Book of Genesis - Ch. 25, Vs. 1-34 (12/17/2000)

All right, we're going to get back to our book of Genesis. Chapter 25.

Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah. This was after Sarah had died.

And Shabarion, Zimran, Jokan, Shan, Medan, Median, Ishbok, Ishmael.

That's not right. Yeshua. Where did I get Ishmael? I'm not going to pronounce all of those names.

But we go through all of them down to verse 5.

And Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac. This is talking about his real estate, his unreal estate, everything.

Isaac typified the Son of God, whom he hath appointed heir of all things.

But unto the sons of the concubines which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived eastward into the east country.

Abraham knows that there will be confusion, argument, lots of things come up, so he disperses his property while he's yet alive.

And these are the days of the years of Abraham, which he lived, and a hundred and three score and fifteen years is how long?

A hundred and seventy -five years. Then Abraham gave up the ghost and died in a good old age, an old man and full of his years and was gathered to his people.

That's all it says. Abraham died. After all that God had made of him, he says he died.

Well, he disperses his property while he's yet alive. It would not have been done or not done so well if he had waited.

In many cases it's wisdom for men to make their own hands, their own executors, and what they find to do, to do while they are yet alive.

I think this is a good idea. And the sons of Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Mephilah in the field of Ephron, the son of Zohar, the

Hittite, which is before Mamre. He is buried in the same place that his wife

Sarah. And the field which Abraham purchased of the sons of Heth, there was

Abraham buried and Sarah his wife. It came to pass, after the death of Abraham, that God blessed the sons of Isaac, and Isaac dwelled by the well of Lehorah.

Now these are the generations of Ishmael, and we go all through the linealogy of Ishmael, and we come down to verse 17.

And these are the years of the life of Ishmael, a hundred thirty and seven years, and he gave up the ghost and died, and was gathered unto his people.

He lived a full life, and he died. No more is said about him than about Abraham.

There's lots of references to Abraham throughout the Bible. And they dwelt from Mephilah unto

Shur, that is, before Egypt, as thou goest toward Assyria.

And he died in the presence of all of his brethren. And these are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son,

Isaac. And Abraham begat Isaac.

Now we're starting on the lineage of Isaac. Isaac was forty years old when he took

Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel, the Syrian, of Paddanuram, the sister to Laban, the

Syrian. They were not Jews. The Jewish race has grown into the

Jewish nation, but the beginning of it was Syrian. And Isaac entreated the

Lord for his wife, because she was barren. She could not bear a child.

And the Lord was entreated of him, and Rebekah, his wife, conceived. And the children struggled together.

So when did the—well, it started with Ishmael and Isaac, but here we see the battle continuing even before they're born.

And the children struggled together within her, and she said, If it be so, why am

I thus? Then she went to inquire of the Lord. Evidently there had not been twins born in recent years, and she wondered why she's thus.

And the Lord said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of children.

People shall be separated from thy bowels, and the one people shall be stronger than the other, and the eldest shall serve the younger.

Now, I would have you notice, before they're born, that she's told who's going to serve who, and it's the younger that is going to serve.

And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in the womb.

One was stronger than the other, and the first came out red, all over like a hairy garment, and they called his name

Esau. And after that came out his brother, and he took hold of Esau's heel, and his name was called

Jacob. Isaac was three years old when she bared them.

And the boys grew, and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field, and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents.

Let me get your input as to the character or description of these two men.

That's good. Anybody want to add? If I had been choosing the boys,

I would have chosen Esau. Jacob just wasn't desirable.

He was using cunning. He was a trickster all of his life, until the

Lord changes it, and that's pretty late in his life. And the boys grew, and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field, and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents.

And Isaac loved Esau because he did eat of his venison, but Rebecca loved

Jacob. Can you see any problem coming? We're told pretty well as to what it is.

Isaac apparently didn't love him. He just reacted to the one that he was most comfortable with.

Is that going to be fair? Yes. We do not have any record, but I would say that it is a fair assumption.

Isaac loved Esau because he did eat of his venison, but Rebecca loved

Jacob. We discover here two problems.

The difference between the one seems stronger than the other.

It was stronger for Isaac to love Jacob, stronger for Rebecca to love, did

I say Jacob? Isaac to love Esau, and Rebecca to love

Jacob. That can do nothing but create a problem. The other hunted, and the other one seems to hunt, and the other washes dishes.

Well, anytime you find a young man washing dishes before he's married.

Now, Jacob sawed pottage, and Esau came in from the field.

Sawed means what? Boiled. He boiled pottage.

Now, Esau came in from the field and he was faint. What was this pottage? It was beans.

And anybody who doesn't like beans, there's something wrong with them. It was just a bowl of beans.

They may have had something else in it, but basically it was beans. Esau said to Jacob, Feed me,

I pray thee, with that same red pottage, for I am faint. Therefore was his name called

Edom. Now, he comes in from the field, Richard. He's hungry.

He hasn't killed anything. And he says, give me a bowl of beans.

Well, Jacob would have given him some. But Jacob saw an opportunity.

He saw just how hungry Esau was. And Jacob said, sell me this day thy birthright.

He didn't beat around the bush. He didn't sneak up on it. He just says, sell me your birthright and I'll give you a pot of beans.

Well, Esau said, behold, I am at the point of death, and what profit shall this birthright do to me?

If he saw the reason or all of the ramifications of the birthright, he considered it nothing.

This has always been a little bit hard for me to understand. When the firstborn had, well it varied over the years, but double portion, and he got everything.

But here he says, I'll trade it to you for a bowl of beans.

Now, that could be nothing much lower than that.

What do you think of that, Joy? He wanted it for money.

Can you think of any other reason? Purge? Any other example?

David? He couldn't see.

He couldn't understand. Well, he sells the beans. Do you really believe he didn't sell the beans?

He sold it for a bowl of beans. Do you really believe that he understood,

Bill? He understood what he was getting, the bowl of beans.

What he didn't understand was what he was getting out of it. He had no concept of what he was getting out of it.

And he thought that was nothing except a title. And he didn't need a title because he was, after all, he was soft.

He could do all things himself. Okay, Diane? I think he made light of that which he had, and figured,

I'm hungry. He took that which he saw for that moment. But in him saying that, speaking those words, he in essence gave it up.

Who said that? Okay. That's what

I meant by made light of. We come in and we stand starving to death. And I'll give you this, the situation is.

I think that he just made light of it. For those impossible, he didn't think he was going to hold it to him.

In other words, he said that. It's impossible that he thought he would just make a conversation if he didn't really think he was giving the birthrights up.

I think that's right. What did you call it back there? What's her name? Brenda.

It's so far back there I can't see. What did you want to say? Me? Yes.

All right, Russ? Dealing with a lot of actors, the people who have the talent are really mad at them.

And their senses are beyond normal. And they're usually spoiled rotten little rats.

And I think you can see the emotion. You see the emotion. I mean, I don't want to take the starving to death.

We're talking about wheat, right? And he's basically going into a tantrum. And acting like a really spoiled child.

Which, later on, he might take it for granted. Because he's in an emotion. All right, we have him coming out of the field.

In fact, he was coming out of the field, proved that he wasn't about to die. Put up your hand.

All right. That he knew that he was his father's favorite.

And that his father would ultimately give the birthright. Pass it down. And that he could skip over this whole deal.

Yes. So, we see lots of short -term reasons. And Esau said,

Behold, I'm at the point to die. And what prophets shall this birthright do to me?

And Jacob said, Swear to me this day. And he's swearing to him.

And he sold him his birthright. Now, this was unknown to anybody.

Except Esau and Isaac.

Jacob. Birthright unto

Jacob. He sold his birthright. All that went with it. Now, he did not consider all that went with it.

Then Jacob gave Esau bread and potage of lentils. And he did eat and drink and rose up and went his way.

It seems so insignificant. That Esau, I want to be sure

I got the name right. Esau simply ate his beans and went on his way.

He forgot about it. He knew that he was first born. He couldn't change that.

He knew that his father didn't know anything about this agreement. He knew that his father would override it.

He just knew. Thus, Esau despised his birthright.

So, Esau sold his birthright. Little did he know what he was doing. But, in all of this, was

God controlling? It seems a shame, and I don't understand it, how

God can control a situation that seems, on the surface, to be wrong to us.

It was wrong for Jacob to do what he did. Yet, God controlled it. It was wrong for Esau to do what he did.

But, God controlled it. They didn't know that. How many things do we do without realizing

God's controlling it? You'll have to raise your hand.

All right. We all do it.

There's a time coming when, well, now

I look back, and I can see how God controlled everything.

I can see it closer to the time that I do it.

But, I wonder if we could see it ahead of time. There's nothing to prevent it, that God does control everything.

I just wonder. Yet, we can all look back at a different time scale, a different way, a different...

I've got to quit. I'm losing my concentration. Is there anything from anybody?

Anything about the lesson you want to bring up? Yes. Yes.

All right. We can see everything back. At least, I hope we can. We cannot see immediately in the future.

We can see way out here in the future that he's going to control it all. But, immediately in the future, a day or two or a week in front of us, we can't see that.

He realizes that his father is not going to give him that birthright. And then, later on, before his father dies, he is feeble and can't see.

And so, he has to treat his father, whether he made the deal with his brother or not, he did not know, other than he saw selling the birthright.

Yeah. So, the selling of the birthright really didn't have anything to do, except it made it legal.

Russ? There's two different things in the birthright. The other is the blessing.

And they're both huge inheritance. And while he sold the birthright, which meant he sold the right to be boss over the entire claim, he didn't sell the blessing.

And they're two separate things, and they're two very powerful things. So, he thought he was still going to have the blessing, even though he sold the right to leadership.

That's right. All right. The small area that he leaves for us is the area of faith.

Yes. And so, without that area, we can't operate in faith and we can't live in God.

And that's the area that we're reaching all the time. Yes. That's the greatest part of his blessing, the space.

Yeah. Because it is true. Yes. Yes.

Yes. That's true.

He's made it so that we live by faith. We have to. Anything else?

Let's stand and we'll be dismissed. Charlie, dismiss us, please.

What you would want us to think about, Lord, we just pray, Lord, that you would grow each one of us to a point to where you can reveal more things to us,

Lord, thereby we can be more of a tool for you through the week when we go out to minister to the world,

Lord. We just pray, Lord, that you would continue to grow in your word.

We just pray, Lord, for all those who want to see fit not to come learn your word,

Lord, send us out there and get us ministered to, Lord, and we ask you in the precious name of Jesus Christ.