Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - What is Your Life Worth? | Torah | Genesis 33

Episode Date: March 24, 2022

Are you tired of trying to prove your worth? What even is your worth? Where do we look for it? In today's episode, Patrick discusses Jacob's self-sacrifice in Genesis 33 to explain how to find your true worth. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Genesis 33 Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. Right now, we're going through the first book of the Bible, Genesis. In TV books and movies, there is a very, very simple way to make the audience hate a character. Even think of that character as a villain. You do this. You create a dangerous situation and simply have that character put other people in danger for the sake of his own safety and self-interest. You show a bank heist where the character hides behind a child to save his own skin. You show an intense argument where the character blames someone else for a problem to save himself. You show a business negotiation where a character lies about someone else to land the big deal.

The so-called heroes of Genesis, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, they actually look a lot like the villains I just described. Abraham and Isaac both offered their wives to foreign kings to save their own skin. Jacob lies about his identity to get the big blessing, the big deal from his dad. But perhaps the darkest moment in Jacob's life comes in Genesis 32. This is right before Jacob wrestles with God. And we've already looked at this moment, but we need to revisit it to understand what happens next. Jacob, he's just found out that his older brother, Esau, is coming towards him with hundreds of men, probably armed men who are coming to kill him, to execute him.

You've got to remember, when Jacob, Jacob left Esau decades ago. Esau warned him, if you come back here, I'm going to kill you. And it sounds like Esau's about to make good on that promise. But rather than facing down Esau, Jacob divides his family, servants, and camp up into two different parties. And his logic is simple. In chapter 32, verse 8, he says, if Esau comes and attacks one group, the group that

is left will be safe. And then it gets worse. Jacob separates himself from both groups. In other words, Jacob is. dividing his family into two separate groups and putting them between himself and Esau. It's yet another deception, another lie to save his life, but this time he's willing to risk absolutely everybody and everything else to save himself. The Bible couldn't be more clear. Jacob is acting like a villain. But then something happens. When Jacob's by himself,

he encounters God on his own, and that encounter utterly changes him. When the sun rises, he finds both of those camps, he brings them back together, and then he does something shocking, something that we've never seen Jacob do before. He puts other people before himself. He finally risks his own life for the sake of other people. We pick up the story in Genesis 33 and 1. Jacob looked up and there was Esau coming with his 400 men. And so he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two female servants. And he put the female servants and their children in front, Leah and her children next, Rachel and Joseph in the rear. He himself went on ahead of them all and bowed down to the ground seven times as he approached his brother. Jacob puts himself

between Esau and everybody else. Somehow, this encounter that he's had with God has freed him to love sacrificially for the first time in his life. And thankfully for Jacob, for the rest of his family, everything goes well. Esau doesn't try to kill Jacob. He welcomes Jacob with open arms. He welcomes Jacob with open arms. But can you imagine what this was like for Jacob's children? Their whole life, their father, has been a selfish liar. He's been a man who always puts himself first. And yet again, at the threat of imminent death, your dad, he hides behind you. Your dad says, you go first. You take the risk, son. You take the risk, daughter. But then something changes. And suddenly your dad does the opposite thing. The opposite thing, the thing you've seen him do your

whole entire life. He says, I'm going to. to lay down my life for you, son. I'm going to lay down my life for you, my daughter. There's no reason for you to have to die. I will die in your place. I will risk myself. My life will suffice. What do you think his kids felt in that moment? What do you think they experienced? Were they confused? Were they moved? Did they for the first time realize that, yes, my dad might really, really love me? You see, Hollywood didn't invent villains who choose themselves, over other people. Those villains already existed in the world. One exists in your heart. One exists in my heart. One exists in the heart of every living person. And this means that throughout your life,

you've been wounded and scarred when people who love you hit behind you, sacrificed you for them. They said, you take the hit instead of me. That means that you, because this world is full of selfish people just like you, it means that you've seen selfishness where there should have been sacrifice. And the lesson that most of us take away from these hurtful experiences, when those who should care for us instead say, you sacrifice yourself from me, the lesson that we take away from that is I'm not worth it. I'm not worth sacrificing for. I'm not worth the time. I'm not worth the energy. I'm not worth the cost. And so we spend the rest of our lives trying to prove, yes, yes, I am worth something. And ironically, in our bid to prove ourselves worthwhile, we often end up

choosing ourselves over other people and then repeating the exact same cycle that hurt us over and over again. The question is how does this cycle break? There's only one way. There's only one way. When that hurt part of your soul, which doesn't believe its own worth, here's these words. You are worth it. You are worth so much to me that I would not only risk my life for you, I would give my life for you. Have you heard those words from Jesus in the depth of your soul? those are the only words that heal. Those are the only words that can break the cycle. In 2012, an American aid worker named Jessica Bikanon was taken hostage by Somali pirates.

They're holding her for ransom, but often in these situations, the pirates would simply kill the person they held even after they received the ransom. And Jessica knew this, and she knew that this was probably the end of her life. She underwent terrible treatment and unimaginable horrors during the time of her captivity and every moment was expecting for her life to finally end. Until one night, she heard this sudden commotion outside of her room, guns firing, Somali voices yelling. She got down and made herself small so that she wouldn't catch a stray bullet.

The commotion suddenly ended. I mean, as quickly as it began, and the next voice she heard shocked her. It was an American voice. She looked up and she saw the members of SEAL Team 6, the exact same team that took down Osama bin Laden. They'd killed all the pirates just to rescue her. Jessica immediately got up, but one of the soldiers told her to stop. He said, no, you need to lay back down again.

And he explained that he didn't know if there were more armed terrorists nearby, so it wasn't safe to get up, to stand up, until the American helicopters came to rescue them. So she laid back down, flat on the ground, and then the seals did something remarkable. The seal team members all piled on top of her to form a human shield. If anyone fired a weapon in their direction, the seals would take the bullets, not Jessica. They said, look, Jessica, your life is more valuable than our life. Your safety is more valuable than our safety. You're worth more than I'm going to put a worth on my own life.

They were willing to sacrifice themselves to save Jessica Buchanan. Do you realize that Jesus has done exactly the same thing for you? And when the bullets came, Jesus took the bullets. He died and he died happily knowing that his death rescued the one that he loved. His death rescued you. You will never know your own value if you spend your life trying to prove your worth. You'll only end up repeating the cycle of selfishness that makes someone else feel worthless and think that they need to prove their worth and continue the cycle on and on and on and on.

You will only know your own value when you look into the eyes of your Savior who told you to lie down so that he could take the bullets in your place. That's your worth, that he was willing to die for you, that he loves you so much that he willingly died for you. When Jacob wrestled with God in the middle of the night, I think he encountered that reality, and it changed him. It transformed him into the kind of man who no longer needed to prove his worth,

but who knew God's love and knew that from his love was a true well of worth that could never be dry. up. And that set him free to break the cycle of selfishness in his life. He didn't have to prove anything anymore so he could lay down his life for his family, for his servants, for his household, for his camp. Let Jesus set you free from the lies of worthlessness and set you free to become like him, someone who's able to lay down your life for the sake of others. Before you forget, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talks newsletter. Hit the link in the show notes and you'll get an email every Wednesday that's going to help you beat that midweek slump

and go deeper in your walk with Jesus. Thanks for listening.