The Mysterious Hand of God Genesis 25:19-34

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One of my pastor friends once said that the Christian life is more like making a bed than building a house.
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His point was that Christians too often try to measure their relationship with God through extravagant and world -shaking experiences.
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People think this because they read the Bible and see the miracles that God performed and think, this should be my normal experience.
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But what we have to understand is that miracles happen only at small portions in history.
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They typically happen at points when God gave new revelation and the purpose of the miracles was to authenticate the message to show that this new revelation truly was from God.
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But most of history is not this way. God is every bit as active in the mundane moments as he was when he performed miracles for all to see.
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Proverbs 16 .33 says, the lot is cast into the lap but its every decision is from the
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Lord. Jesus said in Matthew 10 .29 that when a sparrow dies the
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Lord knows of it. What this tells us is the Lord is intimately involved in the tiny details of life.
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He is active in the ordinary and the mundane. Most of our lives are lived following God in the mundane and not the extraordinary.
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Much of the Lord's work in your life is mysterious and not visible to the eye. People may look at your life and not be wowed even though glorious things are happening all around you.
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The author of Hebrews wrote that faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you do not see.
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We know that God called this world into existence by his spoken word. We know that he parted the
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Red Sea for the Israelites to cross through. We know that Jesus died for sinners and rose again and is coming again.
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These were visible events for the eyewitnesses who were there. We did not see these events but we believe their testimony.
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Most of the work that God does in his people is not visible to the eye. We know that God is saving people every day.
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We know that he is doing great work in his people to bring his purposes about. We know that God's promises are true and we will see them with our eyes one day.
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God's ways are mysterious and unseen yet very real in the lives of his people and in the world.
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God's people know this. In our sermon today we are going to see three examples of how
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God works behind the scenes in the life of his people. I encourage you to turn in a Bible with me as always to Genesis 25.
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We will be looking at verses 19 -34. If you are using a red Bible in the pews it is on page 23.
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This sermon is titled The Mysterious Hand of God. Our big idea, our proposition is that the
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Lord works behind the scenes in the life of his people. As I mentioned we will see three examples of this in the text.
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The first example is that he produces growth in you as you wait on him. We will see this in verses 19 -21.
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Before we jump into the text, let me give a little recap of last week's sermon.
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Last week we looked at the end of Abraham's life and what we saw was that the Lord continued his faithfulness to Abraham by continuing the work he started with him after he was gone.
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The Lord did not say, now that Abraham is dead my work through him is done. No, rather the
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Lord kept his promises to Abraham and continued to prosper what would be a tremendous legacy.
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The Lord continued his legacy through Isaac after Abraham. The Lord's hands were on Isaac and he would accomplish much through this line as the nation of Israel would come from it.
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Eventually the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ. The application was clear for us. If we have lived a
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God glorified legacy the Lord will prosper it. The seeds planted now in your life will bear fruit over the long haul.
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The second main point we brought out in the text last week was that the Lord is faithful to us even in death as he takes us to be with him.
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Just as Abraham was gathered to his people and God, so are we gathered to the people of God and to the
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Lord when we die. He securely takes us to be with him. These two wonderful realities for God's people take place because the
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Lord is faithful. Now in our sermon today we are transitioning to a new focus of the narrative in Genesis.
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As I mentioned last week, we spent almost nine months in the life of Abraham. Now we are going to focus on his offspring,
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Isaac and the coming conflict between Jacob and Esau. We will focus on this portion of the narrative until we eventually get to Joseph in Genesis 37.
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So we go from Abraham now to his offspring. Now let's look at our text this morning and see the promise of offspring to Abraham continue to multiply and the battle right from the get -go between these two twin brothers.
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Let's start by looking at verse 19. These are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son.
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Abraham fathered Isaac. So we see the chosen line highlighted as the author
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Moses introduces the next blessed generation continuing with Isaac. What we will see in the next two verses is that Isaac and Rebekah had a similar problem as Abraham and Sarah.
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Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, the
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Aramean of Paddan Aram, the sister of Laban, the Aramean to be his wife.
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And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife because she was barren.
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The author Moses notes that Isaac was 40 years old when he met Rebekah. Of course, several weeks back we saw how the
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Lord providentially crossed their paths. We can assume that Rebekah was much younger than Isaac because there was no mention of a supernatural birth in old age like Sarah had.
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What we remember with Abraham and Sarah is that they had to wait decades for the promised child Isaac finally to be born.
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Isaac and Rebekah had to wait a long time also. Verse 20 says that Isaac was 40 years old when he met and married
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Rebekah. What we will see in a little bit is that he was 60 years old when Rebekah finally gave birth to these two twins.
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So 20 years they had to wait. The Lord does not give them a child immediately.
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Why do you think this is? This is a point we need to draw out here. What we have seen in Genesis is the
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Lord deals with his people in similar ways throughout history. The Lord desires for his people to wait on him and trust.
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By making Isaac wait, Isaac is put in a position where he has to trust.
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This is what he does. He prays to the Lord that Rebekah would no longer be barren and be able to have children.
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The Lord was working in Isaac's heart by not giving him what he wanted right from the start.
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Imagine if God gave us everything we wanted right from the start. How do you think our character would be?
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The Lord cares tremendously about the person he is making you to be. The Lord's goal for your life after conversion is to sanctify you or to make you holy.
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First Thessalonians 4 .3 says this is the will of the Lord, your sanctification.
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Progress in our lives should not be measured by what we get, but by who we become.
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This is why the Lord takes us on quite a journey to make us who we want to be. Sometimes the world might look at your life and say, this person's life has gone nowhere in ten years.
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Yet during that ten years the Lord has done tremendous things. It's been ten years of progress.
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Lamentations 3 .25 says the Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. As we wait, the
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Lord causes us to trust him. And as you seek him during the waiting process, you begin to reflect him.
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I remember when I was in my early twenties, I really wanted to meet my future wife. And it was clear the
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Lord had not brought that across my path. But these years in my life were some of the best years of my life.
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It was a time of sweet communion with the Lord. And he was able to accomplish in those years as a single man, a single young man, what he could not have accomplished if maybe
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I had met my wife right away. And he made that clear to me as I was going through that.
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And in time, of course, I finally met Brianna. But I look back at those years and I say, the
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Lord was doing something in my life. They weren't wasted years. It was years of productivity.
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Psalm 34 .10 says that those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. So even though you may not have what you were waiting for, what the
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Lord is telling you is you are right where he wants you to be. You're not missing out. The Lord is telling you that he is working on your heart during this time of waiting.
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And if your desire is holy, we're not talking about waiting to win the lottery. I probably don't even need to say that, but I just want to make clear.
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If your desire is holy, that he may give you your holy desire at the right time. Isaac and Rebekah, like Abraham and Sarah, had to wait for their child.
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The years between having their marriage and having these twin boys were not wasted years. The Lord was doing precisely what he wanted with their life.
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We know that Isaac grew in faith during this time and it was productive because he sought the
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Lord with a noble request to have a child, to continue the chosen offspring through Rebekah.
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And in time, the Lord answered his prayer. As we look at the second half of verse 21, and the
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Lord granted his prayer and Rebekah, his wife, conceived. So the
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Lord works behind the scenes in the life of his people. The first example how in this text is that he produces growth in you as you wait on him.
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The second example how the Lord works behind the scenes in the life of his people that we see in this text is that his sights were set on you before you were born.
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His sights were set on you before you were born. Verses 22 through 28, we will see this come out.
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After the Lord granted his request that Rebekah would conceive, she went through the many months of pregnancy.
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What we will see in verse 22 is that Rebekah had an interesting pregnancy. Let's read this together.
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The children struggled together within her and she said, if it is thus, why is this happening to me?
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So she went to inquire of the Lord. So the Lord grants this prayer and all of a sudden she has this super difficult pregnancy.
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She is saying, if the Lord is blessing us, why am I having this difficulty? As most of you know,
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Brianna is pregnant right now. She is about halfway through the pregnancy. We just found out,
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I think it is okay for me to say this, we found out it is going to be a boy. So that is exciting. We found that out on Friday. For women in this room who have had a baby, you know that every pregnancy is different.
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Some pregnancies are more difficult and some are smoother than others. Obviously as a man you feel unqualified even talking about pregnancy.
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Brianna was sick early on in this pregnancy but we are glad that she is much smoother at this point.
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It is safe to say here, when we talk about the spectrum of difficulty to a nice smooth pregnancy,
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Rebekah had a difficult pregnancy. As Rebekah experiences this great difficulty, she inquires of the
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Lord and asks why? Why is this happening to me? The Lord responds by telling her that what is happening in her womb is foreshadowing things to come.
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We will see this in verse 23. The Lord said to her, two nations are in your womb and two peoples from within you shall be divided.
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The one shall be stronger than the other. The older shall serve the younger.
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This verse is a prophecy of a future conflict between these two men and the two nations that would come from them.
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What we have seen in Genesis already is that nations start from one man. Israel started from Abraham.
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The Ammonites and Moabites started from Lot and so on and so forth. Two nations will descend from these two men.
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We already know what nation will descend from Isaac. Isaac is Abraham's son, so of course, the nation of Israel comes from him.
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In a moment, I'll explain the other nation that will come from Esau. What we learn about these nations in verse 23 is that these two people groups will be divided.
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What this means is that there will be ongoing conflict between them for numerous years to come.
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I'm talking hundreds of years. Thousands of years. Not only will there be division, but one nation will be stronger than the other.
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The Lord will bless the chosen line with strength more than the non -chosen line.
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We get a surprise at the end of verse 23 that says the older shall serve the younger.
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This is my life verse as a younger brother. I tell my brother... So the stronger nation will come from the younger son and not the older.
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I mentioned last week that typically the firstborn received most of the inheritance.
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Later on in the law of Moses, the firstborn would receive twice as much as their siblings.
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Deuteronomy 21 .17. However, if we would presume that the Lord's blessings on people in ancient times was always the same, sometimes he throws us a curveball.
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That's what he does here. He says the younger one is going to be the one whom
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I'm going to bless and not the older. God's ways are higher than our ways, as scripture says.
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His thoughts are not our thoughts. Sometimes we can think he's predictable. Sometimes he does things that he throws us a curveball and he does this here.
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It would not be the first baby that came out of the womb, but the second that would get the blessing and belong to the chosen line of Abraham's offspring.
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You might think if they're twins, is one really older than the other? You can ask
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Jackson and Mason that. One is older than the other. Actually when Brandon and I went to their house last year, they actually had the older younger shirts on.
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So definitely it is a big deal being either older or younger. And we see here that Esau is the first one to come out, and Jacob the second.
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And you probably figured out which child I just mentioned, which child is going to come first.
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Verses 24 -26 tells us this, so let's read this together. When her days to give birth were completed, behold, there were twins in her womb.
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The first came out red, all his body like a hairy cloak. So they called his name
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Esau. Afterward his brother came out with his hand holding Esau's heel. So his name was called
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Jacob. Isaac was 60 years old when she bore them. So the time came finally for Rebecca to give birth and these two twin boys came out of her womb.
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The first child came out red and there was hair on his body.
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This reminds me of my nephew when he was born. He had a full head of hair and they actually put gel in his hair his first week out of the womb.
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Now Esau, he came out with hair. And this is the first nation that comes from Rebecca.
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Verse 25 says that he came out red. The Hebrew name for Edom is similar to the word red.
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So we see that the nation of Edom comes from Esau. We see the conflict between these two babies right from the start as verse 26 says.
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Jacob's hand holding Esau's heel. We should not take this literally as if Jacob was actually holding
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Esau's heel. Rather the word heel in Hebrew was a figure of speech to say that he was a deceiver.
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He would get in this favored position as the blessed man from deceiving his brother.
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And we'll see that later on in the text today. So Esau, as verse 23 already predicted, would serve
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Jacob. It would be through Jacob that the chosen line would continue, not
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Esau. From Esau would come the Edomites and from Jacob would come Israel.
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The Lord is choosing one who would not be a good person.
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And this is what I want you to see at this point. Jacob's name literally means deceiver.
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And before we get scared about naming our children Jacob, of course we have a Jacob in our church.
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Let me say words of comfort here. That's what his name meant at the beginning, but of course
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Jacob turns out well, so it's actually good to name your child Jacob. There is a very important application here for us that God chose someone who was initially called deceiver.
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If Jacob and Esau were not good, and yet the Lord chose Jacob, not because the
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Lord knew he was going to be good, but because in his wisdom he decided to choose him, what does this mean? Well the
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Apostle Paul helps us understand this. Martin Luther once said, as we're talking about Martin Luther today, he said the best commentary on the
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Bible is the Bible. And the Apostle Paul tells us what this means.
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Romans 9, 10 through 13. It says when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather
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Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing neither good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because of him who calls, she was told the older will serve the younger.
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As it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. Another word for hated is rejected.
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He chose one, he rejected the other. So what do we do with this? Our aim is to understand the
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Bible. Our goal should never be to impose our own ideas on the text of Scripture, which happens far too common.
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We need to let the Bible inform our thinking and not the other way around. God did not choose
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Jacob or any of the people of Israel for that matter because they were the best people in the world and God knew they were going to be the best people in the world.
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He did not choose them because they chose him first. No, he chose them and the result was that in return they chose him back.
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God chooses first and man chooses second. And what we will see throughout the narrative of Jacob is that he was not a godly man for much of his life.
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R .C. Sproul called him a rascal. Robin and I read in a book where he talks about Jacob.
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But eventually Jacob would become one who was godly because the Lord has his sights set on him.
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The Lord chose him to be his child. And the application for us is that the reason we choose
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God is not because we were good enough to choose him first. We were not wiser than other people who never choose
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Christ. Rather, we chose him because he chose us first. Just as he chose
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Jacob and rejected Esau. This is what the scripture says.
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And as the people of God, this is something we should celebrate and not run from. The Lord does all of this for his glory and for the good of his people whom he set his sights on and made his people.
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And we see here, this is the mysterious hand of God. God planned that you were going to be saved before you were born.
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Just as he planned that Jacob would be chosen. And you may ask, what if God does not choose me first but I want to follow the
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Lord by trusting in Christ for your salvation? Will God reject me? The answer is no.
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Jesus responded to this with a beautiful truth in John 6 .37. He says, whoever comes to me,
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I will never cast out. So if you want him, you have him. But you come to him because God set his sights on you and chose you before you were born.
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This is a deep and beautiful truth that the scripture reveals to us about our salvation. And so with that, with that deep truth, this middle point closes with a description of the great differences between these two men.
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The author Moses does this to set the table for what would happen to close out this passage that we will see in our third point.
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To prepare us for that, this is what he writes in verses 27 and 28. When the boys grew up,
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Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man dwelling in tents.
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Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob. So we see here
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Esau was a man's man who loved the outdoors. He'd be someone quite typical from this area for the men in this area, while Jacob was a homebody.
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Mark's working on me. He's trying to move me more towards Esau and less like Jacob. And what we know about men,
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I should probably explain how he's working on me. He gave me a bow last week and we actually went bow shooting.
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So my goal is to someday hunt with him so we can we can shoot for that goal together.
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But anyway, what we need to know here is that each parent had a preference for each child.
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Verse 28 says that Isaac loved Esau and Rebekah loved Jacob. And we know this.
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Parents should never show favoritism to one child over the other. But sadly, with Isaac and Rebekah, this is the case.
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The table is set for this outdoorsman, Esau, to come in from the outside after a long day to do something very foolish, as we will see in our final point.
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So to wrap up our second point here, the Lord works behind the scenes in the life of his people.
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The second example how in this text is that his sights were set on you before you were born.
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The third example, how the Lord works behind the scenes in the life of his people is his great work in you and in the world is often unseen to the eye.
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His great work in you and in the world is often unseen to the eye. We'll see this in verses 29 through 34.
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As Jacob was spending time in his home as he always did, and Esau came indoors, we see their first conflict recorded in scripture.
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And let's set the stage for the conflict in verses 29 through 30. Once when
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Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field and he was exhausted.
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And Esau said to Jacob, let me eat some of that red stew, for I'm exhausted.
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Therefore, his name was called Edom. We all know what it is like to come home from a long day of work.
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Esau comes home from a long day in the field hunting. Of course, Esau at this point in history could not just go down to the local grocery store.
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Hunting game was for his own survival and the survival of his family.
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So while Esau was outside hunting wildlife, Jacob is making stew inside.
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Maybe it was the meat that Esau had hunted. OK, so we get the idea here.
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Jacob is an indoors kind of guy here, Esau outdoors. He comes in exhausted and all he wants to do is eat.
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Jacob, the deceiver, takes this opportunity to get from him what he wants as he preys on the weak character of his brother.
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Let's look at this in verses 31 through 34. Jacob said, sell me your birthright now.
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Esau said in response, I'm about to die. Of what use is a birthright to me?
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Jacob said, swear to me now. So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave
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Esau bread and lentil stew and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.
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What we have to remember is that Esau is the first born. The first born would get the inheritance or at least most of it.
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In scripture, we see that come out quite a bit unless they did something to disqualify themselves from receiving it.
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Later on in Genesis, Reuben, the oldest son of Jacob, disqualified himself from receiving the inheritance because of immorality on his part.
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The firstborn could also lose his birthright by selling it. There's actually historical evidence of people selling their birthright to their siblings for something, whether it be land or something else.
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What we see here is that Esau doesn't sell his birthright for something of value. He sells his birthright for a single meal.
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How foolish this is. So a majority of this inheritance that was supposed to go to Esau would now go to Jacob because Esau forfeited his birthright.
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Whatever this inheritance was and how much it was, Jacob wanted it. He catches his brother when he is hungry and vulnerable and tired and tells
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Esau to sell his birthright to him. Now, one of strong character would not be fooled so easy.
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We can also say this of Jacob. One of strong character would not deceive his brother like this, but Jacob deceives and Esau sells his birthright.
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The author of Hebrews. Once again, we see commentary by the New Testament here. The other
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Hebrews and Hebrews 12, 16 talks about Esau's sinfulness in selling his birthright and he describes him as unholy.
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Another way to translate that Greek word is to say profane or earthly. So in other words, his mind was not set on spiritual or heavenly things.
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His mind was set on earthly things. His mind was set on feeding himself.
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Having that instant gratification. So he's unholy because he's selling his birthright and he'd later forfeits his blessing as we shall see in chapter 27.
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And therefore, he would not be the son through whom the chosen line would continue. Hebrews 12, 17 says that after forfeiting the blessing, he sought after it with tears.
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So by forfeiting the birthright, he would later forfeit the blessing. It's the blessing would be the heir of the family, continuing the family line, the family blessing.
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And what Hebrews 12, 17 says is that he sought after it with tears after he forfeited it.
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But we shouldn't think that this was sincere repentance. This was not sincere repentance. He wanted God's gifts.
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He wanted what came with the blessing. He didn't want God. He showed himself to be an unbeliever.
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As the author Moses says at the end of verse 34 of our text, Esau despised his birthright.
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Holding on to the inheritance and birthright did not mean much to Esau. And think about it, in other families at this time, this would have meant a lot to people.
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And it should have meant the most to this family. Because out of all the families in the world,
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God was working through this family in a special way. So he should have held on to this birthright with his life.
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And look at how easily he just threw it away. He gives it up for a single meal.
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Think about this. The nation of Israel would come from this line. And it comes from Jacob, right?
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It doesn't come from Esau, it comes from Jacob because of this. We need to be careful in our own lives, right, about not foolishly squandering something so great for something so little.
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When he later wanted the blessing, it was not because he desired for this wonderful chosen line to come through him.
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Rather, he wanted the earthly blessings that came through the blessing. So his mind was not on God, but on earthly things.
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And there is a difference with Jacob. You might wonder, how could there be a difference with Jacob? He's the deceiver here.
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Okay, so we should not admire the way that Jacob achieved the birthright from Isaac, but he did desire the things of God.
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In this, we should admire and emulate. He knew what the birthright and the blessing meant.
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In God's providence, the one who would have the birthright would get the blessing later on, as we will see in chapter 27.
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And Jacob would have known this from his father Isaac. He would have known this from his grandfather
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Abraham, that the Lord was going to bless this offspring, that they were going to get the land of Canaan, that the
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Savior of the world was going to bless all the nations. And he valued the spiritual over the immediate earthly gratification.
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The blessing meant that God's chosen line would continue through one of the sons, and of course, it continues through Jacob.
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Think about this. And we can see the Lord leading Jacob through common grace here.
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I don't think Jacob was saved at this point, but what John 6 says is that the Lord draws his people to Jesus even before they are saved.
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And so therefore, I think the Lord is providentially working through Jacob here. And later on, he would have a conversion and even be that much more grateful for this decision he made way back here, that the blessing would go through him.
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But we see the Lord's hand in this, mysteriously working through this. And maybe you can see here the application of this final point.
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We are to value the things of God, like Jacob, and not the things of this world, like Esau.
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We are not to value the earthly over the spiritual. We are to desire to be a part of God's big plans for this world and not jump ship for something else that may catch our eyes.
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Does being a part of the greatest mission in the history of the world mean much to you or to me?
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I'm struck, and I'm talking to myself here as I say this, I'm struck by how much importance is attached to the
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NFL. Think about it today. Churches all over the country, half empty, mostly empty.
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Stadiums, packed. Misplaced priorities, yes. Churches should be packed.
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It should be the other way around. That's why these players are so high paid, right? Think of how many people go to these games.
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Think of how expensive these tickets are that people are going. I know that's a problem for men, is sports and football.
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I know it's a problem for me. And we need to have our priorities in the right place.
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Think about politics. Think about how much energy is going towards something that's just earthly. We see all these commercials, these ads, mostly character assassinations, right?
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That we see come across our TV. What people want is they value so much the earthly, the profane, and they don't value the heavenly.
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And I'm not saying that sports are bad. They're not. It's God's gift. Obviously, we need governments, right?
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So we should vote for people and put them in office. But if our value, our priority of that is greater than the things of God, then we're missing the point.
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We're missing about what God has for us. Worldly people value what they can see.
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They value what wows their eyes. They value the single meal like Esau. The world does not value the eternal truths of Scripture that are unseen.
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As 2 Corinthians 4 .18 says, the things that are seen are transient or temporary, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
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Value the things of God like Jacob and do not forsake them like Esau. You're living for something that's going to last forever.
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You're living for the only thing that will last forever. Being with God in his presence. Esau was taken only by what he could see and it cost him dearly.
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It led him to eternal destruction. And Jacob in our text has his eyes on starting to value the things of God.
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And later when he became a believer, he would value it that much more. And we need to emulate this. So what we see here in the third point is the
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Lord works behind the scenes in the life of his people. And the third example in this text of the
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Lord working behind the scenes is his great work in you and in the world.
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It's often unseen to the eye. So to wrap up our sermon today, the
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Lord works behind the scenes in the life of his people and the three examples that we looked at is that he produces growth in you as you wait on him.
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His sights were set on you before you were born. His great work in you and in the world is often unseen to the eye.
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May these truths in this text encourage you in your walk with the Lord and may it lead you to worship him more and more for his great work that he mysteriously performs in your life, that he is doing in this church as well, and that he's doing in the world.
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And sometimes the Lord does give us visible fruit to encourage us because we can see.
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I mean, we shouldn't say we never see things happening. We can see things happening. But let me tell you, one day
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Jesus is going to come from the sky. He's going to come on this earth and he's going to reign in his kingdom forever.
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And we're going to have a new body that's never going to fail. And we're going to be a part of a world that is everlasting.
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That's what we're living for. And this world that we live in right now will be gone. It'll be history.
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It'll be a thing of the past. And so don't live for that which will be a thing of the past. Live for that which is eternal.
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So next week we will look at adversity that Isaac faces and an encounter with King Abimelech, a king we've already seen before.
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And we're going to see some clear lessons in the sermon next Sunday for our journey through the life of faith as we see the
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Lord's interaction with Isaac. And I look forward to opening up Genesis 26 with you. Let's pray.
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Father in heaven, we we love you. And what a future you have planned for your people.
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What promises you have planned. And this is not something you came up with after you created the world.
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No. It says that you plan these things before the foundation of the world.
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And we get to be a part of this, Lord. And all of this, Lord, is that so we would gaze on your beauty, on your majesty, and worship you.
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And it's a good deal, Lord, because you get the glory and we get the joy. We get fullness of joy.
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As it says, in your presence, there is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
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Lord, I pray that Eureka Baptist would be a church of people full of people who value that which matters, that value the eternal things and not the earthly and profane.
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Even though, Lord, in and of themselves, oftentimes they're not bad. They're good things. But we elevate them to a point that they were never to be elevated.
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And they're meant to point to you ultimately. And so I pray that we would not fall into idolatry by worshiping your gifts, but noticing,
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Lord, that they have their proper place, that it's meant to point to you. And so help us, Lord, to understand these truths.