Endurance (Part 1)―First
Mention
Merriam-Webster defines endurance as “the ability to
withstand hardship or adversity; the ability to sustain a prolonged
stressful effort or activity.” Most of us admire endurance and those
who endure. One of my favorite Olympic events is the Marathon—the
premier endurance race consisting of a grueling 26.2 miles at a
sub-five-minute per mile pace. The upcoming 2012 Election season
will require candidates to endure Media scrutiny, personal attacks
by opponents and the mental-emotional-physical demands of the race.
Conventional wisdom says that the ability to endure the rigors of a
Presidential campaign is great preparation for the Oval Office.
As we embark upon our multi-missive study of
endurance, we will discover that endurance ranks high on God’s list
of fundamentals for personal success in things both spiritual and
vocational. Endurance is the very essence of the nature of God! The
Lord ONLY asks of you and me what he himself possesses in infinite
abundance and provides with endless availability to those who rely
upon him!
While the word ‘endurance’ does not appear in the
KJV, its cousins ‘endure’ (29), ‘endured’ (8), ‘endureth’ (59) and
‘enduring’ (3) occur nearly 100 times. That’s fodder sufficient for
a thousand-page commentary. Moreover, it signifies that something
the Spirit of God references 100 times in scripture demands our
attention. We’ll take the occasion of a few Pens to attempt to hit
the high points. In this Pen, we’ll consider the first mention of
the word ‘endure’ and its practical significance.
The first mention of ‘endure’ in scripture is an
instructive one. The reference is not to soldiers, political leaders
or athletes, but to children! The context finds Jacob and his
familial entourage in an unavoidable encounter with elder brother
Esau after two decades of estrangement (Genesis 33:1-17). Jacob
would rather have had his molars extracted with pliers than to face
Esau’s angry countenance again. But Esau was a different man. No
longer does he harbor resentment and rage, but rather exhibits
kindness—an absence of malice—toward his younger brother. Esau’s
face was such a “pleasant” surprise to Jacob that he compared it to
seeing the “face of God” (33:10).
Esau appears to have had a renewed cohabitation in
mind, sort of like old times, when he says “let us take our journey,
and let us go” (33:12). He’s willing to lead the way to Seir (33:14)
with his 400 men (33:1). But Jacob reminds his brother that there is
a danger in “overdriving” the children and the flock (33:13). He
reasons that the pace of travel MUST be limited by the ability of
the children and the flocks to endure it. His argument: “Let my
lord, I pray thee, pass over before his servant: and I will lead on
softly, according as the cattle that goeth before me and the
children be able to endure, until I come unto my lord unto Seir”
(33:14).
The word endure is from the Hebrew regel (a foot, to
move). It signifies the ability to travel on foot. In Jacob’s mind,
that ability would be lost if the pace set by the men ‘overdrove’
the ‘tender’ ones (33:13). Little did Jacob know that when he
vocalized his thoughts to Esau about the ability of the children to
endure foot travel that the Spirit of God would enshrine them in
scripture for future generations, and teach us two important
lessons.
First, God NEVER overdrives his children. Every child
of God has a capacity for spiritual sojourning that can grow or
diminish with time. An omniscient Father knows exactly the pace to
set for each of them, and provides his own omnipotence as a source
of strength for the journey. Thus God in his faithfulness does NOT
allow his children to be tempted (tried, tested, pushed forward)
above their ability to endure the pace, but will with every
temptation also make a way of escape, that they might be able to
bear it (1 Corinthians 10:13).
Second, no congregation is able to move forward any
faster than the ability of the spiritually ‘tender’ among them to
manage the pace. One of the great values of discipleship is bringing
the spiritual infants in a church (assuming there are some) up to a
level of maturity that facilitates expeditious spiritual travel. The
church that neglects or abandons discipleship will ultimately see
its children fall by the wayside.
In our text, Esau apparently agreed with Jacob’s
logic. He and his 400 grown men beat feet for Seir and left Jacob,
the kids and cattle to play catch up at their own pace. Esau offered
to leave some of his 400 men to travel with Jacob, but he argued there
was “no need” to do so (33:15). When the “soft” traveling pace of
Jacob and kinfolk had created enough distance between the two
companies, Jacob set his course toward Succoth (33:17). There is no
indication the two brothers ever saw each other again.
I realize there is always
a danger in trying to read too much into a passage of scripture. But
I believe we are well within our limits in drawing these two lessons
from the first biblical reference to endurance. It certainly gives
us pause to reflect upon our ability (and that of those around us)
to endure the pace our heavenly Father sets for us. In the final
analysis, we are all foot soldiers of Christ and his Cross. It is
NOT his will that ANY of our feet fail as we move along the way!
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