Auto Generated Transcript
I’m going to invite you to Genesis. Chapter 27 is where we’re at together today, Genesis chapter 27. And we’re going to be dealing with the third round of of a battle of manipulation between Jacob and Esau. That’s what Genesis 27 is. Uh, brothers fighting and and this time it’s their third fight. And and when I say third fight, we’re talking about a third, third fight over big deals here, right? Uh, we’ve read about their lives together in Genesis chapter 25. They were fighting from the womb. Scripture tells us, uh, in the very beginning, when they were born, they were born as twins. Esau was the first one born. Uh, Jacob came in second. But when he came out, he was grabbing the heel of his brother as if to if to say that he was wanting to to really pull his brother back or hold him down. His interest was to get ahead. And then you see them battle a little bit later in chapter 25, over, over a birthright. We talked about them being in their probably their teenage years, the way they handle this. Esau thought he was going to starve to death, but he really wasn’t. And he gave up his birthright over a bowl of lentil soup out of all soups, right? Like something is wrong with you. You give up your birthright over, over lentil soup. But that’s what he does. And now we’re going to read about, uh, Jacob deceiving his brother for for the blessing.
We’ll talk about the difference between those in a little bit. But when you read the story, it brings us to this place of really questioning what’s going to happen to the promise that God gave to Abraham and to his descendants based on the turmoil of the family in Genesis 27. It sort of gives the idea that everything’s hanging by the thread. The promises of God are hanging by a thread because this family is in disarray. There’s division and deceitfulness and and they’re angry to the point that they want to kill each other and, and what’s going to happen. And this promise was to bless all future people, groups and and how in the world can we we we we expect God to work in this situation. Like, have you ever gone through difficult circumstances in life? You might ask that question like, God, how can you work in this? I can’t even conceive in the midst of this darkness and brokenness and all the problems, how you could work in this and and why you would want to work in this. Like, what is it about you that does this, Lord? And and what we begin to discover through the story of Genesis 27 is not only how God intervenes, but what it means for our lives. As we look at our our own brokenness and understanding how to apply the grace of God as ointment to our soul, and what we really end up discovering is the true hero of the story.
While you while you’re going to read about Isaac and Rebecca and Jacob and Esau, the true hero of the story is God. But because he continues in his faithfulness despite what other people do around them. And so that’s why we’re we’re titling today. Um, I’m blessed despite my mess or maybe even asking the question, how am I blessed despite my mess? And I want you to know I kept today pretty simple. Normally I give you a series of, you know, fill in the blanks of some things as it relates to the topic. But today we’re just going to make two simple points. And the reason for it is because a lot of chapter 27 is negative, right? I’m thinking, man, I just don’t want to get into this. And people have to write like four negative points about it. We’re going to we’re going to talk about the turmoil of this family. You can write down extra notes if you want to write down, but we’re going to keep this simple and focusing on the midst of struggle. How am I blessed? How am I blessed despite my mess? And you see this in Genesis 27 as it starts to lay out for us. Point number one, we’re going to talk about the mess today. We’re going to talk about the mess in Genesis 27 verse one.
We start to see this mess unfolding with the life of Isaac. And it says, when Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called Esau his older son and said to him, my son. And he answered, here I am. And he said, behold, I am old. I don’t think that’s like the most obvious statement, right? Oh, I am old. I don’t know the day of my death. Now then, take your weapons, your quiver, and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me and prepare for me delicious food such as I love. And bring it to me so that I may eat. That my soul may bless you before I die. Isaac wanted to to bless the oldest son in this story, which is customary according to culture, right? That’s typically how that work. We talked about this together with the thought of the firstborn and past weeks that the father, when he would pass or before he would pass, he would bestow upon his son the the right of the firstborn. And and it was culturally assumed that the first oldest male child would receive the right of the firstborn. He would get a double portion of the inheritance of the family. And the reason for that is he also took the responsibility of caring for the family. And with that, the father would often give not just the right of the firstborn in the inheritance, but also a blessing for the future of the well-being of his family, as he takes the responsibility of caring for for the immediate family.
And here in the story, you see Isaac desiring to do that for Esau, which was customary, however. In reading the story about Isaac and Esau. What we’ve learned together is that God had told Rebekah in in Genesis chapter 25, verse 23, that he would bless the younger over the older. In fact, in verse 23 it says, here at the bottom, the older shall serve the younger. If you remember how the story went, Rebekah was pregnant. She felt trouble within her womb. So she prayed to the Lord. And God said, surprise, you’re not having one kid, you’re having two kids. And the reason you feel this tension in your womb right now is because, well, they’re fighting. That’s what he says. But but then God gives this promise that the older will serve the younger. But here in the story, you find out that that Isaac, rather than rather than bless the younger as God has said, he decides to bless the older Esau. And the question is, why would he do that? Why would he decide to do something contrary to what the Lord said? And I think there’s there’s a couple of possibilities you could postulate here. I’m going to tell you what I think the accurate conclusion is.
But but I’ll let you know. It’s it’s up to debate. All right. So this is not this is not told to us in this narrative. But you can kind of assume through some context clues, the way this is laying out why why Isaac’s decided to bless Esau instead of instead of Jacob. But but I think there’s a there’s a couple possibilities. One is Isaac is unaware of what God said about these two children. And the reason for that is because, um, when when Rebecca praised the Lord because of the problem within her womb, God answers Rebecca’s prayer and he tells her the older will serve the younger. But never do we find within the narrative that Rebecca then tells Isaac, God said this, so it’s possible Rebecca took that promise, and she kept it private to herself that God answered her prayer. And this is what God said. That’s possible that Isaac is ignorant in that way. Or or Rebecca told him like ten times, and he never retained it all. In fact, he can’t even he can’t even tell you, uh, who his kids doctors are. He has no idea who his kids teachers are. He didn’t even know the greatest that his kids are in. He’s lucky if he guesses their age. Right? Like, that’s that’s typical. Right. So that is possible. He’s he’s just unaware of the promise. Either she told him and he forgot or she never shared it with him.
Or Isaac is completely aware and determines that he wants to do what he desires rather than God. What God desires, what Isaac is actually doing. And this is what I tend to think is Isaac’s playing favorites. And the reason for that is because in Genesis 25 and verse 28, we found, um, Isaac and Rebecca did something terrible for children, okay, in reference to their own children. And that is, they played favorites. They picked favorites. That you should not do this with your kids, but this is what you find in Genesis 2528. Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game. But Rebecca loved Jacob, right? So so you see them kind of picking their favorites. Great way to mess kids up, right? Is picking a favorite as as parents. That is not the the fatherly love of God at all. Like God, God does not pick favorites. Um, now, some of us may experience a walk with the Lord that’s closer than others, but that’s not because God picks favorites. It’s because sin has this way of creating distance and relationship. It’s like you as a parent when you have kids, um, you know, if you if you’ve got one kid, you’re okay to pick a favorite, right? You got one. So you tell them, you’re my favorite of all my kids. You’re my favorite. But if you got two, that’s not reflective of the heart of God at all.
God’s love for us is a love in which he desires for our well-being. Right? He. God’s desire is to work things together for good to those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. That love is unconditional, sacrificial. It’s not about picking favorites that if you’re in Christ God’s for your desires to work all things together for good. Um, it’s it’s it’s reflective of the father’s love to demonstrate that kind of love. Now, it may be if you’ve got multiple kids, you’ve learned that there are some kids, that it becomes easier to enjoy that relationship and loving one another, because you don’t have to tell them things 100 times, right? Um, there’s not a rebellious spirit within them, but it doesn’t change how you feel towards them. In fact, one of the most beautiful passages, I think, that reflects the heart of a a father’s love towards his children is found in Luke 15 with the story of the prodigal son. Tim Keller does a wonderful job in talking about that, that parable. He says, we’ve we’ve mistitled it. It should never be referred to as the prodigal son, but rather it should be referred to as the prodigal father. The focus of that story is not really about the son, though. The the length of the story is is centered around him. The focus of the story is about the heart of the father, because in that story, the father has two sons, one who’s a legalistic religious person and the other is rebellious.
And when the child and rebellion runs away from the father, the father continues to open the door of. Relation to his child. He looks for his child. He longs for his child because the love of the father is to lavish his love on his child, so his child can flourish in that relationship. He wants the best for his child. Now the child doesn’t get to experience the goodness of that fellowship because he’s fled from the father and rebellion. But. But it’s the love of the father continued to be extended to his child that ultimately transforms the heart of the rebellious child. That when the child returns, he returns humble and the father celebrates with the party. Now the religious son is angry about that because what he wants the father to do is demonstrate a love that’s merited. But that’s not the heart of God at all. It’s the grace of God that transforms us. The only reason you are here today, and you have even a day to exist, is because the grace of God is made known in your life. The mercies of God are new every morning. That God pursued you with his life and in his love gave himself for you, that you can find freedom in him. It’s God’s love that transforms you. And so Isaac, in this story, he’s demonstrating a love that doesn’t reflect the father’s love.
In fact, it’s it’s really no love at all because love is unconditional. It’s sacrificial. But the question we can ask is, how does a parent do this to their children? And why would a parent do this to your children? And you see the answer really in chapter 25, verse 28, it tells you Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, saying, the quickest way to a man’s heart is through his belly, but rather what it’s really saying to you is, um, Isaac isn’t loving his children because of what he has to give. Isaac’s interest is completely selfish. Isaac’s care for his children is because of what he gets, which is a terrible way to to experience covenantal, relational love. And when you when the idea of a of a parent is not becoming a parent because of what your children give to you, but rather it’s investing your life in someone else, helping them become who God has called them to be. It’s a laying down of your life for for their well-being. And so Isaac is not reflecting this. In fact, Isaac is is being very deceptive in the way he’s going about this. I think Isaac is completely aware of the promise that God said in Genesis 2523. And the reason for it is because how he’s delivering this blessing to Esau, this should be something that the family celebrates.
This should be something that they gather together and they prepare some sort of meal where everyone is gathered to see this moment, where this blessing is handed down. Because this is this is a deathbed blessing from his father. This is something that’s to be honored among generations, but rather what Isaac is doing is he’s he’s doing this in the corner saying to us that Isaac is aware of the promises of God. Therefore, this is why he’s not celebrating among other people. He’s keeping it private with he and his son. He’s doing this in a dark corner. And so because of that, it’s creating all sorts of adversity within, within the family. And in this moment then Rebecca becomes aware of of what Isaac’s doing, being selfish and in his response, disobedient to the Lord, keeping things hidden. And now Rebecca responds in this, and we’re going to read verse five down to verse 17 to hear how Rebecca now interacts. It says, Rebecca was listening when Isaac spoke to his son. See, she’s it sort of gives this idea that she’s off, but she’s in close proximity to at least hear what’s taking place. And it just perks her interest because she knows this is not what God said. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for the game and bring it, Rebecca said to her son, Jacob, I heard your father speak to your your brother Esau.
Bring me game and prepare for me delicious food, that I may eat it and bless you before the Lord, before I die. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice as I command you. Go to the flock and bring me two good young goats, so that I may prepare from them delicious food for your father, such as he loves. And you shall bring it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies. But Jacob said to Rebecca, his mother, behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. This is weird. It’s getting weird. Perhaps my father will feel me and I. It’s getting weirder. He shall fill me and I shall. I shall seem to be mocking him and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing. And his mother said to him, let your curse be on me, my son. Only obey my voice and go, bring them to me. Verse 14. So he went and took them and brought them to his mother. And his mother prepared delicious food such as his father loved. Then Rebecca took the best garments of Esau, her older son, which which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob, her younger son, and the skins of the young goats she put on his hands, and on the smooth part of his neck, and she put the delicious food and the bread which she had prepared into the hand of her son.
Jacob. Let me just say, in case you ever, um. In case you’re ever in a situation where wearing goat hair sounds like an option, you need to reconsider your priorities. But this is where Rebecca has gotten to, and it’s interesting when you consider what Rebecca’s doing now as as Isaac has responded deceitfully, creating division. Rebecca reacts the same way. But when you when you read about the story of Rebecca, if you remember in Genesis chapter 24, we were introduced to Rebecca at the end of Abraham’s life. He looked at his servant and said, I want you to go find a future bride for for my son Isaac. And the servant went off with ten camels, and he came to this well. And he finds Rebecca there, and we learn about her. She was a a beautiful young lady, full of compassion, hospitality. She was a hard worker. I mean, we talked about when camels stopped to drink, their average amount of gallons they would drink is about 20 to 30 gallons per camel. I mean, that’s a that’s a lot of pulling water out of a well. And she didn’t even know this servant at the time. And she was willing to to minister that way. Uh, it speaks beautifully to the integrity of her character. But but it’s also a reminder that just because you start well doesn’t mean you finish well.
In fact, I’ve encouraged you in recent weeks that God’s more interested in where you finish than where you start, and that God wants to do a work in your heart that unites you and him for his glory, for all the days of your life. And and God secures you in him. And that’s what God desires to do. But just because you start well doesn’t mean you finish well. And even in the midst of that, we can have situations where we just lose sight of what it is that God desires. And you see this with Rebecca, she’s eavesdropping. And I think the reason she responds the way that she she does is that she panics. She gets to this place of anxiety, of worry, of fear, and she feels like now God needs me to step in and rescue him, right? Like, um, God’s been good up to this point. You can go back through their family history and see generations of God’s faithfulness to their family in the midst of hardship. When things look bleak, circumstances around them weren’t going well. God still showed up and delivered again and again and again, even when they were the ones making the mistake. God, by his grace, was always there. And now all of a sudden, it’s as if Rebecca forgets about the goodness of God and what he has promised and determines to take matters in her own hand out of worry, fear, anxiety, and concern.
The text never tells us that specifically, but a couple of reasons. I think that this is why Rebecca is responding the way she is. If you look at the end of chapter 26, the last two verses, and you look at the end of chapter 27, the last two verses, it recognizes something about Esau. Esau married multiple women. And it says within the end of chapter 26 that Esau and his brides made life bitter for Isaac and Rebecca. And at the end of chapter 27 it repeats it again that she says, I loathe my life because of the Hittite women that Esau married. And so I think Rebecca knows that this blessing is for generations to come. And she sees the godlessness within Esau, and she’s concerned. And so she feels she needs to usurp the the hand of God, as if to live like she’s God in order to produce the result that the Lord wants. And here’s what you find in the family deceit and division. In fact, the word division literally means two visions. They’re not on the same page at all, Isaac and Rebecca. And because of this, the consequence is it divides their family to the point that they’re they’re feuding and want to kill each other. You’ll see at the end of this, um, thinking that what they wanted was best or what she wanted was best, she now runs the risk of tearing the family apart, and she she buys into the old thought.
We tend to think this as people that the ends justifies the means, right? Well, my intentions are good, and we’ll just. Wait a minute. Let me just get to the results. You know, as soon as we get to the results, we’ll go back to following God again. But let me let me get to this successful point first, and then we’ll turn our ear to what God desires. But but can I tell you, as in the life of the believer, that what God’s interested in in you is not the fruit you produce? Because the Bible tells us it’s the Lord that produces the fruit in your life. That’s not your job. It’s his job, rather what the Bible calls you to do. Get this John 15 verse five gives you one command. It says, Abide in him and he and you. And the result of that is you will bear much fruit, not because of what you do, but because of what he does through you. The call of the believer is not manifest fruit. That’s never been your call, the call of the believer. It’s to surrender your heart to the Lord. What God? What God is interested in is not what you do. What God is interested in is who you’re becoming. Because who you’re becoming will lead to what you do and the fruit it produces. What God wants is your heart.
So what God desires as we surrender our hearts to him is to walk with us through that process. And then he, he is the one that that produces the fruit. So the end isn’t about justifying the means, but rather the opposite of that. Rather than look to the end, we look to where our heart is in the moment and trust in the Lord. It’s important for for all of God’s people to to to focus our heart on on being who God calls us to be so that our lives produce the fruit that only God can produce in us. But what you discover in the life of Rebecca is fear may be motivated with a little bit of selfishness. I mean, her intentions, her desire, uh, may be honorable, but the the way that she’s going about it completely ignores how God desires to to do it. God’s. The same could be true with the church. Can I tell you the church can always run the risk of losing focus of its mission to know maybe what God desires to do, but but to pursue it for the the wrong way. Meaning the Bible tells us the Word of God doesn’t return void. When when the church loses sight of the importance of God’s Word, it will resort to gimmicks and what you win people with, you keep them with that. There’s all kinds of methods you can employ in this world, but none of it should take precedent from the truthfulness of what God says.
And this is what it’s saying in the in the life of Rebecca. God has given this word. Why? Why feel like you need to step in the position of God and be deceitful in the circumstance? Fear, worry, concern and the fear of God never, never leads to healthy or excuse me, the fear of God, the the fear of circumstance will not lead to healthy walk in the Lord. And Rebecca is stepping in that and and the result it’s producing. It’s contrary to what the Lord desires to do. I mean, we can even do this with preferences. That we we focus on the mission of what God has created his church to do. God desires to work in a unity among his people. That’s how God moves, not in division. God wants to work in a unity of his people, understanding the mission for which he has called us on. There’s some beautiful passages in the book of acts that describes the church as they walk in unity of what God desires to do in acts chapter two. It tells us very early in the beginning of the church, it says they were devoted to one another, and the breaking of bread and the fellowship and the word of God having all things in common. And then it says in verse 47, and the Lord added to them day by day those who were being saved.
What it’s saying is this community became contagious, but not in a Covid 19 way, like in a in a good, healthy, wholesome way that it was making such an impact to see the love that they had and the mission they were living for the Lord, that people came to know Christ through, that people knew that they were missing something. And this is what brought them in to hear the the Word of God taught to be united together on that mission for his purpose and glory. Me. Acts 13. When the Apostle Paul and Barnabas were called on their first missionary journey, they didn’t look at the church and say, we’re going to go do this. But rather God’s people gathered together and were praying, and they laid hands on Paul and Barnabas, and and God united them and calling them on mission for the Lord. And God desires to work in unity among his people, not the ends justify the means. And sometimes we can have this tendency of making the church about my priorities, my preferences. That’s not the mission of the church. And by the way, that’s not you guys. Okay? That is not you guys. One time I shared this story. First service. I may not share this third service. It depends how this goes over, but but one time I had this I had this particular person that about every other week would come to me and tell me what they thought I needed to do in order to serve them better on Sunday.
They would, I mean, critique everything. And and finally they looked at me one Sunday and said, this is before we had this entire interior completed. They looked at me and said, as we were, we were working on the stage, finalizing the stage. They said, if you ever paint the stage black, I’ll never go to a church that paints the stage black. And then that Sunday I went and bought this paint called Black Magic and it and it made someone disappear. And look, look, I’m saying look, it’s that’s that’s not nice, right? But at least you know the name of the paint. But look. We it’s okay to have your preferences. It’s okay to, you know, maybe you grew up in a certain kind of church that was done a certain kind of way. And as a, as a child, you connected to God that way. And sometimes you long for that. Those things are okay. There are certain music that important to you when you came to know the Lord that you love to sing, all those things are fine. But man, the mission that God’s called us on to reach souls, that’s far more important to not make our preferences create the division that stops the body of Christ from doing what God desires to do among us.
And I’m not saying this as a complaint, like it has been a pleasure to be a pastor at Alpine Bible Church with the hearts of God’s people, because I think we’re a very missional, focused church. But to also understand sometimes we can lose perspective of that. That’s what Rebecca did. But let me just say this to kind of put things in in perspective for us. Out of all the places you could live in America, do you realize you live in the lowest percentage of a population of mainstream Christianity out of any other county in the world? Or, excuse me, in the United States, your walk with Jesus matters and to make the the desire of what God desires, what he wants to do in you and through you a priority and live that out. But you see that Rebecca is doing the the opposite of that in this in this moment. She’s driven maybe by fear or concern or worry. And the text doesn’t specifically say that. But the way the way the story unfolds between the end of chapter 26 and 27, you might think that her heart has that concern. And so she’s she’s trying to take the position of God and force these things to happen. She’s coming up with these gimmicks as if God needs her help. And the Word of God is what transforms the hearts of people. And not only that, I got to move quicker.
You got Jacob here, right? Let me let me just read this quickly with Jacob. Jacob falls in the same pattern in verse 12. I want you to see this when when Rebecca comes to Jacob and tells Jacob what she wants to do, look at Jacob’s concern. He says, perhaps my father will fill me in verse 12, and I shall seem to be mocking him, and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing. Can I just tell you the unhealth of this kind of statement? Jacob’s concern isn’t the fact that he’s dishonoring his father and being dishonoring to the Lord, but rather his concern is what if I get caught? That’s that is his worry. That’s his worry and that’s unhealthy. But truth be told, that’s how we treat sin a lot of times in our lives that when we think about the destruction of sin, this is what we tend to think. Oh Lord, I don’t want to get found out. I’ll be embarrassed, right? Or oh, I hurt them. You know, it impacted them. That makes me feel bad. I’m sorry for hurting you. And if you hurt somebody else. I’m glad that you feel sorry for hurting someone else, but can I tell you what makes sin? Sin is not hurting someone else, although that’s a consequence of it. What makes sin is it’s always an affront to God first. Now Jacob is lying in this story and what would be healthy would be Jacob saying to his mom, mom, I don’t want to do that because I’m lying to the Lord by doing that, right? But and here’s the reason why anytime we ever sin, it’s always first a sin against God.
Because, well, in terms of lying, God is a truth teller. And when God’s given us truth and when we’re not willing to tell the truth and live in the truth, we’re denying the one who created us in his image, who is the Lord. And not only that, because what Jacob’s doing, it’s destroying relationships and it’s dishonoring to his father. And when it’s dishonoring to his father, it’s always first dishonoring to God. Because God made people in his image. And God foreordained that Isaac would be his father. And so to dishonor that relationship and to dishonor Isaac as a person is ultimately to dishonor God, who is the creator of all life. And so the correct response isn’t, oh, what if I get caught? The correct response is to think about the heart of God, and so it reveals to you where where Jacob’s heart is. And he goes on in verse 18 it says, so he went into his father and said, my father. And he said, here I am. Who are you, my son? And Jacob said to his father, I am Esau, your first born. So not only is he lying about being Esau, but he’s also pointing out I’m here for the firstborn, right? I’ve done as you have told me, and I’ll sit up and eat of my game, that your soul may bless me.
But Isaac said to his son, how is that? You have found it so quickly, my son? He answered, because the Lord your God granted me success. Look at this now he’s lying to the point that he’s representing God. And notice the way he describes God in this passage. He doesn’t say My God. Rather, he’s recognizing in this story, Jacob, I don’t think he’s a believer. He’s simply referring to the relationship of the Lord. But before his father, you know your God, not my God, your God, your God has given me success. Can I can I just tell you, um, James, chapter three, verse one warns us, it says in Scripture, um, that teachers will be held to a higher standard, that when you represent God, that is not something to take lightly. Now, that’s not saying don’t represent God or don’t teach about God, but rather it should bring us to the sobering reality. When I say anything on behalf of God, I want to make sure that it’s truth, that it represents him well. And Jacob is not doing this story, he says. Then Isaac said to Jacob, please come near, that I may fill you, my son, to to know whatever you are really my son Esau or not.
And then he says, verse 22. So Jacob went near to Isaac, his father, who felled him, and said, the voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands of the hands of Esau. And he did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands. So he blessed him. And he said, are you really my son Esau? And he answered, I am. And lying to his father. Why in the world would he lie just that blatantly just lying to his father? And then he said, bring it near to me, that I may eat of my son’s game and bless you. So he brought it near to him, and he ate it, and he brought him wine, and he drank. And his father said to him, come near me and kiss me, my son, can I just tell you this? A little side note, but one of the things I was really thankful for in reading this passage is grocery stores. So they reading all the effort that went into making all of this stuff, man, I’ll just go down the street and go home and cook. Um, 27 so he came near and kissed him, and Isaac smelled the smell of his garments and blessed him and said, see, the smell of my son is the smell of the field, and the Lord has blessed. And may God give you of the dew of heaven, of the fatness of the earth, and the plenty of grain and wine.
Let people serve you and nations bow down to you. Be Lord over your brothers, and may your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you. And as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out of the presence of Isaac, his father Esau his brother, came in from from hunting. Close call. Right. But, but but here he is, Jacob, in this story, he’s experiencing the the good hand of God. But but the question still remains like God’s God is going to be. Let me just say it like this. God’s grace is going to be made known in the midst of the struggle. But but the question really is, and why would you lie to your father? What would lead you to be so deceiving that you would pretend to be someone that you’re not? And the results of this is destructive. Pretending to be someone, not lying, especially to your dad. It’s destructive. You see in verse 35 and going a little bit faster here, but verse 35, Esau comes in to his dad and it says, his dad said, your brother came deceitfully. He’s taken away your blessing. And he said, is it not rightly named Jacob for has cheated me these two. Few times. Yakub. Yakub Yakub is actually a play on words. A cove is a cab and a cab.
These words mean heel, grabber and deceitful. So is this play on words Esau saying he is that heel grabber. He is deceitful, free is cheating me. These two times he took away my birthright and behold, now he’s taken away my blessing. Then he said, have you not reserved a blessing for me? So what he’s identifying is not just the birthright, which is. It has more to do with the the inheritance, earthly inheritance of this world, but also the blessing which is more focused on the the spiritual component for the future of the family. He’s saying both of these have been robbed. For me, that deceitfulness of Jacob means he can’t be trusted because he can’t be trusted. Nothing he says can be believed, and this destroys their relationship because the same thing is true for you. You know, good leadership understands that God’s got you in a place to influence. You don’t have to have a title to be a leader. God’s got you in a position in this world to influence others relationships around you, whatever, wherever you’re at, as you interact with people, God’s got you in a place to influence, and your influence is only going to be as good as you can be trusted, because that trust is what gives you a foundation for people to believe what you say. Now, it doesn’t mean that if you mess up, you can’t rebuild that trust.
But that takes time. But to understand that the preciousness of the trust that you have in the lives of people, to use it to honor the Lord for their well being. You know, recently we had a quote in our small group this past week. We’re reminded of this where it says the single greatest cause of atheism are those who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out and deny them by their lifestyle. It’s what an unbelieving world finds unbelievable. The credibility of what you stand for is demonstrated in the way that you live your life. And this is destroyed for Jacob. And not only that. Verse 41 Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him. And Esau said to himself, the days of mourning for my father are approaching, and I will kill my brother. I mean, it destroyed. It brought death, it destroyed, and brought death to family relationship between brother and brother. And it looks like it could literally lead to physical death. Why would you lie to your father? Why, Jacob, would you pretend to be something that you’re not? But before you throw stones at Jacob, can I just tell you that his pattern of behavior is exactly what Scripture says about all of us? We do the same thing. We will live behind a lie in order to pretend to be something that we’re not. Um, there’s a famous painting by Norman Rockwell of a butcher and a lady who goes to the store to buy a turkey, and at first, at first, it looks great, these two interacting, putting it on the scale until you look at their fingers, and then you realize they’re both playing the game of trying to give the appearance of it’s something you’re not one.
One of them wants the the turkey to be a little bit lighter, and the other one wants it to be a little bit heavier because they’re interested in how they can serve themselves. It’s self motivated, right? The Bible tells us that the same things and the serving of yourself, you don’t. You’ll never receive what it is that God desires to do in you and through you. And there’s reasons we may react for our own selfish interests. One could be out of fear and concern, not really knowing God’s heart for us. Adam and Eve did that in the Garden of Eden. Remember in Genesis three they sinned. They messed up. What do they do? Out of worry and concern, they take matters in their own hands and they cover themselves up for the purpose of appearing better than the circumstances. Are they put on the fig leaves as if to say to God, look, God, everything’s all right. They they wanted deceive. And Jesus in the New Testament warned us over and over. He liked to use this word hypocrite or hypocrisy, which is really a word for an actor playing a part of something that you aren’t.
And in Matthew seven, A sermon on the Mount, he said, you hypocrite, take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. Or he’s saying, look, we’re always quick to to point the blame and saying justice for them. And we fail to see how much grace we need in our own life. And Jesus is acknowledging that, that if you really want to see the heart of God working, he’s got to start with you and looking at your need for the Lord. We tend to think as people, we’re a lot better than we believe that we are, right? We tend to say, as long as you’re good, that’s all that matters, right? Just be a good person. But then you look at the extent that Jesus was willing to go to rescue you. It screams at you that there is something direly wrong with this world. And and what we need that it requires God to become flesh and die for us. It just simply say, oh, just be good. That’s all that matters. Undermines the sacrifice that Christ made for your life. He came for a reason to rescue your soul. And so we tend to, to make light of of the white lies that we tell because we compare ourselves to one another, the the tolerance of immodesty within our own culture, because we call it entertainment.
The. Jealousy, the the fits of anger that may not be expressed on the outside that we have on the inside compared to one another. We we might be able to keep this appearance up to play the part, but before a holy God. For a holy God, it’s important to understand where we are. And Jesus reminds us of this in this passage. He says in verse 27 of chapter 23 of Matthew. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead man’s bones. It’s like saying the facade of religion. It looks it looks nice on the outside, but when you get on the inside, you realize there is no substance there. There is no life there, that it’s only Christ who who truly brings that life. And the religious leaders hated Jesus for this, because they were more interested in what people thought about them than the truth that Jesus spoke to them. And therefore their hearts were never truly transformed. So where’s the hope in this? I need to get to the hope. I got six minutes to give you hope, so let’s do that. All right. Um, the last part, the blessing. Here’s the blessing, and here’s what we learn. You could ask the question why? When? When Jacob got discovered, why didn’t why didn’t they take the blessing away? Why didn’t he call a time out and say, family meeting.
Let’s get back in here. I got tricked, haha. Um, we’re going to we’re going to redo this. We’re going to rewind this and give the blessing to Esau now, which is what I intended to do. Why didn’t he do that? I think for a few reasons. One, this was customary culture on a on a deathbed blessing. There was no there was no takes backseat. All right. There was no there was no, that’s not that’s not how the culture, uh, honored this, that once you gave a deathbed blessing, it was sealed. It was done. But not only that, I think Isaac ultimately knew what God’s heart was. And for him, it was like, ah, he got me. The Lord got me right. Like the Lord has this incredible way of still being faithful when we aren’t. God had promised that he would bring this blessing through the younger child. In fact, in Hebrews chapter 12, verse 16 and 17, it tells us Esau was an ungodly man. He never repented, didn’t know the Lord, and so God divinely orchestrated this despite how he work. You ever ask the question, God, how can you work in the midst of this difficulty? Why would you work? It’s not because of you. It’s because of the faithfulness of his good hand. It’s because of the greatness of who he is and his grace and love.
It’s not contingent upon us. He will orchestrate all things together for good. God can continue to work in his. He doesn’t need us. It’s wonderful if you walk with him, but it’s important to see how God in his sovereignty can still orchestrate things together for his good. And this is what happens in the life of, of of Jacob, that this, this covenant blessing becomes a demonstration of God’s grace and his faithfulness, that that God desires to work this way. And God orchestrates these things to work this way, despite what people choose to do or don’t do. It’s demonstrating that God is the main character of the story causing to come about even though they’re they’re acting sinfully, causing to come about what he desires to to accomplish in this world. And the same thing is true for us, you might ask, well, this is great for Jacob, but what does this mean for me? Why does this blessing for Jacob? What does it have anything to do with me? And I would say the answer is every thing. It has everything to do for you, for you. Because if you remember the promise, it started with Abraham, that through him would come a seed that would bless all people groups. And here we’re reading about this story. Even in the brokenness of family, that God continues to be faithful from one generation to the next, to bring about what he desires to bring about for the for the salvation of people groups that that we would have the opportunity to know him.
So so it’s important to us to see in the midst of this broken, this brokenness of this family that we are to. We are more sinful than we often dare confess. We tend to be actors in the play, but. But in addition to that, we’re also more loved than we could ever fathom in the hands of God. And that’s what gives us hope. The God, even though he knows we’re sinners and despite our sinfulness, would still pursue us and would still give his life for us, that we would have freedom in him. And so because of that, the blessing that has come through Abraham and Isaac and Jacob is extended to you today, in fact. And I want to read one verse in this, but in Ephesians chapter one, verse three, it says this. Look at this. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who look at this, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Now I don’t have time to go on and describe to you every spiritual blessing and what that means, but I want you to know you have every spiritual blessing in Christ. If you want to go, read it later this week. Ephesians chapter one, verse three is where it starts.
The end of that, describing that blessing doesn’t end until verse 14. It’s the longest sentence in the Bible describing to you what every spiritual blessing is. It’s what gives literary teachers a nightmare. Grammar teachers a nightmare. It’s a run on sentence on top of a run on sentence, on top of a run on sentence that the apostle Paul writes. But he wants you to understand your position in Christ, that secure for eternity, because you’re sealed in the spirit and you belong to him forever. This incredible blessing. Now notice it doesn’t talk about the physical blessing in this. It’s literally just referring to the spiritual blessing. Because in Jesus’s first coming, he is spiritually renewed our lives in him, but in his second coming he restores all of creation. But the reality is it gives us, us people, a place of hope that in the midst of our own brokenness, we ask God, how could you work? Why would you work? The answer is simple it’s not you, but it’s because of the faithfulness and the goodness of who he is. So no matter what you go through, you can always keep taking a step forward because of who you are in Christ. If you belong to him, every spiritual blessing belongs to you.