborn? What if he would have been the man of God he should have been? What if his family legacy was one of wisdom and godliness? Would that have changed things for his family decade after decade, century after century?
I think so, because all you have to do is look around and see how things get passed from parents to children to grandchildren. Of course it doesn’t have to be that way. You can break the cycle anytime, but that’s the way it tends to work.
I see the life of Reuben as a warning. Our family is like a river, and if we pollute the river today, it can affect our family on down the river for generations.
You can even affect the course of that river, so be wise. Be careful. Be patient. Do the right thing. Obey the Lord. Avoid sin.
It may not seem like a big deal now, but look what happened to Reuben.
So don’t just live for today. Think about the big picture.
And beware what you pour into the family river.
Comments?
E-mail me: dougapple@wave94.com.
May God bless you today! With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.
© 2010 The Arrow’s Tip
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(Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”)
Why “The Arrow’s Tip”? Each morning, after diligently seeking the Lord, I write Apples of Gold. Then before I release it to the public I pray one final prayer, “Lord, send forth your arrows.” I envision Apples of Gold as arrows, tips dipped in the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1), sailing toward the hearts and minds of men and women around the world.
Doug Apple
General Manager - Wave 94
Christian Radio for Tallahassee
PO Box 4105
Tallahassee, FL 32315
(850) 926-8000
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