The scripture reading this morning is from Genesis
chapter 27, and this is a rather important
chapter, and while it's forty-six verses long,
I'm going to take the liberty of reading
the entire chapter.
Fortunately, the verses are relatively short for the
most part, but it is important that we
get the whole story of the stolen blessing.
So will you listen now as I read
Genesis chapter 27.
Now it came about when Isaac was old,
and his eyes were too dim to see,
that he called his older son Esau, and
said to him, My son.
And he said to him, Here I am.
And Isaac said, Behold now, I am old,
and I do not know the day of
my death.
Now then, please take your gear, your quiver,
and your bow, and go out to the
field and hunt game for me.
And prepare a savory dish for me such
as I love, and bring it to me
that I may eat, so that my soul
may bless you before I die.
And Rebekah was listening while Isaac spoke to
his son Esau.
So when Esau went to the field to
hunt for game to bring home, Rebekah said
to her son Jacob, Behold, I heard your
father speak to your brother Esau, saying, Bring
me some game, and prepare a savory dish
for me that I may eat, and bless
you in the presence of the Lord before
my death.
Now therefore, my son, listen to me as
I command you.
Go now to the flock, and bring me
two choice kids from there, that I may
prepare them as a savory dish for your
father such as he loves.
Then you shall bring it to your father
that he may eat, so that he may
bless you before his death.
And Jacob answered his mother Rebekah, Behold, Esau,
my brother, is a hairy man, and I
am a smooth man.
Perhaps my father will feel me.
Then I shall be as a deceiver in
his sight.
That word is more likely mocker as some
of the version, the margins have it.
And what he means is that Isaac's blindness
might seem to be mocked by him.
Then I shall be a mocker in his
sight, and I shall bring upon myself a
curse and not a blessing.
But his mother said to him, Your curse
be on me, my son.
Only obey my voice and go.
Get them for me.
So he went and got them and brought
them to his mother, and his mother made
savory food such as his father loved.
Then Rebekah took the best garments of Esau
her elder son, which were with her in
the house, and put them on Jacob her
younger son.
And she put the skins of the kids
on his hands and on the smooth part
of his neck.
She also gave the savory food and the
bread which she had made to her son
Jacob.
Then he came to his father and said,
My father.
And he said, Here I am.
Who are you, my son?
And Jacob said to his father, I am
Esau, your firstborn.
I have done as you told me.
Get up, please.
Sit and eat of my game, that you
may bless me.
And Isaac said to his son, How is
it that you have it so quickly, my
son?
And he said, Because the Lord your God
caused it to happen to me.
Then Isaac said to Jacob, Please come close
that I may feel you, my son, whether
you really are my son Esau or not.
So Jacob came close to Isaac his father,
and he felt him and said, The voice
is the voice of Jacob, 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.
And he said, Are you really my son
Esau?
And he said, I am.
So he said, Bring it to me and
I will eat of my son's game that
I may bless you.
And he brought it to him and he
ate.
He also brought him wine and he drank.
Then his father Isaac said to him, Please
come close and kiss me, my son.
So he came close and kissed him.
And he smelled the smell of his garments.
He blessed him and said, See, the smell
of my son is like the smell of
a field which the Lord has blessed.
Now may God give you of the dew
of heaven and of the fatness of the
earth and an abundance of grain and new
wine.
May people serve you and nations bow down
to you.
Be master of your brothers and may your
mother's sons bow down to you.
Cursed be those who curse you and blessed
be those who bless you.
Now it came about as soon as Isaac
had finished blessing Jacob and Jacob had hardly
gone out from the presence of Isaac, his
father, that Esau, his brother, came in from
his hunting.
Then he also made savory food and brought
it to his father.
And he said to his father, Let my
father arise and eat of his son's game
that you may bless me.
And Isaac, his father, said to him, Who
are you?
And he said, I am your son, your
first born, Esau.
Then Isaac trembled violently.
The Hebrew clause here is exceedingly strong.
In fact, there are three things about it
that make it strong.
There is of course the word that means
to tremble.
And Isaac trembled with trembling.
It's a cognate accusative which strengthens the idea.
But then there's an adjective added, with great
trembling.
And then an adverbial phrase is added, to
literally up to exceedingly.
So it really means that Isaac trembled with
a great tremble, trembling excessively or trembled excessively.
And said, Who was he then that hunted
game and brought it to me so that
I ate of all of it before you
came and blessed him?
Yes, and he shall be blessed.
When Esau heard the words of his father,
he cried out with an exceedingly great and
bitter cry and said to his father, Bless
me, even me also, O my father.
And he said, Your brother came deceitfully and
has taken away your blessing.
Then he said, Is he not rightly named
Jacob?
For he has supplanted me these two times.
He took away my birthright and behold now
he has taken away my blessing.
And he said, Have you not reserved a
blessing for me?
But Isaac answered and said to Esau, Behold,
I have made him your master and all
his relatives I have given to him as
servants.
And with grain and new wine I have
sustained him.
Now as for you then, what can I
do, my son?
And Esau said to his father, Do you
have only one blessing, my father?
Bless me, even me also, O my father.
So Esau lifted up his voice and wept.
I cannot help but point out here that
when we feel sorry for the pathetic crying
of Esau, we should remember that this is
the same man who rebelliously sold his birthright,
swore on at the time of the sale,
cared so little for it that he was
disinterested in it.
And now is complaining really because of what
he has previously done.
So temper your feelings of pity and compassion
for Esau by remembering the kind of person
that he really has been.
Verse 39, Then Isaac his father answered and
said to him, Behold, away from the fertility
of the earth shall be your dwelling and
away from the dew of heaven from above.
And by your sword you shall live and
your brother you shall serve.
But it shall come about when you become
restless that you shall break his yoke from
your neck.
So Esau bore a grudge against Jacob because
of the blessing with which his father had
blessed him and Esau said to himself, The
days of mourning for my father are near.
Then I will kill my brother Jacob.
Now when the words of her elder son
Esau were reported to Rebecca, she sent and
called her younger son Jacob and said to
him, Behold, your brother Esau is consoling himself
concerning you by planning to kill you.
Now therefore, my son, obey my voice and
arise.
Flee to Heron to my brother Laban.
Now Rebecca as you can see appears as
a very wise, clever woman.
Well she's a woman, wise and clever therefore.
But at any rate you can see that
she is extremely clever because she is going
to use the subterfuge of marrying another Hittite
daughter as the means of gaining Isaac's sympathy
with the flight of Jacob.
And of course that is exactly what happens
because who wants to have three Hittite daughters
-in-law.
So she knew her husband very well.
And so she cleverly appeals to him.
Now therefore, my son, obey my...
And she also scared Jacob by saying that
Esau was going to kill him and that
was enough for Jacob to want to go
too.
And stay with him a few days until
your brother's fury subsides, until your brother's anger,
anger against you subsides and he forgets what
you said to him.
Then I shall send and get you from
there.
Why should I be bereaved of you both
in one day?
And what she means by that last statement
is that if Esau killed Jacob then the
avenger of blood and the family according to
Hebrew law would then probably kill Esau so
that she would lose two sons.
And Rebecca said to Isaac, I'm tired of
having, of living because of the daughters of
Heth.
If Jacob takes a wife from the daughters
of Heth like these, from the daughters of
the land, what good will my life be
to me?
That last verse probably belongs to the next
chapter more suitably.
May the Lord bless this reading of his
word.
The subject for this morning is the stolen
blessing or Isaac's unequal fight.
Among the many spiritual blessings of the story
of the stolen blessing are these.
The sinfulness of doing evil that good may
come.
That is illustrated in the conduct of Rebecca.
Or to put it in other words, the
end does not justify the means.
The inevitability of the consequences of sin is
illustrated here too.
Or be sure your sin will find you
out.
All four of the principles in this story,
Isaac, Esau, Jacob, Rebecca are guilty.
Lost opportunities are often never regained or the
gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
Those who despise God's salvation in youth cannot
always obtain it in manhood or age.
Esau illustrates that.
Deceivers are themselves often deceived.
There is a difference between remorse and repentance.
Esau had a great deal of remorse, crying
out with bitter cries.
But for repentance?
Well, Esau did not know the meaning of
repentance.
The criminality of following evil advice conjured to
the light of the word and the light
of conscience.
And it would seem that all of the
characters in this little story are guilty there
too.
Certainly Jacob was following the advice of Rebecca.
And certainly Isaac was in the sense that
he was going contrary to the word of
God in even wanting to bless Esau when
he must have known quite well that the
blessing belonged to Jacob now.
And then he must have remembered at least
the original oracle of prophecy given by God
and the elder shall serve the younger.
And then finally the wickedness of trying to
overturn the will of heaven, or to put
it in other words, the sovereignty of God
in the affairs of men.
Isn't it interesting that in this story in
which everybody seems to be trying to subvert
the will of God, in the final analysis
what happens is exactly in accordance with the
will of God.
He accomplishes his purposes by means of man's
crimes without relieving them of guilt or being
himself the author of sin.
Now this is what we proclaim, that he
uses the wickedness of men to accomplish his
purposes, but men are still guilty and God
is not the author of sin.
The chief lesson, in my opinion, is the
last one, captured in the clause, hallelujah, for
the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
And in this story we certainly see that.
There are some texts of Scripture that give
essentially the same truth.
The writer of the Proverbs says, the mind
of man plans his way, but the Lord
directs his steps.
Or as Isaiah the prophet put it, citing
from the prophecy that the Lord gave him,
my purpose will be established and I will
accomplish all my good pleasure.
That I think is really the primary lesson
of this chapter, that God will do all
of his pleasure.
And though Rebecca may maneuver and scheme and
palter and do all of the things that
she might, trying to reverse what she thought
might take place, God uses all of these
things to accomplish his basic prophetic will, the
elder shall serve the younger.
It illustrates the fact that man cannot frustrate
the purposes of God.
That is something for us to remember.
It affects all of our understanding of divine
revelation.
God is sovereign.
He is sovereign in all of his plans
and purposes and he accomplishes every one of
them.
He is never defeated or conquered by man.
And let me tell you this, that when
you come to an understanding of a God
like this and really come to an understanding
of it, it will make a difference in
your life and in the tone and disposition
of your Christianity.
Now we look at the account and it
opens with a request of Esau by Isaac
and also a promise.
Now we will misjudge this situation if we
overlook what all, the things that all of
the scriptures say about this incident and particularly
that which the writer of the epistle to
the Hebrews says about it in chapter 12,
verses 16 and 17 of his book.
We must remember that basically Esau had, because
of his lack of interest in spiritual things,
traded away his birthright.
And when he had traded away his birthright,
he also traded away his blessing, for the
blessing went with the birthright.
So that makes all four of the participants
in these schemes guilty, almost equally at fault.
Isaac, now whether he knew that Esau had
sold his birthright or not, he knew the
prophecy of God, the elder shall serve the
younger.
Esau, in agreeing to Isaac's plan to bless
him, broke his own oath, for he had
sworn to Jacob that Jacob had the birthright
with which went the blessing.
And then of course Rebecca and Jacob, who
were, at least in this incident, ones who
stood out a little more faithfully than the
others, we have no indication that they rested
their case with the Lord, regardless of the
scheme that Isaac and Esau might have imagined.
They might well have said, well Isaac and
Esau may think that they are going to
arrange for Esau to be blessed, but God
has already said that the elder shall serve
the younger.
And nothing that men will do can possibly
subvert the will of God.
We rest in the will of God.
That of course is not what Rebecca did,
nor is it what Jacob did.
So we find that all of the four
are at fault.
Isaac was determined, in spite of everything in
the word of God, to see that Esau
got the blessing.
Evidently in his later years he had become
very close to Esau because he loved venison.
He loved that savory food that Esau cooked.
Have you ever noticed that this often happens
to people?
And it even happens to believing people that
in their latter days they live to eat.
And it becomes a weakness.
And evidently it was a big weakness with
Isaac.
Several times we read about a savory dish
for me such as I love, verse 4.
Verse 9, as a savory dish for your
father such as he loves.
Verse 14, and his mother made savory food
such as his father loved.
So you get the picture of a man
who has become weakened by the materialism that
has entered into his life.
Now he knew the word of God.
He also knew that Jacob was plainly superior
so far as spiritual interests were concerned to
Esau.
He also no doubt had heard about the
agreement and had heard how Esau sold his
birthright for a mess of pottage.
And then he also knew Esau's obvious indifference
to the things of the Lord.
But in spite of that he's determined that
he's going to give the blessing to Esau.
It's a very sad picture.
Now we also read here in verse 1
that Isaac was old.
So he was old.
Scriptures do not however say that that's a
reason for the things that he did.
His eyes were too dim to see.
He was about 137 years old and he
thought he was going to die and they
thought he was going to die.
But we know he lived to be 180
years of age.
So this was a long ways off.
They waited a long time for their inheritances.
When we read here that his eyes were
too dim to see, well this is one
of the warning bells that God gives us.
I look out over the audience and some
of you are already wearing glasses.
You're young.
And God in his wonderful grace makes it
known to us generally speaking before we die
that we're on the way down.
And there are people wise enough to take
a little bit accounting of themselves at that
time and to seek to make some preparation
for the end because it's sure to come
if Jesus Christ does not come first.
His eyes are too dim to see and
so he's going to make a threefold preparation
for the end.
He's going to make his will and he's
going to bless Esau.
Incidentally oral blessings were valid in those days.
We know this from such things as the
Newsy Tablets in which we have illustrations of
this.
An oral will or testament.
He also lays aside his cares.
He's going to give over the active running
of things to his sons and he's going
to give them a blessing.
Now I must say that we feel a
little sad looking at Isaac because can this
really be the same Isaac who submissively as
a little boy carried that wood for the
sacrifice with his father Abraham up Mount Moriah
who wondered about the lamb and then who
submitted very, very submissively to Abraham his father
to be offered as a sacrifice.
It almost seems as if we're talking about
two different people.
Here is a scheming old man seeking to
defy the Word of God and there was
the young man submissive and obedient to his
father and also to the will of God.
I wonder why.
Well we know the scriptures say that the
man waxed great and went forward and grew
until he became very great.
He not only inherited all of Abraham's property
but he himself enlarged his estate.
He was an extremely wealthy man and it's
just possible that the prosperity of Isaac was
his own undoing.
How often that is the case.
If you live long enough as a Christian
you will discover that many who were fresh
and vital and interested in the days of
their spiritual youth and their latter days when
their properties have accumulated and they become wealthy
and influential the spiritual interests are crowded out.
Prosperity is one of the great enemies of
the Christian faith.
There are men sitting in this audience who
have this as a great temptation.
You have an interest in the Lord Jesus
Christ.
You have come to know him as your
own personal Savior.
You know that you possess the forgiveness of
sins.
But your money is increasing.
Your financial resources are growing.
The demands that they make on your time
are growing and you're faced with the problem
of priorities.
It's possible that's the problem that Isaac had
and he yielded to it.
It weakened him and in the end he
was not the man it seems that he
was in the beginning.
Was it just his lack of backbone?
He had a very easygoing disposition.
In some ways that was good but it's
possible for it to be very bad.
Perhaps that was part of his difficulty or
was it just gluttony?
Because the text as I pointed out makes
a great deal over the savory meat that
he loved.
Whatever it was, it's clear that Isaac near
the end of his life does not appear
very well in the record.
One of the commentators has said the man
who on the supposed point of death thinks
most of all of a good dish of
delicious venison is not likely to shine as
a specially brilliant star in the heavenly firmament.
Well the words that Isaac spoke to Esau
were overheard by Rebekah.
Now Rebekah is one of those women who
makes quick decisions and generally very clever ones
as I mentioned in the Scripture reading.
And I must say I have to admire
Rebekah because she heard what was said and
she knew immediately that that was contrary to
the will of God.
The only problem is that she wanted to
do it herself.
And so like a submissive wife she acts
immediately to overthrow the plans of her husband.
But interestingly enough ladies she demands obedience from
Jacob in carrying out her scheme.
Because after all Jacob will not the Scripture
say children obey your parents in the Lord?
In the same passage in which it says
the woman is to be submissive to the
husband the children are to obey their parents.
Well I have a little bit of sympathy
for Rebekah because of course what she was
seeking to do was ultimately the will of
God.
And while she was seeking to do it
in her own way at least she was
seeking to do that which was right.
Isn't it interesting too that all of this
seems to depend on the evidence of the
five senses.
Sight, smell, feeling, hearing, taste.
And taste is the thing that was ultimately
Isaac's undoing.
For Rebekah prepared those goats and it tasted
to him exactly like venison.
It's an illustration by the way for those
of you who are philosophers that empiricists have
difficulty if their source of truth is experience
or empiricistic.
So everything hinges on the five senses.
Now Rebekah in beautiful prodigal love but warped
because it was at the expense of conjugal
love devises a scheme.
She calls in Jacob and she tells Jacob
to go to the flock of goats to
take two choice kids from there that she
may prepare them as a savory dish for
your father such as he loves.
Now I don't know about this I just
introduced this as a suggestion.
It's only a suggestion mind you.
I think that every time that Esau prepared
Isaac that tasty venison it rankled Rebekah.
Because after all she was the woman, she
was the cook.
And here was her son and Isaac seemed
to like the food of her son better
than her food.
And not only that but he took a
long time to prepare it.
And he acted like a professional chef when
he did it.
And Isaac the old fool liked it better
than the food that she was giving him.
So back in the kitchen she often would
say why I could fix a couple of
goats so nicely that he wouldn't even know
the difference and I could do it in
half the time too.
And so here was her opportunity.
So she said go get two goats and
I can fix those goats and make them
into savory dish just exactly like he loves.
Now Jacob objects at first but it's only
by expediency.
He doesn't say now that's wrong mother.
But he says Esau's a hairy man and
I'm a smooth man.
And he'll feel me and he'll find us
out.
So it's pure expediency that he objects in
the beginning.
But she insists your responsibility as a child
is to obey your parents.
Do what I say.
Your curse that you talk about be on
me.
And so Jacob, he's a weak man, he
went up to Isaac and said get out
and got them.
Weak at this time.
This is the man who's going to be
Israel, the prince with God later on.
But he's still Jacob the supplanter now.
And so Jacob went and he brought the
goats to his mother and his mother made
the food.
And she did it quickly because Esau was
going to come in at any time and
this had to all be done in a
hurry.
And she took the best garments of Esau
that smelled like Esau and she put them
on Jacob and he and then she took
the skins of the kids of the goat.
I guess this is from underneath the belly
of the animals where you get the cashmere.
It was nice and smooth and yet just
a little bit like the hairy animal.
And she put them on Jacob her younger
son.
Put it on the smooth part of his
neck and also on his hands and she
gave him the food and she sent him
in to your father.
And so Jacob came in to Isaac and
he said my father I'm going to be
there.
And Isaac said here I am.
Who are you my son?
He didn't quite recognize the voice because he
wasn't expecting Jacob to be there.
And Jacob says I'm Esau your firstborn and
I've done as you told me.
Get up, eat, sit and eat of the
game that you may bless me.
He too is in a hurry because Esau
may come at any moment.
And so now we read of the details
of the deception.
Evidently incidentally the sin of Esau and Isaac
is more heinous than that of I started
to say Jake and Becky but Jacob and
Rebekah.
And the reason for this evidently is that
in the case of Isaac and Esau there
is a plain attempt to go contrary to
the word of God.
And in the case of Jacob and Rebekah
his mother they at least were seeking in
their own way to accomplish the will of
God.
Now notice the experience of Jacob.
He retreats from what is right to expediency
and then to sin and then to sins.
The whole sin compounded of this relationship answering
the questions that were false in lies.
And finally it traces it all to God.
When Isaac says how is it that you
have this so quickly my son?
He says because the Lord your God caused
it to happen to me.
He believes in the sovereignty of God at
least in words.
And so he is a deplorably weak man
and he illustrates this that once you yield
to sin even in a expediency you are
going to sin.
All the other sins come so much more
easily.
One of the commentators likens it to a
little boy with a gang of thieves who
manages to get in the house by entering
the window and then having gone in the
house goes to the front door and opens
it up so all the burglars can enter.
And so the one sin of expediency refusing
to say that's wrong mother leads to all
of the other sins that make up the
deception of Jacob.
Now you know we have some other instances
in the Bible by the way of things
that were done sinfully but which God allowed
to happen.
Remember the Hebrew midwives in the days of
Moses disobeyed Pharaoh contrary to the teaching of
the word but the scriptures say that God
blessed the midwives because the sin of Pharaoh
was much greater than the sin of the
midwives.
And we have the instance of Rahab which
has puzzled a number of people because Rahab
lied to the king of Jericho saying the
Hebrew spies were not there or had not
been there.
And God blessed Rahab and in fact she
appears in Holy Scripture as one of the
members of the great line of the faithful
because she did receive the spies and send
them out another way.
And so there are illustrations in the word
of God of God blessing individuals even when
they were lying because the sins of others
were that much greater and even in the
case of the midwives and in the case
of Rahab there was at bottom a basic
relationship of faith and that is what we
shall see here.
Whatever you say about Rebekah and Jacob and
they did not act in a very lovely
way they at least believed the promises of
the word of God and they believed there
was such a thing as a blessing and
that that blessing was important and that important
promises went with that blessing.
So they had that basic relationship of faith.
Now finally as a result of the deception
of Jacob of Jacob Isaac blesses Jacob and
I want you to notice that blessing particularly
verse twenty nine and just think how presumptuous
this would have been if as Isaac really
thought he were blessing Esau.
May people serve you and nations bow down
to you be master of your brothers and
may your mother's sons bow down to you.
Cursed be those who curse you and blessed
be those who bless you.
In other words it is a direct reversal
of what God had said previously with regard
to Jacob and Esau and I think you
can see the awful presumption of Isaac in
thinking that he was blessing Esau with this
blessing that belonged to Jacob.
Now it wasn't long after that that Esau
came in he made the savory food such
as his father loved and he came into
his presence in order to give him his
food and receive the blessing and when he
came in Isaac said to him who are
you?
He said I'm your son your firstborn Esau
notice your firstborn I have those privileges.
He's forgotten what God has said and he's
forgotten the fact that he had sold it
to Jacob and furthermore had sworn that it
should be Jacob's so he lies.
He is the firstborn but he speaks as
if he's to get the blessing and he's
not and Isaac as it begins to dawn
on him what has really happened the truth
comes home to him like a mighty blast
of icy wind.
Isaac trembled violently.
Isaac trembled with a great trembling exceedingly the
Hebrew text puts it.
You see he realizes he's beginning to realize
he's fighting God and he sees that God
has spoken through him in spite of himself.
He realizes that now that he's blessed that
individual whoever he was that God has overthrown
his own purposes and caused him in his
ignorance to lay a blessing upon someone that
he did not intend to bless.
Now you can see one thing about Isaac
here that's important you can see the faith
of Isaac even in his sin because he
adds yes and he shall be blessed.
He knows he's fighting God he knows also
he's been defeated in the battle with God
and that he's been caused to bless someone
that he did not intend to bless because
God is carrying out his will and he
sees in this a significant thing.
Later on incidentally Jacob will bless and he
too will see in how God caused him
to cross his hands as Manasseh and Ephraim
stood before him that God overrules in the
affairs of men and causes all his purpose
to stand.
When the Lord Jesus was crucified on Calvary's
cross Pilate thinking that he would mock the
Jews for he knew that people said that
Jesus was king of the Jews or that
he was claiming to be king of the
Jews and he knew also that the Jews
did not really think he was their king
and so he would mock the Jews because
he didn't like the Jews by putting above
the supers above the cross the superscription this
is Jesus of Nazareth the king of the
Jews.
He did it mockingly.
He would make fun of the Jews and
he would say this is really your king
this is the kind of king you have
he's not anything like Caesar and furthermore he
has his kingdom and he has his subjects
and his subjects are these two robbers that
are hanging by his side.
It was all a big joke to him
but when he put this is Jesus of
Nazareth the king of the Jews he didn't
know it but he was writing what God
intended to write and furthermore he wrote it
in Latin and in Greek and in Hebrew
so that the whole world could know and
in addition when the Jews objected he finally
said what I have written I have written
and really what he has written he has
not written.
God wrote those words but he used the
Roman puppet to put them above the cross
in that superscription.
You see God accomplishes his purpose through even
when we do not realize it and Isaac
says yes and he shall be blessed.
He sees God through him in spite of
himself.
Now when Esau heard the words of his
father he cried out with an exceedingly great
and bitter cry and said to his father
bless me even me also O my father.
These pathetic bitter cries of the strong man
who now is screaming like a woman and
crying like a baby but of course Esau
cannot undo his past act.
Now the writer of the epistle of the
Hebrews makes this the basis of a very
important truth.
In the sixth chapter he talks about those
who cannot be renewed unto repentance because they
have fallen away and then in the twelfth
chapter he talks about the same Esau and
he says about this Esau in the context
that he has failed of the grace of
God and in speaking about him he also
says some rather terrible things.
He says that there should be no immoral
or godless person like Esau who sold his
own birthright for a single meal for you
know that even afterwards when he desired to
inherit the blessing he was rejected for he
found no place for repentance.
Some have interpreted that as a place of
repentance in Isaac's mind.
That is Isaac wouldn't change his mind after
having blessed Jacob.
Well that's a possible interpretation but it's more
likely that it means simply that he found
no place for repentance within his own heart.
Remorse, yes, Esau felt remorse.
He felt regret but it was regret not
over what he had done but over the
consequences to himself.
He had lost his blessing and lost his
birthright and so he found no place for
repentance though he sought for it, that is
the blessing, not repentance.
He sought for it, the blessing, with tears.
You see it's possible for a man to
have a great deal of remorse because he
feels the loss that has come because he
did not act spiritually.
But repentance, it's possible for a person to
have great opportunities to have the Holy Spirit
bring a certain amount of conviction and to
turn away from that and to reach the
stage of retributive judgment.
And Esau had reached that stage.
He found no place for repentance though he
sought the blessing with tears.
And so Esau then becomes the illustration of
a trapped creature.
One of the commentators on the epistle of
the Hebrews wrote, those tears of Esau, the
sensuous wild impulsive man, almost like the cry
of some trapped creature, are among the most
pathetic in the Bible.
He could not undo the past.
Now I think there is something very important
here and I'm going to save it for
just in a few moments for the conclusion
but I want you, in case you have
some feelings of pity and compassion for Esau
and some feelings of contempt for Jacob, well
in the first place that's a sign of
our own crooked nature that we read this
account in that way.
But I want you to notice how the
real Esau is when he stands up.
And when you read verse 41, the real
Esau stands up.
So Esau bore a grudge against Jacob because
of the blessing with which his father had
blessed him and Esau said to himself, the
days of mourning for my father are near,
then I will kill my brother Jacob.
There is the real Esau.
This indifferent, well if you want to call
him lovable, carefree, sportsman, this man who loved
hunting, that men admired and that Isaac admired
and whose food Isaac loved has now become
the bitter, vindictive, neurotic that he was all
along deep down in his heart.
And you can see the true nature of
the man.
He's going to murder Jacob.
Say what you will about Jacob and he
is not a pleasant character at this stage
but basically he wanted the birthright, he wanted
the blessing and he must have that blessing
because that blessing meant a relationship to God
and to the promises of God that meant
something to him.
He was a man of faith and God
honors men of faith.
He doesn't expect us to be perfect.
We're not perfect.
That's why we have the doctrine of sanctification
in the Bible as I've been saying.
That's why he saves us in one moment
and spends forty years with some of us
trying to sanctify us.
And not only trying to but he ultimately
succeeds.
And every one of the saints shall ultimately
be sanctified.
So Esau's murderous design reveals who he is.
Well we've said a few words about the
last verses of the chapter.
Let me conclude.
As we said the chief lesson is God's
sovereignty.
All these rival stratagems, the stratagem of Rebekah
and Jacob and Isaac and Esau have only
succeeded in doing what God wants them to.
Well what we read in the book of
Acts, whatsoever God's hand and his purpose had
predestined to occur.
To use the words of scripture.
The unhappy story of Esau has been repeated
times without number in Christian history.
The Bible tells us to bring our children
up in the nurture and admonition of the
Lord.
I want to speak for just a few
moments to you who are in Believer's Chapel.
You have the privilege of hearing the Word
of God proclaimed in this pulpit constantly.
I do not claim that this is the
greatest exposition of the scriptures that you hear
Sunday after Sunday but it is true to
the teaching of the Word of God.
Sunday after Sunday the Word of God is
faithfully proclaimed whether I am here or others
are here.
Throughout all of the classes in this local
church the Word of God is proclaimed.
It is possible to sit under the Word
of God and to treat the Word of
God like Esau treated his own birthright and
his blessing.
To sell it for a mess of pottage.
You young men it is possible for you
to be so concerned about other things that
you sell your spiritual birthright for a mess
of pottage.
It is even possible you give away your
purity for the passion of a moment.
You young women who give away your virginity
for the passion of a moment.
You mothers who have children whom you love
whom you desire to see succeed in life
and you give yourself so completely to them
omitting spiritual things that they grow up loving
the things of the world, the material things,
the fleshly things, the sensual things.
You sell your birthright for a mess of
pottage.
You men who ought to be the spiritual
heads of your family you turn over things
to your wife.
Do not care about your children.
Think that the church is to do the
task that you are supposed to do.
While you are interested in your business and
in your pleasure and in the other things
that make up most of your daily life.
And thus you sell your birthright for a
mess of pottage.
And you know men you who preach and
teach the word of God it's entirely possible
for those of us who preach the word
of God to put the things of the
Lord in second place.
You see Esau is an admonition for all
of us.
He's an admonition for mothers and for fathers
and young men and young women and for
children too.
The Bible even speaks about our that we
are first born sons and we have certain
privileges and certain blessings.
Oh may God help us to give first
place in our lives to the things of
the Lord and not neglect the things of
the Spirit.
Many years ago a Welsh minister began his
sermon by leaning over the pulpit and saying
in a very solemn air, friends I have
a question to ask.
I cannot answer it.
You cannot answer it.
If an angel from heaven were here he
could not answer it.
Or if a devil from hell were here
he could not answer it.
And there was a quietness in the auditorium
and finally he said in a quiet voice,
the question is this, how shall we escape
if we neglect so great salvation?
So I say to you Christian believers first,
by the neglect of spiritual things, by the
putting of spiritual things second in your life,
there is a neglect that has ultimately eternal
consequences.
May God speak to your heart in a
very solemn way.
It wouldn't hurt you if you went home
and got down by your bed and made
confession of your sins and neglect and indifference
and lethargy and spiritual things and ask God
to give you what you lack.
And if you are here in this audience
and you have never believed in our Lord
Jesus Christ and you heard the preaching of
the gospel, that the scriptures say that men
outside of Christ are lost and that Christ
has offered a sacrifice offering forgiveness of sins
through faith in him, may God move you
to come to him.
Acknowledging your sin and receiving as a free
gift the salvation the Lord Jesus freely offers.
May God stir you to come.
Do not neglect for how shall we escape
if we neglect so great salvation?
Let's stand for the benediction.
Our heavenly father we are grateful to thee
for the blessings of life and oh father
deliver us from spiritual neglect.
Enable us to have first faith in things
first and second things second.
For the sake of our families, our loved
ones, our friends, but most of all for
the glory of our great God who loved
us and gave himself for us.
Go with us now for Jesus' sake.
Amen.