Time: Urgency and Misplaced Urgency

Abraham’s Servant understood urgency

Gen 24:12 He prayed, " LORD, God of my master Abraham, give me success today and keep your promise to my master.

I think this is the first place that I see in the Bible where anyone had a sense of urgency. His prayer was not just for eventual success, but success that day.

When having dinner that evening, we see that his sense of urgency continues:

Gen 24:33 When food was brought, the man said, "I will not eat until I have said what I have to say." Laban said, "Go on and speak."

And later:

Gen 24:55 But Rebecca's brother and her mother said, "Let her stay with us a week or ten days, and then she may go."

Gen 24:56 But he said, "Don't make us stay. The LORD has made my journey a success; let me go back to my master."

Esau’s Misplaced Urgency

Gen 25:32 Esau said, "All right! I am about to die; what good will my rights do me?"

Gen 25:33 Jacob answered, "First make a vow that you will give me your rights." Esau made the vow and gave his rights to Jacob.

Gen 25:34 Then Jacob gave him some bread and some of the soup. He ate and drank and then got up and left. That was all Esau cared about his rights as the first-born son.

I seriously doubt that Esau was “about to die.” He might have been really tired and hungry, and his physical desires gave him a sense of urgency.

I’m sure that if Esau showed a little bit of constraint, in less than one day’s time he would have been rested and fed – and still have had his birthright.

How do you judge urgency in your life?

In comparing these two pieces, we see a principle:

The way to determine what must be given urgent attention, should not be determined by the pressure of a moment, but by the weight of the importance of a task in view of God’s plan for our lives.

Abraham’s servant was on a quest that had an impact on world history. Finding the right wife for Isaac had a direct impact on the lineage of Jesus Christ. There was nothing that forced this urgency on him. He created this urgency within himself. Very often, if we don’t create within ourselves a sense of urgency for the really important things, they will just keep getting postponed and postponed – and our lives will never move forward. The really important things have a way of not imposing themselves on us. But their neglect has the effect of quietly filling our lives with a sense of meaninglessness.

Esau had come back from a hunting trip, famished – willing to do anything to fulfil his own immediate need for comfort. Often the things that shout the loudest at us, are not important enough to be allowed a prioritised position of urgency in our lives.

Often the urgent issues may seem as real and pressing as if your life depended on them. But take a moment to think about the long-term consequence of neglecting something important that you might be pushing aside, to deal with one more urgent issue, and make sure that you aren’t sacrificing your destiny for the sake of misplaced urgency.