Good morning. How are y 'all doing today? Amen.
Today is our baptism day. I'm so excited to be
able to share this with, I mean, as a church,
to share it with those of you that are getting
baptized today. But if you didn't sign up to
get baptized today, in between now and the time
we invite you all up, the Lord tells you, you
need to get baptized today. I just want you to
know you can do that. We have clothes in the
back you can change into, and so don't let the
Lord dissuade you if he's leading you to do that.
But I am Pastor Nathan, and I just want to say
welcome to everybody that is joining us here
for the first time today. Or if you're joining
us online for the first time, we just want to
say welcome. We're so glad you're here to worship
with us here at Hosanna. And so today we're going
to be talking about something that none of us
have ever experienced, okay? It's called family
drama. Nobody's experienced that, right? Yeah,
we have all experienced family drama in one way
or the other. Every family has it. It's practically
a rite of passage to be alive in this world.
And one of the most common versions of family
drama is sibling rivalry. Growing up, me and
my brother Norman, we were experts in sibling
rivalry. We fought over toys. We fought over
the Nintendo. When mom and dad were gone, we
shot each other with the BB guns across the hallway.
And then the parents would come home and go,
why are they BB? embedded in your bedroom door
and we'd be like, they just happened to show
up there, you know? When I was a teenager, my
best friend Dan and I were very much into wrestling
and there was a wrestler at that time named the
Ultimate Warrior. And so again, when mom and
dad would leave, we would take all the pillows
and mattresses and couch cushions of the house
and cover the floor with them and then make my
brother and his friends be our opponents. And
a whole lot of fun for us. Not so much for him,
but... You know, our rivalry would just go on
and on and on, and my brother had a temper. We
called him Stormin Norman because he would lose
it, right? And he came after me at times with
the dog chain, just swinging that thing around.
He came at me with a hammer a couple times, and,
you know, maybe there was a couple times he came
at me with a knife. And so good news, he's not
a serial killer, okay? He is actually a pastor
now. And so we're very blessed at what God does
in people's lives through just the power of Jesus
Christ. But the Bible, you know, this book we
have that is God's word to us, it doesn't hold
back on stories of family drama within the families
of those that are his people. You know, as we've
gone through Genesis, we've looked at Abraham's
life. And, you know, we started with the family
drama with Adam and Eve and came. and Abel. And
then we get to Abraham, and you have the drama
with Sarah and Hagar. And then there was the
drama between Ishmael and Isaac. And then as
you go through the Old Testament, you get things
like King David and all of his sons and family
was just a mess. You get to King Solomon, right?
And his life is an episode of Real Housewives
of Jerusalem. It's just nuts, you know, the drama
that you see throughout the families of God's
people. But one of the... most well -known or
likely most well -known stories of family drama
and sibling rivalry is the story of Jacob and
Esau. It is a long story that takes place through
many chapters of Genesis, and really, it's a
snapshot of Isaac's family life. And if we were
to summarize that whole life, we would say Isaac's
family life is a textbook on how not to do family.
But beneath all of the drama and the dysfunction
is a bigger story. It's a story of God's unrelenting
plan to sanctify his people, even through their
dysfunction and their deception and their drama.
It's also a story about how despite our weaknesses
and our failures and our selfish actions that
we could take at times, God does not and will
never quit calling us back to his will. He will
never stop bringing what he started in our lives
to completion, as the Bible tells us. And that
is an incredible hope. It's not a license to
be dramatic. It's not a license to cause drama,
of course. But the hope of knowing that when
we mess it up royally, when we just do everything
wrong, God's will, God's promises are gonna come
true because they're not based on us. See, one
of the most hopeful verses in all of scripture
is found in 2 Timothy 2 .13, and it says this.
If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for
he cannot deny himself. That is one of the most,
if not the most hopeful verse in all of scripture
because what that tells us and what the story
we're looking at today in Genesis is all about
is that God keeps his promises. His will will
be done even when his kids totally blow it because
his faithfulness to himself is based on himself,
not on us and not based upon what we do. But
before we get into that later on, we're going
to spend some time in worship now because we
want to just... Praise God. We want him to know
our gratitude and our thankfulness. That's why
we worship God, to just say, Lord, you're so
awesome. You're so almighty. You're so beautiful.
You're so wonderful. And we get to do that through
song. And so we're going to spend time together
as a body to do that before we get into the Bible
study this morning. But first, join me in prayer.
Father, we're so grateful to you. We're so grateful,
Lord, that you sent your son to this earth to
die for us. Jesus, we're so grateful that you
lived a perfect life that is then attributed
to us through our faith in you, God. Lord, none
of this is stuff we deserve, but Lord, we're
so grateful because you know how dysfunctional
we are. You know the drama that we bring into
our own lives, Lord, through our sin nature,
and yet, God, despite all of that, the promises
you have made to us as your people, Lord. The
promises you have made to those who trust in
you, who have put their faith in you for their
life and their salvation and their eternal hope,
those promises are unwavering. Your will will
be done because you are God Almighty, Lord. And
for those of us that just are struggling or have
had struggle or God are gonna be struggling in
the future, may we hang on to those promises,
Lord, that you are faithful even when we are
faithless because you cannot deny yourself. Lord,
we love you. We want to just worship you now.
God, just speak to us in our hearts. Let us speak
to you through our words and our song, Lord.
Be blessed. We love you so much. It's in Jesus'
name we pray. Amen. We are going to be primarily
in Genesis 27 this morning. We are starting in
the last couple verses of Genesis 26. But as
I said, we're talking about family drama because
that is what the life of Isaac's family is all
about. Family drama. You know, as we saw last
time in Genesis 26, Isaac has learned the valuable
lesson for his life that God was with him. So
Isaac, as a man, as the son of the promise, now
carrying forth all those blessings forward, he
didn't need to fear. He didn't need to worry.
He didn't need to worry about trying. to figure
things out and lie to protect himself and all
these things because God had said to him, proven
to him, that my presence is with you always in
every situation. And so I'm sure Isaac lived
a life with that. But as he got older, we're
going to see as we get into Genesis 27, he grew
to start struggling with, and maybe he struggled
with it his whole life, but the struggle was,
I know God is with me, but I still want to get
my own way anyways. Anybody identify with that?
Right. Another thing none of us have ever struggled
with, right? And so, but the background to Genesis
27, really the background of showing us how the
ongoing family drama in Isaac's life that began
with his sons continued through other things
that happened in their family. So if you read
with me in Genesis chapter 26, verse 34. It says,
when Esau was 40 years old, he took as his wives
Judith, daughter of Beri the Hethite, and Basemath,
daughter of Elon the Hethite. They made life
bitter for Isaac and Rebekah. These two verses
set the stage for what we're going to see in
chapter 27. They set the stage for Isaac's personal
struggles, his own wrestling with how to follow
God and get his own way and all of that. It creates
the stage for how all of that spills over into
his family and the ongoing family drama that
he deals with. And primarily what we read here
is that his older son, the son that Isaac favored,
even though God had specifically said Jacob was
the one that God was going to choose, this son
goes on to marry pagan women. So earlier in his
life, he sold his birthright for a bowl of stew.
Now he brings pagan women into the family. And
so when it says Hethites there, the other word
for that is Hittites. That might be the one you're
more familiar with, is that these Hittite women
that came from a culture of paganism, they worshiped
false gods. And so Esau thought, those would
be good women to marry and bring into my family
that worships God with my dad, who is the son
of the promise. Obviously, culture clash, it
tells us right there that they made life bitter.
for Isaac and Rebecca. That word bitter means
distastefully unpleasant, okay? You ever tasted
something bitter? Yeah, it's pretty distastefully
unpleasant. And so it just was drama in their
life. And so then we get to Genesis chapter 27
in verse one. It says, when Isaac was old and
his eyes were so weak that he could not see,
he called his older son Esau and said to him,
my son. And he answered, here I am. He said,
look. I am old and do not know the day of my
death. So now take your hunting gear, your quiver
and bow, and go out into the field to hunt some
game for me. Then make me a delicious meal that
I love and bring it to me to eat so that I can
bless you before I die. So we do kind of a time
jump from chapter 26 into chapter 27. Isaac is
now in the later years of his life. And what
we're gonna see here is he's not only visually
impaired, his eyesight has gotten bad, but he's
also spiritually impaired. See, what we know
from Isaac, even all the way back through Genesis
25 and 26, is that he was a man that was fond
of the comforts of life. And what we're gonna
see in this chapter is that he had grown to be
real fond of the comforts of life, meaning that
he loved good food. He loved his older son because
he was the one that could go out and hunt game
and bring in good food. We saw that in Genesis
25, 28, where we're specifically told that Isaac
favored Esau. modern language, because he could
barbecue, right? Now, that's a, people that could
barbecue well, yeah, I love you too, you know,
it's, good barbecue is great, but his priorities
were out of whack. That also, as Isaac's life
progressed, I believe that that lesson about
God is always with me, he never doubted. He never
let go of that lesson, but As he got older, even
though God is always with me, God's presence
is with me, I don't have to fear, I don't have
to worry. Still, physical, practical things are
more important to me than the spiritual things.
In fact, what's more important to me than the
character of my older son is the fact that he
could barbecue well. And so he's like, I'm gonna
bless you. I know you sold your birthright to
Jacob, your younger brother. I even know that
God prophesied before you guys were born that
you were gonna serve Jacob. but you're the one
I want to bless. And so go make me a good meal
so I can bless you before I die. Now, I believe
his blindness probably likely made him very reliant
on his family. You know, it's like if you've
ever had somebody in your household that is handicapped
or disabled, obviously they become very reliant,
especially if you can't see, you're helping them
around the house and stuff. And then unfortunately,
what we see here is he's calling out to his older
son and saying, come here, I have a plan that
I want to enact. Because, you know, when people
are handicapped and relying like that, sometimes
it can become quite demanding. about what they
want and how. When I was growing up, my father
was disabled. He had multiple sclerosis and a
whole list of other things. And in the later
years of his life, he had lost the use of his
hands and lost the use of his feet. And so he
was wheelchair bound. And then eventually was
completely reliant on my mom, who was his full
-time caretaker to, you know, we had one of those
cranes and lifts to lift him into the bed and
back into the wheelchair. And so as the years
went on and he became more and more dependent,
he also got a little bit more demanding. demanding
and belligerent on stuff. And, you know, I remember
in my early 20s, you know, he would be in the
back bedroom and he'd be calling out, Landa!
Landa! Just screaming across the house. And,
you know, my mom would go in and, hey, what's
up? You know, what do you need? But for anybody
that's ever been a caretaker, I'm sure you've
experienced that there's those times where you're
just kind of out of patience, you know, and it
gets really rough. And so there'd be times where
he would be screaming, Landa! And then my mom
on the other side of the house would go, what?
And they would have this back and forth. Now,
that was, you know, entertaining as it was for
me, just watching this scream match go back and
forth. But my mom had this parrot in Amazon,
one of those big green and yellow parrots. And
the funniest thing that I've ever experienced
in my life was one day they're having their screaming
match and then it's all quiet and the parrot
goes, Linda! Linda! And then starts going, what?
What, what, what, what, what, what? And that
didn't make my mom any less angry at the time,
because now the bird's screaming at her too,
but that has nothing to do with the study. I
just thought it was hilarious. But Isaac here,
he's blind, he's dependent, but we're gonna see
a little bit of stubborn pride in him because
he's trying to enact a plan to do an end around
God's will. Now, although he lives to 180 years
old, it tells us that later in Genesis, the thought
is that he's about 137 years old right now in
the chronology of his life. And so he still has
another 40 years or so of life to live, but still,
he's an old man. He's saying, I gotta get my
affairs in order. I gotta start setting things
up. Here's the problem, he knew the history of
his sons. He knew about the womb wrestling, he
knew about the birthright stealing, and I believe
he knew because I believe his wife told him about
the prophecy that the younger son is gonna rule
over the older son. He knew about all of that,
but he had his favorite. Isaac, we're told, his
favorite was Esau, the son of strength, the son
of power. And so Isaac here is launching a secret
plan to bless him instead, despite what God had
said. Now, if you ever have a clear word from
the Lord about anything, and you go, I don't
like that. I guarantee that if you try and figure
out a secret way to get around God's will, you
will lose, okay? Period, end of story, right?
That's what we're gonna see here in the story.
But still, like Isaac, there's many times where
we think, well, if I do this and I do this and
I do this, maybe I could do an end around God's
will. And this is what Isaac is doing. So we
have here Esau, the not. chosen son, who married
pagan wives, who sold his birthright because
it had no value to him, who really showed no
spiritual depth in his life as a member of this
is God's family here, he is the one that Isaac
chooses. And we might ask the question, why?
Well, it's very simple. Isaac had stopped thinking
spiritually. He wasn't thinking in terms of the
things that were important to God at this point.
He was thinking in terms of what he wanted. He
wanted his favorite son to inherit the blessing.
And so he admired Esau's strength. He admired
Esau's manliness. Remember we talked about how
he was that outdoors guy that liked to go hunting
and hiking and all that stuff. And Isaac is letting
all of that external physical stuff outweigh
what's really important. That outward stuff is
way more important than God's character. Now,
this isn't an Esau compared to Jacob thing, because
Jacob's a punk too, but we'll get to that. This
is Esau compared to what he should be as a godly
man, what Isaac should be, what he saw in his
grandfather Abraham as Esau was living, but this
is the one that Isaac wants. And so he tells
him, hey, go hunt, make me a meal, and I can
bless you before I die. Now, Isaac here is pouring
all his energy into the wrong thing. All his
energy here is being poured into, I want to get
my way, not God's way. That I'm going to scheme
and plan to get what I want instead of submitting
to what God wants. And I believe he knew what
he was doing was wrong because there's the implication
here of secrecy, right? This isn't a family meeting.
This isn't a everybody come in. I have a word
from the Lord that he's changed his mind and
it's Esau. He's going, Esau, come here. Come
here, where's your mom? She's in the other room?
Okay, sweet, come here. Hey, this is what I want
you to do so I can bless you before I die. And
I just believe that that shows that he knew what
he was doing was wrong. He was willing to defy
God's word to bless a son unworthy of blessing,
and in doing so, he lit his whole household on
fire. Now, while the whole family was sinful,
Because there's no hero in this story in Genesis
27. We're going to see throughout the whole story,
but Isaac, he was the head of the house. He was
the husband. He was the father. He was the one
that carried the responsibility to set the tone
and to lead by example. And he's doing exactly
the opposite here. And the consequences for him...
straying from the example, the godly example
that he should be setting, is family drama that
carries down through the life of his family.
And so, man, if you're in this room, obviously
listening, if you're a husband, if you're a father,
even if you're a single man, we have to understand
that our example carries weight. Our example
carries great weight, and it has great consequences
in the lives of our families. If you're the type
of guy that comes to church and you're like,
hey, we carry my Bible and we're all spiritual
and we come to church, but then for the rest
of the week you're cussing and you're drinking
and you're just living sinfully, you are responsible
for how that example affects your wife and affects
your children. You are responsible for that.
God is going to hold you to account for that.
Now, it's not gonna be like God says, you're
no longer saved, get out. We know our salvation
is secure through the blood of Christ, but the
difficulty, the drama, all the tragedy that comes
in the lives of our families based upon our bad
example, we're culpable for that. And so it's
so important to make sure you're setting the
right example as a godly man and a husband and
a father. And so verse five, the story advances
here and it says, now Rebekah was listening to
what Isaac said to his son Esau. Now, some people
are like, well, was she eavesdropping or not
eavesdropping? And the verb tense in was listening,
it's an active verb tense. It means that she
was actively trying to hear what was being said.
I call that eavesdropping. I call that spying.
And the question it raises for me here is, have
things gotten so bad in this family that mom
is spying on dad? Maybe dad's spying on mom,
who knows. And they're just listening into secret
conversations. That's apparently what's going
on here. And we know that each spouse had a favorite,
right? Isaac's favorite was Esau, Rebecca's was
Jacob. And so the divide in this family must
have been pretty intense by this point. And so
it goes on to say, so while Esau went to the
field to hunt some game to bring in, Rebecca
said to her son, Jacob, listen, I heard your
father talking with your brother Esau. He said,
bring me game and make a delicious meal for me
to eat so that I could bless you in the Lord's
presence before I die. Now, my son, listen to
me and do what I tell you. Go to the flock and
bring me two choice young goats, and I will make
them into a delicious meal for your father, the
kind he loves. Then take it to your father to
eat so that he may bless you before he dies.
Jacob answered Rebecca, his mother, and said,
look, my brother Esau is a hairy man. I'm a man
with smooth skin. Suppose my father touches me,
then I will be revealed to him as a deceiver
and bring a curse on myself rather than the blessing.
Now Jacob, in case you're wondering here, doesn't
care about the right and wrong of what his mom
is suggesting. Jacob's only concern here is about
getting caught, right? We already know he's a
lying schemer. We're gonna see that for multiple
chapters ahead of us. So it's like, I don't wanna
get caught and cursed instead of blessed. We
don't see him objecting to his mother's plan,
right? He doesn't go, mom, that's dishonest.
Nope. It's just like, what if I get caught? That'll
be bad. So his mother said to him in verse 13,
your curse be on me, my son. Just obey me and
go get them for me. So he went, got the goats,
brought them to his mother, and his mother made
the delicious food his father loved. Then Rebecca
took the best clothes of her older son Esau,
which were in the house, and had her younger
son Jacob wear them. She put the skins of the
young goats on his hands and on the smooth part
of his neck. Then she handed the delicious food
and the bread she had made to her son Jacob.
Now, Rebecca is very sure of herself, right?
She's almost too sure of herself. Now, on one
hand, we might look at Rebecca and go, oh, what
a devoted mom. She just wants what's best for
her son. She's willing to even take the curse
if he gets caught. Aw, right? But on the other
hand, what we're seeing is mom is a schemer,
just like her son Jacob. Or Jacob's a schemer,
just like his mom Rebecca. You see that phrase,
the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. There's
a lot of truth into that statement. Now, if we're
honest here, you know, we could also make a parallel
between Isaac and his favorite Esau. I believe
Isaac and Esau were very similar because what
we saw in Isaac is he's just kind of a chill,
go with the flow kind of guy, right? He's not
about rocking the boat and ruffling feathers.
He's just like, just let things happen. He likes
food. He likes the creature comforts of life.
And he's just kind of... Almost a bit simple,
not dumb, but just a simple guy. And Esau comes
across the same way, right? Almost more of just
the big oaf who likes to go hunt animals, right?
And he's just a simple dude that likes the physical
things of life. Well, Rebekah's favorite son,
Jacob, he's sharp and he's shifty and he's strategic.
He goes, is that a coincidence? Probably not.
Again, the example we set for our kids, oftentimes
they will... follow the examples we set. And
so, Rebecca, she knew her husband's habits, she
knew what his favorite food was, and so she pulls
out all the stops, cooks his favorite meal, and
then dresses Jacob in full -on Esau cosplay,
right? Goat boy, that's what she dressed him
up as. puts the goat skins on his arms and his
neck, apparently because Esau was that hairy,
right? We've talked about that, right? Sasquatch
is the other way to name him. Have you ever touched
goat hair? You ever been to a petting zoo and
you touch goat hair? It's like a Brillo pad,
right? You're like, how? This is gross. This
is rough. This is coarse. That's apparently how
Esau was from head to toe, just covered in hair.
And so she dresses him up in this, and it's possible,
I don't know, that maybe Jacob felt ridiculous.
I mean, if you could just picture it in your
head, what a silly image, right? But mom was
there, coaching him from the sidelines. Go get
him, goat boy. And so the real issue here is
that Rebekah and Jacob... they believed in the
blessing. They believed in the birthright, right?
We talked about that when Jacob stole the birthright
from Esau. Esau's sin was he didn't value God's
word. He didn't value God's blessing. He was
like, that's nothing. I'm hungry. I have a physical
need, so the spiritual need is irrelevant. Jacob,
although he's a punk, he's a liar, he's a schemer,
he apparently put great value in what God had
said, enough to scheme to steal the birthright.
And so we see that now his mom is also part of
that same type of thinking. And that thinking
is, yeah, I believe in God's word, but God needs
my help in order for it to happen. And so what
it seems here is that Rebecca and Jacob believed
God needed their help to pull off what was God's
will. And so they scheme, even though God had
already said, look, Jacob is the one I've chosen.
But they still think they need to go lie and
they need to deceive and they need to engage
in trickery and all this stuff because apparently
it's justified in their head. There is a good
thing we're going after, but our unrighteous
means of going after it are justified. Why? Because
we're going after something good. And this mindset
is still around today in the world. It's still
around in the church. And it goes like this.
Wrong isn't really wrong if it helps God's will,
right? Here's how it looks in the workplace.
God wants me to provide for my family. God wants
me to, you know, earn so I could, you know, get
clothes and food and all that. So, you know,
being shady on this business deal or lying to
close this sale, it's okay. Because after all,
what's gonna come of it is money, and God wants
me to provide. Or, and this is something that
has happened in the church, God wants people
saved, and so we wanna draw people into the church,
and so what we're gonna have is twerking dancers
on stage at our Easter service. That really happened
at a mega church here in America. Foul. Doing
wrong to accomplish God's will is still wrong.
Period. God doesn't need our lies. He doesn't
need our shortcuts. He doesn't need our gimmicks.
He doesn't need our scheming. What he wants from
us is trust and obedience. What he wants from
us to say, God, you said so, so it's going to
happen. I don't need to worry about that. God,
you tell me what to do. If you want me to be
involved in this process, God, I'm here. I'm
listening. Speak to me. But what God doesn't
want from us to say, you know what? I'm afraid
that God's will is not going to happen because
of this circumstance here, so now let me go get
engaged and do unrighteous things to make sure
God's will happens. An English theologian named
Griffith Thomas from the late 1800s to early
1900s, he said this, righteousness can never
be laid aside even though our object is yet more
righteousness. In personal life, in home life,
in church life, in endeavors to win men for Christ,
in missionary enterprise, in social improvement,
and in everything connected with the welfare
of humanity, we must insist upon absolute righteousness,
purity, and truth in our methods, or else we
shall bring utter discredit on the cause of our
Master and Lord. I knew a story of a guy once
and he was talking about when he first got saved,
right? He was a fighter, all of him and his friends,
they would always go to bars and get in brawls
and stuff. And he got saved, one of these guys
got saved and he thought, oh my gosh, I gotta
go tell my friends all about this. So he went
to his friend's house and he decked him across
the face. He goes, you need to get saved. Well,
the guy got saved, but I wouldn't say that's
an effective method of evangelism, okay? You
know, it's really tough. Like when there's a
harvest crusade, you know, we say invite people
to the harvest crusade. But what you don't do
is lie to them and trick them and tell them it's
something else. So when they get there, aha,
because you're bringing discredit upon the name
of the Lord. And so doing wrong to accomplish
God's righteousness, don't do that. So verse
18, when he came to his father, he said, my father.
And he answered, here I am. Who are you, my son?
Jacob replied to his father, I am Esau, your
firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please
sit up and eat some of my game so that you may
bless me. But Isaac said to his son, how did
you ever find it so quickly, my son? He replied,
because the Lord your God made it happen for
me. Did you notice a nuance in what he just said
there? The Lord your God. Jacob is not at this
point claiming God as our God. Very interesting.
And this is going to be a struggle and a wrestle
that Jacob has for most of his life. Then Isaac
said to Jacob, please come closer so that I could
touch you, my son. Are you really my son Esau
or not? So Jacob came closer to his father Isaac.
And when he touched him, he said, the voice is
the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands
of Esau. He did not recognize him because his
hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau.
So he blessed him. So we have Jacob here who
is the product of his mother's love and his own
self -promoting heart going along with his plan
to the best of his ability. He pops in, hey,
dad, I'm here. And it didn't initially work.
Who are you, my son? What do you mean I'm here?
So Jacob then goes to pile lie upon lie upon
lie to get the blessing that was already his.
Lie one, I'm Esau, you're firstborn. No, he's
not. Was his voice shaking? Did he practice in
front of the mirror before he went in to see
his dad? First red flag to the dad. How did you
go hunt, come back, clean, kill, cook, prepare?
That's a little suspicious. The Lord made it
happen for me. You know what you don't want to
do if you're going to tell a lie? Bring God into
it. I don't think the Lord is pleased by that.
So now Jacob is name -dropping God to back up
his first lie, telling a second lie. You know,
Jacob is just trying to do what works here. From
what we know about Jacob's life, we could surmise
that this was just a regular part of his behavior,
that he was a liar, that he was probably good
at lying, right? And we do the same thing. How
many of you have ever told a lie to cover a lie?
And then you get so many layers down, you can't
remember what the original lie was. And you eventually
get caught because you're like, oh my gosh, there's
too many branches on this story. This is what
Jacob's doing here. Now, he knew God wanted him
blessed. I believe Jacob knew that, that I've
got the birthright, that mom has told me my whole
life, I'm the chosen one. But he's justifying
sin and then deeper sin and then deeper sin to
make it happen. Isaac still isn't sure, and so
eventually he's like, well, you sound like Jacob,
but you're hairy like Esau, and so you're goat
boy for the win, right? So here's the tragic
part. We look at this story, and we go, this
is supposed to be a godly family. The son of
the promise and his wife Rebecca, whom God provided,
and their sons, and you have mom scheming, the
son lying, dad not trusting his family, and no
one trusts each other. Drama. Why? Because nobody's
trusting God here. Nobody's just relying on,
God said so. Why are we fighting over this? Everybody's
scheming and trying. They're treating the promise
of God like it's some prize to be stolen rather
than a promise to be received. And so verse 24,
again he asked, are you really my son Esau? And
he replied, I am, the third lie. Now, when I
read this, I was like, okay, what made Isaac
so skeptical in general, right? Obviously, it
was the voice. That was a little odd. But, you
know, he didn't say, well, the voice doesn't
make sense. You saw him good. He just kept saying,
are you sure? Are you sure? Are you really sure?
Are you really, really sure? What made him so
skeptical? Well, you go back to Genesis 25, and
we see what was Isaac's problem when he lied.
We see that he, in his fallen character, was
a liar. just like his father Abraham in his fallen
character was a liar. And guess what? Liars assume
everybody else is lying too. That's just the
life they live. They're skeptical. And then,
of course, yeah, Jacob's voice. I already know
he stole the birthright. Is something going on
here? And yet he goes along. He finally says,
okay, I believe you. And I mean, probably because
he just couldn't imagine. That my son Jacob would
lie to me like three, four, five, six times in
a row. I just can't imagine that. I don't know.
But Jacob lies again because that's what schemers
do. Mom's off in the rafters as head coach. Keep
lying. And this whole scene is just pathetic.
It's talk show worthy. Like where's the lie detector
test, right? Somebody needs to come on and start
talking about what's true. The deeper issue,
like I said, is nobody is trusting God here.
Nobody is resting on God's word. Nobody is resting
on God's grace. They're just fighting over something
that God said, why are you guys fighting over
something that is not yours to procure? I already
said who I'm gonna give it to. And then the other
reality here is Isaac could bless Esau 100 times.
But without God's approval, it didn't mean anything.
Isaac's thinking that he has the power to thwart
God's will. If God didn't honor the blessing,
it didn't mean anything. Isaac blessing his kid
was simply an affirmation or supposed to be an
affirmation of what God had already said. Isaac
had no power in this situation, but in his own
selfish physical mind, he thought he did. So
verse 26. Then his father Isaac said to him,
please come closer and kiss me, my son. Maybe
one last time to satisfy his unease. So he came
closer and kissed him. When Isaac smelled his
clothes, he blessed him and said, ah, the smell
of my son is like the smell of a field that the
Lord has blessed. You ever met somebody that
likes the smell of something that just repulses
you? Right? Campfire smells are wonderful. you
know? And some people love the outdoor smells,
and some people are just like, that is just disgusting,
right? But he's like, this musky smell of my
son. All right, I could finish my blessing. Verse
28, may God give to you from the dew of the sky
and from the riches of the land an abundance
of grain and new wine. May people serve you and
nations bow in worship to you. Be master over
your relatives. May your mother's sons bow and
worship to you. Those who curse you will be cursed,
and those who bless you will be blessed. Isaac
thinks he's talking to Esau. And he gives the
blessing of just the abundance, right? Dew was
a favorite metaphor for God's goodness throughout
Scripture, his way of providing life and abundance,
right? It came from the idea that the weather
in Israel was typically very arid, and there
wasn't a whole lot of rain, and so the wind that
would come off the Mediterranean Sea would have
moisture in it, and it would just condense into
dew on the ground. And so that was typically
the idea of provision and God granting life.
and grain and new wine and fertile land, right?
It's just God's gonna bless you and provide for
you. But in verse 29, we see the true depth of
Isaac's pride on full display. He wants nothing
less than an empire for his son Esau. May the
nations bow to you. May the peoples bow to you.
And then on top of that, look at what he says.
He's saying, may your mother's sons bow in worship
to you. Who is that referring to? Jacob. He's
directly, knowingly and willingly rejecting God's
word to his wife, Rebecca, that the older will
serve the younger. Instead, he's trying to be
sneaky, blessing Esau with power over your mother's
sons. He even goes on to use the same curse language
that God gave to his father, Abraham, that those
who curse you will be cursed and those who bless
you will be blessed. Here's the twist. It wasn't
Esau. He accidentally gives all of this to Jacob,
but it wasn't accidental at all. God knew exactly
what he was doing. We go, why is God allowing
all this just weirdness and these lies and deception
and stuff? I can't answer that question for you
outside of this. God's will will be done. God's
will will be done. Isaac thought he had outmaneuvered
God. God outmaneuvered the outmaneuverer. Meanwhile,
Jacob slips out again, probably feeling like
I got away with it again. I got away with it
again. This is great. We're going to read in
later chapters. Jacob didn't get away with anything.
He's gonna pay for what he's done. But here in
verse 30, it says, as soon as Isaac had finished
blessing Jacob and Jacob had left the presence
of his father Isaac, his brother Esau arrived
from his hunting. He had also made some delicious
food and brought it to his father. He said to
his father, let my father get up and eat some
of his son's game so that you may bless me. But
his father Isaac said to him, who are you? He
answered, I'm Esau, your firstborn son. Isaac
began to tremble uncontrollably. Who was it then,
he said, who hunted game and brought it to me?
I ate it all before you came in, and I blessed
him. You see, these verses hinge on one phrase,
that Isaac began to tremble uncontrollably. That
word in the original language means a physical
response to an understanding, meaning that Isaac
is having this overwhelming physical response
to the realization that something had gone very,
very wrong in his plan to resist God's will.
In the moment, he's realizing, oh no. What has
happened? In this moment, I believe he knew he
had sinned, and now he knew that God knew that
he knew he had sinned. And that was his trembling
uncontrollably, that his secret was out, as if
God wasn't there through the whole thing anyways.
That God had overruled him. Even when he didn't
like God's plan, he could do nothing to stop
it. This is what Isaac is realizing in this moment.
So I believe he was humbled. I believe he was
defeated because he doesn't even try to revoke
the blessing. Right? He doesn't go, go get your
brother, come back. I unbless you. Okay, I bless
you, Esau. He doesn't even try to do that. He
just simply says in the next part, indeed, he
will be blessed. He now knew beyond a shadow
of a doubt that you can't win against God. You
can't trick God. You can't find a way around
his will. It's impossible. God's will will be
done. And which is really interesting because
later in Jacob's life when he's wrestling with
God as he's coming back from exile, in the story
of him wrestling with God, his hip gets touched,
he's crippled, and God renames him Israel in
that moment. Now, typically, when we hear a study
about that, we go, Israel, that word means governed
by God, right? And that's one way it could be
translated. But if you dig deeper into the meanings
of the word, the root of Israel, what it really
means is God wins. It's one of my favorite stories
in all of Scripture. Who wouldn't want to be
called God wins after fighting against God? And
we're going to deal with that when we get to
that story. But verse 34, when Esau heard his
father's words, he cried out with a loud and
bitter cry and said to his father, bless me too,
my father. But he replied, your brother came
deceitfully and took your blessing. So he said,
isn't he rightly named Jacob? For he has cheated
me twice now. He took my birthright and look,
now he has taken my blessing. Then he asked,
haven't you even saved a blessing for me? Anybody
see a problem in what Esau said? Rightfully.
Isn't he named Jacob? Isn't he rightfully named
that? It means schemer. It means supplanter.
It means heel grasper, deceiver, right? He's
named deceiver for a reason. But then he says,
he has cheated me twice. He took my birthright.
Is that true? No, Esau gave it up. He said, this
has no value to me. I'm hungry. Just like with
the birthright, Esau is the one who is ultimately
responsible for losing both. Hebrews 12 verses
15 through 17, I'm not going to read it in the
verses themselves, but it confirms that Esau's
sin was that he prioritized himself over God.
He prioritized his own comfort, his own needs
over the spiritual things. He lost everything
because he was more important than what God wanted.
God had already foreseen it before their birth.
That's why he declared that the older is going
to serve the younger. Now, yeah, Esau was completely
right to say, isn't he rightly named Jacob? But
God's will surpasses names and schemes and human
wisdom and human understanding. Like, we look
like, why would God use this guy Jacob to be
the son that carried the blessing and promise
forward? If you're asking that question right
now, I want you to ask yourself another question,
and if you can answer that one, then you'll get
an answer to the Jacob one. Why did God call
Jacob and use Jacob even though Jacob was a sinner?
Why did he call you and save you even though
you were a sinner? If you can answer that question,
then you're going to have the answer to why he
used Jacob. He didn't condone Jacob's sin. But
God knew what God wanted to do, and God's will
was going to be accomplished no matter what,
and he worked in and through that. Now, Jacob
goes on to pay for it, like I said, but... Esau
never owned the fact. He never took responsibility
for his own sin. He never said, I'm the one who
sold my birthright. I'm the one that devalued
God's word. And so he's still blaming. He's playing
the victim card here. Haven't you saved a blessing
for me? That's victim language. Poor me, poor
me. I'm the innocent victim here. And he's not.
His question about haven't you saved a blessing
for me, it wasn't about spiritual legacy. He
only cared about what served him materially.
His anger was about losing the stuff. Not losing
anything that has anything to do with God. That
didn't matter to Esau. And so verse 37, Isaac
answered Esau, look, I've made him a master over
you. Still, he's like, I can't change it. This
is God's will. I've given him all of his relatives
as his servants and have sustained him with grain
and new wine. What then can I do for you, my
son? Esau said to his father, well, do you only
have one blessing? Bless me too. Esau wept loudly.
You know what this verse reminds me of? There
is a verse that talks about all the people in
this world who say no to Jesus, no to Jesus.
I don't need him. I don't believe in him. I don't
want Jesus to run my life. I'm gonna make my
own decisions. And one day, they're gonna be
in a place. Where they are weeping and gnashing
their teeth. And it's too late. This is what
I see here, that Esau is weeping loudly. Maybe
in this moment he was starting to realize what
he had lost because of his selfishness. It doesn't
say that here, that's conjecture. But verse 39,
his father Isaac answered him. He's like, all
right, I'll give you a blessing. Look, your dwelling
place will be away from the riches of the land,
away from the dew of the sky above. You will
live by your sword and you will serve your brother.
But when you rebel, you will break his yoke from
your neck. So Isaac, now a broken man, realizing
that he tried to fight God and God won. That
there's nothing you could do to go against God's
will. And so all he could offer his son, his
favorite son, was really an anti -blessing. Look.
All I can tell you is that God's will is going
to be done. I gave the blessing away. Your brother
Jacob has it. As far as Esau's future, you're
going to have life away from abundance, away
from the dew. You're going to have a life marked
by struggle. You're going to have a life marked
by difficulty. And then eventually, I mean, you're
going to have a life in submission to your brother,
but eventually you'll break away from that. And
so even though Esau's loud weeping Probably,
most likely, primarily just frustrated selfishness.
But even then, God didn't discard Esau, didn't
throw him in the trash, say, you're nothing to
me. Because later on in Esau's life, he does
become a blessed man. The very end of this story
between Jacob and Esau, Jacob's coming back from
exile and he's like, my brother's gonna kill
me because he wanted to kill me when I fled.
So he's sending all these riches and all these
horses and all these gifts ahead of him. And
so Esau's and his men are coming to meet Jacob
and there's just like, row after row of gifts
and gold and stuff. And then when Jacob finally
meets up with Esau, he's like, he's gonna kill
me and I deserve it. Esau says, hey, bro, I don't
need any more stuff. In Genesis 33, nine, he
says, I have enough. I'm okay. We'll get to that
story when we get there. But this story, as we've
looked at it today, if you're looking for a hero
in the story, you're not gonna find one. Everyone
was a selfish sinner in this story. Isaac resisted
God's word. Rebecca tried to manipulate God's
promise into reality through deception. Jacob
knowingly joined the lie, even dragged God's
name into it. Esau didn't care about God's word
until it personally cost him. And the bottom
line is everyone was trying to grab onto God's
blessing without submitting to God himself. That
doesn't work. This is a story of family drama,
ambition, lies, manipulation. And in the end,
Although God's will was done, there was incredible
unnecessary misery and suffering that came as
a result of their actions. Rebecca ends up having
to send Jacob away. Her favorite son, the love
of her life, go away because your brother wants
to kill you. Jacob's gone for 20 years. As far
as the record in Genesis, there's no indication
that she ever saw her beloved son again. Jacob,
he faced the just consequences, right? He went
into exile, and then he lived for years being
deceived by his uncle Laban. He got what was
coming to him in that sense. You're gonna deceive
your brother? You're gonna steal the birthright?
You're gonna live a life like this? Well, then
you're gonna go be deceived. You're gonna live
the life of one being taken advantage of under
your uncle Laban. Isaac, I believe for the rest
of his life, he had to live with the bitter knowledge
that he helped tear his own family apart. because
he wouldn't just submit to God's will. And then
Esau lost everything because he never truly valued
what God wanted to give him. But again, the beauty
in this story, the wonderful beauty is that God
kept his word in spite of all of this. Despite
of Isaac's rebellion, despite of Rebecca and
Jacob's scheming, despite Esau's indifference,
God's will prevailed. And that's hope. Hopefully
you take heart in that today, that God's unshakable
determination will bring his plan to completion,
specifically his plan in your life, what he has
for you. He will bring it to completion, even
when we stubbornly fight him. Some people are
gonna hear that and go, oh, Pastor Nathan, you're
just giving us license to sin and do whatever
we want. No! The idea here is God's will's gonna
be done. We can either go along with his plan,
and that's the easy way, or we can fight against
it and have harsh consequences and drama and
all of this in our life. Either way, God's will
is going to be accomplished. So don't try and
manipulate God's word, right? Remember, if we
are faithless, he remains faithful because he
cannot deny himself. Don't try and use unrighteous
means to achieve righteous ends. Don't fight
against God's plan. Submit to it. Be a person
that instead of trying to figure out how to get
around God, just simply say, here I am, Lord.
Your servant is listening. What do you want me
to do? Simply be the one that walks with him
in peace because the alternative is bringing
chaos into everything in your life. When he speaks,
just say, God, your will be done. Because it
will be done. Either the hard way. Or the easy
way? Let's pray. Father, we love you so much.
We're so grateful to who you are and your word.
Lord, we're grateful that you even show these
stories, Lord. Sometimes we might look at these
stories and go, wow, they're messed up. And Lord,
it's really a story of our own life. God, we're
all messed up. We're all sinners, Lord, and it's
only because you have saved us that God, through
the opportunity that you created for us to simply
believe in you, to believe in what you did on
the cross, to believe that your death was the
full and perfect and adequate atonement for our
sin, that through faith in you, we are washed
clean of the sin, the stain of sin, we are freed
from the consequence of that sin, Lord, to grasp
onto the promise that we are gonna live eternally
with you. All of that undeserved. But Lord, that
doesn't mean that we're free from endeavoring
to live a life here on this earth that glorifies
you, to live a life of obedience. Lord, you tell
us that here on earth we have a born -again spirit
that is still living with our dead flesh. And
they war against each other, God. And your word
tells us that the one we feed is the one that's
going to win the battle. So Lord, let us be people
who feed our spirit more than we feed our flesh.
That we wouldn't bring and invite chaos into
our families and into our lives through our selfishness,
through living according to the flesh. But instead,
God, that we would have peace and blessing and
everything that you have for us by living in
line with your will, to follow your will. As
your word says, to keep step with the spirit.
God, we're so grateful to you. We love you. We
ask that you would bless us and our families,
bless our workplaces, bless our ministries, bless
our church, Lord. Bless every church that is
following you, God, that we would be lights on
a hill, salt to this earth, and beacons of truth.
It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, you
know, the greatest expression that we have yielded
ourselves to God and received that promise of
salvation is baptism. It's in fact the thing
that the Bible tells us to do, to publicly proclaim
to the world that I have given my life to Jesus.
It's not a proclamation that I'm perfect now.
Nope, none of us are that. But it's a proclamation
that the promise God made to me, that if you
trust in me, you put your faith in me, I will
save you. you will be forgiven that that has
happened in our lives. And so that's what we're
gonna be celebrating here in a moment. We have
two people that signed up today to get baptized.
But if the Lord has spoken to you over the course
of today's message that you need to take the
step to get baptized today, we have clothes for
you that you could change into. We have towels
so that you could dry off. But here are the instructions.
For those of you that are getting baptized today,
as soon as I invite you up, you're gonna come
down the aisle here and go into the back where
we have some changing booths that you could change
into the clothes you're gonna be getting baptized
in. Myself and Pastor Manuel will go back there
to get changed as well, and then we will be performing
the baptisms today. And so for those of you that
are here to observe that, family members that
are visiting specifically to see this, you are
free to come forward to sit in the front rows
and be right here. If you want to take pictures
or video, feel free to come forward. But if you're
seated in the front half of the sanctuary and
you're not coming forward, I'm going to ask you
that during the baptism, while we're all worshiping
together, that you don't stand up. Okay, if you're
in the back, go crazy. But if you're in the front
half... Don't stand up because we have cameras
and stuff here and there's oftentimes family
members and friends that are watching online
and they want to be able to observe their loved
ones getting baptized as well. And so if you're
getting baptized today, go and stand up, come
forward. Pastor Manuel, are you already in the
back? Oh, you're right there. All right, go ahead
and come forward. And then while we're performing
the baptisms, our worship team's going to be
leading us in worship. Feel free to just praise
God and be a part of it and celebrate these baptisms
with us. But I do encourage you, you know, if
you don't have to leave, Stay if you can. If
you have to go, that is totally okay. But we
do our baptisms this way as a part of our service
because we want the body to be the public that
is here celebrating with our brothers and sisters
getting baptized. That is what this is all about.
And so I am blessed to be able to be a part of
this with you. I'm blessed to celebrate this
moment in our brothers and sisters' lives because
we all know that God has done a mighty work transforming
our lives. And that is what he's done here today.
And so with that, One final prayer and then we'll
get started. God, bless this time, bless this
baptism today, bless this moment, Lord. Do everything
that you do spiritually in this moment where
we take this step of obedience to get baptized,
Lord. God, we're here to celebrate you and what
you've done in our lives so that, Lord, we would
learn to grow more and more as people who walk
according to your spirit, Lord. Let that reality
be the truth for those that are getting baptized
here today. We love you and we thank you. It's
in Jesus' name we pray, amen.