Stollen Blessings

April 29, 2007

Gen 27:1- 40

There is probably no more pathetic episode in Genesis than Jacob’s deception of Isaac to gain his Father’s blessing. But it is handled in different ways by different commentators. some actually praise Jacob and the equally deceptive Rebekah for their concern to see God’s will accomplished-since God had promised the the supremacy to Jacob (Gen 25:23)Others condemn them. In some commentaries Esau is regarded as a worldly but real believer, in others he is considered a pagan. Most writers sympathize with one side or the other in this story.

We have to be cautious about our approach to this. we can not completely condemn these characters without some glance at their better motives...or excuse them at the expense of true morality.

One commentator (Robert Candlish) writes: On the one hand we may be tempted to extenuate or excuse those who are taking part with God and seeking to fulfill his purpose; and in so doing we may compromise God’s holy law, and lowering our sense of truth and right. Or again on the other hand we may allow our just indignation against the faults into which we see the professing people of God betrayed, to carry us too far in the direction of an unjust and charitable judgment of their whole profession. We may then strengthen in ourselves and others a prejudice not only against the godly, but against godliness itself which may be not conducive to our or their soul’s spiritual prosperity.”

The truth here people is that these guys are JUST like we are. The point is that the sovereign will of God is done in spite of anyone’s opposition to it.
Having said that, let’s come to our study for this morning

Fist I’d like you to note if you will the willfulness of old age.
1 And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son, and said unto him, My son: and he said unto him, Behold, [here am] I.
2 And he said, Behold now, I am old, I know not the day of my death:
3 Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me [some] venison;
4 And make me savory meat, such as I love, and bring [it] to me, that I may eat; that my soul may bless thee before I die.
5 And Rebekah heard when Isaac spake to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt [for] venison, [and] to bring [it].

Now this is actually a tale of 4 persons: Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob and Esau. We begin with Isaac and that because he is mentioned first.

Now he was an old man, Martin Luther calculated his age at around 137 at this time, but he lived to be 180 years old 43 more years. That's right 43 more years, yet here he is taking to his bed and complaining of his coming death and willfully determining to pass the coveted blessing to Esau his favorite son in spite of God’s prior announcement that it should go to Jacob.

One commentator remarked that old age can be a time of blessing or horror .It seems to have been the latter for Isaac.

This is not a pretty picture here people. Its true that Rebekah ,eavesdropping here plots to deceive Isaac and get the blessing for her favorite. But Isaac is no less scheming. we have already noted that each parent had a favorite son (25:28).

Isaac knew without a doubt that if he announced his intent to give Esau the blessing-which granted supremacy and promised material prosperity-to Esau, the whole household would erupt into a riot. Rebekah would protest and make Isaac’s life miserable. To avoid this, Isaac decides to give this blessing secretly. So what should have been a joyful public occasion is turned into a sneaky and despicable incident. And recall something else...

Isaac loved Esau(25:28) BECAUSE of the venison. And now the venison was the private meal he wanted brought.

Isaac’s real problem here was his defiance of the revealed will of God. One commentator uses the excuse that Isaac had probably forgotten the promise of God to Rebekah 77 years earlier before the birth of the twins 25:23 And the LORD said unto her, Two nations [are] in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and [the one] people shall be stronger than [the other] people; and the elder shall serve the younger., But is that credible? I don’t think so 1 if he had forgotten he would have followed custom and had the prescribed public feast and then been reminded by Rebekah.

If it had slipped his mind it was a willful forgetting..but the fact that he was trying to give this blessing secretly shows that he knows very well what's up. We will say some good things about Isaac later, but at this stage he is hardly to be commended. He is like many in our day who think they can defy revealed truth from God successfully.

So we have seen here the willfulness of old age, now look secondly if you will at power in the home. vv 5-13

The second person to enter the scene is Rebekah. A home often takes its chief characteristics from the mom and in this case the friction and mistrust in Isaac's home can be traced to this lady.

Have you noticed how no one in the household trusted anyone else? Isaac did not trust his wife she didn’t trust him. Jacob knew his dad wouldn’t trust him (what if he touches me? I‘d appear to be tricking him). Neither of the two sons trusted the other...and I wonder if this mom listening at the keyhole had anything to do with all of this?

That we may speculate on, but like her husband Rebekah’s real failure is spiritual. She was right in clinging to God’s promise and in perceiving that Isaac was willfully rejecting that promise in favor of is preferred son. But her fault lay in failing to trust God to bring the blessing to Jacob in his own time and way.

Some commentators excuse her by saying she chose between two bad but unavoidable courses, either do nothing and let the blessing go or do wrong to achieve a greater good. They compare her to Rahab who lied to save the spies of Israel years later. But this is nothing at all like that. Her dilemma was one of her own making and MARK THIS The disposal of that blessing was GODS affair and not hers. she had no right to do evil-that some good might come.
Having done it her way, good didn't come..oh Jacob got the blessing, but it cost him 20 years of exile...an exile that his sheltered life with mom had not prepared him for despite his years.

If you are not trusting God and trying to do your will instead of his, or even trying to help God out by doing his will your way..Learn this: The plottings of sin never work out and the path of disobedience is always rocky. When Moses took matters into his own hand and killed the Egyptian the result was not the revolution he may have hoped for, it was exile for 40 years.

God later delivered the Jewish people but Moses had to learn to depend on God in 40 years of Sinai U.

It is very difficult to wait to God and do it His way isn’t it?
We are so wise and have so many resources and sometimes....sometimes God moves so slowly.

So we have noted the willfulness of Old age, the power in the home now notice the third player in this scenario, Lying Jacob. 14 And he went, and fetched, and brought [them] to his mother: and his mother made savory meat, such as his father loved. And Rebekah took goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which [were] with her in the house, and put them upon Jacob her younger son: And she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck: And she gave the savory meat and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob. And he came unto his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here [am] I; who [art] thou, my son? And Jacob said unto his father, I [am] Esau thy firstborn; I have done according as thou badest me: arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me. And Isaac said unto his son, How [is it] that thou hast found [it] so quickly, my son? And he said, Because the LORD thy God brought [it] to me.
And Isaac said unto Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee, my son, whether thou [be] my very son Esau or not. And Jacob went near unto Isaac his father; and he felt him, and said, The voice [is] Jacob's voice, but the hands [are] the hands of Esau. And he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy, as his brother Esau's hands: so he blessed him. And he said, [Art] thou my very son Esau? And he said, I [am]. And he said, Bring [it] near to me, and I will eat of my son's venison, that my soul may bless thee. And he brought [it] near to him, and he did eat: and he brought him wine, and he drank. And his father Isaac said unto him, Come near now, and kiss me, my son. And he came near, and kissed him: and he smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him, and said, See, the smell of my son [is] as the smell of a field which the LORD hath blessed:

In this episode the basest character is this swindler, this sneaking sniveler...True he can be praised for at least valuing the spiritual things when Esau despised them, and his fault can be lessened by noting that in submitting to this deceitful scheme, he was simply obeying his mother...but he was 75-77 years old and surely mature enough by then to have some personal morals...yet he goes along with her base scheme and even adds to it by lying to his father......and worse yet even dragging God’s name into his deception.

One commentator says (Candlish) "He goes about the work of guile with a deliberation that shocks our sense of decency as well as of virtue he suffers himself without remonstrance to be arrayed in the skin borrowed from a senseless animal, and the robes stolen from an unwitting brother. And led by the false fondness of a mother into the chamber which the seeming approach of death , as well as the solemn transaction at hand should have hallowed with an awful reverence of truth and righteousness-he heaps lie upon lie with unscrupulous effrontery; abuses the simple confidence of the blind old man; and almost , if we may so speak, betraying his father with a kiss-steals from him the birthright blessing-and then hastens out of his sight, as if he were not only afraid to meet his brother, but impatient to exult in secret over the success with which his daring stratagem has been crowned.(14-30).

It does not excuse him here that he is leading his father in this matter to fulfill God’s plan. He might have thought" My father is old and in his dotage, he has all along had a misguided bias about this birthright and now that his mind is failing and his body is slipping, he is scarcely able to be held accountable for what he does...I better manage him for his own good...

This would be a miserable excuse and shows no respect for God. There is no excuse to do wrong that good may come from it.

No matter how you look at it, the crime into which Rebekah hurries her favorite child is a sad one indeed and for the rest of their lives they have occasion to regret this course of action when they were tempted to take God’s plan into their own hands.

The blessing that Jacob stole said he was to be Lord over his brothers and that the sons of his mother were to bow to him. But before Esau called Jacob Lord, Jacob saluted Him as Lord.

And before Esau ever bowed to Jacob, Jacob was made to bow willingly before Esau (Gen 33:3)

Listen: The path of sin is hard and the pleasure is never worth the price that must be paid for it.

Finally we note the fourth character in this scene...a bit player ? Maybe..one who deserves sympathy? Perhaps...and as we hear his plaintive cry “bless me to my father” we probably want to reach out to him.

But God views him differently...he views him as one who despised his birthright..who was ungodly...in Hebrews 12:15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble [you], and thereby many be defiled Lest there [be] any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

Here God calls us not to sympathize with Esau but to Learn from him, warning that, although God is very gracious and tempers justice with mercy...there are still choices in life that cannot be undone and with consequences that are unavoidable. If you reject the call of God now who knows when or if he will call you again. If you reject the revealed will of God in some matter and instead do what you know is wrong...who knows if you will ever have the chance to make it right...or if you will be able to avoid the destructive consequences that will follow.

Tears meant nothing. Esau wept but his tears were of frustrated selfishness and not regret of wrongs committed...the only true repentance...and don’t miss this...the only true repentance is to turn from your sin and do what God desires.
John 8??
Amen