It is an old story. Esau sold his brother his birthright for some stew. Then Esau got mad and blamed the slow cooker and threw it out the window. Wait, what?
Don’t remember that part of Genesis 25:29-34? That is because it didn’t happen. But what happened next is just as irrational and could be good lesson for “This Is Us” fans.
If you haven’t seen the show, I’ll catch you up. Jack, a popular character, recently died, and fans were really upset. Even though they know it is just fiction (I think), they lashed out against the villain who killed their “hero.”
The only problem? The villain was a slow cooker!
A faulty slow cooker burst into flames and burned the house down. So fans took to Twitter vilifying Crock Pot. Some wrote that they were throwing their Crock Pots out; others said they were removing Crock Pot from their wedding registry; and others disparaged Crock-Pot for making a faulty product!
The backlash was so bad that Crock Pot issued a statement:
“For nearly 50 years with over 100 million Crock-Pots sold, we have never received any consumer complaints similar to the fictional events portrayed in last night’s episode… the safety and design of our product renders this type of event nearly impossible.”
So…back to Esau. He blamed Jacob for the loss of his birthright. Now, to be fair, he didn’t blame the stew. But just as irrationally, he blamed Jacob! Instead, his foolishness was to blame.
Of course, we act the same. We refuse to blame ourselves so we pick a villain – no matter how irrational it is. We should blame the true villain, our own sins (James 1:14-15).
Am I disappointed when things don’t go my way? Sure. But do I throw out my Crock Pot because a fictional character on a fictional show has a fictional death? Please.
And stew on this…my sins and yours caused the real Son of God to come and really die on a real cross. That’s no fiction. How will you react to that?
Allow simmering for 6-8 hours…
