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Genesis
26:17-35 “And
Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt
there. 18 And
Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of
Abraham his father; for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of
Abraham: and he called their names after
the names by which his father had called them. 19
And Isaac’s servants digged in the
valley, and found there a well of springing water. 20
And the herdmen of Gerar did strive with
Isaac’s herdmen, saying, The water is ours: and he called the name of the well Esek;
because they strove with him. 21 And
they digged another well, and strove for that also: and he called the name of it Sitnah. 22
And he removed from thence, and digged
another well; and for that they strove not:
and he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, For now the LORD
hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land. 23
And he went up from thence to Beersheba.
24 And
the LORD
appeared unto him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy
father: fear not, for I am with
thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham’s sake.
25 And
he builded an altar there, and called upon the name of the LORD,
and pitched his tent there: and there
Isaac’s servants digged a well. 26
Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar,
and Ahuzzath one of his friends, and Phichol the chief captain of his army. 27
And Isaac said unto them, Wherefore come
ye to me, seeing ye hate me, and have sent me away from you? 28
And they said, We saw certainly that the
LORD
was with thee: and we said, Let there be
now an oath betwixt us, even betwixt us and thee, and let us make a
covenant with thee; 29 that
thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have not touched thee, and as we have done unto
thee nothing but good, and have sent thee away in peace: thou art now the blessed of the LORD.
30 And
he made them a feast, and they did eat and drink. 31
And they rose up betimes in the morning,
and sware one to another: and Isaac sent
them away, and they departed from him in peace. 32
And it came to pass the same day, that
Isaac’s servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had digged,
and said unto him, We have found water. 33
And he called it Shebah: therefore the name of the city is
Beersheba unto this day. 34 And
Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the
Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite: 35
which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah.” Introduction [Audio
version: https://resources.ccphilly.org/detail.asp?TopicID=&Teaching=WED534] “Genesis
26 really the only complete chapter on Isaac in the Book of Genesis, we’re
going to have a lot of chapters on Jacob as we did on Abraham. And then more print on Joseph than anyone
else in the Book of Genesis. But we have
this interesting interlude here with Isaac going down into Gerar, God warning
him, speaking to him not to go to Egypt.
God hadn’t done that with Abraham, he allowed him to go to Egypt, so God
intervenes interestingly, the same error is being made, and God tells him not
to go to Egypt but to sojourn in Gerar, an area down by the border. And it says “He dwelt there,” he didn’t
sojourn there. He got into trouble with
the men who thought his wife was attractive, went back to his father’s pattern,
saying ‘She’s my sister,’ the whole thing replays, ‘Why didn’t you
tell us that,’ ‘I was afraid that you’d kill me,’ and so forth. So he then leaves the area, he’s moving
northward, and as he does God’s blessing is upon his life. Isaac,
The Man Of The Well Let’s
pick up in verse 17 of chapter 26, and it says “And Isaac departed
thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there. And Isaac digged again the wells of water,
which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; for the Philistines
had stopped them after the death of Abraham:
and he called their names after the names by which his father had called
them.” (verses 17-18) And again
Isaac certainly “the man of the well,” Abraham “the man of the altar,” he’s the
man of the well, Jacob seems to be “the man of the tent.” [Ya, Jacob couldn’t get out of the tent, he
had four wives!] But everywhere we find
him here he’s by a well, 7 specific times in his history, and that’s never by
mistake in Scripture. So here he is
opening up the wells that Abraham had dug, no doubt remembering some of them
from his boyhood, even remembering their names.
Verse 19, “And Isaac’s servants digged in the valley, and found there
a well of springing water.” of springing water, of living water, there was
a difference between a well and a cistern.
A cistern was for storage, in Israel today there’s still cisterns, and
you look down, you can scoop some of the water out, you can get liquid and
protein, if you look at the things that are swimming around in there, and it’s
a complete, all of your food groups in there.
But in springing water, the water’s bubbling up, or they would call it
“living water,” there was a fresh source, and that was used, it was usually
cleaner. So he’s digging wells, and it
says he hits this springing water, this living water. “And the herdmen of Gerar did strive with
Isaac’s herdmen, saying, The water is ours: and he called the name of the well Esek;” [which
is Hebrew for “contention”] “because they strove with him.” (verse 20)
and he moved on, “And they digged another well, and strove for that
also: and he called the name of it
Sitnah.” (verse 21) “Sitnah” which is “hatred.” He’s getting tired of digging and moving I
think, “And he removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that
they strove not: and he called the name
of it Rehoboth; and he said, For now the LORD
hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.” (verse 22) “Rehoboth” is
“room.” “And he went up from thence
to Beersheba.” (verse 23) Now he’s
back on track. This is where Abraham had
lived for decades, it’s where he had begun, and now he is back to the place
where he originally had communion with the LORD,
he is back at Beersheba [Israeli “Beersheva”], and notice “And the LORD
appeared unto him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy
father: fear not, for I am with
thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham’s
sake. And he builded an altar there, and
called upon the name of the LORD,
and pitched his tent there: and there
Isaac’s servants digged a well.” (verses 24-25) So evidently as he gets into the area of
Beersheba, before he has time to set up camp or anything, the LORD
appears to him and speaks to him there.
So the first thing he does is he builds an altar, the second thing it
says, then he pitched his tent there.
And you could have guessed, “and there Isaac’s servants digged a
well.” “Then Abimelech went to him from
Gerar, and Ahuzzath one of his friends, and Phichol the chief captain of his
army.” (verse 26) Now Abimelech,
remember, that’s not his name, that’s the name like Pharaoh, it’s the title of
this Philistine king. “Abimelech went
to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath one of his friends, and Phichol the chief
captain of his army.” So the king, his main advisor and the head of the
military, “And Isaac said unto them, Wherefore come ye to me, seeing ye hate
me, and have sent me away from you?” (verse 27) because they had told him
to get out of their territory, God had blessed him so much, his herds had
grown, they said ‘You’ve become greater than we are,’ and they
asked him to depart. And he says ‘Why
are you coming down to see me, seeing that you hate me?’ “And they said, We saw certainly that the
LORD
was with thee: and we said, Let there be
now an oath betwixt us, even betwixt us and thee, and let us make a
covenant with thee; that thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have not touched thee,
and as we have done unto thee nothing but good, and have sent thee away in
peace: thou art now the blessed
of the LORD.”
(verses 28-29) now that isn’t true because they had chased
him away from a number of wells. Now,
Abraham his father was a little bit bolder when he had contention in the same
area and said ‘Your men chased me away from a well, and I want it back,’ and
there was peace made, and then a covenant.
Here, he comes from Gerar, where he was to sojourn temporarily, he comes
back to Beersheba, the place that God wanted him to be. Gerar was on the border of Egypt, too many
times we can get comfortable living on the border of where we’re supposed to
be, living on the outskirts, compromising, as close to the carnal as we can
without really stepping over. But when
he comes back to Beersheba, back to that place, immediately the LORD’s
presence is with him. The Bible says ‘When
a man’s way is pleasing to the Lord, or a woman’s ways, he maketh his enemies
to be at peace with him.’ So he
comes back to where he should be, God’s presence and blessing is there, and
then those who had been hostile to him come to him and say ‘Surely
God is with you, we see that, make a covenant with us.’ And Abraham had made a covenant with a
previous Abimelech there in the same area of Beersheba, so he says ‘Swear
that you won’t do us any harm,’ and so forth, for “thou art
now the blessed of the LORD. And he made them a feast, and they did eat
and drink. And they rose up betimes in
the morning, and sware one to another:
and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.” (verses
30-31)
“And it came to pass the same day, that Isaac’s servants came, and
told him concerning the well which they had digged, and said unto him, We have
found water. And he called it Shebah: therefore the name of the city is
Beersheba unto this day.” (verses 32-33) So this short interlude giving us a picture of
Isaac, which is going to be important in the next chapter. Isaac is a young man when we see him going to
Mount Moriah and yielding, playing the role of Christ, carrying the wood, being
a willing sacrifice. Maybe the spiritual
peak of his life. And again, we have no
idea of the emotional impact that it had upon him. Later we’re going to hear about the God of
Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, I think in chapter 42 it speaks of God that
way. That Isaac may have been completely
freaked out about that, that it put him in a very subdued mode. But early on we see some remarkable spiritual
things, and certainly in these pictures.
He’s content, he loves to be alone with the LORD,
he’s digging wells, he’s coming back, remembering the lessons, some of the
lessons he learned from Abraham his father.
And in this portion of his life he’s genuinely a spiritual man. The next chapter becomes very sad, because we
see a guy who at one time reflected so much of Christ, a guy who had been
meditative, completely being compromised, becoming carnal. And chapter 27 is an extremely sad chapter in
his life and the life of his family. Verse
34 says this, “And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith
the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the
Hittite: which were a grief of mind unto
Isaac and to Rebekah.” (verses 34-35)
Esau knew better, we’re not sure what he’s thinking about taking these
pagan women to be his wife. Isaac will
ultimately send Jacob back to where Rebekah came from, and say ‘Don’t
take a wife of the Canaanites.’ Esau
here for some reason taking two Hittite women to be his wives, it is a grief to
Isaac and Rebekah, the same as it is a grief to any Christian parent if their
son or their daughter marries an unbeliever, it’s a difficult situation. If you are dating an unbeliever, put the
brakes on now. It’s easier to be single
and want to be married than it is to be married and want to be single. Read 2nd Corinthians chapter
6, it says ‘What concord has Christ and Balial? What fellowship is there with light and
darkness?’ And I hear these
stories all the time, ‘He’s more godly than the Christian guys in this
church, I dated some of the Christian guys in this church, they’re trying to
kiss me on the first date, they’re trying to get me in the back seat of the
car, and this guy’s more of a Christian even though he’s a heathen than they
are, and even his dog is more of a Christian…’
[Comment: If what she said is
true, which could be, some of those guys may not be any more converted than a
heathen, even when you date within a Christian church, you have to be discerning,
as they say, for the wolves in sheep’s clothing. It doesn’t make the church wrong because some
of it’s believers aren’t genuine.] And I
hear all of these excuses, but the truth is, there’s going to be two different
sets of rules, two different directions.
You raise kids, what are you going to say to them? ‘Ya I married your daddy, but he’s not a
believer.’ ‘Oh is Daddy going to hell
mom?’ ‘Shhhh! Don’t say that, ah, pray for Daddy,’ ah, what do you do? Kids are always inclined to the natural side
of things, their natural inclinations are toward the unbelieving parent,
because there’s a loophole in everything there on that side. So, don’t even go there. Here is a grief to Isaac and to Rebekah, that
their son Esau, who Isaac loved. Isaac
loved him, and yet it seems, never took a stand with him, didn’t have enough of
an influence in his life, we’ll see that as we go into the next chapter. As we go into this next chapter, we find
Isaac being deceitful, we find Rebekah being deceitful, we find Jacob being
deceitful, we find one of the most dysfunctional families you can imagine. Now how would you like it if God just took,
this is just like a day out of their life, this is a Kodak moment. How would you like it if one of your worst
days, you’ve never had one, but just play along with me in your imagination, in
your family with your kids, if God took it, wrote a chapter on it, gave all the
details, put it into a Best Seller that sold all over the world in so many
printings and so many languages, and you’re famous for what happened on that
day? Now this day is a day this family
wishes they could reel it back in. But
God puts it before us, it’s instructive, there are things for us to learn as we
look into it. There there’s this sad
chapter in many ways. It takes place
about 30 years later. Genesis
27:1-46 “And
it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he
could not see, he called Esau his eldest son, and said unto him, My son: and he said unto him, Behold, here am I.
2 And
he said, Behold now, I am old, I know not the day of my death: 3
now therefore take, I pray thee, thy
weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison;
4 and
make me savoury meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may
eat; that my soul may bless thee before I die. 5
And Rebekah heard when Isaac spake to
Esau his son. And Esau went to the field
to hunt for venison, and to bring it. 6
And Rebekah spake unto Jacob her son,
saying, Behold, I heard thy father speak unto Esau thy brother, saying, 7
Bring me venison, and make me savoury
meat, that I may eat, and bless thee before the LORD
before my death. 8 Now
therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command thee. 9
Go now to the flock, and fetch me from
thence two good kids of the goats; and I will make them savoury meat for thy
father, such as he loveth: 10 and
thou shalt bring it to thy father, that he may eat, and that he may
bless thee before his death. 11 And
Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy
man, and I am a smooth man: 12
my father peradventure will feel me, and
I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a
blessing. 13 And
his mother said unto him, Upon me be thy curse, my son: only obey my voice, and go fetch me them.
14 And
he went, and fetched, and brought them to his mother: and his mother made savoury meat, such as his
father loved. 15 And
Rebekah took goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which were with her
in the house, and put them upon Jacob her younger son: 16
and she put the skins of the kids of the
goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck: 17
and she gave the savoury meat and the
bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob. 18
And he came unto his father, and said,
My father: and he said, Here am
I; who art thou, my son? 19
And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau thy firstborn; I have done
according as thou badest me: arise, I
pray thee, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me. 20
And Isaac said unto his son, How is
it that thou hast found it so quickly, my son? And he said, Because the LORD
brought it to me. 21 And
Isaac said unto Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee, my son,
whether thou be my very son Esau or not. 22
And Jacob went near unto Isaac his
father; and he felt him, and said, The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the
hands are the hands of Esau. 23
And he discerned him not, because his
hands were hairy, as his brother Esau’s hands:
so he blessed him. 24 And
he said, Art thou my very son Esau?
And he said, I am. 25
And he said, Bring it near to me,
and I will eat of my son’s venison, that my soul may bless thee. And he brought it near to him, and he
did eat: and he brought him wine, and he
drank. 26 And
his father Isaac said unto him, Come near now, and kiss me, my son. 27
And he came near, and kissed him: and he smelled the smell of his raiment, and
blessed him, and said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a
field which the LORD
hath blessed: 28 therefore
God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of
corn and wine: 29 Let
people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethren, and let thy
mother’s sons bow down to thee: cursed be
every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee. 30
And it came to pass, as soon as Isaac
had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob was yet scarce gone out from the
presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting. 31
And he also had made savoury meat, and
brought it unto his father, and said unto his father, Let my father arise, and
eat of his son’s venison, that thy soul may bless me. 32
And Isaac his father said unto him, Who art
thou? And he said, I am thy son,
thy firstborn Esau. 33 And
Isaac trembled very exceedingly, and said, Who? where is he that hath
taken venison, and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before thou
camest, and have blessed him? yea, and he shall be blessed. 34
And when Esau heard the words of his
father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his
father, Bless me, even me also, O my father. 35
And he said, Thy brother came with
subtilty, and hath taken away thy blessing. 36
And he said, Is not he rightly named
Jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright; and, behold, now
he hath taken away my blessing. And he
said, Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me?
37 And Isaac answered and said unto Esau,
Behold, I have made him thy lord, and all his brethren have I given to him for
servants; and with corn and wine have I sustained him: and what shall I do now unto thee, my son? 38
And Esau said unto his father, Hast thou
but one blessing, my father? bless me, even me also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice, and wept. 39
And Isaac his father answered and said
unto him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be [away from] the fatness of the earth,
and of the dew of heaven from above; 40
and by thy sword shalt thou live, and
shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the
dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck. 41
And Esau hated Jacob because of the
blessing wherewith his father blessed him:
and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at
hand; then I will slay my brother Jacob. 42
And these words of Esau her elder son
were told to Rebekah: and she sent and
called Jacob her younger son, and said unto him, Behold, thy brother Esau, as
touching thee, doth comfort himself, purposing to kill thee. 43
Now therefore, my son, obey my voice;
and arise, flee thou to Laban my brother to Haran; 44
and tarry with him a few days, until thy
brother’s fury turn away; 45 until
thy brother’s anger turn away from thee, and he forget that which thou
hast done to him: then I will send, and
fetch thee from thence: why should I be
deprived also of you both in one day? 46
And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of
my life because of the daughters of Heth:
if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these which
are of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me?” ‘Esau,
Go out in the field, get me some venison,’ “and make me savoury meat, such as I
love, and bring it to me, that I may eat; that my soul may bless thee before I
die.” “It
says “And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim,
so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son, and said unto him, My
son: and he said unto him, Behold, here
am I. And he said, Behold now, I am
old, I know not the day of my death:” (verses 1-2) Now he is 137 [actually, 131] years old in
this scene, that’s the same age that his brother Ishmael had died at. [“There is a lot of material out of chronological sequence in much of
Genesis, put particularly the last half. Note the following:
From the above
brief survey, it is obvious that the Genesis incidents are not chronologically
arranged but are mostly arranged topically.”
So Pastor Joe is not far off in the accepted chronological dating of
Isaac and Jacob. You can get this date
of Jacob being 71 years old from going to Genesis 47:28 where it states that
Jacob was 147 when he called for Joseph because he was about to die, and that
he had been living in Egypt since he was 130 years old. Subtract 2 years worth of famine he had been
in Egypt for, and 7 years of plenty, and 13 years Joseph was enslaved and then
in prison, and 17 years to Joseph’s birth, and 20 years Jacob dwelled in Haran
with Laban, and that equals 71, the age of Jacob when he left Canaan for Haran
to uncle Laban’s, right after he deceives Isaac and Esau 71+20+17+13+7+2+17=147 years old in Genesis
47:28.] So maybe he’s
thinking, family genes, DNA, I’m getting close, he’s gonna live for 43 more
years. But one of these days he wakes up
in a bad mood and he’s whining ‘I don’t know how long I’m going to live,
this could be the day.’ I had a
grandmother that used to do this, and an aunt that used to do that, ‘I’m not
gonna be around much longer, I’m not gonna be here next year.’ So he’s in one of those moods, he says “Behold
now, I am old, I know not the day of my death:
now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow,
and go out to the field, and take me some venison;” (verses 2-3) ‘I don’t know when I’m gonna die, I’m
gonna eat that one more time,’ “and make me savoury meat, such as I love,
and bring it to me, that I may eat; that my soul may bless thee before I
die.” (verse 4) Now, what a great
reason to bless your son, because he gives you meat. I think that’s good, I think every son should
have to give his father meat, just to pay back for all the years that the
father had to give the son meat. But ‘You
get me meat and I’ll pronounce the blessing on you,’ that Isaac knows
is to go on the younger, that the elder would serve the younger, he knows
that. And yet, how he gets here, he’s 30
years later, after this guy came, the LORD had appeared to him, we see some
remarkable spiritual things in his life.
You know what, we can cool. If we
don’t stay close to the Lord, if we don’t remain in his Word, if we don’t
remain true to the things that we know, it’s so easy for us to cool. And lots of times you hear Christians say ‘I
don’t know God’s will,’ but you know the things that you’re not doing that
he told you that you should be doing, and that you decided that you weren’t
going to do, then you kind of get lost and think ‘I don’t know what to do
next,’ well go back and do the things that you know you should be doing,
there’s no secrets here, it’s an open book test. [But whoa, what a complicated book, that
mankind in general doesn’t understand, because it must be spiritually discerned
by means of the indwelling Holy Spirit or you just won’t get it.] But we see Isaac here, in 30 years he’s
completely cooled, and he’s got a wrong attitude, and he’s going to be deceived
by his senses. The only sense that
remains true to him is hearing. Because
he’s going to say to Jacob, whose trying to deceive him, ‘the voice is
Jacob’s but the skin is Esau’s.’ It’s
going to say here he can’t see anymore, he can’t depend on his sight, his taste
is shot, because his son’s going to give him a goat instead of a deer and he’s
not going to know the difference [that could have been Rebekah’s excellent
cooking too]. His feeling can’t be
trusted, because he’s going to feel Jacobs hands with goatskin on it and think
it’s Esau. His smell is shot, because
he’s going to smell Jacob and say ‘Ah you smell like the field, like my
boy.’ [But don’t forget, Rebekah
dressed Jacob up in Esau’s clothing.] The only sense that rings out to him with
truth is his hearing, and he mistrusts it.
You know, the spoken word is so important, God has chosen to speak to
us, and asks us to hear, and usually the Hebrew word has to do with the hearing
of the heart. Here’s the guy whose going
to go ‘Well I felt like, well I feel like this, I felt bad that day, well it
felt like Esau’s hands, well it smelt like him,’ he’s going to be deceived
by all of his senses. And I think
there’s something in that, that God would say to us. Because this [i.e. the Bible] is to take
precedence over our senses, over our feelings.
Here’s the secret. If you bring
your behavior into submission to God’s Word, your feelings will fall in
line. If I get up in the morning, and
feel, you know, I look out, the sun is out, I get a nice mug of Ethiopian
coffee beans, grinded up, the birds are singing, I read a favourite part of the
Scripture, I feel Christian, I feel pretty good. But when I get up in the morning, I have a
headache, and it’s miserable, and I’m late, and the rest of the house is
arguing and carrying on, and you just feel like decapitating someone
[laughter]. Now do I react to my
feelings? Because if I do that, yelling
and screaming, and then I go to work and by the time I get there, I feel kind
of rotten about myself. He acted like a
heathen this morning, acted like Charles Manson when he got up instead of
Jesus. But if I say to myself, ‘Wait,
Lord you’re right, a soft answer turns away wrath, I need to reel it in here,
the fruit of the Spirit is love, and I do what I really don’t feel like doing,
I act like Jesus,’ by the time I get to work, ‘I did pretty good back
there, didn’t I Lord,’ and I find that my feelings fall in line with
obedience, ‘it feels pretty good, I could have killed somebody and I didn’t,
I acted like you Lord, I’m doing alright so far today, it’s only 8 o’clock in
the morning, but we got at least 15 minutes down here, we’re doing pretty
good.’ Well he’s going to do the
opposite in all of this, which is sad.
Ishmael’s died 14 years or more before this, maybe he does this to Esau
because he’s got these wives, and that’s been troubling him, he’s thinking
about how old he is, I’m not sure. But
he sends him and says ‘Go out in the field, get me some venison,’
that’s going to be seven times in the chapter, “make me savoury meat,” that’s
going to be six times in the chapter, “that I may eat, eating” is going to be
eight times in the chapter, you can get an idea of what’s driving Isaac here,
which is amazing. “and make me
savoury meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat; that
my soul may bless thee before I die.” (verse 4)
Now look, I guarantee you he didn’t just wake up one morning and
decide, ‘You know, I’m going to bless the older instead of the younger,’ even
though God said bless the younger, and you know, ‘just get me some
venison.’ No, this is something
that has been cooking, this kind of compromise.
The
Great Deception There’s
Such Favouritism In This House In Their Old Age “And
Rebekah heard when Isaac spake to Esau his son.
And Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to
bring it.” (verse 5) Notice,
“his son.” “And Rebekah spake unto
Jacob her son, saying, Behold, I heard thy father speak unto Esau thy brother,
saying,” (verse 6) notice, “her
son,” so you got two sons in the house, one is Isaac’s son and one is Rebekah’s
son. [I see this happening with two of
my grandsons.] They had learned from
Abraham and Sarah who favoured one over the other. And it’s being passed to the next generation,
there’s such favouritism in this house that in their old age, Esau was Isaac’s
son and Jacob is Rebekah’s son, what a sad picture. What a divided house. “And Rebekah spake unto Jacob her son,
saying, Behold, I heard thy father speak unto Esau thy brother, saying, Bring
me venison, and make me savoury meat, that I may eat, and bless thee before the
LORD
before my death. Now therefore, my son,
obey my voice according to that which I command thee.” (verses 6-8) Now isn’t it interesting, Jacob is 77 years
old [actually 71 years old], and his mom is saying ‘I want you to listen
to me now.’ You know, I’m
thinking, by the time you’re 77 that your mom is cutting you a break and not
bossing you around anymore, but here he is, he’s 77 [71] and she saying ‘I
want you to listen to me,’ “Go now to the flock, and fetch me from thence
two good kids of the goats; and I will make them savoury meat for thy father,
such as he loveth: and thou shalt bring it
to thy father, that he may eat, and that he may bless thee before his death.”
(verses 9-10) ‘Let’s outsmart
dad, we need to do this.’ Because
he’s going to mess up this whole blessing thing. ‘You know when you boys were born, God
spoke to me and said the elder was going to serve the younger, we have Biblical
reasons for acting like this. Your
father’s not with it.’ Now I’ll
tell you, it’s a shame when I look at this, because I see what’s being
reproduced in the family, that Sarah had died before Rebekah was brought from
Padam-aram to live in the home. Because
if Rebekah had had time to live around Sarah, she’d have been a much different
woman. Because Sarah put up with some of
Abraham’s failings, and it tells us, in 1st Peter she still called
him “lord,” she still respected him though he was human. It’s a shock when a wife finds out the man
she married is human, and it usually isn’t long after you say “I do” that you
realize “he don’t.” Rebekah is right in
the middle of this, she’s stepped in, she’s asking her son to be deceitful,
she’s disrespecting her husband, and she’s never going to win out, God will
never bless that and never let that flourish.
Look, first of all, through all this deceit, Jacob’s going to get the
blessing. But you and I know, if they
hadn’t done all of this Jacob would have gotten the blessing anyhow, because
God said it. I mean, God could have let
Esau go out in the field and he could have chased away every deer for a
thousand square miles. Esau could have
come back with deer 30 years later if God wanted him to. God could have appeared to Isaac, he did it
before, and said ‘Yo Bub! What do you
think you’re doing? You know you’re
supposed bless the younger.’ He
could have freaked him out and pulled him right in line. Isn’t it interesting, the way the LORD
is standing back and letting all this play out?
And these are people that are exposed to truth, Isaac has had the LORD
appear to him, Jacob at least knows enough about the God of Abraham and Isaac
that he wants the blessing at any cost. Rebekah
was spoken to by the LORD when the LORD said there are two nations in thy womb,
and God had communed with her. She had
come from Padam-aram and there Bethuel when he listened to Abraham’s servant
Eleazar, said ‘This thing proceedeth from Jehovah,’ so there’s
even enough belief back in her home that had given her these foundations. So, very interesting picture here, look at
everybody doing the wrong thing. “And
Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy
man, and I am a smooth man:” (verse 11) [he laughs], you know ‘Go
get two goats, and then you go to your dad and give it to him, and tell him
it’s venison and act like your brother Esau and let him bless you.’ He said ‘Ma,’ he’s 77, he’s not
gonna get any hairier at this point, maybe get less hairier. He said ‘Mom, how is this going to
happen? Esau is a hairy man and I am a
smooth man.’ These guys are
fraternal twins, that’s a very strange combination of human beings at the same
time. ‘I am a smooth man,’ he
was smooth in more than one way we’re going to see, at least he tried to
be. Look at verse 12, and “my
father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I
shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing.” ‘I don’t mind being a deceiver, I just
don’t want to seem like one. My problem
isn’t deceiving my old blind father, it’s my persona that’s at stake here, I
might get found out, I might seem like the deceiver’ [laughter] You would be a deceiver, what do you
mean? He says ‘Perhaps he’ll feel
me, and I know I’m too smooth, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver, and then
I’ll bring a curse upon me and not a blessing.’
‘Who cares about deceiving an old blind dad, I just don’t want to get
cursed, I don’t want him to think I’m being a deceiver.’ And of course in the culture, the final words
of the patriarch were considered binding, and, if you tried to change them, in
these ancient cultures, that was at the point of death, it was a capital crime,
to try to alter the words of a patriarch that he pronounced in his blessing
before he passed. [Sort of like
tampering with someone’s last will and testament could land you in jail.] So he says he doesn’t want any part of
that. “And his mother said unto him,
Upon me be thy curse, my son:
only obey my voice, and go fetch me them.” (verse 13) ‘Don’t worry about it, if dad’s mad and
you get caught, I’ll let him curse me instead of you.’ because she
could justify what’s she’s doing Biblically, see, ‘in the Bible it says
the elder shall serve the younger, and your dad’s messing this all up.’ You know people like that, they can
use, if you torture the text enough you can get it to confess to anything. “only obey my voice, and go fetch me them.”
(verse 13b) only go and get ‘em. You
know, the shame of this is, God can never bless any wife that deceives her
husband, or vice versa. It will come out
in the long run. It’s very interesting,
once the Law is given, there is a law for a jealous husband that says ‘If
you suspect that you’re wife is being unfaithful,’ you didn’t hire a
private eye, you didn’t have somebody following her around or taping the phone,
what you did is you took her down to the priest, he scrapes some dust off the
floor of the tabernacle, mixed it with water and she had to drink it. If she was guilty, it says her belly would
swell and her thigh would rot. And if
she was innocent, the husband had to offer a sacrifice and apologize, ‘Sorry
I had you drink that dirty water again.’
But the point is, nobody gets away with it. She’s doing all of this, look, by the end of
the day, Esau is going to be so angry he’s going to pledge to kill his brother. In light of that, Rebekah will go to Isaac
and beg him to send him away so that he doesn’t take a wife of the
Canaanites. He will leave the next day,
and Rebekah will say to her son, Jacob, whom she loved more than Esau, ‘Go
for a few days until your brother cools off.’
Well it wasn’t a few days, it wasn’t 30 days, it wasn’t 5
months, it wasn’t 7 years, it was 20 years before Jacob would come back,
Rebekah would die in the interim, and never see this boy that she loved
again. The last day she spends with him
is getting him to be deceitful. And by
the way, if you’re 77 [71] years old you don’t have to listen to your mom if
she’s trying to get you to be a liar.
ok? ‘Blessed is the man who
walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, or sitteth in the seat of the
scornful, nor standeth in the way of sinners, but delights in the law of the LORD,
and doth meditate on it day and night,’
you know the whole thing there, so, blessed is the man who walketh not in the
counsel of the ungodly. ‘Let it be
on me, the curse will be on me, you just go do what I said.’ So “And he went, and fetched, and
brought them to his mother:” these two kids, baby goats, “and his
mother made savoury meat, such as his father loved.” (verse 14) Now Isaac
evidently can’t tell the difference between venison and goat at this point in
time [also Rebekah must have been a good cook].
“And Rebekah took goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which were
with her in the house, and put them upon Jacob her younger son: and she put the skins of the kids of the
goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck:” (verses 15-16) “upon his hands,” the Hebrew word means “up to
the elbows.” So she skins these baby
goats, takes the goat skins and covers his hands and his arms up to his elbows,
puts the goatskin all around his neck.
I’m really wondering what Esau looked like as this whole process moves
forward. “and she gave the savoury
meat and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son
Jacob. And he came unto his father, and
said, My father: and he said, Here am
I; who art thou, my son?” (verses 17-18) Jacob’s
Four Lies In One Breath Now,
verse 19 we’re going to have four lies in one breath. Jacob’s going to spit out four lies in one
sentence, in one breath. “And Jacob
said unto his father, I am Esau” #1 lie “thy firstborn;” #2
lie “I have done according as thou badest me:” #3 lie “arise, I pray
thee, sit and eat of my venison,” that’s #4 lie “that thy soul may bless
me.” that’s the 5th lie, really (verse 19) This is in one sentence. This guy just tears it all down. Look, before Jacob could do that, he had to
lie to himself first. Every adulterer is
a liar. Because to enter into adultery
they had to lie to themselves and believe it first. Every thief is a liar, because they had to
lie to themselves. And look, Proverbs
says this ‘If a man steals because his family is starving, I understand
that, and if he’s caught let him make the right kind of payment.’ There’s a reason, the Scripture even
takes that into consideration, it may be the most horrendous of
circumstances. The point is, for anybody
to cross the line, that’s a believer, they have to lie to themselves first, and
every other sin is secondary to the first sin of lying and being deceptive to
themselves. So, he had to step across
some lines here, he’s got his blind father there, saying ‘Ya, it’s me,
Esau your firstborn, and I did according as you told me, I went out in the
field, I got your venison,’ which is a lie, it’s goat, ‘that you
may bless me.’ “And Isaac said unto
his son, How is it that thou hast found it so quickly, my
son? And he said, Because the LORD
brought it to me.” (verse 20) ‘That’s the fastest you ever went out
and got a deer and came back, and cleaned it and cooked it.’ And he says ‘Aah, because God gave it
to me.’ Now he’s got God
involved in his lie. Isaac’s blind, ‘man
that is the fastest hunting trip I can remember in a long time, I was hungry,
that is really something, how’d you do it?’ and he takes the name of the LORD
in vain here. Now taking the name of the
LORD in vain is not just
cursing. Now we shouldn’t do that, and
it bothers me. That isn’t somebody who
drops something on their foot and go ‘Hari Krushna!’ or ‘Oh Buddha!’
why is it always our God that they pick on, you know? I look at some of these guys on TV that have
a yacht and driving a Mercedes and they’re up there poor-mouthing and saying ‘You
need to give, you need to give,’ and that’s taking the name of the Lord for
a vain reason, in vain. Or sometimes
manipulating. I remember once one of the
big guys on the west coast, I won’t name him, but he’s got a Glass church out
there, [loud laughter--Crystal Palace anyone?
The preacher died, btw, God got the last laugh here]. He was trying to get money for supposedly
this missionary work he was doing in China, and they had him there interviewing
him in front of the Great Wall, well it came out that was a backdrop in a
studio somewhere, it wasn’t in China at all. That’s taking the Lord’s name in vain. And he [Jacob] does it here. ‘How’d you get the deer so fast?’ ‘God gave me it, I was out there, just took
my bow, walked out the front door and the deer was waiting for me waiving, I
just got him right out the front door.’ He’s suspicious “And Isaac said unto Jacob,
Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee, my son, whether thou be my
very son Esau or not.” (verse 21) ‘You
might deceive me in a million other ways, but there ain’t no man on the planet
that feels like Esau.’ “that I may
feel thee, my son, whether thou be my very son Esau or not. And Jacob went near unto Isaac his father;
and he felt him, and said, The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are
the hands of” Hairy “Esau.” (verses 21b-22) that’s what Esau means,
Hairy. How hairy is a goat? This is remarkable. The only sense that’s still ringing true to
him is hearing, and he saying ‘Something not right, you sound like Jacob,’ he
has conviction, he’s not going to pay attention to it because he wants to
eat. ‘Ya, ain’t nobody’s got hands
like that but the Wolfman, and he’s not real, so.’ “And he discerned him not, because his
hands were hairy, as his brother Esau’s hands:
so he blessed him.” (verse 23) that’s how hairy Esau’s hands
were. You take a goat and skin it, and
wrap the goat skin around your hand, it says that’s how hairy Esau’s hands
were. No wonder he had to marry a
Hittite woman, he couldn’t find anybody, they were probably hairy too
[laughter]. Come on. So he says because his hands were hairy, “so
he blessed him. And he said, Art
thou my very son Esau? And he said, I am.”
(verses 23b-24) “And he said, Bring it
near to me, and I will eat of my son’s venison, that my soul may bless
thee. And he brought it near to
him, and he did eat: and he brought him
wine, and he drank. And his father Isaac
said unto him, Come near now, and kiss me, my son.” (verses 25-26) because
I want to see if these are Esau’s lips, because he’s got hair all over his lips
too. Jacob
Receives The Blessing Which Is Part Of The Birthright Straightening
Out More Deception “And
he came near, and kissed him: and he
smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him, and said, See, the smell of
my son is as the smell of a field which the LORD
hath blessed:” (verse 27) This is quite a man, this Esau, he’s hairy as
a goat and smells like a field, this is the kind of boy that any father would
love, ‘Hey boy, go out and get me some water buffalo, I think that’s what I
want tonight, don’t shoot it, just strangle it and bring it back here for me, I
want it fresh.’ Hairy as a goat, and
smells like a field. Now verse 28 he
starts to give Jacob the Blessing that he’s deceiving his father for, that
would have been his anyway. “therefore
God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of
corn and wine: Let people serve thee,
and nations bow down to thee: be lord
over thy brethren, and let thy mother’s sons bow down to thee: cursed be every one that curseth thee,
and blessed be he that blesseth thee.” (verses 28-29) Now he puts this blessing on the son he thinks
is Esau, contradicting what he knew the LORD
had said about these boys from the time they were born. And he must have leaned back then, full
belly, licking the gravy off his fingers, ‘This is as good as it gets, I’ve
outsmarted God, Esau’s got the blessing, my belly’s full, and I’m not gonna die
with an empty stomach.’ Now this
should be a movie, Mel Gibson needs to work on this one, “And it came to
pass, as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob was yet
scarce gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother
came in from his hunting.” (verse 30)
Uh-oh is right, Hairy-that-smells-like-a-field is back, “And he also
had made savoury meat, and brought it unto his father,” now his father had
said ‘Well the hands are Esau’s, but the voice is Jacob’s,’ now he’s
going to hear the voice that he knows so well, here as Esau comes in, “and
said unto his father, Let my father arise, and eat of his son’s venison, that
thy soul may bless me. And Isaac his
father said unto him, Who art thou?
And he said, I am thy son, thy firstborn Esau. And Isaac trembled very exceedingly, and
said, Who? where is he that hath taken venison, and brought it
me, and I have eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed him? yea, and
he shall be blessed.” (verses 31-33)
You may have a gloss in your column that says “Isaac trembled with a
great trembling, greatly,” that’s the way the Hebrew does it, “he trembled with
a great trembling greatly.” It means he
shook himself off the chair. He’s
smitten with conviction. He knows what’s
just happened. He must be under the
conviction of the Spirit of God, because he’s going to say ‘I blessed
your brother, and he shall be blessed.’
He must realize what God has just done, what he thought he had done and
what’s actually happened. ‘Isaac
trembled very exceedingly, and said WHO are you?’ “where is he that
hath taken venison, and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before
thou camest, and have blessed him? yea, and he shall be blessed.” (verse
33) he knows. “And when Esau
heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry,
and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father. And he said, Thy brother came with subtilty,
and hath taken away thy blessing.” (verses 34-35) Now he’s got nerve, doesn’t he? He was using subtlety towards God’s will and
now he’s mad at Jacob for using subtlety.
He said “Thy brother came with subtilty, and hath taken away thy
blessing.” that is wrong, he took away his own blessing, the way Jacob did
it wasn’t right, but the blessing he took was the blessing God had promised to
him, and Isaac is still saying ‘What’s wrong here, he hath taken away thy
blessing,’ it wasn’t ever Esau’s blessing.
“And he said, Is not he rightly named Jacob? for he hath supplanted
me these two times: he took away my
birthright; and, behold, now he hath taken away my blessing. And he said, Hast thou not reserved a
blessing for me?” (verse 36) Now
Esau’s lying, ‘he took away my birthright,’ he did not take away his
birthright, Esau traded it away for a pot of beans, “he took away my
birthright; and, behold, now he hath taken away my blessing. And he said, Hast thou not reserved a
blessing for me? And Isaac answered and
said unto Esau, Behold, I have made him thy lord, and all his brethren have I
given to him for servants; and with corn and wine have I sustained him: and what shall I do now unto thee, my son? And Esau said unto his father, Hast thou but
one blessing, my father? bless me, even me also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice, and wept.”
(verses 36b-38) The writer to
Hebrews will tell us the truth about what’s happening here, he tells us that ‘we
should look diligently unless any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root
of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled, lest there
be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold
his birthright.’ See it wasn’t
stolen, he sold it. He says he was a profane person, from the Latin “profanum,”
outside of the temple, outside of the threshold, the common place in the
street, he was a profane man, he had nothing in his own heart of sanctuary, of
worship, of the temple. He was a man
whose life was lived out in the common place of life, he was profane, who for
one morsel of food sold his birthright, ‘for you know that after he had
sold his birthright, when he would have inherited the blessing,’ that’s
all he was interested in, not the birthright, but they went together, the
blessing was material, the birthright was spiritual. He didn’t care about the birthright, but he
wanted the crops, the fields, he wanted the blessing, and it says ‘for
you know that after he had sold his birthright, when he would have inherited
the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place of repentance, though he
sought it carefully with tears.’ There
was no place for him to take the blessing and the birthright back again. There was certainly a place for him to go
sacrifice a lamb and say ‘O God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, forgive me, I
have walked in my own wisdom, I’ve married unbelievers, I’ve been a disgrace to
my family, I’ve done all this and I’ve caused all of this, I despised my
birthright, I sold it for nothing, and here I am now,’ and God would have
received him, and God would have blessed him, and God would have worked in his
life. There is nothing that was
prohibiting that at all, nothing here.
He lifted up his voice and he wept, it says in verse 38, he blesses him
now, “And Isaac his father answered and said unto him, Behold, thy dwelling
shall be [away from] the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from
above; and by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it
shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his
yoke from off thy neck.” (verses 39-40) the day would come when Esau would
no longer be living under subjection to Jacob, that they would treat each other
like brothers again, we’ll see that. “And
Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him: and Esau said in his heart, The days of
mourning for my father are at hand; then I will slay my brother Jacob.” (verse
41) This is just a day in the life
of Isaac and his family, a little snapshot of a day. Deception on the part of Isaac towards God,
rebellion, deception on the part of his wife, no respect, being deceiving,
sowing to the wind, the reaping of the whirlwind, so she would see nothing of
what she wanted to see, deception on the part of Jacob, anger, hatred,
deception on the part of Esau.
Discouraging, huh? Discouraging. And yet God will be sovereign over all of
this, Esau certainly will not slay his brother.
“And these words of Esau her elder son were told to Rebekah:” now
she got spies everywhere, she knows everything that goes on, “and she sent and called Jacob her younger
son, and said unto him, Behold, thy brother Esau, as touching thee, doth
comfort himself, purposing to kill thee.” (verse 42) ‘aah, ya, that’s right, let’s cheer up, you
can kill him soon,’ ‘he’s comforting himself purposing to kill thee.’ “Now therefore, my son, obey my
voice; and arise, flee thou to Laban my brother to Haran;” (verse 43) now
the last time she did that she got him in a world of trouble, and she’s still
saying it. ‘I am 77 years old, I’m
not doing this in one day.’ “Now
therefore, my son, obey my voice; and arise, flee thou to Laban my brother to
Haran; and tarry with him a few days, until thy brother’s fury turn away;”
(verses 43-44) it will be 20 years, Rebekah will never see the son that she
loves again, in this world. “until
thy brother’s anger turn away from thee, and he forget that which thou
hast done to him: then I will send, and
fetch thee from thence: why should I be
deprived also of you both in one day?” (verse 45) ‘Boy thanks mom, I said I didn’t want
to do it, you said Let the curse come on me, now you’re telling me I need to
run away until Esau cools off for all the bad stuff I did to him, this was all
your plan.’ “And Rebekah said to
Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth:” ‘these
Hittite women’ “if Jacob take a wife
of the daughters of Heth, such as these which are of the daughters of
the land, what good shall my life do me?” (verse 46) Now in the beginning of chapter 28 is the
first time we see Isaac step up to the plate and play the role of the
patriarch.” Genesis
28:1-9 “And
Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou
shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. 2
Arise, go to Padam-aram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother’s father; and take
thee a wife from thence of the daughter’s of Laban thy mother’s brother. 3
And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that
thou mayest be a multitude of people; 4
and give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee; that
thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto
Abraham. 5
And Isaac sent away Jacob: and he went
to Padam-aram unto Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah,
Jacob’s and Esau’s mother. 6
When Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob, and sent him away to Padam-aram, to
take him a wife from thence; and that as he blessed him he gave him charge,
saying, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan; 7
and that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Padam-aram; 8
and Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father, 9
then went Esau unto Ishmael, and took unto the wives which he had Mahalath the
daughter of Ishmael Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife.” Isaac
Finally Steps Up To The Plate “And
Isaac called Jacob,” Rebekah’s son, no doubt
the son he had not been close to, so sad.
“And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him,” two
things now “and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters
of Canaan.” (verse 1) He hadn’t said
that to Esau, “Arise, go to Padam-aram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother’s
father; and take thee a wife from thence of the daughter’s of Laban thy
mother’s brother.” (verse 2) the first thing he tells him is, ‘I
don’t want you to marry an unbeliever, I don’t want you to marry the daughters
of Canaan.’ He has stepped up to the plate now, no doubt remembering
that Abraham had sent Eleazar back there to get Rebekah for him, and Rebekah
has come, he realized God has sovereignly overridden his own rebellion, the
Blessing was on his son Jacob instead of Esau, and now he steps up to the plate
and says ‘Jacob, my son,’ very important, ‘I want you to go
back to the land of our origin, and I want you to take one of the daughters of
Laban to be your wife, I don’t want you to marry one of these Canaanite
women.’ “And God Almighty bless
thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a
multitude of people; and give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy
seed with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger,
which God gave unto Abraham.” (verses 3-4)
Isn’t it interesting how different his tone is at this point in time? Two things, he says ‘Son, marriage and
worship are two life-altering decisions.’ And they still are today, they still are
today. Men, if you want to serve the
Lord for the rest of your life, choose wisely, pray, because the woman you
marry will either be your ministry, or she’ll assist you in ministry, one or
the other. Ladies, choose wisely,
because the man that you marry is going to set the course for your family. And it is one of the most life-altering
decisions, it is the most important commitment next to getting saved, your
commitment to Christ, that there will be, the relationship between the husband
and the wife is to take precedent over the relationship between parents and
children. It’s sacred, not matter what
the culture says. Secondly, worship,
what do you bow your heart before. It is
a life-altering decision. What God will
you serve, is he your Saviour and your Lord, or just your Saviour? Is he just fire-insurance because you don’t
want to go to hell? Or is he your
Saviour and your Lord? Because the
struggle of my Christian experience is that I know if he’s not the Lord of all,
he’s not the Lord at all. And I have
enough Jacob in me, and I’ve got enough Isaac in me, and ladies you got enough
Rebekah in you, as we go through this, I can give heed to the warnings of
God. I can see where God would say to me
‘If you know that something is my will, your preferences are not to take
precedence over my revealed will, the way Isaac determined he was going to
bless Esau no matter what God had said about the boys.’ If God would say to me ‘It doesn’t matter
how you feel,’ and this is HUGE in the Church today, there’s so much
psychobabble and nonsense in Christian bookstores about feeling this and
feeling that, and feeling this. We have
truth, revealed to us, the Word of God, it will never change. It is not subject to the culture. Christianity, the Spirit-filled Christian
life is supposed to infect the culture, the culture is not supposed to infect
the Church. We are salt and light, we’re
not supposed to be salted and dimmed down.
Two life-altering changes, remarkable to see Isaac here at the end, to
step up, take the lead, and say this is what I want you to do. Verse 5 says, “And Isaac sent away
Jacob: and he went to Padam-aram unto
Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob’s and Esau’s
mother.” Now, Isaac is not sending
him away, at this point, because he’s afraid that Esau’s going to kill
him. He’s sending him away because he’s
afraid he’s going to marry a Canaanite.
It is back in Isaac’s heart now that God’s blessing is on Jacob, and
there isn’t anything Esau can do to destroy that. His concern at this point in time, is that
the lineage, the Messianic line, the Birthright be preserved, that had been
passed from Abraham, to Isaac and now to his own son. After
Marrying Two Hittites Esau Marries An Ishmaelite To Try To Please Isaac Verse
6 says
“When Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob, and sent him away to
Padam-aram, to take him a wife from thence; and that as he blessed him he gave
him charge, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan;” which
Esau had done, “and that Jacob” notice “obeyed his father and his
mother, and was gone to Padam-aram; and Esau seeing that the daughters of
Canaan pleased not Isaac his father,” notice, not his mother, Isaac his
father, “then went Esau unto Ishmael, and took unto the wives which he” already
“had Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebajoth, to
be his wife.” (verses 6-9) Like, ‘There!
does that fix everything?’ Isn’t it
interesting, even Esau here, look, the power of a father in the life of a
son. Only the Lord knows the suffering
in our culture because of the failure of fathers, only the Lord knows how huge
that is. And even Esau when he sees that
his father Isaac is not pleased with the daughters of Canaan, and he says to
Jacob ‘I don’t want you to do that,’ and that he had sent him to their
relatives to take a wife, then it says Esau then figures ‘Well I’ll go to
Ishmael, he’s part of the family, and I’ll take a wife from there, and maybe
that will please my dad.’ Isn’t that
interesting? There was still something,
this is a big hairy field-smelling guy, with a broken down boy somewhere
inside, at least part of him, still trying to placate and to please his
father. And in some way, never really
measured up, ‘Dad loves me because I get meat, Dad loves me because I’m a
good shot, Dad loves me because of this or that,’ isn’t it sad. Well look, read ahead, Jacobs Ladder, you all
know the story. We have a remarkable
encounter, and we really begin the life and the journey of Jacob next week, as
he’s sleeping with a rock for his pillow [no My Pillow 😊]. And he opens his eyes, and it says he sees
this ladder, it’s literally a stairway, it’s the only place in the Bible the
word is used. I don’t know if that’s
what they were thinking of when they wrote the song [Stairway to Heaven
by Led Zeppelin], Stairway to
Heaven. But he sees this stairway, and
the angels of God ascending and descending, and he comes out of it, and he’s
completely freaked out. He says ‘How
do you like that! Of all of the places I
could have picked to lay down and sleep, I picked the bottom step on the
Stairway to Heaven, you know, just traveling, I traveled almost 40 miles today,
looking over my shoulder making sure Esau wasn’t chasing me, and I’m so
fatigued I fall down right at a portal to another dimension.’ And he has this wrong idea that God is
localized, and that he’s in a place, and that he just so happened to lay down
right where the angels would step on his head that night. [Wouldn’t you feel like that? Be honest now.] And it will take many years to learn that
God’s presence is with him continually, God will say that to him. You and I take many years to learn that too,
for some reason. But there’s great
lessons, so I encourage you to read ahead, let’s have the musicians come, we’ll
sing a last song, let’s stand, let’s pray.
And again I encourage you if you’re here with friends, people you know,
you don’t have to run right out when we play the last song. You can say to somebody, ‘you know this
portion here, chapter 26, 27, would you guys pray for me, because I’m
struggling with this.’ Don’t be
afraid to take time and fellowship and pray together before you run out of
here. Because we worship the Lord in
praise, we worship him as we study the Word, and certainly Koinonia, our
fellowship is part of that, so. So take
the time and enjoy one another…[transcript of a connective expository sermon on
Genesis 26:17-35, Genesis 27:1-46 and Genesis 28:1-9, given by Pastor Joe
Focht, Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia, 13500 Philmont Avenue, Philadelphia,
PA 19116] related links: Audio
version: https://resources.ccphilly.org/detail.asp?TopicID=&Teaching=WED534 |