Wrestling with God

Wrestling with God

Chet Phillips

Transcript

It's good to see y'all this morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. If you're new and I haven't had a chance to meet you yet, hopefully I'll get to soon. It's good to see y'all. Grab a Bible.

Go to Genesis chapter 32. It'll be on page 16 if you grab one of these blue Bibles. If you don't own a Bible, steal this one. It's our gift to you. Take it home. Read it often.

We want you to have a Bible. We have been walking through the book of Genesis and following along with this family, seeing how God has worked through human history and how he specifically has chosen this family that he is going to, he says, through them he's going to make a people. He's going to give them a place. He's going to bless them and he's going to bless the world. And we've been following along with Jacob. Now, Jacob was a twin.

His mama, Rebecca, was pregnant and she was pregnant with two children. It's the first children she had had. Pregnancy is tough. This one was tougher. It was hard. The children inside of her fought one another.

They didn't get along from before they were born. Esau is born first. Jacob comes out second. Jacob comes out holding on to Esau's foot. He was a very close second. And he comes out holding on to Esau's foot.

And this matters a lot. The names they give their children are basically hairy and foot grabber. They name them the way they look. Esau's big, kind of hairy. Jacob comes out second. He's holding on to his foot.

And the word they use, Jacob, means sneaky or tricky or deceiver. And it kind of follows him the rest of his life. That's what they name their children. And it matters that he came out second because in some ways in this patriarchal society, it's like they were children of a king. So here's what that means.

If you have a family in a monarchy and there's a king and a queen, their firstborn son will get to be king. You ever seen the line, King? It was the firstborn son saying, I can't wait to be king. Singing that song, that's who gets to be king. And the secondborn son gets to be the king's brother. That's it.

You get to see him. You get to see his crown. Maybe he'll take it off, let you look at it. Maybe he'll let you polish it up for him, wear it at night, give it back to him. I don't know. But you don't get to be king.

And that's kind of how this worked. Esau's firstborn, so he gets the birthright. He gets the blessing. He gets the patriarchy. And Jacob coming out, holding on to his foot, close, silver medal, gets to be Esau's brother. That's it.

And so Jacob spends his life fighting with, wrestling with Esau over this. He eventually tricks him. He takes advantage of him. Esau wasn't real tricked because he knew what he was doing. But he sells his birthright for some soup.

And then Jacob dresses up like Esau, actually puts on a little Esau outfit, and tricks his father, who was going blind, into receiving the blessing. Now, this is a big deal. He got the birthright through the soup transaction, which was taking advantage. But then he just lies and tricks his father and his brother, and he steals a blessing. Now, the blessing is priceless. It's not something that he can give back.

It's not something that he could exchange something else for. He steals something priceless. Now, think about this for a second. If you had twin brothers today, one of them doing okay for himself, well-liked in the family, and the other one, not so much. But this one, because they're twins, he just kind of steals his brother's identity.

He goes and closes out his 401k, closes out his bank account, goes and takes his car, because he looks like him, and he knows how to do the signature. He sells his car. And he suddenly puts his brother in a bind. All of a sudden, his checks are bouncing. His things are getting repoed. He's getting in trouble.

And he realizes that his brother has just tricked him. He's just pretended to be him and stolen everything he has. That still pales in comparison to what Jacob did, because Jacob took something priceless. I don't care if he, the illustration I gave, I don't care if he took $100,000. That can get, you can get that back. You can't get this blessing back.

And so when he does this, Esau, who is big and hairy and lives outside and hunts, he's like Chewbacca, has the crossbow and everything, decides, I'm just going to kill Jacob. And so Jacob, who has torn this family apart, basically he and his mom have to come up with a reason for him to leave, and they dress it up as best they can. They do bless him and send him out, but he leaves with a stick. Give him a walking stick. And they say, hit the bricks. Or, didn't have bricks hit the dirt.

I don't know. Head to the woods. And he leaves. He leaves, sent to go find a wife. He ends up finding four. And he lives in Haran, marries these wives, and then at some point God comes to him and says, it's time to go back home.

God, actually the blessing works. God says, I'm going to bless you. I'm going to give you the blessing that was in Abraham and Isaac. It's going to come to you. You're going to have a people. You're going to have a place.

You're going to be blessed. And now it's time to go back. He'd gone 500 miles away. Now it's time to come back. And that's where we pick up. Genesis 32.

I'm going to pray. Today's text is just great. And we're going to study it together. And it's going to be good. All right.

God, we pray that you would help us speak to us this morning. And you'd help us to listen. We love you. And we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Jacob went on his way.

He's been sent back home. And the angels of God met him. And when Jacob saw them, he said, this is God's camp. So he called the name of that place Mahanaim, which means two camps. His camp, God's camp. So he's traveling.

You take a whole group of people. You'll set up camp. He comes in. He sees angels. And he thinks, oh, we're in God's camp. And then it basically seems like they just kind of stopped there.

It says, Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau, his brother, in the land of Sire, the country of Edom, instructing them. Thus you shall say to my Lord Esau. Thus says your servant Jacob. I have sojourned with Laban and stayed until now. I have oxen, donkey, flocks, male servants and female servants. I have sent to tell my Lord in order that I may find favor in your sight.

You see, Jacob understands something. When God tells Jacob it's time to go back, Jacob understands that going back to the land of promise where God intends to bless him, he has to go through Esau. He doesn't just get to roll back in there, set up his camp and hope for the best. He knows that when God's sending him back, God's sending him back to and through Esau. Now, last he saw Esau, Esau was planning on killing him. And there's got to be a great amount of fear.

And in some ways, Esau personifies, he in human form represents to Jacob all the shystery, tricky, sneaky, sinful mess that Jacob's ever done. He's the person in his life that just shows Jacob's sinfulness, his brokenness, his wickedness. And Jacob knows that he's got to go through Esau to get to the promise. So he sends messengers to Esau. Now, if you'll just if you'll try to sympathize with Jacob for a second. If you knew that in order for your life to move forward and to be good and for you to follow what you were supposed to, you were going to have to face the people that you had wronged, the people that you had harmed.

If you knew that you were going to have to stand face to face with your sin and the consequences of your sin. Can you imagine the knot that would be tied in your stomach? The truth is, the reality is, is the Bible says that all of us will stand face to face with the weight of our sin. Jacob has to do it with Esau, but all of us will. Maybe you spread yours out. Jacob concentrated his.

He focused it primarily on Esau. Maybe you spread yours out. Maybe yours travels across high schools and Job sites and cities, but it's spread out. But one day you will stand face to face in judgment with your sin. And that's what he's facing. He's got to go through this.

He's got to recognize his sin. He's got to stand face to face with what he's done. And that's what he does. He sends messengers to Esau. And he says, I've sent to tell my Lord in order that I may find favor in your sight, knowing I can't just sneak past you. I can't just try to live here without you just haunting my dreams and suddenly being able to show up.

I know I've got to talk to you. I know I've got to address this. All right. Six. And the messengers returned to Jacob saying, we came to your brother Esau and he is coming to meet you. And there are 400 men with him.

Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. He divided the people who were with him and the flocks and the herds and the camels into two camps, thinking if Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape. So he says, go tell him I'm coming back. Call him my Lord. Tell him I'm his servant. He sees his guys coming back.

They're moving a little bit too quickly for comfort. They show up. They say, all right, we told him what you said. Esau is on his way and he's bringing 400 men. Now, they can't be that far behind these people. And Jacob's not just I mean, he's greatly afraid and distressed because this sounds like a war party.

He thinks he was going to kill me by himself. Now he's going to kill everybody. He's bringing all his men with him. This is terrible. And his first plan is just let's just separate and then half of us can try to get away. Then it says this.

And Jacob said, oh, God of my father, Abraham and God of my father, Isaac, a Lord who said to me, return to your country and to your kindred that I may do you good. I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that he has shown to your servant. For with only my staff, I crossed this Jordan and now I have become two camps. Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him that he may come and attack me and the mothers with their children. But you said, I will surely do you good and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.

Jacob prays. We've seen him converse with God very little. He's been we've watched this guy's whole life and his relationship to God has been tumultuous and and sparse. But he prays in this moment. He prays. And so this is good for Jacob.

And you guys, it's a pretty good prayer. I was praying with my four year old about a week ago. He prayed and then I prayed and we got done. He said, Daddy, was my prayer good? I was like, yeah, buddy, it was a good prayer. And he said, it was better than your prayer.

Not wanting to bring competition into the prayer atmosphere. I said, well, maybe we tied, you know, and he went, OK, well, let's pray again. He does not want to tie. There are rankings in prayer, just so you know, there are good and bad prayers. Jesus says the Pharisees pray this pompous prayer that puffs themselves up. The truth is any prayer that's a genuine prayer is a good prayer if it's humble and genuine.

But this one's actually pretty good because what he says is, God, here's who you are. And then he says, I'm doing what you told me to. You're the God who told me to leave and to come here and that you're going to do me good. And then he says, I'm not worthy. Here's who I am. I'm not worthy of the least of the things you've given me.

That's beautiful to hear rolling off the tongue of Jacob because so far he has seemed kind of cocky, kind of sneaky, kind of. And he hears a little bit of humility. He says, I'm not worthy of all that you've done for me. And then he says, here's the situation. I'm afraid and I think Esau is going to kill everybody, not just me, but the mothers and their children. And then he says, but you promised to do me good.

That's a good prayer. God, here's who you are. Here's what you've promised. Here's who I am. Here's what you've promised. So he prays.

Then it says this. So he stayed there that night. So he comes. This is the Lord's camp. The angels he sees kind of shows that he's in the presence of God. So he's like, all right, we're going to stay here.

There's two camps here. I'm going to send them on. This is kind of encouraging that God's people, you know, God's angels are here. So I'm going to send them on to get this news. They come back and he just stays there in that camp that night. And from what he had with him, he took a present for his brother Esau.

200 Female goats and 20 male goats. 200 ewes and 20 rams. 30 milking camels and their calves. 40 cows and 10 bulls. 20 female donkeys. 10 male donkeys.

And then he handed over to his servant every drove by itself. And he said to his servants, pass on ahead of me and put a space between drove and drove. He instructed the first. When Esau, my brother, meets you and ask you to whom do you belong? Where are you going? And whose are these ahead of you?

Then you shall say they belong to your servant, Jacob. They are a present sent to my Lord Esau. And moreover, he is behind us. He likewise instruct the second and the third and all who follow the droves. You shall say the same thing to Esau when you find him. And you shall say, moreover, your servant Jacob is behind us.

For he thought I may appease him with the present that goes ahead of me. And afterward, I shall see him face to face. Perhaps he will accept me. So the present passed on ahead of him and he himself stayed that night in the camp. Okay. He splits his camps up.

Then he prays. Then he comes up with this present idea. And this present idea doesn't sound like that bad of an idea. He's going to give Esau gifts. This is going to slow Esau down. Maybe let's give him a little bit of time to think.

And while he's thinking, let's give him some presents. That's what he's doing. It doesn't tell us whether it's a good idea or a bad idea. It doesn't tell us that this was in humility. This isn't in restitution. This is, it says, maybe it'll appease him.

And then he says, after that, I'll see him face to face. And what we see held together so clearly here in Jacob is half of this is obedience. Half of this is faith. He's praying. We've never seen that. He's going to go see Esau face to face.

He's going to go face what God's given him. And half of this is old Jacob. Making a little schemey plan. Coming up with a cool idea. If I could just do this. Maybe it'll work out.

And the reason I love that when I notice that in the text. Isn't that us? That's our church family, y'all. You're walking in life. I'm trying to follow Jesus. I'm going to do this thing.

I'm doing what he told me to. Something happens. And then boom. Half and half. Talk to you one day. I've just been praying.

I've just been trusting the Lord. Prayer hands. Hallelujah. Emoji. Whatever. The next day.

All right. Well, I may have an ounce of weed on me. I'm really stressed out. Okay. I've been praying. I've been trusting.

I'm following the Lord. I'm doing what I'm supposed to. You know what? I called her up and I cussed her and her mama out. Okay. Half and half.

Half repentance. Half following. Half praying. Half running back to what we used to chase after. Half running to what we used to make us feel good. Half running.

Blowing off steam. Whatever. That's Jacob. So he's growing. He's coming along. He's back and forth.

Let's see what happens. The same night. He arose and took his two wives. All right. He can't sleep. Like he just is.

He's antsy. He gets up. He takes his two wives. His two female servants. His 11 children. And crossed the ford of the Yabak.

So he said he was at the Jordan. Now he's at like the Yabak part of this. And it's a ford. Which means it's a shallow part. You can walk across. And so he takes his wives and children across.

He's getting them to the other side. He's trying to get them to a safer position. Maybe. Maybe he's just thinking. All right.

We got to just keep pressing forward. We don't exactly know where he's kind of lining them up in relation to where Esau is. He's got children at varying ages. He's taking them across. Some kids are being held. Some are maybe you're holding their hands.

Some of the older kids are maybe holding kids. He's got 11 kids. He gets them across. And Jacob was left alone. So he comes back across.

Maybe he's checking. Making sure everything. Everybody got across. He's by himself. We don't know what he's going to do. If he's going to pray.

And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. Okay. What? That's written in the text intending to be a surprise. Like it's as surprising to us as it was to Jacob. He's getting his family across.

He hadn't slept. He hadn't eaten. He's stressed out. He comes back. And now in the dark at night, there's a man who wrestles with him until the breaking of day. We don't know at what point they started wrestling.

We just know they wrestle until the breaking of day. Now that word wrestle means dirtied. They rolled around in the dirt. This was a fight. Which, I mean, if you're in the woods in the dark at night and a man comes and lays his hands on you, that's a fight. I mean, let's be real.

Adrenaline is pumping up past your ears like you are. And they're fighting. Now, at this point, Jacob's in his 60s. Now, he would have been a healthy 60. He was tough. He was out in the world.

He was working. So you saw him. When he said he was 65, you'd have been like, 65? That's what he looked like. We don't know if he was sitting. And all of a sudden, he heard, and he turned just in time for somebody to tackle him.

We don't know if somebody walked up on him. And he was like, hey, who are you? Are you one of the what's going on? And then they just grabbed him. But we know at some point they're on the ground.

Like, not like a pretty fight. You ever seen like a good, like a movie in a good fight? And they're like kicking and punching. And it looks nice. This does not look nice. This is a wrestling, dirty, somebody's got somebody's head smushing them into the ground kind of fight.

Fingers in the face like this. The kind when you break middle schoolers apart, they're sweating and red. That's this kind of fight. If you watch UFC, it's the boring part of the fight. Where there's like tangled up. And people are like, what is this?

It's like man sport. They're wearing underwear and hugging each other. This is weird. Yeah, but in a minute, they're going to catch their breath and go back to punching. That's what they're doing. Until the breaking of day.

Who is Jacob fighting? We do not know. Jacob does not know. He's trying to win. It's going to slowly kind of reveal this to us. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob.

Okay. Nobody's winning. Both tired. Both sweating. Both dirty. Rolling around.

Fighting. He touched. He touched. His hip socket. And Jacob's hip. Was put out.

Of joint. As he wrestled with him. Okay. The word touched. Means. Touched.

Touched. That's what it means. It means touch. There are like one or two places in the Bible where it is translated strike. But they're trying to read into the context there.

But the word means touch. This is like he's fighting. And the person he's fighting does the Kung Fu Panda Wushu finger hold thing. Skadoosh. And his hip. Pops out of joint.

Now. This is just a poll question. Because it took me. I had to look some stuff up. Anybody here. Ever dislocated their shoulder.

Or know someone who dislocates their shoulder on a semi-regular basis. Anybody. This is legit. I want to see your hands. This is just for me. I want to see something.

Okay. Anybody ever dislocated their hip. Or know someone who dislocates their hip. Okay. A few people. It doesn't happen super often.

Oh just for the record. Next time someone asks you that shoulder dislocation thing. You can raise your hand. Matt Freeman does. He dislocates his shoulder periodically. But he doesn't dislocate his hip.

I've had to watch videos. I was trying to see what this looked like. If you dislocate your hip. Your foot kind of turns around like this. The only one I saw. Most of it was just like how to treat it.

And has a lot to do with being elderly. Mostly what it seemed like. But I saw a guy running. In baseball. And then he just fell over. And that was what his dislocated hip did.

And then he laid and held his leg. Like he was in excruciating pain. They're wrestling. It's a tie. So Jacob's doing okay.

And then all of a sudden. Pow! Hips out. Jacob has searing pain. And. Light bulb.

Okay. I was in God's camp. I saw angels. I'm now wrestling someone in the dark. I was doing okay. And then.

They just. Pinned. And my legs out. I think Jacob's got an idea. That this is not just a man. This is not.

Normal. Situation. And then he says this. Let me go. For the day. Has broken.

So the man knocks his hip. Out of socket. And then says. Let me go. The sun's coming up. That's.

That's weird. You guys. Sorry. I'm a woodland night wrestler. I don't wrestle during the day. It's not my thing.

What? What? Like if you. If you're telling stories to children. And you're like. The sun was coming up.

It's like. Okay. Are we telling a story about an ogre? Because I think they turned to stone. Is this Fiona? Is she going to turn into like a lady?

Like we don't know. What's happening here? Why? What is the sun coming up? Like I don't like. It gets hot.

You know. I like to wrestle in the cool. Jacob. Coming from a culture. Where this would have clicked in his brain. And just further added to what he.

Understood was going on. They understood. That God. Was holy. Meaning. Completely others.

Separate from us. And that if you saw him. You'll die. Like it. It will just. It will kill you.

You can't handle it. This is why. Peter. When he's on the boat with Jesus. And they catch all the fists. Peter falls down.

And says. I'm not worthy. This is why. Isaiah. When he's brought into the throne room of God. Says.

I'm not worthy. I come from an unclean people. This is why. When an angel. The Lord comes to Samson's parents. And talks to him.

And then he leaves. Samson. Samson's daddy. He looks at Samson's mama. And says. We're going to die.

And Samson's mama says. I think he would have killed us. If he was going to. I don't. I don't think we're going to. And then they don't.

But this is. This is what they understood. Like if I see God. This is why Moses. When he sees God. He actually.

Moses gets to see God. In his glory. And he glows. Glows. For the rest of his life. Glows.

Like. Daytime. Skin glow. So much so. That when he comes back. He doesn't know he's glowing.

He comes back. They see him. And everybody runs from him. And he has to be like. No. No.

It's okay. And they're like. No bro. It's not okay. He has to wear a veil. Because he glows.

So. Touches his hip. Hip shoots out a joint. I know I'm in God's camp. Now he says.

The sun's coming up. I need to go. You don't need to see me. It's basically what he's saying. And so. Any.

Smart. Person. Who's not Jacob. In this situation. Would have said. Let's see what Jacob does.

But Jacob said. I will not let you go. Unless you bless me. That's crazy. And it actually shows us. Not just something about Jacob.

But something about God. He says. I'm not letting you go. Unless you bless me. What Jacob's saying is. Kill me if you have to.

Let this destroy me. I need you to bless me. I can't go. One. Step. Further.

Without you. Blessing me. I can't face Esau. I can't stand up to my past. I can't be the man I was. Without you blessing me.

And he just holds on to him. As soon as he figures out who he is. He says. No. No. No.

No. No. No. No. No. I will not let go of you.

Until you bless me. Now if God didn't like that. This would be the end of the story of Jacob. But God likes that. Because Jacob understands who God is. And who Jacob is.

God is the one who blesses. You see. Sometimes we get into the idea. That maybe I'll bless God. I'll serve him. I'll do something for him.

I owe him something. He wants some morality from me. He wants some good work from me. I can present it to him. And then he'll be pleased. He'll be happy.

He'll bless me. But that's not an exchange. It's that we have nothing. We roll in the dirt. Hold on to his foot. And say just bless me.

That's the right posture. And that's what Jacob does. He holds on to him. And he said to him. What is your name? Now he knows his name.

But watch this. And he said. Jacob. When he says my name is Jacob. He has to own up to who he has been his entire life. I'm a deceiver.

I'm scheming. I'm a tricker. There's a lot of weight and baggage that goes with that name. He feels it every day. Then he said.

Your name shall no longer be called Jacob. But Israel. For you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed. Then Jacob said. Please tell me your name. But he said.

Why is it that you ask my name? And there he blessed him. Now blessings are verbal. We don't know what he says. Doesn't tell us. Because he was blessed.

Puts his hand on him. Blesses him. So Jacob called the place Peniel. Saying. For I have seen God face to face. And yet my life has been delivered.

The sun rose upon him as he passed Peniel. Limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh. That is on the hip socket. Because he touched the socket of Jacob's hip. And the sinew of the thigh.

Jacob is blessed. He gets up. He is limping. And the sun rises. And the sun rises. On a limping.

Broken. Blessed. Jacob. On a limping. Broken. Blessed.

Israel. He has been given a new name. Now I am willing to bet. When his family saw him. He looked terrible. But there was like a glow about him.

He was different. He looked like. He had been really stressed out. Stayed up all night. And gotten beat up. But like in a good way.

And if you have ever seen somebody coming out of mourning. And coming out of pain. You might know what I am talking about. That is what he is doing. The sun rises on him. Chapter 33.

And Jacob lifted up his eyes. And looked. And behold. Esau was coming. And 400 men with him. You ever seen those old western movies.

Where you like look. And it is one person. And then they start talking among themselves. And they are like. Who is that? And they look back.

And it is just all these people on a ridge. It is kind of. Esau. 400 men. Coming towards him. So he divided the children among Leah.

And Rachel. And the two female servants. And he put the servants with their children in front. Then Leah with her children. And Rachel and Joseph. Last of all.

He himself went on before them. Bowing himself to the ground seven times. Until he came near to his brother. Bowing himself seven times is absolute submission. I am your servant. He is actually reversing what the blessing was.

The blessing was that. Jacob's brothers would bow down to him. And he comes and bows down to his brother. In humility and in repentance comes to his brother. But Esau ran to meet him.

And embraced him. And fell on his neck. And kissed him. And they wept. So Jacob.

Bowing. Getting up. Bowing. Getting up. When he gets close enough to run. Esau takes off running.

And Jacob thinks. Okay. He is not going to shoot me with a bow. He is going to do this with his bare hands. And he gets closer. And the face isn't angry.

He is happy. Sad. They hug. They cry. They weep. They kiss.

And they reconcile. And that is beautiful. It is beautiful on Esau's part. That he forgives his brother. And it is beautiful on Jacob's part. That he repents.

And he goes to him. And he faces what God sent him to face. And when Esau lifted up his eyes. And saw the women and the children. He said. Who are these with you?

And Jacob said. The children whom God has graciously given to your servant. The rest of this. Is he and Esau talking. And discussing where they are going. And how to get there.

And Esau keeps trying to offer to do extra stuff. And Jacob is just like. No. Just let us move slowly. We are good. And then Jacob kind of settles in a different place.

And so. If you look at 18. And Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem. Which is in the land of Canaan. And on his way from Paddan Aram. And he camped before the city.

And from the sons of Hamor. Shechem's father. He bought for a hundred pieces of money. The piece of land on which he had pitched his tent. There he erected an altar. And called it El Elohe Israel.

Which means God. The God of Israel. Jacob reconciles with his brother. Moves back into the promised land. Owns some land. Sets his tent up.

Builds an altar. And says God is the God of Israel. I'm new. I'm changed. I'm not Jacob. I'm Israel.

Jacob was the old man. Israel is the new man. And he limped his way there. With a smile on his face. And some peace that he had never understood. And he got to live in the land.

Because he knew Esau knew where he was. And he got to live there peacefully. Not worrying about it. Now. There's a bit of this story. That is a little bit embarrassing for us.

That if. As Christians. As we look at this story. There's a little bit that's like. Wait. God.

Came to the ground. And wrestled Jacob. Like. Part of it just feels like. Wow. What?

It feels degrading. Like. Like if it just said. Heaven opened up. And he was shining. And Jacob went blind.

Or his face melted off. Or it looked like the scene from. Raiders of the Lost Ark. Or something like that. Like. Yeah.

That's what God does. But it's like. No. God sneaks up on him. In the dark. And fights him.

And there's a little bit. That like. That feels humiliating. That feels small. That feels. The truth is.

How beautiful is that? That God. Creator of the universe. Holds everything in his hand. Comes to Jacob. And does what Jacob needed.

He says. You've wrestled with God. And with man. And you've prevailed. You see. The truth is.

God did for Jacob. What Jacob needed. Jacob hadn't stopped fighting. His whole life. Had been wrestling. It said that they wrestled.

And when. When God saw. That he did not prevail. Over Jacob. Then he.

Breaks him. Now think about that. God's been wrestling. With Jacob. His whole life. Fighting with Jacob.

His whole life. And Jacob. Has not quit. So God. Breaks him. And in that moment.

God says. You have prevailed. That it was at the moment. When God defeats Jacob. That Jacob. Wins.

Because. God. Was wrestling Jacob. On Jacob's path. Now. Jacob doesn't get to live.

In the promised land. Without facing Esau. And he doesn't get. To get the blessing. Without being broken. And the truth is.

As small as this seems. And as humble as it seems. For God. To have done this. Jesus. Blows this out of the water.

That our God. So much more. Will God. Join us. And wrestle with us. So much more.

Will God. Humble himself. To fight with somebody. In the dirt. So much more.

He'll be born. As a human. Not just look like one. And he'll die. That's what Philippians says. I have it on the screen.

Behind me. It says. Being found. In human form. He humbled himself. By becoming obedient.

To the point of death. Even. Death. On a cross. Some of you may be saying. I wish God would do that for me.

He is doing that. He is wrestling with you. He is fighting with you. And he has done. So much more.

Than show up. And push your head. Into the dirt. He showed up. And he was the one. Who was beaten.

He was the one. Who was broken. And he was buried. That you might have life. And he rose. Again.

And I want you. To see something. So clearly here. You don't get. The promised land. Without having to face.

All the sin. And all the brokenness. And all the things. You've ever done wrong. Jacob didn't get to live there. Free.

And happy. Without Esau. Lurking in the back of his mind. Forever. Until he went and faced Esau. You don't get.

The blessing. That you so desperately need. Until God takes you. And breaks you. Over your sin. And your wickedness.

And your brokenness. Until he does to you. And shows you. What you've been doing to everybody. Your whole life. And you don't get the resurrection.

Until you get the cross. But so many of us. Even us in here. In our church family. In our community groups. Are trying to bypass.

Brokenness. And just get. Blessing. And joy. And what we're trying to do. Is Jacob.

Before God grabbed him. And stuck him in the dirt. We're trying to do a little bit of both. There are some of you. Who every time. It's time to confess.

Every time God tries to make you face. Your Esau. You just back out. Every time. He goes to break you. You let go.

You don't cling. You don't say. Okay. Break me. But bless me.

You just back up. Because you don't want it. You don't want the pain. You don't want the confession. You want to try to live. In the land of promise.

But Esau. Is lurking in the background. Some of you do not feel free. Because you have not confessed. Some of you have your sin. Hanging in the background.

And let me tell you something. It will not remain hidden. By God's grace. It will tackle you in the dark. And you will face it here. Because if God in his grace.

Does not do that. You will face it at the end of the line. And you will stand. And be held accountable. For your sin. Before a holy God.

And that is not the time to do it. That is to be a reunion. With the God who broke you. And blessed you. So that joyous tears.

Fall down your face. And you wrap your arms. Around the sin. That would have condemned you. That now has saved you. Because Jesus paid for it.

Second Corinthians 7. 10 says. For godly grief. Produces repentance. That leads to salvation. Without regret.

Whereas worldly grief. Produces death. I pray that God. Pierces your heart. Through the Holy Spirit. That you grieve.

Your sin. So that. You may have salvation. Without regret. You ever seen somebody. Confessing sin.

And talking about their past sin. With such freedom. That you couldn't understand it. I'm not talking about bragging about it. Because there's something about. Bragging about past sin.

That still stinks. That still reeks of this shame. And this guilt. And this pride. It's like. I'm trying to glory in my shame.

So that I can feel okay about it. I'm talking about someone. Who can just own the fact. That they used to do this. I used to be Jacob. But the reason I can tell you.

Yeah it used to be Jacob. But now I'm Israel. I've been set free from it. Have you seen that? How beautiful it is. That.

Is godly grief. That reproduced salvation. Without regret. But worldly grief. Just produces death. Psalm 51.

17. Says the sacrifices of God. Are a broken spirit. And a broken and contrite heart. Oh God. You will not despise.

One of the things. The scripture tells us. Is that God will turn mourning. Into joy. And will turn joy. Into mourning.

That if we try to just skip past. Into just. I'm going to live my best life now. Eventually that. Ends. In.

Brokenness. And mourning. And pain. But if we. Live here. In mourning.

And brokenness. And own our sin. And go to God. We limp. But we're blessed.

I pray that we would not have. A single person in here. Who struts around with swagger. But that we'd have. A whole bunch of people. Who limp.

But the sun shining on us. I served with a recovery program. At Midtown. One of the things we used to do. Is we would have. Everybody when they first started.

They would write down the names. That marked them. The things that if you. They described themselves. They would write down worthless. They would write down.

Unloved. They would write down. Sinful. And broken. And evil. They would write down.

Abused. They would write down. Abuser. And then we'd walk through. Recovery. We'd point them to Jesus.

We'd talk about what he's done for us. In the cross. And at the end. We'd say. What's your new name? They'd write down.

Loved. Worthy. And not because they're worthy. But because Jesus has made them worthy. That they'd write down. Cherished.

They'd write down. Forgiven. They'd write down. Free. Free. Don't leave here.

Carrying the name Jacob. And don't want God. Right when he goes to break you. Don't take off running. Don't let go. Cling to him.

And say. You can break me. But you've got to bless me. I'll face Esau. I'll stand up to what I've done. And who I've been.

But you've got to bless me. And you've got to work. And I'll go through the cross. I'll die to my sins. So that I can rise again.

And be made new. And that's what. 2 Corinthians 5.17 says. Therefore. If anyone is in Christ. He is a new creation.

The old has passed away. Behold the new has come. We have no desire. Whatsoever. To help you be a slightly better person. Zero desire.

We want you to be a new person. We want you to be born again in Christ. Have zero desire to help you. Cuss less. And drink less. And be a little bit nicer.

And cheat on your taxes. Just a little bit less. And be half and half Jacob. Zero desire. That's the truth is. Sometimes we'll have people who say.

I've believed in Christ. I've placed my faith in Jesus. But if there hadn't been any brokenness. If there hasn't been any weeping. If you hadn't cried so much. That you thought you couldn't breathe.

If there hasn't been you face to face with your sin. If there hasn't been any moment where you realize. If I don't have Jesus. If he doesn't step in. I'm broken and busted. If all you've tried to do is sneak around Esau.

To live in the promised land. If all you've tried to do is run on over to Easter. Without Good Friday. To resurrection without cross. If you've never walked through this. Do not leave here without running to God.

And saying break me. Bianca's going to come back up. And here's what we're going to do. My prayer. Is that the Holy Spirit would work right now. That some of you know right now.

You've been running from this. And that every time he started to put a little pressure on you. To confess. Every time he started pressing on you. To repent. To actually change.

To not just try to mix it together. And be a little bit better. And kind of keep some of your old stuff. But every time he's actually pressed into you. And said. Now.

Every time you've been hanging out with your community group. And you're going around. And people are confessing. And it gets to you. And you have that moment. Where you think.

You feel almost like you're going to throw up. And some of you were like. No I was going to throw up. You were almost confessed. And then you just let go. He came to the point of almost breaking you.

And then you just ran. Don't. Be broken. Limp. Confess that you're a sinner. Own your sin.

And then let the sun rise. And be made new. That's the hope today. We're about to take communion. In a minute. They're going to sing.

We want you to wrestle with God. We want you to go before him and ask. Where do I need to confess? What have I hidden? What am I allowing to lurk around? Why am I not free?

And trust that he can break you. And his Holy Spirit can set you free. And you can have freedom and hope. Don't run from this. Some of you have been running for a long time. You've been wrestling for a long time.

You've been doing everything you possibly can. To keep God from taking something away from you. Or from fixing your soul. You're trying to be a little bit better. And you need to be made new. So bow your heads and let's pray.

God we pray that you would grant repentance. To those who ask it. And that you would grant brokenness. And mourning. That you would empower it through your Holy Spirit. That there might be those right now.

That would cling to you. And ask for your salvation. Ask for your forgiveness. Ask for the hope that only comes through you. Ask for the resurrection that only comes after the cross. That you might die for their sin.

That you might forgive them. That you might be broken for them. And they might see truly how much you love them. And the great lengths at which you are willing to go to redeem them. We pray that your Holy Spirit would move. And that people would respond.

And that anybody here today who is feeling that right now. Would not let go. They are feeling the pain of what it will take to confess. What it will mean to face what they have done. And who they have been. And to tell others.

And to be open about it. And they are feeling the pain and the fear over that. And we pray Lord that you would not let them go. And you would let them cling to you. That they might actually repent. And they might find freedom.

That they do not understand. Hope that is unparalleled. They would not be half and half. They would be wholly new. In a moment we are going to take communion. If you are a Christian.

I encourage you to confess. To repent. And then to take communion. Reminding yourself that Jesus was broken for you. His blood was shed for you. If you are not a Christian for the first time.

You need to place your faith in Him. You need to go to Him and say. I will not save myself. I am not letting go. Unless you bless me. Unless you save me.

Unless you redeem me. Unless you let me walk away from my past. We would encourage you to do that. And then take communion for the first time. And if you are not a Christian. Aren't ready yet to place your faith in Jesus.

We would just encourage you to sit. And respectfully decline communion. Is for those who have trusted in Christ. And His sacrifice. We pray that all around the room Lord. That your spirit is working.

That we might confess. That we might repent. And that we might be made new. And enjoy the beauty. And the life in you. That was purchased for us.

Because Christ is willing to humble Himself. Even unto death. And He rose again. That we might be free. Amen.

Leaving Laban

Leaving Laban

Chet Phillips

Transcript

I'm one of the pastors here, and if you're perceptive and this isn't your first time hanging out with us, you may have noticed that there was a drum kit on the stage today. I want to take a second to just kind of use that as an opportunity to tell you a little bit about some philosophy of ministry stuff for us. One is, I appreciated that. I also really like the box, and I think that even when we have cajons, we should make them sit in there, because that would be fun. Especially Isaac, who is quite loud on a cajon. This being the first time we've had a drum kit on Sundays, the reason was not that we hated drums, and the reason we have it now is not that we necessarily love drums.

It's that we never had anybody who could play drums, and our philosophy of ministry is when we gather as a church, we do what our church can do. That it's us. That we don't want to pay somebody to come in and play music, although I've heard that other churches do that. We don't pay anybody to do any of this stuff up here musically wise, because we just want, it's our church gathering together to worship and to make much of Jesus. And so if you play the oboe and can throw down on it, come talk to Matt. If you're killer on the spoons, we'll do whatever we can do to worship the Lord together and make a joyful noise, and so if everybody in our band left for some reason, hopefully to go be missionaries in Menya, then we'll just have somebody read some Psalms and somebody else hum behind them, and it'll be great, and we'll go back to that until we get some more musicians.

And so that's just kind of how we do stuff. So not sold on one thing or the other as much as we're sold on the idea that we gather and worship together and we do what our church family can do. Grab your Bibles, go to Genesis chapter 30. Um, we've been walking along through the book of Genesis and we're in chapter 30 and what we've been seeing is we've gone through this. We're seeing the beginning of the world as God created the world, and then we've watched as God has worked his will, where he has brought about his desires for the world in the midst of brokenness and sin and pain. So he created the world good and humanity rebelled, and then God immediately steps in and promises that he's going to fix this.

And so we've been following with Abraham and Isaac and now Jacob as God has stepped in and said, I'm going to accomplish my will. I'm going to bless the world through you. I'm going to give you a people and a place. I'm going to make you, uh, my people. And so we've been following that story. And what we're going to see today as we read this, this aspect of the story is part of the story is we're going to get to see a clear picture of the distinction between, um, the gods of Laban, which is Jacob's father-in-law and the God of Jacob, the one true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

And we're going to get to see kind of the contrast between Laban's gods and Jacob's God. And we're going to get to see that Laban's gods, um, are weak and frail, uh, enable, incapable, uh, of defending themselves, bringing about change. And that the God of Jacob is very big and very powerful and rules over everything. And so the hope today is that we would grow, that we would expand our thinking about God, our view of God. Um, there's a story in the gospels and, uh, there's, it's found in Mark four, as well as other places in the synoptics where Jesus is with his disciples and they're on a boat and Jesus is asleep and a big storm comes along.

Now, some of the disciples weren't used to being on boats necessarily, but a handful of them were, were fishermen and we're used to being out on boats and the storm comes in it. I mean, it, the boat's rocking and a rolling it's, it's up and down and there's this major issues and they're trying to do everything they possibly can to defend it. Uh, themselves to try to fix the situation, to handle the situation. And they can't, they finally go to Jesus. Who's asleep in the bottom of the boat. And they say, master, don't you care that we're going to drown?

So Jesus wakes up, he comes up out of the bottom of the boat and he stands up on the deck and he says, peace, be still. And the waves that had been rocking in the wind that had been blowing suddenly just stops. And the text tells us that the disciples were terrified. They were actually, the word it uses is they were more afraid. When Jesus told the ocean to stop than they were of drowning. They were like, nah, let's go back to drowning.

I can't handle this. Like, I don't, I don't know how to handle somebody who can just tell the ocean to stop. And it does it. They're terrified. And he says, oh, you of little faith. You see, when they went and woke Jesus up, they didn't wake him up because they thought he could come calm the storm.

They woke him up because they needed somebody else to bail water. They wanted somebody else to hold a rope. And Jesus walks up and handles the whole situation. And so the reason I tell you that is it matters how we approach God and how we view God. And so they had underestimated him. He was a little smaller than they had reckoned.

He was, he was a little weaker than they, than they thought. They thought he was a little weaker than he was. And that's why he says, oh, you of little faith. If they had known who they were approaching, they would have approached it differently. So we just sang.

And when you sing, you're singing to the best picture you have of God, the best image of who he is and his character and what he's like. When we pray, we're doing the same thing. The best, our best understanding, but the best human understanding falls short of God's glory, falls short of his massiveness, of his power. The best we can wrap our minds around is still short of who he truly is. But it does matter to us in our anxiety levels.

And it does matter to us in our prayers that we pray and in our approach to him. And in the way we live our life, that we know him truly and rightly and worship him fully. Does that make sense? So our hope today is to make God a little bit bigger. To, as we see these gods contrasted against one another, try to find places where we line up more with Laban, where our thinking about God and our approach to God is just a little bit smaller than it needs to be. And try to move ourselves to lining up more with worshiping the true God of Jacob in his massiveness and in his sovereignty.

So that's our hope, that God would be a little less domesticated after we leave here today. It'd be a little bit bigger, a little bit scarier, and there'd be a lot of joy found in that. Let's pray. God, we ask for your help as we read this passage, that we might see you clearly, truly, fully. And that wherever we have made you smaller, wherever we have in our minds treat you as tame, we pray that you'd break through that in a glorious, helpful, fearful way. In Jesus' name, amen.

All right. So we are in Genesis 30. We're going to start in verse 25. So Jacob and his wives just had 12 children. Eleven boys mentioned one girl, and later they're going to have another son. It'll be the 12 tribes of Jacob.

And so it says, verse 25, as soon as Rachel had born Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, send me away that I may go to my own home and country. Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you that I may go for, you know, the service that I have given you. Jacob is in a very inferior position to Laban. He's married Laban's daughters. He has served Laban. He has served.

Basically, we find out this is about the end of the 14 years. He served seven years for Rachel and then he married Leah because Laban tricked him. So he served another seven years for Rachel. And so he's been there at least the 14 years. Uh, and he comes and says, let me go and let me take my wife and children with me, which in our culture, that, that would be a formality in their culture. It's not Laban had a lot of power and would have the potential ability to just say, no, you may leave, but the wife, your wives and children stay with me.

Um, and so he just says, let me go. But Laban said to him, if I have found favor in your sight, I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you name your wages and I will give it. So Laban says, I've learned about divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you. Now divination is a practice that's been practiced since ancient times on up till now, which is used to try to find, uh, truth about reality by seeking, uh, to divine, to find a sign, to hear from spirits, to hear from gods what's going on. And so the way they would practice this, you could practice it with tea leaves, with sticks, with water, with dirt, uh, with the guts of animals.

Um, tarot cards is a form of this. It's, it's that. And so he says, I've learned by divination that it's your God. It's the Lord has blessed me because of you. Now, uh, there's three options in the Bible and just in the world when it comes to practicing things like divination, fortune telling, these kinds of occult pagan type practices. Option one is that it's just some people doing some stuff and it's just earthly, no spiritual aspects whatsoever.

Um, so if you went and saw a fortune teller, they're just, you know, doing the things fortune tellers to do where they'll, you know, like you go see a psychic and they stand up on stage and they say, I'm hearing a, I'm getting a letter. Um, a, no, it's B. Is it C? I'm seeing a color. It's purple or it's red. And someone says, I, I, oh, red.

And you go, oh yeah. And they just, they're kind of shotgunning and they're just good at this and they kind of work out something and there's no spiritual aspect going on. It's just kind of a trick. That's one option. The second option is that it's demonic, uh, that there's actual evil spirits at work there that, um, to God rules over the world. He created a spiritual beings.

The, the ones that worship him and stayed with him are angels. And they all point us to the Lord. They don't accept worship. They don't point away from him. There are places in the Bible where they'll show up. Somebody will try to worship them.

They'll be like, nope, stand up. We worship God together. You don't worship me. Then there are, uh, evil spirits that rebelled against God and they accept worship and they point to themselves or away from God. And so the second option is that it is demonic. It's evil.

Um, so that these evil spirits, these other gods pointed and said, yes, we are able by our godly powers to tell you that that God is doing really good things. That's what they said. Not we've blessed you, not anything else, just his God's blessed you. And we're able to tell the third option. And this happens very rarely in the Bible is that God just busts through a cult things to tell people what he wants to tell them, um, that he will interrupt people's plans and just kind of do what he wants. Um, this is forbidden later in the law.

This is not something they should practice. And it is a practice, uh, that Laban is practicing, not that Jacob is Deuteronomy 18, nine says this. When you come into the land that the Lord, your God has given you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead. For whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. If you get a letter from Hogwarts, throw it away.

And because of these abominations, the Lord, your God is driving them out before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord, your God for these nations, which you are about to dispossess. Listen to fortune tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord, your God has not allowed you to do this. The Lord, your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers. It is to him.

You shall listen. Ultimately that's fulfilled in Jesus, but that's also fulfilled in the prophetic offices that happened throughout the old Testament where someone spoke on behalf of God. And so we look to God's word and we look to Christ and we look to nowhere else. But that's what he says. So he's practicing divination and he says, they've told me that I'm blessed because of you.

And so he wants him to stay. That's what's going on in the story. So Jacob said to him, you yourself know how I have served you and how your livestock have fared with me for you had little before I came and it has increased abundantly. And the Lord has blessed you wherever I turned. But now when shall I provide for my own household also?

So Jacob has just served and he's made Laban rich. Jacob's doing well while he is in Laban's household. But if he were to leave, he has nothing. He just went and asked, can I keep my wife and my wives and children? But he has nothing to take with him.

He's not gained any wealth of his own. He's made Laban very rich. So he says, he says, I want to earn for my own household. So he said, what shall I give you? Laban says, okay, I'll give you something. I'll give you a portion.

I'll do something. And Jacob says, you shall not give me anything. If you will do this for me, I will again pasture your flock and keep it. Let me pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb and the spotted and speckled among the goats. And they shall be my wages. So my honesty will answer for me later when you come to look into my wages with you.

Everyone that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs that is found with me shall be counted stolen. So here's Jacob's pitch. Here's his plan. He says a normal shepherd's wages, if they were going to get paid wages, would be about 20% of all the new goats and sheep born. They get about 20%. So every time there was 10 born, they'd get two.

He says, no, we're not going to do that. We're not going to do normal kind of shepherd wages. What we're going to do is we'll go. Let me go today and I will take all the spotted speckled out of the goats and all the black out of the sheep. And I'll just have regular goats and regular sheep because most goats are just a solid color and most sheep are white. Most goats are solid brown, solid black.

He says, so I'll just have a flock, solid white, solid brown. And then from then on, my wages will be everything that is born that is black among the sheep, spotted speckled, mottled among the goats. That's his pitch. Laban says, good. Let it be as you have said. The reason Laban says good, exclamation Mark, is that this was a great deal for Laban.

Why? Because 20% is way higher than what happens with the birds of black sheep and spotted speckled goats. That percentage of the population is very low. That's why you can refer to somebody as the black sheep of the family. It means that they stand out and they're the only one. But if you had a whole bunch of sheep, you'd have one black sheep that would stand out and there's not a lot of them.

If it was 50-50, that phrase wouldn't work. Tracking? Okay, so he makes a bad business deal. And if any of you have done sales, you know that if you get to the end and you make an offer or you offer a price and the person across from you says yes and goes to shake your hand, you feel bad inside. Because you immediately think, oh, I'm paying too much. Or, oh, I could have gotten more.

They would have said yes to it. The way they said yes, I could have gotten another $1,000 out of this person. Like you just feel that. Like when you go to offer on a car, if you're talking to a car salesman, you say, I'll give you 12. And they go, deal. You go, ah, 10.

I'll give you 10. I've got to go home. I'm sick. I can't do a deal with you today. But that's what he says.

Good deal. Let's go. That's what happens. And so he says, but that day, this is verse 35, Laban removed the male goats that were striped and spotted and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it and every lamb that was black, and put them in charge of his sons, in the charge of his sons. And he set a distance of three days journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob pastured the rest of Laban's flock. Laban says, deal, but then he makes sure it's not a trick.

So Jacob said, let me go through and do this. And Laban says, deal. And then he goes through and does it. And he moves them all three days away. So he's thinking, Jacob's got something up his sleeve, so I'm going to make sure this doesn't work out for him.

I'm taking this deal, and I'm getting those far away from you. Then Jacob took fresh sticks of poplar and almond and plain trees, and he peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the sticks. He set the sticks that he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs, that is, the watering places where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink, the flocks bred in front of the sticks, and so the flocks brought forth striped, speckled and spotted. And Jacob separated the lambs and set the faces of the flocks towards the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban.

He put his own droves apart, that's going to come back later, and did not put them with Laban's flock. Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob would lay the sticks and the troughs before the eyes of the flock, that they might breed among the sticks. But for the feebler of the flock, he would not lay them there. So the feebler would be Laban's and the stronger Jacob's. Thus the man increased greatly and had large flocks, female servants, male servants, camels and donkeys. Okay.

So Jacob takes sticks and he makes them striped, speckled, mottled. And then he shows the sticks strategically to the animals while they breed. And boom, genetics. Science, you guys. This is Jacob's plan. Jacob did have something up his sleeve.

He had a way that he thought he could manipulate this. And it says it worked. And so if we just stopped here, you'd be like, this is super weird and I don't think the Bible knows things about science. It goes further and God's going to step in and say, no, no, no, no, no. I did this. And we're going to see that God blessed Jacob's hard work and his weird plan.

That's what happened. Jacob had a plan. He went for it. God blesses it. That's ultimately what I do want you to see, that God steps in in the middle of this story and Jacob works really, really hard. He's going to talk more about it later.

He works really hard. And God in the midst of that blesses it. He blesses his hard work and he multiplies it and he makes it work out in his favor. And so I want you to know that as you work in life, a lot of times we're waiting for God to bless us and we're wanting God to bless us. And we're like, I just wish God would work and he would do something. And I really wish I would just meet somebody.

And I really wish I could just get a job that would work well. And I wish I could get it. And sometimes you know what he does? He miraculously blesses your years of hard work. And it is miraculous. But it wasn't you sitting around doing nothing.

We've done this in our church. Matt and I have seen this early on where we had prayed and worked really hard. We came up with a sticks plan. We're going to do this. It's going to be amazing. And then it turns out that was stupid.

But God did some really good stuff. And we've seen that. And that's what he did here. That God works in the everyday. And so do you know that? Do you know that God works in the midst of everyday stuff?

That he's at work? That he sees you? And that he's blessing and working even when you can't tell what's going on? Chapter 31. Now Jacob heard that the sons of Laban were saying, Jacob has taken away, taken all that was our father's.

And from what was our father's, he has gained all his wealth. And Jacob saw that Laban did not regard him with favor as before. Then the Lord said to Jacob, Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you. Okay, so earlier, Jacob was making Laban rich. They work out this deal that is way in Laban's favor, and Jacob becomes rich. And he actually outgrows Laban.

So that Laban's sons and Laban are mad at Jacob. They're frustrated. It's not a good relationship anymore. So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah into the field where his flock was. And he said to them, I see that your father does not regard me with favor as he did before. But the God of my father has been with me.

You know that I have served your father with all my strength. Yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times. But God did not permit him to harm me. If he said the spotted shall be your wages, then all the flock bore spotted. And if he said the stripes shall be your wages, then all the flock bore striped. Thus God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me.

Okay, so we find out a little more in this story that Jacob's plan was working so much that Laban came and said, Okay, okay, we're changing this. This is, I don't know what's going on here. But I'll take the striped ones. You can have the spotted ones. And as soon as he would say that, all of them would start giving birth to spotted ones. And then he would change it again.

Did I say, I said it wrong. I meant, I meant, I'll get the spotted. You take the stripe and immediately we'd go back. And Jacob's saying that God has blessed me. And this is after Jacob's already seen a vision that he's about to tell him about a dream he had. Where he knows that it was God that was at work in this the whole time.

He says, thus, God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me. In the breeding season of the flock, which runs from about August to April. And we don't know exactly when he had this dream. I lifted up my eyes, which seems like it would be the most recent one. And saw in a dream that the goats that mated with the flock were striped, spotted, and modeled. Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, Jacob.

And I said, here I am. And he said, lift up your eyes and see all the goats that mate with the flock are striped, spotted, and modeled. For I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. And I am the God at Bethel where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now arise, go out from this land, and return to the land of your kindred.

Okay, remember earlier when I said that him splitting up the flocks would show up later? This is where it shows up. It took me a minute to figure out what was going on in this dream. Because he's like, I saw a dream. And it seems like it's special. It means something that all the goats that are breeding are spot, speckled, and modeled.

He's like, I saw them. And then he says, do you see them? And I was like, yeah, I see them. And then he was like, okay. And it took me a minute to figure out what was going on here. But here's the thing.

Jacob had Laban's flocks. All brown goats. All white sheep. Every time they had a spotted, speckled, modeled baby, he just took it away and put it in his flock. So that whenever these were breeding, it was only white sheep breeding with white sheep and brown goats breeding with brown goats.

And then God shows him in a vision and everything that's breeding is modeled, speckled, speckled, spotted. It's so hard to say those three in a row over and over again. And what God is saying is, I tweaked the genetics. I made all the males over here work as if they were over here. I made them all function as if they were. That's what he's saying.

He's showing him that I'm the one who's been at work here to make this happen. And that's why when he goes and tells them, he doesn't say, I came up with this great plan. He says, you saw what God did. God was the one who blessed me the whole time. God took control of it. God did it.

So after he sees this, he realizes that it was God that was blessing him. And maybe he did this whole thing, stepping out in faith, hoping that God would work. Maybe he just sees now that God did work. So he says, then God told him to leave. Go back. Then Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, is there any portion or inheritance left to us in our father's house?

Are we not regarded by him as foreigners? For he has sold us and he indeed devoured our money. All the wealth that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children. Now then, do whatever God has said to you to do. Okay, the reason he brings him out and talks to him is that he's trying to find out, are y'all going to try to stay with your dad or are you going to go with me? Which head of household?

Which patriarch? Where are you headed? He's trying to find out. And they say, oh, we're going with you. Their answer is not, we love you. Their answer is, you own all the stuff.

He's like, okay. Fine. Saddle up. So Jacob arose and set his sons and his wives on camels. He drove away all his livestock, all his property that he had gained and livestock in his possession that he had acquired in Paddan Aram to go to the land of Canaan to his father Isaac. Laban had gone to shear his sheep.

It's one of the busiest times for sheep herders. And Rachel stole her father's household gods. And Jacob tricked Laban, the Aramean, by not telling him that he intended to flee. And he fled with all that he had and arose and crossed the Euphrates and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead. Okay. Jacob flees Laban because he is afraid of him.

Jacob does not feel like he's in a position of power. He does not feel like he is able to just do what he wants. He gets his wives in secret and says, are y'all going to go if I go? And they say, yeah. And he says, all right, let's go. And he does it all as a trick when they're about three days away because he knows that Laban will not handle this well.

He's in more of a position of power than he was. Last time he went and asked for permission. This time he just says, we're leaving, we're taking our stuff. But he knows that Laban isn't to be dealt with. It wouldn't go well if he tried to do it straight up and he's trying to get away from him. This is an escape.

Also, let's pause for just a second. I want to point something out. But as we think through in our approach to God, are we viewing him correctly? Jacob leaves because God blesses him. And then God says, pick up your stuff and move. That's why he's leaving.

God says, time to go back. So the God of Jacob sits, rules and reigns over Jacob. That when he tells Jacob to act, when he tells Jacob to do something, Jacob has to do it. It says, Rachel went and stole her father's household gods. Now, these things could be as big as a person, if not bigger. We find out later they're pretty small.

She bags them up, throws them on her camel and hits the road. And here's what's very interesting. Jacob leaves because his God tells him to. Laban's gods leave because Rachel tells them to. Jacob goes where his God says. Laban's gods go wherever anybody that's around them says.

They have no power. They have no authority. So here's my question. As we relate to God, as you walk with the Lord, as you read the scriptures, does he tell you what to do or do you tell him what to do? Does he correct you or do you correct him? Does he set the pace in the course of life or do you set the pace in the course of how he'll interact in your life?

I want to be really clear with you and be as helpful as I possibly can. If you say that you worship Jesus, but you can tell him, stay put. Don't cross this line. You're welcome over here in this zone. This is none of your business. And he stays put.

That's not Jesus. If when you read the Bible, when you worship, if he fully, perfectly cosigns all of your political opinions. If when you're wanting to do something, Jesus just stands back there going, you got this girl. And he never corrects. And he never, he never leads you to repentance. If you have said, I've walked with Jesus, but you can't point and say, this is where he's changed me.

This is where he's grown me. This is where he wrestled my wallet out of my hand. This is where he wrestled this thing, this thing that I love away from me with weeping and gnashing of teeth for my own good. This is where he stepped in and told me this relationship wasn't okay. This is where he ruled and reigned over me sovereignly. If you don't have that, go ahead and carve you a little idol and stick it in your pocket.

You name it, whatever you want. Do you sit in authority over God? Or do you worship the God of Jacob that sits in authority over you? That's an important question to ask. Does he set the pace for your life? Does he tell you where to go?

Does he tell you what to do? When you hit passages in the Bible that you don't like, do you bend to be in line with what he says? Or do you try to bend the Bible to be in line with what you like? And let me tell you something. If you are going to be faithful in reading your Bible, you're going to hit passages you don't like. If I was talking to somebody who was unmarried, if you were talking to somebody who was unmarried, and they were telling you, this is what I want in a wife.

This is what I want in a husband. They were just saying stuff. I worked with a lady at Sears. She had a list of 50 things she wanted in a husband. And it was, I mean, it was extensive, 50 things. And they were minute things.

Like, I think Harry Chess was on there. Like, she had some things. She really, she was looking for this. But if you were sitting there trying, if they were talking to you about what they wanted, and they said, well, I want a wife like this. And I want her to want to watch scary movies with me. And I want her to, you just kind of, you go along with that.

Yeah, dream big, bro. Go for it. Yeah, they love sports. I'm sure they do. Yeah, they play paintball with you. Yeah, you want that.

Now, if I said that, you know what I want in a wife? You know my dream wife? And I started talking to you. It'd be about 30 seconds in. You'd be like, bro, aren't you married? What is your real wife like?

Is she like that? No, she's not like that at all. This is unhealthy, what you're doing. Like, we would step right in. And so there are some people who go, well, my God. And it's like, oh, okay.

My God would never. What says he does here? Which one are you worshiping? If it's not this one, we can close it. We can quit talking. Like, God can do whatever you want it to.

Carve it up. Give it a funny hat. It'll be cute. If you are worshiping a real God, he will not come in and cosign all of American culture. And he will not come in and join your political party. And if you are worshiping a God that never upsets you, frustrates you, wrestles something out of your hand or changes your opinion, you are not worshiping the God of Jacob revealed to us in Christ.

But I wish you would. Because all that stuff you love that he'll wrestle away from you is detrimental to your soul. And he's really, really good. Let's keep going. So this is going to get more humorous and scary.

So it should be good. So they head out. Verse 22. When it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled, he took his kinsmen with him and pursued him for seven days and followed close after him into the hill country of Gilead. It is fair to assume they are armed. This is a doesn't know what's going on.

Grabs all the men in this camp and heads out. Specifically his kinsmen. The reason that matters is there are times when you would take all the males when you were going to do something that you thought you would need all the males for. And there are other times when you would take just your kinsmen because you were going to do stuff that required more loyalty. He takes just his kinsmen. We don't know his plans, but they're not probably not great.

But God came to Laban, the Aramean, in a dream by night and said to him, be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad. So God cuts him off and he says, you can go catch up with him. Do not harm him. Do not try to sway him from what he is doing. You be very careful. So this does mean that his intentions weren't all good.

God actually has to come to him and say, you better slow your roll. And Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country and Laban with his kinsmen pitched tents in the hill country of Gilead. And Laban said to Jacob, what have you done that you have tricked me and driven away my daughters like captives of the sword? Why did you flee secretly and trick me and did not tell me so that I might have sent you away with mirth and songs with tambourine and lyre? Maybe he was going to do that.

That'd be nice. The text doesn't read like that's necessarily what he was going to do. It's just he says it. If you'd have told me, we'd have had a party. Okay, well, I didn't think that's how you acted over the past 20 years. I've known you, but all right.

And why did you not permit me to kiss my sons and my daughters farewell? Now you have done foolishly. It is in my power to do you harm. There we go. That sounds more like it. But the God of your father spoke to me last night saying, be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.

He clarifies it's your God, not mine. But he told me not to harm you. Jacob answered and said to Laban, because I was afraid, for I thought that you would take your daughters from me by force. So he's in front of everybody, the kinsmen are there, and he just says, I think I thought you wouldn't let me go. That you wouldn't send me off by myself. And then he says this.

Oh, he says, sorry, I skipped something. And verse 30, and it matters to the story that we don't skip this. And now you have gone away because you longed greatly for your father's house. But why did you steal my God? So he says, you're going back to your God, to your father's house.

Why did you steal my God? Jacob answered and said to Laban, because I was afraid, for I thought you would take your daughters from me by force. Anyone with whom you find your God shall not live in the presence of our kinsmen. Point out what I have taken that is yours and take it. Now, Jacob did not know Rachel had stolen them. Rachel is Jacob's favorite wife.

You're not supposed to have more than one wife. If you do have more than one wife, you're not supposed to have a favorite. That's how the Old Testament treats that. But Rachel was his favorite. Jacob probably would not have said that. The text includes that because Jacob probably would not have said that if he had known she said them.

But he says, we find it, we'll kill that person. Now, you know Rachel at this point, her heart's about to beat out of her chest. I didn't think they were going to get caught. I didn't think that was going to happen. So Laban went into Jacob's tent and into Leah's tent and into the tent of the two female servants.

Those are the other wives of Jacob. But he did not find them. So he goes to only those in the head of the household looking for who has stolen these that they might be punished. And he went out of Leah's tent and entered Rachel's. Now, Rachel had taken the household gods and put them in the camel's saddle and sat on them. Laban felt all about the tent, but he did not find them.

He's digging through everything. This was not just like peeping around. He's pulling out bags. He's digging. He thinks they're hidden somewhere. He digs through all of these tents while they all just stand around.

This is taking quite a while. Felt all about the tent, but did not find them. And she said to her father, let not my Lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the way of women is upon me. So he searched, but did not find the household gods. In this culture, you would be unclean. You would be removed kind of from society and doing some different things during menstruation.

And that's what she says. She says, I'm sorry. Don't be mad at me. I would get up. But the way of women is upon me.

Now, from what I understand, I've never menstruated. What I understand is that it's not the most pleasant thing ever. But one perk here. He doesn't kill her. So there's one little bonus there.

She, we don't know if she's lying or not. But this is told in such a way, the way the story unfolds is it's meant to build tension. And then at this last moment, we're to see how inept Laban's gods are. That they had to be protected by her lying about menstruating. That she's sitting on top of them and hiding them from Laban to protect herself. And so that's what happens.

That's the way it's told. To highlight their weakness and inability. And then it says this. So he searched but did not find the household gods. Then Jacob became angry and berated Laban.

Jacob said to Laban, what is my offense? What is my sin that you have hotly pursued me? For you have felt through all my goods. What have you found of all your household goods? Set it here before my kinsmen and your kinsmen that they may decide between us two. These 20 years I've been with you.

Your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried. And I have not eaten the rams of your flock. What was torn by wild beasts I did not bring to you. I bore the loss of it myself. From my hand you required it. Whether stolen by day or stolen by night.

There I was. By day the heat consumed me. And the cold by night my sleep fled from my eyes. These 20 years I've been in your house. I've served you 14 years for your two daughters. And six years for your flock.

And you have changed my wages ten times. If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the fear of Isaac had not been on my side. Surely now you would have sent me away empty handed. God saw my affliction in the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night. All right.

The second thing I want us to consider as we think about the viewing God rightly. One of the primary reasons that it matters. That you understand how big and cosmic and glorious and powerful God is. Is that if you walk around with a tame. You worship an easy going tame God. That's nice.

Until you realize how vulnerable you are. But that's fine as long as everything is working well in life. But the truth is we are vulnerable. We do things to try to protect this. We wear seat belts and helmets. We lock our doors.

We have people monitor our credit cards. We try to defend and protect ourselves as much as we possibly can. But within a moment. Somebody not paying attention while they ride down the road. Getting a diagnosis. In a moment from a phone call.

Our weakness and our out of control. Our inability to control our world. Is so present. And in our faces. And the truth is in that moment. When you're standing.

Facing death. Facing destruction. Facing pain. If God. The God of Jacob. Revealed to us in Christ.

Rules and reigns over you. Then you are in his sovereign hands. And you can stand behind him. But if you have a small. Weak. Frail God.

You have to be the one on the hook. You have to be strong. You have to be smart. You have to defend them. So we see in the story.

That Rachel has to be clever. That Rachel has to come up with a good idea. She has to hide him in the right spot. And so what happens is. You'll be walking through life. And all of a sudden.

The bottom will fall out. The wheels will fall off. And we will be standing there. And the question is. Is your God big enough to handle it? Is he capable of you resting in him?

Can you hide under the shelter of his wings? Can you stand in his shadow? Can you know that in the midst of chaos. And pain. That he is not out of control. That he has not.

His hand has not left the steering wheel. Or. Is that the moment. That you have to be big enough. Strong enough. Powerful enough.

To withstand it. Smart enough. Some of us are wracked with anxiety. And fear. Because we are doing everything we possibly can. To rule.

And to reign. In a seat that is too big for us. It's like when my son puts my boots on. And tries to run. He can't. He looks cute for a second.

We wouldn't let him leave the house like that. And so many of us are trying to sit in God's chair. And be bigger. And stronger. And smarter. And tell him where to go.

And what he is allowed to mess with. Because we don't want to give up control. And that's fine. Until it's very very obvious. That you are out of control. And then it would be really nice.

That you had a God way bigger than you. 42. 43. 43. Then Laban answered and said to Jacob.

The daughters are my daughters. The children are my children. The flocks are my flocks. And all that you see is mine. But what can I do this day for these daughters.

Or for their children whom they have born. Come now. Let us make a covenant. You and I. And let it be a witness between you and me. So Jacob took a stone.

And set it up as a pillar. And Jacob said to his kinsmen. Gather stones. And they took stones. And made a heap. And they ate there by the heap.

And they ate there by the heap. Laban called it. Jigar Sahadutha. But Jacob called it Galid. Jacob said. This heap is a witness.

Between you and me. Therefore he named it Galid. Which means heap. And Mizpah. Which means witness. For he said.

The Lord watch between you and me. When we are out of one another's sights. If you oppress my daughters. Or if you take wives besides my daughters. Although no one is there. No with us.

See. God is a witness between you and me. Then Laban said to Jacob. See this heap and pillar. Which I have set up between you and me. This heap is a witness.

And the pillar is a witness. That I will not pass over this heap to you. And you will not pass over this heap. This heap and this pillar to me. To do harm. The God of Abraham.

And the God of Nahor. The God of their father. Judge between us. So Jacob swore by the fear of his father Isaac. And Jacob offered a sacrifice in the hill country. And called his kinsmen to eat bread.

They ate bread. And spent the night in the hill country. Early in the morning Laban arose. And kissed his grandchildren. And his daughters. And blessed them.

Then Laban departed and returned home. So they make this covenant. That he makes a covenant with Laban. That Laban would not have otherwise been willing to make. Except for the fact that God had broken through boundaries. And told him what to do.

So they make this covenant. And then they say that God will stand between us. And the truth for us. Is that in Christ. That is our reality. That if you have placed your faith in Jesus.

That he stands between us. And the world. That he stands between us. And everything that would cause us harm. And Matthew 16. He says this.

We have it on the screen. He says. I have said these things to you. That in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation. But take heart.

I have overcome the world. So. He. He's looking at his disciples. Prior to going to the cross. And he is saying.

You're going to have trouble. You're going to have pain. You're going to have tribulation. But I have overcome the world. That I rule and reign over it. That I have conquered.

That I will conquer death. That I will conquer sin. That I will conquer hell. And that everything that could chase us down. That could catch us. That could do us harm.

He stands in between us. And it. Are you vulnerable? Yes. Can your legs get. Swept out from under you in an instant?

Yes. But our God is big enough. That in that moment. You don't have to be powerful. You don't have to be strong. You don't have to be the smartest.

The most capable. That you get to rest. Knowing that he rules. And reigns. Over it. You get to swell your eyes shut.

With weeping. Knowing that there's a God. Who has not lost control. And who has a deep and abiding love. For you in Christ. And if you are not a Christian.

If you have not placed your faith in Jesus. The real Jesus. That rules and reigns. That sets the pace. That dictates. What's real and good.

You will have to surrender. You will have to get out of the chair. That is too big for you. You will have to submit. To his leadership. His direction.

But it's so freeing. And so good. To have a God. Who stands between us. And our sin. Stands between us.

And the rest of the world. As it would seek to destroy us. That we have hope. Not that everything will. Ultimately work out well here. But that it will never be lost.

From his control. And that we can trust him fully. With all of it. They're going to. Play this next song. And during it.

We're going to take communion. And I would encourage you. To take a moment. If it's been a while. Since the God. Of Jacob.

Has led you to repentance. If it's been a while. Since he's pointed out. Where you need to grow. And change. If it's been a while.

Since you've sat with him. And you've. You've been broken. Over your own sin. I would encourage you. To ask him.

Where have I stopped. Listening to you. Where have I actively. Tried to draw a line. And say you can't cross this. What are the places.

In my heart. That I'm trying to keep from you. And I would. I would encourage you. To take a moment. And just ask him.

Where do I need to repent? Who is it. That I need to reconcile with. That I need to go talk to. Right now. That I've just been.

Holding bitterness against. Because I'm unwilling. To let you mess. With that part of my life. What is it. You've been telling me.

I'm supposed to do. But I've been holding. So tightly to something else. That I won't give it up. And I would invite you. To surrender.

To a real God. Who watches you. Who knows you. And who leads us. Into grace. And repentance.

And life. Through his sovereign will. After you've done that. If you've spent some time. Praying through that. I would encourage you.

If you are a believer. That you would take communion. Where we remember. That it is not in our power. And not in our might. That we are saved.

But it's through Jesus' body. That was broken. And his blood. That was shed. You might take communion. Reminding yourself.

Of the goodness of the gospel. And the fact that you hide. In his shadow. Let's pray. God we pray. That your spirit would move.

And that you would lead us. To repentance. And that anywhere. That we have fought against you. And anywhere. That we are defending.

Our own sovereignty. That we might repent. That we might worship you fully. And truly. Resting in you. And trusting in you.

To stand between us. And all that would do us harm. In Jesus name. Amen.

Stolen Blessing

Stolen Blessing

Spencer Cary

Transcript

Good morning. That sounds like a daylight savings time. Welcome right there. Oh, there we go. Encore. My name is Spencer.

I'm one of the pastors here with Mill City. We've been walking through Genesis, through the story of the patriarchs. We're in Genesis 27 today, which is on page 12 in your blue Bibles. If you don't have a Bible, please take that home. That's our gift to you. We want you to have a Bible that you can read.

There won't be a ton of text on the screen this morning, so I'd encourage you to follow along as we walk through this story. We've been walking through Abraham into Isaac, and the next patriarch is Jacob. We're kind of shifting from Isaac into the story of Jacob with this story today. One of the best television series, I would argue, of all time is Breaking Bad. It is, I mean, you can probably put some other ones up there good, but I think Breaking Bad, by and large, is one of the best. It's one of the best written shows.

It's one of the best directed shows. The acting in it is phenomenal. The story line, it's a phenomenal story about a character named Walter White. And Walter White is a high school chemistry teacher. And he gets cancer, and he doesn't have the money to pay his bills. So if you're in New Mexico and you're looking to make some money, him being a chemistry teacher, he decides to start making meth.

And you feel a little bit sorry for him, a little bit sympathetic at first, because he's dying and he needs help. But he quickly kind of morphs into an antihero. It becomes less about him making money to survive and more about power. And he becomes more and more corrupt as the story goes. By the end of it, he's killed people, he's done terrible things, and by the end of it, you're not pulling for anymore. You want what is coming to him.

You want justice to be done. He's a frustrating character and a pretty great story. And I feel like Jacob is similar, minus the meth and some of the drama that comes with that. He's just a frustrating character. He comes in, born as a twin of Esau. He comes in grabbing the heel of Esau.

And his name is Jacob. It's a play on words that he, on the phrase deceiver, that he's going to be deceptive. It's prophetic. Looking forward to his story. A couple weeks ago, we got to see what that looked like when he cheated, when he stole his brother's birthright of Rabola Stew. We start to see that he's schemey, that he's a deceiver.

And the more we get to know him, the more frustrating he is. I would say he's probably one of the most unlikable people in the Bible. And that he really is a deceiver, like his name. And there are moments in the coming weeks, as we walk through his story, we're going to see moments of faith where he's trusting the promise. But there's a lot of mess in the middle of it.

Especially here at the beginning of his story. So as we look at this story today, it's going to be frustrating. As we look at this family today, it's going to be frustrating. But if we take a step back from this story, we'll see that actually our frustrations can be turned into worship. This story is actually good news for us. We're going to see why that is and how God uses people like Jacob.

And ultimately, we'll see how we are blessed because of this. So I'm going to pray, and then we're going to jump in. God, thank you so much for the good news of the gospel that we get to celebrate every time we open your word. I pray this morning that you would meet us here, that you would teach us more of your character and your goodness and your glory. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, so we're going to look at the last part of 26 that sets up Genesis 27.

Genesis 26, 34 says, Alright, so that's an important transition into Genesis 27. Esau, as we've established a couple weeks ago, he's foolish. He Acts foolishly. He doesn't follow in the same footsteps as his father and go and marry someone from his clan, someone from his family, and wait for that wife. No, he marries someone of the land. The Hittites did not value God like his family did.

And it makes life bitter for this family. And that's what Esau does. He's foolish. He jumps into things. And he didn't just jump into one. He jumps into two.

He marries wives seemingly back to back here. Bringing bitterness into this family. Because he wasn't patient. Because he was foolish. And then it sets up into verse 1. We're going to see that in spite of all of this, in spite of the bitterness that he brings into this family, Isaac is prepared to bless him.

So verse 1. When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called Esau, his older son, and said to him, My son. And he answered, Here I am. He said, Behold, I am old. I do not know the day of my death. Now then, take your weapons, your quiver, and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me, and prepare for me delicious food such as I love, and bring it to me so that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die.

So Isaac is old. He's nearing death. He's blind. So he knows it's time to give this blessing. And he summons, he gets Esau, and he gets him to do one of the things that he loves about him. Y'all, one of the reasons that he favors him over his other son.

He says, Grab your bow, grab your quiver, go and bring to me the delicious game that you make for me. It's one of the reasons that he loves one son over the other. And we also see some similarities there, that Isaac has a weakness for food, and so did Esau, that he sold his birthright for a bowl of stew. That both of them have this weakness for food, and this situation starts to get even more broken. But he says, Bring this to me, that I may bless you.

Now we are a little bit far removed from the weight of what a blessing is, and what it's supposed to be. In our culture, at its most base form, the blessing or the word bless, you might have heard this when you were younger, or maybe last week. Your grandma, or maybe an aunt, said, You know, bless your heart. Bless you. And you reply, Oh, thanks grandma. That's nice of you.

And what you did not realize is, that was a backhanded insult. That wasn't actually meant. She was saying, You're an idiot. That's the base form of blessing that we have. The most common form of blessing that we have, is probably a blessing that you have before a meal. Alright?

That you would sit down, you would figure out if it's going to be before the salad, or after the salad, or before the entree gets there, or whatever. You would decide to have a blessing on the food, and then you'd eat. And that's good. That elevates kind of what blessing is. But it's even more so than that.

In the church for centuries, and even today as we practice this a little bit, Christians bless one another with words. We do this every Sunday. At the end of our gathering, someone stands up here, and they give what we call a benediction. Some of you may have heard me say that before, and you've laughed. I may have even said a blessing for the road, because that's what it is. We give a blessing, and we're practicing what the New Testament does.

At the end of the New Testament letters, there are benedictions that are blessings for those churches. That you would give a good word, that's a deeply spiritual way of asking God's blessing on another. And that's even a closer form to what we see here, but that doesn't even capture all of what's happening in this blessing. Because this blessing is not just deeply spiritual, it's prophetic. He's pronouncing something that what he is saying is, he is blessing a blessing that's going to change the future for these two sons. That one of them is going to carry this promise.

That one of them is going to carry this blessing, and everything that comes with it, the other is not. One of them is going to find favor with the Lord, and the other is not. So this is a deeply spiritual and prophetic blessing. And we as Christians, we just need to grow in our understanding of what a blessing is, and what it means. Even what the weight of words are supposed to be, for those of us who are filled with the Holy Spirit. James 3 talks about this.

It talks about the importance of words. It talks about the tongue, and the words that we say. It says the tongue is a small member. It can be like a tiny rudder of a ship. It's a tiny rudder that guides a whole ship through waters. It's a constructive picture of how words can build up.

And he says it's also going to be like a spark that sets a forest on fire. That it can burn everything around you. It can cause destruction. That words matter. And when he gets to blessings and curses, in James 3 and verse 9, he says, With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing.

So Christians, we need to grow in this. We need to grow in understanding that words matter. They have weight. That they can build up, and they also can tear down. That our words, by the power of the Holy Spirit, can be deeply spiritual. But also, as we see in this passage, it is prophetic.

And he gets ready to pronounce this blessing. And Rebekah catches wind of it. Picks up in verse 5. It says, Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it, Rebekah said to her son Jacob, I heard your father speak to your brother Esau.

Bring me game, and prepare for me delicious food, that I may eat it and bless you before the Lord, before I die. She says, Now therefore, my son, obey my voice as I command you. Go to the flock, and bring me two good young goats, so that I may prepare for them delicious food for your father, such as he loves. And you shall bring it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies. So Rebekah, she catches wind of what's happening here, and she jumps into action.

So I want to take a step back and look at this, because this situation is even more broken. Rebekah, while she was pregnant with Jacob and Esau, she was given a prophecy by God. In Genesis 25, this is what he says. God says, Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided. The one shall be stronger than the other. The older shall serve the younger.

So she was given this prophecy, so she knows that God has spoken, that Jacob is the one that's going to carry the promise. So all she has to do is trust God's word. She simply can just trust God, because he's going to make this happen. Jacob is the one that's going to carry the promise. She doesn't have to force this promise, like her mother-in-law Sarah, who did it with Ishmael. No, she simply can trust God that he's going to do this, but she doesn't.

She starts to jump into a scheme. And when you look at this from another angle, you see this is even more of a broken situation. It is very reasonable, and commentators agree on this, it's very reasonable to assume that when Rebekah received this prophecy, that she went and told Isaac. Isaac's the patriarch. He's the leader of their clan. They love each other.

This is something she would have brought to him. And if he knew this, that means that for decades, he has favored Esau. He hasn't believed this promise. In fact, there are times he's actively opposing it. So you have one who's trying to force the promise.

You have the other one who's opposing it. This is a broken situation, and we see the division that devised this family because of this favoritism. This is a broken family. And y'all, this is the broken family that God chose to bring about his plan of redemption. So Rebekah hears this.

She goes and gets Jacob, and she starts giving orders. Go and get two young goats, which is oddly specific in the text that Isaac loves two young goats. But I did learn that younger meat actually does taste better. Over a year ago, I accidentally shot what I thought was a doe and ended up being a young buck. And I felt bad because in hunting, you don't do that. You don't shoot young bucks.

That's wrong. But the meat was tasty. I did learn a thing. I'm not into young, like veal. I'm not into some of the other things. But apparently, younger meat does taste better.

And Isaac knows this. He wants two young goats. He likes that. She's like, all right, go and get the two young goats. And she makes the meal, which means she's taking matters into her own hands. She's giving orders.

And she knows that food is the way to get to her husband. So it picks up in verse 11. It says, But Jacob said to Rebekah, his mother, Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man and I am a smooth man. Perhaps my father will feel me and I shall seem to be mocking him and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing. His mother said to him, Let your curse be on me, my son. Only obey my voice and go and bring them to me.

So Jacob states the obvious. Dad may be blind, but he's not stupid. If he feels me, he'll know it's not, that I'm not Esau. Esau is hairy like Chewbacca. So he's going to feel like Chewbacca.

And if he catches wind of this, he knows the importance of words and curses. That if a curse comes down on him, this has effects for generations. It has eternal ramifications. And she says something profound. She says, Let the curse be on me. I'll take it.

Go and do what I'm telling you to do. So it picks up. Verse 14 says, So he went and took them, talking about the young goats, and brought them to his mother. And his mother prepared delicious food, such as his father loved. Then Rebekah took the best garments of Esau, her son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob, her younger son.

And the skins of the young goats she put on his hands, and on the smooth part of his neck. And she put the delicious food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob. So she makes this food. She goes and gets Esau's clothes, because those are going to carry his scent. He's a man of the field, so he smells differently than Jacob. Then she takes the skin of the young goats.

The goats that she just slaughtered. Alright, so this is nasty. And she puts it on his hands, and on the smooth part of his neck, which again, how hairy is Esau, that his neck and his hands are like goat skin. I don't know if you've ever peted a goat, it's like a dog. He doesn't have hair, he has a layer of fur. And they put this deception suit on, with his clothes, and with his goats in.

He gets the deception suit on, he takes the food. And then we get to see how, even further broken this story gets. Verse 18, So he went in to his father and said, My father. And he said, Here I am. Who are you, my son? Jacob said to his father, I am Esau, your firstborn.

I have done as you told me. Now sit up and eat of my game, that your soul may bless me. So he lies to his father. And that is a very big deal in this culture. This is a shame and honor culture. There's two very important aspects of this culture.

And one of the most important things that you would do in this culture, is that you would honor your parents. It was a great shame to show dishonor to your parents, and to think that you would take advantage of your father's blindness, by lying to him. That's outrageous. That's gross in this culture. You would never do that. That's dishonoring.

And this lie gets even more wicked. Verse 20, But Isaac said to his son, How is it that you found it so quickly, my son? So again, he's not stupid. And this hunt would have taken some time. All of a sudden he shows up. Jacob says, He answered, Because the Lord your God granted me success.

And this is no longer just a lie. This is just morphed into blasphemy. He has blasphemed the name of the Lord. We kind of have a little bit of a low view of blasphemy. Our kind of categories for it is you would use God or Jesus' name in a curse word. But blasphemy is so much bigger than that.

It's dishonoring the name of the Lord. It's taking it in vain. It's dishonoring and robbing God's name of its glory. And he uses that to deceive his father. To lie to his father. He uses the integrity of God's name for dishonor and evil.

Similar to, I don't know if you've ever seen businesses that have a Jesus fish on their sign. And some of those businesses are known for dishonorable practices and ripping people off. That's blasphemy. Using the name of God for evil purposes. And that is what he does here. He didn't just lie to his father.

He blasphemes the name of the Lord. God has stricken down people in the Bible for much less. And he is justified in doing so. So he blasphemes the name of the Lord. And he lies to him. And this story continues to come off the tracks.

21 Says, He's starting to get outmaneuvered here. Because he did not anticipate that his son might stoop to this level. To put on this deception suit of goat skin. And he feels them. And he starts to become convinced. But in verse 24 he says, Just one more time.

He said, Are you really my son Esau? He answered, I am. Just one more time. Are you really Esau? Is it you son? Yeah, that's me then.

Then he said, Bring it near to me. That I may eat of my son's game. And bless you. So he brought it near to him. And he ate. And he brought him wine.

And he drank. So he brings the food. A weakness for him. He brings in some wine. That's going to further loosen him up. Lower his inhibitions.

And then the blessing comes. Verse 26. Then his father Isaac said to him, Come near and kiss me, my son. So he came near and kissed him. And Isaac smelled the smell of his garments. And blessed him and said, See the smell of my son as the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed.

May God give you of the dew of heaven. And of the fatness of the earth. And plenty of grain and wine. Let people serve you. And nations bow down to you. Be Lord over your brothers.

May your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you. And blessed be everyone who blesses you. So he kisses him. He's further convincing. But he smells Esau's clothes.

And he is convinced. And he gives this blessing. And remember, this blessing is prophetic. This is God speaking through Isaac. What he means for Esau, God ultimately uses the brokenness of this situation to mean for Jacob. His prophecy is coming true.

And he says, May God give you the dew. Which to us, it's like, oh, that's how you start this grand blessing. Cool. Dew is actually a sign of prosperity. It's a little bit far removed from us. And in an arid culture, they didn't have a lot of rain.

So dew is how the fields were watered. He's saying, May you be prosperous. And he continues that by saying, May you abound in grain and wine. That's more language of prosperity. Then he says, May nations bow down to you.

And that is a continuation of the promise. That he's the one who's going to have the great nation. He says, May you Lord over your brothers. Meaning he's going to be the leader. And Esau is going to submit under his leadership. He says, Blessings for those who bless you.

And curses for those who curse you. And the deception is complete. Jacob gets the promise. And when you look at how much deceit. How much sin is all over this. How broken is the situation.

How messed up is this family. How frustrating is it that Jacob, the deceiver. He's the one that gets the promise. Through all of this sin. And the moment that this happens. Jacob sets out.

And then Esau steps in. It says, As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob. When Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac, his father. Esau, his brother, came in from his hunting. He also prepared delicious food and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, Let my father arise and eat of his son's game.

That you may bless me. His father Isaac said to him, Who are you? He answered, I'm your son. Your firstborn, Esau. Then Isaac trembled very violently.

And said, Who was it then that hunted game? And brought it to me? And I ate it all before you came. And I have blessed him. Yes. And he shall be blessed.

We've established that Esau is a fool. But man, part of me just really, I feel sorry for him. He listens to his dad. He goes out. He hunts. He brings in the food.

And then they realize that someone is coming in and robbed this blessing. We're going to see in a moment. It doesn't take long to connect the dots. They know exactly who did this. His father starts to connect the dots. And it says he shakes violently.

He trembles as he figures out what just happened. Now, some have looked at this and thought, Why couldn't he just revoke the blessing? Why couldn't he just say, All right, bring Jacob back in here. You're cursed. You're blessed. Game over.

There's two possible reasons for that. First, on the one hand, it doesn't really seem like blessings like this could be revoked. That once this was said, it was finished. And that makes sense because he says, he pronounces and says, Anyone who curses you, let them be cursed. So you can't exactly go back at this point and correct this and pronounce a curse on Jacob.

The second reason is that it is very reasonable that Isaac knew about this prophecy. That Rebecca told him years ago that he knew about this. And for decades, he has been fighting this. For decades, he's been showing favor to the son who he loves. The son that he favors. The son who brings some game.

The boy that he most favors. And in this moment, finally, he concedes. He reasons it out and he says, Yes, he shall be blessed. Jacob gets the blessing. And through years of deception and years of division and years of favoritism and years of brokenness in this family, it's complete. God's promise comes true.

And Esau is broken. Verse 34, it says, As soon as Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry and said to his father, Bless me, even me also, oh, my father. In the depths of his grief, he's begging. Can I just get a blessing? Can I get something? It says in verse 35, But he said, Your brother came deceitfully and he has taken away your blessing.

Esau said, Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has cheated me these two times. He took away my birthright and behold, now he's taken away my blessing. Then he said, Have you not reserved a blessing for me? I mean, he just wants something. This cheat of your son has taken everything from me.

Can you just give me something? Just a tiny blessing. Anything. And Isaac answered him and said to Esau, Behold, I've made him Lord over you and all the brothers I've given to him for servants and with grain and wine sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son? Esau said to his father, Have you but one blessing, my father?

Bless me, even me also, oh, my father. And Esau lifted up his voice and wept. When Isaac makes the point, I've given him the blessing. I've given him all that. What possibly could I do for you? And Esau is broken and he weeps at what he has just lost.

And he just begs, Can I get something? And in his grief, Isaac answers. He says, Then Isaac, his father, answered him and said to him, Behold, away from the fatness of the earth shall your dwelling be. And away from the dew of the heaven on high. By the sword you shall live and you shall serve your brother. But when you grow restless, you shall break his yoke from your neck.

So he does get a tiny blessing. He doesn't get the promise of the blessing of prosperity, of carrying the line and having this great nation. He doesn't get any of that. But there is a proclamation that one day this yoke will be broken. And yoke is a, if you've ever seen a classic picture of an oxen with a wooden yoke on its neck, its tail in the field. Yoke is a sign of serving under someone.

And this is a prophecy that one day the descendants of Esau, this is the Edomites in the Old Testament. One day they will break free. They will be their own nation away from the Israelites. So Esau gets this tiny blessing. And next week we're going to see what comes out of this, the reaction to all of this. But when you look at this story, what a mess.

It is covered with sin and brokenness. This family is broken. This story is broken. And y'all, this is the family that God has chosen to bring about the Savior of the world, Jesus. They're not likable. There's no heroes here.

It's a bunch of Walter Whites gunning for power. It's absolutely broken. And at the end of this, you may be thinking, man, didn't you say this was going to be hope-filled? Didn't you say that this was going to be worshipful, that we could find joy in this? Because the reason why this is a hope-filled story for us as Christians is because this shows that God uses the worst of us to bring about His plan of redemption. That God uses our brokenness and uses it for His redemption.

Because there's part of me that reads this story and goes, man, what a messed up family. I can't believe that Jacob gets this. I can't believe he's the one that carries the promise. He's the one that the line of Jesus is going to come through. And I look in the mirror, and it's like, man, of course God does this. I'm Jacob.

At my worst fully exposed, I'm Jacob. And so are some of you. And some of you are Esau. And some of you are Rebecca. And some of you are Isaac. We are just like this family.

The difference for those of us who have trusted in the finished work of Jesus for us is that we have Christ. That Jacob chose to clothe himself in this deception suit. That in Christ we don't have to do that. We don't have to fake it. We come to Jesus just as we are. And we don't clothe ourselves in deception.

We clothe ourselves in the righteousness of Christ. That when we trust in him, all our sin is nailed to the cross. And Jesus' goodness, his perfection, his holiness, all of that, we're clothed in it. We don't have to fake it. We don't have to deceive God as if we possibly could. That Jacob, he chose to enter his father's tent in the presence of his father through deception and blasphemy.

And we get to enter the tent, the presence of God, boldly because of the finished work. In spite of our sin, in spite of our brokenness, because we trusted in Jesus, we have access to the Father. In part in this life through prayer and worship and seeking him. And fully in the next life. That Jacob, he receives this irrevocable blessing through deception. And y'all, as Christians, we come to Jesus in spite of our sin.

When we trust in him, not putting on a facade, but fully give ourselves to him. We have an irrevocable blessing that we have trusted in. Romans 11.29 says, For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. And all over the rest of the New Testament, it says over and over again, No one can snatch you out of the hand of God. That he will carry us home. That we share in an irrevocable blessing because of what Jesus has done for us.

This story is good news for us because God will use us in spite of our sin and shortcomings. Some of us have paths of brokenness. Some of us are wrestling with some pretty difficult battles with sin. And in the midst of all of this, you can begin to wonder, How could God possibly use me? How could he possibly use me? We talked about this multiply series.

We spent five weeks in the very beginning of the year talking about how we're going to make disciples. We're going to multiply disciples. We're going to change this city. We're going to do this. And we got excited. And some of you may have been thinking, Yeah, that's great.

I would just like right now to stop looking at porn. I would just like right now to stop hurting myself. To stop hating myself. I'd like to just stop struggling with this sin. How could I possibly be used by God to change this city? Christians, that's because this is exactly what God does.

We see it all over this story. We see it all over the rest of the Bible that God uses the broken to accomplish his purposes. And I feel this as a pastor. There are moments in the midst of temptation where I'm feeling it, where I'm fighting it. And the enemy comes in. Satan comes in and whispers, Oh, you're going to get exposed.

You're going to fail. It's all going to fall apart. Your story is going to come off the tracks. You're going to take this. Your family is going to be embarrassed. This church is going to be embarrassed.

You're going to defame the name of God. And this lie comes in and whispers over and over again. And I get to fire back with the gospel. We get to fire back with the gospel. No. No, no, no.

I know how this story ends. I know that your story ends in the flames. And my story ends secure in Jesus. That one day I will stand before him. That my identity is so wrapped up in Christ. That I get to beat my chest.

The Galatians 2.20 which says, I have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God that loves me and gave himself up for me. That is my identity. I rest in that.

Satan doesn't get to win. That my identity is so firmly in the gospel. When anything comes in and says, You don't have redemptive qualities. You can't be used. I get to fire back and say, That's the point of the gospel. That God uses those who are broken to bring about his purposes.

That God uses the broken to change lives. That he takes the brokenness and redeems us by his blood. That he makes beauty out of the ashes of our sin. That's the hope of the gospel. That's what we see in this story. Yes, this family is the worst.

But so is that. So are we.

The Deceitfulness of the Flesh

The Deceitfulness of the Flesh

Chet Phillips

Transcript

Well, all right, how we doing this morning? Whew! I forgot. I quit asking that. Good morning! My name's Chet.

I'm one of the pastors here. We are in the book of Genesis. We will be in Genesis chapter 25 this morning. We've been following along with this whole book, and we've been following along this story of God's beginning into redemption. So He makes the world.

It's beautiful. It's good. He makes humans. We're awesome for like half a page. And then we rebel. We fall into sin.

And the big question and the tension in the story of Genesis is, what is God going to do with sinful humanity? And is sin going to wreck His good plans? And is sin going to destroy His good design? And so we see that He picks up with His family. He picks Abraham. And we've been following this story through Abraham.

And now we move to Isaac last week. We kind of saw the story shift from Abraham and Sarah to Isaac and Rebecca. And today we'll see some new people enter this story. When we read stories, we've been trained to look for main characters. We've been trained to look for the hero. That's one of the things that happens.

When you start watching a movie, you start looking and saying, okay, who am I going to relate to? Who am I going to follow? Who am I going to root for? If you've ever watched a movie that doesn't do a good job of kind of giving you a hero and a villain and some tension, it's not a very good movie. It may be artsy, but it's not a very good movie. And there are some movies that it holds out.

I remember watching Frozen for the first time. And it takes a while. At one point I was going, who's the villain in this movie? I don't think it's the sister that just went crazy and built an ice castle and a monster. It may be her. She may storm back down the mountain and attack everybody.

But I don't think it's her. I think she's one of the main characters that's on the good side. But you're watching kind of waiting to see, like, who's the bad guy? When I watched the second Guardians of the Galaxy, I was like halfway in that movie. And I was like, what am I watching? Like, who's the bad guy?

What's going to happen? And that's kind of what happens. We read these stories and we start going, okay, who's the hero? Who's the bad guy? Who am I rooting for? Who am I?

And this story is about people, real people who actually existed. And so we're going to get introduced to two brothers today. Jacob and Esau. So we're in Genesis chapter 25. And I hate to hurt your feelings. Neither one of them is the good guy.

There is a hero in this story, but it's not one of them. And so let's look at this. Let's read this together. And let's see how this story plays out in God's redemptive history as he walks with his family towards redeeming humanity and setting us free from the consequences of sin. And so let's pray and then we'll read this together. God, we thank you for your word.

We thank you for this time that we get to gather to worship the God who saved us from sin because you loved us. And so we pray that that is what would happen, that we would worship. That we wouldn't just learn or we wouldn't just study or we wouldn't just get to see people that we care about, but that we would worship you. And we pray that you would help us do that as we read your word together. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

All right, so we're picking it up in verse 19. Now it says, These are the generations of Isaac. And in the book of Genesis, that means we've shifted the story. So it says, Abraham's son. This is generations of Abraham's son. It says that Abraham fathered Isaac.

And Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, the Aramean of Padam Aram, and the sister of Laban, the Aramean, to be his wife. And it says, And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife because she was barren. All right, now if you'll remember, God has promised this family that it is through Isaac that the promises are going to come true. He promised Abraham it's going to be through Isaac. Not Ishmael, who was Abraham's oldest son, and not Abraham's other sons that he eventually has that you can read about at the beginning of this chapter with his third wife. But it's going to be through Isaac that the promises are going to become true, that he's going to get the land, that he's going to be the great nation, that ultimately the promise made to Eve in the garden is going to come true, that through him he's going to bless the world.

And so he says it's through Isaac. Well, Isaac gets married to Rebekah, and Rebekah does not have children. She's barren. We actually find out later that she's barren for 20 years, that Isaac prays for 20 years. The text makes it seem like he prayed once, and God was like, I hear you. But he prays for 20 years that God would bless her with children, and God does.

Now one of the interesting things as we see this story is that Sarah is barren for a very long time, prior to having Isaac. And then Isaac and Rebekah. Rebekah is barren, unable to have children for a very long time. There's a lot of pain and tension there, and it shows that ultimately this blessing came through God, and not through the power of man, or what we would look to and say, the fruitfulness of man and the ability of humanity. And God one-ups himself in the New Testament when Mary, who is a virgin, gives birth to Jesus. And he continues the same pattern of miraculously answering prayers and allowing things to happen.

So it says, Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife because she was barren, and the Lord granted his prayer. And Rebekah, his wife, conceived. The children struggled together within her, and she said, If it is thus, why is this happening to me? That's not a great sentence. It's even worse in the original Hebrew. They tried to make it more of a sentence for English.

In Hebrew, it's, If thus, why me? Or, if thus, why? She says, The children struggled within her. So she's prayed and prayed and prayed. She finally finds out she's pregnant. She's excited.

They're excited. God's blessed. God's answered. And then it is a tumultuous, terrible pregnancy. Now, my wife has had, we've had two children, and I will tell you that even good pregnancies are terrible. It's not, it's not a picnic.

The curse that goes to Eve is real and active. And we have like medicine and doctors and the ability to check what's going on. She has nothing. She has two children inside of her. It says they struggled within her. Another way to translate that is they smashed each other.

There's, there's two children inside of her, and they don't like each other, and that makes it very uncomfortable, and very difficult. Like, at times in pregnancies, there's, you know, the mom will be like, oh, look, look, you can see a little hand, or you can see a foot, and you're like, yeah, and it's kind of cool and kind of creepy looking to see like a whole foot pushed up against. Well, with this pregnancy, there was like one of them smushing the other one's face repeatedly against the, it's, it's, it's bad. She doesn't know what's going on, but she goes to God and says, if thus, why? Like, what, if you were, if this is what pregnancy was going to be, why?

Why would you do this? Why me? Like, just send this promise to somebody else, if this is what this is going to be like. So it says that she goes to the Lord. So she went to inquire of the Lord, and the Lord said to her, and this is, this is beautiful.

We don't know exactly how she went to inquire of the Lord, but we know that it is not important other than she was the one asking, and God's responding to her. It seems as if maybe she did this on her own. There's other places and other ways to inquire of the Lord, but she asked, he answers. He says, two nations are in your womb, and the two peoples from within you shall be divided, and one shall be stronger than the other, and the older shall serve the younger. Now, it is possible they had a clue that she was carrying multiple children. It's possible that even from this, she's still wondering like, okay, I'm actually having twins, or like, in the future, I'm going to have two children, but that's, she's kind of getting this as an answer.

Okay, there's two nations in my womb. Two people shall be divided. One will be stronger than the other. And then he says, and the older shall serve the younger. Now, that's unheard of. That's not a normal thing for this culture, that the older would serve the younger.

You see, the older one, it gets the birthright. The older one is the leader, is the head, will take on the family name, will become the patriarch, will lead everything, and the other ones will receive some inheritance, but the older one, the oldest son, always gets double the inheritance, and he carries on and leads the family. And this is still the truth there today in the Middle East, that the oldest son has a significant amount of weight. And so it says, the younger will serve, the older will serve the younger. Now, this is also very important for this family, specifically because God has promised that he's going to bless Abraham.

And then he says, I'm going to bless through Isaac, and I'm going to make you a great nation. I'm going to make you a great people. And so what she just got told was, there's two nations, meaning one child, one child is the child of promise. One child is the seed. One child is the nation. And the other child is not.

That's what's just told to her. And so then it continues. When her days to give birth were completed, behold, there were twins in her womb. So it was like, oh, okay, look, it was twins. The first came out red, all his body like a hairy cloak. So they called his name Esau, which is a play on words.

It's very close to the word hair. So he comes out red and hairy. You know how every once in a while people show you the baby, and you're like, yeah, that's a baby. Look at you with a baby. That's what happened here. It actually probably most likely signifies that this one came out looking very, very healthy.

It's possible that it was red hair, which would have been odd for this. And usually red haired people, and some people who are red haired may feel like this continued, are looked down upon in society. But it's also possible that it actually means he was red, like he was ruddy, which is the way they describe David later. It's a picture that goes along with he looked heroic, because that was kind of in that time frame. So it seems like, and as you read the text more, that he came out healthy, heroic, and hairy.

He comes out a little wild. And some of that we're getting from the way it describes his brother. It says, afterward, his brother came out with his hand holding Esau's heel. So his name was called Jacob. Jacob means he grabs the heel. It feels a little bit, they named him like you would name puppies.

Like the way my brothers and I would be like, hey, this one's got like a circle on its eye, we'll call him patch. That one that keeps spinning in circles, we'll call it spaz. Almost like it was Isaac's Job to name them, and he completely forgot that he was supposed to have done this, like come up with names. And they're like, so what did you decide? And he's like, oh, yeah, Harry, foot grabber. Rebecca's like, you forgot you were supposed to name him, didn't you?

He's like, no, Harry's my great, great uncle's name. You don't know him. You've never met him. He's on my mom's side. Anyway, names mean things in this culture, and they intentionally are highlighting the significance of the birth here. But it says, he grabs the heel.

Now, that's a play on words. He grabs the heel. It can mean one of two things. It can mean, may God have your back. May he be the rear guard. So that no matter what happens, God protects and defends.

It also means trickster or deceiver. The interesting thing with Jacob's life is that both of those end up being true. That he is a deceiving trickster, and God has his back. God guards him and carries things out on his behalf. And it says, afterward, his brother came out with his hand holding Esau's heel, so that his name was called Jacob. Isaac was 60 years old when she bore them.

So they'd been 20 years. So one comes out definitively red, definitively hairy. The other one comes out, would have been smooth, possibly smaller, it seems as if they're kind of highlighting the differences between them, even at birth. And then we get when the boys grew up. So it immediately jumps.

It says, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field. And he came out seeming wild. So he's a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents. So it's highlighting the differences here. It says Esau, as we'll see, it kind of shows him as wild. He's probably healthier.

He's out. He lives in the wild. He would go hunt. He would come back every once in a while. And then it says, Jacob's quiet. He's simple.

He's small. He's thoughtful. So Esau, you get this picture of he's kind of big, he's kind of burly. A little bit, if you picture, if you're familiar with the Marvel movies that have been going on for the past 10 years, if you picture Thor and Loki, it looks a little bit like that in my head. One's big, muscular, kind of outspoken, loud. The other one's a little bit thin, weasley, tinty.

He's indoorsy. He likes HGTV, a nice cup of tea, and a good book. And his brother's like, look at what I killed. He's like, neat. And it says, Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebecca loved Jacob. Now that sentence gives us a very messed up family picture.

Isaac loved Esau. Specifically, he loved that one. That's the one I like. And he loves him because he ate his game. He loves him because of what he benefits from him. It doesn't even say like he loved his personality, they hung out.

Like as best we can tell, Isaac was also kind of calmer, tent dwelling, pastoral, like he tended sheep. But he loves that Esau brings him something that doesn't taste like sheep, like he's eating lamb all the time. He brings him a deer and it's great. And he's like, hey, keep this up and I'll love you. And as we read the story further, we're not going to get into it all today, but it feels as if Isaac and, Esau and Jacob are trying to overcome the fact that the other parent does not love them. That they both feel put off balance by this.

So if you are a parent, this is not the best way to go. I actually realized recently, I've got two sons, one's four, one's one. The one-year-old, I'm not a very smiley person, but my one-year-old is. He is happy. Even when he's head to toe covered in eczema, he's just happy. And when I would come in to see him, he just will smile like, my dad's here.

And so I got in the habit, I walk in the room and I'll be like, hey buddy. Like I just smile, I'm excited to see him. His older brother is not smiley. He looks like me all the time. He's just kind of paying attention to stuff. Like even when he was little and you would do fun things in front of him, he would just stare at you.

And I'm like, I don't know. And then you would get done and he'd go, do it again. So it's like, oh, you enjoyed it. Make your face make that. Well, I realized I'll walk in the room and I'll see my boy Ellis and I'll be like, hey buddy, it's good to see you. And then I look at his brother and go, what are you doing?

And I was like, no, no, no, no, no. Like I've got to set the tone. And I can't let them set the tone. So I, when I became real intentional with this, I'll walk in the room. I'll say, hey to Ellis. And it tries to remind me to do the same to Archer.

And I look at Archer and I'll go, hey, how are you doing? And the first time I did it, he was like, hey. And so it is important that you don't do what Isaac and Rebecca did to their children. Now, we don't know why Rebecca loves Jacob. He was around the tent more. Easier to find.

And it's possible, very possible, that she's just leaning into the older shall serve, the younger. She's picking a winner. Either way, it's not a healthy situation and it doesn't play out well for their boys. Now we're getting another story. It says, once when Jacob was cooking. So now we're, we've moved on.

And again, it's highlighting this picture. Once when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field and he was exhausted. So this picture, Esau, covered in sweat, been gone for, for days, hunting, shows back up, walks in the tent. He's like, uh, uh. And, uh, Jacob's over a pot. It's really coming together.

He's cooking. He's in his tent. He's like, close, close, close the, close the flap. You're letting in the air. And Esau said to Jacob, let me eat some of that red stew for I am exhausted. All right.

So, uh, in, in reading up on this and some commentaries, one of the things that was pointed out, I don't read Hebrew, but other people do and I read what they wrote in English and it's helpful. Um, one of the things that's pointed out is in this conversation, everything that Jacob says is very short. It's very to the point. It goes along with him being quiet and kind of thoughtful. And as we'll find out, his quiet thoughtfulness is also scheminess. He's real blunt.

Uh, Esau's sentences are all over the place. And again, the text is highlighting for us what kind of man Jacob was. You can almost see him just being, you know, every one of his sentences is like a little arrow shot, just a little, little dagger right in the right place. And Esau's sentences are like a club that just like slap everything in the room. Like they're all over the place. His sentence is actually, let me get some of that red, red.

Like he, that red, red stuff is what some of the other translations will give. He's just like, Hey, I'm about to die. Let me get some of that red. Let me get a swallow of that red bread. Other translations say, let me gulp down. He's like, just give me the whole pot.

I'll just pour it on myself. It's going to be delicious. So he comes in, we're told he's exhausted. He's, he's like, I'm wore out to the floor out, brother. He says, let me get some of that red, red. And then it says, therefore, his name was called Edom.

Edom is red. So he said, let me get some of that Edom, Edom. And it says, therefore, his name was called Edom. Now, we're being told this story. Something significant is about to happen. And what happens marks Esau forever.

His two names, Harry and red. And here's what happens. He says, let me get some of that red stuff. And Jacob said, sell me your birthright now. What on earth? It's actually like, sell me birthright now.

Like it's just this, just this real, sell, sell birthright now. Now. So he comes in, he says, I'm about to starve. Can I have some of this soup that you're making? Some of this stew? And Jacob does not say, yes, brother.

I made plenty. He says, sell me your birthright. Now, it would seem as if Jacob, now who knows if they brought this up, if this happened often. It seems as if Jacob, at least has been thinking about this. It wasn't just out of nowhere. And he finds his opportunity.

His brother blunders into his tent. Seems exhausted. Seems at the end of his ability to kind of think well. He's hungry. He's tired. And instead of being gracious and generous, which is one of the things that we've seen throughout the book of Genesis, how people are gracious and generous and go out of their way for each other, he says, sell me your birthright.

Make it to where I'm the oldest brother now. Now, here's what's really interesting. And the birthright matters so much. And here's what's probably very painful for these two brothers. They're twins. Now, in our mind, twins are the same age.

In an Eastern mindset, in this time period, no, they're not. One is older, one is younger, and that matters a lot. There's a great Jewish thinker. His name's Jerry Seinfeld. And he, in one of his stand-up routines, is talking about the Olympics. And he says, it's really interesting in the Olympics, especially in the, like, the 100 yard, 100 meter, sorry, it's worldwide, meters, 100 meter dash.

He said, the winner, the first place and the second place, he says, it's a fraction of a, it's, like, he said, you sometimes have to rewind it and watch. And he said, and then what happens is, they stand on a podium, and you look at, the fastest man in the world. And half a step down, never heard of him, doesn't matter. And he was, fraction of a, Jacob comes out, holding on to the heel. He lost the last little bit of their struggle. He was smashed into the back part of the womb.

Esau said, I'm out of here. He was putting his foot in his face. Jacob grabbed it. He comes out, and it is Esau, the firstborn, the eldest, who will be the patriarch, who will get the birthright, who the promise will follow, as best as they understand in this mindset. And, Jacob, Esau's brother. Who at some point will get a gift, and get some stuff, but he won't have the name, and he'll move on.

And this, has plagued Jacob. He's still, grabbing at Esau's heel. Trying to, trying to, trying to, trip him up. Sell me your birthright, now. Esau said, I am about, to die, of what use, is a birthright, to me? Now, given his long, sentence structure, Esau is not about, to die.

I was playing football one time, I got really dehydrated, I went to tell the coach, I needed water. And I went to say water, and my tongue stuck, to the roof of my mouth. And I ran to my coach, and said, he said what? And I was like, pointing where the water was. Because it was, Esau's like, I'm gonna die, brother. He's like, he's pontificating, he's laying this out, he's not about to die.

Now, he's very exhausted, he is hungry. And he says, what use is a birthright? Basically, look, I'll die, it'll be yours anyway, so I might as well, get some soup, out of the deal, and not die. Jacob said, swear to me now. No, no, we're putting this in an oath, this is becoming legal, this is becoming real. There are other places, in history, where somebody sold their birthright.

This isn't unheard of, although it's crazy. It should be unheard of. Esau is acting very foolish. Jacob said, swear to me now, so he swore to him, and sold his birthright, to Jacob. Now, in their mindset, Jacob is now the oldest brother. The birthright is transferable.

Again, something we would be unfamiliar with. It's not, it's not a deal I could work out, with my brother Logan. Where it's like, hey, we're gonna, I want, I want to give you some soup. And now I'm three years older than you. It wouldn't work like that. But it does there.

So Jacob finally trips, says, brother. Then Jacob gave Esau bread, and lentil stew. And he ate, and drank, and rose, and went his way. He ate, drank, rose, went. It's over, very, very quickly. And then, the story tells us how to think.

This doesn't always happen in the book of Genesis. This doesn't always happen in the Bible. We want it to. We want, we want the Bible to tell us the story, and then tell us what we were supposed to get out of it. Don't we? Isn't it nice when it does that?

A lot of times it just tells you this big, long story about a lot of terrible things, and it's like, and then guess what happened? You're like, no, no, no, pause, pause, pause, pause. I need you to tell me who was the hero, and who was the bad guy, and what happened, and what was, what I'm supposed to take from that. And the main takeaway from this, although the text is clear, Jacob is not gracious to his brother, he is scheming. The main takeaway from this is this, thus, which means in this way, Esau despised his birthright. Now, I've got to explain a little bit about how the text uses despise, and how they understood it in that culture.

When we despise something, mostly we despise something, or we think about despising something as head on. Meaning that, we look at it, we hate it. We intentionally hate it. We're malicious towards it. That's how we think of despise. So if it's like, I despise that teacher, we mean, I very much dislike them.

They're the worst teacher ever. Now the text, the Bible, we'll use despise that way. It will talk about, it says that, when David's dancing one time, it says his wife looked at him, and despised him in her heart. Meaning that she looked head on at him, disliked what he was doing, had hatred towards him. The Bible uses it that way, but it also uses it as, back to. That we ignore.

That we turn our back on something. That we dishonor it. So that if, if it was used in that way for a teacher, and it said, he despised that teacher's wisdom. Which the Proverbs say it that way. It means, did not listen to, did not think about, did not care about, turned your back on. Now we don't usually use despise that way.

We think of despise as an active thing that you do. But the Bible tells us, no, you can do it actively, or you can do it passively. It's the same thing. That if you turn your back on God's wisdom, if you turn your back on God's blessing, it is as much as turning right to it, and hating it. And so what we understand here, is that Esau did not think, I hate my birthright, it's terrible, I don't want it. But Esau turned his back on it, and when he did, showed that he cared nothing for it.

Now, that's the point of that story. That it moves forward the promise made to Rebecca. But it also highlights for us Esau's foolishness. That's one of the things that the author of Hebrews says. He says, don't be godless like Esau. Don't be profane or unholy like Esau.

Esau, who traded his birthright for a single meal. So what the Hebrew author is saying is that, in this way that Esau was being godless, he wasn't understanding and appreciating what God had done, the position he was in. Not only to be the firstborn, but to be the firstborn to Isaac, the son of the promise. He's a grown man and doesn't understand these things, doesn't appreciate these things, doesn't care about these things. So much so that he would sell his birthright for soup.

Stew. Stew. Sorry. The text says stew, and we're very serious about the text here, and I can't say soup because stew is thicker. We had this discussion in teaching team because I kept actively saying soup. It is stew.

He just, he trades everything for something that he can see and smell and taste that's right in front of him. And you want to wring his neck. You want to jump in the text and smack him. You want to right at that moment when he says, I'm about to die. You want him to be like, really? No, you're not.

And how close are the other tents? Like, get some water. Get your head on your shoulders right. Walk to your dad's tent. Walk to your mom's tent. Now, who knows?

Rebecca, he might want to walk in there and she loves Jacob. She might have been like, sell Jacob your birthright now. We don't know. But at least give it a shot. God, you can't be that tired. But you can be that foolish.

And here's the thing. We do this. Like, as much as I want to be really mad at Esau, I see myself in Esau. You see, the way the Bible talks about despising the Lord and despising his commands means that there are moments in life where we just turn our back to them. We're not thinking, I hate that command or I hate the Lord because he wouldn't have said that. If you said, if Jacob said, don't you hate your birthright?

He'd be like, were you a fool? No, I don't. But he just, he comes on the other side of it and just gets him to turn away from it. He gets him to turn his back on it for something that he can have right now. And the truth is, that's all of sin for us. That in the moment that we sin, something smells sweeter. tastes better.

Feels like it will give us life more than the future promises of God. Now, are the future promises of God bigger and more glorious to be waited on? Yes. But in that moment, I just want some of that red stuff. See, God actually picks this up in Malachi. He talks to the people who are the priests that are in the temple and he says, you have despised me.

And they say, how? How have we despised you? And he immediately goes into, he says, it's by the way you're doing your sacrifices. It's by the way you're going about this that I've been lowered down. And see, honestly, I think if God were to look at us and say, you despise me, we'd be like, no, I don't. I'm here, I'm singing, I hang out with my group, I read my Bible a couple times a week.

I do like half the stuff in there. Mostly, try to. And then he would point to some specific thing and he'd say, here, you've turned your back and you hate me and you hate my word and you hate my promises. You're not doing it with your face towards it. You're not clenching your fists. Some of us are sometimes.

Most of the time, we're just enamored with something that smells and looks more beautiful and more tasty at the moment. I'll give you a few examples. All sin is an example of this. But I'll give you a few. I think money is one for us. Just culturally.

It's one that Jesus talks about a lot. That most of us would think, I handle my money, okay. I'm not trying to be crazy. But when we look at what the Bible tells us about money, about how we're supposed to think about eternity in light of how we spend our money now and how we're supposed to be generous now and how we're supposed to know that the kingdom is a treasure hidden in a field that we'd be willing to sell everything and give up everything for. The truth is, when we turn around with money and we think, well, it's mine and I can kind of do what I want and if I'm, you know, I don't really feel like I should have to give that much and I don't really feel like I should have to be that generous and I really like, I gotta enjoy these things that in some ways there could be, for us, for God, could look at our budget and say, you despise me.

And we'd say, how? I think another one is romance. We have so elevated romance and relationships and love in our culture that we have whole denominations that have just peeled out parts of the text because how could God say that you can't love this person or be with this person or have this relationship? And we do that all the time where it's like, well, and we say the same things he said. He says, I'm gonna die. What good is a birthright?

And we say, what's the point of following Jesus if I'm gonna be this lonely? What's the point of following Jesus if I have to go home and be sad? What's the point? And what we're saying is that's too far away. It's not glorious enough. It's not big enough.

It doesn't taste sweet enough and I just want some of this. I think another one is power, security, safety. See, we're told as Christians that we should align with the weak. We should go out of our way for those who are hurting and needy. But we don't want to.

We want to feel protected and we want to be the people in power and we want to be those and so maybe this happens in high school at a lunch table. You choose where you sit because as best you can, you want to be at the table where there's power and where you're protected and where you feel secure and where you feel good. Maybe it happens when somebody starts making fun of someone else and all you'd really have to do is say, hey man, I don't think that's a helpful way to talk about that person or I don't think that's good or not join in or point out something good but you just can't. You don't want to.

And in those moments, you just despise who Jesus is and what he was about. He wouldn't say that but he would. Maybe it happens in the break room because we don't really grow out of that stuff. Maybe it happens in how we vote, how we think about voting, how we talk to other people who hold different viewpoints than us because the real goal is power and the real goal is position and the real goal is to have as much as we can have and have other people who disagree with us not have anything. Okay. I don't know how you're doing this but I know that we are doing this.

That there's somewhere, somewhere that we look as foolish as Esau. that we've just turned our back on some glorious, beautiful promise that Jesus gives and we act like we hate him and we act like we hate his law and we act like it's not good and we act like it will harm us and we act like we'll be destroyed and we act like this thing that we've turned to will give us life, will revive us, will give us hope, will give us joy, will taste so sweet. And the problem is it says he ate, drank, got up, left and yeah, he didn't die but it doesn't seem like that soup was worth it. And here's the biggest problem with Esau. The text tells us Esau despised his birthright but later we're going to read that Esau thinks Jacob cheated him.

Now Jacob was not a good brother and did but Esau doesn't see himself in it at all. He just thinks he's a victim. He says he's cheated me. He can't see in this moment he can't see past the soup and later he still can't see what he's done and how he was the one who ultimately made the decision how it was in his hands to turn one way or the other and he made a terrible, terrible blunder. Now where's the hero?

Who are we supposed to be like? I mean I think we could try really hard and we could say well you could just read it and say don't be like Esau and that's a good thing that's Hebrew says that. I think we could try really hard and say well be like Jacob and just think about the future. And it's like okay. Jacob doesn't look like Christ at all. He doesn't look gracious he doesn't look loving he doesn't look and honestly it looks as if Jacob is thinking about the future but he's doing everything he can to have absolute control over it by any means necessary and in some way twist God's arm to put him in the right position.

The promise was already made that he would be. We don't know if he knows that. We don't know if Rebecca told anybody and in this family situation I'm not making any guesses because it's a mess. But it looks as if he's trying to manipulate things. So in some ways Esau is just rebellious and foolish and in some ways Jacob's real moral and religious and he's just trying to twist God and make God owe him.

Well we do get a hero in this story. It comes in Romans 9 and at first it doesn't really seem when you read it in Romans 9 very heroic. We'll have it on the screen. It's Paul's writing and he's talking about the nation of Israel. And he says that God chose Abraham out of nowhere and that God chose Isaac over Ishmael and then he says this and not only so not only did he choose Isaac it says but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one man our forefather Isaac though they were not yet born and had done nothing either 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.

So Paul says prior to them coming out and being the people they turned into God says I'm choosing Jacob. And then Paul as he continues this argument he kind of gets to the point and he says this so then it being salvation it being God's grace it being how this works depends not on human will or exertion but on God who has mercy. You see part of us wants there to be a hero if you'll just leave that up part of us wants there to be a hero because we want to be the hero. Like I I want to honestly I like Esau he comes out hairy and lives in the woods and it's like yeah sounds great then he shows up and he's like really hungry and can't see past his face he just wants to eat and I'm like I understand Esau I've felt that.

I've felt that. And then he just seems so foolish and some of you are like no Jacob Jacob he's thinking he's reading reading books and having deep thoughts he's into obscure other writer people and you'll see how much I connect with Jacob but some of you that's what you want that's what you want to see you want to have one of them be the hero you want to have somebody that you go that's who I'm supposed

To emulate that's who I'm supposed to be like I'm going to go I'm going to do this the problem is that we're all like Jacob Jacob and Esau twisted broken like Jacob and Esau we all fall into sin whether we're trying to be good and we're trying to manipulate God or whether we're just can't see past our nose and this is why this is so gracious

Because Jesus is the hero he's the one who shows up and saves sinners Jacob does not get better he doesn't it's not in the next couple chapters are we really going to fall in love with this guy but God has mercy you see what we want is for us to have human will or exertion what we want is to say I'm going to finally do this and for those of you

Who've really tried you understand that that eventually gives out for those of you who've said I'm going to be good now I'm really going to do this I'm going to have willpower for those of you who said alright willpower is over but right now I'm just going to exert myself I'm just going to do enough good things to have God owe me to be in his good grace and what it says is no you don't need that you need mercy

And Ephesians tells us that God is rich in mercy because of the great love that he has for us so that none of us are worth it none of us are worthy none of us are the hero and the real hero of the story has mercy that he dies in our place that he rises again conquering sin and death and hell and Satan all the things that would have destroyed us

And that he by his grace chooses to have mercy on some of us now Romans 10 if you flip the page is going to say that all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved and there will be none who trust in him who will be put to shame Bianca is going to come back up here and here's what I want us to end on here's what I want us to understand you are not the hero and if you think you are

That sounds like bad news at first but for every person who does not feel like a hero to know that there is one that's glorious news you see that's why Jesus didn't get along with the Pharisees he was always arguing with them he was always saying hurtful things at one point he says he's at a meal he says really hurtful things to the Pharisees and one of the scribes says you hurt my feelings too

And it's almost as if he later should have thought I shouldn't have said anything because he just turns and is like I was trying to but let me say some specific scribe things because he's going after the people who think they're the hero the people who think they have it together the people who think they're good enough but every person who rolls up knowing I need a hero you see part of us always wants to be the person in the montage where it's like I need a hero and you're getting

Your crap together sorry your act together I'm going to be good enough I'm going to do it this time I'm going to read enough I'm going to be I'm not going to I'm not going to sleep with them anymore I'm not going to have this happen anymore I'm finally God I'm going to tell you I'm turning over a new leaf and I'm going to this time and I can't tell you how many times I've talked to people who are hanging out with our church and that's what they're saying to me

They're like this time I'm going to get it together and as much as I can graciously possibly say to them no you are not and if you were in here today thinking that this time you're getting it together let me graciously say to you no you are not and you will not and you are not the hero but there is a hero who has mercy and who leads us in triumph and all we have to do is go to him and ask for it there's a song my dad used to sing

To me when we were growing up at night and I sing it to my boys and it's softly and tenderly Jesus is calling and he says he's waiting at the portals of heaven and he says he's calling oh sinner come home and one of the lines in there is why would you linger and heed not his mercy mercy for you and for me you see there's a God who has mercy on sinners and all who call

On him will be saved and all who trust in his name will not be put to shame and there will be a day when they walk forward and are clothed in covered in smothered in mercy that we don't get what we deserve but we get forgiven for our sin and if you're here today and you have not trusted in Jesus for mercy that you are trying will and exertion you are trying to be the hero I want to ask you will you trust

In his mercy will you go to him and ask please God have mercy on me and so if you will I'd like to ask for everybody to start praying right now this is something we don't usually do but if you'll bow your heads and start praying and I just want to ask that if you are in here today and you have not trusted Jesus for his mercy that you would ask him that if you believe that he saves sinners and that you are a sinner that you would confess

Your sin and that you would ask not that he would make you the hero but that he would be the hero for you and that you might trust in his mercy and if you are in here today and you are in Christ I would ask that you once again remember that you were saved by mercy not your good works not your ability to keep it together that you are not the one that brings you to the finish line but Christ is and that you might confess sin and that you might remember

That you are clothed in smothered in mercy and forgiveness not human will or exertion and not good works that you will bring nothing to the table that displays to God that you deserve salvation but that you will bring your sin and receive mercy and if you have never brought Jesus your sin I ask that you would that you would run to the God who is abundant in mercy and grace and forgiveness

And know that every person who stands with the redeemed is redeemed out of sin into forgiveness into mercy into grace and stands there based off of Jesus' work not theirs and that you will be welcomed home in him Lord we ask that you would help us see our sin and that you would help us quickly come to the end of ourselves and know that we have despised you that we have hated

Your word that we wouldn't look at the few parts that we like and say we're doing well but that we would see all the parts that we have run from that we have disregarded and that we would know that we have been your enemies but that you save your enemies that at the right time you died for them and that in ourselves we cannot love you but that through you we can and we ask that your Holy Spirit would draw people to yourself this morning

That they might receive mercy and that they would leave here covered in it never to again try to atone for or fix their own sin in a moment band's gonna come back up here and continue to play and sing and we're gonna take communion which is us remembering that Jesus died that we might not receive what we deserved that he died that we might receive mercy and grace and abundant love and if you are in Christ or if today is the first time

That you've ever run to him and asked for mercy and he will save those who call on him and you will not be put to shame we'd ask for you to take communion for the first time and if you are not in Christ and have not yet received mercy and still think that you are the hero of the story we would ask that you do not take communion because you believe you do not need it but that all those who know they do and know they need a savior and know they need blood to cover them and know that they don't deserve it we pray that we ask that in a moment you would take communion

Joyously celebratorily knowing that you are covered in mercy because Jesus died in your place and he rose again that you might have be justified before God that you might be made right before God that you might be welcome before God we pray Lord that in this next moment that you would redeem that you would call and that all those who are redeemed would celebrate joyously in the mercy that you've offered the grace that you've given

And that we might make much of your name because you are the hero and we are the beneficiaries of your good promise that we like Jacob are tricksters we like Jacob are foolish we like Esau can't see past our nose but that you guard our back and that you bring us to the end in Jesus name Amen during this next song as they sing you're free to take communion when you feel ready

God Fulfills His Promises

God Fulfills His Promises

Chet Phillips

Transcript

Good morning. Grab your Bibles. Go to Genesis chapter 23. We'll be in Genesis chapter 23 and 24. My name is Chet. I am one of the pastors here.

Matt's going to stay up here and play music to make everything seem more dramatic and special. So we are walking through the book of Genesis. And we are today going to kind of close the book on Abraham and Sarah. We're going to end their lives. And, well, we're not. We're just going to read about it.

And we're going to see how the blessing and the promise shifts from them to Isaac and Rebecca. So, if you'll look, we're going to pick up in the beginning of chapter 23. I want to read this and then we'll kind of set the stage for what we're going to be doing today. But I think this helps us understand what we're looking at. Chapter 23, verse 1. Sarah lived 127 years.

These were the years of the life of Sarah. And Sarah died at Kiriath Arba, that is, Hebron, in the land of Canaan. And Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. Okay. So Abraham is about 10 years older than her.

So he is, at this point, about 137. She is 127. And we don't have a good mental grasp as to how old that is and what that looks like. Because if we picture someone who's 127 or 137, the best I could come up with is the guy who used to do the Tales from the Crypt stories. And it's not a good representation. Because what happens with the ages in the book of Genesis is God creates the world new, fresh, perfect.

And then humanity sins. And when we sin, death enters the world. But it seems as if it kind of takes a while for it to fully begin to decay humanity and infiltrate humanity. And so the ages in the Old Testament, in the book of Genesis, start off extremely high. 400, 500, 900 years. And then they work their way down to by the end of the book of Genesis, we're kind of where we are.

In 80 is a good, right age. It's almost like the humanity kind of drops off the healthiness, the vivaciousness. And then eventually it kind of settles out and we hit kind of a homeostasis. We kind of hit an even path. And so at 127, we would say, goodness. Like that, that is extremely old.

But he ends up living to 175. So he lives for 40 years after this. And so she was old. The Bible treats her that way, speaks of her that way. But she wasn't what 127 would be for us.

So, but here's what happens. She passes. And this is the only female in the Bible that we are given her age at passing. This is showing her great honor. That Sarah, the mother of Isaac, the mother of Israel, is honored here. And here's what we're going to look at.

We're going to read chapter 23 and 24. And I want you to jump to the end of chapter 24 so that we can understand what's going on here. Because they seem, in some ways, like two separate stories. But at the end of chapter 24, in verse 66, verse 67, it says, Then Isaac brought her, that's Rebekah. We'll read about her in a minute. Into the tent of Sarah, his mother.

And took Rebekah. And she became his wife. And he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother's death. So the beginning of chapter 23 starts off with the death of Sarah.

And the end of chapter 24 kind of bookends with the death of Sarah. And how Isaac moved on. That Sarah's tent was still there. But Sarah didn't live there any longer. But it stood as this vacant.

Maybe Isaac lived in it. But it was still considered Sarah's tent. It stands as this vacancy. And this cloud of grief is over these two chapters. And the chapter 23 and the end of chapter 24 are about three years apart. So that this season of Isaac missing his mother.

And this season of the noticeable lack of Sarah is a long time. And so what we want to, as we study this chapter, the question we're going to ask and what we're going to try to learn from this is, How do we move forward in grief? When we have buried a loved one. When we have stood, prayed, wept by a graveside. When we go back and it feels like this is still Sarah's house. But Sarah's not here.

How do we move forward? How do we walk in that? And if you'll see, as this is in life, There are things that business kind of things that have to be taken care of. There are seasons of weeping. There are seasons of longing. There are seasons of good things as we look through these two chapters.

But that's the question we're asking, Is how do we learn from them and how to move forward in grief? So let's pray and then we'll read this together. God, we thank you for how good you are. And we pray that we would honor you as we study your word. And that we might worship Jesus this morning. As we see him revealed to us in your word.

And revealed to us through how you interacted with the first people that you called. To begin to fulfill this promise. In Jesus' name, amen. So in the book of Genesis, it starts off good. Humanity rebels and God comes in and he promises right at the beginning that Satan's not going to win. Sin's not going to win.

Death's not going to win. That there's going to be an offspring that comes from Eve. That's going to right this wrong. And then everything gets worse. And then there's a flood. And God resets it with Noah.

And then everything gets worse again. And then he goes to Abraham and he basically says, Come, I'm going to make you into a people. I'm going to give you a land. And eventually this promised offspring is going to come through you. And that promise would not be carried out through anyone other than Sarah. So Sarah is this promised mother to this promised offspring, to this promised blessing.

And so Sarah passes. It says, Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. So it's not just mourning, but he's also weeping. Meaning that mourning is a practice that you would do to honor the dead. But he actually weeps as well.

Meaning that he loved her. This hurt him. I don't think he was shaken by this as far as his faith. I don't think that he was crushed by this as far as how could God let this happen. She was older. That God had already provided the promise through her for Isaac.

But he was hurt. He was sad. It says, he went in to mourn for her and to weep for her. And Abraham rose up from before his dead and said to the Hittites, I am a sojourner and foreigner among you. Give me property among you for a burying place that I may bury my dead out of my sight. The Hittites answered, Abraham, hear us, my Lord.

You are a prince of God among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of tombs. None of us will withhold from you his tomb to hinder you from burying your dead. Abraham rose and bowed to the Hittites, the people of the land. The next part of this chapter, really most of this chapter, is given over to this transaction that takes place. So it says he rises up from his dead and he goes to the Hittites.

And it calls them repeatedly the people of the land. And his intro to them is, I am a sojourner and a foreigner among you. I have no land that is my own. He's nomadic. They travel around, but none of it really belongs to him. And he says, I need a place to bury my dead.

What he's asking for is a permanent place. Not a temporary place, but a permanent place to bury his dead. Now, it's interesting because you would usually bury your dead among their ancestors. This is actually a prime time for Abraham to just say, let's go home. Let's wrap it up.

Let's head back. Let's go bury her among our people. But he doesn't do that. He actually says she'll be the first buried among future people. Not the most recent buried among past people. He is leaning into the promise that God has given that they are the beginning of a nation.

And so he says that she needs a place that's a permanent place for her to be buried. And so she goes to the Hittites. And he says, I'm a foreigner among you, meaning they don't really have to sell him anything. He's coming humbly. He's also telling us how he understands himself. He's lived here for 60 years.

He still does not feel at home here. This is not his place. He is a nomad. And it calls the Hittites, the people of the land, the people of the land, the people of the land. Now, we're a pretty mobile society. One of the things we ask people when you first meet them is, oh, where are you from?

Because we just assume, not Colombia. And if they say, then we're like, oh, wow. Neat. What's that like? Like we just kind of assume a lot of times, and that's fine. It's not wrong to be from here, but it's just assumed that people travel around.

Now, for me, I don't know if y'all can tell this, I am white. And when I travel around in the U.S., most everything kind of feels at home to me. But there are certain people that come from minority groups or minority groups in the U.S. And maybe you understand a little more, can feel a little more what he's talking about here, what he feels. Because it's actually when you are the minority in a situation, you notice your minority status way more than the people of a majority status notice their majority status. Does that make sense?

So when I would hang out with only the African-American guys on my football team, I never noticed how white I was until those moments. And then it was like my whiteness felt like it was like I felt like I stood out. Because I wasn't catching all the references. I wasn't getting all the jokes. There were things they were saying and I was like, yeah, what? And so that's what he's saying is that he feels his I'm not of this people.

He feels it. And so he goes to the people of the land and he says, well, y'all sell me some land. And they say very graciously, no one will withhold from you a place to bury your death. But he doesn't want a borrowed tomb. He wants a purchased tomb. So what it says he does is he stands up and he bows down and he stands back up and he says.

Oh, and now I guess he sits back down because this is how business was done. And he says, please ask Ephraim, the son of Zohar, to sell me his cave that's at the back end of a field in Machpelah. Ephraim is there. So Ephraim says, I give you the cave. You can just have it. Abraham stands up.

He bows down. There's actually some interesting things in the Hebrew here where they consistently say, hear me, hear me, hear me. That's how they start things. Abraham doesn't start things that way until halfway through. He starts realizing this is how you're supposed to say it. So he'll start with his way and then he'll go and also hear me because he's trying to learn how you're supposed to do this.

It seems he's trying to incorporate what they're doing. But he stands back up, bows back down and says, thank you. I'll pay you for it. Now, we don't exactly know. So here's why it matters.

If he doesn't pay for it, it's borrowed. Eventually, after decomposition happens, after some number of some amount of time, some number of years, they can just take the cave back. They can move Sarah. They can use the cave for their own purposes. It won't be his. They would honor him by letting him use it, but it wouldn't be his forever.

And he wants something that's his forever. It's also possible Ephraim was just doing what they normally do, which is pretend to give it, but really have the intent of selling it. We don't really know, but that is still common today. I was asking Ben Johnson, who lived in Lebanon. I asked him, is that a thing they do? And he said, yes.

He said he actually, a couple of things he told me was, one, and he had to learn this, they will invite you to dinner, but they have to invite you three times for it to be real. So if you go visit someone, they'll say, oh, please stay for dinner. And you're supposed to say, no, no, no, I'm not hungry. I don't want to, or something, some nice response. Your house doesn't seem like I'd want to eat the food here, something like that. And then they say, please stay for dinner.

And then you say, no, no, no, no. And then they say, please stay for dinner. And on the third one, that means I'd really actually like for you to stay for dinner. Now, Ben is from Georgia, the Georgia in the U.S., not the Georgia over there. And so he did not know this. And so he would show up to someone's house and they would say, would you please stay for dinner?

And he'd go, all right, I will. And they were like, super, super rude guy. It just took me over there. I had no plans on him staying. He had to learn. He also said that they would still do the, oh, oh, don't worry.

I'll just give it to you for free. What happens is Abraham says, thank you for giving me this for free. And he says, but I'll pay you for it. And Ephraim responds, listen, what is a little field worth 400 shekels between me and you? And it says that Abraham listened to him and he weighs out the weight and he pays for it. So that Ephraim slides in there, oh, money between us, what's 400 shekels?

Like he just slides it in there like this isn't how this would work at a car dealership here. I'd like to buy this truck. I'll give you the truck. No, no, no. Let me pay for it. What's a truck worth $19,999 between us?

It was 0% financing for five years. Like we wouldn't do this, but he's been said they still do this in Lebanon that he actually left a restaurant one time, forgot to pay, came back and said, I forgot to pay. And they said, oh, I give it to you. It's free. And he said, no, no, no. I want to pay.

And he said, what's $15 between friends like us? So he was like, oh, okay, $15. Here you go. Which I, you know, when I, if I ever get to go visit, I'm just gonna be like, thanks. That's so nice. And just walk off.

I'm not gonna be there for that long, you know? So he buys the land. And then in verse 17, it says this. So the field of Ephron in Machpelah, which was in, which was to the east of Mamre, the field with the cave that was in it and all the trees that were in the field throughout its whole area was made over to Abraham as a possession in the presence of the Hittites before all who went in at the gate of his city. After this, Abraham buried Sarah, his wife, in the cave of the field of Machpelah, east of Mamre, that is, Hebron, in the land of Canaan. The field and the cave that is in it were made over to Abraham as property for a burying place by the Hittites.

Now that overdoes and overemphasizes where the field is, who it was sold from, where it was sold, who were the witnesses, who bought it, who's definitely bought. It's his. Which field? The field that used to belong to Ephron, son of Zohar in Machpelah. The field and all the trees and the cave is east of Mamre. Like it overdoes this.

And every time it brings it up, it does it again. And what is happening here is it is showing us that for the first time, Abraham and his descendants own a piece of the promised land. It's not a big piece of the promised land, but they own a piece of the promise. That Abraham, when Sarah died, did not say, let's go back. He said, let's go forward. Let's lean into the promise that God has made.

And let's see some of this begin to be fulfilled. And that's what happens. And so they bury Sarah. Now. Sorry, that was my now, but the first word is now. Now Abraham was old, well advanced in years.

And the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. And Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household, who had charge of all that he had. So this isn't Isaac, although Isaac's 37 ish, 40 years old, right around now, he's not in charge of everything. The servant is. He brings him in and he says, put your hand under my thigh. That I may make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I dwell, but you will go to my country and to my kindred and take a wife for my son, Isaac.

Like the servant said to him, perhaps the woman will may not be willing to follow me to this land. Must I then take your son back to the land from which he came from which you came? So Abraham's getting older and he's setting his affairs in order and we're seeing how he's leaning into the promises that God has given. So the first thing that he does is he acquires land to honor his wife, to bury his wife and to have a place for her forever in this land that God promised them. And now he's trying to work out getting a wife for Isaac. It's a little bit interesting that Isaac is not a part of this, but at the end of chapter 24, we find out that he needed to still be comforted at the loss of his mother.

And it's possible that Isaac was sad and wasn't handling things very well right now. It's possible. I'm reading that bit into the text. We know that he was still three years later. It was only after he marries Rebecca that it says that he's comforted. And he's the only guy that we have in the Bible that is not kind of immediately connected to the finding of his own wife.

So there are females whose dads kind of hand them over, but everywhere else we have a male, he's involved in some form or fashion. And Isaac is just hanging out and then gets a wife. Some of you think that's what will happen for you and best of luck to you. Sorry, that was mean. I shouldn't have said that. So we see, though, the servant has a very particular question.

It's a helpful question. He says, hold on. If she won't come, is Isaac to leave? That's an interesting question. It's a helpful question because he's saying, you know, I kind of understand the promises. I kind of understand the blessing.

Are we retreating on that to get Isaac a wife? If she won't come because it's far away, he says, does Isaac leave? We should all hold our breath for a second. And he says in verse 6, Abraham said to him, See to it that you do not take my son back there, the Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father's house and from the land of my kiddred and who spoke to me and swore to me to your offspring, I will give this land. He will send his angel before you and you shall take a wife for my son from there. But if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be free from this oath of mine.

Only you must not take my son back there. So the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham, his master, and swore to him concerning this matter. There's been some research done on why he had to put his hand under his thigh. The general consensus is just it was very intimate and it meant a solemn oath. That Abraham makes him promise in that way that he wouldn't forget and that it was a very solemn oath. But he says if she won't come, you're not in trouble.

You can come back. You're just not allowed to take Isaac there. But we see what Abraham is doing is he's leaning into the promises that God already gave him. He says the God of heaven told me that I'm going to give you this land to your descendants forever. And so Abraham says, I'm getting old. I've got a piece of the land.

We're in the land. We're not leaving the land. But we're going to have to have descendants here. And Isaac isn't married, so we need to find Isaac a wife. And the Canaanites are not a part of that. As best Abraham can tell, the Canaanites are going to be pushed out later because God tells him that in chapter 13 that they're going to be in chapter 15 that his descendants are going to be slaves in Egypt, but they're going to come back and they're going to push out all the people that live in this region.

And Abraham says, no, you've got to go find a wife from our people. That's how the bloodline continues. That's how the promise continues. And that's how we have a people to possess this land. So Abraham's just leaning into what God already told him.

The servant took 10 of his master's camels and departed, taking all sorts of choice gifts from his master. And he arose and went to Mesopotamia to the city of Nahor. Now that was about 500 miles away. It's one of the reasons why he takes camels because they travel a little better. It would have taken 21 days to a month or so to get there. He takes 10 camels, which is to show us something.

Well, it shows us something. He actually took them. It wasn't just written in there to show us something, but it shows us something, which is that Abraham was wealthy because camels weren't that common. And to have 10 of them and a bunch of people to send with a bunch of choice gifts, he looked like Aladdin rolling up in the Disney movie to Agrabah. He had a lot going on with him when he went. So, and he made the camels, this is verse 11, he made the camels kneel down outside the city by the well of water at the time of evening, the time when women go out to draw water.

And he said, Oh Lord, God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today and show steadfast love to my master Abraham. Behold, I am standing by the spring of water and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water. Let the young woman to whom I shall say, please let down your jar that I may drink. And who shall say, drink and I will water your camels. Let her be the one whom you have appointed for your servant, Isaac. By this I shall know that you have shown steadfast love to my master.

So here's what he does. He shows up, he gets to the city, but it's a city. Now it says it's the city of Nahor, which means this is where the guy lives. We're not necessarily sure it was named after him. It's just like he made it to where he lives. And so he shows up where he used to live and where Abraham's descendants were.

Nahor was his Abraham's brother. And he just sits out by the well where all of the women of the city, the unmarried women of the city would come out in the evening to draw water. And he just prays, Lord, please be good to my master. And I'm going to go over and I'm going to ask one of the ladies to give me some water. And if she gives me some water and then she offers on her own to water my camels, let that be the one that's supposed to marry Isaac. Now I do periodically have people ask me, does the Bible give helpful dating advice?

It doesn't give a lot, but if you want some from this passage, get your dad to send one of his friends to a well at one of your family reunions and pick up one of your cousins for you. Now what he was doing, I'll give you a second to write that down. What he was doing was he was going to the place where the type of woman who would be marriable for Isaac was. And he was seeking the Lord's wisdom in it. So if you want to steal a little bit, take that part.

Seek to actually find someone who is genuinely godly and marriable and pray for the Lord's wisdom and help and do it in an honorable way. Before he had finished speaking, Behold, Rebekah, who was born to Bethuel, the son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor. So Abraham and Nahor are brothers. This is Abraham's grandniece. Great niece. Yeah, grandniece.

Abraham's brother came out with her water jar on her shoulder. The young woman was very attractive in appearance. A maiden, that means she's young, whom no man had known. That means she was never married, has never slept with anybody. She went down to the spring. The author's telling us that.

He wouldn't have been able to pick up all of that from just seeing her. What he saw, I guess, was that she was very attractive. Then the servant went to meet her, ran to meet her and said, Please give me a little water to drink from your jar. And she said, Drink, my Lord. And she quickly let down her jar upon her hand and gave him a drink. When she had finished giving him a drink, she said, I will draw water for your camels also until they have finished drinking.

So she quickly emptied her jar into the trough and ran again to the well to draw water. And she drew for all his camels. The man gazed at her in silence to learn whether the Lord had prospered his journey or not. Okay. If we lived in this time frame, we would be so blown away right now. Camels can drink about 40 gallons of water if they're running on empty.

There were 10 camels, which means that it's up to possible that she drew 400 gallons of water. Which, if this is a 5-gallon bucket, that's 80 trips, y'all. That'd be like if I said, I'm moving into a new neighborhood, and I'm praying that the Lord would send someone, my neighbors, to come over and ask me when they see the moving truck if they can help me move. And this will be my new best friend in the neighborhood. And then I told you, they showed up. And you know what they said to me?

Back up. I'll get that piano by myself. And then they carried it up the stairs by themselves. We'd all go, all right, I know some things about this person now. Or you have a small piano. Or this person is humongous.

Like, that's what I learned. And what we just learned from her by her being, not her volunteering. It would be kind and nice for her to give him a drink. But for her volunteering, I'm going to water all your camels until they're done drinking. And she does it. He watched her for a long time.

And she diligently, over and above in generosity, served him and his men. We should be just like, oh, wow. Like, we just learned some things about Rebecca if you knew things about camels. So, he watches. Then it says, When the camels had finished drinking, the man took a gold ring, weighing a half shekel and two bracelets for her arms, weighing ten gold shekels, and said, Please tell me whose daughter you are.

Is there room in your father's house for us to spend the night? She said to him, I am the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Milcah, whom she bore to Nahor. She added, We have plenty of both straw and fodder and room to spend the night. And the man bowed his head and worshipped the Lord and said, Blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his steadfast love and his faithfulness toward my master. As for me, the Lord has led me in the way to the house of my master's kinsmen. Then the young woman ran and told her mother's household about these things.

In their mindset, most gods don't travel well. You have gods of locations. Abraham consistently says, the God, the God of heaven and the God of earth. Not the God of this land. Not the God of that land. Not the God of the river.

Not the God of this particular thing, grain and wine. No, he says the God of heaven and the God of earth. And he travels 500 miles and he prays, God, continue to be steadfast to my master. Not quite sure. I don't know how devout this guy was. We know that he's praying in his heart.

But I'm sure there's a little bit of like, are you here? It turns out he is. Abraham's description was good. Heaven and earth. All of it. And so Rebecca goes and it says, verse 29.

Rebecca had a brother whose name was Laban. Laban ran out toward the man to the spring. As soon as he saw the ring and the bracelets on his sister's arms and heard the words of Rebecca, her sister. Thus the man spoke to me. So she has a brother named Laban.

Laban runs out there when he sees the gold. Now, this would have been, I think, a bit if they were paying attention to how long she was gone, I think it took a little while to water the camels. So they're like, man, she's taking a long time. She rolls back up, blinged out with things that I don't know if they can afford or not, but she wasn't wearing them when she left. It's an odd trip to them. And then she says, I just watered a guy who has 10 camels.

And they said, 10 what now? And Laban looked at the rings and stuff and said, I'm going to meet this guy. And he just trots on outside. So he goes over and he says, come on in, come on in. Like, you know, they're welcoming him. They're being hospitable and generous.

But it's also like, who is this guy? What is happening here? So they bring him inside and they say, come, sit, eat. And he says, he actually kind of breaks protocol. He says, no, I'm not eating anything until I say all the stuff I have to say. And they say, say it.

And so he retells the entire story we just read. The chapter is basically written out in duplicate. He highlights some different things. He points out some different things. But he retells the whole story.

He says, my master Abraham called me into him and he told me to promise. Oh, first he starts off with who Abraham is. I'm his servant. I'm following him. And he is very wealthy. He says, he has camels and donkeys, gold and silver, maidservants, menservants.

God has blessed him richly. And he has a son whom Sarah bore to him in her old age. I think he's gassing Isaac up a little bit. He says, God's, he said, Abraham's going to leave everything to him. So he says, I'm here representing Abraham who's super blessed, very rich, who has one son.

And he highlights that Sarah bore him in his old age. And that's very helpful because Nahor is Bethuel's father. Which would mean that if Isaac was born about the same time as Bethuel, he would be saying to Sarah, to Rebecca, I know a guy who's as old as your dad. And given the age gaps here, that could be a big gap. So he's like, he was born when Sarah was really, really old.

So he's saying closer in age to you. He's just highlighting that out and he's saying, and God and Abraham's going to bless him with everything that he has. And Abraham made me swear to come here and find him a wife. So at this point, I'm sure the story was like, oh. And then it gets deeper because he says, and so I showed up and I prayed that the lady I asked to give me a drink of water would not only give me a drink, but would offer to water my camels. At that point, they were all like, oh, she's going to, oh, no, that just happened.

That's what I did. And then he says, he ends with this. He tells the whole story. And then he says. He tells him, before I'd finished speaking, she showed up. We did this.

She did this exactly. And then he goes to verse 49. Now then, if you are going to show steadfast love and faithfulness to my master, tell me. And if not, tell me that I may turn to the right hand or to the left. He tells his whole story. He says, it seems as if God's at work here.

It seems as if this was planned. He tells him specifically. Abraham told me if she didn't come with me, I'm not in trouble. So he's like, this is on y'all. You don't have to feel bad for me. He lays this all out.

And he says, now tell me, are you going to show steadfast love to my master or not? Because I've got to go one way or the other. And I don't think he's necessarily meaning I've got to go home. I think he's also meaning I'm here to find someone who belongs here who's willing to go with me back. So if you don't want to marry him, although it seems like maybe you should, I'm just throwing that in there.

If you don't want to, I'm going to go somewhere else. Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said, the thing has come from the Lord. We cannot speak to you bad or good. What they're saying there is it's not up to us. We're not going to do a pros and cons list if God's leading in this. Behold, Rebecca is before you.

Take her and go. Let her be the wife of your master's son as the Lord has spoken. When Abraham's servant heard these words, he bowed himself to the earth before the Lord. You see how much this guy loves the Lord. He's constantly praying to him. And every moment when he gets a chance, he's just thanking him.

And finally, it just works. It worked out. And he just lays down on the earth just before the Lord. And it says, the servant brought out jewelry of silver and gold and garments and gave them to Rebecca. He also gave to her brother and to her mother costly ornaments. And he and the men who were with him ate and drank and spent the night there.

When they rose in the morning, he said to them, send me away to my master. Her brother and her mother said, let the young woman remain with us for a while, at least 10 days. After that, she may go. They basically just said, at least 10 days, maybe longer. She needs to stay for a little while. We can't like he just showed up that night.

She just fed your camels last night. We're not. She's not leaving right now. But he said to them, do not delay me since the Lord has prospered my way. Send me away that I may go to my master. And they said, let us call the young woman and ask her.

They called Rebecca and said to her, will you go with this man? And she said, I will go. This also shows us some things about Rebecca here. First of all, they said, let's ask her. That doesn't always happen in this culture. You saw that her dad and brother got to pick whether or not she would marry him.

But now they're saying, hey, come here. Are you willing to do this? And she, like Sarah before her and like Mary after her, is willing to step out in faith where she feels like the Lord is moving. And so she says, I will go. So they sent away Rebecca, their sister and her nurse and Abraham's servant and his men.

And they blessed Rebecca and said to her, our sister, may you become thousands of ten thousands. And may your offspring possess the gate of those who hate him. They bless her before she leaves. And we know that that blessing comes true because God's already promised to bless this family and to bless the seed of Isaac. And so they leave. And what we see in these two chapters are two beautiful pictures of this promise stepping forward.

That God says, I'm going to bless you with people to possess this land. And both of those step forward in that Abraham, in his waning moments, leans into what God has promised. Believes and trusts what God has promised. And it's taken us a while to get here for Abraham. I believe fully as he was going to sacrifice Isaac, he was trusting the Lord fully. And we see after that, he doesn't waver.

He knows this is what's happening. He says, you don't take Isaac back. He stays here. We're going to own this land. We're going to lean into this. And he trusts the promise.

Now, Isaac had returned from Be'er, Laha, Roy, and was dwelling in the Negev. And Isaac went out to meditate in the field toward evening. He didn't have a wife and kids at this point. He had a lot of free time on his hands. So he's just getting to sit out there by himself and think.

And he lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold, there were camels coming. And Rebecca lifted up her eyes. And when she saw Isaac, she dismounted from the camel. It's a sign of respect. And she said to the servant, who is that man walking in the field to meet us? And the servant said, it is my master.

So she took her veil and covered herself. And the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. Then Isaac brought her into the tent of Sarah, his mother, and took Rebecca. And she became his wife. And he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother's death.

And so what we learn, Isaac was 40 when he married her. So this is about two to three years after his mother passed. He takes her into Sarah's tent. It was still Sarah's tent. And what we see is the transition of matriarchy from Sarah to Rebecca. And the story shifts from Abraham and Sarah to Isaac and Rebecca.

Because God's promise is going to continue. And we see this beautiful transition and handoff. In this time of grieving, in this time of sorrow, and in this time of pain, Abraham, and through his leadership, Isaac, lean into the promises that God had already laid out. They trust him that they can move forward. Rather than retreating, Hebrews 11 says that if they had been looking for an opportunity to return, they would have found one. They had been looking to go back home.

They could have found an opportunity. There was plenty before them. But they trusted and walked out in faith, even though they only saw the promises from afar. And so that's what we see. I want to tell you something beautiful that happens here as we carry this story out. First, Isaac and Rebecca have children, and the promise continues.

They give birth to Jacob, who's renamed Israel, who gives parentage to all the tribes of Israel, and out of them directly comes this entire people. We actually begin to see in Genesis some of the promises fulfilled, where they're going to be a blessing to the nations, and ultimately a blessing to all the nations through Christ. And Sarah's tomb becomes the first flag planted in the ground in the promised land that they all look to. Moses is the one who's writing this, and he's writing it to a people out of the Exodus, wandering in the wilderness, headed to the promised land. And do you know why he overemphasizes this field, why he overemphasizes this cave?

He's pointing out to the people of Israel as they read this, at the very first readers of this text, that we still own land that was never sold back. That there's a cave that houses the bones of our ancestors that was claimed by the death of Sarah. Chapter 25, verse 7 says that Abraham died, and he was buried there. We're told later that Isaac and Rebecca die, and they're buried there. That Leah dies, she's buried there. That Jacob dies, he dies in Egypt.

And he says, don't you bury me here. He says, cart me on back. I'm getting buried at the field. And he says, Ephron, son of Zohar, who Abraham bought from the Hittite. He lays it all out again. He says, you bury me there.

And the people of Israel had this tomb that they looked to for their hope and for the beginning of the fulfillment of the promises, that this people of this bloodline could look at that tomb forever. Remember, that by her death, Sarah moves the covenant forward and that through the suffering, we see that there was purpose. And church, we have a better tomb to look to. Not filled with the bones of ancestors, scandalously, outrageously empty. That there is a tomb that in the midst of our grief and in the midst of our cloudy, tear-filled eyes that we can gaze upon when we can't see an inch in front of our faces, we can look backwards to a tomb where the God of the universe walked out in a hope-filled resurrection to assure for us that the promises are forever ours, claimed by him through his suffering and his death, and that we know as Christians that there is purpose and hope in the midst of suffering.

That death does not win. That grief does not conquer. That as the people of Israel looked to this tomb as a stake in the ground, as the place where the flag was planted, that they knew that they could hold on to, that God would fulfill these promises, that their bloodline would continue, we of a new bloodline given to us through the blood of Christ have a better tomb to look to in the midst of heartache and pain. So that our faith can move forward when we can't see anything else. We can trust that he's good, that he loves us, that what has rocked us and changed the nature of our lives won't ultimately win, and won't ultimately conquer us.

Matt's going to come back up here. As we close out our time, I want to show you where 1 Peter talks about this. Peter talking about this says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again. Meaning that we have a new bloodline through the blood of Christ, that we are in this lineage. Not just sons of Abraham through faith, but sons of God through the blood of Christ, through the adoption given to us through the atonement.

Born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. So that when we don't know what tomorrow will look like, and we don't know whether we'll be able to get out of bed, and we don't know if we'll be able to make it to work, and we don't know if we'll be able to utter a word without our face distorting and tears running down our face, we know what the ultimate tomorrow will look like. We know that we have an inheritance that is more beautiful than this promised land, that is more eternally secured, a tomb that is empty, that marks forever our hope, because Jesus rose from the grave will rise. And so we look to Him in hope and in longing, and we know that in the midst of everything, we can move forward.

That we can put one foot in front of the other, holding on to the fact that eventually grief doesn't win. We won't be swallowed up in death, but we'll be swallowed up in the victory of the resurrection of Christ. For those of us who have repented and placed our faith in Jesus, this is imperishably, undeniably, irrevocably true. And if you're in here this morning, and you are in the midst of a season of grief, I would encourage you to look at Jesus walking out of the tomb. to stare as best you can into that truth, so that you might be reminded that this won't win, that He's good and He loves you.

And if you're in here today and you don't know Christ, you do not know what I'm talking about. And you do not have this as a reality, but you can. If you'll run to Him and place your faith in Him and say, I want that and I need that, and I need you to change my heart, I need you to save my soul, He will because He saves us based off of His good work, not ours. And I would encourage you to do that today. In a minute, Matt's going to begin to sing. We can sing with him.

We're also going to take communion together as a church, which is where we take bread and the cup, and we remind ourselves of Jesus' broken body and His blood shed on our behalf, that we might have life and freedom and hope, that He conquered death for us so that we don't have to die in hopelessness, but that we get to be buried in hope of a resurrection and a life with Him. If you're a Christian, I would encourage you to spend some time praying, repenting where you need to repent, reminding yourself of His goodness, and then taking communion. And if you're not a believer, this is for believers, it's not for you, so we'd encourage you to pray and to sing and place your faith in Jesus if you never have. Let's pray.

God, we thank You for Your grace. Thank You for the hope that we have through the cross and the resurrection, that we are brothers and sisters in a new bloodline, that we are brothers and sisters of an empty tomb, and that our hope is forever secure because it's a living hope through the power of the resurrection of Christ. In Jesus' name, Amen.