Genesis 27

Tonight, we're going to get into the Word in Genesis chapter 27, so go ahead and open your Bibles there. Genesis, chapter 27. If you think you came from a dysfunctional family, you may end up feeling better after tonight's study, after you see how this family was dysfunctional, so. Father, take this time to really minister to our hearts. We set aside this time to study the Word, to open ourselves, Lord, to the ministry of your Holy Spirit and to allow you to speak into our hearts words of grace and truth. And that's, Lord, that's our prayer, that's our desire to be receivers tonight to be students of the Word, to study, to show ourselves approved and to be able to grow in grace and knowledge. And so we ask you to do a work in us, Lord, in Jesus name, amen. Amen. As we get into Genesis chapter 27, it's important for us to get just a little bit of background information to set the stage for what we're going to be looking at here tonight. So I'm going to put a couple of passages on the screen for you. The first one from, well, actually, they're both from chapter 25, just a couple of chapters ago. But I want you to remember something here, that, Genesis 25:21-23 (ESV) …Isaac prayed to the LORD for his wife, because she was barren. And the LORD granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived. The children struggled together within her, and she said, “If it is thus, why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the LORD. And the LORD said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.” …Isaac prayed to the LORD for his wife, because she was barren. And the LORD granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived. (and then it says that) The children (even before they were born) struggled together within her, and she said, “If it is thus, why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the LORD. And the LORD said to her, (and I want you to pay attention to this) “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.” So from the very beginning, even before the children were born, Isaac and Rebekah were told that God was going to flip flop the cultural dynamic of the firstborn in their family. And it was going to be flipped in such a way that the second born child was actually going to have preeminence over the first. So they were told, you with me? They were told and then the other piece of information that's important for us to keep in mind is from the same chapter down in verse 28, where it says, Genesis 25:28 (ESV) Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob. Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, (wow!) but Rebekah loved Jacob. And what we're told there, and we talked about this last time, is that there is this danger that is in families from time to time where one child is favored over another by one parent or another. And it, we mentioned at the time we went through this, that can be a very dangerous thing in a family unit and it is going on in this family. And it's important to keep that in mind as we get into chapter 27, which begins by telling us that, “When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, (so he's obviously of such an age where he's no longer able to see anything, it says that) he called Esau his older son (who we were told and reminded of just a moment ago, he favored above Jacob) and (he) said to him, “My son”; and he answered, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “Behold, I am old; I do not know the day of my death.” (ESV) And that's a way of saying, I could very well go soon, I have no idea. “3 Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me, (and then he tells him why) 4 and prepare for me delicious food, such as I love, and bring it to me so that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die.” Stop there please, for a moment. You can kind of see what we're leading up to here, can't you? It seems pretty apparent that Isaac has every intention of blessing Esau according to the cultural tradition of the firstborn. Contrary to what the Lord had revealed related to the destiny of the two boys, that where God had said the older will serve the younger.

So they knew this and you can see that he is set on going against that, frankly. And this chapter, as much as it involves all of the family members: Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, and Esau, this chapter is largely about Isaac, I think. Personally after studying it through and his preference, what he seemed to prefer. He is the patriarch here, he's the head of the home, he's the leader of the family, he's the direct recipient of the covenant blessings of God after his father, Abraham. And he has heard from the Lord as to who is going to carry on that covenant promise, he knows from God it was to be Jacob and yet, what does he say to Esau? Go out, grab some game, fix it just the way I like it, and bring it in here so I can eat it, and then give you my blessing. He's is determined, he is determined to bless the son that he favors, okay. Now, that tells you right there one of the dangers that goes along with favoring one of your children over another. It can actually lead, as it does in this case, to disobedience, where I put my wishes, my desires, over and above the Lord's. So there you go. He has this son that he likes better, why? Because he's kind of an outdoorsy, manly type of guy that likes to hunt and fish, and he probably, wears khaki stuff and he carries around a bow and he smells like the outdoors and Isaac loves that. But as we've already seen, Esau was not the one God had chosen. And we remember why, we went through those chapters as well. Esau thought so little of his birthright that he was willing to trade it for a bowl of stew when he got hungry one day. He thought so little of this blessing that goes along with the birthright. We also know that he freely married pagan women. And for all of these reasons, Isaac should have recognized, known, and followed the Lord's direction. And so Isaac is seen in this chapter in a less than honorable light as a man who favored his own ideas of manhood over what was really important in God's eyes. As a side point, Martin Luther, not Martin Luther King, Martin Luther from the 1500s, calculated Isaac's age at the end of his life. And according to his calculations, Isaac has another 40 plus years to live. So even though he says to his son, I don't know, I might be dying here anytime soon, go hunt me some game and we'll get this thing done. He's got another approximately 42, 43 years yet to live. That's just an interesting side point which we’ll explain why that is actually significant in just a bit. But it goes on in verse 5 to say that, “Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it, 6 Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “I heard your father speak to your brother Esau, 7 ‘Bring me game and prepare for me delicious food, that I may eat it and bless you before the Lord before I die.’ 8 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice as I command you. 9 Go to the flock and bring me two good young goats, so that I may prepare from them delicious food for your father, such as he loves. 10 And you shall bring it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.”” Now we'll stop here. Let's take a look at Rebekah for just a moment in this little dysfunctional clan that we have going on. Rebekah is culpable of wrongdoing just as much in this situation. She could have gone to her husband and spoken to him in a respectful manner and said, Isaac, I seem to remember a prophecy we had about, oh, 37 years ago, give or take, about these boys and about which one will carry on the covenant promise that was given to your father, Abraham. I seem to remember that, and I think you do too, let's talk about what's going on here. And a woman can talk to her husband in a respectful way when she knows and realizes he's doing wrong but she doesn't do that. Obviously, she could have just committed the situation to prayer which is another great option for a woman in a situation like that, recognizing as she does that her husband is in the wrong. But instead she creates a scheme and she brings Jacob into it. Remembering what she was told about God's plan when she was pregnant with the boys, she decides she's the one that has to make it happen, right? God's the one who said this is the way it's going to be. She could have just said, well, I don't know what he's up to, right? She could have said that to the Lord. She could have prayed, I don't know what my husband's up to, he's getting a little old and who knows what's really going on in his heart. But I know the way you said, Lord, you said that the older will serve the younger and I know that means Jacob is the one who will receive the blessing. So, I'm just going to trust that you have this thing dialed in and you're going to work this thing out, despite what my husband is doing and she could have left it there, right? But she didn't, she didn’t, and why didn't she? Well, again, we were told back in chapter 25, she favored Jacob. And so in the end, you know, her actions are no less wrong and ultimately deceptive and dishonorable than were Isaac's. And by the way, it appears almost, and I forgot to mention this, that Isaac is almost trying to do this in secret. He calls his son in and says, hey, go out in the field, get some game, bring it in, oh, we'll eat and drink and then I'll give you my blessing. He doesn't seem to be telling anybody else about this, he just tells Esau. Just so happened that Rebekah overheard that conversation. So, he's doing this, what appears to be on the sly, she comes up with a scheme on the sly to get her way, and you can see what's happening. Verse 11, “But Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, (in fact, he's been hairy since birth, that's why they named him that, and he says) and I am a smooth man.” Isn't that interesting? Two brothers, twins and they look so different. He says, “12 Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing.” 13 His mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, bring them to me (meaning the goats).” Alright again, stop there for a moment. We need to look at what's happening here in this conversation because I need you to notice that what Jacob voiced as his only real concern isn't the fact that what his mother is suggesting is wrong. He's not concerned about whether this is right or wrong, what he's concerned about is getting caught and then being on the bad end of his father's wrath and getting a curse rather than a blessing, that's his concern. Do you see what's going on? He doesn't want to incur his father's anger and you can certainly understand why, but that's his concern. In other words, what he's kind of saying to his mom without saying it is, well, okay, but only if we can pull this off, because I don't want to be on the receiving end if we can't, but if we can, I'm in, you see? You see what's going on here? So, isn't this quite the dysfunctional family we've got going on here? The Isaac and Rebekah family. Isaac is going against God's revealed plan, favoring the son that he likes best. Esau is ignoring the fact that he traded his birthright, he's completely forgotten that whole situation to his brother. Rebekah is willing to deceive her husband and involve Jacob in the deception and Jacob has no concern for what's right or wrong, but only with being successful. So there you go. But you know what I think is probably worse than all those things? Is the way they're treating the blessing of the Lord, the way they're viewing the blessing of the Lord. Isaac is, I mean, they're all viewing it as something that's kind of theirs to manipulate. Isaac is viewing this thing as if it's something he has the right to give at his discretion. Esau is viewing it as it belongs to me. When his father comes to him and says, hey, go get this game so I can bless you. He doesn't say, well, dad, here's the deal, I actually kind of told my brother he could have it and I'm not sure I'm worthy of it. None of that going on, he's just right there, he's ready to go along with this whole thing.

Rebekah is viewing the blessing of the Lord as something she has to work out in her own strength or in her own scheming. Here's the Lord's will, now I've got to make it happen, right? We've seen this before in some other characters in the Bible, not very long, about one generation ago. And Jacob is viewing the blessing of the Lord as something that he can be successful getting by deception. So all four of them have seemed to forget that this is a blessing from God. God is the one who blesses, He is the one who is ultimately responsible for the covenant promises that were made to Abraham. This is not theirs to give away, this is God's to give, and He will give it to whom He chooses. This is the problem here, where we begin to see this whole thing as belonging to me somehow. I begin to take possession of it as if it's mine. You can think about that even as it relates to whatever gifts the Lord has given you, they're not yours, they're not yours, they're His. I don't know what God, blessings and gifts God has given you, but they belong to Him and one day He's going to show up and ask you to give an account for what you've done with them, and you're going to need to give an answer. And you don't want to say things like, I dug a hole and put them in there and here it is. This is something the Lord gave, it's something the Lord wants me to use, but it belongs to Him and I need to respect it as such. So, verse 14, “So he went and took them (that’s the goats) and brought them to his mother, and his mother prepared delicious food, such as his father loved. 15 Then Rebekah took the best garments of Esau her older son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son. 16 And the skins of the young goats (look at this) she put on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. 17 And she put the delicious food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.” So you can see this whole deception is coming together here. She's going to make Jacob smell like Esau she's going to make him feel like Esau. She can't make him sound like Esau, but she doesn't have to worry about him really looking like Esau because Isaac can't see anymore. So it says, “18 So he went in to his father and said, “My father.” And he said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?” 19 Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn.” There it is, your very first bold face lie. So Jacob has gone along with this and he has walked into his father's presence and lied to his face, I am Esau. “19…I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, that your soul may bless me.” Notice that Jacob is unashamed to lay out his ultimate goal. He doesn't say here, dad, sit up so you can have something to eat, he says, I want the blessing. He knows, he tells him why he's there, I'm here for the blessing. “20 But Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?” (and this is where I think Jacob really messes up) He answered, “Because the Lord your God granted me success.” And this is really interesting and very telling about someone's willingness to manipulate when they are willing to bring God into their manipulation as if He's part of the plan, part of the scheme. God gave me success and so that's why I got back so soon. “21 Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.”” Isn't that interesting? Isaac is concerned that he might be being deceived. “22 So Jacob went near to Isaac his father, who felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” 23 And he did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's hands. So he blessed him. 24 He said, “Are you really my son Esau?” He answered, “I am.” (there's again, another lie) 25 Then he said, “Bring it near to me, that I may eat of my son's game and bless you.” So he brought it near to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank. 26 Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come near and kiss me, my son.” 27 So he came near and kissed him. And Isaac smelled the smell of his garments and blessed him and said, “See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed! 28 May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine. 29 Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you!”” Notice that last part is what God actually said to Abraham. Whoever blesses you will be blessed, whoever curses you will be cursed. (Genesis 12:3) God said that over Abraham. From Abraham came Isaac, from Isaac came Jacob. Jacob was renamed Israel. That's the statement that is still holding true over the nation of Israel and if anybody wants to know why we as believers are always in favor of Israel, it's because this statement right here. God says, I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you. So this is a blessing that Isaac speaks over Jacob, but you need to know that this blessing is much more than a father just wanting to pass along good wishes to a son. If I were to bless my sons, I have to two sons, they happen to be about 11 years apart instead of twins. But if I were to bless them, it would just simply be the wishes of a father wanting to bless his sons. This is different, what Isaac is doing is different. You can hear the prophetic element of what Isaac is saying over his son, passing along to who he believes is his favorite son, but is in fact Jacob. And this prophetic element contains all of the promises essentially that God gave to Abraham. And now they're being passed along to the son whom God had rightly chosen to receive them. And that's what really makes this a powerful blessing from a father to a son it’s because this is the one whom God chose to receive it. That's what makes it powerful because God's the one who blesses, that's the point we were making earlier, right? So what ends up happening here is Jacob gets the blessing in keeping with God's sovereign will despite all of the human manipulation and scheming to try to bring about what they consider to be the perfect result. That really doesn't matter in the long run because God is sovereign and He will bring about His will despite human involvement to the contrary. And that's something that we all need to remember and that's the real lesson here. God's will cannot be thwarted and frankly, He doesn't need our help to accomplish His will. We strive, we plan, we scheme, but in the end, God has His way. In fact, there's a proverb that says as much, let me show you on the screen. Proverbs 16:33, it says, Proverbs 16:33 (ESV) The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD. And that's just simply a poetic way of saying that, man may roll the dice to try to make what he believes is the best decision in a particular matter but God's will is always going to be the supreme thing. God's will is always going to be supreme. So verse 30 goes on and says, “As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, (you can see the drama here) Esau his brother came in from his hunting. 31 He also prepared delicious food and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, “Let my father arise and eat of his son's game, that you may bless me.” 32 His father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?” (you can almost hear the voice, can't you?) He answered, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.” Of course, this sounds like Esau to Isaac because it says in verse 33, it says, “Then Isaac trembled very violently…” He literally got the shakes, why? I believe it was because he knew his plan to bless Esau had been overruled. When you set yourself up against the Lord, you're going to get overruled, ultimately and it might not make you very happy. I don't think Esau or Isaac rather, was very happy. I know Esau wasn't, we'll see that here in a moment. But Isaac was caught, he has been caught in his duplicity related to this event, and he knew it, and he started to shake. “33 …and (he) said, “Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate it all before you came, and I have blessed him? Yes, (and look at this) and he shall be blessed.”” And you can see by his comments here that Isaac was aware that the blessing he spoke over Jacob, he knew this was from the Lord. He knew that it could not be rescinded. Isaac knew that he couldn't say, oh, that was deception, in that case, I take it back and I'm going to give it to you instead. He knew that wasn't possible, that’s the point. He knew he'd been caught and there was nothing he could do about it and that's why he shook so violently. “As soon as (verse 34) Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me, even me also, O my father!”” Verse 35, “But he said, “Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing.”” I want you to just stop there for just a moment, because again, Isaac is not coming clean here. He just immediately blames Jacob and yes, Jacob was to blame, so was Rebekah. But, what Isaac should have said here is, actually son, this is all my fault. God told your mother and I, before the two of you were even born, that the blessing was going to go to Jacob. And I tried to manipulate around that and bless you instead, because I favored you and I'm the one who's wrong here and it's on me. But that's not what Isaac says, your brother came deceitfully, he's taken away your blessing, puts it all on Jacob. “36 Esau said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob? (we talked about what that meant, his name means heel catcher, which is a figurative way of saying a deceiver) For he has cheated me these two times.”” Now that's an interesting memory, isn't it? How was he cheated before? He traded his birthright willingly, he was not cheated out of his birthright. Jacob said, you want stew? Give me your birthright. Esau should have, he could have said, tell you what, how about I pop you in the mouth and just take it from you? Right? He's the outdoorsman and Jacob's the guy who likes to sit around making bunt cakes. So, why not just over power the guy and walk in there and get the stew that you want and go, hey, next time you try to manipulate me out of something that's mine, I'll give you the same. But what does he do? He goes, yeah, no problem, great, take it, I don't care, here, give me the stew. You see, he wasn't cheated out of anything. If I'd have tried this on my brother, he'd have popped me in the mouth, I know that. I have an older brother, not two minutes older, but two years older, and he took advantage of that. So, he says, “36…He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing.” So, notice, he says, “He took away my birthright,” he remembers what happened. He remembers it differently, but he remembers what happened. So, it's just interesting, isn't it, how we tend to see our own actions in the best possible light and we see other people's actions in the worst possible light. You're wrong, but my actions weren't so wrong. And “36…Then he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?”” And you can see by Esau's statement there, that he sees this blessing as something coming from his father and not from the Lord, right? And because of that, he can't understand. Well, just bless me too, give me the same blessing you gave him, I mean, it's just, aren't they just words aren't they just gracious words, just bless me like you blessed him. Don't you have another blessing? Is one all you have? He doesn't get it, he doesn't get it. This is from God, right? “37 Isaac answered and said to Esau, “Behold, I have made him lord over you, and all his brothers I have given to him for servants, and with grain and wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son?”” And again, you can see here that Isaac realizes that this blessing is from the Lord and he only does have one to give, because it's the Lord. And “38 Esau said to his father, “Have you but one blessing, my father? (he still doesn't get it) Bless me, even me also, O my father.” And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.” Notice that, Esau lifted up his voice and he started crying because he didn't get his way. I want you to look at a passage from Hebrews chapter 12 on the screen. The writer of Hebrews says, Hebrews 12:15-17 (ESV) See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

Because he blew it, so, there you go. And Esau was a man who allowed a bitter root to spring up as you're going to see here in just a moment. But what's going to happen now in verse 39 is that Isaac is going to begin again to truly prophesy over Esau and I want you to take note of the fact that this prophecy is not so much directed at Esau, the man, as it is toward Esau, his descendants. And you know that the descendants of Esau are the Edomites, okay? So keeping that in mind, check out what goes on here in verse 39 and following. “39 Then Isaac his father answered and said to him: “Behold, away from the fatness of the earth shall your dwelling be, and away from the dew of heaven on high. 40 By your sword (in other words, the Edomites will be a violent people) you shall live, and you shall serve your brother; (meaning the Israelites) but when you grow restless you shall break his yoke from your neck.”” And what he's saying there is that there would come times where they would grow weary of their servitude toward the Israelites and they would rebel against them. And they would even be successful from time to time because the Lord would give them success because Israel would be walking in disobedience. And yet the people of the Edomites, who by the way, don't exist anymore. In Greek, Edomite is pronounced, Idumaean. The last Idumaean that we actually hear about in the Bible is king Herod. He was not a Jew, he was an Idumean, he was an Edomite, okay. I think a lot of people wrongly believe he was Jewish. That's the last we hear as far as I can remember of the Edomites. Verse 41, “Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, (there you go, he's got hatred in his heart for his brother) and Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.” Now, stop here. Remember I told you that the length of days that God was going to give Isaac after this event was going to play into this story fairly significantly. And I told you that Isaac has another 40 plus years left before he's going to pass away. So you see what Esau is saying. Well, dad's going to die any day here now and when he does… You see Esau wasn't willing to lift his hand against Jacob while his father was still alive, but he figured as soon as my dad passes away, I'm going to find Jacob and run him through with my sword, right? Well, God gave Esau 40 more years to think that through and to cool down. And he did and we're going to see that later on in the Book of Genesis. But it was kind of a forced protection, you know? I mean, can you imagine Isaac? He's blind, he can't see anything, he thinks he's going to die any minute. God's got another 40 plus years for him to hang around. Probably not the funnest thing for Isaac at this particular stage in his life, being as infirmed as he is. Because, you know, even when Esau goes in there, he says, hey, sit up so I can give you your food and the food that I brought. So he's obviously in bed, it sounds like he's bedridden. We know that he's blind and yet he's got another 40 plus years to keep living in that broken down body. But again, I think that's part of God's plan was to take a lot longer. Had he only lived another year? Esau, you know, well, yeah, you know what I'm saying? Verse 42, “But the words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah. So she sent and called Jacob her younger son and said to him, “Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by planning to kill you. 43 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise, flee to Laban my brother in Haran 44 and stay with him a while, until your brother's fury turns away—” By the way, the New King James, instead of saying, stay there for a while, it says, stay there for a few days. So this is a term that does not speak of a long, protracted period of time. She is simply saying, just give a little time for your brother to cool down. You go hang out with my brother Laban for a while and then come home. Well, that's not what's going to happen. This is going to turn out to be a 20 year trip for Jacob, right? And so she says, just do this, “45 until your brother's anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him. (it took more than, longer time than she thought) Then I will send and bring you from there. Why should I be bereft of you both in one day?” So you can see what Rebekah's doing. She is again, stepping out to protect God's chosen, you know, son, who the process of the blessing is supposed to go through. But little does she know at this point in time, the consequences of her actions are going to be what they are. Little does she know that when her son packs up and leaves, she will never see her son again. She will die before Jacob comes home because of all this needless manipulation and trying to force the hand of God. People, there are always consequences to sin. Even when you're a believer, you can't avoid consequences. God cannot be mocked, He will not be mocked. What a man sows, so also shall he reap. It doesn't mean you're not saved, doesn't mean you're not a believer, doesn't mean you're not going to heaven. It just means that when you throw a ball up in the air, it's going to come back down again. It's just as strong as the law of gravity.

We call it the law of sowing and reaping and you can't fight against it. It's going to happen and understanding that is called the fear of the Lord. If you want to, if you ever want to know, what does it mean to fear the Lord? It means that there are consequences to sin, that's it. It means that there's a law of consequences, yeah. The chapter ends now in verse 46 and following it says, “Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I loathe my life because of the Hittite women. (referring to the wives that Esau had already taken, and) If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women like these, one of the women of the land, what good will my life be to me?” Now, what's she doing? She's still manipulating, she's going to get… She wants to send Jacob away, but she can't do it without Isaac's blessing. So she's going to get Isaac to think it's his idea by nagging him about the possibility of Jacob potentially marrying one of these Hittite women like his brother did. And she's basically saying, if that happens, oh, look out, you're not going to want to live with me in the same house. And so Isaac is going to send his son away and that's what will happen. So here you got this great chapter. All this scheming, all this manipulating, and what did it accomplish except their own hurt? The family kind of blew up, I mean, it was dysfunctional to begin with, but now they acted on this dysfunction to the point where the family blew up and Rebekah isn't even going to get to be with her son anymore. She won't see him anymore, she won't get to see his wives, she won't get to see his children, her grandchildren and in the end, God still did what He intended to do in the first place. God still did what He intended to do in the first place, despite their manipulation and He would have done it had they not manipulated. He worked through their manipulation, but He didn't have to. God doesn't need our manipulation to get the work done. It would have been so much easier if they just would have cooperated with God instead of trying to force the situation to their own liking and that's really what's going on here. I want what I want and I'm going to get what I want, no matter what, right? That one's going to come back to bite you, as you see here. Let me end with a couple of passages, first from Galatians. Galatians chapter 5, Paul says, Galatians 5:16-17 (ESV) But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” See, even what Isaac wanted, what Rebekah wanted in favoring one son over another, those are the desires of the flesh. And to promote their own son, the son that they like the best, that's the desires of the flesh. Paul says, hey, “walk in the spirit.” In other words, yield to the leading of the Spirit instead of your own leading of your own desires. He says, “For the desires of the flesh (he says in this passage) are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, (or contrary to) for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.” Or the things that God wants you to do. We have to be aware. Isaac and Rebekah were not aware, it seems. They had these desires of the flesh concerning their own favorite son and they were going to promote the son that they liked the best, no matter what. Rather than thinking, this is ungodly, this is fleshly, this is not of God, this is of me, this is all me, right? And then James reminds us in his letter, the fourth chapter, he says James 4:1,7 (ESV) What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? (or family squabbles) Is it not this, that your passions (that’s another word for desire) are at war within you? (at war with what? At war with the Spirit) Submit yourselves therefore to God. What does that mean? Submit yourself to God, rather than submitting to your own desires, James says, submit to God instead. That's what Isaac and Rebekah didn't do, they didn't submit to God. He told them, when the boys were yet unborn, this is my will, Jacob is going to get the blessing. He's going to carry on the promise, that's my will, do you understand? Could it have been clearer, the older will serve the younger. God said, this is my plan. So instead of submitting to that, they submitted to their own desires, their own passions and James says, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil,” who's always going to be cheerleading you on to follow your own desires. But rather resist him, submit to God and you're going to be doing better. And that's where we stop.

So one chapter tonight, I thought that was kind of enough because there was a lot in that chapter to really think about and consider. So, this business of submitting to God, this is hard stuff. Sue and I, I don't know if you saw it on our YouTube channel, but Sue and I recorded a new, our October Q&A this morning and it got released this afternoon. I think it was the very first question that we took today in the Q&A was along these whole lines of how do you follow the leading of the Lord? And I shared in the Q&A how it's hard, it’s hard learning to follow the leading of the Lord because we are so hardwired to our own passions and the things we want to happen, the things I want to see happen in my life or in the lives of others that I love. And I have my desires and I have my wants and my wishes, and it's very difficult to surrender those to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, very difficult. It requires dying to self and dying has never been easy, and it never will be. Dying is a big, fat, messy ordeal and that is the difficulty of learning to surrender and submit to the will of the Lord because it requires a death. I have to say, Lord, not as I will, but your will be done, man, that's hard. That means I got to give up, I got to give up what I want, and it's hard to give up what I want because I want it bad. Let's pray. Father, we do thank you so much for the reminders that we've seen tonight in the Word. What a blessing it is to dig into the scriptures. Lord, what a blessing it is to be reminded that we need to be submitted to you, to your will, to your purpose, and to be reminded, Lord, just like we see here that, you know, when we refuse and when we begin to manipulate circumstances to try to get them to work in our own way, there's going to be consequences, and it's going to hurt us in the long run. And Lord, we need to also recognize here that your will cannot be thwarted in the long run. You're going to get what you want and Lord, what you want is what's best for us, that's the thing we have to learn to admit. What you want is for my best and I need to learn to submit to you, Lord and I'm not very good at doing that, but I pray that you'd help us all to learn day by day to set self aside and exalt Jesus as Lord of our lives. We thank you and we praise you for these reminders tonight and we ask Lord God that you would continue to speak to our hearts as we go from this place. We ask all of these things in the authority that has been granted us through the name of Jesus Christ and all God's people said, amen. God bless you, have a good rest of your Wednesday night.