A Firstborn’s Curse
“You are hereby banished from the ground you
have defiled with your brother’s blood. No longer will it yield abundant crops
for you, no matter how hard you work! From now on you will be a homeless
fugitive on the earth, constantly wandering from place to place.” (Genesis
4:11-12 NLT)
Have you ever noticed how much tragedy seems to fall
on firstborn children? The Bible is
full of incidents of firstborn sons falling into sin and turning away from
their fathers’ instruction.
The general
consensus from those who study “birth order” is that firstborn children are
intelligent, scholarly, assertive, willful, controlling, perfectionists, and
leaders. Such was the case with Harry S. Truman, George W. Bush, and Winston
Churchill who became presidents and a prime minister during a time of war.
Other famous firstborn leaders were Oprah Winfrey, Walter Cronkite, and Albert
Einstein just to name a few.
What took
place in the home to bring about their success? In the case of our firstborn son,
my wife spent a lot of time reading books to him at a very early age. As a
result, he became a book lover and had an insatiable desire for learning. He
was a very good student in school and excelled in the math and music department
. He held the number one chair for trumpet in the high school band. After
college he got a job as a music and book buyer for a major religious
distributing company. Today, he and his brother operate their own Christian
contemporary music website called the “Rad Rockers.”
Not every
firstborn son, however, walks in a path that delights and pleases his parents.
Some act in a manner that brings shame and disrepute, and in some cases a curse
upon the family name.
One in
particular was Cain, the firstborn son of Adam and Eve. Cain was a willful
person and brought a sacrifice that displeased God. When God confronted him he
got miffed and ended up murdering his younger brother Abel. As a result, God
placed a curse (mark) upon him and his land. It doesn’t pay to disobey God!
Prayer: Dear Lord, the children you give us are a
heritage and a blessing.
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