I think the five most nauseating words a person can hear are, “I’m sorry, you’ve been disqualified.” Disqualification means that no matter how hard you try or how well you’ve done, you will not reach your goal. There’s something that you can never have because you’ve been disqualified.
Sometimes disqualification is just a bump in the road of life that you have no control over. When I was appointed as a student local pastor at my first church, I was all set to attend Duke Divinity School with the expectation of full-ride scholarship. After I applied I received word that I was disqualified from the scholarship because too many people lived within a one mile radius of my church. Only rural church pastors qualified.
Disqualification happens a lot in sports. Golfer Anthony Kim was recently disqualified from a tournament because one of his clubs had been altered during the game. It was apparently damaged when he accidentally snagged a water sprinkler with the club. He made a couple of shots with it before noticing that it was bent and then reported it to officials who promptly disqualified him. The Salisbury High School football team had a perfect 10-0 record this year until it was determined that one of their players had missed too many days and was ineligible to play several games. The team was disqualified from 4 of the games and now their record is 6-4.
Sometimes disqualification can ruin your life and bring terrible shame. Back in 2006, just before congressional elections Rep. Mark Foley, chairman of House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, was caught sending sexually inappropriate emails and text messages to 17 year-old male pages. Foley resigned, was labeled a pedophile, and may have cost the Republicans their House majority in 2006 because of the scandal.
Sickening words aren’t they? “You’ve been disqualified.”
In the story from Genesis 25 we read about a man who was disqualified. Esau, the firstborn son of Isaac and Rebekah, the slightly older brother of Jacob, was the one who should have been the eventual leader of the family and the person who would carry God’s covenant to bless all nations forward in history. The sad fact is, he made himself ineligible. His character and conduct disqualified him from joining the LORD God in His grand plan.
There was some indication early on that this would happen. As a baby Esau was red and hairy. Ancient people often derived the names of their children from the circumstances of their birth. This child was called Esau or Edom which means “hairy red guy.” Interestingly, certain character traits revealed themselves in this baby from day one. The hairiness said that there was wildness in this child, and he certainly displayed animal-like behavior. Red denoted passion then, as it does now. That’s exactly the kind of man Esau grew up to be.
It’s funny how much you can tell about another human being within five minutes of their birth. When my children were born they displayed certain patterns of behavior that I still see in them to this day. In the story Esau was a wild man from birth while Jacob lived up to his character as an opportunistic “heel-grabber” who could trip others up to get what he wanted.
Those early signs were not what disqualified Esau. His actions later on brought about the real downfall. As firstborn Esau was in line for the birthright. Receiving the birthright mean he was entitled to a double share of the inheritance, leadership of the family, and, in this case, God’s promise of the land of Canaan for his descendants and that his family would become a great nation to bless all the families of earth. Esau could have been the guy through whom God revealed Himself to the world and offered salvation by faith in Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, Esau disqualified himself and the privilege went to his younger brother Jacob.
It all happened, as you know, over a bowl of stewed lentils. Esau, returning from an apparently unsuccessful hunting trip, happened upon Jacob cooking while camping with some of his father’s shepherds. Esau was famished from the hunt and grunted out an order for some of Jacob’s stew. Knowing Esau’s impulsive character, Jacob made a deal: sell me your birthright and I’ll give you the stew. Esau was a man so in tune with his urges and appetites that it was no big deal at all. He valued a quick meal over his priceless heritage. He sold his birthright along with all of its privileges and promises from God. Why? To fill his gut. The author of Genesis makes this comment:
He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright. Genesis 25:34
Esau didn’t hate his birthright. He just didn’t value it sufficiently. He valued the immediate over the long term. This was the defining event of his life and it disqualified him in God’s sight. The book of Hebrews warns us not to follow the same course. Interestingly, Hebrews links sexual sin with Esau’s actions:
See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears. Hebrews 12:16-17
Esau had a couple of issues that disqualified him from God’s promises. First, he was utilitarian in his outlook. This type of person is in it for the short-term good. Their main question is, “What works and what works right now?” Utilitarianism makes decisions based on what’s best for me in the moment. In Esau’s mind that birthright was so far in the future it was of no worth to him to meet his present needs.
Second, Esau was a man given to lust. Lust isn’t just a sexual sin. Lust is when you want something and you are unwilling to wait. A sexually lustful person will not wait for marriage. They gotta have it and they gotta have it now. Who cares that God says wait or that it’s overall better for the relationship to not act until a commitment is made … it feels good so do it. Esau’s lust was his unwillingness to cook or to wait for someone else to prepare him some food. He was willing to forfeit something priceless for immediate gratification.
Esau was disqualified as a young man. He lived for the moment and caved into his appetites. There’s no way God could trust him. If he treated his birthright so lightly, God knew that he’d also treat the covenant with Abraham and his descendants lightly. Jacob, for all his other faults, demonstrated a longer view. He valued both the birthright and the covenant highly and it showed in his actions. Therefore God entrusted the younger brother with the promises and the blessings, while Esau was disqualified.
What’s the lesson for us here? There are several ways utilitarianism and lust can wreak havoc in our lives. We can be disqualified from some of the best things a life well-lived has to offer. If you’ve or someone you know has ever settled for short-term satisfaction of appetites above all else, you know that even if they eventually escaped it the result was wasted years. Author John Walton writes:
“Sometimes even when they return, their ill advised choices have brought consequences that cannot be easily undone: a criminal record, an unbelieving spouse, financial ruin, health ravaged by self-destructive habits, children who have been so influenced by the previous godless example that their course in life is set. In cases such as these, the blessings of a spiritually productive marriage, good health, or a godly family may be unachievable. Such blessings of God can be permanently forfeited.”
John Walton, The NIV Application Commentary: Genesis (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2001), 565.
Our country has largely adopted Esau’s approach to life and it’s leading to America’s demise. Young families are unwilling to wait to have all the material things their parents acquired over a life time. They buy houses out of their price range and have even begun financing consumer debt through equity in their expensive homes. Jobs are lost or inflation increases and they can’t pay the bills so they lose their house and all the stuff they collected. Greedy financiers sold them the mortgages that they couldn’t afford to make fast money. They government (desiring to maintain their power) opened the door by passing laws to force lender to give to people loans who are unqualified. What’s happening now? Taxes and printed money from the government are being used to bail them all out so they can start all over again. Our economy is in the shape it’s in because our government, mortgage lenders, and ordinary citizens opted for short-term appetite fulfillment and refused to wait.
There are spiritual ramifications to Esau’s approach too. Do you realize that certain patterns of life exclude one from fellowship in the church? The church used to take this seriously and discipline or excommunicate folks for the following utilitarian and lustful actions:
But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. 1 Corinthians 5:11
All of those sins are characteristic of people who live in the short-term - even idolatry. The idolatry Paul refers to here involved Christians who engaged in pagan worship practices to build or keep business relationships or to avoid the short-term disfavor of their neighbors. Paul’s advice was to deny them fellowship in the church until they came to their sense and turned from their short-term appetites to a long-term trust in Jesus Christ. Until that time they were disqualified from membership in the local church.
Your past or present could disqualify you from leadership in the church. Past reputation mattered as much as present actions. Listen to the qualifications for elders that Paul lays out in 1 Timothy. Notice the kind of men who were called to lead. They could not follow Esau’s utilitarian and lustful ways:
An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money. He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity (but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?), 1 Timothy 3:2-5
Even Paul worried about being disqualified. The great apostle was on constant guard not to cave into immediate gratification. He knew that he could instantly be stripped of authority, power, and fruitfulness for the slightest preoccupation with short-term appetites:
I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. 1 Corinthians 9:26-27
Paul was not talking about salvation here. He was taking about authority, power, and fruitfulness in ministry. He pictured it as an athletic competition where participants must take a longer term approach to training. They must also avoid cheating so as not to be disqualified.
I think about someone like Jim Baker. Does anyone remember him and Tammy Faye and the PTL Club? At one time he was arguably the most influential Christian in America. Where is he today? He caved into a lust for money and sex and was disqualified. What about Ted Haggard, mega-church star and evangelical leader? An appetite for sex and drugs brought him down too. You may not be a superstar in ministry, but think what Esau’s approach could do to your influence with family, friends, or neighbors. One slip and you’d be forever disqualified in their sight, no matter how sincere your repentance or extravagant your deeds.
A unrepentant lifestyle of immediate gratification can send you to hell. Listen to this list of behaviors that lead to exclusion from the kingdom of God.
Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10
Lifestyles such as this disqualify people from the kingdom of heaven. Just as Esau missed out on God’s covenant promises to Abraham, people who follow in his footsteps of utilitarianism and lust will miss out on God’s covenant promise of salvation through Jesus Christ.
That’s the bad news. One verse further tells us the good news. There is a means of escape
And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Corinthians 6:11
The solution is in the person of Jesus Christ. You have to repent of your fixation on instant gratification and turn to Him in for forgiveness. If you turn from those sins and trust that His death on the cross paid for those sins, and if you believe that God raised Him from the dead after three days the Bible says you’ll be sanctified. That means washed from your filth. You’ll also be justified. God will view you from that point forward as if you’d never sinned. The innocent, righteous life of Jesus is applied to your squandered life.
The Bible also says that the Spirit of God then takes up residence in your heart. He give you a new appetite. He’ll lead you to hunger and thirst for the things of God rather than the gratification of this world. If you don’t hunger and thirst after the things of God, one of two things is true: either you don’t have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you because you’ve never actually turned from sin and to God through faith in Christ; or you’ve become accustomed to the way of our culture, feeding on the lusts of our world. Although your salvation may be secure you’re living a disqualified life. You’re displeasing God, hurting other people, and ultimately squandering the life you’ve been given. You will stand and give an account one day. Why not repent now? Why not turn from the path of Esau so that you can live the promise and the blessings of God who sent His Son to die for those gratifications that you cherish?
Child of God, consecrate yourself completely to the Lord. Hold nothing back. Give yourself to God and He will give you new values with new desires.
If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Colossians 3:1-4
