Jacob's Blessing

0:00Good morning. Good to see you all. Turn with me in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 27. This morning, we will be covering much of that entire chapter 27. We're not going to read it all, but we're going to cover most of that. Last week, when we covered the way in which Jace sorry. When we covered the way in which Jacob basically blackmailed the birthright out of his brother, I mentioned then that it is difficult, it is a difficult thing to grasp how God's plan can involve sin. We see this again on full display this morning with the trickery involved in Jacob receiving the blessing from Isaac as opposed to his brother Esau. So that's what we're going to talk about this morning. Something to keep in mind as we look at the text is the fact that God told Rebekah while she was still pregnant that it was going to be the younger who would be receiving the blessing, and the older would serve the younger. The purpose of God had been established then. Rebekah knows God's will. God knows what he is doing, but unfortunately there is a lot of sin and stubbornness that God is having to work with in these people, as we will see. So how does a perfect God and a good God accomplish his purpose in the middle of a bunch of stubborn, short-sighted, sinful individuals? He uses their own sin against them. It can only, and what can only be described as God's sovereign and divine mercy, he takes that which was meant for evil and works good from it. More than that, as we'll see in a couple weeks with Jacob's son Joseph, you all know Joseph, God actually purposes those sinful actions for his good. How can a holy God do such a thing? And I don't think I can fully answer that except to show you that he does. And reassure you of a few things along the way this morning as it relates to Christ, God willing. I hope I do that this morning. So that's all the intro you're gonna get. We're gonna read. Uh verse, starting in uh, just as chapter 27, uh, starting in verse, yeah, you can stand with me if you wish. Uh chapter 27, starting in verse 1, and I'll let you know, we're gonna skip around just a little bit. Chapter 27, verse one. 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. He said, Behold, I am old, and I do not know the day of my death. Now then, take your weapons and your quiver and your bow and go out into 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. Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it, Rebekah said to her son, Jacob, I heard your father speak to 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 into the flock, and bring me two good young goats, so that I may prepare for them delicious, 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. Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall be uh mocking him, and bring curse upon myself, and not a blessing. His mother said to him, Let your curse be on me, my son, only obey my voice, and go and bring them to me. Skip down to verse 18. So he went into his father and said, My father, and he said, Here I am. Uh who are you, my son? And Jacob said to his father, I am Esau, your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Now sit up and eat my game that your soul may bless me. But Isaac said to his son, How is it you found it so quickly, my son? He answered, Because the Lord your God granted me success. That Isaac said to Jacob, Come near me that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not. So Jacob went near to Isaac his father, and felt him, and said, The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are 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. He said, Are you really my son Esau? And he said, I am. 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 him, and he ate, and he brought him wine, and he drank. Then his father Isaac said to him, Come near and kiss me, my son. So he came near and kissed him. And Isaac smelled the smell of his garments and blessed him. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray once more. Lord, I thank you again for this word. Lord, I pray and ask that you would now speak for Christ's sake, and it is in his name that I pray. Amen. Can I have a seat? Thank you. Okay, as always, let's consider the story and some of the backstory first so we can see how this relates to us and obviously more importantly to Christ. Remember back to Cain and his offering to God. Right? Cain and his offering to God. We said that it wasn't necessarily the offering itself that was in question, but the disposition of the heart giving the offering with respect to Cain. Cain was a child of Satan. That's what it said back in Genesis 3. Spiritually speaking, Cain was a child of Satan. And as a result, his offering was not regarded, and his action reflected the sinful disposition of his heart. When we fast forward to Esau, we see almost a repeat scenario play out. Esau, as told to us by God himself, is hated by God. Here are the words of Malachi. Malachi says this from the Lord. But you say, How have you loved us? Is not Esau Jacob's brother, declares the Lord. Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country, and left his heritage to jackals of the desert. If Edom says, We are shattered, but we will rebuild the ruins, the Lord of hosts says, They may build, but I will tear down. And they will be called the wicked country, and the people with whom the Lord is angry forever. Those are tough words from the Lord. And we may be tempted to say that God only despised Esau because of all the sinful things that he did. And that God only judged Edom because of all the sinful things that that nation did, which in one sense is true. But Paul clarifies such thoughts, and we've gone over this a few times before, by telling us that God's plan for each was determined before they were born. This is Romans 9. Before they had not yet done anything good or bad. So Cain, right, looking back to Cain, was a murderer because he was a child of wrath, a vessel of God's judgment, and the same is true here with Esau. As difficult as that can be for us to grasp, it would be biblical disobedience for me to tell you that God hated and judged Esau simply because of his actions. God certainly did judge Esau because of his sinful actions, but it is much deeper than that. Much like God does a little later with Pharaoh, he hardens whom he wills so that his purpose of judgment against sin and grace to the sinner will be fulfilled. He hardens whom he wills, so that his purpose of judgment against sin and grace to the sinner will be fulfilled. And that is an extremely important concept thing for us to wrap our heads around, specifically in and around the year 33 A.D. We'll get there in a second. So Esau's sinful actions prove and support his disqualification, not the other way around. His sinful actions prove and support his disqualification. And what were those sinful actions? We talked about it last week that he considered his inheritance worthless, right? So he sold it for a bowl of soup. More than that is that the bowl of soup represented his life, right? He said he was going to die if he didn't have that soup, so he would rather live his life without an inheritance than die with one. Sounds like an enemy, right? And he was. Secondly, he dishonors God by entering into a marriage, or in his case, marriages, that God strictly forbids. We didn't read it, but in chapter 26 of Genesis, verse 34, we read that Esau took for himself two wives from the Hittites, the people that God specifically communicated through Abraham, that they were not to intermarry with. So he doesn't care that God tells him not to marry these women. And further, he doesn't care that marrying these women makes life miserable for Isaac and Rebekah. Verse 36 of chapter 26 says, and they, meaning his Hittite wives, they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah. So he doesn't care that this is a forbidden marriage. He doesn't care that this marriage dishonors God. He doesn't care that this marriage is causing bitterness and enmity in his relationship with his parents and their relationship with each other. It's his life, and he is going to live it however he wants. Sounds like the attitude and the actions of the enemy, not the child of God, right? This perhaps hits somewhat close to home for us all because I think everyone in this room can relate to this story in one way or another. Most families have similar circumstances that play out, and almost always, or most often, the proposed remedies are to be an ostrich and bury your head in the sand and act like everything is okay, i.e. Isaac, which we'll see in just a second, or be a wolf and try to cunningly fix everything through your own deception and manipulation, i.e. Rebecca. Both are wrong. Because the issue at hand is not primarily behavioral, right? We're just going back to Cain and those issues. This is not a behavioral issue. These problems can't be solved through behavioral modification because the issue is one of the heart. The only hope is not that people will finally grow up and get it all figured out. As though this is just some phase for Esau, right? Or some season of his life that he's going through. The only hope is that he may be born again. That the mercy of God would change the disposition of his heart because that is the issue. That is the problem. So now we get to this act of deception, then, that was perpetrated by both Jacob and Rebekah, but Rebekah was obviously the initial instigator of this plot. She knows that the blessing is supposed to be given to Jacob and not Esau, right? She knows this. God told her that the blessing is to Jacob and not Esau. God told her many years ago that this was his plan to bless Jacob and not Esau, but she overhears, again, by the providence of God, that Isaac is about to give the blessing to Esau, which she knows is not God's plan. So she has to act quickly here. And I don't want to keep saying this over and over again, but I guess I have to, and I should. Just because Rebecca must be deceitful here doesn't mean that the Bible approves her deceitfulness. In fact, we'll see as we get through Genesis, she her and Jacob both are certainly judged because of this deceitfulness. But she had to do something. Okay? The narrative opens up then by telling us that Isaac is old and he's blind. That was the first verse that we read this morning. When Isaac, this is verse 1 of chapter 27. 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. So Esau has proven himself, though, to be wholly unfit for the blessing of God, right? Time and time again, Esau has proven himself to be wholly unfit for the blessing of God. He cares nothing for his birthright, so he sells it. Why would we think, or why would Isaac think, that he cares for the blessing beyond the earthly benefits that this blessing would give him? He cares nothing for the Word of God and the desires of his parents, and he proves it by marrying two pagan Hittite women that make his parents' life bitter and miserable. But despite all of that, Isaac is still going to give the blessing to Esau. And as far as we are aware, Esau has shown no hint of even of any sort of remorse or contrition about the choices that he has made and the things that he has done. What a blind fool Isaac is, right? Before we are too quick to throw stones at Isaac, I would ask you to consider how difficult it would be to curse your firstborn son, even if he was foolish. I think all of us, if asked to stand in Isaac's shoes, might have done the very same thing, but it was foolish nonetheless. Which is why God had something else in mind here, right? He had something else in mind, and he chose Rebekah to fulfill his ultimate purpose and to pass the blessing to the vessel of God's mercy, who was Jacob. The question is, how can God choose deception to be a part of his plan? How can God choose deception to be a part of his plan? And to answer that question, I'll turn your attention to a couple passages first. You don't have to turn here. 1 Kings 22, 19 to 23. 1 Kings 22, 19 to 23. And Micaiah said, Therefore, hear the word of the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all of the hosts in heaven standing beside him, and on his right hand and on his left hand. And the Lord said, Who will entice Ahab that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead? And one said one thing, and another said another. Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, saying, I will entice him. And the Lord said to him, By what means? And he said, I will go out and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, You are to entice him, and you shall succeed. Go out and do so. I don't have time to fully exegete that passage or exposite it, I guess maybe is the better word. But I'll say this. Ahab was the king of Israel. We know Ahab, he was perhaps the worst king of Israel. That's probably objectively saying he was the worst king of Israel. Both because he was a pretty spineless guy, but uh he was had an absolutely horrible wife, Jezebel, which you know that all the issues there. God, in his judgment against Ahab sends a deceiving spirit to contradict the true prophet of God, and this leads Ahab to being killed in battle against Syria. I'm not here, nor can I explain how it is that God can judge by way of a lying spirit and still maintain his goodness and perfection. He is God, right? He can ultimately have authority to do what he wishes with his creation, but I do need to establish that such passages are clearly in this perfect word of God. So we have to recognize them insofar as we need to see where these passages point us. Okay? What does that mean for us? Well, I think they they point us to passages like Proverbs 16 9. The heart of man plans his ways, but the Lord directs or establishes his steps. Ultimately, God is behind all that happens. And yes, I mean everything that happens. Even the stuff we would rather not attribute to God, because even those things he is working diligently to bring about his purpose. And that, of course, should point us secondly to the cross of Christ, most importantly. I'll turn your attention to the Gospel of John chapter 6. You could turn there if you want, or not. John chapter 6, verse 67, and providentially this came up on Wednesday night Bible study this past week. This is right after Jesus dished out some very difficult teachings in the earlier parts of John chapter 6, and many of his followers abandoned him after these difficult teachings. And Jesus says this. So Jesus said to the twelve, Do you want to go away as well? Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God. Jesus answered them, Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil. He spoke of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him. These stories have to point us to the reality that the greatest deception of all time, right? Betraying God in flesh and sending the holy, perfect, incarnate God to his death was planned and ordained by God himself. Our Lord chose his betrayer. He looked Judas in the eye and said, Follow me, knowing that Judas would sell his eternal birthright for a bag of silver. Even more. That was from the what was that? Kings, 1 Kings, and from John show us that nothing happens to God. Okay? Nothing happens to God. Our Lord's life was not taken from him. He willingly laid it down. The blessing of God and the seed of the woman was not carried through Jacob because Esau made a lot of bad choices and God had to somehow pivot his plan. Did he not choose Jacob? Does Christ not know his sheep and do they not recognize his voice? What is this amazing grace then? That he chooses sinners to be his vessels of mercy. What amazing grace that we don't have to be perfect to be a part of God's redemptive purpose, plan. Jacob was sinful, Isaac was sinful, Rebekah was sinful, Moses was sinful, David was sinful, the twelve were sinful, yet in all of these God was working to save you. You personally. And Peter reflects on this reality in 1 Peter chapter 1. He says, Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace was the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time or the spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed. Revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you, and the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels longed to look. The Old Testament, with all its stories and prophets, is about revealing the character of God and the mercy and his mercy and his judgment, which is about revealing Christ who saves you. God is working through sinners to save sinners by the sinless one. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God. For our sake, he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. What a story. What a God. So to close this morning, I give three points of application from the text. These are the truths that I think have been communicated. First is that this reality, everything that we have talked about to this point, this should give us great comfort. Great comfort. That even though we are still sinners and still sin, and even though we may be the victims of sin and persecution, God is always at work to bring about his purpose no matter what. Even in our sin, he is still bringing about his purpose. What a mercy. Maybe you are like Isaac and have made poor decisions because you have been blind or naive, but God is still working. Maybe you are like Rebekah and assume that the end justifies the means, so you've dabbled in sin and deception, but God is still working. Even in those things, he is working all things together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. If you are in Christ, you cannot sin such that God no longer works through you. It doesn't work like that. And I will repeat that again. If you are in Christ, you cannot sin such that God no longer works through you. So we sin that grace may abound? By no means. Nevertheless, there is, therefore, now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Do we believe that, though? Really? I mean, do we really believe that? Then may we live as children of God who have been chosen by him and saved by his grace. We should live like that. Second point of application is that this text reaffirms and supports our understanding of the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. Because Christ has chosen you, and because he can and does work even through your sin for your good, how could you ever possibly be lost? If you are his, nothing will ever snatch you from his hand. Nothing. Whatever you are going through in life, good or bad, whatever mess you have made, whatever fix you are in, you can lay your head down at night and rest, knowing that Christ is yours. And you are his. For no other reason than God's promises to save and keep his children who trust in him. Hebrews 6, 17 to 20. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, a promise. So that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Our Lord truly has saved you if you are in him. And because he is the great high priest, his intercession is eternal and infinite, unending. Finally, we can be assured that his plan to redeem the world will not fail. It will not fail. If even the sinfulness of man is not sufficient to derail God's purpose in the slightest, then truly all is well. Right. Paradise will be restored. Peace will reign. Sins will be no more. Victory and eternal joy will be ours to share with Christ. So take heart, then. He has overcome the world, and he will surely give all that is his to you. I'll close then with Jude 24 through 25. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy. To the only God and Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time, now and forever. Amen. To him who is able to keep you from stumbling. Amen. Lord, I thank you so much. That it is only by your grace that you keep us from stumbling. And Lord, even when we do a little stumble a little, somehow you are still working that for your good, for your purpose, for our good. These things we cannot explain, but we thank you, Lord. We thank that thank you that you have not asked us, Lord, or you have not asked us to be perfect before you saved us. But Lord, why we were still sinners, you died for us. May we be comforted by this word, Lord, to know that your plan and your purpose will stand. Well, then ultimately you have one. We thank you for the salvation that you've given to us, Lord, and we proclaim that now with this bread and this wine. We thank you for the death of Christ and for the forgiveness of sins. Ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.