they don’t want it!

Just over 25 years ago, the greatest comeback in the history of the NFL took place. It was a playoff game in January 1993 in Buffalo between the Houston Oilers and the Buffalo Bills. On the first drive of the third quarter, the Oilers intercepted the Bills’ quarterback and returned it for a touchdown, pushing their lead up to 35-3.

Turn out the lights. That is an insurmountable lead. The Miami Dolphins coach, Don Shula, thought so. He was watching the game as his team waited to see who their next opponent would be. He recalled wondering how anybody was going to slow down the Oilers offense as he turned the TV off. So did thousands of Buffalo fans who headed for the exits.

Andre Reed catches his third touchdown in the comeback

A team that builds a 35-3 lead usually goes on to win 59-3. Or, the other team will get a couple of late scores to ‘make it respectable’. What happened next is still called “The Comeback.” It is a record that is likely to stand 25 years more if not longer.

The Bills scored four consecutive touchdowns in less than 7 minutes to get back into and then ultimately winning the game 41-38. As for the Oilers, how does a team that is so dominant that they build a 32-point lead suddenly become as equally inept?

Many people in Houston- where it was not ‘the Comeback’ but “The Choke”- believed the Oilers were cursed (which they were btw). Coach Buddy Ryan- hired to coach the Oiler defense after that disaster- stated “it looked like the whole team went brain-dead.” In other words- choked. That was the unsatisfying explanation I accepted for many years. But, that explanation doesn’t go deep enough. How and why did an entire team go “brain-dead?”

It was many years later when I was flipping through channels that I saw one of those NFL Films documentaries about that game. They interview people about the event, and go ‘behind the scenes’ on the sidelines- where you can see what the players are saying and doing on the sideline.

After the Bills scored their third rapid touchdown, cutting the lead to 35-24, one of the Bills players on the sidelines could be seen shouting “they don’t want it! they don’t want it!”

And I realized, that was it. It was not a complicated answer, a mysterious enigma, a riddle in team psychology.

They didn’t want it.

Do you think it is over-simplification to say ‘they didn’t want it’? If they wanted it, they would have dug down deep and put forth more effort to stay on top, to stop the other team from coming back. It would have required harder work and focus and toughness to withstand the storm and pull through. They didn’t want to do that. They didn’t want it.

Think of it this way- down 3-35, did the Bills want it? Were they willing to put forth the effort to grab it?

The story of Jacob and Esau contains a similar lesson. A birthright is a “double portion” of an inheritance. The inheritance is divided by the number of heirs, and then add one. If there are ten heirs, the estate is divided eleven ways, and the birthright gets two. Thus, the nine heirs get a 9% share, and the birthright gets 18%. There is a difference for sure, but not as dramatic when the heirs are fewer.

In the case of Jacob and Esau, the difference was between a 66% share, and 33%- twice as much. And we are not talking about three tents and 10 goats here. The estate of Abraham and Isaac was substantial- a veritable city-state with hundreds of workers and large land-holdings and resources. Their wealth was envied and respected by the other settlements in the region. In today’s money- it would be a multi-million dollar enterprise.

Because he was the first twin born, Esau held the birthright. He liked the outdoors, hunting and shooting his bow. He was also impulsive, impatient, and dramatic. Jacob knew this and took advantage of it.

One day when Esau had gone out hunting, Jacob put on a pot of beans. He knew Esau always came back from hunting with a ravenous appetite.

Genesis 25: ³⁰ And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom. ³¹ And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright. ³² And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me? ³³ And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. ³⁴ Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.

Esau despised his birthright- he didn’t want it. If he really wanted it, he would have declined the offer and went and made his own beans. But he didn’t want to wait- that was too hard.

Esau probably really wanted his birthright, he just didn’t want it very badly. And if you really want something, you are willing to put forth the effort to get it. If you are not willing- then you don’t want it. Who wanted the birthright- Jacob or Esau?

There is a difference between failing and despising. We try things all the time and fail. We even fail to get things we really want sometimes. That is how we learn and grow. There is no shame in putting forth honest effort and coming up short.

When we despise something, we are not willing to do what it takes to get something, or to keep it.

I look around at the country today and I wonder if we want it. I know lots of people say they want a good country, but I wonder if they really want it very badly.

If you don’t want it, you will lose it. Someone who really wants it will get it.

Matthew 13:  ⁴⁵ Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls:  ⁴⁶ Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.

a wild man

What would you think about someone that is known as a ‘wild man’? The description has negative connotations, like we are referring to someone who behaves poorly or appears to often be out of control.

When Sarai gave her handmaid Hagar to Abram as a surrogate wife because of her own infertility- when Hagar got pregnant- Sarai quickly realized she had made a mistake.

Hagar got an attitude with her mistress, and Sarai decided to put her in her place. After the confrontation, Hagar ran away, out into the desert.

After awhile, an angel appeared and asked her what is the plan? Hagar had obviously expected better treatment in her new role, and Sarai- who hadn’t thought things through- did not agree.

The angel told Hagar to return and to try and get along. And then she was told:

Genesis 16: ¹¹ And the angel of the Lord said unto her, Behold, thou art with child and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the Lord hath heard thy affliction. 

¹² And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.

There was once a fellow that played for the Houston Oilers named Carl Mauck. He would growl about the (lack) of manliness the other team had. He would get angry when they lost, and would be cocky when they won. Carl once famously quipped that he wished he could buy a tank. He would take the tank out onto the Houston freeways and ‘rollover every car with a Dallas Cowboys bumper sticker’.

Carl Mauck was a wild man.

In January 1980, after the Oilers lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC championship for the second year in a row, they brought the team to a packed Astrodome for an appreciation rally. Dan Pastorini thanked everyone for their support. Bum Phillips famously proclaimed ‘that next year, we’re going to kick the (door) down!”

Carl stood up, and in front of 50,000 screaming football fans, declared “That Holly-tola has got 53 Americans  hostages over there. We’re going to sing God Bless America”

And then the wild man, led 50,000 football fans into a drawling, off-key, roaring tribute to the Iranian hostages.

We loved our wild man, Carl Mauck.

A wild man is not a bad man. He is passionate, impulsive, enthusiastic, unruly, emotional, unrefined, and eager. At times, reckless.

Hagar was warned. Ishmael would be a wild child. The angel told her to return and submit to Sarai. Humble yourself. Rather than have an attitude of “I’m better than you because I was able to give your man a child”- be considerate of Sarai and have empathy that she is elderly and no longer able to have children.

A wild child must be nurtured and made passionate about doing the right things. They should be eager and enthusiastic about serving God. One that impulsively becomes emotional about good things- like Carl Mauck.  The way they are raised and nurtured is crucially important in a wild man- so that passion and emotion is modeled properly and encouraged by example by the nurturer.

Abram loved Ishmael, and so did the Lord. When he came to tell Abram he and Sarai would have a son, Isaac, Abram spoke up for Ishmael.

Genesis 17: ¹⁷ Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear? ¹⁸ And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee! ¹⁹ And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. ²⁰ And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.

Hagar was warned about her son. She was doing enough to get along- knowing that the old lady was never going to have a child- and knowing that she would outlive them both and all of it would be hers. Ishmael’s and hers. And she obviously instilled this sentiment into her wild child Ishmael. “It will all be ours”. Abraham was very rich.

Can you imagine the shock and disbelief when ninety-year old post-menopausal Sarah turned up pregnant? And when she had a son? He, Isaac, was now the heir. The heir gets it all. Talk about a plot-twist. Well, the heir does get it all, but of course, generous gifts and pledges can be made to other children.

Genesis 21:  ⁸ And the child grew, and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned. ⁹ And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking. ¹⁰ Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.

If only Hagar had listened to the angel. If she had submitted herself to Sarah and modeled respect and harmony for her wild child, it may not have come to this. Instead of being jealous and disrespectful, Ishmael could have been excited about a new half-brother and celebrated. But, instead, it wasn’t going to work out.

¹¹ And the thing was very grievous in Abraham’s sight because of his son. ¹² And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. ¹³ And also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed. ¹⁴ And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away: and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.

It always bothered me that rich Abraham sent them away with next to nothing- not even enough to survive long. But- Abraham had God’s promise that Ishmael would become a great nation- which means it was time to turn it over to his friend.

And God was ready to work another miracle:

¹⁵ And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs. ¹⁶ And she went, and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it were a bow shot: for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. And she sat over against him, and lift up her voice, and wept. ¹⁷ And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is. ¹⁸ Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great nation. ¹⁹ And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink. ²⁰ And God was with the lad; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer. ²¹ And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran: and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt.

Hagar and Ishmael departed Abraham’s house with nothing. This was so that they would know that Ishmael survived in the wilderness not because of inheritance from Abraham, but by the power of God. He became a great nation- a father of twelve princes- not because of the wealth and riches of Abraham, but of God. God was with the lad.

Ishmael’s descendants became the Arabs. Isaac’s became Israel. For many up to this present day- this was the start of the conflict. Ishmael was the rightful heir, they argue.

I suggest people still making this argument follow the example of the fathers they claim:

Genesis 25:  ⁸ Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people.  ⁹ And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, which is before Mamre;

In a poignant moment, the wild man and the miracle heir buried their father together. If there had been any animus, it was gone. God had blessed both sons of Abraham and a long co-existence was beginning for two great nations.

 

Proverbs 16:32 He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.