Genesis #32 - Unlikely Grace #4 - Tragically Misunderstanding God's Promise (Genesis 27:1-40)

The Danger of Mishandling God’s Promises

If you have a Bible, and I hope you do, take it and turn with me to the book of Genesis. The book of Genesis, as we return to the sermon series that we've been in for the last month now, Unlikely Grace, God's Grace in the Lives of Imperfect People.

And this morning, if you have a Bible, and I hope you do, take it and turn with me to Genesis 27. Genesis and the 27th chapter. Genesis chapter 27. I have on screen that we're going to look at 1 through 40, but actually we're just going to read the first 13 verses.

We are going to study verses 1 through 40, but it's a very long section. And so in the interest of time, we'll just read the first 13 verses together. So Genesis chapter 27, beginning in verse 1, if you've got one of the red hardbacks we give away, that's on page 21.

Page 21. And if you are able to do so, can I invite you to stand with me as you read this portion of God's Word? We always like to stand at this moment because we want to give you respect to the Word of God, even with the posture of our bodies.

And so Genesis chapter 27, and beginning in verse 1. Genesis 27, beginning in verse 1. Brothers and sisters, these are the words of our living God. God's Word says, when Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could not see, he called his older son Esau and said to him, my son.

And he answered, here I am. He said, look, I am old and do not know the day of my death. So now take your hunting gear, your quiver and bow, and go out in the field to hunt some game for me. Then make me a delicious meal that I love and bring it to me to eat so I can bless you before I die.

Now, Rebecca was listening to what Isaac said to his son Esau. So while Esau went to the field to hunt some game to bring in, Rebecca said to her son Jacob, listen, I heard your father talking with your brother Esau.

He said, bring me game and make a delicious meal for me to eat so that I can bless you in Yahweh's presence before I die. Now, my son, listen to me and do what I tell you. Go to the flock and bring me two choice young goats, and I will make them into a delicious meal for your father, the kind he loves.

Then take it to your father to eat so that he may bless you before he dies. Jacob answered Rebecca, his mother, look, my brother Esau is a hairy man, but I am a man with smooth skin. Suppose my father touches me, then I will be revealed to him as a deceiver and bring a curse rather than a blessing on myself.

His mother said to him, your curse be on me, my son. Just obey me and go get them for me. Yikes. I pray that God will bless that reading of his word and give us understanding of it. I invite you to join with me in prayer.

Let's ask for the Spirit's help and we will launch into God's word this morning. Our gracious and loving Heavenly Father, we thank you for yet another opportunity to come, to spend time in your word and to hear you speak to us.

Father, this is one of those texts that defies our understanding and how to properly come to it and to see what you are saying to us from, but we know that because it's your word, you are speaking to us through it.

And so Father, I ask that your Spirit would give us help, that he would open our eyes, that we would see wonderful things out of his law, that the eyes of our hearts would be enlightened so that we would know the hope to which we've been called as your people.

And Father, as I pray that for us, I pray that for our friends back in Medford at Cornerstone Christian Church. Thank you for Pastor Quentin and Pastor Mark and the session there and the leadership that they provide.

Pray for Pastor Quentin as he begins the Advent series this week with the faith family there. Pray for your blessing on their ministries and all that's happening there for your glory. And we pray that that would happen even here now, that as we minister your word and as we hear it, that your Spirit would be pleased to use it to build up our faith in the Lord Jesus.

It's in his name that we pray and for his sake. Amen. Please be seated. I've tagged the message for this morning, Tragically Misunderstanding the Promises of God. Tragically Misunderstanding the Promises of God.

And I've given it that title because that's really the big theme of these verses, verses 1 through 40, that we're going to consider this. Warning. Now as we get started this morning, allow me to, I hope, set expectations for what you're about to hear.

This is not going to be a massively uplifting sermon. I apologize. I really wish it would. You're hearing this text this morning. I've had to live in this text all week. It's not been a very fun week.

And it's not because God's Word isn't valuable. Of course it is. I love being in God's Word. But as you read this narrative and as we're going to walk our way through it, you're going to see that this is not a happy text.

And as a result, because we always want sermons to, or let me put it this way, preaching of the text should match the tone of the text. And so when you're in advance, if this were like one of those terrible medication ads on TV that my wife and I always laugh at.

I'm from the UK as you can hear from my accent. I'm not used to watching an ad and then someone say, oh by the way, this might cause death. I say that because this were one of those medication ads on TV.

It probably says something along this sort of line. It would say something like, this sermon may cause discomfort, introspection, and self-examination. If you prefer to be unchallenged and unstretched, this sermon may not be right for you.

And I say that because, like I said, even as I studied this text this week, I don't think I've ever asked myself this in preaching, but I asked myself, man I wish I had something more encouraging and inspiring this week.

But we have a commitment here at Redeemer to what we call expository preaching, that we work our way through books of the Bible. That's kind of the meat and potatoes of what we do here in the pulpit. And we do that acknowledging that every portion of God's Word is valuable.

Every portion of God's Word is important. And even if I don't particularly find the text to be pleasant to me, as I'll be honest, I didn't find this week's text to be, God still has something for us. You see, this text is a stark one, but it's given by God with that kind of design.

It's designed to be a stark text. Now, let me not say that there's no hope to be seen in this passage, because there is. But if we can use the analogy of a train going into a long dark tunnel, it's going to be more dark than light for most of this.

Let me just, again, I want to set expectations appropriately. But here's what I hope will happen. I hope that as we march our way through these verses, that introspection and self-examination I talked about that might just happen, or I pray happens, I pray that that will lead us back to not ourselves.

I don't want us to become, as Luther said, curved in on ourselves. No, I hope that that will lead us back to the foot of the cross, where the God who wounds us also is able to heal. You see, at the heart of the discomfort of this passage, as I've tagged our message this morning, is a failure to rightly understand who God is and how God works.

And the reality is, we're going to read this, and you may think this is fit for a soap opera, and it kind of is. But please, please, please, do not do the thing that we often do where, man, that person in the Bible is absolutely terrible.

Because if we are not careful, and we'll see this as the message unfolds, we could find ourselves in a very similar situation to this. This is chapter 27, which assumes we've been in chapter 26. In chapter 26, I think we can all agree we saw some growth in Isaac.

I mean, it didn't necessarily start off the greatest, but we've seen growth in him. In fact, you could make the case that he's become increasingly aware of God and his presence as his life has unfolded.

In fact, three times in chapter 26, the presence of God is mentioned. So if you've got a Bible nearby, just turn over the page to chapter 26. And in verse 3, Isaac has this assurance from God of his presence for his future.

So 26 verse 3, God tells him to stay in the land as an alien, and I will be with you and bless you. Jump down to verse 23, where we see not only God's presence promised for the future, but God's presence promised in the present.

So verse 23, from there, he went up to Beersheba, and Yahweh appeared to him that night and said, I am the God of your father, Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you. And in fact, even Abraham, not Abraham, Isaac's enemies acknowledge that God had been with him in the past.

So jump down to verse 28. Remember what they said? They replied, we have clearly seen how Yahweh has been with you, past, present, and future. There has been this acknowledgement of the presence of God, even with the temptations of life.

But as we come to the edge of the basin, that is Genesis 27, time has passed. Isaac is a little older now, and it will appear that some of that growth, some of that understanding, some of that deepened faith that had developed, some of that's worn down with the years.

And unfortunately, Isaac is going to set the tone for this chapter with his failure to understand the God that he is called to work with. And his failure to understand that sets up failure for every character in this story.

There's a fundamental misunderstanding of how the promises of God work. And in my short ministry, I've seen this happen, or even worse, happening in progress to too many believers not to say something about it.

Because before we throw stones at Isaac, let's be clear, this could happen to us just as readily. Every one of the characters in this Torah drama we're about to read will fail in this area. And let me put it to you that if we fail to learn from their examples, we might too.

Hey family, what happens when we take the promises of God for granted? Well, that kind of leads to my big idea for this message. Simply put, taking the promises of God for granted only leads to pain and spiritual ruin.

Taking the promises of God for granted only leads to pain and spiritual ruin. Simple sentence, but very, very, very difficult. Taking the promises of God for granted only leads to pain and spiritual ruin.

Brothers and sisters, for the rest of our time, I want to look at this story in three scenes. Three scenes that shed light on how we can avoid taking God's promises for granted. Three scenes that unfold.

They're not the most equal of them. We'll spend more time in others to be fair. But three scenes I want you to see from this text that will shed some light on how we as God's people can avoid taking God's promises for granted.

Three scenes. But as we come to our story, our story opens with the first scene that we can title Promises Mishandled. Promises Mishandled in verses 1 through 13. Coming to chapter 27, Isaac is about 100 years old at this point.

And as I imagined, someone who's turning 100 probably does a lot, he's reflecting on his mortality, it seems. Because coming with me to verse 1, text says, when Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could not see, he called his son Esau and said to him, my son, and he answered, here I am.

He said, look, I am old and do not know the day of my death. So now take your hunting gear, your quiver and bow, and go out in the field to hunt some game for me. Then make me a delicious meal that I love and bring it to me to eat so that I can bless you before I die.

Isaac thinks he's not long for this world. And so he calls his son and says, go hunt, bring me a meal, let me give you the blessing that I give, I'm supposed to give, as the patriarch of the clan before I die.

But of course, this is the book of Genesis, which means that there is more going on than meets the eye. So a few things, first of all, Isaac might be feeling really old, but actually he's going to live 20 more years after this.

Well, he's right, he doesn't know the day of his death, so we can't really fault him too much for that. But if you've been following the flow of the story so far in our series in Genesis 25 through 36, you might be wondering, wait a minute, what's Esau doing here?

Because remember back in chapter 25 verse 23, what God's promise to Rebekah was? In case you forgot, let me read it to you, Genesis 25, 23. And Yahweh said to her, two nations are in your womb, two people will come from you and be separated.

One will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger. Esau's not supposed to receive this blessing right now. So why is he in the room? Actually, we know why he's here, because we're told that in chapter 25 too.

If you don't remember, allow me to remind you. Esau was Isaac's favorite. Esau loved Isaac because Isaac was a hunter and bought him food he liked. Rebekah liked Jacob because he was kind of a homebody and he's always at home.

That's why he's in the room. Because I have to believe that Rebekah told Isaac what God had said. But in this moment, Isaac has either forgotten or doesn't care. And honestly, either one is not that great.

Favoritism, by the way, is a problem that will come up again in the book of Genesis. This is not the last time we're going to encounter favoritism in this family. Seems to be a bit of a chronic problem.

But Isaac kind of jumping the gun in terms of thinking he's about to die, that's not the biggest problem. Esau being in the room is not ideal, but it's not the biggest problem. The biggest problem is probably the most subtle.

Probably we read it and you probably just skipped by it. But look at verse 4 again. It tells him, go hunt. And it says, then make me a delicious meal that I love and bring it to me so that I can bless you before I die.

Anyone notice the problem with that phrase? In case you haven't, allow me to spell it out for you. Isaac has taken a gracious promise and has now made it conditional. You go do something for me and I will give you this blessing.

And lest we think it's a slip of the tongue, it actually, that phrase appears three times in our text. So jump down to verse 7. Tells him, bring me game and make a delicious meal for me so that I can bless you in Yahweh's presence before I die.

And Rebecca will repeat it in verse 10. Tells Jacob, then take it to your father to eat so that he may bless you before he dies. This is a massive problem because this is not how this promise is supposed to work.

God didn't do that with Abraham. As far as we know from the narrative of Genesis, and if it happened he would have told us, Abraham didn't do this with Isaac. But now here is Isaac. And essentially what he's doing is, he is turning grace on its head.

Somehow, someway, Isaac has attached the blessing not to the grace of God. Which by the way, that was the case for him. Because remember, he wasn't the oldest. Ishmael was. But God said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Ishmael's not the one. Isaac is the one who's the son of the promise. He's the one through whom your family will be named. He seems to have forgotten all of that and has made this, if you will, pay for play.

Or better yet, pay for prey. And right here in this verse, we see the first way in which the promises of God are mishandled. They are treated as rewards for good behavior and not gifts of divine grace.

And isn't that what legalism does? You know, legalism, making favor with God either in salvation or in sanctification, conditional on your obedience to a set of rules. Isn't that what legalism ultimately does?

Doesn't legalism tell us that, do this and I will bless you or be happy with you or show you favor. And we rightly acknowledge just how horrific it is when people treat each other that way. But can I put it to you, it is downright demonic when we pay God as functioning that way.

Isaac has mishandled the promise of God by taking a gracious promise and making it about works. That's bad enough, but a legalistic, almost selfish tone to Isaac. Give me something, that's what the text emphasizes, that I love.

A legalistic and selfish tone isn't the only issue in this passage because our text makes us know that Mama Rebecca is indeed lurking while this is going on. So look at verse 5. By the way, when you read verse 5 and it says she was listening, she's not in the tent culturally at this point in time.

Only men discussed clan business. This would be considered clan business in the ancient Near East. So she can't be in the room, but it's a tent, it's not that hard. So verse 5, now Rebecca was listening to what Isaac said to his son Esau.

So while Esau went to the field to hunt some game to bring him, Rebecca said to her son Jacob, pay attention to the way that's phrased. Rebecca said to her son Jacob, listen, I heard your father talking with your brother Esau.

He said, bring me game and make a delicious meal for me to eat so that I can bless you in Yahweh's presence before I die. Now son, listen to me and do what I tell you. Go to the flock and bring me two choice young goats and I will make them into a delicious meal for your father, the kind he loves.

Then take it to your father to eat so that he may bless you before he dies. And this is the second way in which promises are mishandled in this narrative. Because if Isaac mishandles them by tying them to works that benefit him, Rebecca mishandles them by thinking that they belong to her regardless of how they are received.

I mean, for a moment, think with me on this. What are the chains of sins that Rebecca has strung together in just a few words? Well, there's pride. Rebecca basically says, forget your father. Honestly, forget Yahweh.

We are doing this my way. So you've got pride. Then there's dishonoring her husband. Because think about this, Isaac is dead wrong for what he's doing. But the answer is not basically to mock her husband's infirmity and ignorance by pulling a fast one on him.

So we can add to the rap sheet, if you will. Pride. Dishonoring her husband. There's fraud in the mix because after all, Jacob is an Esau, but she's scheming to pass off Jacob as though he's Esau. I think by anyone's reckoning, we can call that pride.

So we've got fraud, excuse me. So you've got pride, dishonoring her husband, fraud. And of course, we already know this family has a favoritism problem. Because again, note how she refers to Jacob, or the text refers to him.

My son? But Esau wasn't your son? As you know, in this series, I'm not necessarily Esau's biggest fan, but I do feel for him in this moment. Mama, that's not your son? Seriously? But Rebecca loves Jacob so much that she is willing to con Esau, her other son, in order to make this happen.

And to be fair, that last charge, you can put that on Isaac rap sheet too. They're both as bad as each other in this. But here's what's interesting. This is what I noticed this week as I was studying this.

They've both sinfully given into favoritism as parents, but they've done it in ways that kind of conform to who they are. Go with me here for a second. Men in the room, as one of you, can we agree that generally as men, we are very task and mission oriented?

Generally speaking, we value mission, we value tasks, and we generally think of everything. Maybe I do this, but I imagine if I ask around enough, most of us view things in terms of success and failure.

Did I accomplish the task or did I not? Esau is skilled at a task that Isaac both respects and he profits from. So he likes Isaac. Rebecca, like most women, is nurturing and relational and values that.

And that's a good thing. That's part of how God has made ladies in general. And just who happens to be the homebody? Always indoors, always easier to connect with because he's actually around. Jacob. Oh, let's not forget that, you know, little Jake is also on God's side, apparently, because God told Rebecca, he's the one who's going to be blessed, not the other way around.

But that doesn't excuse the favoritism from either parent. And while I'm not one to give parenting advice, as someone who's only had a child for three years, I think we can all agree parents don't do this.

Shouldn't need to be said, but we are human. And let's be honest as humans, we don't always value that which is not naturally appealing to us. So if God has blessed you with kids, love them equally. But like I said, I'm not here to give parenting advice.

It's just kind of, that was a freebie. Enjoy that one. But more than parenting advice by proxy, this story is cluing us into the fact that neither Isaac nor Rebecca understand that the promise of God is sovereignly given.

God is not impressed by skill or ability. And God is not moved by what you consider to be most valuable and dear to you. We can, we can say this quite plainly, Isaac and Rebecca should have known better, but let's not bang on them too harshly because let's be honest, we can be just as prone to mishandle God's promises, can't we?

I mean, isn't that the point? I'm not going to have you turn there, but if you're taking notes, Hebrews chapter two, isn't that the point of the exhortation Hebrews two? For this reason, we must pay attention all the more to what we have heard so that we will not drift away.

But if the message spoken through angels was legally binding and every transgression and disobedience receives a just punishment, how will we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? And by the way, in the context of Hebrews two, neglecting a great salvation is not losing salvation.

It's failing to pay attention to the message of salvation. It's mishandling it. And so for a moment, if I may allow me to get practical with this, are there areas where you may have failed to handle God's truth with the appropriate amount of care and the appropriate amount of understanding?

Could it be in the area of your own personal devotion to Christ? Could it be in the area of your commitment to the Lord's day and the means of grace? Could it be in the raising of your family? Could it be in your witness for Christ in the public square?

Could it be in our own diligent pursuit of growth in godliness? I don't know what areas you might be struggling in. You might be here and you're not struggling at all. Great! Wonderful! I want to encourage you to keep pressing on.

Oh and by the way, find a way to help those who are struggling. But maybe you're in the camp where if you're honest with yourself, you're like, you know what? I might be struggling with this. I might be mishandling all of the great spiritual privileges God has given me in Christ.

But please do not hear me as condemning you when I ask that question because if you are struggling, can I reassure you that there is fresh grace in Christ for the most weary of saints? That doesn't have to be your story.

We're coming back to our text. Rebecca has put this now to Jacob and Jacob has some legitimate concerns. He's not stupid. So verse 11, Jacob answered Rebecca's mother, look my brother Esau is a hairy man and I'm a man with smooth skin.

I think that's kind of a problem. I agree more than a little bit. Suppose my father touches me, then I will be revealed to him as a deceiver and bring a curse rather than a blessing on myself. These are legitimate concerns.

I have to applaud Jacob. Even he recognizes, oh no mama, I don't know about this here. I mean, my mom would never put me in this situation. But imagine if I was talking to my mom. Some of you have met my mom.

I love my mom dearly. But if she, she might be watching this. Hi mama. If my mom put me in this situation, I would have these questions because this is kind of a matter of life and death. Jacob knows that this is a dangerous scheme and he rightly voices his concerns.

But mama ain't hearing any of that because look at verse 13 and notice how cold this response is. His mother said to him, your curse be on me my son. Just obey me and go get them for me. She doesn't acknowledge any of the fact that this might be a bad idea.

Doesn't acknowledge any of that. Doesn't actually care for his concerns in this moment. Just says, you know what, if he curses you, you know what, let it be on me. You, charge it to me. You just go do this.

Can I put it to you that if you think about this, this is something of an anti-gospel if you will. But think about it. In the gospel, we acknowledge that we have sinned against God in the way that we think, in the way that we talk, and in the way that we act.

But God willingly steps in and God willingly says he will take on the punishment that we deserve in Christ and we go free. That's the gospel message, right? Rebecca, by her actions, is doing the polar opposite of this.

She calls Jacob to sin in thought, word, and action. And when he points this out, she says, I'll take the punishment, you go and sin. Promises have been grossly mishandled. Isaac does it by making the promises about him.

Rebecca does it through flippant, sinful maneuvering. And that sets up the stage for our second scene. The first scene is promises mishandled. But our second scene, our second scene involves promises misapplied.

Promises misapplied. Whatever concerns Jacob has, that level of uneasiness he feels, it gives way to Rebecca's scheming. So look at verse 14. So he went and got the goats and brought them to his mother.

And his mother made the delicious food his father loved. Then Rebecca took the best clothes of her son, older son Esau, which were in the house. And he had her younger son, Jacob, wear them. She put the skins of the young goats on his hands and the smooth part on his neck.

Guess she found a way out of that hairy situation. Then she handed the delicious food and the bread she had made to her son, Isaac. There's a part of me that wants to applaud the genius of this and a part of me, a larger part, that is incredibly appalled by this.

She's found a way to make this work. And now the game is afoot. Verse 18. When he came to his father, he said, my father. And he answered, here I am. Who are you, my son? Jacob replies to his father, I'm Esau, your firstborn.

I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game so that you may bless me. Jacob makes his opening gambit. But let's give Isaac some credit here. Isaac is old, but he's not slow. Because look at verse 20.

But Isaac said to his son, how did you ever find it so quickly, my son? He replied, Jacob replied, because Yahweh, your God has made it happen for me. Unmitigated goal of this moment. You have now added blasphemy to the list of problems with this story.

It's almost as though God in heaven at this moment, I imagine that he just said, wait, what? We are dragging me into this now? Verse 21. Then Isaac said to Jacob, please come closer so that I can touch you.

Are you really my son Esau or not? Again, Isaac's old, but he's not slow. He did not recognize him because his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau. By the way, he's wearing a goat skin. How hairy was Esau?

Again, the text has a double. Yeah, I have so many questions anyway. And he replied, I am. Verse 25. Then he said, bring it closer to me and let me eat some of my son's game so that I can bless you. Jacob brought it closer to him and he ate.

He bought him wine and he drank. Now, I have to believe that Moses didn't intend this to be funny. But let's be honest, it kind of is. I mean, this is a couple of the random questions that I was, I'm kind of living in this text this week as I'm thinking, how much is Jacob sweating in this goat suit right now?

I mean, they're in the desert after all, but forget the heat. This is some ocean 11 type nonsense. Like I have to imagine that he's like drenched in sweat and it's not just because he's hot. Also, did you see in verse 21?

In verse 22, he says, so Jacob came close to his father. Isaac, when he touched him, he said, the voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau. Again, he's not slow. He's like, something about this doesn't seem to add up.

I can only imagine the liver shivers that uh, Jacob had to feel in this moment that, oh, I am so done. But whatever liver shivers he might have felt are pretty short-lived because look at verse 26. Then Isaac, his father said to him, please come closer and kiss me, my son.

So he came closer and kissed him, which was a very cultural thing to do at that point. Verse 27, when Isaac smelled his clothes, he blessed him and said, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that Yahweh has blessed.

May God give you from the dew of the sky and from the richness of the land, an abundance of grain and new wine. May people serve you and bow in worship to you, be master over your relatives. May your mother's sons bow in worship to you.

Those who curse you will be blessed and those who bless you, those who bless you will be blessed. The blessing that Isaac gives in these verses, it's actually poetic in its structure. It's got four verses to it and each one is a particular blessing.

So the first one's in verse 27, that language of a field that is blessed by God. It's supposed to tie into the land promise that God had made. The second promise, second blessing he gives in verse 28, that language of dew, richness and abundance all points to financial prosperity.

So you have the land, financial prosperity. First half of verse 29, reference to political and kingly dominion. In fact, one commentator puts it like this, Isaac's fierce pride in Esau demands an empire for him against the decree of chapter 25 verse 23.

And finally, the end of verse 29, in keeping with Genesis chapter 12 verses 2 and 3, he's promised divine protection that anybody who blesses him will be blessed and anyone who curses him will be cursed.

These are weighty promises. You get the sense that Isaac isn't just saying words to say words. He means this. This is coming from his heart. These are strong words from a proud dad. But remember why Isaac is doing this and who he's doing it for.

He's not doing it because I've experienced the blessing of God and I want to ensure that my son receives the promise of God. No, he's doing this because it's Esau his favorite and because Esau his favorite brought him the meal that he wanted.

Remember I said that this sermon is going to be like going through a long dark tunnel for quite some time. Allow me to give you just a brief glimmer of light here. It's not the light at the end of the tunnel, but a little bit.

Isaac might not have intended to bless Jacob to this magnitude, but you know who did? God did. You see promises might be misapplied by men. I don't remember who it was I heard say this in a sermon once that God has never made a clerical ever.

You know clerical errors are man's problem. God doesn't make mistakes. Man might misapply God's promises, but God has never misapplied his promise to anyone. And so yes this is like I said it's fraud, it's theft, it's deception, it's disrespect on multiple levels, and yet even in this we can see the grace of God at work.

Mourning the Consequences of Taking God’s Promises for Granted

And so you see promises mishandled, you see promises misapplied, and all of that sets up our third scene as we witness promises mourned. Promises mourned verses 30 to 40. If this story hadn't gotten sad enough, it's about to get a whole lot more tragic because as soon as all this is done, along comes Esau verse 30.

As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had left the presence of his father Isaac, his brother Esau arrived from his hunting. He had also made some delicious food and brought it to his father.

He said to his father, let my father get up and eat some of his son's game so that you may bless me. Esau has taken these words to heart, but his father Isaac said to him, who are you? He answered, I am Esau, your first born son.

Isaac began to tremble uncontrollably. Who was it then, he said, who hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it all before you came in and I blessed him. Indeed, he will be blessed. Like I said, there's a small part of me that in this story feels for Esau a little bit.

After all, he had taken his dad's, let's be honest, legalistic and favoritist words to heart. I can only imagine that this was probably the best meal he'd ever cooked in his entire life. Putting all that work, expecting to cash in, only to hear this.

But what's done is done. You catch that at the end of verse 33? Isaac says, I ate it all before you came in and I blessed him. Indeed, he will be blessed. And this moment and the weight of it hits Esau like a ton of bricks, verse 34.

When Esau heard his father's words, he cried out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, bless me to my father. But he replied, your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing. Esau mourns the fact that he's not going to receive the promise.

And like I said, at first glance, it might seem reasonable to be sympathetic to Esau in this moment. And on a human level, I can get it. But before that kicks in too strongly, the rest of the Bible has something to tell us about this.

And actually, we've looked at this verse in passing. I want to take a little more time with it. Keep something here in Genesis 27. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews towards the end of the New Testament there.