The Disdain and Decadence of Apostates, Part 2 (Hebrews 12:16-17; Genesis)

Kootenai Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

The Twin Pillars of a Godly Marriage - “The Role of a Wife” (Part 3) | Adult Sunday School

00:00

Hebrews chapter 12. In a moment, we're gonna read verses 15 through 17,

00:09

Hebrews chapter 12. And before we do, we will ask the Lord's blessing on our time before we begin. Our Father, we come to your word because it is in your word that we read of you and of your will for us, of your great grace, the glory of your name.

00:25

It is in your word that we read of the encouragements and the comforts, as well as the warnings and the exhortations and reproofs and rebukes.

00:33

And so we pray that you would reprove our hearts where it is necessary and encourage our hearts where that is needed as well.

00:41

We pray that as your people, as we gather before your word, that your word would inform us, our minds, our thinking, as well as our affections.

00:49

We pray that you would do your work in us through your word, bringing salvation to those who are here who have no knowledge of Christ and no true faith as of yet.

00:59

And we pray that you would be in comfort and encouragement to the hearts of your people as we reflect upon your great grace and the warnings that you give to us in your word.

01:08

Be magnified now, we pray, in the name of Christ our Lord. Amen. Our study of Hebrews chapter 11 gave us the opportunity to admire men of great faith, men and women who looked past the pleasures and treasures of this world to the promises and blessings and joys of the world that is to come.

01:26

By faith, they saw the promises of God and they were willing to go without things in this world for the sake of faith in and belief in and securing those blessings that would come in the world that is to be.

01:39

In Hebrews chapter 11, or sorry, in Hebrews chapter 12, we're given the opportunity to observe the exact opposite.

01:45

A man who sacrificed everything in the world to come and all the blessings that were promised by God to his father for the sake of a bowl of soup, and that is

01:55

Esau, Hebrews chapter 12. Apostates are always a reality for the church and it's the same story in every age.

02:04

Apostates are willing to glom on to superficially, that is the people of God, so long as being with the people of God and enjoying the blessings and the joys of that scratches an itch or meets some temporary need, but then when another itch needs to be scratched or another need needs to be met and something in the world comes along that offers them satisfaction for those needs and itches, then they're willing to exchange and trade

02:30

Christ and his church and his people for the passing pleasures of sin or for a temporary satisfaction.

02:36

And that is exactly the type of man that Esau was. Scripture calls him here in our passage, a godless and immoral person who sold his own birthright for a bowl of soup.

02:47

And I said last time we were together, it wasn't even a good soup. And somebody reminded me this last week, the first time we had you over for dinner,

02:55

I gave you lentil soup and so I hope that that wasn't a commentary on your, and I said if I had not liked it and I had remembered that,

03:04

I never would have used that as an illustration. So if there's anybody else here who has had me over for a bowl of lentil soup and you think that I was somehow dissing you last week, that was not my intention at all.

03:16

Hebrews chapter 12, begin reading with me in verse 15 through 17. 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.

03:27

That there be no immoral or godless person like Esau who sold his own birthright for a single meal.

03:33

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.

03:42

In that passage, we have noted the essence of apostasy which is captured in that phrase, he came short of grace or came short of the grace of God.

03:50

The effect of apostasy is the bitterness or the bitter person or the bitter root that springs up and defiles many people.

03:58

And then the example of apostasy is Esau, an immoral and godless person. And last time we started to look at Esau's example in Genesis chapter 25, to see why the author uses him as an example of apostasy and why the author describes him as a godless and immoral person.

04:15

And today we're going to observe the second event in the life of Esau that demonstrates why he is such a perfect example of apostasy.

04:24

There are three things about Esau that we see here in Hebrews chapter 12 and this was our outline that I gave you a couple of weeks ago.

04:31

We noted these three things in the Genesis account back in chapter 25 a couple of weeks ago,

04:36

Esau's carnality, he is described here in the passage as a godless and immoral person. He was driven by his flesh, driven by his lust, driven by his desires, a man who caved to those and they governed everything that he did in his life.

04:50

Second, we notice Esau's contempt that he sold his own birthright for a single meal, or as Genesis 25 verse 34 says, thus

04:58

Esau despised his birthright, that is his contempt. He showed disdain for God and for his promises as his carnality and his contempt for the promises of God and the

05:09

God of the promises, they go hand in hand. And then third, we notice Esau's consequences, that is his destiny, he was rejected,

05:18

Hebrews chapter 12 says, for he found no place for repentance. What he did in trading his birthright for a bowl of soup could not be undone, it was irreversible.

05:29

And then the effects of that work out later on when Jacob steals his blessing. So his carnality, his contempt and his consequences, his carnality describes his character, he was that type of a person, godless and immoral.

05:42

His contempt describes his actions, this is what he did, because character always determines actions.

05:48

And then these are the consequences of what he did, eternal and irrevocable consequences. Character determines your actions and actions determines your consequences and your destiny.

05:59

So his carnality, his contempt and his consequences. We focused on these when we were in Genesis 25 last time, and we saw that the purpose of God for Jacob and Esau was accomplished through two events in their lives.

06:12

The first was Esau selling his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of soup. The second was

06:17

Jacob stealing the blessing from Esau later on in life, those two events. We looked at the first one in Genesis 25,

06:24

Esau sells his birthright, there it reveals his immorality, his godlessness, his profaneness, the fact that he is a man driven by his lusts and desires.

06:33

So turn back now to Genesis chapter 25, and we're gonna look at the second event in the life of Esau that defines him and shows us why it is that he is such a good example of apostasy.

06:47

Esau sells his birthright, Genesis chapter 25, and I'm just gonna, I'm not gonna review any of it except just to read the passage in chapter 25, verse 27.

06:59

When the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the field, but Jacob was a peaceful man living in tents.

07:05

Now Isaac loved Esau because he had a taste for game, but Rebecca loved Jacob. When Jacob had cooked stew,

07:11

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.

07:18

Therefore his name is called Edom. But Jacob said, first sell me your birthright. Esau said, behold,

07:23

I'm about to die, so of what use then is the birthright to me? And Jacob said, first swear to me. So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob.

07:31

Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went on his way.

07:37

Thus Esau despised his birthright, and there is his carnality and his contempt. He showed contempt for the future in preference for the present.

07:44

He showed contempt for the spiritual and preferred instead the physical, and he showed contempt for that which is truly valuable and preferred instead things that are absolutely worthless.

07:54

He's a godless and immoral person driven by his physical desires. The promises of God and the

07:59

God of the promises meant nothing to him, and he was willing to exchange them to satisfy a temporary desire, which temporary desire would return in a matter of only a few hours.

08:10

That's an immoral and godless man. Now, the second event, Jacob steals the blessing. This is over in chapter 27.

08:17

So you're gonna have to turn there to chapter 27, and this is where Esau's destiny is sealed.

08:23

And here is where the consequences of his carnality and his contempt really come into plain view.

08:29

Between these two events, these two significant events in the life of Jacob and Esau, Esau selling the birthright and Jacob stealing the blessing, between these two events, there are a number of significant things that happen in chapter 26, and I'm not gonna give you a full explanation of them, but I want you to notice three of them because I think that these three events really sort of set the stage for this next episode.

08:52

First event is God reiterates the promise to Isaac and his descendants. Look at chapter 26, verse one.

08:59

Now, there was a famine in the land besides the previous famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. So Isaac went to Gerar and Abimelech, king of the

09:07

Philistines. The Lord appeared to him and said, now, here's God reiterating the promises that he gave to Isaac's father,

09:13

Abraham. He's reiterating those promises to Isaac now. Verse two, do not go down to Egypt.

09:20

Stay in the land, which I shall tell you, sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and bless you. For to you and to your descendants,

09:26

I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to your father, Abraham. I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven and will give your descendants all these lands.

09:37

And by your descendants, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because Abraham obeyed me and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.

09:46

Isaac lived there with Abimelech for a period of time and then ended up moving to Beersheba. Later in the chapter, look at verse 23.

09:53

God reiterates this promise of all these blessings that Esau has now sold to Jacob for a bowl of soup.

09:59

Here they are again in verse 23. He went up from there to Beersheba. The Lord appeared to him the same night and said,

10:05

I am the God of your father, Abraham. Do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for the sake of my servant,

10:13

Abraham. So he built an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord and pitched his tent there. And there

10:18

Isaac's servants dug a well. Now that is the birthright that Esau bartered away for a bowl of soup.

10:24

The land, the blessing of God, God's presence with him, multiplying the descendants. God had already told

10:31

Rebekah when she was pregnant with these two twins that the older would end up serving the younger, which you will remember is the exact opposite of the natural order.

10:39

And Paul says in Romans 9 that God's choice of Jacob over his older brother Esau was in order to demonstrate that God's election and his free choice in salvation and pouring his blessings out on somebody, it is according to his choice and not according to what we do.

10:57

Paul uses this example as an illustration of the sovereignty of God in choosing some for salvation and passing over others.

11:05

He says before Jacob and Esau were even able to do anything good or bad, God revealed his purpose so that his intention by his choice would stand.

11:14

And it was to come to Jacob and not to Esau. And this is what he saw bartered away. All of these blessings that God promised to Abraham and then gave to Isaac and now would come from Isaac to one of those two sons.

11:26

The second event is that Isaac increases in wealth. Look at verse 12. Now Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold and the

11:34

Lord blessed him and the man became rich and continued to grow richer until he became very wealthy.

11:40

Do you notice something that's emphasized there repeated? He became rich and he grew richer until he became wealthy.

11:47

In other words, this man, Isaac, he's richy rich. He has everything that you could possibly want.

11:53

He has been, God has poured out on him untold and lavish and tremendous blessings in accordance to what he had promised to Abraham.

12:03

Look at verse 14. For he had possessions of flocks and herds and a great household so that the Philistines envied him.

12:08

The pagan nation, the Philistines, the nation envied that one man because of his wealth and the blessing of God.

12:14

The other civilizations were jealous of him. And the third event that is significant before we get to Jacob stealing

12:21

Esau's blessing, the third event is that Esau got married. Look at verse 34. When Esau was 40 years old, he married

12:26

Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite and Baismith, the daughter of Elon the Hittite and they brought grief to Isaac and Rebekah.

12:34

That is key. Jacob, sorry, Esau, did he choose godly women to marry?

12:40

He did not, he chose Hittites. Did Esau consult his parents in the decision?

12:47

Obviously not, because later on, Isaac and Rebekah would send Jacob out of the land to go find a wife who was not among the

12:54

Canaanites, a cursed race. Nor did he show any kind of spiritual inclination or concern for God's program because rather than just marrying one woman, he ended up marrying two women and not just two women, but two pagan women who were from a line that was cursed all the way back to Noah.

13:12

Descendants of a nation and a people that were under the curse of God, those Hittite women, all of their descendants and their nations, all of them would be destroyed and judged by God when

13:23

Israel would come back into the land to conquer them and to take that land. So he chooses the worst possible spouses.

13:30

These are the women among whom Esau took wives and not just one, but two. And they brought grief to Isaac and Rebekah and it is not difficult to see why.

13:38

And in that phrase, verse 35, they brought grief to Isaac and Rebekah. In fact, in verse 34 and 35, you see the tale told of so many people that you know, don't you?

13:49

Godly parents who watch otherwise godly children raised in a godly home go away and make horrible, foolish decisions in marrying somebody that ends up bringing grief to the entire family.

14:01

That is a tale that as old as time, that has been told hundreds and hundreds and thousands of times.

14:06

And Esau in this way is a morality tale, a warning to all of us. They brought grief to Isaac and Rebekah.

14:13

Now, let's look at this stolen blessing. So those are the three significant things. God reiterates the promise to Isaac, he increases in wealth,

14:20

Esau takes wives. Now we come to chapter 27. We covered this chapter in this event back in Hebrews chapter 11, but we did it from a bit of a different angle because in Hebrews chapter 11, our emphasis was on the faith of Isaac because Isaac's faith was highlighted in Hebrews chapter 11 where he says by faith, he passed on the blessings to Jacob and Esau.

14:38

So we looked at this entire event from a different perspective, that of the faith of the transfer of the blessing and Isaac giving that to Jacob and Esau and the faith of Rebekah and the faith of Jacob in the midst of all of that.

14:49

Now we're gonna look at the same event from a different perspective. And probably it's been so long ago that if I would have asked you to remember when last time we went through this event, what you wouldn't have been able even to tell me.

14:58

So this will be like the first time for many of you going through this on a Sunday morning. Now we're gonna look at it from the perspective of Esau and what is going on there and the consequences that unfold that result from what he did earlier in chapter 25 when he sold the birthright to Jacob.

15:13

Chapter 27, verse one. Now it came about when Isaac was old and his eyes were too dim to see that he called his older son

15:20

Esau and said to him, my son, and he said to him, here I am. Isaac said, behold, now I am old and I do not know the day of my death.

15:28

Now then please take your gear, your quiver and your bow and go out to the field and hunt game for me and prepare a savory dish for me such as I love and bring it to me that I may eat so that my soul may bless you before I die.

15:40

Notice in verse two, he says, I'm old and I do not know the day of my death. Now that turns out to be very true because Isaac would end up living for another 50 years after this event.

15:50

In fact, we're not introduced to his death until chapter 35. This is after Jacob goes to Haran, gets a wife, has all of his kids, not gets one wife,

15:58

I should say, he gets four wives, has all of his kids and Joseph, the very last of them comes out of Haran.

16:03

Remember he's coming back, he's reconciled to Esau. That's between chapter 27, chapter 35.

16:09

Chapter 35, verse 28 says, now the days of Isaac were 180 years. You have to do some complex math to come up with the fact that he is about 50 years before he dies here in chapter 27.

16:21

Now the days of Isaac were 180 years. Isaac breathed his last and died and was gathered to his people, a man of ripe age and his sons

16:28

Esau and Jacob buried him. So that burial, that death would take place about 50 years after these events.

16:37

Now, I mentioned last week and I wanna put something into context. That wasn't last week, so I didn't preach last week, but I mentioned last time we were here, the ages of these men when all of this is unfolding.

16:48

Scripture doesn't tell us how old Jacob and Esau were when Esau sold his birthright to Jacob.

16:55

It doesn't tell us how old they were when Jacob stole the blessing from Esau. Those two ages are not given to us.

17:02

So we have to read forward in the book of Genesis to get some events, some dates, some times, some ages, and then we can start to piece together some of that working back.

17:12

And I'm not gonna, I'm gonna do the math for you, but I'm not gonna show you my work. I'm just gonna ask you to trust me that my work is reliable on this because it would take too long to work this all out.

17:21

But later on in Genesis, we get the date that Jacob goes down to Egypt, how old Joseph was when

17:27

Jacob got to Egypt, how old Joseph was when he became prime minister of Egypt. Then we can work back to how old

17:33

Joseph was when he was sold into Egypt. Then we can work back from that to how old

17:39

Jacob would have been. Yes, how old Jacob would have been when Joseph was born because we know how long he spent in Haran.

17:46

So we get some idea of how old he was when Jacob stole the blessings from Esau. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that Jacob and Esau were probably in their late 20s, early 30s, when

17:57

Esau bartered away his birthright for the bowl of soup. You know how old they were when this whole event, now the deceptive event takes place where Jacob steals the blessings?

18:07

If you do all the math, you come up with Jacob and Esau being somewhere in their late 60s to early 70s when this happens.

18:17

So these are old, I mean, not, sorry, if you're 70, yeah, these are older, these are older men, and allegedly wise, mature, clear thinking men.

18:34

These are not teenagers tricking one another in a practical stunt, a practical joke of some sort.

18:41

Okay, so they're in their late 60s, early 70s. There's a window there because we're not sure, but that's about how old they were.

18:47

Remember, Esau took a wife when he was 40. This event takes place when these twins are in their late 60s, early 70s.

18:55

Jacob is gonna take his wives later on, so that means that Jacob was in his 70s by the time he married

19:01

Rachel and Leah, maybe even close to 80, which means that, Jacob, yeah,

19:07

Leah and Rachel, Jacob and Rachel, which means that Jacob would have been an older man taking a wife and Rachel would have been probably a very young woman, not nearly as old as Jacob was.

19:19

That was not uncommon in that age and in that culture. You see it happening even today in our own day, mostly with men who are very wealthy, but it does happen.

19:30

You were thinking it, I said it. So Isaac's intention here, he senses that his death is near.

19:39

He doesn't know he's gonna live another 50 years after this, but just in case, he wants to make sure that he gives this blessing away to the son of his choice,

19:48

Esau. Now, if Isaac is successful in this, he will end up blessing Esau with the blessings that come from Abraham and giving to Jacob the estate.

19:58

In God's minds, these two things are connected and they're inseparable. So I don't know exactly what is going on in the mind of Isaac, but he knows already because it has been revealed to Rebekah that it is the older that will serve the younger.

20:11

So he already understands that because it's been divinely revealed, he already understands that the purpose and plan of God is for all of it to go to Jacob.

20:18

That was what God revealed. And now Isaac is putting together this scheme to give the blessings to Esau and not to Jacob.

20:27

And Isaac is going to find out that all of the planning and schemery of men cannot overthrow the purpose of God.

20:38

Esau is still his favorite, and that is why he calls Esau and comes up with this thing, go out and give me something to eat.

20:45

And when you come in, I'll eat and be satisfied. He wants to give the blessing in exchange for the food, which may indicate, and this is speculation, but it may indicate that Isaac is a man who is somewhat given to his own desires as well.

20:56

He wants to be well satisfied and fed. And then when he has what he wants, he will give these things to Esau and bless

21:02

Esau with these things. And it's stunning to me that Esau is still the favorite in spite of the fact that Isaac by this time would have known that Jacob had traded the birthright to, man,

21:16

I'm getting the names confused here. It's stunning to me that Isaac would have known by this point that Esau traded the birthright to Jacob, and that still

21:25

Esau would be his favorite son. A favorite son whose choices of women had brought his mom and dad tremendous grief.

21:35

Isaac knew this, and he knew that his son was a craven man given to his desires, given to the lust of his flesh, who had rebelled and done something that brought their family tremendous grief, and yet Esau is still

21:49

Isaac's favorite, and he still wants to give the blessing to him. Verse 20, chapter 27, verse five,

21:57

Rebekah was listening while Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So then Esau went to the field to hunt for game to bring home.

22:03

Rebekah said to her son Jacob, behold, I heard your father speak to your brother Esau saying bring me some game and prepare a savory dish for me that I may eat and bless you in the presence of the

22:12

Lord before my death. Now therefore my son, listen to me as I command you. Go now to the flock and bring me two choice young goats from there that I may prepare them as a savory dish for your father such as he loves.

22:24

Then you shall bring it to your father that he may eat so that he may bless you before his death. So Rebekah comes up with this deceptive ploy.

22:31

And by the way, there is sin on behalf of every character in this narrative. Every one of these players is sinning.

22:38

Isaac has his own sin. Jacob's doing his thing. Esau's got his thing going. Rebekah, she's crafting this whole thing.

22:44

There is sin. There is enough sin to go around this entire family. It's pouring out of the edges outside the underneath the tent curtains.

22:52

Sin all over the place. But God uses sin, sinlessly to accomplish his purposes.

22:58

And that's what God is doing in this narrative. Now Jacob saw the danger in this verse 11. He answered his mother,

23:04

Rebekah, behold Esau my brother is a hairy man and I'm a smooth man. Perhaps I went to high school with a guy like that, a hairy man.

23:14

Isaac, by the way, later on would mention that Esau or Jacob smelled like the field, smelled like animals.

23:22

I went to school with a lot of people like that, but I went to school with one person who was particularly hairy. Perhaps my father will feel me, then

23:29

I will be as a deceiver in his sight. And I'll bring upon myself a curse and not a blessing. But his mother said to him, you curse be on me my son, only obey my voice and go get them for me.

23:39

So Rebekah is scheming and Jacob, obviously a full grown man by this point, he goes along with it. Verse 14, so he went and got them and brought them to his mother and his mother made savory food, such as his father loved.

23:51

Then Rebekah took the best garments of Esau, her elder son, which were with her in the house and put them on Jacob, her younger son.

23:56

And she put the skins of the young goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. She also gave the savory food and the bread which she had made to her son,

24:05

Jacob. And he came to his father and said, my father, he said, here I am, who are you my son? Jacob said to his father,

24:12

I'm Esau, your firstborn. I've done as you have told me. Get up, please sit and eat of my game that you may bless me.

24:20

Isaac said to his son, how is it that you have it so quickly, my son? And he said, because the

24:25

Lord your God caused it to happen to me. Notice how Jacob takes God and brings

24:31

God into his lie. That is such an act of blasphemy. That is such an act of blasphemy.

24:39

He drags God into this blasphemous lie, basically implying that it was

24:44

God's will for Isaac to give the blessing to Esau and not to Jacob. That's the implication of that.

24:50

He's also suggesting that God must want Esau to get this blessing. And Jacob is using

24:57

God as an excuse for his disobedience. God has blessed me.

25:02

How is it that you have this so quickly? Well, God is obviously in it. So now he has just drug

25:08

God into his lies as he has fabricated this deception to deceive his father who obviously cannot see at this point into thinking that he is his brother.

25:17

This is identity theft, by the way, before the age of technology. This is what it looked like. Verse 21, then

25:23

Isaac said to Jacob, please come close that I may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son

25:29

Esau or not. And Jacob at that moment had to be thinking, oh, okay, the jig is up.

25:35

Surely he's not gonna be deceived by goat hair on my neck and my hands that I'm really

25:41

Esau. So Jacob came close to Isaac, his father, and he felt him and said, the voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.

25:49

He did not recognize him because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's hands, so he blessed him.

25:54

I mean, Esau must have been a hairy man. I didn't believe in Sasquatch until I read this passage.

26:03

And I thought, well, that could be the precursor to the Sasquatch. He said to him, are you really my son

26:09

Esau? He said, I am. So he said, bring it to me and I'll eat in my son's game that I may bless you.

26:15

And he brought it to him and he ate. He also brought him wine and he drank. And his father Isaac said to him, please come close and kiss me, my son.

26:24

Now, this is just another opportunity to try and spot the lie. And scripture doesn't say this, but Jacob, his heart had to be pounding at this point because it all hinges on whether he can pull off this deception.

26:42

If Isaac catches on to what's happening here, he will curse Jacob and the blessing will go to Esau.

26:48

That's obviously a hypothetical counterfactual scenario, but his heart has to be pounding as his father asked him to come in closer.

27:00

Verse 27, so he came close and kissed him. And when he smelled the smell of his garments, he blessed him and said, see the smell of my son is like the smell of a field which the

27:11

Lord has blessed. Now may God give you the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and an abundance of grain and new wine.

27:18

May peoples serve you and nations bow down to you. Be master of your brothers and may your mother's sons bow down to you.

27:25

Cursed be those who curse you and blessed be those who bless you. That's the utterance. That's the blessing. He says it with his mouth.

27:32

It was somehow determined that Isaac's conferral of these blessings upon one of his sons would be the thing that would seal the deal.

27:40

And now he has uttered the blessing and given it to Jacob instead of to Esau. So the deed is complete. And now the family inheritance, as well as all of the promises that God gave to Isaac's father,

27:50

Abraham, they have all now been conferred to Jacob, the younger son. The physical blessings, the dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth.

27:57

Notice the language that is used there. The abundance of grain and new wine. Nations would serve him, bow down to him.

28:04

His brother's descendants would serve him. Kings would come before him. That last phrase is the language of Genesis 12.

28:11

When God first gave the promise to Abraham, I will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you, I will curse.

28:17

And in you, all the families of the earth will be blessed. It is Isaac's intention. And he thinks full well in his own mind that he is giving all of those blessings to Esau.

28:27

But it wasn't Esau, it was Jacob. Verse 30, now it came about as soon as Isaac had finished blessing

28:34

Jacob. And Jacob had hardly gone out from the presence of Isaac, his father. That Esau, his brother came in from hunting.

28:40

Then he also made some savory food and brought it to his father and said to his father, let my father arise and eat of his son's game that you may bless me.

28:49

Isaac, his father said to him, who are you? Now he must have at that moment thought to himself, dad's farther gone than we thought he was.

28:57

He just sent me out just a little while ago to go get game. And now he's wondering who

29:02

I am and what I'm doing here with food. But I think that Isaac by this point is starting to say, oh yeah, the voice was

29:11

Jacob's. The feel and the smell were Esau, but the voice was Jacob's. And so he says to Esau, who are you?

29:19

And he said, I'm your son, you're firstborn, Esau. And Isaac trembled violently and said, who was he then that hunted game and brought it to me so that I ate of all of it before you came and I blessed him.

29:30

Yes, and he shall be blessed. Isaac knew, Isaac knew who it was. He knew who had tricked him.

29:36

He knew that these blessings had come to Jacob. How did he know that? In part, because God had already revealed the older will serve the younger.

29:44

These blessings, the whole Abrahamic gig will all go to Jacob. And now it has actually happened that way.

29:50

Isaac is not genuinely curious. I wonder who it is that came in here and gave me the food and I gave him the blessings and he shall be blessed.

29:57

Who might it have been? He's not questioning that at all. This is him, this is a start.

30:04

This is him unable to even comprehend what it is that he has done. How God has taken all of his intentions and flipped them right on their head and absolutely reversed everything he had intended to do.

30:17

And God has got the last laugh in this whole scenario. Verse 34, when

30:23

Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceeding great and bitter cry. Notice those words.

30:29

Remember the words of Hebrews chapter 12. He found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears. Here come the tears.

30:36

Here come the waterworks. When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceeding bitter cry and said to his father, bless me, even me also.

30:45

Oh, my father. And he said, your brother came deceitfully and has taken away your blessing. And he said, is not he rightly named

30:52

Jacob for he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright and behold, now he has taken away my blessing.

30:58

And he said, have you not reserved a blessing for me? Jacob's name, Jacob means supplanter or heel catcher, heel holder refers to one who would trip somebody up by grabbing their heel, reaching out, snatching their heel.

31:09

That's what the name Jacob means. But notice what Esau says concerning that other event that we looked at last time.

31:15

He has taken, he took away my birthright and now he has taken away my blessing. Who does

31:21

Esau blame for not having the birthright? He blames Jacob. Does that look like repentance to you?

31:29

That is not repentance. He took away my birthright. Stop for just a second.

31:35

Point of order, Esau. He didn't take it away. You sold it for a bowl of soup. But he has no remorse over that whatsoever.

31:42

All he can see is that Jacob is to blame for getting the birthright. And now of course,

31:48

Jacob is to blame for stealing the blessings. But Esau sold him the birthright. Esau at this point takes no responsibility for his own culpability in this matter.

31:58

He sees himself as not in the least bit responsible for what has happened to him. He's a victim in all of this.

32:04

That's how he sees himself. Not as the perpetrator who because of his godlessness and his immorality sold his birthright for temporary satisfaction of a felt need.

32:12

That's really what he should have said. And he should have, if he had repented, he would in this moment say,

32:19

I'm the one who sold my birthright. I'm the one that is to blame for that. I gave into my craving desires.

32:24

I did this to satisfy myself. I made a stupid and rash decision in the moment that is illogical, irrational, and completely inexcusable.

32:33

And for that reason, now this has unfolded and it has happened exactly as God determined that it would happen. But even for this event,

32:39

I have no one to blame but myself. For if I had not sold my birthright, I would certainly have the blessings. That's what repentance would look like.

32:46

And all of his crying would not be over the physical blessings that he thinks he's missing out on, but instead his crying and his weeping would be the fact that he understands his own guilt and responsibility for what he has done.

32:58

For there is a difference between mere superficial repentance that simply mourns over the consequences of an act and a repentance that mourns over the act itself and the sin against God himself.

33:10

Esau has no place for repentance for he is taking no responsibility for his own immorality and godlessness.

33:17

Verse 37, but Isaac replied to Esau, behold, I have made him your master and all his relatives I've given to him as servants and with grain and new wine

33:26

I have sustained him. Now, as for you then, what can I do, my son? Esau said to his father, do you only have one blessing, my father?

33:35

Bless me, even me also. Oh, my father, so Esau lifted up his voice and wept.

33:40

Now, you might say, well, the weeping there seems to indicate repentance, does it not? I mean, he's weeping and crying.

33:46

Certainly this is evidence that he's mourning over his sin. I don't think so. What is it that explains the weeping over this event and the lost blessing?

33:56

It's possible that this is simply a fake sorrow that's been suggested by commentators, that it's fake sorrow.

34:05

This is all put on because this man has had no desire whatsoever for any kind of blessing up to this point and so now it's just all a superficial lament over his sin.

34:15

It's possible that he is simply driven by his lust in this moment to get his own way and now that has been denied him and so he is angry over that, he is weeping over that.

34:27

It is typically true that people who are driven by their lusts, who desire nothing but satisfaction of physical and felt needs in the moment, that no matter what it is that they desire, even if it is for this plan to go unfold as it is, that when they don't get what they want, however small it is, however insignificant it is, they just come unglued because they cannot handle being denied something that they want really a lot.

34:53

They can't handle being denied that and so it could be that his weeping is just, he's been denied something that he wanted.

34:59

He went, he got this, he wanted the blessing, he wanted the physical things and so he is weeping and upset, not over the fact that he has lost these blessings, but simply that he has been denied the satisfaction of what took place that he had planned.

35:15

There's nothing, notice there's nothing in the Abrahamic blessings that God, that Isaac gave to Jacob, there's nothing in those blessings that has been reversed now with what he is doing with Esau.

35:27

Hebrews 12 says, 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.

35:37

He was rejected because he had already bartered it away. He had already bartered all of this away back in chapter 25.

35:45

He blamed Jacob for it, he took my birthright, but still Esau sees only the material blessings.

35:51

Remember that Isaac has grown incredibly wealthy during this period of time between these two events and now

35:58

Esau sees not the spiritual blessings that would come to him through the Abrahamic covenant, but he sees the entire inheritance that he thought he was gonna somehow be able to finagle through this getting the blessing from Isaac before Jacob caught wind of it.

36:13

He sees all of that crumbling down and what Esau sees that he has missed is not God who has always promised to be with him, he has no interest in that, he took pagan wives, idolatrous pagan wives who were sacrificing to idols and sacrificing children, this is the culture out of which they came.

36:29

He has no inclination whatsoever for spiritual things. It's not the God of the promises that he wants, what he wants is the material blessings that Isaac had.

36:38

He had grown rich, he became richer until he was very wealthy. He's richy rich and he has the entire estate and Esau sees the opportunity to get that, it's the material blessings that he desires, it's the material blessings that have vanished in a heartbeat now because Jacob has been given all of those things as well as the spiritual blessings and Esau is weeping and he's angry about it.

36:58

Then Isaac, his father answered and said to him, behold, verse 39, behold, away from the fertility of the earth shall be your dwelling and away from the dew of heaven from above, by your sword you shall live and your brother you shall serve but it shall come about when you become restless that you will break his yoke from your neck.

37:15

That is the closest thing to a blessing that is in that statement. It's the closest thing to a blessing and the way it unfolded was that the children of Esau and the children of Jacob were at war with each other for as long as the descendants of Esau lasted.

37:26

They were the Edomites and eventually it would come to pass toward the end of the Old Testament era that the nation of Israel would be judged for their sin and God would bring an invading nation against them, the

37:36

Assyrians and the Babylonians and that the Edomites would stand by and they would watch their brother nation,

37:42

Jacob's descendants get plundered and they would actually be turning over the descendants of Jacob to the plunderers.

37:47

You read about that in the book of Obadiah, which is addressed to the descendants of Esau as a judgment and Obadiah says because of what you did to Jacob, all your deeds will be returned upon your own head and the

37:57

Edomites were eventually wiped out. So that kicking away from and that breaking the yoke off of their neck, that is what is described there in verse 40 and that's what happened later on.

38:08

But these are the consequences. Now notice that Isaac did not reverse his blessing on Jacob and his curse on Esau.

38:15

In fact, he doubles down on it and just gives Esau basically that one little blessing or promise you will break his yoke from your neck.

38:25

Isaac now understands and sees how it is that the older will end up serving the younger and all his scheming and all his sin could not overthrow the purposes of God and he is recognizing that here, that these are the consequences.

38:39

Now why didn't Isaac come up with a bunch more stuff to give to Esau?

38:46

How come he didn't invent some blessings, come up with some blessings? Why didn't he do that? Scripture doesn't answer that question, but it's my suspicion and this is my speculation.

38:56

It's my suspicion that in this moment, Isaac recognized the purposes of God and he had to yield to it.

39:03

I have no other blessing to give you. God has so worked through all of his sin and he's done so sinlessly as to accomplish his predetermined purpose and plan that Jacob would end up be serving by Esau, that Jacob would receive the blessings that you would normally expect to come to Esau.

39:21

God has thwarted all of this and accomplished his purposes and I think finally at this moment, Isaac would recognize who am

39:27

I to fight against God. I have to do what God has already revealed that I was to do and he is now yielding, coming to terms with the fact that he has given the blessings to Jacob and he would later reiterate those blessings to Jacob and he is now coming to terms with the fact that this is all that Esau is gonna get and this is what was due

39:45

Esau from the beginning. All of his intentions to do otherwise have come to naught.

39:52

Look at verse 41. So Esau, all the weeping, all the crying, all the remorse and the lamenting, the wailing, the drama queen, all that stuff that Esau has done up to this point.

40:03

Does it indicate that he is repentant? The next passage should answer that. Verse 41,

40:09

Esau bore a grudge against Jacob. By the way, does that remind you of Hebrews that no root of bitterness springs up, defiles many?

40:19

This family was wrecked because of Esau's bitterness. He bore a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him and Esau said to himself, the days of mourning for my father are near.

40:30

He didn't know they were 50 years away yet. The days of mourning for my father are near, then I will kill my brother

40:35

Jacob. Does that sound like a repentant man? Not in the least. He is now driven by another lust, by blood lust.

40:43

So he has a lust for food, so he sells his birthright. He has a lust for material blessings, so he connives to try and get them and he has that taken away from him and now he has a lust for revenge.

40:56

And all he can think about is, I'm gonna count the days till my dad is gone and when dad dies, I will kill

41:01

Jacob and then I will be the lone and sole heir because by this point, Jacob had no wives and he had no offspring.

41:07

So if Esau could kill Jacob, Esau would have everything. So yeah, dad might give it all to Jacob, but if I kill him, if I kill the only heir, then

41:17

I get it all anyway. That's his plan. That's what his purpose. This is not a repentant man. All the weeping and wailing aside, this is not a repentant man.

41:26

Verse 42, now when the words of her elder son Esau were reported to Rebekah, she went and called her younger son

41:32

Jacob and said to him, behold, your brother Esau is consoling himself concerning you by planning to kill you.

41:38

Now therefore my son, obey my voice and arise, flee to Haran to my brother Laban. Stay with him a few days until your brother's fury subsides, until your brother's anger against you subsides and he forgets what you did to him.

41:50

Then I will send and get you from there. Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day?

41:56

That's a reference to Isaac, right? If he were to die, Esau would kill Jacob before the sunset that day.

42:02

You got almost a guarantee. Why should I be bereaved of both of you, that is Isaac and Jacob, in one day?

42:08

Rebekah said to Isaac, I'm tired of living because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob takes a wife from the daughters of Heth like these from the daughters of the land, what good will my life be to me?

42:19

Now, what about later? Didn't Esau repent later? If we were to fast forward through this story a little bit,

42:26

Jacob goes to Haran, he gets the four wives, he has the children who become the 12 tribes of Israel, all the way down to Joseph.

42:33

He does some of his own little finagling with Laban and gets two women for that and a couple of handmaids and a bunch of goats and sheep and camels and all that good stuff from Laban.

42:40

And he serves him for 20 years there. And then he comes back out of the land. And do you remember that Jacob and Esau were eventually reconciled?

42:46

And do you remember the story? Jacob divided his company up into different groups and sent, when he knew that Esau was coming out to meet him with 400 men, scripture says,

42:55

Jacob can only conclude my father's wrath has not subsided or my brother's wrath has not subsided.

43:02

My brother's anger is still burns with the white hot hatred of a thousand sons because he's coming out to meet me in my lone company with 400 armed men.

43:10

So Jacob sends ahead of him, all of these waves of people and blessings and camels and sheep and goats to give to his brother

43:18

Esau, hoping that if Esau is met with wave after wave of these gifts, that his anger would subside and it would sort of soften his heart so that by the time

43:25

Jacob gets there, they could kind of maybe negotiate something and Esau wouldn't be willing to kill him. But do you remember what

43:31

Esau does when Jacob and Esau finally get together? They embrace and they weep and they cry and yes, they are reconciled.

43:37

But Esau says to Jacob, why is it that you sent all these animals out and all of these gifts? I don't need any of these things.

43:45

And Jacob insists, take them. And Esau says, no, I don't need them. I have plenty of my own. In other words, by that time,

43:52

Esau was just as wealthy as Jacob. So why was Esau's wrath subsided before his dad even died some 20, 25 years after Jacob had left and gone to Haran?

44:03

Why had Esau's wrath subsided? Think about it. Because he already had all the wealth that he needed.

44:13

What did the blessing mean to him by that point? Jacob says, there's waves of gifts.

44:18

And Esau says, I don't need any of those. I don't need any of it. You know, I'm not angry anymore. You think

44:23

I need your camels? You think you need your sheep? I don't need any of that. I have plenty of my own. I'm a wealthy man.

44:29

Even without the blessings, I have everything I want. A godless and immoral person.

44:35

Even without God, I have everything I want. That was Esau even at the end. This is not repentance.

44:43

This is not a turning from sin. This is a godless and immoral person who he wept when he wanted the blessing, he couldn't have it, but he found no place for true repentance.

44:53

That is Esau. His fleshly passions by that point were still driving him, except now they were satisfied by all the wealth that he had acquired.

45:02

He had been able to live off of his father's estate. Probably been able to use or leverage some of that to acquire quite a hefty estate of his own.

45:10

He doesn't need any of that. So even without the blessings, it's irrelevant to him by that point. He's not fine with Jacob because he has repented of his sin.

45:18

He's fine with Jacob because he's not interested in anything Jacob has at that point. He has everything he wants. So we've observed here now

45:24

Esau's carnality and his contempt and now the consequences, his destiny. He flippantly traded

45:30

God and his eternity away for a bowl of soup. And here he is reaping the whirlwind of what he has sowed.

45:36

And he is the quintessential apostate. Esau is the Old Testament equivalent of Judas. In a moment, he cried and he wept.

45:44

That's what Judas did. When Judas had to live with the consequences, the guilt of what he had done. But Judas, unlike Peter who betrayed the

45:51

Lord Jesus, unlike Peter, Judas didn't turn back to Christ and seek forgiveness. Judas instead went and hanged himself.

45:58

He just wanted the guilt to be over with. He wanted to be out from underneath the burden of that. So Judas is the

46:06

New Testament Esau. Esau is the Old Testament Judas. Man, he traded away everything for a bowl of soup or even 30 shekels.

46:15

That is the definition of an apostate. Now in this story, as I said, with Jacob and Esau, Isaac and Rebecca, there is no one who is without sin.

46:23

And let me tell you something, there's no one in this room who is without sin either. It is true that God uses our sins sinlessly to accomplish his sovereign purposes.

46:31

And he works through it, he works around it, he works in it, but that doesn't excuse any of it.

46:37

And there is only one remedy for our guilt and one remedy for our sin, one path to reconciliation. And that is through the

46:43

Lord Jesus Christ who provided the only insufficient atonement for our sin. And if you have spent your life bartering away

46:51

God's blessings so that you can satiate your lusts and your blasphemy, your murderous thoughts, your idolatry, your lying and your self -centeredness, your greed and your covetousness, if you have done that,

47:02

I tell you today that without Jesus Christ and the atoning work of his work on the cross, his sacrifice, bloodshed on the cross, that you are even right now under the wrath of God.

47:12

For all of those crimes, all of those sins against a most holy, benevolent, loving and gracious King, you deserve his wrath and you are under it even now.

47:21

And without an atonement and a payment for your sin, if you were to die right now without Christ, you would perish everlastingly.

47:27

That's the bad news. But the good news is that God sent his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to live a perfect life and make an atoning death and sacrifice on that cross to bear the sin price and the burden and the debt for any and all who will come to him in faith.

47:43

That is how much God loved the world. That is how much God loves sinners. And if you will come to Christ in repentance, not just being sorrow for the consequences and the guilt of your sin, but if you will come to Christ in repentance, sorrowful over the fact that you have sinned against a benevolent

47:58

King who has lavished you with his blessings from the moment of your birth until this day, and that you have transgressed against his holy law and you have spit in his face and cared nothing for his blessings, if you will turn from that sin and repent in genuine sorrow for your sin and the fact you've sinned against God, he promises you that he will give you eternal life, forgive your sin, and give you the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

48:22

That is God's promise to you. Christian, believer, you and I must see the warning that is

48:31

Esau. That in this life though, you and I, if we are in Jesus Christ, cannot forfeit our salvation, we can forfeit tremendous blessings by our sin.

48:41

And if we are willing to trade away blessings and promises and grace so that we may satiate temporary and passing and fleeting desires, we will be like Esau and weep and lament over the consequences of that, because the consequences of it are painful.

48:59

But the answer is the same as for the unbeliever. We have in Jesus Christ an advocate with the

49:05

Father. We have in Jesus Christ an atonement for our sin. We have in Jesus Christ one whose righteousness avails for us so that even after we have sinned and even after we have transgressed, we can come back to God in faith, reminded of the fact that my standing before God does not depend upon me and my ability to keep his law, me and my obedience, me and my righteousness, it's based upon my standing before him avails because of what

49:32

Jesus Christ has done in Jesus Christ alone. We are righteous in his sight because of Christ, even if we have sinned in the same manner and after the same pattern as Esau.

49:43

And for that, we rejoice and give him thanks. Let's pray. Our Father, we love you and we thank you for your righteousness.

49:50

We thank you for the reminder that though our sin is great, that we have an even greater savior in Jesus Christ.

49:58

Thank you for pouring out upon him all the wrath that I deserve, that your people deserve.

50:04

And thank you, Lord Jesus, for bearing in your own body all our sin and taking the Father's wrath for us so that now there is no condemnation to those who are in Jesus Christ.

50:15

We rejoice in that. We thank you for it. And Father, we love you for your great gift of salvation and the righteousness that is in your son.

50:22

May you do a work in the hearts of all who are here and all who hear these words to bring glory and honor to yourself by drawing sinners to salvation in Jesus Christ, showing them their need for him, granting them repentance and faith.

50:36

And may you be glorified in the hearts of your people as we return to you praise and adoration for the gift of so great a salvation.