Death of Abraham to Birth of Israel

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I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to Genesis 25.
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It is not often that I get two whole weeks to ruminate on a passage.
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But I am thankful that last week, Brother Mike preached for us and he preached a wonderful message.
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In doing so, he gave me an extra week to think about this text.
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And I am thankful.
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As I said, normally pastors sort of have an inside joke.
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We say every week is like final exam week.
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Because every week we have to study, study, study to present the sermon.
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And we only have a limited amount of time.
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It is not as if we can keep going and going and going.
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Sunday is coming every week.
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But having two weeks to enjoy this passage has been wonderful.
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And I have been grateful for that.
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What I plan to do today is I do plan to look at the entire chapter.
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Because I want to begin to move through Genesis a little more quickly.
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And we are going to be looking overview at some of the stories.
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And we are going to be keying in on other parts of the stories.
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Because there are parts that we need to really focus on.
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And there are parts that we can move through.
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Not that they are not important.
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Please understand.
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But there is a structure to Genesis that must be understood.
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Here is the structure.
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The first 11 chapters.
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The first 11 chapters are what we would call primitive history.
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And the rest of the book beginning at verse 12 is what we would call patriarchal history.
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And if you are not familiar with what I mean by patriarchal history.
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We are talking about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
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Those are the patriarchs of Israel.
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We have spent the last several months looking at Abraham.
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We have spent the last several months talking about his life.
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We have looked at his life all the way from when he left Ur of the Chaldees in Mesopotamia.
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And he went to the promised land.
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We have looked at that.
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We have spent time with that.
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We have really dug in to certain portions.
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And there were certain passages that took us several weeks.
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Well now we are going to find ourselves at the end of his life.
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And what we are going to learn is the second patriarch who is Isaac, the son of Abraham.
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Is going to become almost like a comma in the story.
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That is not to say that Isaac is unimportant.
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Please don't think that is what I mean.
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But his story will be limited in comparison to his father and his son.
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Abraham took many chapters to tell his story.
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And Jacob who is also called Israel will have many chapters to tell his story.
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And Isaac will really only receive one chapter that is really just about him.
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And we are going to look at that chapter next week.
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But today's chapter is about the death of Abraham and the birth of Israel.
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And this major transitional point in the book Where we are going to be stopping our focus on our father Abraham.
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And beginning to look at he who became the progenitor of the nation of Israel.
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Whose name was Jacob.
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So that is what we are going to look at today.
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And what I am going to ask you to do.
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We do this every week.
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We stand for the reading of God's word.
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But we are not going to read the whole chapter.
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We are going to read verses 7 to 11.
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And then we are going to jump down and read verses 19 to 26.
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So stand with me as we read.
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Genesis chapter 25 beginning at verse 7.
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These are the days of the years of Abraham's life.
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175 years.
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Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age.
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An old man and full of years.
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And was gathered to his people.
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Isaac and Ishmael his sons buried him in the cave of Machpelah.
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In the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite east of Mamre.
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The field that Abraham purchased from the Hittites.
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There Abraham was buried with Sarah his wife.
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And after the death of Abraham God blessed Isaac his son.
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And Isaac settled at Beer-le-Hiroy.
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Now moving to verse 19.
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These are the generations of Isaac Abraham's son.
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Abraham fathered Isaac.
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And Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebecca the daughter of Bethuel.
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The Aramean of Paddan-Aram.
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The sister of Laban the Aramean to be his wife.
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And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife.
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Because she was barren.
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And the Lord granted his prayer.
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And Rebecca his wife conceived.
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The children struggled together within her.
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And she said if it is thus why is this happening to me? So she went to inquire of the Lord.
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And the Lord said to her.
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Two nations are in your womb.
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And two peoples from within you shall be divided.
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The one will be stronger than the other.
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And the older will serve the younger.
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When her days to give birth were completed.
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Behold there were twins in her body.
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The first came out red.
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All his body like a hairy cloak.
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So they called his name Esau.
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Afterward his brother came out with his hand holding Esau's heel.
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So his name was called Jacob.
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Isaac was 60 years old when she bore them.
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Father God I thank you for your word.
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Lord now as we seek to examine the text.
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And as we seek to understand the significance of this text.
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Not just for our own lives.
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But Lord the importance of what this text meant in the life of Israel.
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And in the life of redemptive history.
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I pray Lord that you would first and foremost keep me from error.
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For God I am a fallible man.
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I am capable of preaching error.
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And so Lord I pray that you would keep me from that.
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I pray also Lord that you would open the hearts of everyone who is listening.
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Lord it is easy to hear something and let it go in one ear and out the other.
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I pray that it would go in through the ear.
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That it would penetrate not only the mind.
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But also the heart.
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And Lord that we would see today.
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Your redemptive purpose.
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In bringing about the birth of Jacob.
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Who would be the ancestor of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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And it's in his name we pray.
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Amen.
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In this chapter.
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What we are going to see.
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Is five major historical moments.
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And as I said I'm not trying to rush through these things.
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Given the amount of time.
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That if I wanted to spend the next ten years in Genesis.
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I could stop at every verse.
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And I have been in Genesis three years.
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If you're wondering why I'm trying to hasten a little.
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Because I did spend so much time in Genesis 1 and 2 and 3.
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That I feel like at a certain point I'd like to get back to the New Testament.
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If God would allow it.
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So you know I'd like to move a little quicker.
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But I want you to notice five things in this chapter that are going to happen.
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The first thing is the introduction of Abraham's other wife.
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That's an interesting thing that many people often don't even realize.
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We know about Sarah.
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And we know about Hagar the Egyptian handmaiden.
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That Sarah gave to Abraham to attempt to try to hasten the plan of God.
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In giving Abraham a child.
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But very little is known about or ever discussed about his other wife.
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Her name was Keturah.
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And all we have is six verses about her life here in Genesis 25.
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The second thing we're going to look at is the conclusion of Abraham's life.
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And how that brings together Isaac and Ishmael.
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The two sons of Abraham who had been divided because of Sarah.
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But now that Sarah has died.
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Ishmael seems to have been able to come back into the picture.
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And is now at the death of his father.
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Able to with his brother bury their father together.
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Then we see after that Ishmael's descendants.
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And it tells us that he had twelve tribes.
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Twelve kingdoms essentially that came out of his body.
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The number twelve being very important.
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And we'll talk about that in a moment.
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Then we're going to look at the birth of Jacob and Esau.
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And then that moment in their early life.
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Where one of them through his impetuous desire to fill his belly.
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Was willing to abandon the rights and privileges of his being the first born.
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You say, Pastor there's no way you're going to get through that in one sermon.
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Maybe not.
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But we're going to try.
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As I said I've spent so much time just pouring over this text.
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And I do have a ton of things to say.
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But I'm going to try to simply move at a brisk pace.
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But we want to read the text.
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So let's begin in verse one.
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It says Abraham took another wife whose name was Ketorah.
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The word Ketorah means enveloped with fragrance.
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Or a smoke like an incense smoke.
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So we don't know much about her.
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But we do know that her name is attached to the idea of spices.
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And good smells and smoke.
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And what we find out is when we read in the next few verses.
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That her children all had names.
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And we see famous names.
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It says she bore him Zimran, Jokshin, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, Shua.
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Jokshin fathered Sheba and Dedan.
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The sons of Dedan were Asherum, Latusha, Leumim.
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The sons of Midian were Ephah, Ephur, Hanuk, Abadah, and Eldahah.
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And you say wow those are all famous names.
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I've never heard of any of them.
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Yes you have.
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The name Midian you know you have.
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Because the Midianites.
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Moses' wife was a Midianite.
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So we see we know some of these people.
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But what we also know from history is that a lot of these names are tied to the Near Eastern spice trade.
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And the idea of selling and building and making incense.
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And her name was associated with that smell of that incense smell.
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And you say well what has this got to do with anything? Well notice in the text it says this.
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It says all these were the children of Keturah.
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And Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac but to the sons of his concubines.
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And we'll talk about that word in a minute.
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Abraham gave gifts.
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While he was still living he sent them away from his son Isaac eastward to the east country.
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Now when we look in history what we find is the eastward country, that was actually a place where a lot of spices were made and came out.
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A lot of incense were made and came out of that area.
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And what do you think the gifts were? Well I don't know for sure.
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But I can conjecture the idea that perhaps some of the gifts that Abraham gave to his children were the ingredients that were used like frankincense and things.
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Some of those ingredients that were used to make those spices and make those incense.
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So we see here a little bit of history.
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Not hugely important history but I think worthy of note.
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That we kind of get an idea of who these people are and what they're about.
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But notice this.
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It says that all Abraham had he gave to Isaac.
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He gave gifts to the sons of his concubines.
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But to his son he gave his property.
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You say well what's the significance? What we're going to see in this text, and really the most important thing that you can take away from it, and I'll go ahead and tip my hand right now and tell you what you're going to get out of today's sermon, is that the picture of God's providential election is all through this passage.
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Because Abraham had many children.
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Not just Isaac and Ishmael.
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Abraham had many children.
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In fact it says concubines plural.
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All we know about is Hagar and Keturah.
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There may have been more.
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It doesn't say.
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But we know specifically Hagar and Keturah.
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That makes two so that's plural.
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That could be all it was.
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And I'm willing to concede that that's probably all it was.
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There may have been more.
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But the idea is this.
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Out of all the children Abraham had, only one was the son of the promise.
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Out of all the children Abraham seeded through his concubines, only one had come through Sarah, the one through whom God promised that the covenant would come and be maintained.
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So when Abraham looks at all these children, the sons and daughters of Keturah, he says listen guys, I'm going to treat you good, I'm going to bless you, but you ain't staying here.
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Because this is Isaac's land.
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This is the land God promised to him by covenant.
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And I don't want there to be any battling over who owns this land.
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I don't want there to be any arguing over who is the son of the covenant.
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So you are going to take these gifts and you're going to get away.
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You say that's not fair.
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God doesn't deal in the arena of fair.
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God deals in the arena of promise and justice.
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And nowhere is there injustice being done.
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God has made a promise to Isaac.
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And what we're going to see next week is God reiterates that promise to Isaac into the hearing of his own ears.
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So he doesn't have to just hear the promise from his father, he hears the promise from God himself.
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We're going to see that next week.
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So here Abraham tells his children, go.
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But Isaac will have this land.
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Now, we move to verse 7 and this is what we read.
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And I had us read this because I wanted to focus on this portion.
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It says, these are the days of Abraham's life, 175 years.
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What do we learn from that? Abraham came to the promised land in what year? When he was 75.
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He dies at 175.
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I'm not good at math, but I can do this.
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175 minus 75 is 100.
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That means he spent 100 years in the promised land.
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And that's where he died.
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Abraham breathed his last.
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And I love verse 8 because it tells us he died in a good old age, an old man full of years, which means that even in his old age he had not become decrepit or broken down.
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He was full of years, he was full of life, even in his older years.
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I mean, he must have, he was still searing children.
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I mean, Keturah, now going back a couple of verses, there is an argument that says Keturah was around long before Sarah died.
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That cannot be proven from the text.
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Bruce Waltke makes an argument that says he had to have been around for that long for him to have that many children.
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There's really no way to know whether or not Abraham had Keturah before or after Sarah died.
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There's really no way.
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The text is not clear enough.
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If you want to argue with me later and think that it is, you can.
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I've swum in this text for three weeks or two weeks.
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I haven't found an answer, but I will say this.
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If Abraham did take Keturah after Sarah died, then he still had several years that he could have had children.
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And it says he died full of years, strong.
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So it's possible Keturah was a young woman, but Abraham was still able to have children.
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So in a good old age, he dies.
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And I love this phrase.
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And by the way, this phrase is unique to the Pentateuch.
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This is unique to the writings of Moses.
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It says this, he was gathered to his people.
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He was gathered to his people.
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Now, a lot of people think that that simply means that he was buried with Sarah.
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And we're going to see that he was.
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He was buried in the field of Machpelah and that cave that he had bought from the Hittites.
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We know that that's where he was buried.
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And so could it have a very physical meaning? Sort of like we say he was buried with his wife.
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He was gathered to his people.
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Yes.
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But I also believe that even this early in biblical history, there was an understanding that this world isn't all there is.
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And I believe that when it says that he was gathered to his people, it speaks more of the fact that he gathered to his people in the sense of he had a life after this one.
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You say, can you prove that? No, I can't prove it.
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But I think that this it speaks to more of just being buried with his wife.
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It says he was gathered to his people, his ancestors.
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You say, well, wait a minute.
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It says the same thing about Ishmael, just a few verses down.
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And we know Ishmael, he wasn't a good dude.
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But you think about this.
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The Bible never really attempts to break Ishmael down and diminish him.
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He's promised by his mom he's going to have a great nation.
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He's promised or promised by God to his mom.
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He's going to have this great nation.
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It shows us in these verses he has 12 nations that come out of him.
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And to say that he's gathered to his people, meaning that he had an afterlife, I don't think is beyond reason.
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But again, the text is saying something about death.
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One, he died at a good old age.
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He died full of years, strong.
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And he was gathered to his people.
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And verse 9 says this, Isaac and Ishmael, his sons, buried him in the cave of Machpelah.
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As I said, that's the cave he bought for Sarah from the Hittites.
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And then verse 11 says, And after the death of Abraham, God blessed Isaac his son.
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And Isaac settled at Be'er Lehiroi.
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And you say, well, what's the significance of that? Be'er Lehiroi is where the angel spoke to Hagar.
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And so this place has significance in the history of Israel.
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And Be'er Lehiroi is the place that Ishmael received his promise of blessing from God.
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But now Isaac is assuming that place as his own.
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Thus, again, moving forward with the idea that Isaac is the one who owns all of this.
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Even Ishmael, who has a promise, who has a nation, who has people coming from him, is not the covenant child.
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This is Isaac's land.
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Even Be'er Lehiroi.
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Even where Ishmael's mom received the promise of blessing.
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So all these little things are significant.
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All these little points are pointing us to one thing.
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It's going from Abraham to Isaac.
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Not from Abraham to all of the others.
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Isaac is the promised seed.
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Alright.
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But that doesn't mean Ishmael isn't important.
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So in verse 12, we have the history of Ishmael.
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I'm not going to read all of this.
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But I will say basically what it says is this.
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It says, these are the generations of Ishmael, Abraham's son.
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And by the way, the term these are the generations of, that's what we call in Hebrew a toledot, or a place, a marking post that marks out a certain section of Scripture.
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There are ten of these in Genesis.
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Each one assigning a different significance to a life.
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Ten people receive a toledot in Scripture.
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Well, actually the first one is the heavens and the earth.
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These are the generations of the heavens and the earth.
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Then it goes through the different generations of different people showing significance in the text.
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Ishmael gets his own.
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And it says he has twelve sons.
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And it names them.
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You say, what's the significance of twelve? Well, if you read through the Bible, the number twelve comes up all the time.
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There are twelve sons of Israel.
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Twelve tribes of Israel.
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How many disciples does Jesus take? There are twelve disciples.
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The number twelve speaks, it seems to indicate the idea of completeness as a nation.
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It serves as a standard of rule and government.
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In fact, what do we see in the book of Revelation? I don't want to get too much into this.
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But how many are seated in the book of Revelation? Twenty-four.
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Twelve from the old, twelve from the new.
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Right? And I can't prove it, but I think that could represent the twelve tribes and the twelve disciples making up that twenty-four.
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But the idea is completeness.
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The idea is rule.
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The idea is government.
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And Ishmael is given these.
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But notice what verse 18 says.
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We mustn't miss this.
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It says, they, that is the descendants of Ishmael, they settled in Havilah to Shur, which is opposite Egypt in the direction of Assyria.
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And he settled, ESV says, over against all his kinsmen.
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Now the King James says that he died in the presence of his kinsmen.
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The New American Standard Bible says he lived in defiance of his kinsmen.
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And the New International Version says that he lived in hostility with his kinsmen.
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So here's what I think the text means.
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And when I don't know for sure, I always tell you, I think this is what it means.
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I do think that this is saying that the descendants of Ishmael did have ought with their neighbors.
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And we see that prophesied back earlier in the life of Ishmael.
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Do you remember what God said to Hagar about her son? He would be a wild donkey of a man and his hand would be against his brethren? Well, this is what we're seeing.
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We're seeing his descendants, they are at ought with their neighbors.
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So verse 18, I believe, is ultimately a fulfillment of chapter 16, verse 12, where hostility is prophesied about the descendants of Ishmael.
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Now I want to say this very quickly.
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There are those who would argue that the current political situation between the Jews and the Arabs has its history here.
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Because the Arabs do trace their line back to Ishmael.
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And obviously the Jews trace their line back to Isaac.
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And there are those who say that even the political contempt of today, which brings division between Arabs and Jews even today, finds its place to this passage.
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I don't know that that can be proven, but certainly it's significant enough to mention and to say this, early on in the history of Ishmael's descendants, they were at odds with their neighbors.
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And that's worthy enough to simply point to and say this is something of historical note, that these people were at odds with those around them.
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Alright, moving on now to what I think is probably the most, outside of the death of Abraham, which is hugely significant, the most significant part of this chapter is the last part, where we get the birth of the two sons.
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We see another Toledot here.
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These are the generations of, and now we have Isaac.
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Notice it comes right after Ishmael.
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Ishmael gets this much, Isaac gets a lot more, because Isaac is the son of the promise.
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These are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son.
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Abraham fathered Isaac, and Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, the 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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I want to ask a question.
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I meant to find this out before I got here today, but the Lord, or I'm blaming the Lord, I blame it on myself, I forgot.
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Brother, what does it say there? Does it say she was barren in King James? Okay, thank you.
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That's all I wanted to know.
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And I always got a few of y'all who are King James guys, who I can trust that I can ask and find out.
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Because I meant to look it up when I got here this morning, and I just forgot.
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The reason why I wanted to bring that up is it says she was barren.
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And I wanted to make sure it said that because that's what it means.
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It means she was childless, she was barren.
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And what we find out is Jacob and Esau are going to be born when he's 60.
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They got married when he's 40.
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So again, not great at math, but 20 years of childlessness, that's barrenness, right? I've told the story, my wife and I, we got married at 19.
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First couple years we thought, well, maybe it just hasn't been the right time.
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After three or four years, no children, it was tough.
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After the fifth year, we had to start wondering, are we not going to have children of natural birth we ended up adopting to? And then it was six years after that, 2012, that we finally had our first natural child.
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And since then it's just been like gangbusters.
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But the point is 20 years.
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I mean, we went five years and we felt like we were barren, right? Because nothing had happened.
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20 years, and that's the length of time from the time, and we read two weeks ago how Rebecca saw Isaac, she jumped off the camel, she ran to him, they immediately went to his mother's tent, they became married, and so they've been trying.
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They've been trying for 20 years, no child.
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And Isaac, verse 21, says, And Isaac prayed to the Lord, to Yahweh, it's the covenant name, he prayed to Yahweh for his wife.
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This is an interesting passage, because the word prayed here, it's from the Hebrew, which means to intercede.
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Husbands, do you ever intercede on behalf of your wife? Maybe not for her barrenness, maybe just for your understanding and living with her.
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The Bible says we're to live with her in an understanding way.
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Do we do that? Do you ever intercede for your wife when you know she's struggling with her faith or something else in life, a pain, a grief? Well, that's what Isaac does here.
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He intercedes for his wife, knowing that she wants to have a child and has gone now 20 years childless.
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So he intercedes, he prays for her.
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And the Lord granted his prayer.
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And Rebekah, his wife, conceived.
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Now, they didn't have EPT and all that, so she probably didn't know she was pregnant for a couple of months.
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But after the couple of months went by, and there's that feeling of the change of the body and the things are happening and things are moving, she begins to experience turmoil in her pregnancy.
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Notice what it says.
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It says the children struggled together within her.
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Just stop right there.
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The word struggle literally in Hebrew means crushed.
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And you're going to love this word.
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It literally is the idea of crushing someone in wrestling.
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You know how there's something...
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Mike does jiu-jitsu, and I know, brother, you've watched fights and stuff and you used to fight yourself.
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There's something called knee on belly.
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And if you don't know what knee on belly is, it's where if two men are wrestling, one gets his knee up on the other guy's right above this part of the stomach and presses down with his knee, and it feels like a car is sitting on your abdomen.
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Everything stops in the world.
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You feel like you're being crushed to death.
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Some guys tap just from that one pressure right on the bottom of the sternum right there.
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That knee goes on and that's the end.
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That's the idea.
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These boys are grounding and pounding in mama's belly.
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They are wrestling.
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They are battling.
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They are crushing one another in the belly.
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And that gives the understanding of what comes next because notice what she says.
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She said, If it is thus, why is this happening to me? Now I want to say something about that.
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In the Hebrew it's a little ambiguous.
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The Hebrew actually literally is only three words.
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Why this I? And I don't know if you've ever prayed a prayer like that before.
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I know that I have.
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And in English it would just be, Why me? Because that's what she's saying.
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Why is this happening to me? Why is it that I was so happy to be pregnant and now I've got the undertaker and macho man in my belly and they're ruining each other.
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And by the way, she doesn't know that she has twins.
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I mean, they ain't got no sonograms back then.
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She doesn't know.
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I mean, when she sees four elbows come out, she might have an idea as she sees this happening.
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But something weird.
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So she goes to the Lord with this question of, Why me? So she went to inquire of the Lord.
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Now it doesn't say how.
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And let me tell you something.
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The rabbis, you read old rabbinic commentaries and they're kind of neat because obviously many of them are not influenced by Christianity.
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So they're pre-Christ commentaries and things that are written.
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Some of them are odd.
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But some of them shed a little bit of neat light like how they thought.
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And they have all kinds of ideas.
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Like maybe she went to a family altar and prayed and heard from the Lord herself.
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Others believe, though, that she went to a prophet and spoke.
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Some even say maybe Melchizedek was still alive at this point.
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Maybe she went and spoke to him.
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Maybe Abraham is still alive.
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If you look at the time period, Abraham actually lives past the birth of Jacob and Esau.
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Even though in this series of events it seems like he dies first, if you look at the time span, he lives until about 15.
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So Abraham is still alive.
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She could have went to him.
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He's a prophet of God and prayed and asked him.
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But again, we don't know.
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All we know is at this moment she is crying out to the Lord, Why me? What's going on? And she receives a prophecy from God in verse 23.
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Two nations are in your womb.
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Two peoples from within you shall be divided.
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One shall be stronger than the other, and the older shall serve the younger.
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Now we're going to see in a moment, when we're done reading through the chapter, we're going to run to Romans 9 as the last thing.
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And we're going to see that the Apostle Paul is going to make a huge note on that section in Romans 9.
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Because he's going to say this is actually proof of God's elective purpose.
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That he's choosing the younger rather than the older.
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But we'll get to that in a moment.
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Just know that this is an important section.
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Verse 24 says, When her days to give birth were completed, behold, there were twins in her womb.
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Again, she didn't know that before then.
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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 named him Esau.
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And the word Esau literally means hairy.
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Afterwards, his brother came out with his hand holding Esau's heel.
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Must have been a sight for that midwife.
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You've got to imagine.
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She's ready to catch.
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You know, she's down there.
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I don't know if that's how they do it.
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I've never done it.
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But she's ready to receive.
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She gets the child.
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And the other one is holding on.
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I mean, I can't even imagine.
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But that's what it says.
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So his name was called Jacob.
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Jacob literally means heel grabber.
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So he's named after this event.
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Isaac was 60 years old.
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That's when we find out the amount of time.
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They were 40 when they got married.
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60 when he had the baby.
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So there's your timetable.
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It's 20 years barren.
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20 years barren.
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Verse 27 and verse 28.
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If you're parents, buckle up.
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This one's real.
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Notice what it says, verse 27.
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When the boys grew up, 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 Rebecca loved Jacob.
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All right.
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I'm not going to ask anybody in here if you have a favorite child.
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Because that would be ungodly and unfair.
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But, I have five.
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And I tell them all the time, you're my favorite today.
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For whatever reason.
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But that favorite gift gets given out and taken back.
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It's a moving target.
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But it's interesting that the text clearly says there's favoritism.
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It doesn't mince or try to hide it.
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It says Isaac loved Esau.
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And why? Because he ate of his game.
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And I want you to think about the way it describes Esau.
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Because I got to tell you, some of you guys in here, I think you all would have really liked Esau.
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I'm not lying.
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He was a man.
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Because Esau is described as a hunter.
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He's described as an outdoorsman.
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We're going to see in a couple chapters, his clothes smelled like the field.
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That's how Isaac identifies him.
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Jacob dresses in his clothes.
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And he says he knew it was Esau when he smelled his clothes.
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So he even smelled like outside.
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He was a man's man.
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His name was Harry.
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He was a brute.
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And Jacob.
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Oh, sweet Jacob.
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Jacob was quiet.
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He's what you might call indoorsy.
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He's more civilized.
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This might be unfair.
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Esau, a man's man.
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Maybe call Jacob a mama's boy.
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And you can get mad at me if you want.
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I'll see him in heaven one day and he might correct me.
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But I think the text is fair enough.
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And I want to tell you a story.
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I was thinking about this this week.
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I had Thanksgiving.
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My family.
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And every time we have Thanksgiving, when my mom's side of the family, I'm reminded of my grandmother who we lost many years ago.
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And I grew up going to my grandmother's house all the time.
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Loved my grandmother.
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I've told that story before.
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But one of the things, I had a real good relationship with my grandmother for one reason.
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When all of the cousins would come over, they would all go outside and want to go ride bikes, play baseball, do whatever.
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But I would sit inside and play cards with my grandmother.
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Or I would watch, let me tell you, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy.
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Seven o'clock.
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Network television.
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We'd watch Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy.
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And so I developed this very close relationship because I was myself somewhat indoorsy.
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So it doesn't tell us why Rebecca tended toward Jacob.
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But we can imagine why.
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She's the master of the home.
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She's the one who works at home.
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She's there and he's there.
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So while Isaac and Esau are going out on the hunt, Jacob's staying home, doing the dishes and making mama happy.
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But also remember this.
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Rebecca knows something about Jacob that she heard from God himself.
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And that is Jacob is going to be the son of promise.
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The text does not tell us whether or not Isaac knew that.
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I think he may have known.
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I think that would have been hard to keep a secret.
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But we see in a few chapters that Isaac, even knowing that Jacob is the son of the blessing, he still tries to bless the older child in defiance of God.
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So Rebecca has a special place in her heart for this child, this covenant child.
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Alright, let's finish the chapter very quickly.
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Beginning at verse 29.
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Once when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field.
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This is a famous story.
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You're probably familiar with it.
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Esau came in from the field and he was exhausted.
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He was hungry.
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And Esau said to Jacob, let me eat some of that red stew.
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And by the way, I didn't mention this before, I did mention Esau means hairy.
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Jacob means heel grabber.
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But Esau is also called Edom.
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Edom means red.
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He wasn't just hairy, he was red.
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And this stew is red.
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Somehow and in some way the red is connected to this guy.
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And so it says, after he said something about give me some of that red porridge or some of that red stew, that name red becomes connected to him.
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And his descendants become known as the reds.
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Or the Edomites.
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In fact, we see that in Genesis 36.
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It says these are the generations of Esau, the Edomites.
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Tells us the Edomites come from him.
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The reds come from him.
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Verse 31.
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Jacob said, sell me your birthright now.
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Esau said, I am about to die.
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Of what use is a birthright to me? Now let me ask you a question.
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You ever been so hungry you felt like you were going to die? Is it usually an exaggeration? Do you think this was an exaggeration? Probably.
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He's probably not starving to death.
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But he is a man who demonstrates through this that he is led about by his passions.
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He's led about by his belly.
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In fact, I want to just very quickly, if you don't mind, turn in your Bibles very quickly over to Hebrews 12.
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We won't be there long.
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I just want to show you something.
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Go to chapter 12, verse 15.
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Because the writer of Hebrews looks at this moment in Esau's life and he says, here's the type of man he was.
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And he uses this moment to point to the type of man Esau was.
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Verse 15, it says this.
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See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up or causes trouble, and by it many become defiled, and that no one, verse 16, is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau who sold his birthright for a single meal.
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And it goes on to talk about how he begged for repentance.
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We're going to talk about that in two weeks when we get to chapter 27.
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But notice what it says about Esau.
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It says this demonstrated his unholy character.
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It demonstrated his unholy attitude towards life because he was a man who was willing to put the things of this world in front of the things of God.
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The birthright, that birthright, was something that God gave to the firstborn and he was willing to jettison it simply to fill his stomach with a mouthful of porridge.
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Now again, I could spend all day on this.
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We could spend three weeks on this.
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But how many of us just are willing to abandon the things of God for a mouthful of porridge? How many of us miss worship for no other reason than we just didn't feel like getting out of bed? Oh, and now it hurts your feelings.
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Okay.
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But understand this.
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We so often are willing to replace the holy things of God with what satisfies us in the moment.
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And the writer of Hebrews says that is a picture of unholiness.
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That is a picture of worldliness, of fleshliness.
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That we be willing to give up the things of God for the satisfaction, a momentary satisfaction.
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How long do you think that stew stayed in his stomach? Not long.
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And yet we notice, going back to Genesis, that he swore an oath to give up the birthright privilege for a mouthful of pottage.
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This is hugely significant on a practical level.
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How many of us are so willing to abandon the things of God for meaningless things? For trivial things? And this is why it says, going back, we'll finish the chapter, this is why the last verse it says, Then Jacob gave Esau the bread and the lentil stew.
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He ate and drank, and Rosen went his way.
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Thus Esau despised his birthright.
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Despised it.
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Hated it.
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Treated it as if it were nothing.
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D.L.
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Moody said this, He said, No food since the forbidden fruit was this expensive.
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No food since the forbidden fruit costs this much.
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So we find ourselves at the end of the chapter.
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And boy, we have gone a long way.
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We went from the death of Abraham to the birth of Israel.
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Remember, Jacob becomes Israel.
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That's why I said birth of Israel.
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Jacob will become Israel.
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And now I want to show you what connects it all.
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I said at the beginning there was a thread, a thread of truth that must not be missed.
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Remember this, we are not here to just teach Bible stories.
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I love to tell stories and I think I'm a fairly decent storyteller.
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But I'm not here to tell you Bible stories.
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I'm here to show you how these stories connect to the doctrine of Scripture and the teachings of the Bible which affect our redemption.
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So now that we have read the story, turn with me to Romans 9 and let's see how Paul interprets the story.
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In Romans 9, Paul provides for us what we could call the foundational text of the doctrine of election because he deals with God's freedom to choose whom He will.
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Let me ask you a question.
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Does that bother you? Does it bother you that God has the freedom to choose whom He will? It bothers a lot of people.
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I mean, we've had people come to this church and they'll leave after a couple of weeks because they hear me talk about election and predestination.
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They hear me talk about the sovereignty of God and they can't stand those doctrines because they say it robs them of their freedom.
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It robs them of their ability to make a choice.
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It robs them of their ability to be the captain of their own destiny.
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And here's the problem with all of that.
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If you have all the freedom, if you have all the power, and you're the captain of your destiny, where does that leave God? Because the Bible says God has all the freedom.
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God has all the power.
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And God is the captain of your destiny.
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That's what faith is.
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It's trusting that the God who made me will do what He has promised for me.
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Understand this.
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This passage should knock you out of your seat if you think for one second that you have the power to make all the choices and God's just a spectator in your life.
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Read it with me if you would.
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We're going to begin at verse 6.
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Now I wish we had time to go through the whole chapter, but I already went through one chapter.
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I don't think I can do another one.
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Beginning at verse 6, the question that's been asked is, well, if God hasn't saved all of Israel, does that mean His promises have failed? If all of Israel is not saved, and we know today there are many Israelites who don't believe in Jesus, the question is, if all of Israel is not saved, does that mean God's Word has failed? Verse 6 answers the question by saying, it is not as though the Word of God has failed.
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For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring.
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See, we just saw that.
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Abraham had many offspring.
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He had Ishmael.
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He had all the children of Keturah.
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But not all of them are sons of the promise.
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Notice what it says.
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But through Isaac shall your offspring be named.
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You see, that's what Genesis 25 is about.
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Abraham had many children, but only one is the son of the promise.
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Isaac.
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This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.
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It's not flesh that gets you saved.
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It's God's promise through His Son that gets you saved.
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Understand that.
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No one in this room is saved because you were born into a Christian family.
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And if you teach your children that because they're born into a Christian family, that they will automatically be saved, how dare you! Shame upon you! Because that will lead your children into a false understanding of their own salvation, thinking that they are saved because of your faith, and they are not! And if you think it's making me upset, it is! Because I know of entire churches that teach their children that because you're born into a Christian family, that you are somehow saved because of that, and it's just not true! And it creates a false sense of security, and a false sense of salvation, and a false understanding of what it means to be a child of God.
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Verse 9.
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So this is what the promise said.
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About this time next year I'll return and Sarah will have a son.
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This is quoting back in Genesis' earlier passages.
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And not only so, but also when Rebekah...
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This is what we're getting in chapter 25.
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Not only so, but when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, her forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born, and had done nothing 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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What passage is he quoting? He's quoting Genesis 25.
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How is he quoting Genesis 25? To show this.
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God has the freedom to choose whom He wills for what He wills.
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He chose Jacob.
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And here's the thing that you need to write on the inside of your Bible.
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You need to write this on your notes.
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You need to make sure you don't forget.
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He didn't choose Jacob because he was better.
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Because Jacob himself will prove himself to be quite the scoundrel.
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In fact, I'll say this.
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If your thought is he chose Jacob because Esau was bad, let me tell you something.
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Neither one of them deserved to be chosen.
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And you read the next verse.
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It says, therefore it is written, Jacob I loved, Esau I hated.
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People have a cow.
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Oh! Oh! I can't believe it.
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It says Esau I have hated.
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That shouldn't bother you.
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What should bother you is Jacob I loved.
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The fact that God would hate the sinner should not surprise us.
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It's that He would love the sinner.
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That's what should surprise us.
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The fact that He would love a sinful man like me.
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That He would reach down into the muck and mire of my sin.
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That He would pull me up.
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That He would wash me clean in the blood of the Lamb.
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And that He would give me salvation through His Son.
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Is nothing short of a miracle because I don't deserve it.
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And Jacob did not deserve it.
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So when you read, Jacob I loved, Esau I hated.
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Don't get upset with Esau I hated.
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Get upset with Jacob I loved.
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Because that's the part that shouldn't make sense.
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See, we have all been told over and over and over.
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God loves you.
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God loves you just the way that you are.
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And God loves you unconditionally.
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I'm going to tell you this.
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You can get mad if you want.
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God does not love you unconditionally.
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God's love is conditioned on His choice.
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And the Bible says He will show mercy to whom He will show mercy.
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He will have compassion on whom He has compassion.
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And whom He wills, He hardens.
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If you are saved today, it is because God was merciful to you.
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And you didn't deserve it.
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You're in the same place Jacob was.
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God was merciful to Jacob.
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And he didn't deserve it.
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That's the thread that runs through Genesis 25.
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It begins with all of these sons of Abraham.
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But only one is the son of the promise.
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And then two sons of Isaac.
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But only one is the son of the promise.
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The whole Bible is made up of two ways.
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From the beginning to the end.
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Brother Andy is teaching through Proverbs right now.
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And what does he say? There's two ways.
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The way of the wise.
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The way of the fool.
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The way of the righteous.
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And the way of the wicked.
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You might say that's the way of the elect.
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And the way of the reprobate.
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And if you are on the path of the elect.
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If you have been saved.
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You have been saved by grace alone.
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Not because of what you have done.
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But because of what God has done for you.
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That is what we must not miss.
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When we read, the older will serve the younger.
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God has made a choice.
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God made a choice of the younger.
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And God's like that.
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God often chooses the younger.
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Think of Cain and Abel.
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He chose to receive the offering of Abel, not of Cain.
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Think of David with all of his brothers.
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He was the youngest, yet God chose him.
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I think there's a picture in that.
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I'll leave you with this.
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I think there's a picture in God choosing the younger.
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Choosing the second.
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Here's the picture.
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The Bible says there are two Adams.
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The older and the younger.
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The first and the last.
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The one who came and brought sin.
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And the one who came and brought life.
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If we are in the older Adam.
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We are lost.
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But God gave us the younger Adam.
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The new Adam.
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The last Adam, Jesus Christ.
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And the Bible says in Him, all will be made alive.
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You're either in Adam, or you're in Christ.
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My prayer is that you would be in Christ today.
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So let's pray.
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Our Father, I thank You for this opportunity to be in Your Word.
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Lord, what a glorious Word it is.
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And what a glorious truth we have.
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That You sent Your Son into the world.
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And You made Him who knew no sin to become sin for us.
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That we could become the righteousness of God in Him.
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And now we get to remember His sacrifice in the table.
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Lord, remind us.
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Remind us of Emmanuel who came.
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The Son of Israel.
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The true Israel who has come.
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The one who through all the promises find their yes and amen.
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Thank You, Lord, in Jesus' name.
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Amen.