Dealing With Grief

They were a grief of mind…Genesis 26:35

The marriage of Esau to two Canaanite women grieved Jacob and Rebekah. Esau was Jacob’s twin brother. Canaanites rejected the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They worshipped false gods. Their religion caused them to commit unspeakable acts. What people believe influences what people do. True then, true today.

 They were family. What one member of the family does affects the whole family.  The literal translation of ‘mind’ is “spirit.” In Hebrew, ruah. The same word translated Spirit in Genesis 6:3 and breath in Genesis 6:17. Clearly what Esau did deeply affected his twin brother Jacob. True then and true now.

What our family does or does not do affects us. It is not always joy, sometimes it is grief. This grief often leads to bitterness of our spirit. Left untreated, bitterness leads to all kinds of personal illness; physical and mental. David wrote of this in Psalm 31: For my life is spent with grief and my years with sighing. My strength fails because of my iniquity and my bones waste away, verse 10. For this reason, David cries out to God, Have mercy on me, O LORD, for I am in trouble, verse 9.

Take it to Jesus. He is acquainted with grief. He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him. He was despised, and we did not esteem Him,Isaiah 53:3.  This was before the cross. Remember His prayer in the Garden: O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” Matthew 26:39.

The One who took our sins to the cross is the One who taught us how to deal with grief. Take it to God and leave it there. Don’t pick it up again. Leave it. What was done cannot be undone. But what was done can be forgiven. But how we responded can be forgiven. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you, Ephesians 4:2. Freely you have received, freely give!