Abraham’s Line of Promise Begins

Transcript

GRS 2-7
1/9/2005
Abraham’s Line of Promise Begins
Genesis 25-28
Gil Rugh

We are going to go back the Book of Genesis together and where in Genesis Chapter 25, we have talked for last couple of weeks on the subject of the in-times, where in the Book of Genesis, we are talking about things related to the beginning. But you have to understand the truths presented in the Book of Genesis to understand what God is doing in bringing the world to the climax of his promises given in the Old Testament. We have been looking at the life of Abraham. As we come to Chapter 25, we will come to the conclusion of Abraham’s earthly life. And the events going on in the world today that are bringing us, to that point when God will bring to completion of his plan and program for the church and then His plan and program for the nation Israel, culminating with establishing of the kingdom on earth are all part of the fulfillment of the promises given to Abraham in the Book of Genesis and Abraham’s descendants and they are reiterated to Abraham’s son Isaac, to Abraham’s grandson Jacob, then to the twelve sons of Jacob, which become the heads of the 12 tribes of Israel. are salvation, blessings as gentiles come to us as a result of the covenant God established with Abraham. That in no way displaces or replaces the promises given to the physical nation Israel. But both promises are given, both specific promises to the physical nation Israel and the promises that would relate to spiritual blessings and salvation, that include not only to the nation Israel, but to all nations. And we will see those promises reiterated as God deals with Abraham’s son Isaac and then with Isaac’s son Jacob.

Chapter 25 of Genesis opens by talking about the closing portion, the closing years of Abraham’s life. And then Chapter 25 will close with Jacob having become the possessor of the promises given to Abraham. First 11 verses deal with the close of Abraham’s life. And evidently you remember for many years Abraham and Sarah could not have children and indication was that it was both of them. Although, Abraham had the ability to have children obviously because he had a child with Sarah’s handmaid and God has rejuvenated Abraham because after the death of Sarah, he is going to father several more children. He is going to take another wife and her name is Keturah.

In the Book of Chronicles, first Chronicles Chapter 1 verse 32, Keturah is called a concubine, not placed on the same level as Abraham’s first wife Sarah. But Chapter 25 opens up now Abraham took another wife whose name was Keturah. And then she bore him a number of children. Did these children become significant? not because they are in the line of the direct promises of the Abraham and the covenant, they do not come through these children, remember. They only come through one of the Abraham’s children Isaac. Promises don’t come through Ishmael. They don’t come through these sons of Keturah. But there are blessings and prosperity that come to these other children of Abraham. But there are also problems, because all these other problems of children of Abraham become problems for Abraham’s promised seed. The sons of Keturah mainly become fathers of Arab peoples where that Ishmael and his descendants become key in the Arab peoples. But these become other tribes of the Arab peoples basically and they will be a problem in future years for the children of Israel and the sons of promise. Look at verse 9. Then his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the Cave of Machpelah, Abraham has died and you see, Isaac and Ishmael come together. So there has been enough contact maintained even though they had separated themselves. There was animosity early, but they come together now for the burial of their father and Abraham passes off the scene. He was 175 years old according to verse 7. So he has lived a long and full life. We are going to do now is get an overview of the situation. Abraham’s other sons have been sent away the children of Keturah. He gave them gifts and sent them away. The only one staying with the family is Isaac. Ishmael has moved out and the sons of Keturah are sent to live in other regions to the east of the Promised Land Palestine. Then you can get a map out and see about these peoples and where they live and the problems they have in to Israel. Now the problems centered on Isaac. But what about Ishmael? He is the other prominent son of Abraham. He is not in the line of the promises of the Abrahamic covenant. But God did give promises regarding Ishmael. Remember, Abraham asked God all that Ishmael might live before you. God says that now the promises will be fulfilled in Isaac. But I will answer your prayer. And I will bring blessings to Ishmael and multiply him and so in verses 12-18 you have the twelve sons of Ishmael. Is he something of a parallel? Ultimately we are going to have the 12 tribes of Israel with the 12 sons of Jacob, Abraham’s grandson. Here you find Ishmael now becomes the father of 12 sons and thus 12 tribes if you will that will come out of him, down at the end of verse 16, 12 princes according to their tribes. The end of verse 18, he settled in defiance of all his relatives give the land where they settled. So difficulty, tensions there from the beginning and continues right down to today. Ishmael dies at 137 years of age according to verse 17. So not near as long as Abraham, but a good long full life. The Bible is not concerned particularly to develop the line of Ishmael, but it does make us aware of some of the facts like we have here concerning Ishmael.

Now we can pick up with Isaac. In verses 19 to 26 what we are going to have here is the descendants carried out through Isaac because that is what is important in the biblical record. Because the promise comes from Abraham through Isaac and through Isaac 2. He is going to have twin sons, Esau and Jacob. So now we have the record of the generations of Isaac in verse 19. Verse 20, Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebecca. And how Rebecca came to his wife, remember, it was recorded in Chapter 24 of the Book of Genesis. Now Rebecca cannot have children. So that he gets married to Rebecca when he is 40, but they have no children for 20 years. So you look down and you find out he is 60 years old when his children are born and that would have been a difficult time for him and Rebecca to be sure that 20 years hoping to have children. Verse 26 tells you that Isaac was 60 years old when she gave birth to them to these twins. Interesting how God works. Isn’t it? Abraham and Sarah had to go through such a long time and such testing, trusting God that it did bring the son of promise and God just waits and waits and waits and waits and waits. Now you hear Isaac married to Rebecca, you will say wow, well, just the first year will have the son of promise, now 20 years because Rebecca was barren according to verse 21. And finally the Lord does answer. Their prayers and she has twins. That becomes significant in Old Testament and New Testament.

The children are fighting in her womb. She is troubled what is going on, and I guess all kids kicked. But these must have been exceptional problems from the womb because they are struggling within her according to verse 22, so much so she goes before the lord do enquire of him. What is going on? What is the significance of this? And the Lord said to her verse 23, two nations are in your womb. Two peoples will be separated from your body. One people shall be stronger than the other and the older shall serve the younger. So here before either had been born, before either has done good or evil, God selects the younger to be the child of promise. The child in which the promises given to Abraham will be fulfilled. This becomes significant the Book of Romans Chapter 9 verses 6 to 13 where it becomes a clear example of God’s sovereign election. And that is what I referred to when I said that neither had been born, neither had done good or evil because that’s what Paul says in Romans Chapter 9. But God’s sovereignly chose and it can be on the basis of his foreknowledge looking ahead to see that one of them would be a good son and the other would be a godless son because it said neither had done good or evil, means that their actions in the realm did not play apart in God’s choice. So God’s sovereign work of choosing is set out here.

So Rebecca knows before the children are born what God’s plan is. That become significant in what develops later in the story. The first came out and he came forth red and hairy all over like a hairy garment. He is really hairy, because later account you see how hairy he really was. So they named him Esau, which means hairy. Hairy because he had hair all over him and looked very original. He will also be called Edom, which means red, because his hair was red and then later he is going to have a love for red stew. Though Esau, Edom names for the same person. After Esau was born, here comes his twin holding on to his heels. So they named him Jacob and what does Jacob mean? Well he came out holding his brother’s heel. That’s called him heel holder, so Jacob means heel holder. We make a too big deal. People fuss and worry about what are they going to call their kids when the time they are born, just wait and see what happens when they are born. I would have named one of my kids sloppy and messy because that’s how he came out. No I won’t go there. I didn’t go in for the birth of my first child. I went in for the birth of my second and you know, we only have two. That has nothing to do with this account. So we have Jacob now on the scene and Isaac is 60 years old. After 20 years of marriage, God has blessed them with 2 children. You know, we don’t get into a lot of details of this family. Isaac is going to have a long life. But really there is not much detail in Isaac’s life. One Chapter devoted to the life of Isaac. Just sort of like a bridge, not minimizing his importance, the child of promise. But all the anticipation of his birth, the days of Abraham and Sarah, all the focus on him in anticipation of his birth. But not much about him after he has born.

Then we will get to his son Jacob and there will be a lot about him in the Book of Genesis. Multiple Chapters about Jacob, but only one Chapter about Isaac. You see, something of the conflict, there was conflict in the womb between Esau and Jacob and there is conflict in the family about them. Isaac likes Esau, loves Esau, Jacob is okay, but he really loves Esau. Rebecca loves Jacob. Esau was her son, I am sure she has affection to him, but there is a clear distinction. Verse 28, Isaac loved Esau and you will note the reason is totally material because he had a taste for game. Esau is the man of the field, verse 27 a skillful hunter and Isaac just loves the game that he kills and prepares, so he just loves Esau. Nothing spiritual here at all. Rebecca loves Jacob and he is more of a peaceful man. He is the man of the home. He does not want to get out and go hunt and kill game. He likes to be around the house. Of course, his mom likes that. So everything goes well on that side. Well all of that to what? Help you appreciate a dysfunctional family. No… Help you to understand what is going to go on here. We think dysfunctional families are something new. People have to read Genesis more often. So as they grown up, they get to be adults, older sons now and Jacob is at home, helping mom and he knows how to cook. Esau comes in from the field and he starved.

Verse 29 when Jacob had cooked stew, Esau come in from the field and he was famished. Esau said to Jacob, Please let me have a swallow of that red stuff, for I am famished and therefore his name is called Edom. But remember, he had red hair all over him and he likes the red stew. So red is his color. So we call him Edom, which means red. However, he wants a bowl of soup. Jacob says, well sell me your birthright and you know what a connection of ideas. All I want a bowl of soup, just like you walk into a diner and say I want to a bowl of soup, how much is it? It will be a million and a half dollars. I just want a bowl of soup, should be about 29 cents, not a million and a half dollars. It’s okay …I will take it. It’s basically what Esau does here, the birthright is the right to be the inheritor, the double portion of your father and all the promises, the great blessings that would be passed from your father to the next in line would come to the one with the birthright. Jacob sees the value of having the birthright. Esau up to him, it’s nothing. So Esau says look, I am going to die of hunger. What gives a birthright to a dead man? Sure, you can have the birthright. Give me the soup. Jacob says, first swear to me. This will be a binding commitment. So Esau swears to him. The birthright is yours. Now give me the soup. So this time he had the soup, gets up, wipes his mouth, walks out the door.

Verse 34, Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil soup. He ate, drank, roles and went out on his way. You have to have the last statement underlined. Thus Esau despised his birthright. He despised his birthright. This becomes significant in the Book of Hebrews Chapter 12, Esau becomes representative of the godless. The writer of the Hebrews in Chapter 12 verse 6 says I don’t let there be any people like Esau among you. Immoral and godless man. He despised his birthright because that was despising spiritual blessings. The blessings that God had promised to Abraham and through Abraham to Isaac came with the birthright and not trade that for something to satisfy my immediate physical desires. He is an immoral godless man. The scripture says concerning him. He despised his birthright. That’s treated likely the promises of God. They are not worth a bowl of soup. So he despised his birthright.

Now I want you to note something. At the end of verse 23, underline older shall serve the younger. That is the Sovereign choice of God before they are born. The action that will bring that about in time is the action of Esau in despising his birthright. You say you didn’t have any choice, it was God’s Sovereign action. But that is not the way the scripture deals with it. It deals with Esau harshly for his action and here in verse 23 and in verse 34, you have the sovereign choice of God set out in election and you have the action and choice of Esau. And we struggled to put it together and we don’t have to. God’s Sovereign choice of Jacob over Esau before they were born in no ways frees Esau from his responsibility. Esau made the choice he wanted to make and thus despised his birthright.

We come to Chapter 26, things are moving along and Chapter 26 is the only Chapter exclusively dealing with the life of Isaac. One Chapter, I mean we picked up Abraham in Chapter 12 of Genesis and really Chapters 12 to the first part of Chapter 25 were about Abraham. We are going to pick up Jacob and we are going to really deal with Jacob through Chapter 38 and then he will reappear after that. So multiple Chapters. Isaac, I think it is a believer will see him, calling on the name of the Lord, The Lord appeals to him. But he does not present it and what is presented about him is that he is a man of great spiritual stature. I don’t want to go beyond what the scripture says, but so much of what takes place with Isaac does not indicate things that have the fullness of the appreciation of God’s work and what he is doing.

Let’s look at Chapter 26, Isaac is going to be the longest living here. He is going to be lived to be a 180 years old. Abraham died at 175, Isaac will outlive him by 5 years. He will live to be a 180. There is a famine in the land and is similar to the famine that happened in the days of Abraham. Isaac went to Gerar to Abimelech, king of Philistines and moves over to the region of the Philistines. The Lord appeared to him and said, so here the Lord is appearing, in a dream and the vision we are not told, but He appeared to him and said to him do not go down to Egypt. Stay in the land of which I tell you. Sojourn in this land, I will be with you and bless you. For you and your descendants, I will give all these lands and I will establish the old which I swore to your father Abraham. I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven. I will give you descendants all these lands and by your descendants, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed or literally by your seed, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. And the Book of Galatians Chapter 3 in the New Testament picks that promise up in the Abrahamic covenant that we have seen earlier the end of verse 4 by your seed all nations of yours shall be blessed indicate these promises will find their fulfillment in Christ. And so there is a provision in there for the gentiles and their salvation. And there is also the provision of the special promises to the physical nation Israel. So I don’t want at rate minimize Isaac’ stature as the child of promise in he one and whom the promise have centered. I wonder whom God will speak directly. He will do that on two occasions that are recorded. This is the first of them and Isaac does obey. He doesn’t try to go to Egypt to get away from the famine. He stays in the land. Like father, like son. He is living among the Philistines in verses 6 to 11, 7 to 11 he lies about his wife.

Verse 7, when the men of the place asked about his wife, he said, she is my sister. He is afraid to say my wife, thinking the men of the place might kill me on account of her, for she is beautiful. Again you see this repeated and you think boy, here we have another husband like this, on the same thing that Abraham did. Here is the man that God appeared to in verses 2 to 4 and spoke to and promised him such great blessings and he turned around and all that he is afraid the Philistines will kill him. You think you might be parading around with the opposite. I mean invincible. Look at the promises God has given him. But you see, the feet of clay in some of these men and he will lie about his wife and put her at great risk. Even the unbelievers are against what he does. And Isaac will be rebuked by a Philistine just as Abraham suffered such a rebuke for what he did. Now Rebecca is not put in the harem, but the potential is there. Then one day, Abimelech, king of the Philistines, that is the same name of the king that Abraham had to with deal with and dealt with and did the same thing. So some people say, well the stories are confused and repeated, but that’s not the case. We are told in verse 1 of Chapter 26, this is the same kind of situation with the famine and not unusual that you would find perhaps the son of the king because some 90 years have gone by. It’s probably not the same Abimelech, but you would expect that you would have Abimelech I and Abimelech II, Abimelech senior and Abimelech junior. I don’t know. So the fact is that the same name isn’t really an issue. He looks out and sees Isaac caressing, kissing, making out with Rebecca. He says, this isn’t a sister. So he called Isaac again says “what in the world did you tell us she was your sister? For that’s got to be your wife. Well, I thought you might kill me. So you can have her. And look at down the end of verse 9, in this an admirable man, in the end of verse 9, Isaac said to him because I said I might die on account for her. Just a reminder that you know we get in our minds what we want to expect of one another and husband-wife relationships be encouraged wives, some of the great man of the Old Testament want the kind of men. You might look up to in every area, I mean, I don’t want to die for her. Well that is a terrible thing to say about your wife. Isn’t it? I wouldn’t be in a position I had to die for my wife. And if she might be taken into harem, she might be sexually used by godless men, but he didn’t have to die for her. That this # embarrassed to tell them like this. Verse 10, what is that you have done to us, one of the people might easily have lying with your wife and brought guilt up on, you would have brought guilt upon all of us. Note here, even the ungodly have that sense of right and wrong because we are all made in the image of God. That is why Romans Chapter 2 says even those would not had exposure to the law of God, the truth of God, have their conscience which speaks to them. So here Abimelech had sins if we have taken someone else’s wife and then has sexual relation, we would have been guilty for that, choosing her. And here you have another occasion, we have someone outside the line of promise and the line of God’s revelation rebuking the chosen one of God. The wonder whom God is just reiterated the promises in verses 2 to 4. But he is still the one of promise. So Abimelech warns his people. No body better touch Rebecca or will have you executed. And now you come to verse 12, You know what verse 12 is about? You think well, now we come to a selection where Isaac has to learn his lesson. Verse 12 picks up to explain you how greatly God blesses Isaac, multiplies his wealth and makes him prosperous because the point of the story is not to get sight tracked in the marital issues, not to elaborate on what kind of counseling Isaac and Rebecca should have had or whatever. The issue is that Isaac is the one and through whom the promises will be fulfilled and God is promised great blessings and here they come. So Isaac sows in the land and reaped hundred fold. The Lord blessed him. He became very rich. He came richer until he became very wealthy. The end of verse 14 result was the Philistines envied him. Though that leads to conflict, now the Philistines are jealous, envious of Isaac. So you have conflict and the result is that Isaac will have to move to a new location, if you will. Down to verse 23, he went up from there to Beersheba and the Lord appeared to him in the same night and said. So he is back into the land more directly of the land of the Philistines and now God appears to him the second time and this is the last time as far as the biblical records concerned, the occasion in verse 2 of this Chapter and in verse 24, two occasions and on both occasions he appears to reiterate to him that the promise given to Abraham comes through him. The Lord appeared to him that night and said, I am the God of your father Abraham, do not fear, I am with you, I have blessed you, multiplied your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham because of the promises I gave to Abraham. Then he built an altar there and called on the name of The Lord. I think that Isaac is a godly man. No doubt. And that’s why he has presented in this scripture. But sometimes his actions detract greatly, that’s going to come about in the further development of the story.

Jump down to verse 34, when Esau was 40 years old, he married Judith, the daughter of Beeri, the Hittite and Basemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite. So Esau, Jacob’s brother, remember one of the twin sons of Isaac and Rebecca marries two wives, two Hittite women. You will note, verse 35 they brought grief to Isaac and Rebecca. This is quite a family. You have Esau and Jacob, I mean, they are fighting in the womb. We have trouble with our kids once they are born, usually you know the fight doesn’t start till a little later. But they started fighting and struggling in the womb remember. And then you have Isaac loving one of the sons and Rebecca loving the other son. And you have the one son wanting the birthright that will belong to the other and so the older son selling the birthright to the younger. Now you have the one son marrying two wives and they just don’t bring anything to the family, but grief. And that’s why verses 34 and 35 prepared the way for what is going to happen here.

Chapter 27 and you really come to the blessings that God will bring through Jacob and how it comes about and we are going to pass on now. We pass the blessings from Abraham to Isaac, now they will be passed from Isaac to Jacob. Because remember, Esau sold the birthright, so what should have come through Esau humanly speaking according to God’s Sovereign choice and the sinful action of Esau comes to Jacob and we see that in Chapter 27. Isaac told his eyes were too dim to see. So basically he has gone all that blind. He can’t even recognize his own children when they come and stand right before. Perhaps in those days cataracts, we don’t know, but he is blind, now he thinks he is on the verge of death. He is about 137. He is going to live to be 180. He has got 43 years to go. But remember, Ishmael, his brother was 137 when he died. So that’s about how old Isaac is. So he is probably thinking, well, my brother died in 137, un-blind, don’t get around like I used to, I probably don’t have long to go either. I better get the promise passed on. Problem is he wants to pass it on to Esau. I wonder what kind of communication went on this family. The Lord spoke to Rebecca before Esau and Jacob were born remember back in verse 23 and in effect told her that the youngest who will be called Jacob would be the one in whom the blessings would come. You realize. Did she talk about with this with Isaac? You know, the Lord appeared to me, you know, what he explained to me? The struggling going on my womb. He says that the younger son is going to dominate the older son. You wonder, did they have that conversation? I don’t know the scripture just doesn’t go into it, don’t talk about it, we don’t know. What about the sale of the birthright. I mean, Jacob talked to his mother and say you know what Esau did, he sold me his birthright. He helps her cook and did you think he tell his mother, I don’t know. What about Isaac? I mean you do, but sit around then by talking in this family. What is going on?

When you come to Chapter 27 doesn’t get any better. Isaac said, behold I am old, I do not know the day of my death. He is talking to Esau. So go out, take your quiver, find some game, and prepare it just like I like you know how I love the game you catching. You know how to prepare like I like it? And then, I am going to after I eat this meal, it becomes some sort of a formal ceremony I am going to Bless you. And this is a formal action that will be binding, irrevocable. I am going to pass on the blessings God promised to Abraham your grandfather and where in my father passed on to me, I will pass on to you. And you are aware of the story. Esau takes off for the field, but Rebecca was listening. I loved Jacob. He should get the promises, here I am going to tell Isaac you know, God promised to Jacob and Esau sold the birthright, we don’t know what is going on here? She comes up with a scheme. That is amazing. God uses the schemes of men and women as well as the overt sin of men and women like the sin of Esau on selling the birthright to accomplish his purposes. Our God is sovereignty absolutely in control, but not to blame for sinful actions. So Rebecca has a plan. She called Jacob and said, here’s what we are going to do. Go get me couple of animals from the herd, you know, it’s a blunt hunt, just get the animals out of the herd. You take a shortcut, you bring it in here and I will prepare the game the way your dad likes it and then you come in and get the blessing. Remember I said. Esau was a hairy man from birth and I mean, really hairy because what they do in verse 16 since Esau is hairy, Jacob’s worried and say, you know what, my father is going to say, come here and he got to touch me and say oh, smooth hands, you are Jacob. So what they do is put the skins of young goats on his hands and on the back of his neck. Oh man you are hairy just like Esau, you must be Esau. The guy was pretty hairy, God. Alright, so they do it and here comes Jacob entering to meal.

Verse 18, he said to his father, my father and he said, here I am, who are you my son? Jacob said to his father, I am Esau, your first born, I have done as you told me, get up please and eat of my game, then you might bless me. Isaac said to his son, how is that you have it so quickly my son. He said, because the Lord your God caused it to happened it to me. I mean, when under pressure, lie. I mean, here you can bring the Lord into it. I guess you could say the Lord did bring it to me. But that’s pretty deceptive. He is Jacob, remember this is a plan to the deceiver.

Jacob said verse 21 Isaac said to Jacob, come close that I may feel you my son whether you really my son. He came close. Isaac said the voice is the voice of the Jacob and the hands are the hands of Esau. He didn’t recognize him. His hands were hairy like his brother’s hands. So he blessed him. He said, are you really my son Esau? He said I am. So he said, bring it to me and I will eat of my son’s games. So he brought it blessed. Isaac still got questions in his mind. So he eats dinner and then he says at verse 26 please come close and kiss me my son. So came close and kissed him and the smell is the smell of his garments. You know what is happened. Jacob dressed on his brother’s cloths basically. So he has the smell of the field. Let him watch very often in those days, you remember. Yeah, this smells like Esau and he is hairy like Esau, smells like Esau, hairy like Esau, must be Esau. So the blessing.

Verse 28 Now my God give you dew of heaven, the fatness of the earth, then the abundance of grain and new wine, may people serve you, nations bow down to you, be master of your brothers, may your mother’s sons bow down to you. Curse should be those who curse you, bless would be those who bless you. Remember the original promise of God before either were born, two peoples will be separated from your body, one people stronger than the other, the older will serve the younger. Basically Isaac gives the blessing that is a fulfillment of what promise God gave before they were born. He does it, thinking he is doing the opposite of what he is doing. He thinks he is blessing Esau. Here you cannot overrule the purpose and plans of God. And so Jacob receives the blessing. An you get an account here, you don’t get a lot of detail, but there is a certain suspense and intention.

Verse 30, now I came about as soon as Isaac get finished blessing Jacob and Jacob had hardly gone out from the presence of Isaac, his father. He saw his brother came in from hunting. You get the idea why, just made it, just concludes all of this and then Esau comes in, gets dinner ready, brings it to his father and says, get up father, eat what I have prepared for you and Isaac said, who are you? I am your son Esau, your first born. Isaac trembled violently. Then who came in here? And you know how would have binding the blessing is, he said nothing I can do to change it. There is a recognition of the sovereign hand of God in this. It’s not all, well curse should be that one who came here and lied and said he was Esau, but he wasn’t Esau. No, I mean, the blessing is binding. There is a recognition in all of this that the hand of God is at work. .He says at the end verse 33 yes, and he shall be blessed. Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly grade and bitter cry. Bless me, even me, also my father.

Leave a marker in Genesis, we have to go back to Hebrews and if you don’t get there, I will read to you. Hebrews Chapter 12 because this passage is given as a warning to the people that the writer of the Hebrews is addressing. Verse 14 of Hebrews 12 pursue peace with all men on the sanctification without which no one was see the Lord. See to it with that no one come short of the grace of God. You come short the grace of God as a danger some of these Jews were facing. Stopping, short of true faith in Christ, stopping short of saving grace. They were interested that they had come along, but there is a lot of pressures, there is a lot of persecution. They are thinking of turning back from Christ to Judaism, instead of going on to salvation. Remember the warning passage is started in Chapter 2, don’t trust by the safe harbor of salvation in Christ. See that no one come short to the grace of God, there no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble and by it many be defiled. That there be no immoral or godless person like Esau who sold his own birthright for a single meal. See how he put it. Esau sold the birthright, basically don’t be like him. He give away the opportunity for your salvation, for you know that even afterwards when he desired to an earth of blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sat up with tears. Now Esau is not seeking the blessing in the right way. He wants the blessing, but he has already sold it. Remember the warning in Hebrews Chapter 10 about those who tremble under flit the blood of Christ and treat the blood of covenant by which they were sanctified as an unholy thing, the danger you turned away from Christ. You have lost your salvation, not lost it since you had it, but you have lost any hope of salvation. Where do you go? There is no place else to go. You have despised the provision of God. You have despised the blessing of God. Here he writes the prophecy in Hebrew Christians and warns them. You better be careful, there is nobody like Esau in your midst. An immoral godless man, who has really stopped short of the saving grace of God. You are in danger putting yourself in hopelessness. Esau was overwhelmed with grief here. He wants the blessing. But there is no blessing apart from God’s pattern in God’s way, you can’t have it your own and so that’s the warning.

Back in Genesis Chapter 27 you know, Esau wants to blame Jacob. Look at verse 36, 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. What do you mean took away your birthright? You sold it and you know it was yours that you gave it away. It was yours to have, always got to blame someone else and that’s what sin does. Esau is an immoral godless man, but he is blaming others. That is the warning in Hebrews incidentally, through these kind of people cause division and conflict. That’s why we just read in Hebrews Chapter 12 they defile many, sometime I wonder what happens to the church. Immoral godless people get in like Esau and there is nothing but trouble and so it is here. Jacob to blame, he stole my birthright. What do mean you he stole. You sold it. Jacob said I will make a deal. You give me the birthright. I will give you stew. Esau said what good is the birth right? I will take the stew. But now he says Jacob supplied to me. He stole it. Really what Jacob did here was deceitful and taking the blessing, but it was really his. It is not Esau’s any longer. Esau gave it away to Jacob. When he sold his birthright, he swore to it. So Esau is planning on these two times, but really, Esau gave it away. So what Jacob did in taking the blessing was to take what was now rightfully his because Esau had sold to him. Esau wants to undo what he did it. I had the stew, I have satisfied my fleshly desire, my physical desire, now I want the blessing also. But he can’t have it. There is no undoing what he has done. Isaac gives him a blessing. But basically it reinforces what has been done. And you will serve your brother, that’s the way it is going to be and you will break his yolk, but the blessing will not come to Esau. Esau bore a grudge against Jacob. You see, there has been no change of heart here. He sought the blessing, but there has been no change of heart. You know, people always want the good things. I mean they want to their own life, they wanted to do their own way, but of course, they also want to go to heaven. Esau bore a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing which his father blessed him. Esau said to him the days of mourning for my father are near, then I will kill my brother Jacob. I mean, he is a great man. Now half solved the problem. My dad is old, can’t see anymore. He probably won’t be around long, and when he goes, I will kill Jacob. There is only two of us. And if he is gone, who is going to get the blessing, me. Rebecca hears this, gets around somebody is upset like Esau, you know these kind of people defile many. One of the things I do is they talked to other people. Esau talked to other people and Rebecca hears. Perhaps among the servants. You know what Esau said? When Isaac dies he is going to kill Jacob. Well, she has a plan. Rebecca is a women with plan. She is a strong woman. So her plan is I will get Jacob out of the house. Because she thinks Isaac may be going too. I have a picture in my mind, I don’t know how you see these things, this is a little bit over weight, may be a lot of overweight, Isaac can’t see anymore. But probably doesn’t get around much, doesn’t get much exercise and he likes to eat. So here he sit in the tent all day wandering, went to more eating, everything is going on around him. Rebecca comes up with plan A and plan B and plan C. So now she’s got to get Jacob out of the house because if Isaac does die, Esau will do what he said. So the plan is let send Jacob back to my family inherent to get a wife. So she tells Jacob, here is the plan; your brother wants to kill you when your dad dies. So I want you to go back to my relatives and stay there a while and Esau will get over his anger because after your dad dies and some time goes by, things will settle down. And they do, the trouble is Jacob will leave and Rebecca will never see him again. She says to go and spend a few days there in verse 44. But he will go and spent a number of years there and Rebecca will die and she will never see him again. All the scheming and plan, you know bring grief and heartache to everyone all around. It’s a sad family. So be encouraged, you might have troubling your family, is nothing new, and that they may not even get near the kind of trouble they have here. So all of these to tell you what is going to happen in Chapter 28. Jacob is leaving. He is going to go to visit his relatives and he will be there a long time, 20 years. And he will come back with a couple of wives, some concubines, lots of kids.

Look at Chapter 28 I can do this Chapter with you quickly because there is not a lot of detail we need to go into. Jacob’s life is in Chapter 28 to 36 and you are going to see the similar pattern, at times you are going to see Jacob being a man of great faith. What we call as spiritual giant and other times he is going to manifest himself as a man of deceit, selfishness, someone you wouldn’t want to trust. You realize, God choice these men and his grace operated in their lives, but it’s because and because they were necessarily the greatest men, the best man, they didn’t acquire these positions by their own doing. They were with a word by the grace of God, all would say later. I am what I am by the grace of God. Give us on great appreciation of living with one another, and our weaknesses not to be an excuse for our sin, but to realize also love covers a multitude of sins. They are not to surprise you that we are perfect people even in the family of God. We are not to make the error of thinking because we see imperfections and failures in others, but therefore we can look down on them, think lightly of them, God’s grace works in our lives. It’s sad that we don’t progress further and more quickly than we do, but its God’s grace that assures we will arise at the settle conclusion. We are not going to Chapter 28 in its detail, but if you want to read about Jacob’s life, you can start with Chapter 28. Read the Chapter 36, you become the dominant figure. All these Chapters devoted to him and then were not done with him. These are just the Chapters in which he is the central figure. You realize, Abraham got a lot of coverage in scripture. Isaac got a little bit, one Chapter through his wife. He spills over, but not a dominant figure, a prominent figure in the way that Abraham, is the way Jacob is, and from Jacob will come to 12 sons and they come in strange ways through basically 4 different wives. So I thought God wanted to honor marriage and you have the 12 tribes of Israel and the heads of those 12 tribes fathered by one man through four different women and in some of the stranger circumstances of continual conflict and even these sons are named because of the conflict going on in the family. How God’s given me victory over my sister, I’ll name my son accordingly, because his birth indicates I am better than her and more importantly I will teach her, she has, oh boy! thank you Lord, that I am not one of the patriarchs and you thank God for his grace, they brought the patriarchs that his promises to Israel will be fulfilled, not because of Israel’s faithfulness, because we have read, we don’t even start out with a good track record. As far as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we have seen failures in them all. So those who think Israel has been wiped out of God’s plan because of their failures, hasn’t read the beginning of the story. It starts out based on God’s grace, not man’s faithfulness, but God testifies to their faithfulness, doesn’t mean they were perfect than we experienced the same grace in our lives and the opportunity to grow.

Let’s pray together. Thank you Lord for your grace and the lives of the patriarchs. It’s easy for us to sit thousands of years later to read the record You have given to shake our heads, wonder how they could be so foolish, how they could stumble, how man so greatly blessed, interested with revelation from You. Man of faith could fail on occasions so miserably and yet Lord were reminded of your grace, their lives and in our lives. God we would not in any way use this is an excuse for sin and failures, but our hearts are encouraged. We belonged you by your sovereign choice. We walk by faith. God at times we fail miserably, but because it is your grace that it shows the ultimate victory. God, we do not to spare, we do not wallowing yesterday’s failures and Lord we persevere on because you are the God of grace who has worked powerfully in our lives. It’s assured us that the one who has begun a good work in us, will bring it to perfection. We will pray for the testimony of Your word concerning these patriarchs in Christ’s name. Amen