So we're there in Genesis 27, of course a very well known passage of scripture, a great
chapter in the Word of God, at least great in the sense that it's very well known.
And as we just read, it's basically just a story of Isaac, or Jacob rather, taking
the birthright or the blessing from Esau, his brother.
And this is something that's referenced in Hebrews chapter 12, which we'll be in later
this specific story.
But I don't want to just focus on that right away, because there's a lot of chapter here.
But basically this is just another one of those narratives where it's just kind of telling
you the sequence of events, how things played out.
You're kind of seeing some of the character of these people that we're dealing with.
And as I've mentioned many times before, and I'll do so again, is that the Bible
shows us the good and bad.
It shows us the ugly side of human nature as much as it shows us, probably more so even
really, as it does the better things about man.
And you really see a couple people, Jacob here, what he's doing, and his mother, there's
really no defending what they're doing.
This is pretty underhanded, this is pretty devious, it's pretty deceptive what they're
going about doing, and it's all just so that they can get something for themselves.
They're basically cheating Esau out of what was rightfully his.
There's really no good way to, you can't really cast this in a good light and say,
well, you know, it's understandable, this and that.
But also Esau obviously bears some of the burden, some of the blame here.
Because he is somebody who has just been so kind of flippant in the past, we read
about how he sold his birthright for a morsel of bread, and he just kind of gave
that away.
And the lesson is, if we're faithful in that which is least, or if we're faithful
in that which is least, then we'll be faithful in that which is much.
But if we are unjust in which that is least, then we will be unjust in that which is
much.
So if God can't trust us with the smaller things, God won't trust us with the bigger
things.
Obviously God's allowing this to take place, he's allowing this to come to pass.
He could have intervened, he could have made things play out differently, but I think
part of it is because of the fact, this is part of Esau's judgment too.
Obviously God had a greater plan here, God foresaw these things, and there's different
pictures of the Gentiles and the Jews here displacing the elders, being displaced by
the younger.
This is another great picture of replacement theology, you'll see that often throughout
the Old Testament, that the younger is often inheriting the blessing or displacing
the other one, or is putting authority over the elder or elder brothers.
And we'll see that again before we're through in the book of Genesis.
But let's just get into the details a little bit here, of course, just going through it
very quickly.
We have Isaac, he's very old, it says there that his eyes were dim and that he
could not see.
So he's kind of just literally feeling things out here in the story.
And he hears about, you know, and he said, behold now I am old, I know not the day
of my death.
So he's just saying, hey, I'm old, I should probably get my affairs and orders, basically
what he's saying.
You know, we should probably start to take care of things.
And his mother, Jacob, Esau's mother, they overhear this and that's when she
starts scheming.
Now the one thing I'll point out here is that, you know, sometimes people get to
a certain point in life and they just kind of think it's over.
They think, oh, I'm old now, life's pretty much done.
And yet we see Isaac live on.
He lives on for several more years.
You know, yes, he is old, yes, his eyes are dim, but even in his old age, you know, he
still has, you know, many more days, many more years ahead of him.
We should never get this attitude that, you know, we ourselves are kind of, you
know, just put a fork in us, we're done, you know, or have that idea about other
people.
You know, I've known other people in my past and in my family, you know, where we've
kind of thought, you know, this is it any day now.
And that person would go on to live for many more years.
Okay.
So, you know, that's one thing we could take out of this.
Don't ever, you know, it's not over until it's over.
Okay.
But, you know, obviously what he's doing here, Isaac is doing here in the story is
just very practical, right?
He is just thinking, hey, you know, I'm, my eyes are dim.
He's kind of coming to terms with his old age and he's saying, I know not the day
of my death.
Okay.
So he's just kind of getting his fares in order.
Well you know, he went on and lived many more years and it says in verse five, Rebecca
heard when Isaac spake to his son Esau and he told him to go to the field and to bring
him back to venison to make the savory meat.
And Esau went to the field to hunt for venison and to bring it.
And then of course, we know the story.
She speaks unto Jacob and she tells him what she heard.
She says, hey, can you go make some venison?
And she tells him, you know, go to the, you know, go to the flock rather, fetch me
two, that's two, two good kids of goats and I will make savory meat.
So they're going to swap out the venison for, for the goat.
And of course they had this big, long you know, this, this, this elaborate scheme
that they get going because obviously Jacob's nervous about the fact that he's going
to be found out in this, right?
I mean he's, he's trying to go and steal the blessing from his older brother and he's
nervous that his dad will find him out and he'll be busted, right?
But his mom, you know, is saying upon me, verse 13, be thy curse my son, only obey
my voice and go fetch me them.
She's kind of reassuring him and say, hey, don't worry, I know the old man, we got
this, right?
So she's basically trying to reassure him.
And what was his concern, right?
He says, Esau's a hairy man and I am a smooth man, right?
He's going to feel me, he's going to just feel my hands, he's going to, something's
going to give me away here, right?
All he's got to do is just touch me and he's going to know that, uh, you know, that
I'm, I'm, I'm not Esau.
Of course she takes the raiment, she puts it upon him and then she puts on the skins
of the kids of the goats upon his hands and upon the smooth of his neck, right?
So this is, this gives you an idea how hairy Esau really was.
I mean it's basically an animal pelt, right?
That's what we're talking about here.
Like it's, I don't know if they, cause it's two good kids, right?
This isn't some old, you know, mangy goat, you know, that's got thinning hair or something
like that.
You know, this is, this is a young kid of the flock that, you know, has healthy
coat.
So she's putting on the, you know, the hands and the hands are kind of meeting the
arms, that area and on the neck, you know, and that's something I can relate to.
You know, you kind of, sometimes you get the neck scarf going, you know, but uh, anyway,
so you know, it gives you an idea just when he says, Hey, he was a hairy man and
I'm a smooth man.
It kind of gives you an idea just how hairy this guy was.
This wasn't just five o'clock shadow he's dealing with here.
He's, he's a very hairy guy and it says in verse 20, Isaac said unto his son, how
is it that thou hast found it so quickly my son?
So he goes into him, you know, he dons the garment of his brother.
He puts on the goat skins.
He takes in the meat that's supposed to pass as venison and Isaac's, you know, his first
clue that something is up is how quickly it took, how quickly this all happened is
like go into the field and bring me savory meat such as I love.
Right.
And obviously he's thinking he's going to have to go find the game, shoot the game,
kill the game, bring the game back, prepare the game, and then bring it to me.
Right.
Obviously that's going to take a lot of time.
So this all happened so quickly.
He's kind of surprised.
He's like saying, how did this happen so quickly that you, you, I just told you to go
and you're already back.
And it's amazing to me, Isaac's response, you know, you kind of read over these things,
you know, Isaac tries to come up with an excuse.
You know, he's trying to, to, to give a reason as why this has happened so quickly.
And he says there at the end of verse 20, because the Lord hath, the Lord thy God
brought it to me.
Right.
He's saying, Oh, God blessed me.
And he's in the middle of deceiving his own father and robbing what is rightfully
his brothers.
And he's, you know, bringing God into the equation, he's saying, Oh God, God bless
me.
Right.
So it kind of gives you an idea of, you know, that again, that the people in the Bible
aren't, you know, these picture perfect people.
Right.
I mean, that's, to me, that's borderline blasphemous to be like, Oh, God bless me
while you're in the middle of committing sin.
I mean, think about it.
That's, that's what's taking place in the story.
He's clearly deceiving him and Isaac's getting a clue here, excuse me, yeah, Isaac.
And he says, you know, what's up, what, why, how did this happen so quickly?
Oh, God bless me.
Right.
And this is, you know, if you've ever studied anything and when it comes to lie detection
or when people are being deceptive, this is a tactic that people will actually use.
It's called an appeal to deity, right?
Like they'll say things like, and forgive me for saying it, but this is what they
say, you know, I swear to God, right?
They'll start to, they'll start to invoke God, right?
And sometimes to try and, you know, cause you would only bring up because if you're,
if you're lying, you know, you're clearly not going to swear on God or whatever.
But people do do that, right?
People will invoke deity and that's kind of what's going on here.
Oh, the Lord that God brought it to me, right?
So you know, again, it shows us that even guys like Jacob here, you know, are not
these picture perfect people, okay?
We get to see some of their ugly side.
And again, let's not be too critical, harsh of them.
Let's understand that like, if we were in the Bible, there'd probably be some things
about us that weren't so flattering as well, right?
There's some things about us that, you know, we wouldn't want to have written
down to the word of God for all eternity.
You know, let's show these guys a little bit of grace.
Nobody's perfect.
And look at verse 21, and Isaac said unto Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that I may
feel thee, my son, whether it be that my very son Esau or not.
So now he's not convinced, right?
He's like, Oh, well, you brought up God so clearly, you know, that's enough.
He's like, no, let you know, let me, you know, investigate a little further
where you don't always want to believe people just for what they say.
And Jacob went near to Isaac, his father, and he felt him and he said,
the voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau, right?
So he's like, you know, poor Isaac.
He can't just connect the dots here, right?
He can't just figure out, well, they could have put sheep skins on him or
goat skins on him, right?
And he would have busted him, but you know, he discerned, and it says
verse 23, and he discerned him not because his hands were hairy.
You know, that was, that was what's convinced him, right?
Was the fact that he had hair on him.
Okay.
As his brother Esau, so he blessed him, even though it's Jacob's voice that he's
hearing to me, every time I read the story, I'm just kind of like, like,
couldn't you figure that out?
You know, but again, he's old.
Maybe he's getting a little senile.
Maybe he's not as sharp as he used to be.
He's not as discerning, right?
And it says in verse 24, and he said, art thou my very son Esau?
So he's finally, he's just putting it on him.
He's saying, you know, tell me the truth.
Who are you?
Are you my son Esau or not, right?
And he, and he said, I am right.
So he, obviously Isaac in the story, he can't be really blamed completely.
He's trying his best.
He's blind folks.
I mean, he's, he's a blind man trying to figure out who this is and he's
thinking, well, it sounds like him, but he's got the meat and we all know
what a terrible Hunter Jacob is, right?
He's no Esau and he's got hair on his neck.
He's got hair on his arms, but, uh, you know, and I flat out asked him, I
said, Hey, who are you?
And he, are you my son Esau?
And he said, I am.
So he's like, okay, I guess we're just going to go
ahead and do this then.
Right.
So I think Isaac, you know, gave it the old college try there, but you
know, it wasn't enough.
And obviously Jacob is going to great lengths to really convince
his father that he's somebody else.
Okay.
And he said, bring me and bring it near to me.
And I will eat up my son's venison and my, that my soul may bless
thee and brought it near to him.
And he did eat and he brought him wine and he drank and his father Isaac
said unto him, come now, come near now and kiss me, my son.
And he came here.
So he's still, even at this point in the story, he's still trying to
figure out, like he's trying to make sure before he goes ahead and
does this, he's going to, he's trying to get one more, you know,
close, uh, you know, examination and he, and it says, and he came here
and he kissed him and he smelled the smell of his Raymond.
Now who's Raymond?
Is he wearing?
He's wearing Esau's Raymond, right?
Cause you know, people have sense.
So he's smelling the scent and he blessed him and said, see, the
smell of my son is the smell of a field, which Lord hath blessed.
So this is Esau.
He's he's like, all right, this must be Esau.
Therefore, God gave you the, do the heaven and the fatness of the
earth and plenty of corn and wine.
Let people serve thee and nations bow down to thee, be Lord over thy
brethren and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee, cursed be
everyone that cursed thee and blessed everyone that blesseth thee.
Okay.
So now you could see why again, I, or Esau is so upset when he loses
the blessing, right?
Cause previously he gave away his birthright, like his inheritance,
his portion of the inheritance that would have come to him after
his father's death, he sold for some, you know, some red
pottage, right?
Cause he was hungry, which is not the right thing to do.
Okay.
But you can see that really the blessing here is the greater
inheritance, right?
Nations bowing down, your mother's son's bowing down.
He's not just going to inherit some, some wealth, some
goods, other people are going to serve him.
You know, he's going to have great power, right?
So again, as I said earlier, you know, if we're, if we're
faithful in that, which is least, then we'll be faithful
also in that, which is much, right?
If we're unjust in that, which is least, we'll be unjust in
that, which is much.
Okay.
Esau is somebody who was very flippant with that, which was
lesser, right?
Because, you know, obviously the inheritance is substantial, but
it's not, in my opinion, at least when I'm reading here, it
doesn't seem as like, you know, it's as, as important as
the blessing.
The blessing is really where it's at.
Like if you get the blessing, you get this anointing, that's
really what you want, right?
But he wasn't faithful in that, which was least, he was
unfaithful.
So this is, I believe, part of his judgment.
And that's a lesson to us.
You know, if we want to, to do more, to be responsible for more,
to, to take on more, you know, to do greater things, then we
have to be responsible with lesser things.
Okay.
If, you know, if we're not going to do things, the small
things, right, why is God going to trust us with the big
things?
If we're not going to, you know, be careful and particular
and try to, you know, do our best at whatever it is we
have to do for God, even if it's a small thing, you know,
then God's not going to trust us with the big things.
I mean, it just makes sense.
It's just logical.
No, no, no.
I'll be more faithful when I have more responsibility.
No, you won't, right?
It's like the guy that says, I'll work harder when they
pay me more.
That's, that's not how that works.
And, and no, you wouldn't, right?
If you'll be diligent and work hard when you're making
less, you know, that's what gets you the raise to begin
with, because then they know, well, this is somebody
that's already proven themselves.
It's, you know, it's the same way in ministries.
It's the same way with God.
If we want to take on more and do more, we have to
prove ourselves and that which is least.
Okay.
So again, I know it's kind of hard to see that in the
story, you know, particularly in this chapter, but if you
remember the story of Esau kind of as a whole, you know,
he's very flippant with the inheritance and as a result,
he loses the blessing, you know, that because the
inheritance, at least as I'm seeing it, is the lesser
of the two.
Okay.
So hopefully that makes sense.
So he blesses him, you know, verses 28, 29.
And it came to pass as soon as Isaac had made an end
of blessing and Jacob was yet scarce gone out from the
presence of Isaac, his father, that Esau, his brother
came in from his hunting.
Right?
So he just misses him.
How awkward would that have been?
Right?
You try to figure that one out, right?
No, I'm Esau.
No, he's Esau, right?
That probably would have been it for Jacob, but it was
again, it was already too late.
Verse 31.
He also made savory meat and brought it to his father
and said unto his father, let my father rise and eat
of his son's venison that my soul may bless him.
And Isaac, his father, said to him, who art thou?
And he said, I am thy son, thy firstborn of Esau.
You know, poor, poor Isaac, you know, it's dawning
on him now, what's just happened.
And Isaac says, verse 33, trembled very exceedingly.
So he's realizing he just made a huge mistake, right?
And look again, if you go back and read the story
carefully, you can't really fault him, right?
Cause again, he's blind, you know, he's literally a
blind man is he's cannot see.
Okay.
And his eye or there at the very least it says, you
know, his eyes were dim that he could not see how
blind exactly he was.
I don't know, but it was enough to where the
only way you could discern who he was talking to
was either through the sound of the voice or how
hairy they were, you know, by feeling them and
smelling them, right?
He could not rely on his sight.
And obviously Jacob went to great lengths to deceive
him and he had the help of his mother.
His mother knew just what to do, right?
The way to a man's heart is through his stomach.
She knew that, right?
She's like, you give him this meat, you know, he'll,
he'll just, he'll lose all control of his senses.
Right.
And Amen to that.
Right.
But anyway, he's exceedingly, he's, he's exceedingly,
nervous here.
He's trembling.
And he said, who, where is he that hath taken
venison and brought it me?
And I have eaten of all that before thou came,
before thou camest and have blessed him.
Yea, and he shall be blessed.
He's saying, there's really not anything I can do
about it.
He's going to be blessed.
And when Esau heard the words of his father, he
cried with a great and exceeding.
Now notice these words, bitter, cry, bitter, cry.
You know, this is bitter.
This is bitter.
You know, this is bitter tears.
Okay.
This gets tied in with Hebrews chapter 12.
If you want to turn there, go ahead.
We're going to actually do turn there.
Okay, you're going to be a little ahead of me.
Where Adia talks about, again, and I know,
and hopefully, I know I kind of covered this last
week and a little bit on Sunday morning,
but hopefully I didn't steal my thunder too much.
But you know, this is the text that I was
referring to here.
And, and, and again, Hebrews 12 talks about
bitterness and it brings up this story.
It brings up Esau.
Okay.
And so again, notice the words there in Genesis.
He says that he cried an exceeding great cry
and, and bitter cry.
This was, you know, very bitter.
And he said, bless me even also, O my father.
And he said, thy brother came with subtlety
and hath taken away thy blessing.
And again, this is a, you know, this is a lesson
that you'll see often over and over is that,
you know, there's some, and I know I've said this before,
and I'll say it again just because it's here.
There's some things in life that once they're done,
they're done.
There's no going back.
There's some mistakes that are made.
There's some sins that are committed.
There's some things that happen.
There's situations that occur, you know, whatever,
that's it.
There's no do-overs.
You don't hit the reset button.
You don't, you know, life isn't a video game
where you just respawn, right?
Where you get, oh, let me get another chance at this.
It's like you raise your kids wrong.
They turn out bad.
That's it.
You get one chance at the other.
That's it.
You get one chance with your kids.
You ruin your marriage.
You spoil your marriage.
That's it.
It's over.
And I know today, like, you know, people think,
oh, no, I can have a second, third, and fourth,
fifth marriage, and that's true, but, you know,
in God's, you know, God's eyes,
you get one chance at that, okay?
There's just some things in life
that we only get one chance at.
So don't blow it, okay?
Don't make that mistake.
Take it seriously.
Esau had one chance at the blessing,
but, you know, he was unfaithful in that,
which is the least, and it was, you know,
I believe that's part of the reason
why God let this happen.
He said, thy brother came,
and suddenly he has taken away thy blessing,
and before I get to Hebrews with you,
I want to point out these words.
If you still have something there in Genesis,
you might want to go back and look in Genesis 27.
And he said, because this is very subtle, right?
The way, if you really pay attention
to the things people say in the Bible, right?
Because, again, I'll bring this up again,
is that you have to remember
there's what people are saying,
and there's what the narrator of Scripture is saying.
There's the story, and then there's the statement, right?
Sometimes the Bible just tells us what people said
because that's what they said.
It doesn't mean it's right
just because it's in the Bible, right?
Satan speaks in the Bible.
Should we do everything he said? Okay?
So when characters are speaking, you know,
we should pay attention to what the Bible's recording
and keep in mind that, you know,
they're seeing things from their perspective,
not necessarily from God's.
You know, we have the benefit of hindsight
and knowing the whole story, right?
And we can look at statements like the one Esau's about to make
and discern some things about it, okay?
Because he says in verse 36,
and he said,
Is he not rightly named Jacob,
for he has supplanted me these two times?
Now, is that true?
He has supplanted him twice now, hasn't he?
Because let's face it, you know, he did.
You know, this was just outright thievery, right?
He just went in there and deceived his father
and through deception took what was Esau's.
And there's no going back.
The blessing is his. He got it.
Right? There's no take backs.
Now, when it comes to the inheritance,
could you say he supplanted him?
You could say, in a sense, because
he was taking advantage of the fact that Esau is carnal.
Right?
He's just thinking about the here and now.
As it says in Hebrews 12, he was as that fornicator, Esau.
Right?
Just somebody who's very fleshly and living in the moment.
So you could say, in a sense, he did.
But notice how Esau puts it.
He says,
He took away my birthright.
Is that really how that went down?
And Esau makes a distinction between the birthright and the blessing.
He says,
He took away my birthright and behold, now he's taken away my blessing.
So we're talking about two different things.
The birthright, the inheritance, and the blessing.
The birthright is what he sold for the pottage.
So how can he sit there and say,
Well, he took it away from me.
It's like, no, no, no.
You gave that away, buddy.
You handed that over.
He made a deal with you.
And you despised it, the Bible says,
in Hebrews.
You despised your birthright.
You sold it for beans, literally, lentils.
You just handed it over for basically chili.
Now look, I like chili as much as the next guy.
Most chilis.
But I don't know if I'm going to hand over my inheritance for it.
But he's thinking,
I'm at the point to die.
He's over-exaggerating.
And this is how carnal people think.
They can't see beyond the here and now.
They can't see tomorrow.
You're not going to die, Esau.
You know how many days you have to go without food
before you perish of hunger?
And he's just, in the moment,
just selling his birthright
for morsel of bread.
I mean, for nothing.
And yet, when he's reflecting on this,
when he's in this bitterness,
is he taking any responsibility for his own actions?
No.
And this is something that bitterness brings up
in people.
This is one of the dangers of being a bitter person,
is that everybody else is to blame.
It's never us.
Okay?
You know, that's what's going on.
Because again, he's crying with bitter tears.
You say, well, you know, that's kind of a stretch.
When we get into Hebrews 12, you'll see it,
the correlation there, right?
There's a correlation between bitterness and what Esau did.
It's an example of it.
But I wanted to point that out.
One, the bitterness of the tears
and then the blaming, right?
Saying, well, he took away my birthright.
No, he didn't.
That's just what you said.
That's how you're seeing things now.
Let's go, in fact, let's go over there.
If you're already there, Hebrews chapter 12,
we're going to look, beginning in verse 14.
It says,
Follow peace with all men and holiness,
without which no man shall see the Lord,
looking diligently lest any man fall of the grace of God,
lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you,
and thereby many be defiled,
lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau,
who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
Now, you could say that these are,
the Bible's addressing two different things here.
You know, bitterness and, you know,
Esau being a fornicator.
But this is all one statement.
It's all one sentence.
Beginning in verse 14.
Verses 14 through 16 are all the same statement.
And he's saying, look, we don't want to be somebody,
we want to look diligently, lest we be somebody,
like in Esau, who fails of the grace of God.
And you have to pay attention to the wording here.
Look at verse 17.
He says,
For ye know that afterward,
when he would have inherited the blessing,
he was rejected.
Afterward what?
After he sold his birthright.
Because again, these are two different things.
You have the birthright,
you have the birthright,
and you have the blessing.
So the grace of God, right,
is that Esau still could have had that.
Right?
He still could have had the blessing.
Right?
But he was tricked out of it.
It was still his.
It wasn't like Jacob got everything
with that one morsel of bread or, you know,
that morsel of meat.
Right?
He could have had that.
And that's what the Bible's warning us about.
To not be like Esau,
be somebody who's bitter,
and misses out what God still has for us.
Okay?
Even if we've made mistakes.
Hopefully this is making sense.
Okay, maybe I need to slow down
and explain this a little bit more.
Okay?
He's saying,
Look diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God.
Now what's grace?
Getting something you don't deserve.
Right?
That's the grace of God.
When God gives us things that aren't,
we don't deserve.
Okay?
Lest any root of bitterness spring up trouble you,
and thereby many be defiled.
Lest there be any forecater or profane person
as Esau, who for one morsel of meat
sold his birthright.
That's what he did.
For you know how that afterward,
after he sold his birthright,
he would have inherited the blessing.
Right?
He was rejected.
Right?
Because he was deceived out of it.
Like, Isaac had to say,
Nope, your brother already got it.
Okay?
For he found no place of repentance,
though he sought it carefully with tears.
At some point,
it doesn't matter how much weeping you're doing,
it doesn't matter how much crying you're doing,
what's gone is gone.
So, what I'm trying to make,
the point I'm trying to make here is,
don't be somebody who, you know,
has something go wrong,
maybe even, you know,
you make a mistake,
you do some things wrong in your life.
Don't get bitter about it.
Okay?
Because one, you're just going to start
blaming other people
for your problems.
And two, you're going to miss out
on everything else that God has for you.
You'll be rejected from that.
It's going to rob you.
Okay?
The root of bitterness will grow up
like a weed and choke out
every good thing in your life.
Okay?
Because again,
the grace of God was that
he would have inherited.
Okay?
It was still there,
but he was rejected.
And he found no place of repentance,
though he sought it carefully with tears.
Right?
And we go on in the story,
in Genesis,
he keeps crying,
he keeps lamenting,
he has to keep asking his father repeatedly,
don't you have a blessing,
he really wants it.
And he gets a blessing,
but not the one that he could have had.
Okay?
Again, because he was not faithful.
And I think what the Bible
is trying to show us here
is that,
you know, we don't,
again, we don't want to be bitter people
because it's going to rob us,
but if we continue to read on here
is that it's talking about how,
you know, we are accountable.
Okay?
People are accountable
for their own actions.
And you can't be like in Esau
and just say,
well, he did it.
It's like you started it.
Right?
Well, he took my birthright.
Esau planted me twice.
No, that first one was on you.
Because you gave it away.
Right?
And you could have had it,
the blessing,
but, you know,
you got judged
and, you know,
you missed out.
Okay?
He goes on and says in verse 18,
for you're not come under the mount
that might be touched,
that burn with fire
and a blackness
and darkness and tempest
to the sound of the trumpet
with voice of words,
which voice they heard
and treated that the word
should not be spoken unto them.
He's saying,
you're not coming on
to that mount Sinai
like Moses did
when the fire came down
inside the children of Israel
with thunderings
and quakings
and lightnings.
And it says in verse 21,
and so terrible was the sight
that Moses said,
I exceedingly fear
and quake,
but you are come unto mount Sion
unto the city of the living God,
the heavenly Jerusalem,
and unto an innumerable
company of angels.
We're actually more accountable
in the New Testament,
is what he's saying here, right?
We're more accountable.
We have a greater grace of God.
But, you know,
if we're like an Esau,
if we're like some carnal person,
if we're just somebody who gets bitter,
gets carnal,
you know,
we're going to fail
of the grace of God.
We're going to fail
on what God still has for us.
Okay?
And we're more accountable.
We're come to the general assembly
of the church,
Jesus the mediator
of the new covenant,
verse 24.
See, verse 25,
He refused not him that speaketh,
for if they escape not
who refused that spake on earth,
how much more shall we not speak
if we turn away from him
that speaketh from heaven?
Okay?
You know,
and again,
the theme is,
is that
if we're faithful in that
which is least,
we'll be faithful in that
which is much.
And God,
you know,
wants to commit unto us
the true riches,
but if we haven't been faithful
even in the things
the mammon of this world,
how can God trust us?
Okay?
We don't want to be like an Esau
who just,
you know,
accounts the smaller things
in our lives as unimportant.
Details matter,
the little things count.
We don't want to just
take those things for granted.
Let's go back to our story
and see if we can get
a little more out of this.
And again,
it says he sought it carefully
with tears.
Right?
But the fact is,
is that once it's gone,
it's gone.
Once it's over,
it's over.
And all that's left
is his bitterness.
That's all he's left with.
He had taken away
my blessing,
and he said,
Hast thou not reserved
a blessing for me?
And Isaac answered
and said unto Esau,
Behold, I have made him
thy lord.
And all his brethren
have I given to him
for servants.
And with corn and wine
have I sustained him.
And what shall I do now
unto thee, my son?
He's saying,
I mean,
I don't want the scraps.
I gave him the best thing
there is,
because I thought he was you.
And Esau said to his father,
and again,
put yourself in the scene.
Esau's just beside himself.
I mean,
he's weeping.
He's crying.
He's crying out.
He's lifting up his voice.
I mean,
he's distraught in the story.
Hast thou but one blessing,
my father?
Bless me, even me.
Also, O my father.
And Esau lifted up his voice
and wept.
And Isaac answered
and said unto him,
Behold, thy dwelling shall be
the fatness of the earth
and the dew of the heaven above.
And by thy sword
shalt thou live
and shalt serve thy brother.
Wait a minute.
How is this a blessing?
Oh, and by the way,
you're going to serve your brother.
And it shall come to pass
and thou shalt have dominion
that thou shalt break
his yoke from off thy neck.
Now,
there's some great study
that's been done
about how this was actually
fulfilled in the New Testament.
This is prophetic.
You know,
it's been so long
since I even looked at it,
I can't even recall
all the details,
so I should probably
not even go into it.
But this is something
that some people have
alluded to being fulfilled
in the New Testament
by Herod,
King Herod,
who was of this,
of Esau's lineage.
And, you know,
maybe I'll have to come back
and kind of cover that,
but I don't know.
I haven't really fact-checked
all of that myself,
so that's not really something
I want to throw out there.
Because this doesn't happen,
you have to say,
well, did this happen
in Esau's lifetime?
It didn't.
Right?
Because it says,
By thy sword shalt thou live
and shalt serve thy brother
and it shall come to pass
when thou shalt have
the dominion
that thou shalt break
his yoke from off thy neck.
Right?
Because you have to remember
that Herod eventually had
dominion over the Jews.
Right?
So that's kind of what
that's prophetic of that.
That's what some people have said.
Because, again,
it's prophetic of something,
but we don't see it play out
in the lives of Jacob and Esau.
They actually end up getting along.
Esau actually proves himself
to be a pretty good guy
in the story,
who respects, you know,
the blessings of his father
and what his father has decreed.
And it's just not here now,
because, you know,
verse 41, you're saying,
are you sure?
Because it says in verse 41,
Esau hated Jacob
because of the blessing
when his father blessed him.
Now,
to say he hated him,
that's a pretty strong language.
Right?
I mean, to say that
you hate someone,
that's very strong.
Right?
Hate isn't just like
I have a dislike of somebody,
you know, I'm annoyed by someone,
I don't have a preference for them.
This is called hatred.
Right?
Hatred is not just,
you know, a light thing.
Okay?
And that's, you know,
why when we say that God hates,
you know, that's pretty serious.
And God does hate people.
Right?
In fact, later it says,
Esau have I hated,
and Jacob I loved.
Right?
Referring to the nations.
Okay?
God hates in the Bible,
and, you know,
but here Esau in his emotion,
you know, in the heat of the moment,
he truly has a burning hatred
for his father,
for his brother
over what's just happened.
Now, this is the kind of thing
that it would take
to make somebody hate somebody.
Right?
I mean, it takes a lot
to make somebody hate you,
I would think.
I mean, to say you think
somebody hates you,
it's like, well,
what has that person done
to make me hate you?
Or make them hate you?
Right?
It would take a lot,
I would think.
I mean, we can be angry with people,
we can be upset with people,
whatever,
but to say we hate someone,
I mean,
that's really strong language.
We shouldn't take that lightly.
And Esau hated because
of the blessing wherewith
his father blessed him.
And Esau said in his heart,
the days of mourning
for my father at hand,
then will I slay my brother Jacob.
So, you know,
this is, you know,
indicative of how strong
an emotion that hatred is.
It's the kind of thing
that would lead you
to actually kill someone.
Right?
And obviously,
Esau here is in his passion.
Right?
Just emotionally distraught.
He's going through it here.
He cools off, obviously.
In the seven years that,
or so that, you know,
Jacob's gone,
he manages to cool down,
and when he sees them
the next time,
spoiler alert,
if you've never read
the book of Genesis.
Right?
It's a pleasant meeting.
Okay?
And he bled,
and he's, you know,
he's forgiven.
And then verse 42,
so, you know,
in these words of Esau,
his elder son
were told to Rebekah.
She's like,
hey, your son's
going to kill the other one.
You might want to do
something about this.
Right?
And she sent,
and called Jacob,
her younger son,
and said,
And behold,
thy brother Esau,
as touchening,
doth comfort himself,
proposing to kill thee.
Now, therefore,
my son,
obey my voice,
arise,
and flee thou to
laben my brother
to Haran,
and tarry with him
a few days
until thy brother's fury
turn away.
But, you know,
she doesn't know
he's going to go there,
fall in love,
get taken advantage of
by his uncle,
her brother,
and that whole story
is about to play out.
She's just thinking,
oh, he's just going
to be gone in a few days
until thy brother's anger
be turned away from thee.
And he forgave
what thou hast done to him.
So, you know,
you're kind of getting
a little bit more of
what Esau's like.
Right?
Because if there's anyone
that knows their kids,
it's mom.
Right?
She's like,
just give him a few days,
he's going to forget
which again shows you
what kind of a person
Esau is.
He's just in the moment,
in the here and now,
only thinking about today,
not thinking about tomorrow,
kind of careless and carnal.
And she said,
I will send to fetch thee,
why should I be deprived
of you both in one day?
And Rebekah said to Isaac,
I am weary of the life
of my daughters
because of het,
because of,
excuse me,
I'm weary of my life
because of the daughters of Heth.
So in verse 46,
I try to,
you know,
I've always wondered about this,
and I think part of it is,
is because maybe Isaac
doesn't know everything
that was just said, right?
Because you know,
he gets the blessing in verse 40,
and then verse 41,
it says,
and Esau hated his brother Jacob.
So it's,
it's almost kind of giving us,
like,
there's some passage of time,
you know,
maybe hours,
days or something,
but I don't believe that,
you know,
Esau's uttering these words
in the presence of,
of Isaac,
his father.
This might not be saying,
that's just being overheard.
Maybe he's speaking out loud,
telling somebody else.
I have,
I have a hard time,
him seeing him say this
right to his father's face.
Right?
Okay,
you're going to give him the blessing.
Well,
I'm going to kill him,
dad,
right?
And that being overheard.
So that's why I think in verse 46,
when Rebecca says this to Isaac,
that she's kind of given an excuse
and trying to kind of keep Isaac
from knowing what's taking place.
She might kind of feel bad about
everything that just took place,
right?
Not the reaction
maybe she expected.
Okay?
You see that there?
Where she's saying,
I'm weary of my life
because of the daughters of Heth
because that's who Esau's marrying.
If Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth,
such as thee,
which are of the daughters of land,
what good shall my life do to me?
She's saying,
so, you know,
I sent him away to Laban
to go marry over there.
Right?
That's why he's gone.
It has nothing to do
with the fact that Jacob,
you know,
is hated of his brother
and Esau's threatened to kill him.
Nothing to do with that.
Right?
Obviously,
maybe that came out later.
He learned about it,
whatever,
but I think in the moment
as I read it,
I think she's trying to shield Isaac
from that truth
because she's partly to blame.
In fact,
she's in a large part
to blame on this.
Right?
Which again,
you know,
is a lesson to us
that when we start scheming
and devising
and doing things
and we think
everything's going to turn out
a certain way,
you know,
there are unforeseen outcomes.
Right?
You don't know
how everything's going to play out.
Be careful.
You know,
like,
we think,
oh,
I'm going to do this
and that
and then I'm going to
trick this person,
you know,
whatever.
We're going to manipulate
this guy,
manipulate that person,
and it's all going
to turn out,
it's like,
it could blow up
in your face.
And it often does.
You know,
and obviously,
again,
God,
there's a greater purpose
here in the story,
but you know,
these are just some
of the human elements
that we're going to
talk about.
So,
you know,
we're going to
talk a little bit
about how
we're going
to deal with this
and how
we're going
to deal with
this and
how we're going
to deal with
this and
how we're going
to deal with
this and
how we're going
to deal with
this and
how we're going
to deal with
this and
how we're going
to deal with
this and
how we're
going to deal
with this and
how we're
going to
deal with this.
But again,
it shows you too,
the days,
He said in
verse 41,
the days in
the morning of
a beforehand dad
is going to
die!
And he's
alive years
later,
which goes back
to what I said
at the beginning.
People think
someone on
their death
door,
they're not.
They might
have many
more years
over for me. And don't let people assume that about you either. Because it's not true sometimes.
God can give us long life. But it's an interesting story, there's a lot there, and again, it's
just one of those great narratives. And if we just read over it in our Bible reading
and not think about these things, what I'm always challenging people to do is to put
yourself in the story and try to think a little more analytically. What do you
know about these people? What's their background? What's the Bible story? What is the
New Testament say about the story? Does it reference it? Yes, it does. And we start to compare
scripture with scripture and a lot of great things will jump out, a lot of important things.
About not taking things for granted, owning up to our own mistakes, not being conniving,
mischievous people, and giving people, not assuming things are over when they're
not. But I think the greater lesson here is that we don't want to be like Esau. Because
we can easily be like Esau. That's why there's such a strong warning in Hebrews
chapter 12. Let there be any fornicator like Esau. And he says that we need to be
diligent and we need to take heed, lest there be any root of bitterness, lest there
be any fornicator such as Esau. We don't want to be carnal in our Christianity. Nothing
good is going to come out of it. It's just going to breed bitterness, resentment,
anger and maybe even hatred. And hatred is a very strong word to throw around. So
again, don't be carnal. And even if we have made mistakes, Esau made mistakes. But
he would have inherited a blessing. We don't want to fail the grace of God in our life.
If we've messed up, if we've made mistakes in the past, it's not over. God
still has the blessings for us. God has plan B, C, D, E, F and G, all in the wings.
If we're still here, sucking air, God's still got use for us. And that should be
a huge encouragement. Too many people either reach a certain point in their life or they've
made certain mistakes and they think, that's it. God's done with me. I got divorced.
I can never be a preacher. Well, there's a lot more to the ministry than getting
up and preaching on the pulpit three times a week. God can still use you and God still
does use people to go out there in the highways and byways and get people saved. I'm just
bringing this up because this is the kind of things that people think. They have this
all or nothing attitude and that's carnal. You don't want to have this all or nothing
because usually when people think it's all or nothing, it's almost always nothing.
If we have an all or nothing attitude, that's usually just our way to just do nothing. That's
our excuse. Well, if I can't have all of it, then I can't have any of it. You
know, Esau sold his birthright and afterward would have inherited the blessing. There
was still the grace of God for him. But in his carnality, God had him judged, gave
it away, was robbed, and so on and so forth. We don't want to be like that. We want
to be people that walk with God that's genuine and sincere and we want to
mortify the deeds of our flesh and we want to, you know, have a life that's
blessed of God. So go ahead and close the word of prayer.