Genesis, in chapter twenty-six.
Genesis twenty-six.
In our last study, we were at the
section beginning at verse eighteen.
Then Isaac dug again the wells of water
which had been dug in the days of
his father Abraham.
But the Philistines had stopped him up after
the death of Abraham, and he gave them
the same names which his father had given
them.
And we saw that this is a picture
of how, through the centuries after the days
of the apostles, the wells that were dug
by the apostles, the teaching of the New
Covenant, had been buried by the Philistines, by
the traditions of men.
And Isaac's servants, it says here, Isaac dug
again those wells.
And that's what has happened through the years,
and particularly in the last few hundred years,
there's been a recovery of these truths that
were hidden.
And whenever there was a recovery like that,
there was always contention.
That's just the spiritual application of that, but
the type of it.
But we can also see here something of
Isaac's good-heartedness and graciousness.
An example for us to follow, that when
there was a contention, verse twenty, the herdsmen
of Gerar quarreled with the herdsmen of Isaac,
saying, The water is ours.
So he named the well Isaac, because they
contended for it.
And he just moved on.
He didn't fight.
He didn't say that, My father dug this
well, and you buried it, and I've opened
it up again.
It's doubly mine.
He could have said that, but he didn't
fight.
We saw earlier how he had imitated his
father in telling a lie concerning his wife,
saying, She's my sister, in verse nine.
We also see here how he imitated his
father in something good.
So we know that when Abraham's servants and
lost servants had a fight about property, that
though Isaac was not born, I'm sure he'd
heard about it, and how Abraham had graciously
given Lot the choice to choose whatever he
wanted.
And Isaac follows the example of his father,
and he doesn't fight.
He just moves on and digs another well,
verse twenty-one, and they quarreled over that
also.
So he named it Sitna, and he moved
again from there, dug another well, and I
think they must have been ashamed by now
that this man was not going to fight
with them.
And so he named it Rehoboth.
He said, At last the Lord has made
room for us, and we shall be fruitful
in the land.
And he went up from there to Beersheba.
And if you turn to verse thirty-two,
you read there, it came about the same
day that Isaac's servants came in and told
him about the well which they had dug,
and said to him, We have found water.
So he called it Sheba, and therefore the
name of the city is Beersheba to this
day.
So you find that the Lord gave him
two wells, and when there is a contention
for something earthly, and we give up our
rights, we're not going to starve, our flocks
are not going to starve.
God has always got not only one well,
but two wells.
Because we see here that when he moved
away, the Lord appeared to him, verse twenty
-four.
God had been watching.
If you remember, we saw that in Genesis
fourteen, that when Lot moved away from Abraham
after Abraham said, You can have what you
like.
It says immediately after that, Abraham, God met
with Abraham and said, I'll give you all
this land.
Everything is yours.
We must remember this.
God is always on the side of the
man who does not fight for earthly things.
That's why Jesus told that man who said,
Lord, tell my brother to divide the property
with me.
He hadn't understood the way of the cross.
That which was his right.
Abraham had a right.
He didn't claim it.
Isaac had a right to this well, but
he didn't claim it.
And that brother was asking for his right.
You see, this is where, where you find
the difference between just an ordinary believer and
a disciple.
An ordinary believer may not do anything wrong,
but he will fight for his right.
He'll say, my brother has got to divide
the property with me.
But a disciple will give up his right.
And that's why we see that most believers
are just believers.
They're not disciples.
When it comes to these material things, they
do not know how to give up their
right.
So there's something we can see here that,
and that's perhaps the reason why the Lord
doesn't appear to them either, because when Isaac
gave up his right, the Lord appeared to
him the same night, that very same night,
and God had been watching him moving on
and on and on and on.
And He appeared to him, and He says,
don't fear, I'm the God of your father
Abraham, for I am with you.
I will bless you and multiply your descendants
for the sake of my servant Abraham.
And we read here that Isaac built an
altar there and called upon the name of
the Lord and pitched his tent there, and
there Isaac's servants dug a well.
Those two words, the altar and the tent,
are words that have a spiritual application for
us.
We find this in the life of Abraham
and Isaac.
They pitched an altar, they built an altar,
and they pitched a tent.
An altar in their relationship with God, and
a tent describing their relation to this earth.
And that's what we always need in our
life, an altar, where we offer ourselves as
a living sacrifice to God, and our attitude
to earthly things, always a tent.
Not that we don't have anything, we have
a tent, but we don't think of this
earth as a permanent dwelling place.
A tent is a symbol of a temporary
dwelling place, a symbol of a pilgrim, just
like the altar is a picture of a
worshipper.
And Abraham and Isaac had an altar and
a tent, they were worshippers and pilgrims, and
that's what we need to be also.
Verse 26, Then Abimelech came to him.
Abimelech was the king of the Philistines, as
we read in verse 1.
These very Philistines who had been fighting for
these wells.
And now Abimelech comes from Gerar with his
advisor Ahuzab and Phaikol, the commander of his
army.
And Isaac said to them, Why have you
come to me, since you hate me, and
you have sent me away from you?
He says, You kept chasing me away every
time I dug a well.
Your people chased me off, and Abimelech, the
king, no doubt knew about it.
He was probably a bit jealous of Isaac.
And Isaac says, Why have you come to
me now?
You hate me, and you've chased me away.
And they said, We see plainly that the
Lord has been with you.
Of course, God said that to him in
verse 24, I am with you.
But here was a heathen person recognizing that
God was with Isaac.
And that's a tremendous thing when a heathen
person recognizes the presence of God with us,
by our behavior.
You remember that heathen centurion who looked at
Jesus being crucified and said, Really?
This is a righteous man.
This is the son of God.
Because he had never seen in his whole
life anyone being crucified who reacted like Jesus
reacted to the crucifixion.
There was no resistance.
There was no fighting, cursing, swearing, nothing.
And that's what this man, Abimelech, also saw
in Isaac.
I mean, he had no doubt had dealings
with other people in the world where if
there was some fight for property, they would
fight tooth and nail for it.
And particularly when a well was so desperately
needed for the flock.
But here he saw in Isaac the gracious
attitude of giving up another well, and he
gave up again and again.
And that's the thing that made that man
finally come and say, We saw that God
was with you.
And he had a fear of that.
He felt that he was fighting with a
man on whose side God was.
And he was scared.
He was scared that if he continued like
that, he'd be fighting against God.
And so he said, Let's make an oath
between you and us.
Let's make a covenant with you that you
will do us no harm.
Now remember, Isaac has got no army.
Abimelech, it says here in verse 26 about
Phicol being the commander of his army.
Imagine a man with a massive army coming
to a man like Isaac who's got no
army and saying, Don't harm me.
There was a recognition in some deep mysterious
way that this heathen man had, that God
was with this man, and that all my
army will be powerless against this man if
God is with him.
And that's something that should challenge us, brothers
and sisters, that as we live in the
world, that other people recognize that God is
with us by our humility, by our lack
of resistance, that we yield when they take
advantage of us, that we don't fight.
We don't fight for earthly things.
Jesus said, My kingdom is not of this
world, otherwise my servants would fight.
That was a good confession that he made
before Pontius Pilate, which Paul reminds Timothy of
in 1 Timothy 6.
A good confession that my kingdom is not
of this world, otherwise my servants would fight.
And whenever we fight for earthly things with
anybody, we can be sure that that proves
that our kingdom is of this world.
That is the clearest proof.
Whatever we may believe in our heads, the
proof that our kingdom belongs to this world
is when we fight with any human being
for earthly things.
And then of course, people can't see that
the presence of God is with us.
And that's where we are to have a
testimony.
It says in Proverbs 16 and verse 7,
a very wonderful verse, which is fulfilled here,
and before that was written, was fulfilled in
Isaac's life.
Proverbs 16 verse 7 says, When a man's
ways are pleasing to the Lord, he makes
even his enemies to be at peace with
him.
It's not easy for enemies to be at
peace with us, but God can make even
our enemies to be at peace with us,
if he sees that our ways are pleasing
to the Lord.
And Abimelech says, now let's make a covenant,
Genesis 26.9, that he'll do us no
harm.
Just as we have not touched you and
done to you nothing but good and sent
you away in peace, you are now the
blessed of the Lord.
Then Isaac made them a feast.
You see his large-heartedness to make a
feast for a man who had just a
few days ago chased him out and stolen
his property.
Those wells were his property.
He doesn't even ask for it back.
He's so large-hearted to forgive, makes a
feast, and they ate and drank.
And in the morning they arose early and
exchanged oaths.
Then Isaac sent them away, and they departed
from him in peace.
And the same day Isaac's servants came in
and told him about the well which they
dug, and said, We found water.
He called it Sheba.
Therefore the name of the city is Beersheba
to this day.
God always provides another well.
When we've lost something earthly because we did
not want to fight, because we wanted to
be a testimony for Christ, you can be
sure that God is silently planning for us
in love.
All these things written in the Old Testament
are for our encouragement, that God is watching.
That's the thing we must remember.
At that moment when you are fighting for
some earthly thing, God is watching.
At that moment when you give up your
right and do not fight, God is watching.
And when He sees that you don't fight,
He'll always provide another well.
Verse thirty-four.
Here we see about how Esau drifts further
away from God.
We saw how he despised his birthright.
That's the last time we saw Esau.
And now you find that drift has taken
him away so far that he gets married
to one of those heathen Canaanites, and not
just to one of them.
He marries two.
Verse thirty-four.
And Esau is forty years old.
He marries Judith, the daughter of Lerhi the
Hittite, and Bethlehemath, the daughter of Elon the
Hittite.
And they made life miserable for Isaac and
Rebekah.
Yeah, when a person begins to drift away
from God, it's not immediately that everything develops
into evil.
It's a slow slide away.
But gradually, gradually, he comes to the place
where he begins to act almost in defiance
of God.
But we can also say that Isaac was
not very particular there to find a good
partner for his son, like Abraham had been
careful for Isaac.
And that is also responsibility of parents, to
guide their children, to be concerned about them,
and to guide them not to worldly partners
but to spiritually minded partners.
Isaac had a good father who guided him
and was concerned for him and looked out
for a really fine sister for his son.
But when it came to Isaac's son, Esau,
he didn't do that.
He had spoiled Esau through the years by
his favoritism.
And finally, the man got two wives that
made life miserable for the parents.
You find that that favorite son of yours,
whom you keep spoiling, is the one who's
going to make life miserable for you later
on.
That's what we see here.
This favorite son of Isaac finally ended up
making life miserable for him.
What Esau needed was some discipline, which Isaac
never gave him.
Think of a word that we studied in
Genesis 18, which God said concerning Abraham.
Genesis 18, verse 19.
It says there about Abraham, For I have
chosen him, Abraham, in order that he may
command his children and his household after him
to keep the way of the Lord by
doing righteousness and justice, in order that the
Lord may bring upon Abraham what he has
spoken about him.
The Lord couldn't say that about Isaac.
The Lord couldn't say that Isaac commanded his
children and his household after him to keep
the way of the Lord by doing righteousness.
And that's a sad thing.
A good example in Abraham as a father,
a bad example as a father in Isaac.
We've seen Isaac as a good example in
the way he was gracious to not fight
for earthly things, but as a father, he
was a failure.
Quite a contrast to Abraham, because he spoils
his son by partiality, by not choosing a
God-fearing sister for her.
And that's a warning for us to see
this contrast between Abraham and Isaac in this
area, because parents, when they think of a
marriage partner for their sons or daughters, it's
very easy for them to have in the
back of their minds some earthly qualifications.
Of course, he must be born again, but
he must be born again plus, or she
must be born again plus.
He must be a graduate, or must be
this, or must be this color, or the
other thing.
There's always a born again plus something else.
And I'll tell you something that I have
observed through the years as a Christian, that
wherever a person in choosing a marriage partner
has said to the Lord, Lord, I want
a person who is born again plus, dash,
dash, dash.
This may be one thing more or two
things more.
Always, always they have suffered in their marriage,
and always they've not been able to fulfill
God's highest purposes for them, because they said,
I want someone who is born again plus
beauty, plus color, plus education, must be a
graduate, all these things.
We have to be very careful.
We have to say to the Lord, Lord,
I want the one you have chosen.
I couldn't care less what that person's earthly
qualifications are.
Look around and see the failures and learn
from the failures of others that you don't
make the same blunders yourself in marriage, and
don't make the same blunders for your own
children.
When you say to God, Lord, I want
someone who is as wholehearted for you as
I am, don't say plus something else also,
and don't let your eye be on a
person's salary and education and job and all
these things.
That wasn't what Abraham was looking for.
I tell you, it's a tremendous warning, but
there are very few who really take these
things seriously.
It's easy to take these things seriously when
our children are young, but the time comes
when the children are grown up and come
to the time of marriage, they look for
these earthly things.
Very rare, very rare to find a father
like Abraham, who's only interested in the spiritual.
Very rare.
So, is it a challenge to us to
be like that?
First chapter 27, Now it came about when
Isaac was old and his eyes were too
dim to see that he called his son
Esau and said to him, my son.
And he said to him, here I am.
And Isaac said, behold, now I'm old and
I don't 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.
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.
He was going to give him the birthright.
He knew what God had spoken at the
time of, before the birth of Esau and
Isaac.
The older shall serve the younger.
And he's trying to bypass that.
Because this is his favorite son.
He's determined to give him the birthright.
And there we see the sad thing that
we have seen before about Isaac.
That it was not only as it says
in verse 1 that his physical eyes were
dim.
Spiritually also, his eyes were dim.
He couldn't see clearly like he could see
in his younger days when he lay, lay
down on Mount Moriah and said, yes, I'm
ready to be killed.
Or when he went out to pray and
meditate when he, when Rebecca was coming.
That time his vision was clear.
But time had gone on.
And that's something we see again and again
also in the church, which is a tremendous
warning for us.
Abraham came from a heathen background.
All his knowledge of God came through a
struggle, through a battle.
Isaac, there was no battle.
He received everything freely from his father.
His father got the revelation, passed it on
to his son.
We see that in David and Solomon.
David went through struggle, learned to know God
in difficulties, trials, testing, experienced God.
Solomon received everything from the day he was
born.
He was a prince, received everything freely.
We have to feel sorry for those who
have no struggle, because they don't have any
knowledge of God.
I always say, for those who are newly
married, the best thing I can wish them
is at least four or five years of
struggle, financial struggle, all types of struggles and
difficulties.
That's almost the best foundation for a good
marriage.
I feel sorry for those who begin married
life with abundance of everything.
It's not going to be very good.
Don't think abundance is the answer.
If we have never gone through struggles, we're
probably like Isaac.
If all through our Christian life we have
never experienced trial or difficulty, we can magnify
mosquito bites that we have had and call
them trial.
But that's very often the reason why there's
lack of revelation, that we may have carefully
steered clear of difficulties and trials, and chosen
the pathway of ease.
And then what happens?
The eyes are dim, can't see clearly, no
revelation, no vision.
It's good to go through struggles like Abraham.
Abraham had to break with his father, mother,
relatives.
What a painful thing that was.
Isaac didn't have to break with his father
or mother.
It was all offered to him on a
plate.
It was so easy.
And that's what I think of young people
in the church growing up.
I pray that they will lay hold of
God and realize that they are in danger
of becoming like Isaac.
Their fathers may have had vision because of
struggles they've gone through and battles, but they
themselves must be maybe like Isaac, having received
everything on a platter from childhood.
No difficulty, no trial, everything has been easy.
And then the eyes are dim.
Think of the contrast of a man like
Moses.
It says about him in Deuteronomy chapter 34,
verse 7.
Although Moses was a hundred and twenty years
old when he died, his eye was not
dim, nor his vigor abated.
He was not an impotent man.
He was powerful.
His eye was not dim.
Spiritually, his eye was not dim.
And Isaac, at about the same age, his
eye was dim.
Very sad, because he loved food more than
the will of God.
He showed favoritism to his son to try
and bypass what God had spoken clearly.
It's a serious thing when we place our
children above God, when our children are more
important to us than God.
It's a serious thing, even though God had
spoken.
What a contrast to the time when he
went out into the fields to meditate and
pray.
If he had at least sought God here,
if he felt that the time had come
for him to die, he'd say, well, I
need to go out into the fields a
bit and pray and find out, should I
really give the birthright to Jacob?
It would have been clear, but he didn't
need to.
And that's how it is, my brothers.
It need not be our children.
It can be we ourselves also.
We can start like Abraham and end up
like Isaac.
Or we can start like Isaac and end
up like Isaac.
Think of this area.
There may have been a time when we
sought God about little things, when we used
to pray about little things, when financial needs
and struggles drove us to God in prayer.
But maybe now, abundance has come.
We don't need to pray so much, we
don't need to seek God's will anymore, because
we have an abundance.
And that abundance has made us a little
strong in ourselves.
I tell you, there's almost nothing like abundance
of money to make a man strong in
himself.
Some of the strongest people I have seen
in the world are those who have an
abundance of money.
And they were not like that when they
didn't have abundance.
And for God's sake and this kingdom's sake,
sometimes I wish it would go back to
the days when there was no abundance.
They had more spiritually then.
It's dangerous.
It's dangerous that we have no time for
God and prayer and all that now, because
now it's this…
We have an abundance.
I am rich and increased with goods, and
I have need of nothing.
Well, these things are written for our warnings.
And he, instead of going from strength to
strength, goes from strength to weakness, and sends
out his son Esau.
Even though it's very significant to see that
this is immediately after what we read in
chapter 26, verse 34 and 35, that Esau
had just married two heathen women who had
made life miserable for Isaac and Rebekah.
One would think at least that would have
opened Isaac's eyes to see that my older
son is rebelling against God.
No, but his older son is such a
favorite to him, that even when his son
goes and marries two heathen women, his eyes
are still dimmed that he can't see that
rebellion.
It's amazing.
But I've seen parents like that.
I've seen parents who can never see a
fault in their favorite children.
Their children are always right.
If their children were involved in a fight
somewhere, the problem, the cause, must have been
the other child.
Not mine.
My darling children will never do my darling
Esau.
You think he gets into fights with anybody?
No.
My darling Esau is a precious little boy.
Most parents have.
My children?
Must be the other fellow did something.
To rise up in justification for your children
is the surest way to turn them into
Esaus.
The surest way.
And yet it is the rare parents…
I'll tell you, in my lifetime I've seen
very few parents, even in the Church, who
do not justify their children.
Almost all of them justify their children.
Who will say, yeah, that may be right.
My son may have been wrong.
Sure.
Quite likely it was his fault.
Quite likely he was the cause of the
trouble.
Abraham would have said that, but not Isaac.
There's the difference.
And we can choose which way we go.
But when we justify our children, we can
be pretty sure that our eyes are dimmed.
We love our children more than we love
the truth.
How many times I've seen that.
It's sad.
People loving their children more than they love
their truth, and therefore missing out on what
God could have done for them and through
them.
My brothers and sisters, let's never make that
mistake.
Let's love the truth more than we love
our own children.
Otherwise, even when they marry heathen women, we
will say, oh, but she's a nice girl,
and I'm sure she's got some faith, and
probably she's born again.
This daughter of Bereza Hittite, maybe she's born
again.
Maybe she's trusted the Lord somewhere.
And this other girl also, maybe she's trusted
the Lord.
It's amazing how people can, the extent to
which people can go to justify what their
children do.
Oh, my daughter-in-law, she's quite spiritual.
Rubbish.
Other people can see through the hollowness of
them.
And that is an indication that our eyes
are dim.
My brothers and sisters, be without partiality here.
If you want to have clear vision, don't
be partial towards your sons and daughters and
sons-in-laws and daughters-in-law.
You lose your spiritual vision because of that,
your calling.
Keep it clear, and see clearly.
Anyway, it says here in verse 5, and
Rebecca was listening while Isaac spoke to his
son.
So when Esau went to the field to
hunt for game to bring home, Rebecca said
to her son Jacob, I heard your father
speak to your brother Esau, saying, bring me
some game and prepare a savory dish for
me that I made.
Bless you in the presence of the Lord.
Now, therefore, my son, listen to me as
I command you.
Go now to the flock and bring me
from there two choice kids, and I'll prepare
them a savory dish for your father, such
as he loves.
Then you bring it to your father that
he may eat, so that he may bless
you before his death.
There is a mother who is advising her
son to deceive his father.
Rebecca was not the same old Rebecca, the
same young Rebecca that she was at the
well in Mesopotamia.
She has also changed.
She has also lost that spiritual outlook she
had at the beginning.
Now she has become shrewd and clever to
help Jacob.
What should she have done?
What should a wife do in such a
situation?
She should go to her husband and talk
to him and say, remember what God told
us, that the older shall serve the younger.
That's what Rebecca should have done.
There she would have been a help to
Isaac, instead of all this scheming and manipulating
behind your husband's back.
Why not go straight up to him and
talk to him face to face in a
loving, humble way?
And there she becomes an agent in the
hands of Satan.
Of course it was God's will to give
the birthright to Jacob, but what Rebecca could
have done is said, Lord, it's wonderful that
we are in a tight spot now.
It looks as if the blessing is going
to go to Jesus, but he'll have to
do some wonderful miracle now.
That would have been faith, but she doesn't
have that.
You read about Sarah as an example in
1 Peter 3, but you don't read about
Rebecca as an example.
Sarah called her husband Lord, but not Rebecca.
Sad that she's not given as an example.
You read about Sarah in Hebrews 11, by
faith Sarah, but you never read about Rebecca.
Think of a sister who can start out
well as a humble, simple, God-fearing sister,
but gradually begins to think, oh, I'm married
to an important man, Isaac, to whom all
the promises have descended from my father-in
-law Abraham.
It's amazing how women can begin to think,
I'm married to one of the important brothers
in the church.
I'm not just an ordinary sister.
Garbage.
When such thoughts, think that people can store
such garbage in their minds.
That I'm married to somebody important, and to
be pretty proud of one's husband's position or
ministry.
I'm the wife of Isaac, not just any
ordinary person.
And to store such garbage in the mind
is what makes Rebecca finally into a person
who cannot be held out as an example
for anybody.
But Sarah, she also was married to a
very important person.
She was married to the first person whom
God chose, but she remained humble right till
the very end.
There are two contrasting examples of women.
Sarah and Rebecca.
And the New Testament exhorts us to follow
Sarah, who submitted to her husband.
I wasn't sure there were a lot of
things Abraham did that Sarah couldn't understand.
She submitted.
No doubt she advised Abraham now and then.
But Rebecca schemed behind her husband's back.
None of them were perfect.
Sarah was not perfect, but she didn't scheme
and manipulate things behind her husband's back.
A warning for wives.
And Jacob also, he could have stood up
against his mother.
He was not a little kid.
He was also forty years old, more than
forty.
He's not already married at forty.
Here's a fifty-year-old man still clinging
on to his mother's apron string.
Mummy says, go and bring this.
And the fifty-year-old man obeys mummy,
when he knows it's completely contrary to God's
will.
I've seen people like that.
Grown-up people, still clinging on to daddy's
coattails and mummy's apron string.
Don't know how to stand for God.
Neatly does it, what his mother says.
He's only concerned about whether he'd get caught.
Supposing my father feels my hand and discovers
that I'm smooth, he'll curse me when I'm
discovered to be a deceiver.
That's all he's thinking about.
He's a schemer.
He's got his hand on his brother's leg.
From birth, and he's still got his hand
on his brother's leg.
So he went.
Mother said, don't worry about that.
Your curse be on me, verse thirteen.
Just obey my voice.
There are times when a son needs to
stand up against his parents and say, I'm
sorry, I can't do that.
That's wrong.
That's unrighteous.
I can't put my signature to that statement.
It's a lie.
It's false.
I can't do it.
But my son, we'll get into difficulty.
Never mind, we'll trust God.
He'll help us out of the difficulty.
That's the thing that makes a man of
God.
And that's why there are so few men
of God.
How many people, when it comes to their
own parents, they never want to displease them.
They just do what will please them.
Yeah, there's a warning for it.
So he went and got them, verse fourteen,
and brought them to his mother, and his
mother made savory food such as his father
loved, and Rebecca took the best garments that
he saw her elder son, which were with
her in the house, and put them on
Jacob, her younger son.
Both of them are to blame.
You know, there was a time when Rebecca
prayed.
We saw that in our last study.
Notice that again, Genesis twenty-five, twenty-two.
There was a time when Isaac prayed.
Isaac prayed for twenty years.
But after he got his son, he stopped
praying so much.
And that's why his eyes became dim.
It says in verse twenty-one of Genesis
twenty-five, Isaac prayed, and he saw that
in our last study, he got his son
after twenty years.
And the children struggled together within Rebecca's womb,
verse twenty-two, and she also prayed.
She went to the Lord and prayed.
They began their life in prayer, in their
early married life, sought God, because they were
in trial, they were in difficulty, they had
no children, they sought God.
But now, it was all ease and comfortable
and pleasant, and even a heathen king comes
and tells you, that God is with me.
Isaac could have pulled up his collars and
said, I'm pretty important now.
This big king has also testified that God
is with me.
Like the way some Christians get excited when
the chief minister will come and attend their
meeting, or sit on the platform.
It's amazing how stupid Christians can get.
And the eyes became dim.
It happened to Christendom.
The eyes have become dim because worldly people
have said good things.
Worldly people have said good things, and the
spiritual eyes have become dim.
And Rebecca, no longer seeking God, like she
did at the time when the children were
struggling in her womb, saying, Lord, why is
this?
Why is my husband going to bless Esau
now?
She could have done that?
No.
She's keen.
And we can see an example there for
us, men and women, that when we are
in difficulty, we begin to scheme, how shall
we get out of this now, this tight
spot, this difficult situation?
How can we scheme, never mind if we
do some few wrong things here and there,
and cheat a little here and there, if
we can get out of this difficulty?
We say, we want to do something right.
You see, it's very easy when we have
got a good end in view, to say,
yeah, it doesn't matter if we do a
few wrong things, because our ultimate goal is
good.
That if my ultimate goal is to get
God's blessing on Jacob, never mind how I
do it.
That's the principle of the world, that the
end justifies the means.
That means, provided I have a good end
in view, it doesn't matter how I reach
there.
But Jesus has taught us, your yes must
be yes, your no must be no.
And the way you get to the goal
is as important as the goal itself.
Sure.
So we can learn a lesson from that.
And then he came to his father, and
he 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.
And there was no trembling in his voice.
He's an experienced deceiver, to say, I'm Esau,
your son.
I've done as you told me, get up,
please, and eat of my game, that you
may bless me.
And Isaac said to his son, how is
it that you have got it so quickly?
And he said, because the Lord, your God,
caused it to happen to me.
And we saw that, how he brings the
name of the Lord into all this.
There's a spiritual language about this deception.
God help me.
How did you have your needs met, brother?
God help me, brother.
God help me.
It's more spiritual than saying, brother, servants of
God came and gave me some money.
That's very down to earth.
Paul said that to the Corinthians.
When I was in need, the brothers in
Macedonia came and gave me some money, and
my needs were met.
But today, servants of God say, God help
me.
What they mean is, I wrote a prayer
letter to somebody in America, and I got
some money.
Deception.
Counterfeit garbage, which millions of Christians are swallowing.
Sad.
The Lord, your God.
Amazing.
And then Isaac said to Jacob, please come
close so that I can feel you, my
son, whether you're really my son, Esau, or
not.
And Jacob came close to 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 gain, that
I may bless you.
And he brought it to him, and he
ate, and he brought him wine, and he
drank, and his father Isaac said to him,
please come close and kiss me, my son.
So he came close and kissed him, and
when 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.
How sad.
Think about ending our life like this, a
man who started out as a man of
God, to end his life loving food and
wine, and going by the sense of his
smell of clothes, rather than by any spiritual
sense.
And yet, Isaac is typical of so many
people who have started out so well, who
have come into a church where they have
received so much from God, so much, and
started out so well, but as time has
gone on, their spiritual vision has become dim.
They are defeated by sins that they had
overcome ten years ago, back into the same
old ruts.
They had revelation on the word ten years
ago, but it's gone now, their eyes have
become dim, they can't see.
Sad, sad, sad.
In contrast, see men like Abraham and Moses,
who lived before God's faith, did not love
food and drink, and be partial to their
children, and ruin their lives.
Take these examples and warnings, brothers and sisters,
so that we can walk on the right
path.
It's really sad to see this pathetic condition
of this man, who was called with such
a tremendous, tremendous privileges.
He could have risen to such heights spiritually,
and he ends like this.
And it's almost the last that you hear
of Isaac after this chapter.
You don't hear of him again till he's
dead.
Nothing more to be said about it.
Sad.
But God is sovereign, and He, in a
supernatural way, even through, we can ask, how
did God prophesy through Isaac then?
Because what He says is true.
May God give you the view of heaven,
verse 28, of the fatness of the earth,
abundance of grain in you, wine may people
serve you, nations bow down to you, be
master of your brothers, may your mothers, sons
bow down to you, cursed be those who
curse you, and blessed be those who bless
you.
That's been absolutely true.
It's amazing how God's word says that there
are people who are ungodly can prophesy, and
they can prophesy the truth.
Turn for an example of that in John,
chapter 11.
John, chapter 11, verse 51 and 52, 49
to 52.
Caiaphas, who was the high priest in that
year, said, in verse 50, You don't take
into account that it is expedient for you
that one man should die for the people.
And he didn't realize what he was saying.
It says in verse 51, now this he
did not say on his own initiative.
But being high priest that year, he prophesied
that Jesus was going to die for the
nation.
And not for the nation only, but that
He might also gather together into one of
the children of God who was scattered abroad.
Who made that prophecy?
Caiaphas, who is in hell today.
Lord, Lord, we prophesy in Your name.
Yes, it was right.
But depart from me, you workers of iniquity.
It's possible even to prophesy, and to prophesy
the truth, like Balaam, who is in hell
today, who prophesied the truth.
So Isaac also prophesied.
Of course, he was not as bad as
Balaam or Caiaphas, but it was not a
result of his godliness.
God in His sovereignty overruled Caiaphas and Balaam
and Isaac.
That they had to prophesy according to the
will of God.
And as soon as Isaac had finished, Genesis
27, 30, Jacob had hardly gone out of
his presence when Esau came.
And he brought the savory food and said,
Let my father rise, that you may bless
me.
And Isaac said, Who are you?
He said, I am your firstborn, Esau.
Isaac trembled violently and said, Who is he
then who hunted Gaman and brought him before?
Yes, and he shall be blessed.
And Esau heard these words.
He cried out with an exceedingly great and
bitter cry and said to his father, Bless
me, even me also, O my father.
Turn to the New Testament commentary on this
verse.
In Hebrews chapter 12, Hebrews chapter 12 we
read, verse 17, 16 and 17, Let there
be no godless person in your midst like
Esau, who for one single meal sold his
birthright.
You know that even afterwards, when he desired
to inherit the blessing, he was rejected.
For he found no place for resentment, though
he sought for it with tears.
In other words, the decision that he had
made, say, 25 years earlier, when he was
a young man of 25, now he's reaping
the consequence of it.
And he's weeping before his father.
Oh, please give it to me.
I'm sorry that I gave up my birthright
25 years ago, and it's, God says, it's
too late.
Now he says to us, be careful that
you don't give up your spiritual birthright for
some earthly thing.
Don't give up that divine nature that you
can be a partaker of for some earthly
thing you fight about, some deception, some telling
lies, some earthly thing that we get, that
we hanker after and fight for.
And afterwards, 25 years later, when you realize,
when you stand at the judgment seat of
Christ, and you realize how you spent your
life for some earthly ambition, some earthly goals,
some greatness in the world, some professional goal
and ambition, later on you realize that you
heard and heard and heard and heard in
the church, and you wouldn't take it seriously,
you pursued, you thought you could make the
best of both worlds, and then you finally
stand there, and there's tears of repentance.
And the Lord says, oh, give me another
chance, Lord, give me another chance to live
my life again.
And the Lord says, no.
My brothers and sisters, I believe there'll be
many, many people like that at the judgment
seat of Christ, who will weep because they
never took seriously what they heard in the
church.
They never took it seriously.
Became worldly, worldly in their conversation, foolish, jesting
and wasting their time gossiping.
It's happening.
I see before my eyes young people who
were more spiritually minded a few years ago
than they are today.
Why is that?
Why is that decline coming, when it should
be more wholehearted, more zealous, more spiritual, more
godly?
Why is that?
Take it seriously.
There'll be no immoral or godless person among
you.
That's what it says.
Among you.
Afterwards, he desired to inherit the blessing.
He was rejected.
There is a time in which God gives
us opportunity to live for Him.
Once that time is over, there's no sacrifice
and self-denial that you can make for
the Lord today that you'll ever regret in
eternity.
But there are many ways in which you
indulge yourself and seek your own interests and
pursue your own goals in life, which you're
going to regret and regret terribly in eternity.
That's the warning.
It says, with a bitter cry, an exceedingly
great and bitter cry, it says in Genesis
27, 34, it says, Bless me, O God!
It's not possible.
How can I?
It's easy to say, Bless me, O God,
now, but you were not willing to pay
the price.
You wanted your own way, all your life
on earth.
Now you say, Bless me, O God.
And he said, Your brother came deceitfully, and
he's taken away your blessing.
And he said, Is he not rightly named
Jacob?
For he supplanted me these two times.
He took away my birthright.
Now he's taken away my blessing.
He still doesn't seem to realize that God
in His sovereignty made sure that he didn't
get it because he despised it in his
younger days.
Have you not reserved a blessing for me?
Isaac said, I've made him your master, and
all his relatives I've given to him as
servants.
Grain and new wine I've sustained him.
Now as for you, what can I do
for you, my son?
Isaac recognized that God in His sovereignty had
overruled his partiality and allowed him to make
a mistake so that he would bless the
right person.
Isaac realized, I think that was the reason,
also verse 33, why he trembled violently when
he saw how God had made a fool
of him by making him make a mistake
so that, you know, God can make people
make a mistake so that His purposes can
be fulfilled.
Because we need not fear.
We don't have to scheme like Rebecca and
Jacob.
What God has reserved for me will come
to me.
If God has reserved some property for you
or a house for you, it will come
to you, my brother.
You don't have to scheme and manipulate and
fight for it.
If God has reserved a girl or a
boy for you, he or she will come
to you.
You don't have to scheme and manipulate and
jump in before somebody else jumps in.
And all these stupid earthly things that Rebecca
and Jacob in the world are always scheming
and manipulating.
How shall I act and what hairy dress
shall I put on to impress her and
impress him and all these things.
No, there's no need for all that.
Just trust God.
What is reserved for you will come to
you.
Do you have faith for that?
And we don't have to scheme and manipulate
and put on a special voice and put
on a special dress to impress and to
get something for ourselves.
This tremendous scheming that there is in the
world.
What God has reserved, He will give you.
Sure, trust Him.
Nobody can take it.
It's like these restaurants where you have reserved
written on some table.
And even if you go and sit there,
the waiter will say, sir, please get up,
that's not for you.
And even if somebody else tries to grab
that person, God will say, please get up,
that one's not for you.
That's reserved.
God has reserved the best for those who
honor Him.
Not for those who believe a certain doctrine
and play the fool in their lives, but
those who are wholehearted to seek His kingdom
first, who really want to live for Him,
whose whole mind and interest is to promotion
of God's kingdom.
He's reserved the best in every area for
them.
And the Esau's?
Yeah, there are Esau's also.
They can be in the church.
You can't say God doesn't bless them.
There is a second best or third best
or tenth best.
And Isaac had some type of tenth best
blessing for Esau.
And it's a very sad thing if you
were supposed to get God's best and you
end up getting God's tenth best.
Oh, God, isn't there something for me?
I know I messed up my life.
I did this, I did that.
Okay, God says, all right.
I've got my tenth best for you.
You could have got my best.
Your life would have been tremendous, but you've
just played the fool.
And He blesses him.
He says, okay, don't you have at least
one blessing, my father?
Bless me.
Oh, my father was thirty-eight and Esau
lifted his voice and wept.
And his father gave him something.
Away from the fertility of the earth shall
be your dwelling, away from the dew of
heaven.
In other words, you'll live out in the
desert.
By your sword you will live, your brother
you will serve, and when you become restless,
you'll break his yoke from your neck.
He gave him something.
God is merciful.
He gives the tenth best to those who
will not choose his best.
Very sad, very sad when I get God's
tenth best, when I could have had God's
best.
Think, you young people who are chasing the
future in your life.
You want God's best or his tenth best?
His best is not reserved for everyone.
It's reserved for those who are wholehearted towards
Him.
The rest also get a blessing, but not
the best.
So Esau bore a grudge against Jacob.
That's the problem.
Instead of judging ourselves, we bear a grudge
against the other person.
Because of the blessing which he got, instead
of saying, why didn't I get it?
Why is God blessing that brother and not
me?
Don't you think there's a reason?
Why get jealous of him?
Why get upset with him?
Judge yourself.
See why God can't do that for you?
And Esau said, the day is the morning
for my father, and the other night I'll
kill my brother Jacob.
He's scheming now.
Anger, just like Cain.
Jealous that God is less able.
Another repetition of that story.
Two brothers growing up in a home and
one wants to kill the other.
When the words of her elder son Esau
were reported to Rebekah, she sent and called
her younger son Jacob.
Said, your brother is planning to kill you.
Now obey my voice and flee to Haran
to my brother Laban.
Stay with him a few days until your
brother's fury subsides, until your brother's anger subsides
and he forgets what you did to him.
Then I'll send and get you from there.
She thought a few days, but it lasted
twenty years.
Twenty years.
She never saw her son because of her
partiality.
Because she is not a submissive wife.
She thought, after a few days I'll bring
you back.
But it was twenty years.
Why should I be bereaved of you both
in one day?
And Rebekah said to Isaac, I'm tired of
living because of the daughters of Heth, as
Jacob takes a wife from the land.
Daughters of Heth, like these from the daughters
of land, what good will my life be
to me?
Now there's a lot that we can learn
from that section we have just studied.
Concerning our responsibility as parents towards our children.
And also as brothers, as Esau and Jacob,
that we don't despise what God gives to
us.
That we value what we have received so
freely and treasure it.
And say, Lord, help me not to backslide.
Despise all that you give, let me value
it, so that I won't have any regrets
in the final day.