The Disdain and Decadence of Apostates (Hebrews 12:16-17) Part 1 | Worship Service

Psalm 144 and the Call to Worship

Okay that was my bad. We're gonna begin our service this morning with a new psalm that's to the tune of Your Great Name We Praise, which is to the tune of Immortal Invisible, God Only Wise, which is to the tune of Oh Blessed Be the Lord God,.

Psalm.

144. Would you please stand as we sing. 47 and it says, Praise YAH for it is good.

To sing praises to our God for it is pleasant and praise is becoming. Yahweh builds up Jerusalem. He gathers the outcasts of Israel. He is the one who heals the brokenhearted and who binds up their wounds.

Who counts and numbers the stars. He gives names to all of them. Great is our Lord and abundant in power. His discernment is infinite. Yahweh helps the afflicted. He brings down the wicked to the ground.

And the song we're going to sing is to the tune of the hymn, Only.

Trust Him. And it's Oh Praise the Lord for it is good. And for our scripture.

Reading today will you please turn to the book of Romans to chapter 9. Romans chapter 9. And while you're turning there I'll just make mention of one announcement that needs a little bit of an explanation.

If you were at the conference last weekend and you were here for lunch then you know that we got smoked pulled pork sandwiches for lunch during that conference. That was kind of a game-changer for us because Brian Ashby brought his massive smoker and did all of that work for us in preparing that meal for us to enjoy.

And that kind of opened up a whole new horizon for us as a church body in terms of what we can enjoy. It kind of feels like we are Dorothy and we've stepped out of the house that was black and white and now we've come out into a land of brilliant and bright colors.

So it was suggested to me last week that maybe at our church picnic this year that we have smoked meat of some sort. Someone suggested smoked tri-tip and I seconded that motion. So that's what we're going to intend on doing for our church picnic the last Sunday in July, July 30th.

So mark that on your calendar, take note of that. Now here's something that is always a challenge with the body of believers this size is getting the the food approximation correct. And we've tried this where we have people sign up on a sign-up sheet but then we always have people sign up who don't show up or show up who don't sign up and then there are people who signed up and or sorry there are people who wish they had signed up but they didn't sign up but they intend on showing up and they think they're probably people who signed up but aren't going to show up so it all come out in the wash and it just ends up becoming a big mess up.

So we want to avoid that this year and since we're talking about tri-tip but not just hamburgers it's obviously a more significant investment we've decided that we could probably just if everybody who plans to come pitches in five dollars per person per head that would cover the expense of it so there will be a registration process at some point next couple of weeks where you'll be able to put a little bit of skin in the game if your intention is to be here and then anything that's left over we will freeze and put away for the harvest dinner at the end of October.

So that is the plan and I just want to put that on your calendar and keep that available and know that that's coming in the next couple of weeks. Romans chapter 9 beginning at verse 6 we're gonna read from verse 6 to the end of verse 18 but it is not as though the Word of God has failed for they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel nor are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants but through Isaac your descendants will be named.

That is it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants for this is the word of promise at this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son.

And not only this but there was Rebecca also when she had conceived twins by one man our father Isaac. For though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad so that God's purpose according to his choice would stand not because of works but because of him who calls it was said to her the older will serve the younger just as it is written Jacob I loved but he saw I hated.

What shall we say then there's no injustice with God is there may it never be. For he says to Moses I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs but on God who has mercy.

For the scripture says to Pharaoh for this very purpose I raised you up to demonstrate my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth. So then he has mercy on whom he desires and he hardens whom he desires.

We stand with me as we pray. Let's bow our heads our father we are here because of your sovereign grace and your sovereign choice and your goodness which you have put upon us before the foundations of the world by choosing us in Christ and bringing us to your son.

We thank you for your sovereign grace which has redeemed a people for your own possession who are zealous for good works. We thank you that all of this was accomplished by the work of our triune. God a father who chose us the son who came to offer a sacrifice for our sins and the spirit who draws and woos and regenerates those who belong to Yahweh.

So we thank you for this great mercy. We thank you for your great salvation and for the joy and delight that it is to be called your people and to gather together to worship your great name. So we pray that you would strengthen us in our faith in our love for you and our affections for Christ in our unity together our love for one another.

And we pray that you would be honored and glorified through our worship and in the affections of your people this this day both now and forever. We pray in Christ's name.

Amen.

Romans 5:18-21 and Grace Reigning Through Righteousness

So we go to Romans chapter 5 verses 18 to 21 which says. So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men even so through one act of righteousness the result of justification of life to all men for as through one man's disobedience the many were appointed sinners even so through.

The obedience of the one the many were appointed righteous. Now the law came in.

So that the transgression would increase but where sin increased grace abounded all the more so that a sin reigned in death even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

We're gonna sing.

Have mercy on me they will be punished. I know your lot for you are if you would everything I'm wrong but there's forgiveness with you. Now in your Bibles we please turn to the book of Hebrews to chapter 12 Hebrews.

Chapter 12 specifically verse 15 when you found your place there let's let's pray together before we begin our Lord. We ask you to sanctify us today by your truth. We pray that you would make your word live to us that you would give us eyes to see it.

We may behold in your word light and truth and wonderful things. The Spirit would be our teacher and that your word would be our guide and that your glory and our contribution to that may be our everlasting concern be honored.

Today we pray through our meditation upon your word you would draw us near to you and sanctify us by this truth in Christ's name Amen. We are provided a number of examples in Scripture some of them exemplary examples of men who men and women who were above reproach in their lives.

Some examples are rather questionable where you kind of wonder where were they at spiritually what exactly became of this person. And some of them are just examples of utter corruption and depravity and evil in every way.

Good examples would include men like Joseph of whom very little ill is said of Joseph at all in the record. Some people would even argue that his showing of his co sorry the revealing of his dreams to his brothers was not itself anything sinful or prideful.

And if you rule that out then there's virtually nothing said of Joseph that would make you think he had any problems or faults at all. His record is almost without blemish. And of course there's Moses and Paul and Peter and John in the New Testament Jonathan Old Testament Jonathan those are men that are noble and admirable.

Then you have a and that's not to say that they're without sin. By the way they're. They obviously are sinners but it's to say that their record is is virtually unblemished in terms of major marks against them.

David. David if it were not for the sin with Bathsheba and the killing of Uriah which admittedly is quite an ugly mark on his otherwise prestigious resume David was a godly man a man after God's own heart.

Then there are questionable examples in Scripture men like Samson. What do you do with Samson. He's a an intriguing character. Isn't he. Was Samson saved or not do you think. I think he was. I wouldn't have wanted to be handcuffed to him when he died.

I'm not sure. And Solomon is the same now. Early Solomon is different than later Solomon. Early Solomon is good Solomon later Solomon is bad Solomon. When Solomon dies at the end of his life did he die in faith as a man of God justified.

Or did he not. If you follow the record of Ecclesiastes you say at the end of Ecclesiastes which was written towards the end of Solomon's life you get that that commendation of live and fear God. And this is the whole duty of man and his commendation to remember God in the days of your youth.

Well is that Solomon just saying look I've rolled the dice and I've done everything I can to sort of find the best way to live. And here's what I think is probably the best way to live where the Solomon really long for and love that advice or not is a matter of questionable record.

I know I don't know. Jephthah. What about Jephthah. Balaam. Here's the guys everything bad about everything about Balaam that you see in Scripture is bad. And yet he was a man who's credited to be in profit and spoke the Word of God.

These are kind of questionable examples. And then there are men who are just outright evil men like Pilate and Caiaphas and Judas. And then Judas's Old Testament counterpart Esau. Esau is Judas's Old Testament counterpart.

Esau is a man that is held forth to us as an example in every bad way nothing good is said about him. And he actually is mentioned here in this introduction to the final warning passage in Hebrews in verses 15 through 16 and 17 15 through 17.

Let's read these verses together. See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God. That no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble and by it many be defiled. That there'd be no immoral or godless person like Esau who sold his own birthright for a single meal.

For you know that even afterwards when he desired to inherit the blessing he was rejected for he found no place for repentance though he sought for it with tears. Notice that Esau is mentioned in a contest that context that speaks of falling short of the grace of God that is describes an apostate.

And he is mentioned here in the introduction to this final warning passage in Hebrews. He is in fact an example of an apostate. He's also listed right after the the bitter person or the one who the root of bitterness that springs up and defiles many people is mentioned in that context.

He is an example of an apostate one whose mind affections whose loves whose perspective is entirely carnal entirely fleshly entirely of this world. That is Esau. Now the last time we were together we looked at verse 15 and we saw there that there is an exhortation to us to guard against apostasy in our own midst.

And we noticed there the essence of apostasy in verse 15 that is coming short of the grace of God that describes the the essence of what apostasy is. Then we saw there the effect of apostasy. It is a bitter root that springs up and defiles many.

And now we come to the example of apostasy which is Esau in verses 16 and 17. Esau's actions and his significance were probably no assumedly well known to the original writer readers of this epistle. But they're probably less known to you and I at least some of us who are here probably well known to many of you.

But I could assume that there are some people here who would wonder okay who is Esau. And why is he's held forth as an example of an apostate. Why does it scripture regard him as an immoral and godless person.

What justifies that. So here's what we're going to do over the course of the next couple of weeks. Today we're going to observe here in this passage just briefly in verses 16 and 17 three things that define or describe Esau.

We're going to notice them here. And then we're going to go back to the account of Jacob and Esau in the book of Genesis and we're going to do a kind of a biographical sketch of Esau. Now we did something similar to this back in Hebrews chapter 11 with Abraham Isaac and Jacob.

But now we get to sort of take a bit of us of a rabbit trail as it were and we're going to talk about Esau and how different he was from both Abraham and Isaac and Jacob his brother. And then with that background and we're going to observe when you get back to Genesis we're going to observe the three things that I'm going to we're going to note here in Hebrews chapter 12.

Then with that background we will come back next time into Hebrews chapter 12 and we'll take a look at those three things about Esau. Now notice. First of all here's our outline. If we were going to get to the outline today this would be it but this is your outline for like maybe next week.

So the rest of this is just going to be a biographical introduction to the person of Esau. First we notice Esau's carnality. Look at verse 16 that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau immoral and godless driven by his lusts driven by his flesh a man of sight a man of sensuality that is Esau a carnal person.

Second we'll notice Esau's contempt that is he despised his birthright. That also verse 16 he sold his own birthright for a single meal his carnality and his contempt for God's promises they they come together for this to create this action whereby he sold his entire birthright for a mere meal.

And then third we'll notice the consequences in verse 17 for you know that even afterwards when he desired to inherit the blessing he was rejected for he found no place for repentance though he sought for it with tears.

His rejection by God for his act of selling his birthright by the way that brings up two other related theological issues that we will address at some point in connection with Esau in the next several weeks.

One God's sovereignty in the whole affair because God said of Jacob and Esau Jacob I've loved and Esau I've hated. This describes his sovereignty over this because God said to Rebecca the younger sorry the older will serve the younger.

So God obviously chose Jacob as Paul says in Romans chapter 9 before either of them had done anything good or evil. And so how is it that God is sovereign. Yet the the sins of both of these men play out in their lives to accomplish God's purposes.

That is the the joining of the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. So that's one thing. The second thing is that very what some people regard as a difficult statement. I don't regard it as all that difficult that you find in the book of Malachi in Romans chapter 9 Jacob I have loved and Esau I have hated.

That's not his uncle saying that of him that is not a cousin saying that of him or an enemy that is God who says of Jacob and Esau. Jacob I've loved and Esau I've hated has mentioned the book of Malachi and it's repeated in the New Testament in Romans chapter 9.

So we're gonna wrestle through that at least and in some regard regarding these two men. So his carnality which is this character his contempt which is his action character always expresses itself in actions.

And then the consequences of that which was Esau's destiny. Now keep that in your mind and we will return here at some point. Turn back turn back. Now please to Genesis chapter 25. Genesis chapter 25.

Once you land there I'm going to give you a little bit of a background and some context. Here we covered many of these events when we went through Abraham Isaac Jacob and Joseph in Hebrews chapter 11 and we looked at the order of those patriarchs is significant.

We looked at their lives and the things that were in their lives that the author of Hebrews points to as evidences of the kind of faith he commends. In Hebrews chapter 11 we looked at the example of those four men.

So let me offer a little bit of background. If you were to turn back and don't do this to Genesis chapter 12 you'll see that when Abraham comes on the scene God promised him a son and made a covenant with Abraham.

Abraham at that point was somewhere in the neighborhood of 75 years old. Ishmael was Abraham's attempt to fulfill that promise through a handmaid because Abraham had the promise that God had given him of giving him that land in which he was to sojourn descendants a lineage as well as one seed one through whom all of the nations of the world would be blessed.

That was what God promised to Abraham. So Abraham was 86 when he tried to fulfill the promises of God in his own way by taking his wife's handmaid as a as a wife a concubine and having a son through her.

That was Ishmael. He was 86 then. But then Abraham was promised again after multiple other reiterations of this promise. Abraham was promised a son at the age of 99 and his final finally his son Isaac the son of promise was born to Abraham when he was a hundred years old and Abraham's wife Sarah who had been barren up till then was 90 at the time that Isaac was born.

Now if case you are new here and you're wondering does Jim take all of the ages in scripture is literal like Methuselah 969 Abraham 100 Sarah 90 when she was born. The answer that is yes because those ages pose no problem at all for somebody who holds to a young earth creationist viewpoint as I do and take scripture in the sense in which it is it fits within a Christian context and Christian theology.

And when we think of Abraham being a hundred years old don't think of somebody that you know that is a hundred years old and they go okay. Abraham was that old and then he lived another 75 years after that.

So what must he have looked like and walked like and talked like when he was a hundred and seventy-five years old. Ages were ages were not calculated in like dog years or cat years back then. So it's that's not how they counted them but the aging process was different in the early years of of creation and particular and it's in it and it sped up after the flood.

So yes Abraham at a hundred and seventy-five years old would probably be like me at 80 or 90. Abraham at a hundred would be like me today at 50 because it was about half or double for him now before that it was it was different.

So yes I take these numbers as actual numbers. So Abraham lived then to be a hundred and seventy five years old. Now if Abraham was a hundred years old when Isaac was born and he lived to be a hundred and seventy-five.

Right. Homeschool kids help out your other people parents went to public school with this one. That means that when Abraham died at a hundred and seventy-five Isaac was how old. 75. We find out later on in the text that when I Isaac was 60 that is when his sons Jacob and Esau were born to him.

If Jacob and Esau were born when Isaac was 60 and Abraham died when Isaac was 75 then Jacob and Esau would have lived how many years with their grandparents. 15 years. And we have every right to presume that Jacob and Esau would have grown up in the same tribe in the same neighborhood it would have been very familiar with Abraham.

So Abraham Isaac and Jacob and Esau they would have lived together for at least 15 years. Now Isaac was the son of promise not Ishmael which was Abraham's firstborn. God's choice was for Abraham's lineage to continue through Isaac and for all the blessings of the covenant and the blessings promised to Abraham they would continue through Isaac and not through Ishmael which included the land blessings the physical blessings material blessings as well as the spiritual blessings.

Now Isaac was 37 years old when his mother Sarah died and he took a wife three years later at the age of 40. And at the age of 60 is when Rebecca his wife had Jacob and Esau hoping I'm keeping all of the numbers correct as well as the timeline and the names.

So now Genesis chapter 25 verse 19. Now these are the records of the generations of Isaac. Abraham's son Abraham became the father of Isaac and Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebecca the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paden Aram the sister of Laban the Aramean to be his wife.

Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was barren and the Lord answered him and Rebecca his wife conceived and again she was he was 50 or sorry he was 60 when this happened. So they've been married for 20 years obviously trying to have children.

She was barren. I'm unable to conceive. So Isaac begins to pray to the Lord for a child for his wife to conceive. Why would Isaac be praying for that. I was. It would be praying for that because he knew that the blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant everything God promised to Abraham would be given to to him.

And if he has no child nobody to whom to give those blessings and to pass those things on to then the the promise of God would fail. But Isaac was convinced that God would keep his word and so he is here praying in accordance with God's Word.

I know that there has to be somebody who comes from my loins. I am the child of promise and therefore I must be able to have children. At some point his wife is barren. So he begins to pray for a child in order for God to fulfill his word.

Verse 22. But the children struggled within her and she said if it is so why them am I this way. So she went to inquire of the Lord. The Lord said to her two nations are in your womb and two peoples will be separated from your body and one people shall be stronger than the other and the older shall serve the younger.

She was going to have twins and these two twins would be the heads of two different nations. Esau became the father of the Edomites in Scripture. Jacob became the father of the Israelites. His name is changed to Israel later in the record and he becomes the father of those twelve sons who become the twelve tribes of Israel.

Now Rebecca could not foresee how this pregnancy was going to come about. So she inquired of the Lord and the Lord revealed that she was having twins and that in these two twins something would happen which would be unexpected and out of the ordinary namely that the older would end up serving the younger.

Now this is the opposite of what would have been expected in that culture. In that culture what would have been expected was that the older would the older one would be born. Who was born first would end up receiving the inheritance and the blessings and the family lineage and and all that and encompassed that and then that anybody else born after him with the younger would end up serving and being part of that family by serving the older.

But here the Lord reveals it's going to be the opposite. The older one is going to serve the younger one. Verse 24. When her days to be delivered were fulfilled behold there were twins in her womb. Now the first came forth red all over like a hairy garment and they named him Esau.

Afterward his brother came forth with his hand holding on to Esau's heel. So they named him Jacob which means a trickster a tripper one who supplants or trips somebody else. And Isaac was 60 years old when she gave birth to them.

Now this is the birth order Esau first and then Jacob. But God had said that the older one would serve the younger. In other words for the in terms of the purposes and promises of God this birth order would be reversed and it would be actually be the older that would serve the younger instead of the younger that would serve the older.

Now this structure of the older one receiving the inheritance and and the promises and the blessings and everything that was known as primal geniture primal geniture. And it was the primal meaning first and geniture a Latin word meaning person's birth or referring to a person's birth.

This was the practice that though that was customary in ancient cultures it was almost universally practiced at the time. And in fact there are places today and cultures today where this is still what is practiced and that is that the firstborn son would receive the entire estate of what was handed down to him and everybody else and that was born into that family would then become servants or contributors to that household and this estate then would belong in the sole possession of the firstborn son.

Now if you're a firstborn child here today you're thinking to yourself we need to get back to the Bible that is a why have we ever departed from God's law and God's Word and and such sound economic principles.

If you're not a firstborn child here today then you're thinking yourself. I'm glad we got rid of that practice and we don't do that in our culture. But observe how much different this is than the way we practice it today.

And there's a case to be made that this is a superior way of doing this not that I'm gonna do this with my kids but there is a case to be made that this is superior to what we do today. What we do today is we take an inheritance or an estate and we give half to the government because of roads or something and then the other half we distribute equally amongst all the children and the grandchildren so that everybody gets enough to know that they got something but nobody gets enough to do anything with.

In an ancient culture the firstborn child could receive the training and the discipline and everything that was necessary so that when the entire family business the entire family estate was transferred into his possession he could handle it well and all of his siblings would also contribute to that.

And that wealth could be passed on from generation to generation to generation and only increase in size and expansion expands over the time over time see how superior that is. We just take it now we just divvy it up.

Everybody gets a little bit and then it's gone. Not in those ancient cultures which is why Abraham was a very wealthy man would have handed out his entire estate to Isaac who himself was a very wealthy man.

And so when he gets ready to give this on to his sons the firstborn Esau would naturally get this. But God had said the older is going to serve the younger. This is going to be flipped on its head with these two boys.

This was a practice regulated by the Mosaic Law. And to give you Deuteronomy chapter 21 verses 15 through 17. Here's how the law Moses regulated this practice. If a man has two wives and the one loved and the other unloved and both the loved and the unloved have born him sons.

If the firstborn son belongs to the unloved wife then it shall be in the day he wills that he has wills all what he has to his sons. He cannot make the son of the loved the firstborn before the son of the unloved who is the firstborn.

But he shall acknowledge the firstborn the son of the unloved by giving him a double portion of all he has for he is the beginning of his strength. To him belongs the right of the firstborn. In other words if a man has two wives one of them he really prefers one of them not so much but the one that not so much has the firstborn son.

He can't take the child of the woman that he loves and give him the inheritance and the rights of the firstborn he has to honor the birth order and give it to the woman's the son of the woman whom he doesn't love as much because that is his firstborn son.

Now this passage in Deuteronomy does not prescribe polygamy. It doesn't endorse polygamy. It doesn't excuse polygamy. It regulates the law of transferring inheritances in a polygamous situation it's quite different.

So the law provided for a way of passing on wealth from one generation to another. In the case of Jacob and Esau the birth order and the blessings would be flipped. Paul uses this as an illustration of God's sovereignty in Romans chapter 9 which we read at the beginning of the service.

Rebecca also when she had conceived by one man our father Isaac. For though the twins were not yet born and had done nothing good or bad listen so that God's purpose according to his choice would stand before they had done anything good or bad.

God chose Jacob and that's described in Romans chapter 9 as well as Malachi Jacob I've loved and Esau I have hated. The purpose of God in choosing Jacob over Esau is secured in two events in Jacob's life.

Two events and here they are. First Esau sells his birthright to Jacob. Second Jacob stole the blessing from Esau. These are two separate events. Esau sells the birthright to Jacob and then second Jacob steals the blessings from Esau.

Those are the two events through which and they happen years apart. Those are the two events through which the predetermined plan and purpose of God in choosing Jacob over Esau would end up fleshing out in time and history to accomplish what God had predetermined should happen.

Let's look at the first one. Esau sells his birthright. Genesis chapter 25. Verse 27. Now verse 26. Where were yet. Yeah. That mentions Jacob Isaac being 60 years old when she gave birth to him. Verse 27.

Now I'll catch up. I appreciate the help over here. That was good. Genesis 25. Verse 27. When the boys grew up Esau became a skillful hunter a man of the field. But Jacob was a peaceful man living in tents at the exact age of the men.

When what is about to unfold happens is a bit hard to determine. Obviously the men are grown by this point. We can in later in chapter 26 verse 34 Esau is 40 years old when he takes wives. So we can presume that this exchange over the birthright happened when they were probably in their 20s maybe their early 30s.

In other words these are not teenage boys sitting out in the sandbox playing with their Tonka Troy's bartering over things that they know nothing about. Or one makes a flippant comment. Yeah I promise I'll give you this if you give me that it wasn't that at all these were grown men who understood everything concerning the implications of what is about to go down here.

Verse 28. Now Isaac loved Esau because he had a taste for game. But Rebecca loved Jacob. Now obviously this is dysfunction in the family to some degree here we talked about that earlier in Hebrews chapter 11.

Verse 29 when Jacob had cooked stew Esau came in from the field and he was famished. And Esau said to Jacob please let me have a swallow of that red stuff there for I'm famished. Therefore his name is called Edom which means red.

Jacob said first tell me your birthright. Esau said behold I'm about to die. So what use then is the birthright to me. Now Jacob wanted the birthright before we go on to the rest of this exchange. What was the birthright.

The birthright for Jacob and Esau listen carefully was not just the entire wealth of the family which is Abraham and Isaac and everything that had been accumulated for multiple generations. It wasn't just that it was more than that for these two brothers.

The birthright included the promises given to Abraham back in Genesis chapter 12 that are reiterated in chapter 15 and 17. In fact when we were in Hebrews chapter 11 we spent two full Sundays just tracing the theme of what God promised to Abraham all the way through the book of Genesis.

Two full Sundays all the way to the end of Genesis chapter 50 with Joseph in Egypt and the promises that he made his brother make concerning his bones. This promise to Abraham of a land a nation of descendants after him as well as all of the physical materials spiritual blessings all of that is incorporated in that.

It is not just a promise of physical blessings but also the promise of spiritual blessings that is it is at stake with Jacob and Esau. So everything that belonged to Abraham physically materially as yes.

But all of the promises that concern eternity that belongs to Abraham are also to be handed off to either Jacob or Esau. That is what is at stake. In fact if you look up at verse 5 of chapter 25 you see that Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac.

So now Isaac possesses everything that Abraham had including the promises including the covenant. It's all coming through Isaac and we'll go to either Jacob or it will go to Esau. God's purpose was that the older would serve the younger.

In other words God's purpose was that Jacob would receive all of those blessings. The Abrahamic Covenant was physical blessings but it was also immense spiritual blessings which were far more important.

In fact the crowning jewel of the Abrahamic Covenant the crowning jewel of what God promised to Abraham was not physical blessings. And it wasn't the land and it wasn't the nation. The crowning blessing of the Abrahamic Covenant was God himself.

God promised himself to Abraham. Genesis chapter 15 verse 1. After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision saying do not fear Abraham I am a shield to you. Your reward shall be very great.

Some translations translate that I am your shield and your exceedingly great reward. What God. What God promised to Abraham was himself. He swore himself to Abraham. That was the crowning jewel of the Abrahamic Covenant.

Genesis 17 verse 8. I will give you and your descendants after you the land of your sojournings all the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession. And I will be their God. See the land came with the promise that God would be their God that they would be his people and he would be their God and they would worship him and he would bless them.

And there would be this eternal relationship between God and Abraham's descendants who were by his descendants by faith. That was the promise God promised himself to Abraham. And it is that over which Esau is bartering not just an earthly inheritance.

It's not just all the food in the cupboard and the animals and the servants. It's God himself who is leveraged by Esau for a bowl of soup. In the Covenant God himself was the jewel of it. And this is what Esau is dealing with.