Genesis (Written)

Genesis 27:1-20
A Blessing in the Face of Death

Introduction: If you’ve ever looked at a book of the stories of the Bible, maybe you’ve seen a picture of Jacob deceiving Isaac. Without a doubt, you’ll see an old man in a bed with a long white beard and a young boy there at his side attempting to imitate his older, hairier brother.

I have to tell you how wrong that picture is and you’ll see why in a while. Although pictures of Bible stories are fun and interesting to look at, they’re often as wrong as right. Have you ever seen a picture of the Israelites marching around Jericho with the ark?

If so, you can see the congregation, the priests, the poles, and the ark with its gold covering and the little cherubim on top of it. That’s wrong too. Does anyone know why? The reason is found in the book of Numbers chapter 4 –

“When the camp prepares to journey, Aaron and his sons shall come, and they shall take down the covering veil and cover the ark of the Testimony with it. ⁶ Then they shall put on it a covering of badger skins, and spread over that a cloth entirely of blue; and they shall insert its poles.”

The ark was never to be seen by anyone except the high priest and that only once a year. If it was to be moved, only the priests could look at it and only for the purpose of covering it.

Details like these help us mentally keep the biblical narrative in focus and sharpen our awareness of what really is going on in the Bible. May our mental images of the Bible be based on the truth contained there. Only then can we understand the reality of what God is conveying to us in His word.

Text Verse: With Him are strength and prudence.
The deceived and the deceiver are His. Job 12:16

If we see deception in the world, we may ask why God allows it to happen. In the case of Jacob and Esau, it came about to meet God’s purposes, which He spoke of even before their birth.

So let us understand that both the deceived and the deceiver are His and in the end His plans will come to pass exactly as they should. And so… May God speak to us through His word today and may His glorious name ever be praised.

I. Preparation for a Blessing

Now it came to pass, when Isaac was old and his eyes were so dim that he could not see, that he called Esau his older son and said to him, “My son.” And he answered him, “Here I am.”

We have to do some backdating to know when this most likely happened and how old Isaac is. Joseph was thirty when he stood before Pharoah and that means that he was about 39 when Jacob came to Egypt. He was right around 130 years old.

So when Joseph was born, Jacob was about 91, which was after he had spent 14 years in Padan-aram. That means that Jacob and Esau are 77 at this time and it makes Isaac 136. Therefore, this is about the year 2245AM and its 61 years after Abraham died.

The ages of these people are significant for several reasons. We know that Isaac’s eyes are dim now at 136 and he will live until he’s 180. So he lives with blindness for over 40 years. Another important point is that even though he’s 77, Jacob hasn’t married.

And another thing to think about is that what happens here isn’t something between a couple of young children, or teenagers, and their mother, but between two well aged men and a mother who is even older than they are.

If she was 15 when she got married (and that’s just a guess) and then she had to wait 20 years to have children, then she has to be at least 112 and maybe older. This wasn’t a fight between two teenagers which was prompted by a young impulsive mother – by any stretch of the imagination.

Isaac is very old and his eyes aren’t working and so he calls for Esau, his firstborn. It’s important to note that none of what is going to occur would have happened if Isaac’s eyes weren’t dim and therefore, behind the scenes we see God’s hand guiding the story.

When Moses died it says this about him in Deuteronomy 34:7 – “Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died. His eyes were not dim nor his natural vigor diminished.” God is in control of every aspect of our life, even to our illnesses.

² Then he said, “Behold now, I am old. I do not know the day of my death.

Here is Isaac stuck in his tent with bad eyes and he probably felt as if life were coming to a close. Because of this, he wants to put his house in order even though his death is more than 40 years away.

This is something that the wise have been doing and continue to do 4000 years later. If we’re planning on being here forever, we have very mistaken plans. As Adam Clarke says, “He who lives not in reference to eternity, lives not at all.”

³ Now therefore, please take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me.

If you look at this verse in the right way, it is an amazingly touching thing. Isaac is the patriarch of an entire camp with dozens and maybe hundreds of servants, plus warriors, and their family members and more. Plus he probably has thousands of animals of every kind available.

What Abraham possessed has been increased by Isaac. And yet, he calls for his son who is in his 70s and asks him to get his things together and go out and hunt game for him. This is as personal as it gets. It would be like flying home for the holidays just because you wanted a meal prepared by mom and for no other reason.

The wild game would have its own taste and the fact that it was hunted by Esau would make it all the more endearing to him. The blessing he was going to offer was to be special and so he wanted what preceded it to be special as well.

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.”

Although he’d lost his sight, he hadn’t lost his taste. And so he asks for something tasty before he would bestow the blessing. Some scholars look at this verse and see in it a connection to a religious ritual where a meal is participated in before, or when, the rite is conducted.

There’s no reason to doubt that and it goes along with the biblical theme of meals in conjunction with important events, such as the Passover, the Lord’s Supper, and the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Isaac is participating in an ancient tradition and is ready to bestow a blessing upon his son.

A lot of people castigate him here for intending to bless Esau instead of Jacob because of the prophecy that was given to Rebekah which said the older would serve the younger. Their claim is that he has either ignored this or forgotten about it.

But it could be that Rebekah never even told him. We can’t know and the Bible doesn’t say. It also doesn’t rebuke him in any way. In this case, we simply see a father wanting to bless his firstborn before he dies. The fact that he is unable to see is what shows us God’s intentions are being met in this story.

II. The Faith of Rebekah

⁵ Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt game and to bring it.

Rebekah, whether we agree with the actions she’s going to take or not, is an important part of what happens and its effect on the world we live in. It was to her that the word was spoken about the older serving the younger. And it is she who is close enough to Isaac to hear what he intends to do.

And right or wrong from our perspective, it was the Lord who directed her to be married to Isaac, who kept her from becoming pregnant for 19 years, who caused twins to be conceived in her womb, and who molded her into the person she is in every way we can conceive.

In other words, everything about her has been shaped and has led her to this moment where her decisions will direct the outcomes. She hears Isaac’s words to Esau and so she acts, first by telling Jacob what she heard…

⁶ So Rebekah spoke to Jacob her son, saying, “Indeed I heard your father speak to Esau your brother, saying, ⁷ ‘Bring me game and make savory food for me, that I may eat it and bless you in the presence of the Lord before my death.’

There is a difference between what Isaac said and what Rebekah says. In verse 4, Isaac said to Esau “that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die.” But here it says, “that I may eat it and bless you in the presence of the Lord before my death.”

The differences are big and it isn’t just her adding in something that Isaac said but wasn’t recorded. The words for “before my death” are different than “before I die” even in the Hebrew.

When Isaac spoke to Esau, he used the term beterem, which means “before” in time. But when Rebekah speaks to Jacob, she uses the term liphnay which means before as in the presence of something – liphnay literally meaning “in the face of.”

She also says “in the presence of the Lord” rather than “that my soul may bless you.” I can only think that she is seeing this as the Messianic blessing that she knew belonged to Jacob because the Lord had told her.

What I think she is saying by using the term liphnay is that this promise was to come to Jacob not before Isaac’s death in time – “I need to give this before I die,” but before Isaac’s death which was a result of the fall – “I need to give this because I will die; my death is in the presence of the Lord.”

The blessing then, as Rebekah understands it, is for the reversal of the curse of death upon mankind – a blessing she knows must go to Jacob. What is always perceived of as evil intent on the part of Rebekah, is, as I see it, is an act of faith even if it is deceptive.

This follows the theme of the women of faith we’ve already seen and will continue to see. Lot’s daughters slept with their father in the faith that they were bringing in the Messiah – which in fact they did. Rebekah is acting in faith by ensuring the younger son receives the blessing the Lord had told her about.

Rahab the harlot acted in faith in rescuing the spies at Jericho. Ruth acted in faith by moving to Israel with her mother in law. And Mary acted in faith, accepting her role as the mother of the Messiah. Rebekah is acting in the same manner as these other great women who exercised their faith in God’s unfolding plans.

⁸ Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to what I command you.

Rebekah is so determined about what she intends, that she uses two terms to convince Jacob. The first is obey and the second is command. Just imagine your own mother saying, “I want you to listen very carefully and I want you to do exactly what I say.” This is the intent and force of her words to Jacob now…

⁹ Go now to the flock and bring me from there two choice kids of the goats, and I will make savory food from them for your father, such as he loves.

The question for this verse is, “Why would she tell Jacob to get two kids of the goats?” That is a lot more than Isaac could eat in several meals. The actual reason is that the kid of the goat apparently tastes somewhat like a young roe or fawn.

By taking two of them she could cut out the choicest pieces from both to make the whole meal appear like it was from one deer. Then by adding in seasoning, someone who knew how to cook could make it a truly deceiving meal.

So Isaac is going to be deceived in more ways than one. However, there is a spiritual reason for the Bible to mention the two goats. As I said last week, throughout the Bible the number two signifies a difference – usually of things at enmity with each other.

There are two testaments, one based on law and one on grace. One shows fallen man, the other man restored. There is day and there is night. There is Jesus and there is Barabbas. The Bible includes the fact that Rebekah asked for two kids because in this there is a contrast.

There is deception, but there is the fulfillment of God’s plan. As EW Bullinger says about this sort of thing “…One excludes all difference, and denotes that which is sovereign. But Two affirms that there is a difference there is another; while One affirms that there is not another!”

This is what is going on here. God has made a choice in Jacob, but He has allowed the fulfillment of that choice through Rebekah and Jacob who are going against His immediate will (don’t deceive) but fulfilling His ultimate will (the older shall serve the younger).

If you can see this, then your eyes are seeing the amazing work of God as His plans are being fulfilled through fallen people. Jacob’s son Joseph explains this immensely well in Genesis 50:20, “But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.”

¹⁰ Then you shall take it to your father, that he may eat it, and that he may bless you before his death.”

Once again Rebekah uses the same term that she used before. Instead of “before his death” meaning before the time of his death, she says “before his death” or “in the face of his death” meaning the blessing is to be given as a result of his death – the fall of man and the coming of the Messiah to reverse that.

She is a woman of faith looking forward to her Savior and the prospect of eternal life, just as so many faithful and yet misunderstood people have done already in Genesis. Where we want to look for fault, we actually find faith.

As I said, we saw it in Lot’s daughters and we found it in Abraham, we’ll come across it in the harlot Rahab and in others. We’ve seen it in modern times too. Corrie ten Boom broke the law by hiding Jews, but her deceit served a more important purpose.

¹¹ And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Look, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth-skinned man.

This reminds us of Genesis 25:25 – “And the first came out red. He was like a hairy garment all over; so they called his name Esau.”

Not only was Esau born hairy, he stayed hairy his whole life. This affliction, known as hypertrichosis, can be so bad in some cases that it’s called werewolf syndrome.

As twins, this malady surprisingly didn’t affect them both, but only Esau. But there is a reason for this. As I said in a sermon a few weeks ago, hair in the Bible indicates an awareness of things. The goat is used as the sin offering and it is known as sa-ir. It is given as an awareness of sin committed.

A Nazirite is someone who made a vow or was consecrated to the Lord. During the time of that vow, they were never to cut their hair. The hair was a reminder of their vow and of their separation to God. Esau’s hair is mentioned because it is more than just a physical affliction. It is a reminder of the state of fallen man; Esau is a picture of Adam.

Jacob, the son of promise is instead a smooth skinned man. The difference in their physical makeup is a picture of their spiritual heritage. But what is interesting is that in order to receive the blessing, Jacob will need to emulate his older brother who is hairy.

Isn’t this then a picture of Jesus in itself? The sinless Son of God who knew no sin became sin so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. He became like us so that we could become like Him. All of this beautiful symbolism in this story!

¹² Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be a deceiver to him; and I shall bring a curse on myself and not a blessing.”

It’s funny that Jacob is less concerned about the act of deceit than he is about being caught. But it shows that he had an awareness of the wrong that he was committing, even if the intentions of Rebekah were faithful ones.

Deuteronomy 27:18 speaks in terms which are similar to this – “Cursed is the one who makes the blind to wander off the road.”

Although this is a spiritual and not a literal road, it is still an intentional deceit of the blind and he understands that a curse, rather than a blessing could be the result.

An important consideration though is recorded in Numbers – “How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? And how shall I denounce whom the Lord has not denounced?” (23:8) Rebekah already knows the blessing will come upon Jacob.

Once again we see a portion of the gospel here. Jesus took on our sin and our curse just as Jacob took on Esau’s likeness, the hair which symbolizes the awareness of sin, but God the Father blessed Jesus, just as Isaac will bless Jacob.

III. Jacob the Deceiver

¹³ But his mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, get them for me.”

I have to remind you of what I said earlier. Rebekah is well over 100 years old and she has known since her pregnancy that Jacob is the son of promise. A mother won’t ever forget this type of thing and she is so certain that she knows the outcome that she says, “Let your curse be on me.”

As the Geneva Bible says about this verse – “The assurance of God’s decree made her bold.”

In the book of Luke it says concerning the things that occurred at the time of Jesus’ birth that Mary kept those things and pondered them in her heart. Rebekah has kept and pondered the oracle given to her for many long years and she is determined to see it fulfilled.

¹⁴ And he went and got them and brought them to his mother, and his mother made savory food, such as his father loved.

We can’t miss the fact that two animals died in order to make the meal for Isaac. The blessing only comes after the meal and the meal is proof of the death. When we take the Lord’s Supper, Paul says “We proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.”

Only after we take the meal is the blessing bestowed. It is an implication that He died so that we can live. This is the reason why it makes absolutely no sense for a person to take the Lord’s Supper if they don’t believe in Christ. If you believe that He died for your sins and then was resurrected, you’d be a fool to not accept that.

If you don’t believe it, then the meal has no point or purpose. Rebekah is preparing a tasty meal for Isaac in hopes of the resurrection and of the blessing on Jacob that will lead to that day.

¹⁵ Then Rebekah took the choice clothes of her elder son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son.

There is a speculation about this verse which I’ll share. Rebekah puts choice clothes belonging to Esau on Jacob. The term is ha-khamudot, meaning “the precious.” Some people have taken this to mean that they are special garments for ministry.

Because Esau was the oldest son, he would perform the priestly functions in the house as Isaac was blind. The ancient Greek translation of this verse uses the term teen stoleen which is the same words they use to describe the garments of the high priest along with the word “holy” in Exodus 28.

If this is right, then it would explain why she had them instead of Esau’s wives after 37 years of marriage and it would also explain why she chose these for him to wear. The blessing of the Messiah would be appropriate for one wearing priestly garments, a picture of the coming High Priest. (See Zechariah 3:1-5)

It would also explain the words of Isaac when he gives the blessing after his meal which we will see next week.

¹⁶ And she put the skins of the kids of the goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck.

Rebekah shows the cunningness of a lady. She not only makes the deceiving meal and gets out clothes to deceive, but she uses the hair of the goats she had just cooked to cover Jacob. The camel-goat of the mid-east has black, silk-like hair and was used as a substitute for human hair even by the Romans.

It’s so convincing in this manner that we have a great parallel passage in the time of David in 1 Samuel 19 –

Saul also sent messengers to David’s house to watch him and to kill him in the morning. And Michal, David’s wife, told him, saying, “If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed.” ¹² So Michal let David down through a window. And he went and fled and escaped. ¹³ And Michal took an image and laid it in the bed, put a cover of goats’ hair for his head, and covered it with clothes. ¹⁴ So when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, “He is sick.”

In the use of these two goats on Jacob we see a picture of the Day of Atonement recorded in Leviticus 16. The high priest of Israel, wearing his priestly robes (like Jacob), came before the Lord with two goats, just as Jacob is – one as a sacrifice of atonement and one as a scapegoat to carry the sins from the camp.

Jacob is coming before his father wearing the priestly robes of Esau and the skins of two goats. He is here picturing Jesus our Substitute and High Priest, and yet He is the Son of promise who will receive the blessing.

¹⁷ Then she gave the savory food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.

This is now the fifth of six times that the term “savory food” has been used in this chapter and it’s only used two other times in the Bible, both of which are in Proverbs 23 and both have a similar connection. Here is the first time from Proverbs 23 –

“When you sit down to eat with a ruler, Consider carefully what is before you; ² And put a knife to your throat If you are a man given to appetite. ³ Do not desire his delicacies, For they are deceptive food.”

I can tell you that it took one meal by my wife for me to decide she is the one I wanted to marry. She wasn’t being deceptive but I can guarantee you that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Apparently, the way to spiritual blessings follows the same path.

¹⁸ So he went to his father and said, “My father.” And he said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?” ¹⁹ Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn; I have done just as you told me; please arise, sit and eat of my game, that your soul may bless me.”

Let’s not make the error that I think that what Rebekah and Jacob have done was the right thing for them to do. Jacob lies directly by claiming to be Esau. He lies that he has done exactly as Esau was told because he has goats belonging to Isaac and not a deer which came from the wild. So his lies are also mixed with false actions.

He also deceives by wearing Esau’s clothing and by hiding his own hairless nature with goat’s skins. What he has done, as prompted by his mother, is wrong. Having said that, the purposes of God came about exactly as God knew they would.

Clarke’s commentary reflects what most commentaries state – “It was the design of God that the elder should serve the younger, and he would have brought it about in the way of his own wise and just providence; but means such as here used he could neither sanction nor recommend.”

This is nonsense. This is exactly how it was intended to come about before the foundation of the world. The pictures point to Jesus.This doesn’t mean that God caused it, but that He knew this is how it would transpire. So in this account we see the amazing work of God.

He told Rebekah that the older would serve the younger before they were ever born. Because of this, certainly because of this, she came up with the plan which is given us in the account today. And yet God isn’t to blame even though He is the One who led her to do these things by telling her the outcome before it came about.

Anyone that can’t see the free-will of man and yet the divine direction of God in the Bible is nuts. God is guiding human history and everything that comes about is because He intends for it to come about. And yet when evil is a part of what happens, it in no way was brought about by Him. (See my early Genesis sermons).

Anyone of us who thinks we can do something wrong and then blame God is deluding themselves. And yet anyone who thinks that God is somehow unaware of every evil thing we have done or will do is similarly deluded. We live in the presence of pure holiness and absolute greatness.

²⁰ But Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?” And he said, “Because the Lord your God brought it to me.”

The question Isaac asks is obvious. Jacob sounds like Jacob and Esau sounds like Esau. His eyes may be dim, but his hearing is fine. Here we see God’s providence all over the account. His eyes are bad so he can’t tell which son is there. But his taste buds and his hearing are fine.

His taste is what prompted him to send Isaac out for wild meat. This wouldn’t have happened if his taste buds were bad. His good hearing will lead him to feel Jacob to see if it is really Him, thus proving that he is sufficient for the blessing. And this points to Jesus. He was convincingly like Adam because He came as a man.

Isaac’s curiosity is aroused enough to question how he found an animal so quickly. The voice and the early lunch have him wondering. Of all of the deception so far, this is the worst. Jacob doesn’t just lie that he was fortunate to find an animal, but he invokes Lord’s name – “…the Lord your God brought it to me.”

Saying “The Lord your God” though doesn’t imply anything on the part of Jacob. He is neither trying to hide from Jehovah, nor is this implying that Esau wasn’t a believer in Jehovah.

The term is used 403 times in the Bible – by the Lord Himself, by believers, and by non-believers. It is a standard way of speaking which people use even today. It is simply an acknowledgement that the person being spoken to is a follower of Jehovah.

This might seem like a peculiar point to stop today’s sermon, but stop we will. I want you to remember a few things though. Despite her deceit, Rebekah was a woman of faith and was acting in faith. Her deceit and Jacob’s deceit was wrong, but it was wrong that the Lord worked out for good.

And so a lesson for you is to consider the wrong you’ve done in your life and which you hopefully feel guilty about. If you have called on Jesus and been saved by His blood, He’s forgiven you and He has used it to bring you to where you are now.

You’re going to fall again and when you do, understand that the Lord will be using that too. However, let’s not intentionally do wrong to help make the Lord look good. Paul warns us about that attitude in Romans 3 and we’ll close with that.

But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? (I speak as a man.) ⁶ Certainly not! For then how will God judge the world? ⁷ For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? ⁸ And why not say, “Let us do evil that good may come”?…

If you’ve never understood the magnitude of your sins before God and how you can have them forgiven and cleansed, let me tell you what God would have you to do today…

Closing Verse: But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. ¹⁴ But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, ¹⁵ and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 2 Timothy 3:13-15

Next Week – Genesis 27:21-29 (The Dew of Heaven and the Fatness of the Earth)

Poem – In the Face of Death Comes a Blessing

Now it came to pass, when Isaac was old
And his eyes were so dim he couldn’t see
That he called Esau his older son and so he told
Yes he said to him, “My son, please hear me

And he answered him, “Here I am.”
Are you in need, are you in a jam?

Then he said, “Behold, I am old, I know not my death’s day
Now then, please take your weapons your quiver and your bow
And go to the field and hunt game for me, do as I say
And make savory food, such as I love – I like it tasty you know

Bring it to me that I may eat, yes be a good guy
That my soul may bless you before I die

Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke
To Esau his son and her heart was glad
And Esau went to the field, he was no slow poke
He went to hunt game and to bring it to his dad

So Rebekah spoke to Jacob her son quietly
Indeed I heard your father speak to Esau saying
Bring me game and make savory food for me
That I may eat it and bless you, for this I am praying

I will bless you in the presence of the Lord
Before my death, now you have my word

“Now therefore my son, obey my voice in what I command
Go now to the flock and bring me the things that I demand

Two choice kids of the goats are what I need
Go and I will make savory food for your father with speed

I will make them for your father these nummy numms
Then you shall take it to your father that he may eat
And that he may bless you before his death comes
And upon you will be the Lord’s blessing so sweet

And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother
Look Esau my brother is a hairy man
I am smooth, we don’t resemble one another
Perhaps my father will see through this plan

And if he feels me I shall seem a deceiver to him
And I shall bring a curse down upon myself
The chances of a blessing would become rather slim
This could turn out bad, like rotten cheese on a shelf

But his mother said, “Let your curse be on me my son
Only obey my voice and go get them for me so we can be done

So he went and got them and brought them to his mother
And she made savory food such as his father loved
Then Rebekah took choice clothes of her elder, Esau his brother
Which were in her house and put them on Jacob, her beloved

And she put the skins of the kids of the goats on his hands
And also on the smooth part of his neck too
Then she gave the savory food and the bread, all part of her plans
Which she had prepared into the Jacob’s hands, it’s true

So he went to his father and said, “My father”
And he said, “Here I am. Who are you my son?”
Jacob said, “I am Esau your firstborn. I hope it’s not a bother.”
Just as you told me, so I have done

Please arise, sit and eat of my game
That your soul may bless me just the same

But Isaac said, “How is it that you found it so quickly?”
And he said, “Because the Lord your God brought it to me.

This story has a moral and a purpose for us
And although it contains intrigue and lies
Ultimately through what happened came Jesus
And understanding what happened will make us wise

Every word of God is glorious and pure
And will establish for us a foundation so sure

And so let us carefully consider the story
And reflect on how it shows us God’s glory

Hallelujah and Amen…

Genesis 26:15-35
That Which Has Been

Introduction: Last week we saw events which I believe focused on the reestablishment of Israel up until modern times. Today we’ll see some parallels which I am certain will be fulfilled in the days ahead. As I perceive the world, they’re already in motion. This is an exciting adventure which I hope and pray will bless you.

Text Verse: Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; ‘For Yah, the Lord, is my strength and song; He also has become my salvation.’” ³ Therefore with joy you will draw water From the wells of salvation. Isaiah 12:2, 3

There are wells of water and there is the well of water. Some satisfy for a moment and then we need more, but there is one which will fill us eternally. As Jesus told the woman at the well, “…the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” Let’s heed His words and… May God speak to us through His word today and may His glorious name ever be praised.

I. Green with Envy

Last week we saw Isaac sow and reap a hundredfold becoming very prosperous and because of this the Philistines envied him.

¹⁵ Now the Philistines had stopped up all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, and they had filled them with earth.

Last week I connected the story of Isaac with the events leading up to and following the re-establishment of Israel in 1948. I’m certain this is correct and is the reason God has placed these stories in here – to show us what will occur again.

Here today we see the Philistines had stopped up all the wells which Abraham’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham. The immediate reason is because they were jealous of him and his wealth, and so in an attempt to slight him, they filled the wells.

This is exactly what people do all the time. When they’re jealous of what others have, they will destroy it. In the case of wells, you can fill them with dead animals or salt to poison them or fill them up with stuff to in order to make them completely inaccessible.

The story tells us that the reason they did this was because they envied him. This is in direct violation of the agreement which was made between Abraham and Abimelech 80 or so years earlier and it shows the distrustful and jealous nature of the people of the land.

Remember what we saw last week though. The Philistines are the same people as the Palestinians today. Same name, same dirty habits, and the same green-eyed envy. What Israel builds because of God’s blessings, they destroy out of jealousy.

¹⁶ And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.”

Imagine that… the Palestinians telling Israel to go away from them because they are mightier than they are. This is what happened to Isaac and this is exactly what the people very close to the same location did just a few years ago. They booted Israel out of Gaza.

The thought of the story doesn’t just imply that Isaac was mightier in strength, but in goods and blessings from God as well. He inherited Abraham’s camp which would have been in the hundreds if not thousands and he inherited the blessings of God to boot.

Rather than working with Isaac and being blessed along with him, the Philistines kicked him out. And as obvious as it is, whether actively or passively, this is exactly what our government is doing to anyone of industry and hard work.

Instead of joining in and participating in their blessings, they rob them through taxes and unfair legislation until they either close their doors or move to another country. This is the state of Israel in the mid-east today too. It is the state of conservative labor in the capitalist world, and it is how things always turn out.

Blessing ends in envy and taking by theft of that which people aren’t willing to work for.

¹⁷ Then Isaac departed from there and pitched his tent in the Valley of Gerar, and dwelt there.

Isaac departs now from living closely with the Philistines and encamps in the Valley of Gerar. This area is about halfway between Gaza and Beer-Sheba. As you can see, the same thing that happened in Isaac’s time has happened in modern Israel. Get a map and look for yourself.

Don’t be deceived by the papers or news media who side with the Palestinians. God has placed these things here and expects us to pay attention. As we draw nearer to the end times, it will become clearer and clearer to those who read and believe their Bible.

It’s good to note that Isaac doesn’t fight with the people. Instead, he simply… picked up and moved. Israel could have annihilated the Palestinians and kept the entire land they lived in, but they simply packed up and left.

¹⁸ And Isaac dug again the wells of water which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham. He called them by the names which his father had called them.

All of the hard work that was accomplished, and the sources of water that were dug by Abraham are destroyed after he died. This shows the cowardice and envy of the people even more.

They waited until Abraham died to do this, knowing that he would have gone in and destroyed them by force. But Isaac is a new generation. They’re jealous of the blessings and abundance he has and they take advantage of his easier demeanor.

And so they simply attempt to destroy what they believe is the source of his blessings. Can you see modern Israel here? They are hemmed in by these same people with their same jealousy and greed. But Isaac moved back to the area and re-dug the wells, calling them the same names as Abraham called them.

By doing this, he is attempting to reestablish the link which proves that he is the rightful owner of the wells. If you go to Israel today, you can see all kinds of places that were laid waste during the Diaspora which are now rebuilt.

When Israel was gone, the land was of no value and the inhabitants did nothing but sit idly by after destroying what was once there. But Israel has moved back into the land and reestablished it, just as Isaac did then. Many of the places have the same ancient names that existed before Israel was dispersed. This ties them again to the land of their past. (Explain the column recently found.)

¹⁹ Also Isaac’s servants dug in the valley, and found a well of running water there.

The term for well of running water is beer mayim chayim or well of living water. It is a source of continuous life and blessing to the people of God for their health and prosperity.

Although this is speaking of water, which is the source of prosperity in the land at that time, I feel confident that there is a modern parallel which isn’t speaking of water at all. What is the modern source of wealth and prosperity in the middle-east today?

Anyone who said gas or oil is right. In 1999 a maritime drill struck gas in commercial quantities just 250 meters beneath the Mediterranean 25 miles out from Israel’s southern port of Ashdod. Production began in 2004 at what is called the Mari-B, and some 2.8 billion cubic meters of gas are piped ashore each year from reserves that may be as large as 22 bcm.

Another field, known as Tamar, a name which comes right from the Bible, was discovered in 2009 off the northern end of Israel’s coast. Tamar, where the gas is much deeper down, holds 238 bcm. Tamar was the world’s largest gas find in 2009.

But this is dwarfed by another find which is a bit further off the coast. This one is named Leviathan and has a potential of 453 bcm. And all of these, of course, have the surrounding nations crying foul and there are shouts of protest as to Israel’s rights to them.

If you’re not seeing the modern parallels of this ancient story about Isaac and his wells, you’re not looking very closely. The term “well of living water” can be described perfectly by this paragraph from the Economist Magazine from an article in 2010 –

“As a former chief rabbi of Norway and later an Israeli politician linked to the Labour party, he is urging the government to follow Norway’s example by putting the state’s share of profits into a sovereign wealth fund and earmarking the income for social welfare. “A one-time chance,” he says, “to bring truly historic change to Israeli society.”

Just as water blessed Isaac, the gas and oil God placed in the land of Israel will be a similar source of blessing, but also of contention.

²⁰ But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the name of the well Esek, because they quarreled with him.

Although we can’t tell which wells Israel will give up in the future, we know that the do-nothing Palestinians and the Muslim world at large will continue to contest everything Israel works for through diligence and by God’s blessing. Cries of “It’s ours” will fill the blogs and magazines of the world.

The name Isaac gives the well is Esek, which means “contention” or “quarreling.” I’m sure some astute journalist in Israel will pick up on the name in the future and use the term again.

²¹ Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that one also. So he called its name Sitnah.

Isaac finds another well and the leeches quarrel over that one too. What they are unwilling to look for and earn on their own, they fight over when the opportunity arises. This is an exact description of the people around Israel in the mid-east today.

Isaac names this well Sitnah, which is the feminine form of the word Satan and it specifically means enmity or hatred. Just as the people of God are the bride of Christ, the Muslim people are the bride of Satan. They are at enmity with Israel. If you don’t believe my comparison is accurate, listen to the words of John –

Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. 1 John 2:22

Are you seeing the parallels here from a story which took place 4000 years ago and today’s modern land of Israel?

²² And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth, because he said, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”

I can see it already; there will be two major gas or oil finds by Israel and the terrorists around them will claim they own them both. Israel will simply pull up stakes and walk away from them in an attempt to appease them.

Only when a third well is found will they stand firm and refuse to be quarreled with. If you think I’m making all this up, just pay attention to the days ahead. I’ll lay down my last dollar in belief that this is coming, and probably soon.

Rehoboth means broad or spacious and it will be so obvious that the land and the well were dug by Israel that it will be beyond controversy. From this well, as the verse says, they will be fruitful in the land. Coming soon to an oil find in Israel near you.

It very well could be that these wells are also representing the land itself. Israel was kicked out of Gaza, next they will certainly be kicked out of what is called the West Bank, and they will also lose ½ of Jerusalem as Zechariah says will happen.

Only through these transactions will there be a covenant of peace between Israel and her enemies. So if not oil, then it is land.

II. A Covenant is Made

²³ Then he went up from there to Beersheba.

This is the spot that Abraham was at when he made a treaty with Abimelech. It’s also where Isaac and Abraham departed from and returned to when they went to Mount Moriah.  It is a place where God’s people have found peace and restoration. The same will be the case for Isaac this time…

²⁴ And the Lord appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham; do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for My servant Abraham’s sake.”

The Lord, or Jehovah, appears now to Isaac and speaks to him the same words of comfort that Abraham had received. He is with him, will bless him, and multiply him. This is all based on the oath He made with Abraham. He is there and His words will be fulfilled.

And simply to assure us that the same Lord who spoke to Abraham is with His people now, we read an amazingly similar passage in the book of Acts when Jesus spoke to the Apostle Paul –

Now the Lord spoke to Paul in the night by a vision, “Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent; ¹⁰ for I am with you, and no one will attack you to hurt you; for I have many people in this city.” ¹¹ And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. Acts 18

We may not have visions of the Lord now, but because of the surety of His word, we have every confidence that He is right here with us, keeping His covenant promises and attending to our security and blessing.

²⁵ So he built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord, and he pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug a well.

We have here a parallel account from the life of Abraham – “Then Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there called on the name of the LORD, the Everlasting God.” Gen 21:33

In the same place where Abraham called on the name of the Lord, Isaac does too. This is the first recorded altar built by him. As the head of the family, he is also the priest and he is now serving the God of his father Abraham, the Lord, Jehovah.

This is his acknowledgment that he has placed His entire faith and hope in the Lord alone. In this spot, the servants dig another well, thus establishing a foothold in the area and making an implicit claim to the surrounding land.

If we look for a modern parallel of this, it would be the coming temple in Israel. They have already anointed a cornerstone for the temple and they are preparing to begin sacrifices. All of the temple instruments have been made and are waiting to be used.

²⁶ Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath, one of his friends, and Phichol the commander of his army.

This, along with the next five verses, is very similar to what happened with Abraham in Genesis 21. In fact, two of the three people who have come to Isaac have the same names – Abimelech and Phichol.

Abimelech means Father of the King and Phichol means “Strong” or literally “Mouth of All.” But along with these two comes another person, Ahuzzath. His name means “Possession.” The verb of his name means to take hold of, seize, or grasp and is used anytime two naturally disconnected entities become firmly united.

All of their names are important concerning what will come about.

²⁷ And Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?”

Isaac probably looked at these three like a cowboy with a mouth full of chewing tobacco looks at someone they distrust. “What’re you doing here?” He was probably completely surprised that they’d show up at all and he even uses a specific word to show them how he figured they felt.

The word for “hate me” is senetem and is a reminder of the fighting over the wells, one of which was called Sitnah, or hatred. “Just like the well I named, so is the attitude you have.” And their response is exactly what we will see in the future as Israel continues to prosper in the midst of their satanic neighbors…

²⁸ But they said, “We have certainly seen that the Lord is with you. So we said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, between you and us; and let us make a covenant with you,

Despite their jealousy and hatred of Isaac, they see that the Lord is with him. And the same is, and will be, no less true with the Muslims who hate Israel. They can cry out “allah” from every minaret in the world, but in their hearts, they know there is one God and it is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

And so they ask for an oath and a covenant. And yes, the Bible says such a covenant is coming in the future. Daniel 9:24-27 is the framework of the entire end-times setting for Israel of the future and which includes the events of the book of Revelation.

In those verses, it says a covenant is coming between the anti-Christ and Israel – a 7-year covenant. If you don’t believe this is coming, study these things a little more. I assure you, the things that have been will be again.

²⁹ that you will do us no harm, since we have not touched you, and since we have done nothing to you but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the Lord.’”

Either Abimelech and the other two are blind as to what happened between Isaac and the people who kept stealing his wells, or they are bald faced liars. They may not have touched him or harmed him directly, but they did so indirectly, causing him to move from well to well and finally telling him to leave their land.

If history is repeating itself, they were well aware of what was happening, just as the antichrist will be aware of what has been happening to Israel prior to their covenant. But, as Proverbs says –

When a man’s ways please the Lord,
He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. Proverbs 16:7

What is happening here to Isaac is a repetition of what happened when the same group came to Abraham in Genesis 21:22 –

And it came to pass at that time that Abimelech and Phichol, the commander of his army, spoke to Abraham, saying, “God is with you in all that you do

III. The Impetus for War

³⁰ So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank.

In the next three verses, you can almost see what’s coming in the future and how it will set up the final end-times scenario. Isaac welcomes these three in and makes them a feast. I can see Israel being the one to welcome in those hostile to her and sharing their many blessings with them.

As they always are, they are gracious and forgiving regardless of how badly their enemies treat them. As a people, they are the epitome of letting go and moving on when the opportunity permits.

³¹ Then they arose early in the morning and swore an oath with one another; and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.

Yes, Daniel 9:27 says this when speaking of the antichrist – “Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week.”

There will be a 7-year treaty between Israel and those who have been hostile to her, a treaty which will be broken by her enemies after 3 ½ years. It will probably be broken based on something similar to what we see in the next verse…

³² It came to pass the same day that Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well which they had dug, and said to him, “We have found water.”

The same day that the treaty is made between Isaac and these three, another well is dug which discovers water. Once again, if I were a betting man, I would bet my bottom dollar that immediately after the signing of the 7-year covenant with the antichrist, Israel will find so much wealth in the ground that it will make everything else pale in comparison to it.

I can already see the cries of “foul play” by the surrounding people. They’ll say that Israel purposely waited until after the agreement to reveal what they’ve found. I’m not a prophet and I don’t see the future except as it’s given in the past.

And I am as confident of this as anything else. I could be completely misreading what’s being told here, but I doubt it. Like all of the other stories we’ve seen, there is a future fulfillment and there is every reason to believe that what I’m telling you is correct.

Israel has to be isolated and ready to be extinguished before the Lord returns. Daniel 12 says so – “How long shall the fulfillment of these wonders be?” ⁷ Then I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand to heaven, and swore by Him who lives forever, that it shall be for a time, times, and half a time; and when the power of the holy people has been completely shattered, all these things shall be finished.” (6-7)

Along with Israel facing complete annihilation comes the promise of the return of the Lord to rescue them. This can’t happen unless things are lined up for it to happen and I believe Genesis 26 is showing us how it will all transpire.

And as surely as these three have come to Isaac, there will be the unholy trinity who makes the deal with Israel – Satan, the antichrist, and the false prophet.

Even the names of these three imply this: Abimelech – Father of the King (Satan), Phichol – the Mouth of All (the antichrist), and Ahuzzath, Abimelechs’ friend – Possession (the false prophet).

³³ So he called it Shebah.Therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.

And so he calls it Shebah which means “oath.” The word Shebah here has an added letter on the end of it, a letter like our “h.” The addition of this letter then makes the word signify more than just an oath, but that which is full or abundant.

The well found then and the well of the future will be filled to overflowing. However, Sheba is also the word for seven and because of the agreement, the place is called Beersheba, the well of the oath or the well of the seven. As you can see, the coming seven-year covenant with the antichrist is being referred to here.

It should be noted again that the same thing happened at the same place with Abraham. Therefore there are two wells which were found and those two wells still exist there today to testify to the accuracy of this story.

Moreover, the Bible time and time again uses the number two to signify a difference – usually of things at enmity with each other. There are two testaments in the Bible, one based on law and one on grace. One shows fallen man, the other man restored. There are is day and there is night. There is darkness and there is light.

There is good and there is evil. There is Cain and there is Abel, Ishmael and Isaac, Jacob and Esau, Adam and Christ. There is Saul and there is David. There is life under heaven and there is life under earth. There is heaven and there is hell. There is life and there is death.

Each of these is in contrast, just as the two wells are in contrast. This pattern is so clearly laid out, that we even see it in the New Testament epistles. Anytime there are two epistles written to the same group of people we will see the pattern in the second letter.

In 2 Corinthians we see the power of the enemy and the work of Satan. In 2 Thessalonians, there is the working of Satan and the man of sin, also called the lawless one, who is the antichrist. In 2 Timothy we see the church in ruin as opposed to the church that rules in 1 Timothy.

In 2 Peter there is the coming apostasy. In 2 John the term antichrist is specifically mentioned. We could go on and on with these patterns, but this is enough to show without a doubt that this second well being found and named is pointing to the seven year covenant between Israel and the antichrist. It is coming.

To be fair though, I have to note that when there are two things, they also can be contrasting and yet confirming. The two testaments contrast and yet they confirm. The second Person of the Trinity has two natures – God and Man. They contrast and yet confirm.

The two witnesses of Revelation contrast – one a gentile and one a Hebrew and yet they confirm. Amos 3:3 shows us how this works – “Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?” Even if things are at enmity in one way, they confirm in another.

In the end, you can’t know good without evil. So even what is evil shows us what is good. Likewise, the two wells of Beersheba also contrast, and yet they confirm. They stand as the testament to the name and nature of the place, even to this day in modern history and into Israel’s difficult future.

³⁴ When Esau was forty years old, he took as wives Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite.

Suddenly, here in verse 34, we make a transition to Esau. And interestingly, it notes that he has taken two wives. He married at the same age as Isaac, but instead of one wife, he marries two.

Instead of a wife from Mesopotamia and God’s people who are under a blessing, he marries two from Canaan, the people of the devil who are under a curse. Esau is living for what is carnal, Isaac lived for that which is spiritual. Beeri – my well.

It’s as if Esau’s inclusion here is to confirm to us everything we’ve already talked about, the contrast between good and evil.

³⁵ And they were a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebekah.

Isaac, which means “Laughter,” didn’t laugh much around Esau’s wives. They were, as it says “a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebekah.” Esau looked to gain worldly power and influence by marrying these two ladies, but in the end, he only brought unhappiness and trouble to himself and his parents.

This is how the chapter finishes – on an unhappy note. In the end for all of us, we have choices to make. Some of them will end in prosperity, some in grief. The only sure thing that we can count on is God’s promises. The closer we stick to Him and His word, the better off we’ll be.

Esau didn’t and his family life was strained and his marriages were a source of grief. Each of you should know that if you need advice in life’s decisions, you can come and talk with me any time and we’ll go to the word and try to find a happy resolution for your problems there.

Let me take a couple of minutes though and mention Jesus and the cross. Until you’ve settled things with Him, there really is no peace and there really is no point in going to the Bible for comfort. Once you have Jesus right, then everything else from His word will start to make proper sense to you…

Closing Verse: “Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. ²⁹ Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the Lord, Proverbs 1:28, 29

Next Week: Genesis 27:1-20 (A Blessing in the Face of Death)

A Pact with the Devil

Now the Philistines had stopped up all the wells
Which his father’s servants had dug in Abraham’s day
And they filled them with earth, as the story tells
And Abimelech said, “It is time for you to go away.”

You are much mightier than we
Then Isaac departed from there quietly

And he pitched his tent in the Valley of Gerar some distance away
And there is where he dwelt and breathed his breath
He dug again the wells of water which were dug in Abrahams’ day
For the Philistines had stopped them up after Abraham’s death

He called them by the names which his father had given
Also his servants dug in the valley and found a well there
But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled to make him give in
“It’s ours they said.” So he named it Esek because they wouldn’t share

Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that one also
So he called it Sitnah and moving again, did he go

And there he dug another well
And they did not quarrel over it
So he called it Rehoboth, as you can tell
There was room enough for him to sit

“For now the Lord has made room for us
And we shall be fruitful in the land”
Then he went up from there to Beersheba without a fuss
Blessing and prosperity were at hand

And the Lord appeared to him the same night and said
I am the God of your father Abraham
Do not fear, I am with you now instead
I will bless you and multiply your descendants in the land

For my servant Abraham’s sake thus you have my word
So he built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord

And he pitched his tent there the story does tell
And there Isaac’s servants dug another well

Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar
With Ahuzzath his friend and Phichol commander of the army
And Isaac said to them, “Why have you come thus far?
Since you hate me and sent me away in a manner smarmy

But they said, “We have certainly seen that the Lord is with you
So we said, “Let there now be an oath between us and you

“Let us make a covenant with you that you will do us no harm
Since we have not touched you and only done you good
And we have sent you away in peace, have no alarm
You are now the blessed of the Lord, as we have understood

So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank
Then they arose early in the morning and an oath they swore
Then Isaac sent them away and each he did thank
And they departed in peace as they shuffled out the door

It came to pass the same day
That Isaac’s servants came and told him about a well
They had dug it and it turned out ok
“We have found water” is the story they did tell

So he called it Shebah, this is the name he did say
Therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day

When Esau was forty years old he took as wives
Judith the daughter of Beeri and Basemath the daughter of Elon
They were both Hittites who brought grief to his parent’s lives
They were a source of grief to them from the first moment on

In the end, we are a product of our choices
We can choose wisely or foolishly, but the choice is ours to make
If our decisions are based on Jesus, surely God rejoices
And He will bless us for His own name’s sake

And so let us pursue Him at all times and in all ways
And let us bring Him glory and honor all of our days

Above all, let us look to the Lord, our Savior Jesus
Who has done such marvelous wonders for each one of us

Hallelujah and Amen…

Genesis 26:1-14
A Famine in the Land

Introduction: Today we will see God directing things which will lead to the movement of Isaac and his company. I believe this move will set up a chain of events that look forward to things that will happen in the end times. And when I say the “end times,” I mean things that are beginning to happen in the world right now.

Many of these early Genesis stories are given to show us what will happen in the future as God moves through and guides redemptive history. Solomon’s words from Ecclesiastes assures us this is so –

That which is has already been, And what is to be has already been; And God requires an account of what is past. 3:15

God tells us that if we pay attention to the past, we can see where we are heading in the future. Great stuff…

Text Verse: Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, On those who hope in His mercy, To deliver their soul from death, And to keep them alive in famine. Psalm 33:18, 19

Whether in feast or famine, the Lord is there for His people. In the end, even death can’t separate us from His goodness. The sure promises of the Bible will all be realized in those who love Him and are called by Him and so… May God speak to us through His word today and may His glorious name ever be praised.

I. The Promise of Abraham

The previous three sermons spoke of the death of Abraham, the conception and birth of Jacob and Esau, and the selling of the birthright by Esau. These things, according to Genesis 25:11 came about in the area of Beer-Lahai-Roi. This is where we start today.

¹ There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham.

Once again, God is directing the course of human history and the story of Himself and what He is doing. And He is doing it by using nature. He directs a famine which will direct the moves of Isaac, just as one directed Abraham many years earlier in Genesis 12–

“Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land.” (10)

This was about 100 years earlier and at the earliest stages of Abraham’s time in Canaan. What we should see here is that if the account notes that famine, then it is aware of what happened in the rest of Abraham’s life as well. And we will see the same things happening today that happened during the life of Abraham.

Because of this, we can note the similarities and the distinctions to understand why God has included the story for us. One distinction comes up immediately. In the famine at Abraham’s time, he moved to Egypt for relief. However, this famine moves Isaac from Beer Lahai Roi to Gerar as we see in the second half of verse 1 –

^{1 (con’t)}  And Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, in Gerar.

Abraham also moved to this area, and there are more similarities that we’ll note in the verses ahead. The main thing to keep asking ourselves is, “Why did God include this?” It’s not just a story, but a revelation of Himself and what He is doing in history.

On his journey south, Isaac went to the same land that Abraham lived in for many years. Abimelech is the king of the Philistines, but this probably isn’t the same Abimelech of Abraham’s time. The name might be like Pharaoh – a title for a leader.

Gerar means Lodging Place. It’s a place for a sojourner, and this is what Isaac is doing there now. Lodging and sojourning.

² Then the Lord appeared to him and said: “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land of which I shall tell you.

Just as the Lord appeared to Abraham, He now appears to Isaac. Whether he showed up visibly in human form or through a vision or dream isn’t mentioned, but it is the Lord, Jehovah. In other words, He is coming as the Protector of the covenant and the Director of the plan of Salvation.

This direction then is given to specifically fulfill His plans for humanity in the future and/or show us what will occur in the execution of that plan. Every detail of history is being guided towards His end goal.

Because He tells Isaac to not go down to Egypt it’s telling us that’s probably what he was planning on doing, just as Abraham had in the past. There is hardship in Canaan, but food in Egypt. But this time the Lord’s plan doesn’t include a trip to the land of Pharaoh.

³ Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you;

The Lord tells Isaac to “dwell in this land.” This could be taken one of two ways. The first is that it means the Land of Canaan in general or the land of the Philistines where he is now. Either way, the result is the same. He says, “I will be with you and bless you.”

Despite the famine, Isaac will not only survive, but he will be blessed. Isaac has no need to fear the difficult times where rain is lacking because the water he needs will be provided throughout the drought. We’ll see this come about at the end of the sermon today and what lies ahead next week.

As the Geneva Bible says about this verse, “God’s providence always watches to direct the ways of his children.”

^{3 (con’t)} for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.

The Lord made promises to Abraham in Genesis 12 when he was first told to move to Canaan, then again in Genesis 13 after he separated from his nephew Lot, then again in Genesis 15 when God made a covenant with him.

He does so again in Genesis 17 at the time of the rite of circumcision, and finally in Genesis 22 when he asked him to sacrifice Isaac on Mount Moriah.

Out of all of these, the oath he’s referring to is the one that came after the binding of Isaac on Mount Moriah. At that time, and in the hearing of Isaac, we read this –

“Then the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, ¹⁶ and said: ‘By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son— ¹⁷ blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. ¹⁸ In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.’”

This is the oath being referred to and which will be repeated again and again in the pages of the Bible as God reminds us of the coming fulfillment of the promise. Never again will God swear by Himself in this manner and so He reminds His people of the vow that He made once for all time as we see in the next verse…

⁴ And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed;

Until I studied the Hebrew for this verse, I always believed in a double fulfillment of it – one in the people of Israel and one in the work of Jesus. The reason is that the promise seems to have been fulfilled prior to Nehemiah’s time –

“You also multiplied their children as the stars of heaven, And brought them into the land Which You had told their fathers To go in and possess.” Nehemiah 9:22

This seems to be the fulfillment of the promise, but in the Lord’s words to Isaac is an unusual plural term – “I will give your descendants all these lands.” The term for “lands” is ha’arazsot and it’s mostly used to speak in plural form of the surrounding nations or even the nations of the world and not just the nations in Canaan.

In fact, Ezekiel uses the term to speak of all the nations where the people of Israel were scattered in the exile in modern times. This includes pretty much every nation on earth because Jews can be found pretty much everywhere.

This verse then, I believe is speaking only of the blessings of Christ to all nations of the world and to the millennial kingdom and the Messianic rule of Christ from Jerusalem, when all nations of the earth will be under His authority.

This is the promise of the 2^nd Psalm where the Lord speaks prophetically to Himself concerning the rule of the nations –

“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.’”

⁵ because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”

This reminds us of the man of faith, Abraham. But it also reminds us that he was obedient and diligent in exercising his faith through the keeping of the things God had directed for him.

When his final act of faith was behind him on Mount Moriah, the great oath was given and it shouldn’t be lost on any of us that it was given in the presence of Isaac who was almost sacrificed.

Now these many years later the promise is repeated to Isaac as he stands as the bearer of the line which will lead to the Messiah. This must have been an abundantly thrilling thing for him to hear from the Lord. First daddy Abraham and now him…

There is something which might seem confusing in here. Isaac is told that Abraham obeyed the Lord’s voice – meaning His word, and kept His charge – meaning the things he was to observe. It also mentions His commandments, statutes, and laws.

But these weren’t given to Abraham in order for him to receive the blessings. Instead the blessings came by promise alone years earlier. The promises were one-sided and unconditional.

What Isaac is being told is that Abraham is being commended for doing these things after the promise. Just as God made the promise from His fountain of grace, the confirmation of it proceeds from the same bubbling spring and so Isaac should be even more ready and more willing to pursue the Lord’s will.

II. Nothing New Under the Sun

⁶ So Isaac dwelt in Gerar.

Here we have an immediate note of obedience concerning Isaac. The Lord told him to “dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you” and Isaac, listening to what the Lord had just said about Abraham’s faithfulness, determined to be just as obedient.

He was asked to dwell in the place of lodging, Gerar, and he did. This is also something God asks of each of us. He saves us, not to just take us home to heaven, but to remain in the world. While we are in our temporary lodging place as pilgrims we are to not go down to Egypt.

Egypt is a picture of chaos and bondage. It is the life of sin from which we are redeemed and we are not to return to. This then is a picture of the faithful and obedient Christian who dwells in the temporary world, free from the life of sin.

More specifically though, I think this is a picture of the people of Israel today. This will become clearer soon. He is in the land he was told to live in and he has been promised to be blessed. Despite the assurance, he does what Abraham had done twice over eighty years earlier –

⁷ And the men of the place asked about his wife. And he said, “She is my sister”; for he was afraid to say, “She is my wife,” because he thought, “lest the men of the place kill me for Rebekah, because she is beautiful to behold.”

This is usually thought of, and should be considered, as an intentional lie. Unlike Abraham who merely withheld a part of the truth because Sarah was his sister, Isaac is deceivingly claiming the same about Rebekah. He does it for the same reason as Abraham did the first time, because Rebekah is a real beauty.

If this is in chronological order following Genesis 25, Jacob and Esau are at least 15 years old. This means they would be out doing their own thing with people in the camp or maybe even tending to flocks. If the boys were around, everyone would know that Isaac was lying. So either this isn’t chronological or they have grown up.

In an attempt to partially redeem Isaac, I’d like to show two other occasions in the Bible which demonstrate that what he says is actually acceptable as an idiom, even if it is deception on his part. The word for sister, ahot, is used a jillion times in the Bible. This particular form is ahoti – my sister.

Ahoti is used exactly 18 times. Six of these times, a full third of its use, isn’t speaking of a literal sister. The first time is in Proverbs when speaking of wisdom –

My son, keep my words, And treasure my commands within you. ² Keep my commands and live, And my law as the apple of your eye. ³ Bind them on your fingers; Write them on the tablet of your heart. ⁴ Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” And call understanding your nearest kin, Proverbs 7:1-4

The other five times ahoti is used in a non-literal sense is actually speaking of a spouse, exactly as Isaac is. And all five are in the Song of Solomon, a book which pictures Christ and the Church just as Isaac and Rebekah are also such a picture. Listen to the beautiful words from the Song of Songs –

You have ravished my heart, My sister, my spouse; You have ravished my heart With one look of your eyes, With one link of your necklace. ¹⁰ How fair is your love, My sister, my spouse! How much better than wine is your love, And the scent of your perfumes Than all spices! SS 4:9, 10

Therefore, the term ahoti can be, and is used, as a familiar idiom and therefore, although somewhat duplicitous, it is actually acceptable from a biblical standpoint when speaking of a spouse or someone else as close to a person as a literal sister.

I call my wife “mom” or “Beauty” almost all the time. She is a mom, but not my mom. For all we know, Isaac may have called Rebekah Ahoti and simply decided to call her that to others as well just as Solomon called his Shulamite wife.

⁸ Now it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked through a window, and saw, and there was Isaac, showing endearment to Rebekah his wife.

This is a curious verse to consider because it says that Isaac had been in Gerar a long time before Abimelech noticed they were married.

Whatever a long time is – and the word can mean days or years, nobody took time to get to know them well enough to find out the truth and nobody seemed to notice them or their boys together as a family.

What’s also unusual is that the king himself is the one who figures it out. However many people are in the land, it’s the king who takes time to look out his window and see the two of them sporting together in a way that would only be between two married people and not as a brother and sister.

Abimelech means Father of the King. I don’t think he is a picture of God the Father as at Abraham’s time though. We’ll see why next week, but for now I’ll say that I believe Isaac – married, but not willing to acknowledge it – is a picture of the Jewish people living in the land prior to the re-establishment of Israel in 1948.

At that time, they were outside of the covenant graces of God, just as Isaac is living outside of the truth even though he’s in the land God told him to dwell in. This should become clearer in the verses ahead, but I believe it is picturing the Jewish presence in the land prior to 1948.

III. A Hedge of Protection

⁹ Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Quite obviously she is your wife; so how could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac said to him, “Because I said, ‘Lest I die on account of her.’”

The contrast is striking and ironic. What Isaac had kept hidden for a long time is now responded to immediately. Abimelech is beside himself and for good reason as we’ll see in another verse. He has no doubt that Rebekah is Isaac’s wife and he wants to know what the deal is.

Isaac responds honestly and to the point, just as Abraham did in exactly the same situation and in exactly the same place many long years earlier, that he might die on account of his wife. If he were to be killed for Rebekah, then she would be taken anyway.

His thought is probably that either way, she would be harmed if someone took her. If he were alive, he could fight to retrieve her, but if they killed him first, then she would be a goner without a defender. It does show a lack of faith in God’s promise though.

Now, think of those Jews in the world prior to the reestablishment of Israel. They were not united as a people or standing together as one, but were merely residents in a land and often hiding the truth of who they are and what they represent in the world, particularly in the lands where they were dispersed.

¹¹ And Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might soon have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us.”

What’s important here is that the Lord intervened before anything could happen, just like he did with Abraham. If something did happen to either of them, then the Philistines would have been in violation of the treaty Abraham made with Abimelech about eighty years earlier and which is found in Genesis 21 –

Now therefore, swear to me by God that you will not deal falsely with me, with my offspring, or with my posterity; but that according to the kindness that I have done to you, you will do to me and to the land in which you have dwelt.” Genesis 21:23

Abimelech asked for a treaty and the treaty was cut between the two of them. It was binding on them and it is still binding today in the land of Israel. He remembered the covenant and he was a man who had reverence for the word which they agreed upon.

If one of his people violated Isaac or Rebekah, they would have the same punishment come upon them. God is ever faithful to watch over the agreements of men which are made in His name. Remember this when you consider your wedding vows, oaths in court, or any other time you invoke His name.

This verse is the point which we see in modern history where the ancient treaty is brought to mind once again. It is the re-establishment of Israel and the confirmation of who Israel is and their connection with the bride – the people of God.

This is no stretch at all and I am convinced this is what is being prefigured. You will too by the time we’ve finished chapter 26.

¹¹ So Abimelech charged all his people, saying, “He who touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”

The order is given by Abimelech to his kingdom. It is an order for protection of Isaac. God has ensured safety to Isaac and his family and has placed a hedge of protection around them.

As of the reestablishment of Israel, God has likewise once again placed a hedge around them. Nothing could be clearer in the world today. In 1948, in 1967, and in 1973 they won wars with impossible odds against them and they are being readied for the great end-times scenario which lies ahead of us.

From the next three verses, we’ll begin to get a look at Israel in today’s world and begin to make the connections which will set up the world of those end times. As I quoted earlier, “That which is has already been, And what is to be has already been; And God requires an account of what is past.”

¹² Then Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the Lord blessed him.

Now….now that Isaac is living properly and acknowledging his wife openly and faithfully we read this verse “Then Isaac sowed in that land.”

God has again favored Israel. From the time that they were reestablished, they have been blessed as no other people on earth. Their cows produce more milk than our cows. Their harvests are immense. The land is producing a hundredfold, and the Lord has blessed them. The pattern of what was in Isaac now is in Israel.

Listen to what Isaiah says about Israel once they were brought back into the covenant graces of today – “You shall no longer be termed Forsaken, Nor shall your land any more be termed Desolate; But you shall be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; For the Lord delights in you, And your land shall be married.” (62:4) (my delight is in her///married)

Isaac has acknowledged Rebekah and God has once again delighted in Israel. The parallels are right there to be seen. Now that this has taken place he reaps an inordinate amount during a time of famine. Israel also is reaping from land which was totally barren for 2000 years. The soil is rich and the harvest is bountiful.

But hidden within this verse is a concept which is so deep we can’t cover it even minutely – I can only give a hint of what the Bible reveals. The term for “reaped a hundredfold” is meah shearim. The word is the same root and basic spelling as barley – seorim.

Barley is known as the crop of hairy ears because of its hairy appearance. The root of this word is se-ar or hair. Hair in the Bible indicates an awareness of things. The goat for example is used in Leviticus for the sin offering and it is known as sa-ir. We have an awareness of sin in the hairy goat sin offering.

In Numbers there is a type of person known as a Nazirite. This is someone who made a vow or was consecrated to the Lord. During the time of that vow, they were never to cut their hair. Samson was a Nazirite from birth as were Samuel and John the Baptist. Paul took a Nazirite vow in Acts.

The hair on their head was a reminder of their state, just as the hairy goat is a reminder of sin. The barley harvest that Isaac is reaping (meah shearim) is a reminder of God’s covenant to him and the abundant blessing he received was because of his time of living faithfully within that covenant.

Now are you seeing modern Israel in this? Despite their unfaithfulness, they have been returned to the land. They are now living in the land as was promised by God throughout the Old Testament. It is the time of hair – the time of awareness, the time of the barley harvest, and the mighty reaping of the grain.

Like I said, this study is so deep, we could on for hours, but be assured that what is being spoken of in Isaac is realized in the reestablishment of Israel. And to see the truth of this we move on –

¹³ The man began to prosper, and continued prospering until he became very prosperous;

V’yigdal haish v’yelech haloch v’gadel ad ki gadal meod. “And the man was Great; and he went, going on, and was Great, until that he was exceeding Great.” Simple repetition which becomes forceful and magnificent! It is an amazing thing to read.

This is Israel today – the blessings and the prospering even until they have become very prosperous. Isaiah said these words over 2700 years ago –

Those who come He shall cause to take root in Jacob; Israel shall blossom and bud, And fill the face of the world with fruit. 27:6

This was written at a time when it wasn’t even possible and yet it has come true in our lifetime. Fruit from Israel is found around the world, and not just literal fruit, but the fruit of their labors in every way possible. They have flooded the world with the blessings of technology, medicine, food, and prosperity.

And as always, always in the world we live in, along with blessing and prosperity comes something else… something dark, and cold, wicked, and sinister. It is something that inevitably ruins everything it touches…

¹⁴ for he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great number of servants. So the Philistines envied him.

Isaac inherited all that Abraham had and now he has even more. He has grown to the point that he is the greatest man in the land. Israel has inherited the land of promise once again and has brought all of the wealth it obtained from the world into the Land of Israel. Once again they are now the greatest people in all the land.

“So the Philistines envied him.” If you can’t see the repetition in this verse in today’s world, you’re either blind or you may be an anti-Semite. The Palestinians, the Jew haters of the same land and bearing the same name as 4000 years ago, are green with envy.

They are shiftless, wicked, and lustful stallions wanting to steal the blessings of God from the people of God. And as I say time and again, Israel is but a microcosm of the world we live in. The Geneva Bible says this about this final verse of today – “The malicious always envy the graces of God in others.”

There will always be unions to extort from owners. There will always be obamas to steal from those who produce. There will always be liberals who steal from conservatives. And all the while, they fritter away what they have so that in the end, there is nothing left but more envy and more theft.

What has been will be again and that which has been done will be done again, and there is truly nothing new under the sun. Next week we will continue the journey of Chapter 26 and we will head into the future and see events which are happening right now which will be realized in just short days ahead.

Stand back and see God’s amazing plans unfold, even in our lifetime.

I haven’t spoken much about Jesus today, so please let me take a moment to explain this faithful Lord who is taking care of His unfaithful people – both in Israel and the Church…

Closing Verse: ⁵ For I,’ says the Lord, ‘will be a wall of fire all around her, and I will be the glory in her midst.’” ⁶ “Up, up! Flee from the land of the north,” says the Lord; “for I have spread you abroad like the four winds of heaven,” says the Lord. Zechariah 2:5, 6

Next Week – Genesis 26:15-35 (That Which Has Been)

The Blessings of Abraham

There was a famine in the land
Besides the first famine in the days of Abraham

And Issac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines in Gerar
Then the Lord said to him “Don’t move; stay where you are.”

Do not go down to Egypt as you intended to
Rather, live in the land of which I shall tell you

Dwell in this land and I shall be with you and bless you also
For to you and your descendants all these lands I give
I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham, you know
I will make your descendants multiply in the land which you live

They will be as the stars of heaven, a number that can’t be guessed
And I will give to your descendants these lands so large
And in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed
Because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge

And he kept my commandments, statutes, and laws
He was upright before me, walking without any flaws

So Isaac dwelt in Gerar and the men asked about his wife
And he said, “She is my sister” because he feared for his life

Lest they kill me for Rebekah who is beautiful to behold
She is a pearl and a treasure more precious than fine gold

Now it came to pass after a long time
That Abimelech the Philistine king looked through a window
And saw Isaac sporting with Rebekah the lady so sublime
And realized that what Isaac had said really wasn’t so

Then Abimelech called Isaac and said
Quite obviously she is your wife
So how could you say “She is my sister” instead
Isaac responded, “I feared for my life”

And Abimelech said, “What is this you have done?
One of the people might soon have lain with your wife
And you would have brought guilt where there was none
And then it would have been the end of that person’s life”

So Abimelech charged all his people and said
He who touches this man or his wife
There will be no mercy for that person instead
It will be death for him, the ending of his life

Then Isaac sowed in that land
And his crop was magnificently grand

He reaped in the same year a hundredfold
And the Lord blessed him just as he was told

The man began to prosper, and continued prospering
Until he became very prosperous, much increase he did bring

For he had possessions of flocks and of herds also
A great number of servants he had as well
So the Philistines envied him just as you know
And their jealousy is a sad, sad story to tell

All of these things are written in the book
To show us of things to come surely and without a doubt
So open your Bible daily and be sure to take a look
God’s plan is revealed to those who seek Him out

Thank You Lord for this wonderful word
And for Your faithfulness to your people
Praises belong to You, our great and precious Lord
Let Your praises ring under every church steeple

Hallelujah and Amen…

Genesis 25:24-34
Heaven’s Riches for a Meal

Introduction: Last week, we looked at some details concerning the doctrines of election and predestination. Today, we’ll see how the lives of these two babies fighting in the womb will prefigure Adam and Jesus as they grow up.

The question I want you to think about is this, “What good would all the things you have, or are looking forward to having, do for you if you were to die today?”

I didn’t realize until I was almost done with preparing this sermon that I’d come an entirely wrong conclusion about what we should learn from the account. As usual, if we rely too heavily on other people’s commentaries, we’re bound to miss what we’re actually supposed to know. Let’s not make this mistake today!

Text Verse: For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. ⁸ Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward. 2 John 1:7, 8

There are deceivers and there are deceivers. Some people deceive to get ahead in life, some to hurt other’s chances at doing so. But then there are those who go out to deceive the world by denying that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. What does this mean? That Jesus didn’t live? No.

George Washington came in the flesh and nobody cares about that. He was a man who came from other men. This isn’t speaking about someone actually existing, but rather it’s speaking about the incarnation of Jesus Christ – the eternal God putting on flesh to replace the fallen deeds of Adam.

Jehovah’s witnesses deny this, muslims deny this. In fact, denying the incarnation is so serious that John calls those who do so an antichrist. Jesus came for a specific purpose and to accomplish a specific task, a part of which is prefigured in today’s verses and so… May God speak to us through His word today and may His glorious name ever be praised.

I. Jacob and Esau

To understand the context of what we’ll see, let me read you the pertinent verses from last week –

Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah as wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padan Aram, the sister of Laban the Syrian. Now Isaac pleaded with the Lord for his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord granted his plea, and Rebekah his wife conceived.  But the children struggled together within her; and she said, “If all is well, why am I like this?” So she went to inquire of the Lord.  And the Lord said to her: “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.”

The foreknowledge of God has been relayed to Rebekah and His plans for the life of these boys and their posterity will come about just as He has spoken. History has borne out the prophecy.

²⁴ So when her days were fulfilled for her to give birth, indeed there were twins in her womb.

As we noted a moment ago from last week’s account, Isaac pleaded with the Lord for Rebekah to have a child. In His grace, He didn’t just bless her with one, but with two. God is abundantly good to us as He unfolds the future and reveals it in the present.

Rebekah’s days were fulfilled and from conception to birth is 9 months or about 270 days – now the time has arrived. Here at the moment of delivery, mom is ready to meet her boys. For those of you who love the details, the word for “twins” here is the Hebrew word thomim.

If you listen closely, you’ll hear the name of another noted biblical figure, the Apostle Thomas, the doubting one. Thomim or in its singular form thaom is directly translated to Thomas. He is noted in John 11:16 by his other Greek name as well –

Therefore Thomas, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, so that we may die with Him.” (NASB)

The word Didymus means the same thing, two-fold or twin, or as we might say “ditto.” So now, when you meet someone named Thomas, you have all sorts of things you can tell him.

²⁵ And the first came out red. He was like a hairy garment all over; so they called his name Esau.

Esau is born first and so, without going any further, we know from the prophecy that he and his line will serve the next to be born. When he came out, he was red. It isn’t stated whether the red is from the blood of birth adhering to his hair or if his hair was naturally red, but Charlie’s guess is the latter. His hair is red.

One ancient Jewish scholar sees in this red color that he would be a shedder of blood, fierce, and cruel. This is born out by his descendants later in the Bible and so it’s a good supposition.

What’s also noted about him is that he was born with so much hair on his body that he looked like a hairy garment all over. This is a genetic occurrence known as hypertrichosis. Because of this, they named him Esau. Esau means “made.”

What the parents were implying then is that in the womb he was made more like a man than a child because of his premature development. Because of the early development, his youth would be more passionate and precocious than others his age.

What it also means for his future is that he is more earthly than spiritual. This will become perfectly evident as we go on and the pattern of what Esau points to is fulfilled in the writings of Paul in the New Testament. The word describing him as “red” is used about only one other person in the Bible, the great King David –

And when the Philistine looked about and saw David, he disdained him; for he was only a youth, ruddy and good-looking. 1 Samuel 17:42

David, like Esau was thought to be, was a man of blood. (Explain)

²⁶ Afterward his brother came out, and his hand took hold of Esau’s heel; so his name was called Jacob.

The one who will be served comes out last and as an indication of their future, he is holding Esau’s heel. Because of this, he was given the name of Ya’akov or Jacob. This name has a few different meanings which are based on the idiom “takes hold by the heel.”

The idea is that in grabbing someone by the heel, you will trip him up. But there is also the idea of a deceiver, one who supplants, or one who follows closely behind. All of these fit his life and circumstances. But grabbing the heel, or “following after,” is the idea that we want to get here. It points to Jesus.

There is a meaning and a mystery in the name of Jacob which looks forward to much of his life, both as one who deceives and one who gets deceived. But because he follows after Esau, there is also a wonderful pattern Paul will explain to us later.

As you’ll see in the verses ahead, the account of these boys picture fallen Adam and the risen Christ. Jacob’s first act in life is remembered by the prophet Hosea many generations later –

He took his brother by the heel in the womb,
And in his strength he struggled with God. Hosea 12:3

^{26 (con’t)} Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.

Isaac was born in the year 2109AM and was married at the age of 40. Now 20 years later his children are born to them in the year 2169AM. Although Abraham’s death has already been recorded, he will be alive for 15 more years and is probably a happy grandpa.

²⁷ So the boys grew. And Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field; but Jacob was a mild man, dwelling in tents.

In one verse, we’ve skipped over enough years to see the boys grown to where they are old enough to live and work alone. God only includes what is necessary to show us His thoughts and to lead us to Jesus. Here, in this first verse about their adulthood, God shows us two types or pictures in the two men.

The first picture is Esau. His name as I said means “made” just as Adam was made from the dust of the earth where a word similar to Esau’s name is used in Genesis 1:26, asah, when God said, “let Us make man in our image.” He was a complete man which is pictured by Esau in his exceptional birth – a developed man.

He is a hunter – one who obtains his living from the ground and he is a man of the ground. He is a picture of Adam who was taken from the ground and who was destined to obtain his sustenance from the ground that he came from. Esau can be summed up in the words from Genesis 3 which God spoke to Adam –

¹⁷ Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it
All the days of your life. ¹⁸ Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. ¹⁹ In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken;
For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.”

As a hunter, he is like Nimrod and Ishmael who came before him. Both of them, along with him, picture fallen man fighting to live off the toil of the earth; they are all earthly and unspiritual.

Jacob, on the other hand is a picture of Christ. He is noted as a mild man. In 2 Corinthians 10:1, Jesus is termed gentle and meek by the Apostle Paul. But the word used for “mild” here is the word tam. This word means more than mild, but specifically “blameless” or “perfect.” Just a perfect description of the Lord he pictures.

Jacob is also noted as one dwelling in tents. Again we see Christ, first dwelling in the tabernacle among the children of Israel, later He dwelt in the Temple in Jerusalem, and finally He put on a tabernacle of flesh and dwelt among us as John records –

And the Word became flesh, and did tabernacle among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of an only begotten of a father, full of grace and truth. (1:14)

The picture of Christ that Jacob makes as he dwelt in a tent is ultimately fulfilled in Revelation 21 –

“Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.” (vs. 3)

Unlike Esau who hunted wild animals, Jacob is a shepherd, once again picturing the Good Shepherd who came to guide His flock from earth to their heavenly home. Esau is destructive in game; Jacob is constructive in sheep. And thus we see Adam and Christ.

²⁸ And Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.

The Hebrew literally says that Isaac loved Esau because of the venison in his mouth – very descriptive and showing his love for the meat as much as the boy. Rebekah, on the other hand loved Jacob, but no reason is given.

It could stem back to the prophecy that she was given before they were born, or it could simply be because Esau stunk like the dickens when he came home from hunting. We don’t know, but please note it doesn’t say either parent didn’t love the other child.

They merely favored one over the other. Almost every commentator in the world seems to want to find fault with the parents here, but I don’t see it that way. The Bible is simply commenting on the facts and very few are given.

The words of Malachi show us that if our thoughts about Isaac and Rebekah are negative, then our thoughts about the Lord’s dealing with these two should be negative as well because the Lord deals much more harshly with Esau.

Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” Says the Lord. “Yet Jacob I have loved; ³ But Esau I have hated, Malachi 1:2

In the end, opposites attract. Isaac wasn’t an adventurer and Esau was. Rebekah made a great adventure, leaving her home and family to go to the land of promise, and Jacob is the type to stay home, read books, and watch TV. This is how it was and there is no need to point fingers and accuse. Just accept what is given.

II. Trading Heaven’s Riches for a Bowl of Stew

²⁹ Now Jacob cooked a stew; and Esau came in from the field, and he was weary.

The words here for “cooked a stew” are yazed nazid, or boiled a boiling. Jacob was in the house cooking food. An ancient Jewish source connects this cooking with a time of mourning and states that it was most likely at the time of the death of Abraham.

If so, and this is completely speculation, then they would be 15 years old. As Jacob is cooking, Esau comes in wearily from the field. This once again aligns with the curse of Adam –

“Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life.”

He’s been in the field toiling and he is hungry and tired. Esau is Adam in our unfolding story. And Jacob is Jesus, at home and cooking up the greatest meal in all of history.

³⁰ And Esau said to Jacob, “Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am weary.” Therefore his name was called Edom.

I do mission work every Saturday and one of the people I’ve gotten to know is called 39. For a while I didn’t know why he was called that. Eventually I found out that he played football at the same high school I went to and he was number 39. The name stuck.

Esau looks at the red stuff in the soup bowl and he very well may not have even known what it was because he simply says, “Please with the red, the red.” Or in Hebrew, na min ha’adom ha’adom. He’s hungry and tired and he simply wants to eat, but because of the description, he gets a nickname, Edom.

It very well could be that people already called him that because of his color, but now the name sticks because of his exclamation. And here we see him again as a picture of Adam. Adam was taken from the red clay of the earth and thus received his name.

And here we have Edom, which is the identical root for the name Adam. Both are red, both are earthly, and both are tied to the red, the red ground from which they came and from which their sustenance comes.

³¹ But Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright as of this day.”

Jacob intends to gain from what he knows is a quick-willed twin, and so he offers him the red, the red if he will sell his birthright. Under the Law of Moses, a birthright was a double portion of what the other children would get.

If there were six children, then the oldest would get 2/7^th of the estate. This birthright is different than that. It included being the chief of the clan and receiving all authority and all title to the estate. Just as Isaac got everything from Abraham, this same birthright would then pass to Esau. Jacob wants this.

It also involved being in the family next to the parents, the parental blessing, the promises which would lead to the Messiah, and eventually to the inheritance of the promised land, as well as the right to the priestly functions of the family.

If you’re able to see it, all of these things point to the position and status of Jesus. Jacob lets Edom know that if there was to be a meal, it would involve a transfer of these rights to Jacob.

Jacob is looking for an exchange – that which is earthly for that which is spiritual. Edom like Adam was willing to give up his spiritual inheritance for what is earthly and Jesus was willing to give up what was earthly for that which is heavenly. This is where Jacob first finds a fulfillment in his name – heel grabber.

He is looking to grab the position of the older by obtaining the birthright. And this refers back to the play on words concerning the soup. The word boil is yazed and comes from the word zid or zed, to boil in a literal sense. But just as we in English use boil to mean “rage,” the word in Hebrew means to “act proudly or presumptuously.”

Jacob is taking advantage of the situation which has presented itself to obtain the deed to the estate and all that goes along with it. Jesus will take advantage of another situation to obtain fallen man’s title deed and all that goes along with it.

And so Jacob tells Esau to sell him the birthright this day. In other words, in the open and in complete and full terms. If that is agreed on, then Esau gets his soup. Does anyone see Jesus and the Lord’s Supper here? Jesus has come to receive the promises of Adam. His red blood is the item of transfer.

If we, in Adam, want what His cup offers, we must give up any attempt at obtaining those things ourselves. We cede our right to Him to be our priest, to having claim on our estate, to all the promises of the Messiah and the rightful ownership of the Promised Land.

If we accept His offer – His blood – for us ceding our rights, the transfer is made. However, in our case, what we lose is gained in being granted life. This isn’t stretching this at all, and the next verse confirms it…

³² And Esau said, “Look, I am about to die; so what is this birthright to me?”

Anokhi holekh lamut – “I am to die.” Esau was a real whiner about his stomach and the importance of having a meal – ask my wife,,, that’s me to a T.

I want you to not misunderstand me, there is a real occurrence which the Bible later condemns, and there is a spiritual occurrence that we need to note, as sons of Adam, and hold fast to.

In the real occurrence, Esau is giving up the treasures of heaven for a mere bowl of soup. The Bible will later call him a profane person because of this. To Esau, the prospect of his physical life was of more value than the spiritual things he would have received. In his thinking if he died, they wouldn’t have mattered anyway.

It could be that he truly was hungry and exhausted and his thought is “Well, if I die, Jacob will get the birthright anyhow.” But there is nothing to show that he was a step away from death except his own words and there is every reason to believe this isn’t really the case.

The birthright is as much a spiritual thing as it is an earthly blessing and so it would only be of value to someone with faith to understand it. If we were to look at a modern parallel, it would be education. If we are willing to look forward and understand the benefits of an education, then we will pursue it.

A better example might be someone who is willing to read and study their Bible. Unless you understand the spiritual aspect of the book and your necessity to grasp it, it means nothing to you.

It is the place where all of heaven’s treasures are revealed and yet we sell it off for TV or playing on the Wii. The most glorious heavenly treasure on earth is sold for soup.

The Geneva Bible says this about this verse – “The reprobate do not value God’s benefits unless they feel them presently, and therefore they prefer present pleasures.”

What I want you to know though, and I don’t want you to miss it, is that the spiritual aspect of what we see here is exactly the opposite. Anokhi holekh lamut – “I am to die.”

We are all destined to die. We are all Esau, walking in and looking for soup. When we die, none of our treasures will matter. Like Esau figured, someone else will get them anyway. Solomon explains this in Ecclesiastes 2 –

Then I hated all my labor in which I had toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who will come after me. ¹⁹ And who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will rule over all my labor in which I toiled and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun. This also is vanity. ²⁰ Therefore I turned my heart and despaired of all the labor in which I had toiled under the sun. ²¹ For there is a man whose labor is with wisdom, knowledge, and skill; yet he must leave his heritage to a man who has not labored for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.

The question we have to ask is, “Am I willing to give up everything for one meal?” If that meal will give us life, then isn’t the exchange worthwhile? And there is only one meal which will satisfy. You see, in this meal we move from Esau to Jacob; from the authority of Adam to the authority of Jesus.

Just as Edom became subservient to Jacob, we too, sons of Adam, must cede our rights and authority to Jesus in order to have life. Now, hopefully now, you can understand Jesus’ words to His disciples in John 6 about the red, the red meal we’re looking at –

“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴ Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. ⁵⁵ For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.”

³³ Then Jacob said, “Swear to me as of this day.” So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob.

The 16^th Century bishop, satirist, and moralist Joseph Hall had this wise thought, “There was never any meat, except the forbidden fruit, so dear bought, as this broth of Jacob.”

For nothing more than a lunch which was as much water as it was lentils, all of Esau’s treasures were sworn away. And for the same soup Jacob inherited many glories in the years ahead. And each one of them, we need to remember, is still noted today. This wasn’t just a walk in life which ended when they did.

Instead it was an account which people around the world still read about 4000 years later. The question that should come up in our own minds is, “What will I most be remembered for?” Who knows, maybe our life’s mistakes or victories will be seen by everyone who comes after us as well.

And even if they’re not, we still are living in God’s sight and he knows the moral state we’re in, even if others don’t. Again, I’ll turn to the Geneva Bible for their thoughts, “Thus the wicked prefer their worldly conveniences over God’s spiritual graces: but the children of God do the opposite.”

³⁴ And Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils; then he ate and drank, arose, and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

This is the first time bread is mentioned in the entire chapter. Esau gave up his birthright for bread and the red, the red that would keep him alive for a few more hours. We have been asked to give up our birthright for Bread and the Red that will give eternal life.

Without trying to sensationalize the life and lessons we should get from Esau, we need to at least note the attitude he presents. As I said, there is a physical aspect and a spiritual aspect to this story. And although the two are diametrically opposed in how we handle them, they come from the same account.

For the physical lesson, the author of Hebrews tells us the type of person that Esau really was. The morality he displayed becomes an example to each of us of how not to live, especially considering spiritual matters –

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 Hebrews 12

Paul writes in Philippians 3 about those who set their mind on the things of the world. What he says so closely resembles Esau, that it needs to be considered –

¹⁷ Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern. ¹⁸ For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: ¹⁹ whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things.

However, in the spiritual aspect of what we see in today’s story, we actually do have to be willing to sell everything for a single meal – a spiritual meal. Continuing on in the same passage from Philippians, Paul explains to us what we receive when we give up our rights to this world –

²⁰ For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹ who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself. DISCUSS

I said a while ago that being the firstborn granted the birthright. This would make one chief of the clan and they would receive all authority and all title to the estate. In today’s passage, this authority was passed from Esau to Jacob.

This transfer is a picture of the transfer from Adam to Christ. As a son of Adam, we have a right to our own birthright this fallen world – it is our inheritance. Adam had the title to the Eden and gave it up for a bite of fruit. Edom did the same thing for a bowl of soup. Both meals were temporary and unsatisfying.

Jacob received the birthright through a vow sworn by Esau and it was irrevocable. Jesus now asks each of us to give up our inheritance here in the earthly realm under Adam and submit to His rule and authority. Jacob replaced the firstborn Esau. and Paul clearly explains that Jesus replaces the first man, Adam –

However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. ⁴⁷ The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. ⁴⁸ As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. ⁴⁹ And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.

The question for Adam’s seed is, “Do we want to live an ungodly and profane life like Esau and give up heaven’s riches for what is earthly and temporary, or do we want to sell our earthly riches for a spiritual meal which will grant us heaven and eternity.”

Remember what the prophecy about these two stated –

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.

There are two people groups on earth right now. One is serving the older and one is serving the younger. I never fully grasped God’s words through Malachi until I wrote this sermon. Remember when I read them earlier –

Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” Says the Lord. “Yet Jacob I have loved;
³ But Esau I have hated,

The Bible says that we are children of wrath by nature. We are earthly and serving the first man, who is Adam, but we can become heavenly and serve the second, who is Christ. When we make that choice – all symbolized in the Lord’s Supper, we go from being children of wrath, to adopted Son’s of God and beloved.

Let me tell you how you too can partake of this heavenly meal…

Closing Verse: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 2 Corinthians 6:2 (see verse 33) “Swear to me as of this day.”

Next Week: Genesis 26:1-14 (A Famine in the Land)

Heaven’s Riches for a Meal (A Double Entendre)

When Rebekah’s days were fulfilled to give birth
Indeed there were twins in her womb
The first came out red, like the clay of the earth
He was hairy as a garment, like mohair I presume

So they called his name Esau because like a man he was made
I wonder if those who saw him stood back and were dismayed?

After Esau his younger brother then came out
And his hand took hold of Esau’s heel
So his name was Jacob because with no doubt
He was a heel grabber and supplanting was his deal

When Rebekah bore them, Isaac was sixty years of age
And his life was now turning a brand new page

So the boys grew and Esau was a skillful hunter
A man of the field was his type of life
But Jacob was a mild man and not a physical grunter
He dwelt in tents; instead of arrows he used a butter knife

And Isaac love Esau because he ate of his game
But Rebekah loved Jacob and the man he became

Now Jacob cooked a stew
And Esau came in weary from the field
And Esau said to Jacob, “I’m famished through and through
Please feed me some of that red stew before my life I yield

Therefore Edom was called his name
Both his color and the color of the soup were the same

But Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright as of this day
And Esau said, “Look I’m about to die.”
So what is this birthright to me, tell me I pray?
Then Jacob said, Swear as of this day between you and I

So he swore to him and to Jacob he sold his birthright
And Jacob gave Esau bread and some lentil stew
Then he ate and drank, arose, and went out of sight
Thus Esau despised his birthright, he told it “Adieu!”

Here we are pictured by these boys
And we have choices in this world to make
Will we pursue all the earthly toys?
Or will we give them up for heaven’s sake?

We can sell our birthright for that which perishes
Or we can sell it for the thing that God most cherishes

If we sell it for a bowl of soup that Adam did make
Then it is a sad choice that we have made
But if we sell it for the heavenly cake
Then by God above it was a glorious trade

Eat of the bread and drink of the blood
Of the Lord Jesus provided freely to all
And when you do it shall be understood
That through this act Christ in you has reversed Adam’s fall

Great and glorious, splendid God above
Let us shout out to You with praises and love

Hallelujah and Amen…

 

Genesis 25:19-23
Divine Election – The Older Shall Serve the Younger

Introduction: Before I started the Genesis series, I did a whole host of doctrine sermons. I preached on heaven, hell, the Holy Spirit, Christology, the rapture, the Trinity and so on. However, I didn’t preach on Election or Predestination. Today’s passage is used by Paul to explain this and so this is where we will go too.

Unfortunately, it’s become common to reject doctrine in preaching and teaching and to just give life application sermons. In fact, it is now the standard in many churches. I was in a church here last year and the pastor, during his sermon, said that it wasn’t even a good thing to argue doctrine because it divides the church.

I was stunned at this. The Bible is, first and foremost, a book of doctrine. Without properly understanding it, you end up with cults, neurotic people, and egotistical leaders. If one doesn’t understand doctrine, then whatever the pastor says becomes, by default, the church doctrine.

Instead of the Bible, his word is what matters. If you don’t think this is important, you will. When a family member or a friend commits suicide you will inevitably ask questions of a pastor. I know because I get at least three or four of these every year either by phone or email from people I don’t even pastor.

Who will counsel you if you have marital troubles – the Bible or someone’s opinion? If you’re a Christian and you do something terribly wrong – suppose you kill someone – does the Bible say you will lose your salvation?

I have to tell you, today’s topic, if misunderstood, will lead you to believe that maybe you have. Maybe you can’t ever know if you’re saved. Can you know? If you don’t have doctrine, you have nothing. Calling on Jesus and getting saved isn’t so important if He might “un-save” you.

Here is a statement which was placed on a post on Facebook recently. Can you tell where the error lies?

“If you seriously believe that Christ actually paid the penalty due for your sins, then there are only three possibly consistent conclusions: (1) Everyone for whom Christ died will be saved, but He did not die for every individual (Calvinism), (2) everyone for whom Christ died will be saved, and He did die for every individual (Universalism), or (3) everyone for whom Christ died will not necessarily be saved, in which case the only possible conclusion is that Christ’s sacrifice was imperfect; His atonement was not sufficient to save us.”

The problem is that it leaves out an obvious fourth option. This person didn’t take the time to think his post through, or more probably, he ignored what is correct because it doesn’t fit with his theology that says we don’t have free will in salvation. Calvinism rejects that.

The answer – Christ paid the penalty for all sins potentially (unlimited atonement offered), but only those who receive His substitutionary atonement will actually have them forgiven (limited atonement actual). This is what the Bible teaches. That one must call on the Lord to be saved. Anyone can, but not everyone will.

Can you imagine a preacher saying that Christ didn’t die for every individual? So much for Peter’s words that the Lord isn’t willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

As tedious as the second portion of our sermon might seem, I’d ask you to pay heed to what God has in His word concerning two children who fight in their mother’s womb which leads to God revealing their destinies before they are even born.

Text Verse: What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not!For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. Romans 9:14-16

Too often we forget that God is sovereign over creation. When we forget, we tend to blame Him for evil that occurs and we call Him unfair in how He deals with us. But just as the pot has no right to accuse the potter, we have no right to accuse our Creator. He is God and we are man and so… May God speak to us through His name today and may His glorious name ever be praised.

I. The Generations of Isaac

¹⁹ This is the genealogy of Isaac, Abraham’s son.

We now come to the eighth set of “generations” listed in the Bible. Last week we saw those of Ishmael which was a branch off the main line leading to Jesus. This genealogy of Isaac returns to the main line. So far we have seen the following generations listed –

The generations of the heavens and the earth (2:4); the generations of Adam (5:1); the generations of Noah (6:9); the generations of the sons of Noah (10:1); the generations of Shem (11:10); the generations of Terah (11:27); the generations of Ishmael (25:12)

According to the layout and structure of Genesis, this genealogy will commence with the birth of his sons. However, in order for us to see the sovereignty of God we’re given a recap of how and when he obtained his wife, Rebekah. After this we’ll see some insights of what happens before the children are born.

The coming verses show us that God is completely in charge of everything that happens. Just as He orchestrated the union of Isaac and Rebekah, He will choose when and how their children will be born and He will show us again, the doctrine of Divine Election.

^{19 (con’t)}Abraham begot Isaac.

These words are given to confirm Isaac is the legitimate and chosen son of promise. One thing I’d like you to think about concerning these two men is how their lives resemble the figures they represent – God the Father and God the Son.

Abraham is the man of faith who forged his way into the unknown, heading to the Promised Land, conquering enemies, and living in anticipation of the promised son. When the son came, he obtained a wife for him. In so many ways, he typifies God the Father.

However, Isaac consented to be sacrificed. He is a man of patience, obedience, and acquiescence. Abraham initiated, Isaac carried out; Abraham led, Isaac followed; Abraham commenced, Isaac continued. He pictures God the Son, ever obedient to the Father.

²⁰ Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah as wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padan Aram, the sister of Laban the Syrian.

The year was 2149AM at the marriage of Isaac and Rebekah. This verse uses the term Syrian. Some translations will say Aramean. The location means either. The Hebrew term is Arami or Aramean, but the exact spot is Padan Aram which is located in Syria.

Padan means “plowed field” and so this is the flatlands of Syria. Interestingly, Syria is just as much in the news today as it was then. It is a land of turmoil, war, and death which we see on TV every night.

²¹ Now Isaac pleaded with the Lord for his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord granted his plea, and Rebekah his wife conceived.

Just like Sarah, who was barren for the much of her life and even for 30 years after entering the Land of Canaan, Rebekah is also barren. Her condition will last for 19 years.

Because of the inordinate amount of time without having a child, Isaac prayed to Jehovah, for Rebekah. For all we know, they could have started praying for a child after the first year. God works in His own timing and to meet His own purposes.

Eventually though the Lord granted the plea and Rebekah conceived. The long period between marriage and birth demonstrated to Isaac and Rebekah, as it does to us, that the conception wasn’t merely a natural occurrence, but a gift of grace.

The structure of the Hebrew here is worthy of note. When it says “Isaac pleaded with the Lord for his wife” it uses the term lenokhakh ishto. Some scholars look at this as meaning that he prayed either in the presence of, or with, his wife

No matter how he prayed, both Abraham and Isaac were molded through the exercise of faith and prayer before they were blessed with children. In today’s world, we want everything right now and we become impatient with even small delays.

However, God continues to work in each of us in the way He worked through these heroes of faith. Some of you have family members who don’t know the Lord and you are there praying. Some of you have family in jail, lost in alcoholism, or perhaps drugs. And God is pleased to allow your prayers to continue.

Eventually and according to His wisdom, a response will come. It may not always be what we want, but it will come. Let’s see how Jesus instructs us from Luke 18 in times like this –

Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, ² saying: “There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. ³ Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, ‘Get justice for me from my adversary.’ ⁴ And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, ‘Though I do not fear God nor regard man, ⁵ yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.’” ⁶ Then the Lord said, “Hear what the unjust judge said. ⁷ And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them?

²² But the children struggled together within her;

Children will fight as children do, but this is an unusual occurrence because they beat each other up in the womb. The Hebrew word is yithrosatsu and these two were really punching and bruising each other. Mom was worried about both their safety and hers as well.

^22(con’t)and she said, “If all is well, why am I like this?” So she went to inquire of the Lord.

Mom’s speech here is in the imperfect sense and so she is basically asking less about “why is this happening” than “if I have to go through all of this trouble, then why did I bother getting pregnant.”

This apparently isn’t uncommon to many moms the first time they get pregnant. And so off to the Lord she goes to find out what the deal is. From this verse, we can guess that there is, by now, a fixed way of inquiring of the Lord for the family of God.

It may have been to go to Abraham or a priest. Or it may have been to simply go to the Lord in prayer at a specific location. However it was done, Rebekah does, in fact, get an answer…

II. Divine Election and Predestination

²³ And the Lord said to her: “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.”

The natural order of family life is once again reversed as has already happened several times in Genesis. The younger will be ahead of the older. And thus we again see the doctrine of Divine Election introduced into redemptive history.

This doctrine will find its ultimate fulfillment in the work of Jesus and which is so clearly explained by Paul in Romans. Before they were even born, God elected the older to serve the younger.

However this serving and subordination isn’t limited to the children. Rather the verse says “two nations are in your womb.” It is therefore speaking both of the immediate and the future. In this then is also a picture of the true people of God, the elect.

I dare not even attempt to tell how much is in this verse concerning the doctrines of the Bible, the foreknowledge of God, and the confusion that results from what is being said. Seminaries have entire courses on concepts which arise from what the Lord tells her now and also what later writers of the Bible say about it.

What is being stated has led to some of the most heated battles in church history. If you follow what Calvin taught, you can trace it here. If you follow what Wesley taught, you can come here. In the end, and of all of the countless arguments about theology, there is always one right answer. God is clear, but we misunderstand.

Malachi speaks of these two children at the time before the coming of the Lord in relation to the attitude of the people in Israel –

“I have loved you,” says the Lord. “Yet you say, ‘In what way have You loved us?’ Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” Says the Lord. “Yet Jacob I have loved; ³ But Esau I have hated, And laid waste his mountains and his heritage For the jackals of the wilderness.” Malachi 1

Paul builds on the words to Rebekah and combines them with what Malachi said in Romans 9 –

And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac ¹¹ (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls), ¹² it was said to her, “The older shall serve the younger.” ¹³ As it is written, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”

Based on this, we find the doctrines of election and predestination. Paul actually speaks of predestination in Romans 8. Let me read you what he says so you have the starting point for the rest of the sermon –

²⁸ And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. ²⁹ For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. ³⁰ Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

He says God foreknew certain things about the people of the world and based on that He predestined some of them to be conformed to the image of Jesus, just as He foreknew the destinies of the two children in Rebekah’s womb.

What I am going to give you is a breakdown of four major views on predestination. I’m going to use some huge words but I don’t want you to be worried, I’ll do my best to explain what they mean, which is correct, and why. And I’ll give simple concepts to help.

When a job came open at a Church of God in Sarasota, I told my friends who attended there that I couldn’t be their preacher because they have faulty doctrine in that denomination. They asked “Why” and I told them the difference. Their answer –

“Well I believe what you believe.” My question is, “Then why don’t you leave that church? You’re only getting bad doctrine.” This is important. Should you be a Methodist, a Roman Catholic, a Baptist? Do you know what your church believes? Why not?

One thing is for sure, and it’s found throughout the Bible and is summed up in Jonah 2:9, “Salvation is of the Lord.” Within this thought is an entire debate about salvation, including election which stems from God’s words to Rebekah. Because of this, we need to look at four of the major views which people hold about it.

In order they are supralapsarianism, infralapsarianism, sublapsarianism, and Wesleyanism. As I said, only one can be correct and that is the one I have always defended and will continue to defend, sublapsarianism.

Let me explain the wrong ones, who believes them, and why. The first is Supralapsarianism (supra – above). It says that election, or predestination, is logically prior to the decree to permit the fall. In other words, even before sin entered the picture, election was made for all people.

This view involves Hyper-Calvinists and is known as double-predestination. It is held by only a small, radical, and biblically unsound group of people. This view inevitably leads to judgmental egoists who feel God loves them and hates everyone else.

Because God predestined humanity before He permitted the fall of man, He therefore elected some for salvation and elected others for condemnation. He created them saved or condemned. That is their state and they have no choice in the matter. This means that God provides and applies salvation only for the elect; limited atonement

To explain, we’ll use ducks in a river. God creates a pond and the ducks. He puts the ducks in the pond, but after the ducks enter the pond, there is a cataclysm and water starts draining from the pond into a river heading toward a waterfall. When the ones He created for salvation come along, He pulls them out of the water – whether they want it or not.

And the ones He created for condemnation… He actually pushes them down the river and into the waterfall before they can get out. This is a mean and angry God. But this is what some people believe. Double predestination means that God actually hates the non-elect, even though He created them.

With this doctrine, there is absolutely no reason to evangelize anyone. Why bother telling anyone about Jesus or sending out missionaries? God chose and that’s that. It is as close to ascribing evil to God as one can come because it, in fact, does.

The second is Infralapsarianism (infra – below). This concept says that the decree of election is logically after the decree to permit the fall. This is held by strong Calvinists, but it is not double-predestination.

God created all and then permitted the fall. Since then, He has and will continue to elect some and will pass by others. He provides and applies salvation only for the elect (limited atonement.) He chooses who will be saved and they have no choice in the matter.

RC Sproul, if you know who he is, would be in this category. This view still holds to limited atonement like the first view. In both views, God loves only the elect in terms of salvation. A problem with this is that, God is love – He loves everyone equally. There is no increase or decrease in His love for us from His perspective.

Let’s go back to the ducks to understand. God creates a quiet pond and the ducks. He puts the ducks in the pond, but after the ducks enter the pond, there is a cataclysm and water starts draining from the pond into a river heading toward a waterfall. When the ones He decides should be saved pass by, He pulls them out of the water – whether they want it or not.

The others simply head down the river and are destroyed in the waterfall. At least He doesn’t push them down the river, but He also doesn’t bother helping any of them out. They were simply not a part of his plan. This isn’t a hateful God, but He is rather uncaring about those He didn’t elect. Poor ducks…

Like the first view, there’s no reason why someone would bother telling about Jesus or sending out missionaries. They will dispute this, but it is the logical result of such a view. If God chooses us for salvation apart from our will then honestly, what is the point? Are God’s plans going to be thwarted by us somehow?

Also, proponents of this view would say that if it was intended for all to be saved, then all would be saved – because God’s sovereign intentions must come about. Therefore, if it wasn’t intended for all to be saved, then it was only intended for some, the elect.

But this is a false dilemma. The atonement of Jesus is an offering and it is intended to save all, but it only applies salvation for those who believe. Calvinism, wrongly assumes that the atonement of Jesus has only one purpose which is to procure the elect’s salvation – Jesus died so we can be saved.

In fact, Jesus’ sacrifice according to Roman’s 1 has another purpose – to reveal the righteousness of God in judgment. God sends His Son to die in your place and you turn Him down. Even without the cross we are condemned. How much more just is God in judgment because of it!

The result of the idea of limited atonement is that it denies that God really desires all people to be saved. This is contrary to His omni-benevolence and also to the Bible itself that “none should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

So you understand this view more clearly you need to consider the concept of free-will. Do we freely choose Christ, or does God choose us apart from our will. The two options are known as monergism and synergism.

Monergism teaches that regeneration is completely the result of God’s work and man has no part or cooperation in it. It is salvation by irresistible grace leading to regeneration and then to faith. In other words, a person is saved before they are saved. It is convoluted and it involves unclear thinking and a twisting of the Bible.

Also, this view actually usurps God. If you have no choice in your salvation, then how do you know you’re are saved? How can anyone make a claim that they’re saved when they didn’t have anything to do with their salvation? In other words, you are speaking for God by claiming salvation at all.

Of course, their answer is, “I believed after regeneration; therefore, I am saved.” However, there are false gospels and people believe them. There are people who believe wrongly and yet claim they are saved. When they find out they’re wrong, they change their belief (hopefully) in order to be saved. So when were they saved? When they believed correctly!

False gospels imply there is a true gospel and the spirit of the antichrist implies there is a true Spirit. Belief must precede regeneration. And it does. This is what the Bible teaches. Your faith brings salvation. Finally, monergism denies free will, but free will is necessary for love because forced love isn’t love at all.

Synergism teaches that we freely choose Christ and then are regenerated to life. This is exactly what the Bible teaches numerous times, both by Jesus’ words (e.g. John 3:16) as well as the apostolic writings (e.g. Ephesians 1:13, 14). An argument against this though is that the Bible says we are dead in our sins and that it is Jesus who restores us to life. The argument is, “How can a dead person choose life?”

RC Sproul says it this way – “You have as much power to awaken yourself from spiritual death as a corpse has the power to awaken himself from physical death.”

This is a category mistake. We are spiritually dead in our sins. We are not dead beings. God made us with the ability to reason, to choose, and to decline. In fact, this is exactly what Genesis 3:22 implies. Mixing these categories leads to bad theology, such as monergism. Go back and watch my sermon on free will in Genesis 2.

The Bible teaches what we would call anthropological hylomorphism – we are a soul/body unity. The spirit of man is dead, but the spirit of man is tied to the soul. Paul, speaking to saved believers in 2 Corinthians 5, says the soul without a body is naked. The spirit of man is made alive when we call on Christ, even if the body later dies.

This is eternal life and it occurs the moment we believe. We don’t become a soul/body/spirit unity. Rather it is our soul which is now spiritually alive. Adam’s spirit died at the fall, faith in Christ regenerates that spirit. As I said, the spirit of antichrist which John speaks of confirms this.

The third wrong concept of our four major categories is Wesleyanism – named after John Wesley. This view says that God’s election is based on His foreknowledge but not necessarily in accord with it. In other words, God’s decrees are conditional – He changes His mind.

This is the beginning of major error and it goes back to a guy named Jacob Arminius who lived in the 1500s. His view denies eternal security. It reveals a God who is changing and makes mistakes.

John Wesley couldn’t decide what was right and so he followed the teaching of Arminius after asking God for a sign and then throwing lots twice. But we don’t get our theology from happenstance and chance. Instead we get it from the Bible.

John Wesley, the Methodists, the Church of God, Mennonites, and others who hold this view are wrong. Like the previous view, they believe that God created all and then permitted the fall. Then He provides salvation for all people.

God knows who the elect are based on the foreseen faith of those who believe. Because of this faith, He applies salvation only to believers, but believers can lose their salvation.

For a duck example, God creates the pond, the river, and the ducks. He puts all the ducks in the pond and they eventually go to the river which is heading toward a waterfall. As the ducks come by, He leaves His favorite perfect duck on the shore quacking for the ducks to come out…

“There’s a waterfall ahead. If you don’t come out, you’ll get quacked up.” Some of the ducks come out and some decide they like the river. Those that come out, however, can never know if they have upset the perfect duck and have to go back in the river.

There is never true safety and in fact, these ducks can’t really tell the river from the shore. The poor ducks spend their entire life trying to please a group of lower ducks that the perfect duck left behind.

If the lower duck (a pastor), says they have been bad ducks, then off they go to the river again. Imagine being one of these poor, unsure, and ever-worried groups of ducks. Poor ducks…

Our final view is what is correct. First, it makes sense from a philosophic standpoint. Second, it makes sense from a moral standpoint. And third, it is the only view which is supported by the Bible. And it answers the question of why we fell in the first place.

It also answers where evil came from without ever ascribing it to God. I explain this in my Genesis 2 & 3 sermons. Without this view, one is forever searching for where evil came from. This is a question Dr. Sproul and others must and do ask. They can never find an answer to it because their theology leaves no room for it.

Their mistaken idea is that God created everything perfect and so if man fell, then God must have blown it by creating a being that could fall. This is particularly true because if intent to sin is evil (as Jesus clearly says), then Adam fell before the fall because he lusted after the fruit before he ate it. But they know God didn’t create evil, so “Whence comes evil?”

The correct view is sublapsarianism (sub – under/after). God’s order to provide salvation came before His order to elect the people of the world (Rev 13:8) – “I will send my Son to die, and then that all who call on Him will be saved.” It provides unlimited atonement for everyone potentially, but only for God’s people who choose Christ actually.

Like the previous two views, this view holds that God created all and then permitted the fall of man. He provides salvation for all people, but the elect of God are those who believe. God passes by those who do not believe based on their rejecting His offer of Jesus. It isn’t that He doesn’t care about them, it is that they don’t care about Him.

This view applies salvation only to believers who cannot lose it. Yes, there is security, eternal security, in the arms of Christ. A theological basis for this view is that God is omni-benevolent. In other words, He loves all of the people of the world.

Yes Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.

There is no hatred of the person and no active passing by people. He offers to all and the elect respond. He desires all to repent and come to Him for His unmerited salvation and favor. This doesn’t mean there is good in us, it means we see the good in Him and we come to it.

As far as our ducks are concerned, God creates the pond, the river, and the ducks. He puts all the ducks in the pond and they eventually end in the river which is heading toward a waterfall. As the ducks come by, He leaves His favorite perfect duck on the shore quacking for the ducks to come out and offering bread which will sustain them and guide them…

“There’s a waterfall ahead. If you don’t come out, you’ll get quacked up.” Some of the ducks come out and some decide they like the river. Those that do come out are protected by this perfect duck. If they stray, it is not to the river.

There is a force field that will never allow them to go toward that terrible place again. These imperfect ducks are saved from it despite themselves. God was pleased that they believed and though they may have forgotten it (2 Peter 1:9), He never did.

They are eternally secure in the fold of His perfect duck, and this is despite the crummy pastor ducks who come behind him.

The first two views hold to salvation only for the elect. The third view holds to salvation for believers but that they can lose it. The correct view holds to salvation for believers even though it is offered to all – and that when accepted it is a done deal, the salvation cannot be lost.

There is ample biblical support for both eternal salvation and salvation offered to all. Any verses which appear to contradict these views (such as John 6:44) are taken out of context by the theologically confused Christian.

I will give two examples for you to understand what I mean. John 6:44, is used against what I am saying – “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

The simplest refutation of this is John 12:32 which uses the exact same word for draw – “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” Therefore, the context of John 6:44 must be considered to understand what Jesus was saying.

We can’t just rip verses out of context to come to a conclusion in our theology. By referring to John 5, especially verses 40-44, the difficulty is explained in the opposition of their will, their free will. Their love of honor and praise of men prevented them from believing in Him.

It wasn’t a lack of power to do what they should. It was erroneous opinions, pride, and obstinacy, mixed with contempt for Jesus. All of these are based on free will, not God’s forced will. They were not drawn by the Father because they exercised their will in opposition to Jesus.

The second and maybe most often used verses used to deny our ability to choose come from Romans 3:11, 12 –

There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. 12 They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.”

Calvinists use these verses to say that no one seeks after God. Period. But Paul is quoting the Old Testament which is speaking of the atheist. As these were the only scriptures at the time, Paul expects that his audience would check the context.

Philosophically, the view I’ve supported today must be true. God doesn’t think sequentially – either syllogistically or discursively. Instead, all His thoughts are immediate and intuitive. Despite this, He wills things to happen in certain temporal sequence.

In other words, there is no change in God and God is outside of time. He created time for our benefit and we are living in what He created. Everything within this bubble is already known to Him, even though it isn’t known to us.

His sequence of events within creation include 1) His will to create before the fall. 2) The fall of man based on man’s free will. 3) After the fall comes an offer of salvation. If, accepted, God 4) seals the believer with the Holy Spirit.

According to Ephesians 1:13, this happens upon “having believed” and therefore this must be an eternal decision. Salvation is “according to the good pleasure of His will” not independent of it as Wesleyanism teaches.

The error of Calvinism and the error of Wesleyanism both lie in a false understanding of the sequence of events pertaining to salvation, and that misunderstanding is based on a misunderstanding of the nature of man.

What God says to Rebekah about the two children in her womb is the key to explaining what Paul is telling us in Romans. It demonstrates that God doesn’t predestine some to eternal happiness and/or some to eternal torture without regard to free will.

This is what the first two views state and is appalling in its ramifications. It demonstrates either a malicious or an uncaring God. Rather, there is a bestowing of opportunity for knowing and doing upon some men which is greater than others.

According to His own wisdom, without regard to our merits, he bestows upon us life, time, and place. Some have been created for noble purposes and some for ignoble purposes according to that placement. All who have the opportunity to hear the message are given the opportunity to respond to it.

In substantiation of this, all we need to do is look at the future of these people – the Israelites and the Edomites, who are named in both Malachi and Romans. After being subject to the Israelites, the Edomites were eventually assimilated into the Jewish society.

Then, this same group was cut off from God’s favor when they rejected Jesus. That lasted for 2000 years, exactly as the Bible predicted would happen. However, the day has come when they were regathered and have been returned to their land.

The Bible, in both Testaments says that someday Israel will come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and that “all Israel shall be saved.” This includes the Edomite people that were assimilated into Israel.

And even more than that, there are Jews who have accepted Christ since the first century and who continue to do so today. They are provided the same salvation and the same promises as anyone else that come from any line of the sons of Adam.

Were, this verse to have said, “Two babies are in your womb, and two children shall be separated from your body. One child will be stronger than the other, and the older shall serve the younger” then people might have some type of argument for a different view.

But this verse doesn’t say that. Instead it says, “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.”

Every word of God is pure and every word is intended to lead us to a right understanding of who He is and what He desires for His creatures.

There is only one option concerning the ducks on the river – God is calling out to them and He allows them the choice of coming to its banks. Once they are there, he will never allow them to suffer the possibility of destruction again.

Concerning the sufficiency of atonement, we are saved by the grace of God and we continue in that salvation despite ourselves. Concerning the scope of atonement – limited or unlimited – the answer is unlimited atonement potential, limited atonement actual.

Jesus Christ died for all people and the entire Bible supports this. He tasted death for all, however, not all are saved. Only those who accept God’s gift will receive it. Let me tell you how you can as well…

Closing Verse: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16

Next Week – Genesis 25:24-34 (Heaven’s Riches for a Meal)

God’s Grace, Our Choice

This is the genealogy of Isaac, Abraham’s son
Abraham begot Isaac into the line of the Promised One

Isaac was forty years old when He took Rebekah as wife
The daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padan Aram
The sister of Laban the Syrian became his spouse for life
And so she became the daughter in law of Abraham

Now Isaac pleaded with the Lord for his wife
Because she was barren, and the Lord granted his plea
And Rebekah conceived bearing in her womb new life
But after a while in her womb there was difficulty

The children struggled together within her and she said
If all is well, why am I like this?
So she went to inquire of the Lord and there she pled
It’s because she knew something was amiss

And the Lord said to her in a striking prophecy
Words that proved He is in control of all history

Two nations are in your womb as a mother
Two peoples shall be separated from your body
One people shall be stronger than the other
And the older shall serve the younger, you see

And thus we have the doctrine of divine election
And we can see that God predestines all according to His will
In each person He understands their future selection
Of whether we will choose heaven, or if we choose hell

He allows us the choice and yet in advance He knows
What we will do about His Son Jesus
But once the choice is made, His child He hallows
And thus His grace is poured out on undeserving us

What a great and awesome Lord
Who came to save us from a certain pit of hell
And to understand His truth we have His word
And in it, of His grace and love and mercy it does tell

Thank You God for our Lord and Savior Jesus
Thank You for the saving grace He bestows on us

Hallelujah and Amen…