April 1, 2007

Gen 25: 27 -34

As we approach this we need to remember that Before the birth of these two boys, Rebekah had asked God about the reason for the turmoil inside of her, God had told her that there were two nations inside her and then he told her this: The elder shall serve the younger. But as the story unfolds we will see it as a tale of deception and not of trust.

I see it coming already because I know the story. I see the sadness of a divided family, the pain of a betrayed dad, and the guilt of a sneaky son, all because the promise of God was not taken at face value. Like their forbears, the players tried to write their own script and even though it all ended the way God said it would, the path was a path of sorrow and deceit.

I have to pause here and be amazed a bit. I need to point out the wonder of a most merciful God. A God who doesn’t just strike them all dead and create a new and sinless people...but then I remember that that is just what he did. He really did strike us all dead and recreate a people that were not bound under sin. On the cross the Holy Spotless Lamb of God remade those who died with him, in him. Oh the great wonder of it. The mercy of God is something that we have not even begun to understand, If we got a TINY glimpse of it, we would be so filled with awe and amazement and a desire to live to Honor that “God of all grace.”

Ps 86:5 For thou, Lord, [art] good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.(see also v.15), ,Psalm 103: 2 -18.

That little aside is what we need to remind ourselves of constantly. we need to have it pounded into our heads and hearts that it is as the prophet wrote in Lam.3 21 -23This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. [It is of] the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. [They are] new every morning: great [is] thy faithfulness.

Now having said that, lets look at the text before us and see the Birthright despised.

In looking over the Book of Genesis-with its accounts of creation and its records of the lives of Abraham and Joseph-we could easily think that this little blurb we are looking at might be rather insignificant in the scheme of things.

This little account o Isaac and the twins might be considered as an intermission between exciting events. But the rest of scripture places a great deal of significance on this Genesis account of Isaac and his two sons.

We saw last time an example of this from Romans 9:6-12 as we examined the sovereign grace of God in our salvation with this passage as its base.

The same thing happens with the account of Esau’s sale of his birthright to Jacob. The writer of Hebrews in his discussion of the continuance of those who are people of faith in the New Testament alludes to this passage with a stern warning.” See that no man misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterwards, as you know, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears” (Heb.12:15-17).

This reference to Esau is a warning that those who despise God’s grace are in danger of forever forfeiting the privilege of experiencing His blessing.

What Good is the birthright?

Esau could be described as a man’s man. He was tall, good looking and skillful and a great outdoorsman who spent his time hunting game. Isaac loved Esau more than Jacob and had a great taste for the wild game that this macho son of his could find.(v.28) and it seemed that Isaac may have lacked these tendencies and admired them in this wild , manly son of His.

One day Esau came in from the open countryside, exhausted and hungry. There was Jacob, the domestic son, cooking some red stew. “Quick, let me have some of that stew, I am famished.

Jacob said he could have it if he sold him his birthright.

In this culture we have nothing quite like this birthright. In today’s culture a man or woman makes a will and the disposition of their goods and properties is decided upon based on that will. You may be angered at a child and leave him or her out of that will if you so choose. But in the Jewish and also the Roman scheme of things, disposition of estate was NOT left to the father. The property was bequeathed to the sons at his death, the daughters inherited nothing unless there was no son.(Gen 31:14,Num.27:8).

Now you may recall it was a notable occasion when Job gave his daughters equal inheritance with his sons; that was very unusual. In Deut. 21:17 I Chron 5: 1 -2, we see that the one who got the birthright generally got a double portion of Daddy’s goods. But this one also became the head of the family and the spiritual leader of His family. In Jacob’s case the birthright included the blessing of being in the line that was to produce messiah. Jacob was right to desire the birthright. He was wrong to scheme to get it. all he had to do was wait on God and it would have been his by promise. Jacob sought a good thing in a bad way.

We cannot praise his method; we can praise his esteem for this honor. In this respect Esau shows up poorly! From a human viewpoint (not from God’s) the birthright was his. Certainly his father wanted him to have it.

But Esau thought so little of these spiritual advantages that he literally threw this birthright away.

“Look, I am about to die, what good is that birthright to me?”

So Jacob whose name means “heel holder, or supplanter (we’d say usurper, and swindler if we described these things today) made Esau swear an oath, selling His birthright to him. Then he gave him some bread and lentil stew.

The next words are meant to be distasteful as they describe Esau’s crude materialistic nature: He ate and drank and then got up and left.” The passage soberly concludes “and so Esau despised His birthright (v34).

Eat drink and be merry. That is a good description of the character of Esau and of the philosophy that allowed him to let spiritual matters slip aside. It probably is an apt description of our own age, and even of many found within the church.

Esau was no heathen. He was not the son of Abimelech of Phillistia, or of the King of Sodom. He was a grandson of the great patriarch Abraham, and Isaac, the child of promise was his dad.

If anyone was raised with an abundance of spiritual knowledge and advantages it was this guy. But he sold his birthright for a mess of stew. We sadly see this happening today to many though they have a deep and prolonged exposure to the message of Christ.

Are you one of those? Are you despising your birthright? Choosing instead the savory but passing pottage of this world? If you have not committed your life to Christ fully and are not going on with him with all your strength then you are doing just what Esau (whom the writer of Hebrews calls godless) is doing here.

Let me refresh your memories as to what you are forfeiting here.

You forfeit the benefit of Jesus death.

Esau was forfeiting this too. In his case we can find a measure of excuse. The Messiah was still to come. He had been foretold in Gen 3:15 as the seed of the woman, and to Abraham in Gen 22:18 cf Gal 3:16 ) but these were not detailed. Besides the coming of Christ which would clarify these promises, was nearly 2000 years away.

Esau might be excused in some measure for his blindness. This would not be true of someone today. Christ HAS come. People have known of that coming for 2000 years. What began as a small movement in a tiny corner of the Roman Empire has spread over the entire globe. Your knowledge of Christ and of this faith are due in part to the fact that you live in these days. Do not discount that...do not sell the privilege of heaven’s best for a secular worldly bowl of hot stew.

Second if you have not fully committed yourself to Christ and begun to go on with him with all your strength, you are forfeiting the benefits of God’s written word the Bible. You probably are not studying it. You are not praying over it, and not laying up its truths in your heart.

I wonder if you can learn to appreciate that treasure. Esau had no Bible; these truths were handed down and were not written until many years later. 5 centuries later to be exact. Abraham had no Bible, Isaac had no Bible, Joseph had no Bible even Moses as the first writer only had his writings, no Psalms yet, no prophetic books, and no new testament.

But In this day, the Bible is as common as the grass. It is on sale in every bookstore in our land almost. You can buy it in a ton of versions and languages from the stately majestic KJV to the common Living bible.

You can buy study books and commentaries encyclopedias . . . you name it. . .no people of the entire human history have had more of this book than we have. . .do you despise it. . . . do you have no time for God’s word?

This Is God’s gracious communication with sinful men and women, and if you despise it and is message . . . are you godly?

IIf you are a true child of God then Jesus says you will hear his voice, and follow him. Don’t become jaded and despise this god perfect word.

The third benefit you despise by refusing the grace of God may be the benefit of gospel preaching if you are not committed to Christ. Esau had no preaching except Isaac’s. Uttered from his very limited knowledge, the inadequate knowledge he had. I say inadequate because these guys never had the chance to hear even half as good a sermon as you can hear on the radio any day of the week. You can find, any time, a program in which the Bible is taught; the way of salvation presented through faith in the crucified Christ.

What do you think God is going to say to a people who live in a country like this with all the benefits we have and yet treat that high privilege so lightly? What do you think he will say when we’d rather watch soaps and sitcoms with their immorality and contempt for the holy law of God, than read the word or listen to a sermon?

Will God overlook the contempt the unsaved of America have for spiritual things? Listen, do not harden your heat against these things, there may come a day when Like Esau you seek for them with bitter tears . . . but are unable to find them.

The fourth thing you are despising if you have not fully committed to Christ is the ministry of the body. With all its problems and trials and imperfections, the church is still the only boat afloat.

Esau had NO church, no synagogue...so he might have some excuse; all he had was a small group of believing family. Today there are high churches . . . low churches, wild ones and tame there are classes and study groups and people who apply the words of scripture to social ills.

Most cities in the US have at least once church that preaches truth.

R.C. Sproul tells the story of a speaking engagement at Geneva college .He was returning home by bus to downtown Pittsburgh 30 some miles away. The bus was a “local” that went through the dirty mill towns in that area of the state. The day was dark and dismal. Sproul sat in the back of the bus and watched the people getting on and off. He was overcome with a sense of depression as he watched those people. Not one smiled. Their faces were lined with grief, defeat, mourning, and sorrow. Some were hunched over. Many shuffled heir feet and mumbled as they pushed past the people whose objects cluttered the aisle. Sproul’s spirits sank low and lower. As he looked out the barely transparent window, covered with years of grime, it seemed that the people on the sidewalks were also burdened down by similar despair. He asked himself “is there any hope for these people?”

Almost at once the bus passed a storefront church with a cheap plastic covered neon cross illuminating it, and he say there the answer to his question: Yes there was hope.

He decided to play a game as he rode “how far do I have to go before I see another reason for hope for thee people.”

Before they had gone half a block there was another cross and another tiny church. He saw a woman walking down the street with a cross around her neck. He soon discovered he could not travel even one block in this dismal depressed area of western PA without seeing either churches or Christian symbols. There was evidence of the living community of followers of Christ every where.

That is the kind of world in which you are privileged to live, a world in which faithful people have done all they can to establish visible living fellowships of Christians to which you are invited.

Will you despise that? Do you make light of the worship and fellowship of God’s people? Are you too busy to direct your feet to a place where GOD is exalted and when you may expect to find Christ?

BUSY? That suggests a fifth benefit you are likely to despise. You may think you are busy and may be busy, but you live in an age when leisure time is available more than at any age in history.

You have a 40 hour week, paid vacation you do not have to work from dusk to dawn 6 days a week as your forefathers did. The average American watches 5 hours of Television a day. You will have time to do anything you really want to do. But do you use even a small portion of that time ensure the health of your soul?

One commentator writes “men will read trash rather than the word of God, and adhere to a system of priorities that leaves God out of their lives. Multitudes of men spend more time shaving than on their souls; multitudes of women give more thought o their makeup than to the life God desires for them.”

Esau had no time for spiritual things. Are you better? Esau despised his birthright. Are you not like him? If you have no time for the things of God, if you have pushed him aside, then like Esau, you have despised God’s birthright.

In Hebrews there is a warning immediately following the reference to Esau. There is an appeal to press on to faith in Jesus Christ. It is given in the image of Israel after leaving Egypt trembling before the holy mountain of God when he had descended to give the law through Moses.

That was terrifying, says the writer but that was only a small terror compared to this one.

Heb 12:18-25 “ For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which [voice] they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more: (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: And so terrible was the sight, [that] Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:)

But ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,

And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than [that of] Abel.

See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more [shall not] we [escape], if we turn away from him that [speaketh] from heaven”

Have you committed your life to Jesus Christ? Are you following him with your whole heart?

Do not turn Him away. Press on to fullness of faith and accept Jesus as Lord and savior today.