FBC Morning Light – January 14, 2022

Good Saturday morning, people of faith. We're in Genesis chapters 27 and 28 today, and we're going to read some passages throughout those two chapters. And when we're all done, after I pray, I have a question for everybody that if you want to try and give me an answer, I'd love to hear it, but it doesn't have anything to do with our devotionals per se, but it's something that's bothered me for a long time.

Esau Loses His Birthright and Blessing

So anyway, Genesis chapter 27, and we're going to read here in verse 30 in just a moment. But before I do, here's what's going on. Isaac is going to give his blessing to his oldest son, and Jacob, with the help of Rebekah, deceives Isaac into giving the blessing to Jacob, and Jacob gets that blessing.

And we pick things up in verse 30, and it says,. Now it happened, as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting.

And so we're going to look here over the next several passages of what is Esau's response. So down in verse 34, when Esau heard the words of his father, that is, that the blessing had been given to Jacob, it says,.

He cried with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, Bless me, me also, my father. And you can hear the anguish in his words here. And then in verse 36, he says,. But he said, Your brother, and Esau said, Is he not rightly named Jacob?

Remember Jacob means supplanter. For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright, and now, look, he has taken away my blessing. Now the birthright goes back to Genesis 25, where he was famished coming in from hunting, and Jacob had some stew, and he says, Give me some stew, or I'm going to die.

And Jacob says, Sure, if you give me your birthright. And so in his mind and his desire to have what he wanted at that moment, and the lack of patience, he sold his birthright to Jacob. And so now in verses 41 and 42 says,.

So Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him. And Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand. Then I will kill my brother Jacob. And the words of Esau, her older son, were told to Rebekah.

So she sent and called Jacob her younger and said to him,. Surely your brother Esau comforts himself concerning you by intending to kill you. And as the story goes on, she prepares to send Jacob off and Isaac as well send Jacob off to Laban to find a wife and safety from Esau.

Esau Marries Outside the Covenant Line

Well, the story with Esau continues in verses 6 through 9 of chapter 28 says,. Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Badan Aram to take himself a wife from there and that as he blessed him, he gave him a charge saying, You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and had gone to Badan Aram.

Also Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan did not please his father Isaac. So Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of Nebajoth and to be his wife in addition to the wives he had.

Now there's one of two things is happening here. Esau is either doing this, marrying Mahalath to stick his finger in the eye of his parents, probably not that, or he's doing it to try to curry the favor of his parents.

All right, in either way, this would be his third wife and not trying to go about things the way God would want him to do. So whichever one of those is happening, keep in mind that at no time here is Esau wanting to be right with God.

Jacob and Esau in Romans 9

So that makes us think here of Romans chapter 9 and what it says about Jacob and Esau. We see that Esau had sold his birthright and he has lost his blessing, the blessing of.

Isaac.

And what does it say in chapter 9 of Romans says, Jacob, I have loved, but Esau, I have hated. And Paul goes on to explain, is God unjust that he somehow loves Jacob but hates Esau? He says, certainly not, for he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.

These things are a matter of being in the Lord's hand. So how is it that God can justify the supplanter Jacob and still hate Esau? Well, some people pass this off as a national sort of thing, but that's not much of a passing off of things to me as nations are made of people.

So you still have to get around God at some point loving Jacob and hating Esau as the word says. And he is not unjust to do so. So let me tell you what I think of this. I think that this is the ultimate picture of God's grace for there is in all of us, Esau, we are all born with a nature that does not want to do what is right, that we want.

What we want.

We want it now. So yeah, give me what something to eat and have my birthright. It doesn't matter to me. What matters to me is what matters to me. That's our problem. So it's an act of graciousness that God chooses to love Jacob.

And it's an act of graciousness that God would choose to love you or I. And it is totally in God's purposes to do so. He has mercy on whomever he has mercy and he hardens whomever he hardens. I cannot stand before God and say, this is wrong.

This is who God is. God is above me in every way. And the same with you. He is above you. Now, if you hear these words and in your mind, you're saying, this is not right. God, what is wrong with you? Check your words and check your heart because it just might be that you need to repent for that attitude.

God is still above us. And please, if that is your, if your attitude is in any other way separated from that, please repent and come before him even now. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come to you on the basis of what your son, our Lord Jesus Christ, has done for us.

Help us to see our new nature in you that wants to learn from you and hear from your word and help us to align our lives with what your word says. Align our thinking with what your word says. Help us this day.

It's in your son's name, son's name, Jesus, that we pray.

Amen.

Why Jacob Is Still Called Jacob After Being Renamed Israel

And before I say have a good day, people of faith, here's my question. So, Abram had his name changed to Abraham. And when you think of that person, we always think of Abraham. Simon had his name changed to Peter.

We sometimes call him Simon Peter, but we almost always call him Peter. Jacob has his name changed to Israel, but most of the time we still call him Jacob. And in the Bible, it goes back and forth between Jacob and Israel frequently.

So, if you have a thought as to why, please leave a comment, talk to me sometime. I would love to hear what your thoughts are on this matter.

Have a great day.