Genesis (Written)

Genesis 28:20-22
Our Christian Offering
Have You Been Lied to About Tithing?

Introduction: Today I am going to speak about a subject which is one of the most abused and misapplied topics in all of Christianity. Church people are filled with a misunderstanding of it because leaders either willingly or negligently pass on error.

Personally, it is the one issue that makes me more upset than any other and it is one that has led me to stop listening to some of what I used to consider are the best preachers around, because if they can’t handle this issue properly, then they cannot – in my opinion – be trusted to handle the rest properly either.

The subject is tithing and today you will hear directly from the Bible what tithing is and how it was to be applied. I hope, I trust, and I pray that you will listen carefully and then act properly and without coercion in your Christian giving in the future.

Text Verse: I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain. Galatians 2:21

Tithing is a concept mandated in the law. If we believe that we can somehow attain righteousness by adhering to this percept, found under the law, then we have a fundamentally flawed view of our relationship with God.

Paul says that if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain. What would be the point of Jesus coming if we could merit God’s favor apart from Him. It is wrong thinking, but this is what churches are full of, especially when it comes to this precept which is found only under the law and which is known as tithing.

Let us stand on the righteousness that comes not from our deeds, but the righteousness which comes from God through His Son, our Lord and Savior. And so…  May God speak to us through His word today and may His glorious name ever be praised.

I. Christ Our Provision

Last week we saw Jacob had a dream in the area of Bethel where the Lord stood above a ladder and spoke to him. When He did, He said this to Jacob – “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.”

Now that he’s awake and ready to continue his journey, Jacob utters a vow of promise to the Lord –

²⁰ Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on,

The statement “If God will be with me” would rightly be stated “Since God will be with me.” Jacob isn’t doubting what the Lord said. Instead he has every reason to believe that He would be with Him, just as the vision indicated. In essence…

“Since I know that this is so,
And he will keep me in the way I go
And will meet all my needs
Thus will follow my righteous deeds

This is Jacob’s thought to us.

²¹ so that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God.

In the previous verse Jacob said “If God will be with me…” Now he says, “then the Lord shall be my God.” We have to look all the way back to the beginning of the vision when Jacob lay down to sleep to understand this –

“Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. ¹³ And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: “I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants.”

The Lord identified himself to Jacob in the vision. But Jacob already knew about the Lord from his past, including the blessing he received from his father. So we know that Jacob isn’t saying here that if God will do these things, he will accept the Lord as his God – that is already the case.

What he is saying is that he will be all the more eager and willing to serve the Lord. As I said, the previous verse gives us the idea of “Since God will be with me…” Because God will be with him he says, “The Lord will be my God.”

To help you understand, we can use two friends as an example. One is going on an adventure trip and the other has a lot of money and resources that he promises to help him out with during the trip. The one heading out says, “Since you will be with me and have ensured that I’ll be taken care of, you will certainly be my friend.”

They are already friends, but he is saying it in a manner which indicates not just friendly friendship, but helping friendship as well. Jacob is now saying this about the Lord. “Since you will be with me, you will be the Lord to me.”

And now we can see our relationship to Jesus in this as well. The book of Hebrews, quoting the Lord, has said to us, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” And our reply of confirmation would be “Since you will never leave me nor forsake me, you will be the Lord to me indeed.”

We’re not saying something that isn’t already true, we are saying something that is true in an absolutely certain way. It is an act of gratitude from our lips and it is the same from Jacob’s lips to the Lord. And how grateful we should be…

“Since you will never leave me
Nor will I be left as forsaken
To you all glory and honor and praises be
And in you my peace and rest is taken

II. Christ Our Reward

²² And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God’s house,

If you missed the symbolism of the ladder, the stone, and everything else in Jacob’s vision in last week’s sermon, it would be good for you go back and watch that. The stone is a picture of Christ. He is the pillar of God’s house.

Jacob will be back someday to fulfill his vow. We will see his words realized in Genesis 35 –

So Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him. ⁷ And he built an altar there and called the place El Bethel, because there God appeared to him when he fled from the face of his brother.

Just as he spoke the vow, he fulfilled it. A vow is a solemn oath made by an individual and the Lord looks at these things as binding. When we make a promise, we are to keep our promise. When we make an oath, we are to live by that oath. When we sign a contract, we need to fulfill the requirements it contains.

Making a vow and performing it is something humans have had a tough time with throughout history, but it is something the Lord asks us to do. In the 50th Psalm, David tell us to…

Offer to God thanksgiving,
And pay your vows to the Most High. Psalm 50:14

In the 76th Psalm, Asaph tells us the same…

Make vows to the Lord your God, and pay them; Psalm 76:11

And the writer of the 66th Psalm almost mirrors the concept of Jacob’s life now when he wrote these words –

I will go into Your house with burnt offerings;
I will pay You my vows,
¹⁴ Which my lips have uttered
And my mouth has spoken when I was in trouble. Psalm 66:13, 14

A vow is something offered by our free will and therefore it is something that was not required. By making a vow, we are giving our word. If our vows mean nothing, then our words cannot be trusted. And there is nothing less exciting than being around someone who can’t be trusted.

Each one of us has made vows and we have all failed in them, certainly. But past failure is no indication of future results, so let us do our utmost to determine before others, and especially before God, that we will stand by our words and be counted as trustworthy people.

^{22 (con’t)} and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.”

Jacob now vows a tenth of what the Lord gives him back to the Lord. Notice that it doesn’t say how the tenth will be given and the Lord doesn’t use money. Therefore the discretion for the giving is left up to Jacob. Will he give a tenth for taking care of the poor?

Will he give a tenth for building and maintaining an altar? Will he throw a party for his family and rejoice in the Lord through songs and praise? It doesn’t say and there is no indication later as to what he did. The promise is made and nothing else is stated.

This is important and we can’t skip over this fact. Also, what is equally important is that these verses are descriptive, not prescriptive. They describe to us what happened, but they in no way prescribe to us something we are required to do.

The first time giving a tenth is mentioned in any real way was back in Genesis 14 after Abraham defeated the 4 kings of the east. At that time it said this –

“Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High. ¹⁹ And he blessed him and said:
“Blessed be Abram of God Most High,
Possessor of heaven and earth;
²⁰ And blessed be God Most High,
Who has delivered your enemies into your hand.”
And he gave him a tithe of all.” (18-20)

This account of Abraham is, like the account with Jacob, descriptive, not prescriptive. It describes to us what happened, but it in no way prescribes to us that we must do the same.

This is the first time I’ve ever brought up Christian giving in any real sense in any sermon that I know of. I’ve spoken about it in Bible studies many times and I have a page dedicated to it on my website, but now I will preach on it and I’d really like you to pay close attention.

My first point for you is something every person here either already knows or they haven’t been paying attention. We are not under the Law of Moses. In fact, the New Testament says often and explicitly that the law is set aside in Christ; it is obsolete, it is done, it is finished…

We cannot insert the Old Testament law into New Testament Christian living without inserting heresy. It is that simple. We are, as the Bible tells us, living in the dispensation of grace. I’m going to cite several verses here so that you can get a small taste of this –

For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. John 1:17

Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more,.. Romans 5:20

For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. Romans 6:14

I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain. Galatians 2:21

You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. Galatians 5:4

¹⁸ For on the one hand there is an annulling of the former commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness, ¹⁹ for the law made nothing perfect; on the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God. Hebrews 7:18, 19

We could cite many more verses, but the Bible is clear – in Jesus, the law is set aside. If we attempt to be justified by that law, meaning living deeds of the law to be please God, then we have fallen from the very grace that was bestowed on us in Christ.

Just as it should be, we are to hold to salvation by the grace of Jesus and His mercy through faith, not deeds of the law. This is what brings us salvation. This is what preachers around America will tell you again and again… week after week.

And yet when it comes to money, all of this grace is thrown to the wind and the law almost inevitably gets reintroduced. One of the most common Bible quotes that you will hear on the subject of giving is from Malachi 3:8 –

Will a man rob God?
Yet you have robbed Me!
But you say,
‘In what way have we robbed You?’
In tithes and offerings.

After hearing this, you’ll be given an hour sermon on how you’re stealing from God if you don’t give ten percent just as the Bible says – and make it pre-tax because of course taxes don’t count.

You’re made to feel guilty about it and shamed if you don’t follow through with what they tell you. Never mind that Malachi was written when? …under the law.

The concept of tithing is mentioned in only two contexts in the New Testament. The first was Jesus speaking, under the law, about the wrong intent of the scribes and Pharisees in the giving of their tithes. These can be found in Matthew 23, Luke 11, and Luke 18.

The second is found in Hebrews 7, which I just cited about the law being annulled, and is merely using the giving of tithes under the Old Testament to demonstrate the greatness of Melchizedek, not as any sort of requirement.

Having said this, tithing is not – in any way, a New Testament concept. It was a practice given to the people of Israel and to them alone. It is, like the rest of the law, set aside in Christ. Does everybody follow so far?

But I want you to understand exactly what tithing meant even in the Old Testament so that you are never duped again by preachers who would so mishandle the Bible. I’m going to read you the pertinent tithing verses, directly from the Bible, and I want you to listen very carefully as I do.

I’ll stop from time to time to explain what’s being said, but I want you to remember, I didn’t write these, they’re right in your Bible –

And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s. It is holy to the Lord. ³¹ If a man wants at all to redeem any of his tithes, he shall add one-fifth to it. ³² And concerning the tithe of the herd or the flock, of whatever passes under the rod, the tenth one shall be holy to the Lord. Leviticus 27

This tells us that the tithe is holy to the Lord, but it doesn’t tell what to do with it. In Numbers 18 it begins to explain what was to be done with the tithes. It says there that the Levites are given the tithes in Israel for the work they perform. In that explanation it says,

“²⁴ For the tithes of the children of Israel, which they offer up as a heave offering to the Lord, I have given to the Levites as an inheritance; therefore I have said to them, ‘Among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.’”

After this, the Levites, were to offer up their own heave offering to the priests – “Thus you shall also offer a heave offering to the Lord from all your tithes which you receive from the children of Israel, and you shall give the Lord’s heave offering from it to Aaron the priest.”

This is clear and I’m sure any preacher would use it to justify his stand to tell you that you should be giving a tenth to them out of what you make. But the silence becomes deafening when we get to Deuteronomy. There we will see the entire picture of what the tithe meant within the nation of Israel.

But when you cross over the Jordan and dwell in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety, 11 then there will be the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide. There you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, and all your choice offerings which you vow to the Lord. 12 And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, since he has no portion nor inheritance with you. Deuteronomy 12:10-12

——————-

Only the holy things which you have, and your vowed offerings, you shall take and go to the place which the LORD chooses. And you shall offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on the altar of the LORD your God; and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the LORD your God, and you shall eat the meat. Deuteronomy 12:26, 27

“You shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year. And you shall eat before the LORD your God, in the place where He chooses to make His name abide, the tithe of your grain and your new wine and your oil, of the firstborn of your herds and your flocks, that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always. But if the journey is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, or if the place where the LORD your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, when the LORD your God has blessed you, then you shall exchange it for money, take the money in your hand, and go to the place which the LORD your God chooses. And you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires: for oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink, for whatever your heart desires (whatsoever thy soul lusteth after (KJV)) ; you shall eat there before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household. You shall not forsake the Levite who is within your gates, for he has no part nor inheritance with you. “At the end of every third year you shall bring out the tithe of your produce of that year and store it up within your gates. And the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates, may come and eat and be satisfied, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.” Deuteronomy 14:22-29

“When you have finished laying aside all the tithe of your increase in the third year—the year of tithing—and have given it to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your gates and be filled, then you shall say before the LORD your God: ‘I have removed the holy tithe from my house, and also have given them to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all Your commandments which You have commanded me; I have not transgressed Your commandments, nor have I forgotten them.” Deuteronomy 26:12, 13

“Come to Bethel, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes after three years.” Amos 4:4 (KJV)

In Deuteronomy, and for the rest of the Old Testament, tithing is mandatory, but we learn that for the first two years it is to be spent by the one tithing and his family in the presence of the LORD – for food, for drink, for rejoicing. Only in the third year is the tithe to be entirely given away.

The only additional requirement besides spending the entire tithe on a party in the presence of the LORD for the first two years is the sentence, “You shall not forsake the Levite who is within your gates, for he has no part nor inheritance with you.” This explains the verses back in Numbers 18.

This became a means of stimulating economic growth and yet tending to the needy without any undue burden on the people of the land. It was to remind them of the provision of the Lord and the blessings He had given.

Three times the Bible clearly shows us that the third year is the year of giving away the tithe. Despite this, it is almost never mentioned by anyone. Instead, preachers shame their congregation into giving – and that… from an Old Testament principle which doesn’t even apply anymore.

But what is even more despicable is that there are preachers who actually say that the words we’ve read about the third year is an extra tithe on top of a regular tithe. This is flat out lying. One who would do this is the prime example of someone who should never be allowed to preach again. It is greed over grace.

Imagine the nerve of standing in the pulpit and saying this, knowing that not a person in their church would question his authority or even bother to go check. And you wonder why I tell you week after week to check things for yourself.

I saw a highly respected, supposedly, preacher say exactly this on TV one day and to me it was the single most shameful display of lying I’ve ever witnessed on the subject of giving in my life.

Another ploy by preachers is to say that with the tithing, plus all the other required sacrifices, almost thirty percent of what an Israelite made would have been required.

Again, this is simply not correct. That’s why I showed you those verses too. Many of the required sacrifices, as we noted, were eaten by the one who brought them after the removal of the sacred portion by the priests. These arguments simply have no basis in the truth.

The passages I’ve cited clearly show that the third year tithe alone was given away in its entirety and the other two years’ tithes were enjoyed by the giver in the presence of the Lord at Jerusalem with some being given to take care of the Levites.

None of this really matters though because all of this comes from the law – the Old Testament – and it is over, done with, obsolete, and gone. Please don’t ever forget this lesson today and get drawn back into the bondage of pressure and legalism.

Having shown you what the law states and that it doesn’t even apply anymore, what are we to do about giving? Is there a rule or a guideline for us in the New Testament? The answer is, “Yes” and it’s found in 1 Corinthians 16:1, 2 –

Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given orders to the churches of Galatia, so you must do also: ² On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come.

There you have the only real direction given to any New Testament saint – lay something aside weekly, storing up as you may prosper. What is prospering? It doesn’t say. It is different for each individual. Have you been freed from an addiction like gambling, alcohol, or smoking?

The money you used to spend on that could be given away. Aren’t you prospering because of the change? If you didn’t need it for something else then, why do you need it now? Or, if you can give 10 percent, then the Lord has prospered you to give 10 percent.

I heard one about a guy who started by giving 10 percent of what he made and the Lord blessed him to where he finally gave 90 percent of what he made. That is a true and heartfelt acknowledgement of the Lord having prospered him.

As John Wesley states “The tenth is a very fit proportion to be devoted to God, and employed for him; though as circumstances vary, it may be more or less, as God prospers us.”

In 2 Corinthians 9, Paul tells us about the spirit of giving and the reaping which results from it –

⁶ But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. ⁷ So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.

We don’t want to misapply theses verses like so many preachers do. When it says that those who sow bountifully also reap bountifully, it does not mean that God is an ATM machine. We cannot expect to put in and get more out.

Our reaping may be in money, or it may simply be in joy from having given. It is shameful how many preachers misuse these verses to get people to give them money. And the people that believe what they hear and expect a windfall are giving with the wrong heart in the first place.

I will be as honest as I can with you, if you don’t give to this ministry now that we have a building, this ministry won’t last. We can’t survive in a building with expenses such as insurance, property taxes, maintenance, and a pastor’s salary to support his wife and home, unless attendees give. This is reality.

In support of this, we come to Galatians 6:6 – “Let him who is taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches.”

But when you give, may it be with a grateful heart for what you’ve been given and expecting nothing more in return except the satisfaction that you are furthering the ministry of God and the Gospel of Jesus.

So for today’s lesson, the next time someone tells you that you’re stealing from God if you don’t tithe, ask him to show you the standard for tithing in the Bible. If he can find it at all, then ask him if you’re under law or grace.

Finally, if he still insists on an Old Testament tithe, ask why he’s not instructing you to give in the biblical fashion – every third year. In any case, he is trying to have his cake and eat it too.

If a pastor or teacher reads these passages in the Bible, understands them, and continues to instruct incorrectly, they have put their personal desire for financial gain above what the Bible instructs. Error in doctrine is sin – how much worse if it is intentional!

If you are willing to give out of a grateful heart and not a sense of obligation or expectancy of a profit from God, then may the Lord bless you in your giving and may those who receive your gifts be appreciative of what has been given.

Personally, I’d say 10% is a good starting point, but that we should give based on how we are reflecting appreciation to God for the immeasurable gift He gave us in the person of Jesus Christ. This attitude is clearly proclaimed in Scripture as well.

Now that we’ve come to the end of this sermon, please allow me just a few more minutes to share with you the greatest Gift of all and how you too can receive it…

Closing Verse: Indeed I have all and abound. I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things sent from you, a sweet-smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God. ¹⁹ And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. ²⁰ Now to our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen. Philippians 4:18-20

Next Week: Resurrection Day

A Portion Returned

Then Jacob made a vow saying
If God will be with me and keep me in this way
That I am going and for which I have been praying
And give me my bread and clothing from day to day

So that I come back to my father’s house in peace
Then the Lord shall be my God, my devotion will never cease

And this stone which I have set
As a pillar shall be God’s house – Bethel
And of all that You give me I won’t forget
I will surely give a tenth to you, this I tell

A lesson for us from the Bible’s pages
Is that we are to fulfill the vows that we speak
We need to be faithful throughout the ages
Performing our vows even when we feel weak

And also we need to remember how we’ve been blessed
God has given us so much, let us return some back
He has filled us with food and in good clothes we are dressed
With a willing heart let us give and not be slack

Lord, help us to live rightly in your eyes
And help us to give in a way which will honor you
When You look upon our gifts may You not despise
But rather may our accounts much credit accrue

May our gifts and offerings be abundantly pleasing in your sight
May also our actions be wholesome, holy, and right

O God be with us throughout all of our days
Guiding us with your word, a light for our feet
And may You be glorified through our resounding praise
Here on this earth or when finally in heaven we meet

Glorious, wonderful God above
Thank You for your unending love

Hallelujah and Amen…

Genesis 28:10-19
A Ladder to Heaven

Introduction: There is a pattern in the characters we’ve seen since Abraham. He was introduced and his life was one of authority, decision, and action. He was like the picture we have of Jesus as our great and conquering King.

Then came Isaac. His life was one of submission and compliance. Instead of going to get a wife, his father sent a servant while he remained in the promised land. He was non-confrontational and played a quieter role. This is a picture of God the Son – the One who lives to do His Father’s will.

Jacob now takes the center stage as Isaac retires out of the Bible’s focus. Jacob’s life is filled with trials and struggles. He suffers loss and heartache, but he is always looking to the future glory. He is not unlike Jesus, our suffering Servant in many ways. Jesus, the One who came to redeem fallen man by his own shed blood.

Text Verse: “One of the two who heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. ⁴¹ He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated, the Christ). ⁴² And he brought him to Jesus. John 1:40-42

If you’ve been to more than just one or two of our Genesis sermons, you know that God has put many hints of the coming Christ, our Lord Jesus, in this foundational book. Everything in history is looking forward to Him or back on what He did and then in anticipation of more great things to come.

It is all about Jesus and once again we’ll see this today. There are beautiful pictures hidden in this ancient story, waiting to be unpacked and presented to our eager hearts and minds and so… May God speak to us through His word today and may His glorious name ever be praised.

I. Christ Our Mediator

¹⁰ Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran.

Jacob now departs on his journey to find a bride. He leaves Beersheba, the Well of the Oath, or the Well of the Seven, and heads towards Haran which is in Padan Aram. This is a picture of Jesus. Coming to earth to redeem His people.

This theme will continue throughout the life of Jacob. Beersheba, as I explained many sermons ago is a picture of the dwelling of the Lord. Beersheba, the Well of the Seven speaks of the seven spirits of the Lord which are mentioned in both Isaiah and Revelation.

Haran means “mountainous” and Padan Aram means “elevated ransom.” There is a high cost to redeem fallen man and this verse shows it to us. Jesus left the dwelling of the Lord to come to earth and pay a high price to redeem fallen man.

But this is also a picture of the nation of Israel. Jacob is in a type of exile from the Promised Land resulting from his wrong actions in deceiving Isaac, but he is the one who holds the birthright, the blessing, and the promises of restoration. This picture is seen in Israel as they have twice been sent out of the land for evil-doing.

As a reminder, I mentioned last week that most commentators say that Jacob left alone on his journey to find a wife, but there is no doubt that Deborah, Rebekah’s wet nurse, went with him.

Others could have also, but we can’t be sure. However, the story of his return to, and his travels in, Canaan indicates that at least she went along with him. As she pictures the word of God, we can see how the story here pictures Jesus, never separated from the word because He is the Word.

A wet nurse brings forth and tends to the children in a family, and the Word of God brings forth and tends to God’s children as well. The significance of what this pictures is not to be underestimated because Jacob is going on his travels with her.

¹¹ So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set.

We’ll see in a few verses that this place is Bethel which is about 48 miles north of Beersheba. At Jacob’s time it is known as Luz. This is where he stops for his first night, but it’s not in the city. The reason isn’t given, but it says that the sun had set.

It could be that the city had already closed its gates, which was common for them to do as soon as the sun set. It could also be that he didn’t want to go there because the people were pagans. I would favor this second option because of its name at that time, which I’ll explain later. The city’s name is Luz.

Whatever the reason, he stayed out in the open at a place he arbitrarily chose. This reminds us of Jesus’ words in Luke 9 –

“Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, “Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.” ⁵⁸ And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”

^{11 (con’t)} And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep.

With no place to stay and no suitable place to lay his head, Jacob arbitrarily grabs a stone and places it where he can use it as a pillow – the significance of this act is of immense importance as we’ll see in the verses ahead.

However, what the stone pictures is as beautiful as all of the other hidden treasures God has concealed. The location, the stone, the person Jacob, the acts which follow – all point to Jesus and His work. Jesus is present with Jacob though he doesn’t yet know it.

Matthew Henry wisely says here, “God’s time to visit his people with his comforts, is, when they are most destitute of other comforts, and other comforters.” This is proven true in verse 12…

¹² Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

Jacob is lying with a stone for a pillow and the heavens above for his blanket when he has a spiritual vision of the physical reality he is experiencing. Like Esau he is a fallen man, but he has already been a picture of the Messiah as we’ve seen several times.

Now he sees his own picture of this mystery – a ladder which is set up on earth, meaning where it was placed, and yet its top reaches to the heavens. This ladder is explicitly explained by Jesus as a picture of Himself. Like the ladder, His feet stand on the earth and yet He wears the heavenly crown.

He is an earthly Man in His humiliation, but He is the divine God in His exultation. And He is the ladder between two. There is the infinite God who fills the highest heavens and there is fallen man who can never attain to come into His high station, but in His rich goodness to us, He gave us the Mediator between the two – Jesus.

He is the access point for all of heaven’s riches and He is the one and only path to reconciliation with God. All communication with God since the fall of man has come through Him and there is no other way for it to occur apart from Him. It is by Him alone that the two meet.

In John 1:47-51 we read this account –

“Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!”Nathanael said to Him, “How do You know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Nathanael answered and said to Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.”And He said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafteryou shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

If you noticed, Jesus is speaking to Nathanael calling him an “Israelite indeed.” What he is saying is that the vision given to Jacob, who would later be named Israel, is fulfilled in Him. This Israelite, Nathanael, means “Given of God.”

He who was given of God, Jesus, is the ladder of restoration for all people. And as I said, there is only one ladder in the vision. Jesus confirms this in John 14. Listen carefully to this account –

“Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” ⁶ Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

Did you catch it? Who was it that spoke to Jesus? It was Thomas, the Twin. The twins are Jacob and Esau and they look backward to Adam and forward to Jesus. Thomas the Twin asks the question and Jesus answers… “It’s me. I’m the ladder. I’m the way. You can meet with the Father through me, my twin.”

What Jacob, the twin, is seeing in his vision is explicitly realized in Jesus who is answering the Thomas, the Twin. How can we not see God’s hand at work in what is being revealed to us?

This ladder is a way of describing the union of God and Man in the person of Jesus Christ – two hyposies, or states, in one Person; what we would call the hypostatic union.

“Jesus Christ is fully God (deity) united with full humanity without intermingling or separation of these qualities. In Him there is no change or division of any kind – completely and forever. He is the finite united with the infinite; the point where God fellowships with man.”

Oooh, God’s word is far more complex than we can imagine. Let’s not close our eyes to what God is saying in this important lesson. The very angels of heaven who minister to God’s people do so on this bridge between the infinite realm of heaven’s eternity and the finite realm of earth’s temporal reality.

You’ve probably heard Philippians 4:6, 7 a many times, but maybe now it will make true sense to you –

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; ⁷ and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

The Geneva Bible states this about the ladder – “Christ is the ladder by which God and man are joined together, and by whom the angels minister to us: all graces are given to us by him, and we ascend to heaven by him.”

¹³ And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: “I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac;

Jesus is the Son of Man, Christ is the ladder, and the Lord Jehovah is the divine Ruler of Heaven. And from heaven He stands as the Sovereign ruler. His voice now speaks through His mediatory role as the Ladder. He first identifies Himself as the Lord God of Abraham your father.

Abraham is actually his grandfather, but he is the covenant father. As the Lord of Abraham and the God of Isaac, he now renews the promise made to and through both of them.

^{13 (con’t)} the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants.

The land on which you lie doesn’t mean just the spot where he’s sleeping, but rather the Land of Canaan, the Promised land. This promise is a land promise. It is given to him and his descendants as a grant of ownership. However, we will see it is conditionally granted to them for use based on obedience.

When they are obedient, the land is theirs and they may use it. When they disobey, the land is theirs and they may not use it. Others may dwell in the land, but the land is God’s and He has granted it to Jacob and his descendants.

It’s important to understand that the church did not replace Israel. The promises of being a descendant of Abraham by faith are never stated in the same way for us as being Jacob’s descendants. Paul clearly contrasts Israel from everyone else.

Anyone from within or without Israel is considered a true descendant of Abraham by faith, but the same is not true with Jacob. Crossing these lines confuses what God is doing in the world. Here is what you need to remember –

1) Anyone who is a faithful believer is a spiritual descendant of Abraham.

2) Israel comprises those faithful Jews who are obedient sons of Abraham. It is a people physically descended from Jacob.

3) The church is anyone who has called on Jesus, whether from within Israel or from outside of Israel.

4) The church did not replace Israel, although we are grafted into their spiritual heritage.

¹⁴ Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth;

This is a repeat of what the Lord said to Abraham in Genesis 13:16 – “And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth;…”

Though Abraham has been in his grave for 61 years and this was spoken to him about 100 years before that, to the Lord, who is outside of time, the words are as fast and unchanging as He is. What was spoken to Abraham is confirmed in Jacob and is realized in the Abraham’s descendants today.

^{14 (con’t)} you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south;

Once again, this looks back to Genesis 13 where the Lord said to Abram – “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; ¹⁵ for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever.”

Abraham was told that he would be given the land, Jacob is told they would fill the land. What these men see in the distant future, God sees as immediate and accomplished. When His word goes out to us, it is already accomplished in His mind.

This follows the biblical theme of our salvation. God says in his word in Romans that believers in Jesus are already glorified, and in Ephesians that we are already seated with Christ in the heavenly places. And yet we are still in our fallen bodies and we are still standing on fallen earth.

The Bible, in both testaments, shows God’s transcendence over time and confirms the doctrine of eternal salvation for all who have been saved by the blood of the Lamb.

^{14 (con’t)} and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

This portion of the blessing is realized in Jesus. All the families of the earth are given the choice as to calling on him or not. The blessing of the Messiah promised through Abraham and Isaac is now confirmed in Jacob.

To Jacob it is spoken and it will occur; to us it is spoken and it has come about. The surety of God’s word is the surety of Jesus.

¹⁵ Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.”

Jacob is setting out on what will be a long and often frustrating journey which will see him grow into a very large family and an entire congregation of people and livestock. Despite the trials and troubles, the Lord is there with him.

When He says, “I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you” it is an assurance that He will never leave him. The words the Lord has spoken are still being confirmed in us today and so Jacob understood that the Lord would always and forever remain with him. What Jacob is told here is repeated to us in the New Testament –

Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” ⁶ So we may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” Hebrews 13

This great God has promised each of us that He is with us. The Bible never says we won’t suffer or that we won’t have hardships or trials. That’s a myth of bad theology.

What it does promise is that, just like Jacob with his many years of trials ahead, the Lord was with him and He is with us too. Jacob was cheated, he suffered a great deal of loss including loved ones, but through it all he kept his eyes on the prize and we are asked to do the same. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus.

Before we go to the next verse, I want to read the promises given to Abraham and Jacob again, side by side so that you can see the similarities and differences –

And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; ¹⁵ for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. ¹⁶ And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered. ¹⁷ Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.”

And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: “I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. ¹⁴ Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. ¹⁵ Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.”

Both are spoken to in the same area, Bethel. Both received the promises after separating from someone. Abraham from Lot and Jacob from his family. To Abraham he indicates the directions of the earth, then he promises to him and his descendants the land, and then that they will be as the dust of the earth.

To Jacob he first promises the land to him and his descendants, then that they will be as the dust of the earth, and then he indicates the directions of the earth. The order is changed. When he gives the directions to Abraham it is after he returned to the land from Egypt and the directions are named north, south, east, and west.

But to Jacob it is before he leaves the land and the directions are west, east, north, and south. The orders are changed, but both form a cross as He speaks. After speaking to Abraham, he moved south. After speaking to Jacob, he moved north.

To both of them the Lord closed his words with a promise concerning the land. The land of Israel is the center of the nations and it is extremely important to the Lord. We trifle with His land and His people at our own expense.

I bring this up because as the Lord doesn’t change, neither do His intentions for His people and His land. What we are doing to, and forcing on, the people of Israel today can only meet with unhappy consequences.

II. Christ Our Gate

¹⁶ Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”

In Joshua 5, Joshua meets a man with a drawn sword and not knowing who he was, he questioned him. It turned out to be the Commander of the Army of the Lord – Jesus.

In 1 Samuel 3 when Samuel was young the Lord called to him in the night and he didn’t know it was the Lord.

In Luke  24, two disciples walked about seven miles with the risen Lord and didn’t know it was Him until they sat down for a meal.

In John 20 Mary didn’t realize she was in the presence of the risen Lord until He spoke directly to her by name.

In Acts 9, a Pharisee named Saul was confronted with the glory of Christ who spoke to him, and yet he didn’t know who He was.

In these and many other times, people were unaware of the presence of the Lord in their midst. This verse then is not saying that Jacob didn’t already understand that the Lord is omnipresent. Instead it is saying that the Lord was present in a significant way – a tangible manifestation of the presence of God.

God is everywhere at all times, but His presence can be, and is, more expressed in some places than in others. He dwelt between the cherubim above the ark and His glory was seen by many prophets, both in the land of Israel and elsewhere.

Even today, the glory of the Lord is manifest more greatly in some places than others. Every believer is sealed with the Holy Spirit. The believer has all of the Spirit that he will ever receive at that moment. However, the Spirit can obtain more of the believer.

His presence fills the obedient soul in a passive way which is displayed in an active presentation of His revealed glory. Like Jacob, awaking from his sleep, the people around us should look at each of us and say, “Surely the Lord is in this place.”

It’s sad that when many see us, like Jacob, they don’t know that He is even present. Let’s determine to make a change in that.

¹⁷ And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place!

Jacob’s fear isn’t the fear of a person who is surrounded by enemies and is about to die. His fear is on a completely different level. It is something experienced by many people in both testaments. In Isaiah 6 we read these words –

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. ² Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. ³ And one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!” ⁴ And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. ⁵ So I said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The Lord of hosts.”

In Mark 4, we read this –

³⁷ And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. ³⁸ But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” ³⁹ Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. ⁴⁰ But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” ⁴¹ And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!”

The fear of Jacob, the fear of Isaiah, and the fear of the disciples can all be understood in the context of fallen man in the presence of absolute holiness. People who treat Jesus flippantly, as if He were some type of cosmic candy man or ATM machine have never understood the splendor of His majesty or the enormity of their sin.

^{17 (con’t)} This is none other than the house of God,

This again is a picture and a confirmation of who Jesus is. Jacob exclaims that where he was is the house of God – Bethel. Beit means house and El means God. Wherever the Lord manifests Himself, the house of God is seen. We know that it isn’t a single location on earth, but wherever the Lord is revealed.

^{17 (con’t)} and this is the gate of heaven!”

John was on the island of Patmos when he had a vision. In Revelation 4, he sees what Jacob saw – “After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven.”

The word used for door in this verse in Revelation is the Greek word thyra. The NIV translates this same word “gate” in John 10:9 – “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture.”

The gate of heaven which Jacob saw is the ladder, it is the path, it is the entrance and means of access into heaven. It is the Lord above the ladder. Everything we are seeing cries out – “It is Jesus.” When we understand who He is and what He means for each of us, we too can – like Jacob – exclaim “This is the gate of heaven.”

There is a narrow gate at the end of a narrow path which opens to the wide expanses of heaven’s glory. And there is a wide path, with a broad gate, which leads to the narrow confines of hell’s prison. The choice is ours whom we will follow. Me… I follow Jesus.

¹⁸ Then Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put at his head, set it up as a pillar,

As soon as he got up, he took his stone pillow and stood it up as a makeshift altar and then poured oil on it as an act of consecration. It doesn’t appear that he has any idea that this was the same spot where many years earlier Abraham had also built an altar.

There is nothing pagan in what he is doing here. Monuments and altars are noted throughout the early books of the Bible. His anointing this stone is a demonstration of his faith in the vision he had seen and the promises it held.

But the stone he erects and what he is doing to it here… Yes, it all points to Jesus. The ladder had a beginning in heaven with the Lord. The ladder is the Lord. And the ladder has a set point on earth where it rests – on a stone.

The stone is Jesus. And no, I’m not stretching this at all. The words for “the stone that he had put at his head” are ha’eben asher sam merashotav. The same words for “stone” and “head” are found in the 118th Psalm and are speaking of Jesus, eben ma’asu habownim ha’yetah le’rosh pinnah

The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone.

The stone in the field was never used in the construction of the city – it was rejected. And yet it became the chief cornerstone of Bethel, the House of God.

^{18 (con’t)} and poured oil on top of it.

The oil is poured on the stone to consecrate it as the entry point to the House of God. The High Priest of Israel, the prophets, and the King of Israel were anointed with oil on their heads. The king is the ruler, the prophet is the one who speaks the word, and the High Priest is the mediator.

Like them, Jesus is the Ruler at the top of the ladder and Jesus is the Ladder, the Mediator. But Jesus was also the One who came to earth to suffer for us as well. When He did, He was anointed before He was crucified. He has become our access point into the House of God, our Mediator, and our Lord. Hebrews 1 show us this –

But to the Son He says: “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom. ⁹ You have loved  righteousness and hated lawlessness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of gladness more than Your companions.”

And to confirm all of this, we come to the next verse…

¹⁹ And he called the name of that place Bethel; but the name of that city had been Luz previously.

The place is called Bethel – the House of God, a picture of heaven where God resides. But, the former name of the city is given as well – Luz. Most concordances translate Luz as “almond” getting this through a back door translation of Genesis 30:37.

But the word comes from a verb which means “to turn aside” in a negative way – such as turning away from wisdom or being a twisted person.

Abrarim gives us the correct meaning of Luz when they say that it was named after a “crooked and perverse generation” that lived there. This is the reason Jacob didn’t enter the city – because of the twisted and crooked nature which the name Luz implies.

And this is exactly a picture of Jesus – 6 times – in Matthew, Mark, Luke, Acts, and 1 and 2 Peter He is called the Stone the builders rejected. Then in Acts chapter 2, Peter says to the people of Israel, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” (ESV). The symbolism given here is so exact it’s amazing.

This Stone was rejected by the crooked city and yet it becomes the cornerstone of Bethel, the House of God, picturing heaven. Instead of entering Luz Jacob slept in the field and he had a vision of the glory of the Lord who would come to the twisted and crooked earth, leaving the glory of the House of God, to redeem his people.

Remember this is symbolized in Jacob’s trip from Beersheba to Paddan Aram – the redemption of man. A 19th century Rabbi named Joseph Rozen explains the mystery of Luz which is also a fruit similar to the almond but which matures differently –

“Luz starts off sweet and becomes bitter, in contrast to almond which starts bitter and becomes sweet.”

Man corrupted the sweet earth created by God and it became bitter – Luz. The Lord has come to restore what was made bitter by restoring to us access to the House of God – Bethel.

I hope you’ll give me just two more minutes to explain to you how He does this and how you too can enter into the House of God when your days expire.

Next Week: Genesis 28:20-22 (Our Christian Offering)

Closing Verse: Mercy and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed. ¹¹ Truth shall spring out of the earth, And righteousness shall look down from heaven. Psalm 85:10, 11

Jesus – Our Ladder to Heaven

Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran
So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night
Because the sun had set and he just couldn’t go on
And he took one of the stones of the place that felt just right

And put it as his head using it as a pillow
And he lay down in that place to sleep
Then he dreamed, and behold… saw this fellow
A ladder was set up on the earth and to heaven it did sweep

And there the angels of God were ascending
And there the angels of God were descending

And behold the Lord stood above it and said
“I am the Lord God of Abraham your father
And the God of Isaac, whom you misled
And yet he blessed you, you and not another

The land on which you lie I will give to you
And after you your descendants are granted it too

Also your descendants shall be
As the dust of the earth is the promise from my mouth
You shall spread abroad to the four corners, you see
To the west and the east, to the north and the south

And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed
Behold I am with you and will keep you wherever you go
And I will bring you back to this land, be not depressed
For I will not leave you until I have done this, it is so

Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said
“Surely the Lord is in this place
And yet I did not know it but instead
Now I have the assurance of His great grace

And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place
This is none other than the house of God
It is the gate of heaven where it and earth interlace
It is the place where angels do trod

Then Jacob rose in the morning, early
And took the stone that he had put at his head
He set it up as a pillar, where the gates are pearly
And poured oil on top of it, as its name he said

And he called the name of that place Bethel
But the name of that city was Luz previously
And the names in themselves have a story to tell
Because we have in them a picture, you see

These things are given to show us God’s story
Which is revealed in our beautiful Lord Jesus
Heaven, the ladder, the stone – all tell of His glory
And the mission on which He came to redeem us

Let us cherish these precious stories
And in them search out Jesus’ glories

And as we ponder them in our heart
May we remember to give God our praise
And commit our lives to make a fresh start
Determined to walk with the Lord all of our days

Hallelujah and Amen…

 

Genesis 27:41-46
The Brother’s Anger
A Picture of Church Reformation

Introduction: Today we have just a few short verses to consider, but I believe that what’s being seen in them is a picture of the true people of God within the church and even a picture of what necessitated the Protestant Reformation and many other breaking away actions in the church since then.

There always have been true believers, and those who profess faith but have none. This was true in Israel and this has been true since the founding of the church. I’ll give two examples – one from the Old Testament and one from the New for you to consider.

The first is from Ezekiel 8. He has a vision and during that vision he’s taken to Jerusalem and sees the pagan practices going on right in the temple, by those who are supposed to be the people of God –

Then He said to me, “Son of man, lift your eyes now toward the north.” So I lifted my eyes toward the north, and there, north of the altar gate, was this image of jealousy in the entrance.

⁶ Furthermore He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel commits here, to make Me go far away from My sanctuary? Now turn again, you will see greater abominations.” ⁷ So He brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, there was a hole in the wall. ⁸ Then He said to me, “Son of man, dig into the wall”; and when I dug into the wall, there was a door.

⁹ And He said to me, “Go in, and see the wicked abominations which they are doing there.” ¹⁰ So I went in and saw, and there—every sort of creeping thing, abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed all around on the walls. ¹¹ And there stood before them seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, and in their midst stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan. Each man had a censer in his hand, and a thick cloud of incense went up. ¹² Then He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the room of his idols? For they say, ‘The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the land.’”

¹³ And He said to me, “Turn again, and you will see greater abominations that they are doing.” ¹⁴ So He brought me to the door of the north gate of the Lord’s house; and to my dismay, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz.

¹⁵ Then He said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Turn again, you will see greater abominations than these.” ¹⁶ So He brought me into the inner court of the Lord’s house; and there, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, and they were worshiping the sun toward the east.

¹⁷ And He said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it a trivial thing to the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have filled the land with violence; then they have returned to provoke Me to anger. Indeed they put the branch to their nose. ¹⁸ Therefore I also will act in fury. My eye will not spare nor will I have pity; and though they cry in My ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.”

In the New Testament it is no different –

Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, ² speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, ³ forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. ⁴ For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving; ⁵ for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. 1 Timothy 4

As you can see, false worshippers fill the halls of history and reach both back before the cross and forward after it. If you noticed some of the similarities between both accounts and the Roman church, then you’ve been paying attention. I am not against Catholics, but I am against their church doctrine.

There is one Lord and He has given one word for the people of God. As we will see, this conflict between two brothers prefigures the conflict between these two ideologies.

Text Verse: ¹⁰ Then Shaphan the scribe showed the king, saying, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it before the king. ¹¹ Now it happened, when the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, that he tore his clothes. 2 Kings 22

Good King Josiah was one of the great kings of Israel. When the Law of Moses, which had been forgotten for so long was found, it was read to him and he mourned over how God’s word had been neglected. He began great reforms in Israel to turn the people’s hearts back to the Lord.

In church history, this has happened as well on several occasions, most notably at the time of Martin Luther and the great protestant reformation. Man turns from God’s laws, but God brings in new men to restore the truth.

May we determine in our hearts to never stray from His good word to us. And so… May God speak to us through His word today and may His glorious name ever be praised.

I. The Elder’s Hatred

The last three sermons, all from Genesis 27, highlighted the way in which Jacob obtained the blessing from Isaac which Isaac had intended for Esau. Today we have just six verses left in chapter 27 and which form, as I said, a pattern realized in the Protestant Reformation of the Church as well as other church reorganizations.

The details of this chapter are happening when Jacob and Esau are 77 years old and Isaac is 136. Therefore, this is about the year 2245AM and its 61 years after Abraham died.

⁴¹ So Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him, and Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”

Esau is naturally upset at what happened between him and Jacob. Isaac asked him to go hunting and make a meal for him so that when he came back he could bless him. While he was gone, Jacob deceivingly obtained the blessing that he was promised.

There is room for anger in every person, particularly at sin. But there is no room for anger if it will allow the devil in. We saw this first when Cain slew Abel. The Lord told him at that time –

“So the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? ⁷ If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.” Genesis 4:6, 7

Cain didn’t heed the lesson and it ended in murder. The same thing happened between two of David’s sons after he became King of Israel as 2 Samuel 13 records –

“Now Absalom had commanded his servants, saying, “Watch now, when Amnon’s heart is merry with wine, and when I say to you, ‘Strike Amnon!’ then kill him. Do not be afraid. Have I not commanded you? Be courageous and valiant.” ²⁹ So the servants of Absalom did to Amnon as Absalom had commanded. Then all the king’s sons arose, and each one got on his mule and fled.”

Amnon, half brother of Absalom, had forcefully slept with Absalom’s sister Tamar and then rejected her and Absalom held a grudge which again led to the murder of his brother.

David, Absalom’s father, may have been thinking of what happened when he wrote these words in the 4^th Psalm –

“Be angry, and do not sin. Meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still. Selah ⁵ Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, And put your trust in the Lord.”

Paul built upon David’s words and said this to us in Ephesians 4 –

“‘Be angry, and do not sin’: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, ²⁷ nor give place to the devil.” (explain)

So getting back to Esau, it’s possible that he actually thought about regaining the birthright, and thus the blessing, by killing Jacob. He said, “The days for mourning my father are at hand” meaning that his dad was old and he expected him to die soon.

He had already gotten married at the age of 40, but Jacob is 77 and still unmarried. If his brother were to die before he married, then the birthright and the blessing would ostensibly revert to him.

It would also be a slap at the God he had rejected because he would also defeat the oracle God had stated to Rebekah before they were born about the older serving the younger. This shows the profane mind of one who would attempt to cast off God’s rule.

It also shows that he was probably afraid of his dad, even though he was old, blind, and stuck in bed. As the Geneva Bible says, “Hypocrites only abstain from doing evil for fear of men.”

Unfortunately for Esau, he would fail on all accounts, Jacob discovered his intent and fled, and his father would live more than 40 more years, to the age of 180. During this time, Jacob will have two wives, 12 sons, and at least one daughter, maybe more. God’s divine plan prevailed as it always will.

John Gill writes of another possibility concerning this entire scenario that I want to point out, even though I don’t agree with it. One of his contemporaries named Schmidt looks at the passage in a completely different way than all other interpreters.

He sees “the days of my father’s mourning are coming” not that his father would be mourned for, being dead, but that his father, being alive, would himself mourn for Jacob, being slain by Esau.

And so he renders the next clause, “for I will slay my brother Jacob” which will make Isaac mourn and maybe die of grief. If this is correct Esau is showing an ill will to Isaac for confirming Jacob’s blessing and to Jacob because he got the blessing.

Either way, whether he intended to kill Jacob after his father was mourned for, or kill Jacob and thus make his father mourn, Esau intended to kill Jacob and throw off God’s rule in the process. I believe this short account prefigures church reformation and the next verse is where we begin to see this…

⁴² And the words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah. So she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said to him, “Surely your brother Esau comforts himself concerning you by intending to kill you.

Please try to follow my logic here. In the past, Rebekah has been a picture of the church, the people of God. If you didn’t see the sermons on Genesis 24, you really need to watch them to understand, but nothing could be clearer.

There is strife between the two children which goes back to their time in the womb. There God spoke these words –

Two nations are in your womb,
Two peoples shall be separated from your body;
One people shall be stronger than the other,
And the older shall serve the younger. (23)

These words are fulfilled in the Israelites and the Edomites, but because she pictures the church, I believe they are also fulfilled in the Church. The Roman Catholic Church is what we might consider the “older brother” and the reformation is the younger.

But this is a “type” or picture of the true church and the false one, not specifically Roman Catholics. We need to remember that Jacob was chosen by God and he arrived at the same time as Esau. He is the true son of blessing and through whom the Messiah came.

The same is true with the church. The older came about at the same time as the younger. One is the bearer of the Messiah – the true people of God, and one gave up it’s birthright for works and idolatry. It also gave up its spiritual blessing through ritual.

In those Genesis 24 sermons, we spoke of Rebekah’s wet nurse and lifelong companion, who was Deborah. She is, as I clearly demonstrated, a picture of the word of God. Genesis 35:8 says that she was with Jacob after returning from his 20 year stay in Haran when he fled from Esau.

Because he stayed there the entire time and she returned with him, then she must have left with him as well. Deborah, a picture of the word of God, went to Haran with Jacob. We know this is so.

In other words, from Rebekah, as a picture of the church, there is a portion of people who have always held to the word of God, having been promised in advance, having been raised with the word, and having carried that same word with them.

And then there is the other offspring which has been married to foreign and pagan wives. This is Esau as we will see in a few verses. Likewise, we saw in the passage from Ezekiel earlier those who had joined themselves to foreign and pagan idols right in the temple, and just as the Catholic church does through idol worship, the veneration of Mary and the saints, etc.

And this older, unspiritual son who failed to receive the birthright or the blessing threatened to kill the younger son. The pattern is true in ancient Israel where the priests killed the prophets and the people who held to the true God and His word.

It has also has happened in Christianity as well. How many times throughout church history have we seen it. The Spanish Inquisition, the burning of martyrs like John Hus, the trials of Martin Luther, and on and on and on.

There is an enmity and a hatred within the church which even prompted the Catholic church to actually take a stand completely contrary to the precepts of the Bible. This happened at the Council of Trent in 1546.

At this council, they published a list of canons which at once and completely cut themselves off from the truth of the gospel and the word of God.

However, as we will see in chapter 33, Jacob and Esau eventually met and the hostility was dropped, but then they parted again and went their separate ways. This is the state of the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches today. There is no longer a blood feud, but there is a complete division between the two.

And the pattern continues in the church. Not specifically between Rome and the other churches, but between the true son of promise who holds to the word of God, and the spiritually corrupt, pictured by Esau, who don’t.

This isn’t a Roman Catholic versus Protestant conflict, but a conflict where the dividing line is a spiritual versus a carnal heritage. The Protestant Reformation merely made the largest distinction between the two in the lives of the church.

Let’s reread verse 42 again – “And the words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah. So she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said to him, “Surely your brother Esau comforts himself concerning you by intending to kill you.”

The children of the church were conceived at the same time, but only one is the true spiritual church and the older shall serve the younger. And yes, the older has intended on killing the younger because of their heritage.

As Matthew Henry says about this verse, “The happiness of saints is the envy of sinners. Whom Heaven blesses, hell curses.”

II. Time for Healing

⁴³ Now therefore, my son, obey my voice: arise, flee to my brother Laban in Haran.

Rebekah seeing that disaster has been pronounced upon her beloved son tells Jacob to flee to Laban in Haran. Interestingly, Haran means “mountainous.” In what seems to be a parallel thought from Isaiah chapter 40, those who carry the gospel message are told this –

O Zion, You who bring good tidings, Get up into the high mountain;
O Jerusalem, You who bring good tidings, Lift up your voice with strength,
Lift it up, be not afraid; Say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!” Isaiah 40:9

The true church has held fast to the Bible and has proclaimed from the high mountain the gospel for 2000 years, exactly as the Lord has directed. The good tidings of the truth of God’s word are being shouted out with a loud voice and with strength.

At the same time as Jacob went to the mountains, Esau remained in Canaan and mixed first with pagan, idolatrous wives and later married two more women who were daughters of Ishmael – who pictures the law. He went from the bondage of idolatry and moved to the bondage of legalism and works-based religion.

⁴⁴ And stay with him a few days, until your brother’s fury turns away,

“A few days” is the term yammim akhadim and it turned out to be somewhere around 20 years. However long it was, there is no record in the Bible of Jacob ever seeing his mother again.

It’s an argument from silence to say it didn’t happen, but no matter what it was at least twenty years and maybe never again did their eyes alight upon each other. It was a high cost for Rebekah, but it was in fulfillment of God’s word and His plan.

And the pattern has been repeated many, many times throughout history. Those who are of the true spiritual line bearing the word of God have left home and family to carry the message of Christ around the world. Many have never returned home again.

In past times, missionaries even packed their few belongings into a casket, determining that when they returned it would be they who filled it. When they went, they went with God’s blessing and His word, and when they returned it was in a state of victory over the death that consumed them.

⁴⁵ until your brother’s anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him; then I will send and bring you from there.

What is almost sad is what Rebekah says to Jacob, until Esau “forgets what you have done to him.” Deceiving Isaac was her idea in the first place and Jacob questioned the prudence of it from the start, but now she overlooks her own part in the whole thing.

Anyway, as I said earlier, Jacob and Esau eventually met again and the hostility was dropped, but then they divided and went their separate ways. This is how things are between the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches today. There is no longer a blood feud, but there is a complete division between the two.

There is also nothing to preclude anyone who is in a bad church from coming to their senses and there is nothing which would lead us to believe the Esau remained defiant of God until his death. Either way though, the enmity subsided between the two.

^{45 (cont’)} Why should I be bereaved also of you both in one day?”

What she is saying is that if Esau were to have killed Jacob, he could also have been killed. This custom, which was codified in the Law of Moses, was that a close relative had the right to kill another person who took the life of a family member.

Just because only Jacob and Esau are mentioned as Isaac’s sons, there is no reason to believe he didn’t have other sons as well. And in fact, the blessing that Isaac gave to Jacob in this same chapter uses the plural term “brothers.” Let me read it to you –

²⁹ Let peoples serve you, And nations bow down to you. Be master over your brethren, And let your mother’s sons bow down to you.

Likewise, when talking to Esau afterwards, Isaac says this to him –

³⁷ Then Isaac answered and said to Esau, “Indeed I have made him your master, and all his brethren I have given to him as servants; with grain and wine I have sustained him. What shall I do now for you, my son?”

So Rebekah very well may fear that another one of her own sons, if there really are any, could legally take Esau’s life for what he planned to do to Jacob. Even if they were Isaac’s only two children there was still the law of God given to Noah in Genesis 9 –

From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man. ⁶ “Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man.

Whether by another of her sons or by someone executing the law in their place, either way in this she would lose two sons “in one day” just as she said.

These words of Rebekah have a parallel in Jesus’ words about those who are of the true spiritual line and those who aren’t. Listen to His parable and notice the similarities –

“The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; ²⁵ but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. ²⁶ But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. ²⁷ So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ ²⁸ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ ²⁹ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. ³⁰ Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”

III. Weary of Evildoers

⁴⁶ And Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth; if Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth, like these who are the daughters of the land, what good will my life be to me?”

In Genesis 26 we saw that Esau had married two women who were Hittites or local women from Canaan. Rebekah will use his marriages to get Jacob a passage out of the area.

Rather than hurting Isaac’s feelings by bringing up Esau’s intentions of killing Jacob, and of which Isaac may have had no idea at all about, Rebekah tells him about her weariness concerning the daughters of Heth that Esau had married.

She tells Isaac that she doesn’t want Jacob to have a wife from the area. Her intent is to send him to her own home, where she came from in Mesopotamia, to get a wife from there, and to allow space and time to heal Esau’s bitterness.

An interesting thing occurs in the Hebrew of this verse which has only happened 3 times so far in the Bible

The Hebrew word for “weary” – “I am weary of my life” is qaz-ti. It means to feel a loathing, abhorrence, or sickening dread. This particular word, in the original hand-written Hebrew has an unusually small letter quph or our “q.”

In all, there will be very few times in the entire Bible that such rare letters will be used – only 17 in the five books of Moses and a few others after them. God is giving us clues about Himself and His plan of redemption in these unusual sized letters.

Quph is the 19^th letter of the Hebrew aleph-bet and its image, or the picture it makes, is the sun at the horizon. In this context, it can mean condense, circle, or time. The 19^th Psalm uses the name of the letter in one of its verses –

In them He has set a tabernacle for the sun, ⁵ Which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, And rejoices like a strong man to run its race. ⁶ Its rising is from one end of heaven, And its circuit to the other end; And there is nothing hidden from its heat.

The word circuit is the word quph. What I think is being said by Rebekah is that the never-ending cycle of life, its weariness, is brought on by the “daughters of Heth” (their pagan practices.) The same word that she uses for “weary” is used in Leviticus and under the same concept –

“And you shall not walk in the statutes of the nation which I am casting out before you; for they commit all these things, and therefore I abhor them.” Leviticus 20:23

The word “abhorred” is the same as Rebekah uses to say “weary.” So once again, I believe this obscure small letter in this one word is telling us that there is a true church and there is a false one.

According to Paul, we’re not to be unevenly yoked with non believers because they will pull us away from following the Lord with all our heart. This is what Rebekah is implying to Jacob and it is the lesson found time and time again in the Bible.

He wants us to not mingle our faith with false practices, such as idol worship, tarot cards, rosary beads, praying to saints or to Mary, horoscopes, or any other false religious practice. And He also asks us to not intermingle with those who follow those practices in marriage.

I don’t think this is stretching this even one bit. This one small letter is there and it is given in the greater context of Jacob needing a wife, and keeping the purity of the line which leads to the Messiah and which springs from the Messiah… the people of God.

Esau already has two wives, both of which are pagans.

It’s probably good to note that despite the turmoil between the descendants of Jacob and those of Esau, the line of Esau eventually was assimilated into the Israelite people and they became extinct as an individual group.

However, even until today, the people of Israel survive. In the same way, the people of the false church, the idolaters, the false worshippers, those who reject the word of God – all of them will also become extinct, but the name of Jesus and the people of His church will continue on forever.

We have no need to worry if this is so. God chose us before the foundation of the world and those who reject Him will suffer the consequences of their decision, just as Esau did – losing his birthright and his blessing and eventually disappearing into history.

Let me tell you how you can be a part of the true people of God by faith in Jesus Christ…

Closing Verse: And He called to the man clothed with linen, who had the writer’s inkhorn at his side; ⁴ and the Lord said to him, “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it.” ⁵ To the others He said in my hearing, “Go after him through the city and kill; do not let your eye spare, nor have any pity. ⁶ Utterly slay old and young men, maidens and little children and women; but do not come near anyone on whom is the mark; and begin at My sanctuary.”  Ezekiel 9

Next Week:  Genesis 28:1-9 (May God Almighty Bless You)

Holding Fast to God’s Word

So Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing
With which his father had blessed him in his tent
And Esau said in his heart as he was guessing
The time of his father’s death and his life would be spent

The days of mourning for my father are at hand
And then I will kill my brother Jacob, won’t it be grand!

And the words of Esau her older son were told
To Rebekah, so she sent and called for Jacob her son
And she said to him, “Surely your brother Esau is quite bold
He comforts himself by killing you my precious one

Now therefore, my son, obey my voice
Arise, flee to my brother Laban in Haran
And stay with him a while, there really is no choice
Until your brother’s fury turns away and is gone

When he forgets what you to him have done
Then I will send and bring you from there
Why should I be bereaved of you also, my son
Both of you in one day, this I couldn’t bear

And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life
Because of the daughters of this land, those of Heth
It would be terrible if from them Jacob got a wife
What good would life be to me… it seems worse than death.

In these verses we have lessons to learn
Concerning our affiliation with right living
It is our duty to all wicked things spurn
And only to the Lord should our allegiance we be giving

When our church departs from His word
It is our duty to remove ourselves hence
And stand fast by following the Lord
We need to always use the best common sense

He is our Lord and to Him alone is our allegiance due
And so let our eyes fix upon Him and our hearts be true

Great is the Lord and surely He is worthy of praise
And so shall we follow Him and glorify Him all of our days

Hallelujah and Amen…

Genesis 27:30-40
It’s Not Deja Vous 

Introduction: The story we’ve been looking at is hard for us to accept unless we look carefully into what happened and why. Before Jacob and Esau were born, God knew the outcome. He looked at the hearts of the two boys and made His divine choice as to who would receive the birthright and the blessing.

As with all things in the Bible, faith is the key. Let me give you an example to think about.

If you have two employees, and a long term plan of what you want accomplished, which would you prefer to have? You make a list of things you want done daily which will keep the employees busy, but you also give to them insights into the long term vision.

The first person does exactly what he is told to do but without any regard to the ultimate goal. He is so concerned about fulfilling the details that the final objective has no relevance in his daily actions.

The second is obedient, but may miss the mark occasionally. However, his eyes are constantly on the end goal of the company. It is his one main objective. He understands the need for the daily tasks, but they don’t consume him, they guide him to the goal.

Which is the better choice and why? Think about that for a while.

Text Verse: “I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near; A Star shall come out of Jacob; A Scepter shall rise out of Israel, And batter the brow of Moab, And destroy all the sons of tumult. ¹⁸ “And Edom shall be a possession; Seir also, his enemies, shall be a possession, While Israel does valiantly. ¹⁹ Out of Jacob One shall have dominion, And destroy the remains of the city.” Numbers 24:17-19

It never ceases to amaze me what God has done in His beautiful creation and in His plan of redemption. And His word is such a treasure because everything about it keeps pointing to Jesus. God in His wisdom gave twins to Rebekah and determined that one would serve the other.

That prophecy has come to pass just like everything in the Bible either has or will come to pass. We have a sure word and a hope grounded in the surety of the truth of God and so… May God speak to us through His word today and may His glorious name ever be praised.

I. The Missed Blessing

As we’ve seen in the past sermons about Jacob and Esau, they prefigure Christ and Adam. Last week, we saw that Christ came as a Man and prevailed over Adam’s transgression and this was pictured in the blessing of Jacob instead of Esau.

As I said then, what Jacob did was deceptive, but God recorded it to show us the pattern of what would occur – not the deception, but that Christ really came as a Man. It isn’t a 1 for 1 picture.

What Jesus did was without deception, but so that we can see the patterns of Adam and Christ, we have been given this story. We now continue on with the account.

³⁰ Now it happened, as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting.

No sooner does Jacob leave Isaac’s tent, then Esau comes into it. There is a repetition in the verse which commentators look at as this being as close as it gets – Ya’akov v’hi akh yaso yasa – Jacob came and was yet gone gone…

The Jewish scholar Jarchi sees the doubling of the word yaso yasa or “gone gone” as the one going out and the other coming in at the same time.

No matter whether they stopped to talk about the weather, just waved as they passed each other, or just missed each other by a breath, it was exceedingly close and points directly to the hand of God upon this entire thing.

Esau was hunting and God provided an animal at the exact spot and time where he would be back, have it prepared, and brought in at this exact moment. There is no chance in this account, but the deliberate timing and foreknowledge of God.

Jacob, who is Israel, was to receive the blessing and through him and his people would come Jesus. Nothing is left to chance and nothing happened apart from God’s infinite wisdom.

Whether Rebekah and Jacob’s actions were right in our eyes doesn’t change what we are to learn – God made and oversaw the selection of both the birthright and the blessing.

³¹ He also had made savory food, and brought it to his father, and said to his father, “Let my father arise and eat of his son’s game, that your soul may bless me.”

Right at the beginning of this chapter, Isaac said this to Esau –

“Now therefore, please take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me. ⁴ And make me savory food, such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die.”

Esau has done exactly what he was asked to do and this verse repeats it. Esau didn’t skip anything and he was completely obedient and yet he missed out on the blessing. In this, we can see many people in the world today, crossing all the “t’s” and dotting all the “i’s” and yet they lack the faith God seeks.

God gives us His word, the Bible, and in it are all kinds of do’s and don’ts – things anyone can do and many spend their whole life doing, and yet they will be excluded from the prize. Paul explains why in Romans 9 –

What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; ³¹ but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. ³² Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. ³³ As it is written: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”

This isn’t limited to Jews alone, but to anyone who pursues God’s favor through works apart from faith. Jacob may have been cunning in how he obtained his father’s blessing, but he had faith in what he did.

Esau followed his father’s instructions, but God saw his heart. He was working his deeds in order to be blessed instead of living by faith in order to be blessed. The tastiest food in the world is no substitute for the loving mother’s hand who prepares the simplest meal, and the favor of God rests only on those who live by faith.

³² And his father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?” So he said, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.”

Isaac must have thought he was hearing things or confused in his head because the recognizable voice of Esau is speaking, but he’s just had a meal and blessed who he thought was Esau. “I’ve done this before.” No Isaac, it’s not deja vous.

Imagine you’re talking to someone and then realize they aren’t the person you thought you were talking to. When that happens, you have a moment of stupor and you try to sort things out. This is where Isaac is and to help him along, Esau responds in a way which is truthful but at the same is not correct.

He says “I am your son.” This is correct, but then he says, “I am your firstborn.” This is truthful, but it’s not exactly correct. He sold his birthright to Jacob and so even though he is technically the firstborn, he no longer has the rights of the firstborn, including the right to claim he is the firstborn, even though he is. Confused?

And he finishes with “Esau.” He gives his name as he received it when he was born, not as it was changed when he sold his birthright. What he is saying is literally the truth, but it is deceptive none the less.

We can see the same concepts running through the people of Israel and those who are the true sons of God. In Exodus 4 we read this –

Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Israel is My son, My firstborn. (vs. 22)

Afterward, however, God gave Israel the law which included circumcision, but there was more than just circumcision. In order to be considered a true member of the faith, more was necessary. Paul explains this in Romans 2 –

For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law; but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. ²⁶ Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? ²⁷ And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you who, even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law? ²⁸ For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; ²⁹ but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.

Both Deuteronomy and Jeremiah speak of the circumcision of the heart, Paul is building on what the law already says. A Jew cannot claim the title without bearing what goes along with the title.

Likewise Esau couldn’t legitimately bear the title because he no longer bore what went along with it. And if he couldn’t bear the title, then he really wasn’t entitled to the blessing either.

³³ Then Isaac trembled exceedingly, and said, “Who?

The Hebrew here says that Isaac “trembled with a great trembling greatly.” He was so confused and so overwrought that he literally shook violently at what occurred. This is the same word used to describe the trembling of the people at Mount Sinai and even the quaking of the mountain itself in Exodus 19 –

Then it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain; and the sound of the trumpet was very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. ¹⁷ And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. ¹⁸ Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.

Just as with the events at Sinai for the people of Israel, Isaac’s trembling came from astonishment at the divine sign. We know because of what he will says in the continuation of verse 33…

^{33 (con’t)} Where is the one who hunted game and brought it to me? I ate all of it before you came, and I have blessed him—and indeed he shall be blessed.”

With sudden clarity, Isaac sees completely what has just happened. The people at the foot of Sinai received no greater insight into the work of God than Isaac has now seen. The food was received, the blessing was given, and indeed Jacob shall be blessed.

The heavens have opened Isaac’s dead eyes to the fulfillment of the plan of God which was prophesied while the two boys were still in Rebekah’s womb. What his physical eyes missed because of blindness, his spiritual eyes have now comprehended.

With lucidity of mind, he has come to realize that the blessing isn’t subject to his affection for Esau, but is a right which was entrusted to him by God’s grace, just as it was to his father before him. Because it is of divine Source it is transferred by divine choice.

He has been impelled by a higher authority to pass on what he received to the son chosen by the One who originally bestowed it. The will of man was excluded in this transfer and therefore man could not randomly choose to withdraw it; Isaac can’t take it back.

Isaiah 14 shows us that this is true. All things come about by the sovereign will and purpose of God –

For the Lord of hosts has purposed, And who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, And who will turn it back?” (vs. 27)

The particular special note for us today is that of all of the things that Isaac could have been remembered for in the great Hall of Faith which is recorded in Hebrews chapter 11, the blessings upon these two men is what was chosen. There it says –

By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. (vs. 20)

Isaac realized that the blessing he had pronounced rightfully belonged to Jacob and so he said to Esau, “I have blessed him—and indeed he shall be blessed.” What I have spoken I have spoken and the blessing will remain upon Jacob.

God looked at his words here and credited it to him in His own word for all time as righteousness – “By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau.” There was no going back and there was only the determination that what had occurred was by divine guidance.

Edom gave up his rights and Jacob stepped in and claimed them. Likewise, Adam made his choice and gave up paradise. Jesus came and received it back. Now Adam’s children can accept what Jesus has done or they can remain in Adam.

³⁴ When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, “Bless me—me also, O my father!”

Isaac trembled with a great trembling and now Esau cries with an exceedingly great and bitter cry. The emotional level is probably as high as in any room ever in human history. The Latin Vulgate says Esau roared. It is as if he were a lion in the anguish of hunger.

Barakheni gam-ani avi  (0:600 min) “Bless me—me also, O my father!” Unfortunately by the divine Providence the blessing had been given and what was spoken could not be reversed. Once again, as with a jillion other examples in the Bible, when God’s divine will is spoken, what comes is done for all time.

As sad as this is for Esau, we can take comfort in exactly this fact. When God seals a believer in His Son, it is done for all time. His will can never be thwarted. Salvation is, by necessity, eternal. What Esau lost in his blessing is done. The same is true in Christ for all who call on Him as Lord – it is done.

II. Words Have Meaning

³⁵ But he said, “Your brother came with deceit and has taken away your blessing.”

Isaac in his clear thinking puts less blame on Jacob than he is excusing his actions to Esau. If two people were out and there was an accident, the response to the police would be different based on their relationship.

If they weren’t friends, the one talking to the cop might say, “He was driving way too fast. Because of his recklessness, we had an accident.” But if they were friends, he might say, “My friend was tying to get me to work and I was pressuring him to get me there.”

The difference in how we present an argument is based on who the affected parties are and the circumstances that brought about the case. Isaac is excusing his actions to Esau more than blaming Jacob. This is clear based on a word used in the next verse.

³⁶ And Esau said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob?

Young’s literal translation of the Bible gives us the best sense of what I think Esau says, “And he saith, ‘Is it because one called his name Jacob that he doth take me by the heel these two times?’” In other words, “Is he doing this because of the name he was given?” He isn’t sure of the reason behind the action.

If Isaac had blamed Jacob directly, Esau would have responded as many translations state it, in an affirmative way. But instead, he is asking it from a state of unknowing and reaching for an answer. “Why? And is this the answer – because of his name?”

But we’ve already looked at why. Earlier, in verse 31 I said, “Esau followed his father’s instructions, but God saw his heart. He was working his deeds in order to be blessed instead of living by faith in order to be blessed.”

Paul, speaking about the promises of God to Abraham apart from works of the law shows us how this works in Romans 4 –

“For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. ¹⁴ For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect,…”

Esau wasn’t under the law, but he was seeking the promise in the same way. He was doing exactly what Isaac had ordered but without faith in what the promise signified. Let me ask you something similar to what I asked you earlier –

Which will God be pleased with? The first is a person who follows every detail of the Bible scrupulously, but doesn’t believe what the Bible says. Rather, he is doing it because as a priest, he gets a great salary, great benefits, and a light workload.

The second is a guy who is absolutely in love with Jesus, reads and cherishes his Bible, does what he can to be a good and obedient Christian, but falls short of what the Bible expects time and time again – making errors and then asking God to forgive him and change him so that he is pleasing to God.

The fact is, God has no respect for the first and has great and tender care for the latter, such as David and Paul. It is faith and an obedient heart that God desires rather than scrupulous attendance to the precepts while not believing the intent behind them.

The first is Esau. The latter is Jacob. Esau was living life and doing what was necessary to get to the next meal, but he never saw any use for what lay ahead. Dad’s promise of a blessing was met with complete obedience to the tasks, but with no regard to the ultimate goal that the blessing would provide.

Jacob missed the mark by being a deceiver, but it was with the intent and goal of the promised blessing. And he allowed himself to be prompted along by his mother who carried the prophecy, just as we are to allow ourselves to be prompted by the word of the Bible and the Spirit who likewise carry for us God’s direction.

^{36 (con’t)} For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright, and now look, he has taken away my blessing!”

In an attempt to answer his own question as to why, Esau now states two inaccuracies. The first is that Jacob took away his birthright, which in fact he sold for soup. The second is that he took away the blessing, which in fact now belonged to Jacob because of the birthright.

Also, Jacob didn’t take it away. Instead Isaac gave it away to Jacob, even if it was done under false pretenses. But because of his perceived wrongs, he says Jacob supplanted him and uses a word which is the same root as “Jacob” and means “to grasp the heel.”

^{36 (con’t)} And he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?”

This is an obvious question and Isaac’s answer may seem all the more surprising when we see that Jacob would later make pronouncements over all 12 of his sons and two of his grandsons as well. “Isn’t there more than one blessing in your tent for me dad?”

³⁷ Then Isaac answered and said to Esau, “Indeed I have made him your master, and all his brethren I have given to him as servants; with grain and wine I have sustained him. What shall I do now for you, my son?”

Jacob will bless two of his grandsons and make pronouncements over all of his sons, but he will do it in a way which will make distinctions between them and which will find a fulfillment in each one of them individually. We’ll see this in Genesis 48 and 49.

However, Isaac’s blessing on Jacob was an all-encompassing bestowal of the good things to be found leading to the Messiah as well as authority over his brothers, and other earthly and spiritual blessings. Because of this, his question is obvious, “What shall I do now for you, my son?”

³⁸ And Esau said to his father, “Have you only one blessing, my father? Bless me—me also, O my father!” And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.

The words of Hebrews chapter 12 ring forth from this verse in Genesis –

¹⁴ Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: ¹⁵ looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled; ¹⁶ lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. ¹⁷ For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.

There is a godly way to walk and an ungodly and profane way to walk. Esau chose the ungodly way and in the end, it cost him. We can go back and ask ourselves – “Did God’s prophecy about Esau serving Jacob before he was born cause this or did it simply look forward and see the outcome of Esau’s choices?”

The answer is clear. Esau made his choices and God knew what they would be. Likewise, God gives us freewill to make our own choices. Choose wisely as they may have eternal consequences.

III. Esau’s Blessing

³⁹ Then Isaac his father answered and said to him:

Before we finish this verse and read the blessing, I want you to note that it never mentions that Isaac ate the meal brought to him by Esau. To Isaac, the meal was as important as the intended blessing. Only after eating and drinking was Jacob blessed.

If you think it through, Esau sold his birthright for a meal, but he received his blessing without there being a meal. It’s a great picture of us and our relationship with the Lord, or our lack of it. The spiritual significance of Jacob’s blessing is lacking from Esau’s.

Despite this and despite what is said in his blessing, which is as much a curse as it is a blessing, Esau probably went away pleased. To a person like him, the act meant more than the substance.

^{39 (con’t)} “Behold, your dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth,
And of the dew of heaven from above.

The first thing to note which is different from Jacob’s blessing is that Isaac says nothing about his smell. When he blessed Jacob, he said, “Surely, the smell of my son Is like the smell of a field Which the Lord has blessed.”

If the personal smell of Esau was what Isaac loved, he would have said this again, but he doesn’t. This confirms the thought about the garments that Rebekah placed on Jacob. They were priestly garments which smelled of incense used in conducting rituals.

The second important thing to note is the translation of what Isaac says here. Let me read it again and then compare it to the NIV –

Behold, your dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth, And of the dew of heaven from above.

Your dwelling will be away from the earth’s richness, away from the dew of heaven above.

One says his dwelling will be of the earth’s riches and one says it will be away from the earth’s riches. In this case, translations like the KJV and the NKJV are literally right, because he gives the same blessing using the same words, but they are actually wrong.

Isaac blessed Jacob beginning with the dew of heaven and then the fatness of the earth. He began his blessing to Esau with the fatness of the earth and then the dew of heaven. This establishes a contrast. Therefore the words he uses are in a contrasting sense.

“From the dew of heaven” can mean either getting from the dew of heaven or being away from the dew of heaven. His blessing to Jacob is the first and his blessing to Esau is that latter. This portion of Esau’s blessing is in contrast to what Jacob received. The NIV is a better translation here. History bore it out in where Esau lived. The next verse shows us this.

⁴⁰ By your sword you shall live,
And you shall serve your brother;

Jacob got the dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth which resulted in “plenty of grain and wine.” Esau doesn’t get either and that results in living by the sword and being subject to Jacob. The reason why I’m being detailed about this is because differences in translations are important.

If you stick with one translation, you very well may miss what God really intends for you to see. Translators do the best they can, but they bring their preconceptions with them. This is the same as commentaries and preachers.

We all have ideas about what God is telling us and it’s based on our personal thoughts about Him or our relationship with Him. Esau will live away from the riches of heaven and earth and will live by the sword and under the rule of Jacob.

^{40 (con’t)}And it shall come to pass, when you become restless,
That you shall break his yoke from your neck.”

This final portion of the blessing on Esau is hard to pin down directly to one period in time. The Edomites were subjected to Israel starting with Saul the first king. They rebelled several times and they finally shook them off under King Ahaz in 2 Kings 16.

However, the ancient Jewish Historian Josephus says that about 129 BC John Hyrcanus –

“subdued all the Idumeans; and permitted them to stay in that country, if they would circumcise their genitals, and make use of the laws of the Jews; and they were so desirous of living in the country of their forefathers, that they submitted to the use of circumcision, and of the rest of the Jewish ways of living; at which time therefore this befell them, that they were hereafter no other than Jews.”

They were assimilated into the Jewish people but even then Herod, the king at the time of Jesus was from Edom and they continued to be in rule until the Jews were dispersed in AD70.

What I see as the ultimate fulfillment of this portion of his blessing is that breaking Jacob’s yoke from their neck is pointing directly to Jesus. We all have yokes on us and we all are in some type of bondage as humans. Directly its bondage to sin because of Adam.

Indirectly we may be in bondage to a bank, an agreement, or whatever. There is only one place of real freedom and that is when we get restless with the things of this world and look forward instead to the things of eternity.

 

Edom was subjected to Israel who was the steward of the law. But Paul in the New Testament calls the law bondage. It is a yoke of submission which he tells us to not get enslaved in. There is one way to be free from its constraints and that is found in Jesus. Let me explain this concept to you…

Closing Verse: Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30
Next Week: Genesis 27:41-46 (The Brother’s Anger, A Picture of Church Reformation)

You Shall Serve Your Brother

Now it happened as soon as Isaac had finished Jacob’s blessing
And Jacob had scarcely gone out from Isaac his father
That Esau his brother came in from hunting and food dressing
He had made savory food and brought it to dad, it was no bother

And he said to his father, “Arise and eat of his son’s game”
Do this dad so that your soul may bless me
And his father Isaac said to him, “Who are you? What’s your name?”
So he said, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau, you see”

Then Isaac trembled exceedingly, and said, “Who?”
Where is the one who hunted game and brought it to me?
I ate all of it before you came, yes it’s true
I have blessed him and indeed he shall be blessed abundantly

When Esau heard the words of his father
He cried with an exceedingly great and bitter cry
And said to his father, “Bless me-me also, with another
How could this have happened, I need to know why

But Isaac said, to Esau his son, yes he was confessing
“Your brother came with deceit and has taken away your blessing

And Esau said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob?’ as he shook
For he has supplanted me these two times
He took away my birthright and now just look
He has taken away my blessing… I can’t believe these crimes

And he said to his father quite pitifully
Have you not reserved a blessing for me

Then Isaac answered and to his son Esau he said
Indeed I have made him your master, you see
And all his brethren I have given to him as servants, he is the head
With grain and wine I have sustained him abundantly

What shall I do now for you, my son
I have given him my blessing, my only one

And Esau said to his father in an excited state
Have you only one blessing my father, just one?
Bless me-me also, O my father; make me also great
And Esau lifted up his voice and wept at what had been done

Then Isaac his father answered and said to him:

“Behold, your dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth,
And of the dew of heaven from above.
By your sword you shall live,
And you shall serve your brother;
And it shall come to pass, when you become restless,
That you shall break his yoke from your neck.”

And so ends the story of how the blessing did pass
From Esau to Jacob in Isaac’s tent
And from the account we see how Jacob did surpass
His older brother thus meeting God’s intent

Each of us can also receive an eternal blessing
By calling out on the Lord Jesus’ name
And by donning white garment as our dressing
In heaven’s scroll will be written our name

Praises and honor to our glorious Lord above
Who has showered us with His eternal love

And so to Him we lift our voices in praise
And so let us walk in His light all of our days

Hallelujah and Amen…

Genesis 27:21-29
The Dew of Heaven and the Fatness of the Earth

Introduction: Here we have this story of deceit and intrigue which God has given to us to see pictures of His Son who came in the form of a man. The symbolism we’ll see in today’s sermon is astonishingly beautiful and wonderfully woven into the unfolding plan of God.

Simple and obscure words which seem to have no relevance except tying sentences together turn out to make astonishing parallels in the life of Jesus and in His interactions with those around Him. Not a word is given by God which doesn’t have an important purpose and so we need to handle His word carefully and prayerfully.

Text Verse: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,… Ephesians 1:3

The blessings of God have come upon a specific line of people, even from the very beginning of man’s history on earth. All of these blessings have had the purpose of leading to the Messiah, the Christ of God who is Jesus. God has given us a choice of participating in them or being eternally separated from them.

Either way, whether we receive them or not, we will bow to the One from whom they flow. Every tongue will confess His glory and Lordship and so… May God speak to us through His word today and may His glorious name ever be praised.

I. Jacob’s Voice, Esau’s Hands

Our story continues on today in the tent of Isaac as he prepares to pronounce his blessing. May our eyes be opened to the beautiful pictures which this story continues to display.

²¹ Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not.”

What we have to keep in mind is something that I brought up in a sermon in Genesis 25 where Esau sold his birthright to Jacob. At that time, I made the connection between Esau and Adam and Jacob and Jesus. It was very clear and if you missed that sermon, it would help for you to go watch it.

I mentioned it again last week too and showed that Isaac’s blindness, and yet his ability to hear well and to still taste food all worked to tie the story in as a picture of Jesus. The blindness allowed for Jacob to receive the blessing, which otherwise would not have happened.

The healthy taste buds made Isaac send Esau out for wild game instead getting a meal from the flock. If his taste buds were bad, there never would have been time for Jacob to obtain the blessing.

And the good hearing brought about Isaac’s distrust of the situation and so he physically is asking to feel his son to ensure he is suitable for the blessing. This is a picture of Jesus coming as a person to replace Adam, just as Jacob is replacing Esau.

The test of feeling Jacob pictures the truth of Jesus’ human nature. All of this was planned by God to show us the story of Jesus. As I say, time and again, we need to ask questions when we read the Bible. Why is this story recorded? How does this point to Jesus? What does God intend for us to see?

These are real people and real stories of their lives, and yet they only account for a miniscule portion of what they did in those lives. God has selected these things in hopes that we will open our eyes and see His Son, not in a one for one comparison, but in the overall picture of the story.

Isaac wants to ensure that it is Esau he is speaking to. He’s already wondered how the food was obtained so quickly. He probably figured, “Well, it’s 8 am and I’ll be hungry around 12:30. Esau will have to find the animal, shoot it, carry it home, cut it up, and cook it.”

Instead though, lunch is ready and it’s only 10:45… “Hmmm, I’m not even hungry yet. How did he get the food so fast?” And so he is curious. He even felt him to make sure he was hairy. What is the connection to Jesus? The answer is found in Hebrews chapter 2 –

Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, ¹⁵ and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. ¹⁶ For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham. ¹⁷ Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. ¹⁸ For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted. (14-18)

Isaac is checking to determine if this is really his son Esau. Esau pictures Adam who is a fallen man of the earth. His hair, as I already noted last week, has the biblical symbolism of awareness and in particular, an awareness of sin; of our fallen state.

The book of Hebrews says that Jesus had to be made like His brethren and that He himself has suffered, being tempted. The symbolism of Isaac feeling Jacob is realized in the humanity of Jesus. He had hair like Adam, He had flesh like Adam, and yet to Him belongs the birthright and the blessing, just like Jacob.

Isaac wanted to know if this was really his son or not, and we need to know that Jesus really is the Son of Man.

²² So Jacob went near to Isaac his father, and he felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”

Of course God the Father knows God the Son, but the picture is as clear as it could be. The sweet heavenly voice of the Lord, the voice that spoke the universe into existence, is concealed in the body of a Man and with the hands of Adam.

The divine Word of God of course is the voice of the Lord, but the hands are the hands of Adam. The picture one sees in this verse is as clear as crystal when you know who Jesus Christ is.

Jacob went near his father boldly to show him that he in fact met the requirements of the blessing. Jesus is no different. He came forward in the flesh in order to receive the blessing of promise which He Himself had spoken to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

It all begins with Jesus and it all belongs to Him. In this verse it says that Isaac felt Jacob, but it focuses on his hands. They’re noted as the confirmation of the person. In the same way, Jesus’ hands are universally thought of as the confirmation of His manhood and His act upon the cross. John 20 shows us this very clearly –

So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” ²⁶ And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!” ²⁷ Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” ²⁸ And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”

It is Thomas, the Twin, who confirms Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection, and humanity. All of this is pictured in the twins Jacob and Esau. If you remember, the word used to describe them is thaom, meaning twin, from which we get the name Thomas.

Jesus picked His disciples by name and each name has relevance to His work – and we see it prefigured here in Genesis. How can we not believe that this is the word of God when it is so intricately woven together for us? The perfection of the Bible is astonishing.

Hebrews chapter 9 continues with the fulfillment of the symbolism we see in Jacob coming to his father –

¹¹ But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. ¹² Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

Notice how the author of Hebrews says that the more perfect tabernacle was not made with hands. And yet, Jesus went behind the veil with His own blood, presenting His hands!

The voice of Jesus speaks, “I really am a man and I really shed my blood – see my hands.” Isaac is determining if it is Esau who is in fact Jacob just as God the Father confirms Jesus has replaced Adam. The voice and the hands – the power of the word and the beauty of the Lord!

²³ And he did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands; so he blessed him.

The two are indistinguishable – Esau and Jacob, Adam and Jesus. Jacob came in Esau’s likeness and Jesus came in Adam’s likeness. Again, let’s see the confirmation which is given in the New Testament –

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life— 2 the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us— 1 John 1:1, 2

Isaac could have given the blessing to Esau at any time in his life and as we know from last week, Esau is now 77 and Isaac is 136. The blessing came at a time when Isaac was so old that he simply couldn’t tell the difference. Had he given the blessing at an earlier stage of life, this never would have happened.

But so that we could see the symbolism that Jesus is a physical replica of Adam, it came at a time when no difference could be discerned. The wisdom of God is written all over the account of an old man, blind and bedridden. And so the blessing is granted.

²⁴ Then he said, “Are you really my son Esau?” He said, “I am.”

Isaac is still wondering if he’s doing the right thing and so he asks one more time if it is really Esau. The stress on whether it is Esau has been brought to focus now at least five times and he has mentioned the name Esau three times. This is connecting us back to Genesis 1:26 which states –

“Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…”

Esau means “made” and man was “made” or asah according to Genesis 1 in God’s image. The story is continually bringing to mind the connection between Jacob resembling Esau, and Jesus resembling the man made from the dust – Adam.

Nothing could be clearer and provides the surety that we need, even from the Old Testament, that Jesus is the divine Son of God who came in human flesh. Beautifully intricate and glorious in purpose is God’s word.

²⁵ He said, “Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son’s game, so that my soul may bless you.”

It can’t be missed that the meal is as important to Isaac as is giving the blessing. The two are tied together in his mind and he states it as such – Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son’s game, so that my soul may bless you.

The blessings of the Bible are noted around the giving of offerings.

Noah’s offering in Genesis 8 preceded the Lord’s blessing. Melchizedek brought out bread and wine and blessed Abraham. Abraham’s offering of Isaac on Mount Moriah led to the oath and blessing of the Lord.

Even the High Priestly blessing found in Numbers 6 directly follows the offerings mentioned in the Nazirite vows. The two are separate concepts, but they are noted one right after the other. Isaac will bless only after the offering is received.

^{25 (con’t)} So he brought it near to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank.

The same terminology is given in response to Isaac’s request – hagishah li leads to v’yagesh lo. “Bring it near to me”; so he brought it near to him. The meal precedes the blessing and obedience precedes the bestowal of it.

Jacob brings the meal and he brings him wine. The word here is yayin and indicates fermented drink, not grape juice. It’s the same which so far made Noah drunk, which Melchizedek brought out for Abraham, and which both of Lot’s daughters made their dad drunk with as well.

The Bible only forbids the drinking of alcohol twice in its pages. Both times are under the law and for specific reasons which can only be found under the law.

The blessing of wine is noted as often as the trouble it brings and the lesson the Bible wants us to learn is that we are to control it, not let it control us. If we can’t control it, we should not drink it; if we can, we may.

²⁶ Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come near now and kiss me, my son.”

This is the first time in the Bible that the act of kissing is mentioned. It has been about 2245 years since the creation and there were possibly billions of people on earth before the flood and by this time there are again many millions.

There were certainly a jillion kisses in those 2245 years, and yet not one has been mentioned in the lives of any person until now. And so the significance should not be lost on us. The kiss is tied to the son’s blessing.

This word for kiss will only be used 35 times in 35 different verses of the Old Testament and another word will be used twice. This means there are only 37 mentions of kissing in the Old Testament.

The father kisses the son and he receives the blessing. Now we are asked to do the same. The 2^nd Psalm shows you the picture God intends you to see –

Now therefore, be wise, O kings;
Be instructed, you judges of the earth.
¹¹ Serve the Lord with fear,
And rejoice with trembling.
¹² Kiss the Son, lest He be angry,
And you perish in the way,
When His wrath is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.

Just as Jacob received the blessing with a kiss, we too participate in the blessing when we kiss the Son.

II. The Father’s Blessing

²⁷ And he came near and kissed him; and he smelled the smell of his clothing, and blessed him and said:

In last week’s sermon, I said that there is a speculation about the clothes Jacob is wearing which belong to Esau. Rebekah put the choice clothes belonging to Esau on Jacob. The term used for those garments was ha-khamudot, meaning “the precious.” These were probably special garments for ministry.

Because Esau was the oldest son, he would perform the priestly functions in the house. Especially because Isaac, being blind, could no longer perform them.

This verse seems to confirm this. It says, Isaac “smelled the smell of his clothing, and blessed him.” I always assumed that the words Isaac uses in the blessing meant that it was Esau’s natural smell that Isaac liked, but after thinking through these words carefully, I see it differently.

In the next verse, the blessing begins and it is in the stated form of a keen and alert mind, not one drunk by wine, but one with elevated senses. What Isaac says is in a poetic style of parallel clauses. It is also contains unusual forms that are noted as poetic.

Instead of saying “behold” which is often hineh, it says “behold” which is re-eh. The reason is that the next word is re-akh which means “smell.” It becomes poetic because of the alliteration. Re-eh re-akh beni ke-re-akh sadeh asher berakhow adonai. (4:22) –

²⁷ (con’t) “Surely, the smell of my son
Is like the smell of a field
Which the Lord has blessed.

It’s beautiful to hear when pronounced properly. Like I said, I assumed that “the smell of my son” was speaking about Esau’s manliness, but it’s not. It’s speaking about the clothing which has been kept by Rebekah. The smell is like “the smell of a field which the Lord has blessed.”

What is it that we use to smell the smell of a field? We use incense. The smell of priestly incense would cling to these special garments just like the smell of patchouli clings all over me to hide my real smell – even when I take the clothes off, they smell like patchouli.

Incense heightens our mental state and reminds us of the goodness the Lord provides – whether it is grass, or flowers, or fruit. A field which the Lord has blessed is vibrant and alive and this is the intent behind incense. When blessed by the Lord, it is the very Garden of Eden – a field of delight, an inheritance fit for a king.

The blessings of a priest are being passed down from father to son. Again, the fulfillment is found in Jesus –

⁵ So also Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest, but it was He who said to Him:
“You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You.”
⁶ As He also says in another place:
“You are a priest forever
According to the order of Melchizedek”… Hebrews 5:5, 6

The bestowal of the priestly right came upon Jesus, just as it now comes upon Jacob from Isaac.

²⁸ Therefore may God give you
Of the dew of heaven,
Of the fatness of the earth,

Isaac uses the term ha’elohim or “the God” in his blessing. There is the true God and there are false gods. Isaac’s blessing concerns the true God. May He “give you of the dew of heaven” is speaking about the rains which God gives to provide the crop’s increase.

Without them the land dries and dies, but with the rains come abundance and prosperity. “The fatness of the earth” speaks of the richest of soil which will produce the most bountiful of crops. It is the nutrients which give life to the seed and bring them up in a harvest beyond normal, even to overflowing.

^{28 (con’t)} And plenty of grain and wine.

May the rains of heaven and the rich soil bring your increase so that they bring about “plenty of grain and wine.” In Deuteronomy 8, the blessings of the land of Israel are noted by Moses before the people moved into it –

“For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills; ⁸ a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; ⁹ a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing; a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. ¹⁰ When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you.”

Of course, in this blessing there is a spiritual element as well. Jacob would receive what Isaac pronounced and it would continue on through his 12 sons and the people of Israel, but there is also the spiritual aspect.

The dew of heaven is the increase given by God found in the gospel message. The fatness of the ground is the rich soil of those who would hear it. Jesus explains this in His parables. There is a literal fulfillment and there is the symbolic or spiritual one as well.

And when a great multitude had gathered, and they had come to Him from every city, He spoke by a parable: ⁵ “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was trampled down, and the birds of the air devoured it. ⁶ Some fell on rock; and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture. ⁷ And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. ⁸ But others fell on good ground, sprang up, and yielded a crop a hundredfold.” When He had said these things He cried, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”
⁹ Then His disciples asked Him, saying, “What does this parable mean?”
¹⁰ And He said, “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is given in parables, that
‘Seeing they may not see,
And hearing they may not understand.’
¹¹ “Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. ¹² Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. ¹³ But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away. ¹⁴ Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity. ¹⁵ But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience. Luke 8:4-15

Isaac’s blessing is upon the son of promise and God’s blessing is upon His Son who was promised. The first part of the blessing was one of material prosperity. The part found in the next verse is one of power and authority…

²⁹ Let peoples serve you,
And nations bow down to you.

Isaac, who is the son of promise through Abraham, passes on the blessing of authority over the people groups they would encounter. This blessing is stated in anticipation of the fulfillment of the prophecy given to Rebekah before Jacob and Esau were born.

They would separate into different nations and the older would serve the younger. Isaac’s words now confirm that Jacob will fulfill the role as prophesied. But more than just his brother, all people who they would encounter would be subject to them.

Of course, the spiritual fulfillment of this is found in Christ who will rule the nations as prophesied in the 2^nd Psalm –

“I will declare the decree:
The Lord has said to Me,
‘You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You.
⁸ Ask of Me, and I will give You
The nations for Your inheritance,
And the ends of the earth for Your possession.
⁹ You shall break them with a rod of iron;
You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.’”

The ultimate fulfillment of this is found in the book of Revelation.

^{29 (cont)} Be master over your brethren,
And let your mother’s sons bow down to you.

This continues the preeminency of Jacob over Esau. He is the only recorded brother of Jacob, although there could have been others not recorded. Eventually the line of Esau was, in fact, subordinate to Israel and was finally assimilated into them.

Israel has been given the blessing of both power and authority over his brothers. But in the spiritual blessing we see this fulfilled again in Christ. Esau pictures Adam and thus the people of the world. Jacob pictures Jesus.

In Ephesians 6, Jesus is called our Master, and in Philippians 2 we are told that every knee shall bow to Him –

Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, ¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, ¹¹ and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

^{29 (cont)}  Cursed be everyone who curses you,
And blessed be those who bless you!”

This final part of Isaac’s blessing is repeated from Genesis 12:3 when God made the same promise to Abraham. It passed through his son Isaac and now it is passed on to Jacob. And once again we see the fulfillment in Jesus. Paul tells us about it in Galatians 3 –

And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.” ⁹ So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.

We need to remember that it was Isaac’s intention to bless Esau, just as it was God’s design for man to rule the earth. But Esau was out in the field looking for food when the blessing came, and Adam still had the taste of the forbidden fruit in his mouth when his curse came. But God’s plan, in the end, will right every wrong.

As you can see, the Bible isn’t just a group of disconnected stories without regard to an overall point and purpose. Instead, it is a demonstration of the wisdom of God as He works out His immensely beautiful plan of reconciling the world to Himself.

He has used real people to picture an overall story of man. Esau is Adam, Jacob is Jesus. We are all sons of Adam by birth, but Jesus put on garments of flesh and came in the likeness of Adam to restore that which was fouled up.

Paul, writing to Timothy says that Jesus was manifest in the flesh and vindicated by the Spirit. (1 Timothy 3:16) Now He offers us the same opportunity. We can move from Adam to Him. We can be a part of the blessing and victory instead of the curse and the condemnation. Let me take a moment and tell you how…

Next Week – Genesis 27:30-40 (It’s Not Deja Vous)

Closing Verse: Yes, all kings shall fall down before Him;
All nations shall serve Him. Psalm 72:11

Kiss the Son

Isaac said to Jacob, Please come near to this spot
That I may feel you my son
Whether you are really my son Esau or not
I want to make sure I’m blessing the right one

So Jacob went near to Isaac his father
And he felt him and then he said
The voice is Jacob’s, certainly not another
But the hands are those of Esau instead

And he did not recognize him because his hands were hairy
Like Esau’s hands, so he blessed him though he was wary

Then he said, “Are you really my son Esau?”
He said, “I am. It is true.”
He said bring it near to me and I will eat it all
My son’s game, so that my soul may bless you

So he brought it near to him and he ate
And he brought him wine and he drank too
Then his father Isaac said to him “It’s great!”
“Come near now and kiss me, my son; I will bless you

And he came near and kissed his father’s head
And he smelled the smell of his clothing too
And he blessed him and in the blessing he said
Listen my son that which I pronounce upon you

Surely the smell of my son is like the smell of a field
Which the Lord has blessed
Therefore may God give you
Of the dew of heaven,
Of the fatness of the earth,
And plenty of grain and wine.
Let peoples serve you,
And nations bow down to you.
Be master over your brethren,
And let your mother’s sons bow down to you.
Cursed be everyone who curses you,
And blessed be those who bless you!”

This is the blessing of Isaac to Jacob his son
And it has proven true in the world’s history
But it also point to Jesus, the rightful One
Upon whom the blessing falls ultimately

It is He who has inherited all things from the Father
And He is the One to take the place of Adam, you see
To Him belongs all glory, it is not for another
It is He who prevailed over death for you and for me

And so to our Lord we bow are knees
And to Jesus we give our lives willingly
Into our heart he looks and He sees
The soul who has trusted in Him for all eternity

Forever we shall sing your praise
Yes glory to the King for eternal days

Hallelujah and Amen…