Sunday Morning Bible Study - The Dysfunctional Family Part 3 (Date:05/02/2021)

Grace and Dysfunction in Genesis 33

Wrap up a little bit in our study of grace in dysfunction. We've been talking about this for the last three weeks and I'm just going to do a small review for you. Right now where we are in Genesis chapter 33, and you can turn there if you want,.

Genesis chapter 33 you have Abraham and Sarah who have been spoiled brats, who have been horrible parents, and they have raised a mama's boy extraordinaire in the form of Isaac. Isaac then couldn't even get his own wife.

They got a wife for him, and of course that which man does, God's sovereignty still prevails, and so they got a wife named Rebecca. Isaac was very passive, he was very enabling, he was very codependent.

In fact after his mommy died he cried for three years until he met his wife. Then his soul was comforted. Hmm. Wow. Anyways, so those two had two kids. Their names were Jacob and Esau. Now Jacob was, once again, a mama's boy.

Isaac, the daddy, was passive. Mama is kind of a control freak and runs everything. Esau is an abandonment child, he's the scapegoat, and he spends all of his time off hunting. He didn't need to hunt, they had 40 ,000 sheep, they could have fed everybody for hundreds of years.

He went hunting to get away from the realities and the convictions that were on his life. Jacob stole the birthright, basically he stole the will. He stole the will and his mommy said, hey son, run away, because that'll solve all your problems, run away.

And when things are cooled down, I'll call you back. By the way, passive daddies and over-possessive mamas, you're gonna experience this in real life, because this is what happened. When she told him to run away, she never saw her son Jacob ever again.

But he runs away. And so he's out there and God, in his infinite sovereignty, orchestrates him to come to a place continually of confession and repentance, and he finally says, you know what, God, you're right, it's time for me to go back home.

So Jacob starts heading back home, but when he gets near where his home was, he gets a little scared. Now this this guy is such a stud, because this is what he does. He takes all of his slaves and he takes a bribe offering and he sends it on ahead.

And he says, when you meet Esau, tell him this is for you. And then he sits there and goes, you know what, I think I need to make a little bit better preparation. So here's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna take the ugly wife that I don't really like that much, and her kids, and I'm gonna send them in a group next.

Because if he kills all the slaves and takes the at least there's another buffer between me and him. And so he sends her on. Then he says, my favorite wife and her son Joseph, I'll send them last. And I'll pull up the rear.

Y 'all would let your daughter marry a guy like that, wouldn't you? I mean that's a stud right there. And so he does all that, and then God tunes him up a little bit. Remember he has one of those Baptist revivals in chapter 32 verses 9 through 12?

He just has that little prayer time. Oh God, you know I'm afraid. Please fight this battle for me, yada yada yada. Then he makes this plan to sacrifice everybody but himself. All of a sudden, a theocracy happens, or a Christophany.

What is that? I forget. It's a pre-incarnate Christ in the Old Testament. He wrestles with Jacob and hits him in the thigh. And Jacob sits there and goes, maybe I need to do some things differently. So here we are in chapter 33 verse 1.

It says this, read with me, chapter 33 verse 1. It says, now Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming toward him with 400 men. So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two female slaves. He put the female slaves and their children first, Leah and her children next, Rachel and Joseph last.

Now he, in other words, this is the second time the scripture has mentioned this was his strategy. But he had already planned on this, but the night before he had met up with God. And so now, even though he does that strategy, look at the very next verse.

Verse 3, he himself went on ahead and bowed to the ground seven times until he approached his brother. But Esau ran to meet him, hugged him, threw his arms around him, and kissed him, and they wept. When Esau looked up and saw the women and children, he asked, who are these?

He answered, the children God has graciously given your servant. I want to point out a couple of things here. Why is it that every commentary that I read, or every preacher that I've heard, or every theologian who writes on this, it's always in that English Shakespearean setup.

In other words, there's a protagonist, i .e. the good guy in the white hat. Jacob! He is God's chosen person because he is the reoccurring individual within the narrative of Genesis 30 through about 36.

He's that guy. So he must be the good guy. He's the Baptist guy. He's the guy that shows up every Sunday in a suit and tie. By the way, how y 'all think I look today? I'd be pimping today, man, right?

He's the guy that shows up, right? He's the guy that is always the center of attention. And then there's Esau. Oh man, you read all the commentaries about Esau, he's evil. He's always portrayed as some black, dark, evil, blah blah blah blah.

Let me ask you a question. People who write these commentaries in these Sunday schools, have you ever actually read the scripture? Because it's the exact opposite! Jacob is the liar, Jacob is the deceiver, Jacob is the one who morally, ethically, and biblically is doing what it should not be doing.

Esau, yeah, he was a daddy's boy, yeah, he wanted to escape it, but he didn't do anything wrong! He did nothing wrong! And here you see it in chapter 33, he has every right to wipe Jacob off the mat. What's he do?

He runs to him. He picks him up off the ground, and he hugs him. You can hear it in the scripture. Just as I am. And they're loving on each other, and kissing on each other, and oh I love you, and it's a Dr. Phil Oprah moment there, but hippies are everywhere!

Right? It's beautiful. And then this is what Esau does. Hey man, you don't have to give me all that. And what Jacob had done is he had given him enough cattle to repay the birthright that he stole, the will that he stole.

He wanted to give all that back to Esau. Esau said, I don't need it, man, don't worry about it. But he eventually accepts it so that Jacob can feel forgiven. Esau's like, oh this is so beautiful. The family's back together again.

So they hugged, and they said, okay, what do you want to do? And Esau's like, dude, we can move over here, man! We can start a whole new family we can love! And Jacob's like, oh this is so cool! Esau said, yeah, man, let's move over here to Bartlett.

Let's set up a camp over here in Bartlett, and we can, you know, it'll just be, we'll have dinners together. And Jacob's like, oh that would be so awesome! And he goes, well let's go! And Jacob goes, man, the kids are tired, the cattle hadn't been fed, my wife's nagging me, you know.

I tell you what, you go on ahead, and I'll catch up. Esau, once again, trusting the good guy, walks off to Bartlett. Next day, Jacob says, all right guys, time to pack up and go! Where are we going? Corinth, Mississippi?

Now, the direction God told him to go was that way. The direction Esau told him to go was that way. What he said he would do was go that way. You know what Jacob did? Went that way. Did he repent? I'm gonna close with this.

The Problem of Repeated Repentance and Relapse

We don't need to go any further. Did he repent? Hmm. I remember broom pipes, or brooms. How many of y 'all ever took the end of a broom handle and drilled a hole in it this way, drilled a hole in it this way, unscrewed the faucet in your sink, pulled out that little screen and stuck it in that big hole?

Huh? How many of y 'all ever took a Coke can, flattened a little bit, poke a whole bunch of little holes in it, poke a big hole in the bottom? Some of y 'all flattened lying to me. You know what I'm talking about.

Don't act all Baptist with me now. You know exactly what I'm talking about. Put that little carburetor on the back, hit that sucker, huh? How many of y 'all broke a seal and said this is the last one?

How many of y 'all did it? My mama's house didn't have a screen one in the sink anywhere. How many times did some of you people pour that stuff down the toilet? How many times did you flush stuff down the toilet and you said this, I am never going to do this again?

And every fiber of your being minted at that time? How many of you guys have come down here, okay baby let's pray. The next day, what are you doing? Man, you right back at it, ain't you? You at the water cooler talking about the blonde chick in the office with the other guys going, oh.

Some of y 'all up WWW big, uh-huh. Some of you guys are, some of you guys are still trying to control things. Some of you guys are still trying to figure it out. Did you really mean it when you said I'm done with this?

Did you really mean it when you walked down here and you did that? Did you really mean it? Most people really do. I'm sorry. I know there's a lot of hard cases out there that'll tell you, oh you're a guardless blah blah blah because you failed.

Man, I'm so grateful for grace. I'm so grateful for forgiveness. Jacob had how many encounters with God did we read for? He repented four times and four different times he disobeyed. And you know what's really cool is even though that Jacob was faithless, God still remained faithful.

God remained faithful. It says, God bless Jacob. You know why it says God bless Jacob? Because God had sworn to himself with Abraham, this is what's going to happen. Some of y 'all struggle with the sovereignty of God, but you don't struggle with the security of your salvation.

Do you know that that is antithetical, that those two things cannot both exist? If you struggle with God's sovereignty, then your salvation is in jeopardy. If you go ahead and relinquish it to what God's Word says, that his Word will not return void, that his will will be fulfilled, that his Word is going to come true, you now have a basis on which to sit there and go, thank you Jesus, I'm saved.

You don't have to worry about your failures, because God already knew you're going to fail. Well pastor, and then here's what the idiot redneck will always tell me, well pastor, that means I can go out and kill a million people and still go to heaven.

No, you're gonna go straight to hell in a handbasket. Not because you killed a million people, that's an effect. The still not a Christian. Let me help you some of you with the answer. I show up to church every Sunday.

Whoop-a-dee-doo. I give money. Who cares? I go to Sunday school. What do you want, like a little Bucky Bieber badge or something? You want something? Guys, that don't matter. You've put your faith and your trust in your works or in your failures.

Leave them both behind and put your faith and trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ, in God's sovereign plan, that in all of our failures, he is still active in your life.