The book of Genesis, and this morning we come to Genesis chapter 25. We'll be reading verses 19 through 28. Give your attention to God's holy and inspired word, Genesis 25, beginning in verse 19. These are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son. Abraham fathered Isaac, and Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan Aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean, to be his wife. And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren. And the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebekah, his wife, conceived. The children struggled together within her, and she said, If it is thus, why is this happening to me? So she went to inquire of the Lord, and the Lord said to her, two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided. The one shall be stronger than the other, and the older shall serve the younger. When her days to give birth were completed, behold, there were twins in her womb. The first came out red, all his body like a hairy cloak, so they called his name Esau. Afterward, his brother came out with his hand holding Esau's heel, so his name was called Jacob. Isaac was 60 years old when she bore them. When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field. While Jacob was a quiet man dwelling in tents, Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebecca loved Jacob. Amen. Let's go to the Lord again in prayer. Help us, O Lord, as we consider these words. together with the context of the rest of Holy Scripture. Strengthen us, Lord, in this endeavor. Help us to be mindful of how you work all things together for good and how, Lord, everything, especially written of old, is meant to give us hope that we might persevere and to remind us yet again of our faithful Savior, the one who came to live and die for us, and who will come again for us. We pray that you would remind us yet again of His glory and grace this morning as we pray this in His name. Amen. You may be seated. I know I've said it before, but one of the wonders of studying the Old Testament especially is that it's very real, it's very down-to-earth, it deals with some of the basics of ordinary life for all people at all times and all places. Like even the heroes of Scripture, together with even the villains of Scripture, in many ways live ordinary lives. God is extraordinary, God supernaturally works in and through them, yes, but they live day-to-day, regular, sometimes stressful, sometimes joyful, Sometimes hard, sometimes painful, sometimes sorrowful, yet always beneath the providence of God's source of lives. The Bible is not like some magical text that is over-spiritualized. The saints of old are not lionized and made perfect. All of their warts and all of their stains and all of their sins are portrayed for us in scripture. Their lives are open. We see their mistakes. We see their folly and their foolishness. We see their pride We see the consequences of what? Of their mistakes as well. We've seen this in Abraham It's been one of the main points that I've labored to bring out as we've studied his life And now as we move on from Abraham, we'll see the very same scenarios play out sometimes the exact same things and sins and struggles and will be on display in, say, Isaac, and then later on Jacob, and those who yet make up the great cloud of witnesses that are faithful to the Lord in the midst of their own struggle with sin and death. This morning, we deal with the life of Isaac and Rebecca, and we meet their two children who really, their lives are so intertwined with, Jacob and Esau. Remember, Abraham's narrative is Abraham and Sarah, or Abram and Sarai originally, and for vast swaths of scripture, it's just them. And then Ishmael comes along through Hagar, and then eventually Isaac, but for the majority of the account of Abraham's life, it's just he and Sarah awaiting God to fulfill their promise, or his promise to them, that they would have offspring, and that their offspring would number more than the sand on the seashore or the stars of heaven. And yet most of their time, at least as accounted by Moses and Genesis, they are barren, they're childless. It's not the case with Isaac. Though there's a significant portion of his life and marriage to Rebekah that is childless, and that's one thing we'll see this morning, the narrative is so intertwined and wrapped up with his children, Esau and Jacob. And so that's why, even though this begins a new section in the book of Genesis, verse 19, these are the generations of Isaac, much to be made of Esau and Jacob. Again, the context here is that Abraham has died. We saw that last week. He's laid to rest in the cave of Machpelah along with Sarah, his wife, and now another patriarch takes the stage, Isaac. Now, we saw last week that Isaac found a wife, or at least Abraham found a wife for Isaac through his servant, Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, the brother or the sister of Laban, who will come into focus much in the future chapters of Genesis. In the past, it's according to this passage here, like in the past Isaac's found the wife, but then time elapses, 20 years actually, and his wife doesn't bear any children. She is childless, and what does Isaac do? But he does what a faithful husband should do. He prays for her. And that then launches us into this passage. You can follow along in the bulletin if you have one. There'll be essentially four points for us this morning. First, we'll consider Isaac's prayers and Rebekah's pregnancy. Then the conflict and the ensuing prophecy that comes out of that internal, like literally, conflict to Rebekah. Then the brotherhood of Esau and Jacob and the festering division between the two. wrap this up with applications. So all that is to say, we'll go through the chapter, we'll explain it, we'll look at what God is doing here, and then we'll bring it home to us in a number of applications. So let's jump right in, considering Isaac's prayers and Rebekah's pregnancy. Now this is, again, the first 20 years of their marriage goes without children. You read in verse 20 that Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebekah to be his wife, but then you read later on in this passage that when Esau and Jacob were born, this is in verse 26, Isaac was 60 years old. So there's 20 years of childlessness and that is a stark thing. In light of the narrative here, it's stark when contrasted to the praises of Laban Rebekah's brother and all of Rebekah's people, as they sent her to be married to Isaac. If you want to look back in chapter 24, verse 59 and 60, we read that, as Rebekah goes, they blessed her and said, our sister, may you become thousands of ten thousands. May your offspring possess the gates of those who hate him. And yet here she is 20 years in the marriage, childless. This is very much contrasted as well to the promises of God to Abraham and then down through Abraham to Isaac that through him blessing will come to all the nations of earth because he will father multitudes. And surely that prophecy is not just fulfilled in Ishmael and the handful of other sort of half-sons that Abraham has through his concubines. We talked about that last week. Surely that's not the extent of God's promise and faithfulness, because it's through Isaac that the promise and the covenant will go forth to the ends of the earth. And yet Isaac is, with Rebecca, childless. Now this is not an uncommon scenario for God's people. It's not an uncommon scenario for the matriarchs of the faith. I mean, Sarah herself, was barren for, I mean, she was 90 years old when she first gave birth to Isaac, her first born and her only born. That's quite a long time to live under the burden of the struggle, the trial of barrenness. Rachel. One of Jacob's wives, herself, will be barren for the first part of their marriage. They're joined by other faithful women, such as Hannah, and later on in the New Testament, Elizabeth, who is barren until her old age. And so this is not an uncommon experience. It's a sad example of the fall, where there's a prophecy to the woman. that there will be pain in childbearing, and no doubt part of that pain comes through not being able to bear children, a struggle in conception, and as we'll see in this passage, even after conception. So all this is to say that there is no pregnancy yet, but Isaac then does what only a faithful husband would do. He's not a passive bystander, as has almost been the case thus far. He takes initiative, and what does he do? He prays for his wife. He intercedes for his wife. This shows his character. He is willing to go before the Lord and to intercede on behalf of Rebecca. He takes initiative in the single way a husband could in this situation, and in the best way, and he prays for his wife. I don't think we should belittle that. It's like, well, he just prays, and thoughts and prayers, that's all he does, no. This is a significant thing. It shows his love and dedication and devotion to Rebecca, and it's especially seen in light of the fact that this goes on for 20 years. It's not like after the first maybe year of struggle, which in Israelite fashion you would expect in the first year that sometime along then children would come. It's not then that Isaac prays, and it maybe holds fast for a couple of years. No, this is a continual prayer. It's a persistent prayer that Isaac is praying, and therefore, it shows his faithfulness, clinging to the promises of God that are yet to be realized. He does this for 20 years. And the Lord answers his prayer. And Rebecca does conceive. She becomes pregnant. The promise will continue. We read here that Isaac prayed to the Lord, and the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebecca, his wife, conceived. What a joyful moment of conception. Yet, it leads to conflict. That's our second point. conflict and a prophecy here. We know something Rebecca doesn't. We know that there are children, like Laurel, in her womb. She doesn't know that quite yet, until she receives a prophecy from the Lord, which itself is somewhat enigmatic, and so it's not actually until the birth that, behold, there are twins. But what's going up? What's up with her pregnancy? What's going on here? We read that, verse 22, the children struggled together within her. There are multiple children in her womb and there's great pain in her pregnancy here. This is saying more than that she's just having morning sickness to an extreme degree. No, there's active conflict in her gut because of these children. Actually, the Hebrew here is far more explicit than the English. ESV says, Quite sanitary, the children struggle together. But the words in Hebrew, literally, they smash themselves inside of her. It's the very same word used for someone who would smash someone's skull in. This is what the children were doing inside of her. This is a turmoil in her womb, and it leads her to the point, in great pain, to literally cry out and say, why am I alive? That's your footnote, your Bible here says, rightfully, this is what she expresses, why do I live? These children are killing me, literally. And so what does she do? Again, like Isaac, she goes to the Lord. She inquires of the Lord, she perhaps goes to one of the altars that Abraham had built, or maybe she goes to some unknown, or to us at least, or unnamed prophet of the one true God in the land, and she seeks the Lord. She inquires of the Lord, verse 23, and the Lord gives her a word of prophecy to uphold her in her pain and travail, to uphold her in her trial here, she salt the Lord, that's how you did it back then, before the words of God were written down, before the scriptures. She inquired of the Lord, most likely at a holy place and through a prophet, and God spoke. And God sent out a word that is, again, in and of itself a bit enigmatic. Two nations are in your womb. Two peoples from within you shall be divided. And she's feeling that already. Shall be disunified, shall be at each other. shall be always in conflict. And the one will be stronger than the other, and actually it's the younger who will be the stronger, and it's the older who will then serve the younger. Again, this is a bit enigmatic. We know from the New Testament these two nations are, or from the rest of the Old Testament, they are Edom, descending from Esau, and they are Israel. And they are two nations that will constantly be at each other. constantly be a thorn in one another's side. Yet, Israel will gain the victory, which will be seen even in the narratives to follow with Esau and Jacob. This is not exactly good news for Rebecca. It's like saying, you're gonna have children, they're gonna be twins, it'll be joyful, but they're gonna really hate each other. And it's gonna make your life bitter and miserable, and there'll be such sibling rivalry going on that it'll mark, it'll define really in a way their relationship and their life together. This leads then to the birth of Esau and Jacob, their brotherhood, and ensuing division. We see this in verses 24 through 28, when the days came for Rebekah to give birth, behold, there are twins in her womb. And the first thing that, notice the, The unordinary way of birth here. First, Esau comes out. And he's one of those babies that's just very hairy and very red in his skin, perhaps. And so he's called Esau, which simply means something like red. Very, very original in their naming there. But then the second born, Jacob comes out with his hand clasped around Esau's heel. He's called Jacob, which literally means the heel snatcher. The scoundrel, in a way, and the one who cheats. And thus, their bitter division and rivalry is enshrined in the way they were born. Parents, you probably might know this, and maybe you can vouch for the truth that how your kids came into the world, like how they were born, does display in some weird way their personality. It's just one of those things. This is how it is here. Esau is the firstborn. He's hairy and red. His name is called Esau. And there's Jacob, the hill snatcher. This shows the division that will be enshrined in their relationship, and it's a conflict that's already underway before they were born. This division is heightened as well by poor parenting. Isaac and Rebecca, again, this is the ordinary nitty-gritty, the STAD description of their fallenness that we see here in that they played favorites. We read here that when the boys grew up, Esau was a manly man. He was a hunter. He was always out in the field. He was getting his hands dirty. He was bringing in the fruits of his hunt. He was constantly supplying the family with meat, with fresh game to enjoy. And Isaac very much enjoyed it. We read here that he literally, he loved Esau because he ate of his food. This is parenting that is poor. due to really base appetites, right? I mean, Isaac loved what Esau gave him, meat, and therefore he loved Esau better than Jacob. And then Jacob himself, we read here, is a quieter man, sort of brooding, he's a man who dwells in tents, which probably means he's a shepherd rather than one who goes out and hunts. Or, I mean, we read later, and next week we'll consider Jacob is at home cooking a meal, while Esau's out and literally starving himself while hunting, and so perhaps Jacob is around Rebecca a lot more. Like a mama's boy in a way, and so she loves him better, naturally. Their rivalry is, yes, a matter of nature in a way, but sadly, it's also a matter of nurture, and the way the parents showed favoritism before each child. This is a reminder of that original rivalry, it is between Esau and Jacob here, that original rivalry between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman, which is prophesied in Genesis 3.15 after the fall, as it is proclaimed that there will be this constant enmity and striving and conflict between two peoples, between the people of God, the seed of the woman, culminating in Jesus Christ in the seat of the serpent, that is, those who persist in rebellion, culminating in those who cry, crucify him when Christ is subjected to his mock trial. Christ who is the one who comes to bring these promises to fulfillment as God had foretold, who is the true son of Isaac, who is the one who comes to fulfill all that Jacob should be, who is a brother to us, who isn't a rival against us, but a savior for us. Christ, who is not one who rules and subjects us in an unjust way, but who serves faithfully as a benevolent and kind king for our eternal good. This is all in the, what will happen after these words, in the unfolding of redemption. But this is very much a real, live, everyday, ordinary, supernatural in some ways with prophecy and hill snatching and things like that situation, but it's gritty. And it's also instructive to us. Reminds us of much, teaches us of sin, of families, of even great, huge, eternal matters like redemption, election, So let's consider a few of these things that this passage teaches us. Let's consider a number of applications here of these words. I have a number of them. The first one is simply this, that we learn from Rebecca and Isaac's barrenness in 20 years of suffering, that it is through the crucible of suffering that our dependence upon the Lord is deepened. I say that again, the crucible of suffering is what deepens our dependence upon the Lord. Barrenness is a suffering. It is a trial, especially in that day and time, and your worth, really, as a woman, and your virility as a man is tied to how many children you could have. It's tied to raising up godly offspring, and I mean, even just contextual considerations in an agrarian culture, having more people to work the fields, right, involved, having more, children. And yet, barrenness is a form of suffering that is common for God's people throughout the Bible. Again, Sarah struggled with it for 90 years, Rebecca for 20 years, and you can see in their lives, especially in Sarah's life, that it's that trial that deepened her dependence upon the Lord. And so that when she did finally receive Isaac, you have Sarah as one who has gone through a lot of refinement, a lot of sanctification. We're not told a lot about Rebekah here. But no doubt, that constant dependence upon the Lord, 20 years of prayers on Isaac's behalf doesn't leave a man unchanged. It leaves him changed for the better. So suffering breeds dependence upon the Lord. And you can say this about any form of suffering, not just barrenness, though that is a form itself. This means that our suffering, our trials, they aren't evidences of God's rejecting us or punishing us. or forgetting us. It certainly wasn't the case with Sarah, Rebecca, or even Jesus himself. It also shows us that suffering itself and our trials and sorrows, they're not vain, they're not empty, they're not fruitless. God uses such to bring good. He uses such in the near time, I guess you could say. We don't even know what good he'll bring out in the judgment. We read in Romans 8, 28 that he'll turn all things for good for those who Love him. We don't even know how he'll do that. But in the near future, like in the meantime, he uses such to strengthen and deepen our dependence upon him, which is always good. You cannot always see that clearly if you're under the crushing weight of distress, of trial, of a crucible of pain. But that's why you have the Bible to help you see what you can't see. It's why we have God's word to instruct us. Why we have the lives of faithful men and women of old to prove that this is true, that the Lord is working something grand and it calls us, it's our calling to learn of God who is merciful and who in our deepest distresses and darkest nights will not leave or forsake us. That he designs such to make us utterly dependent upon him and his providence and his provision in our dark nights. The one person who expressed this the most clearly and the best was our Lord himself when he hung on the cross and he cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He confesses the suffering. the forsakenness, as the father turned his face away from the son, in judgment, as Christ took on our sins and died for them, Christ expressed this, he confesses the suffering, and yet he also confesses dependence upon his heavenly father, for he cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He still confesses that the Lord, his father, is his Lord, is his God, in a way, is with him. And as we suffer, now not like Christ, and that is not for our own sins or the sins of others, but as we endure pain and trial in this life, whatever the source, it serves to make us, should serve to make us more dependent, to cry out, my God, what, what are you doing? Help me to have eyes to see, guide my path, strengthen me, uphold your suffering, servant, now. I hope this refrains your suffering or your thought of trial. If you're in the midst of whatever darkness right now, I pray that this helps you understand a little bit more of what God might do through it. And one thing is true in that all of us will be in a trial. We'll face times of lowly darkness. And in those times, remember this, that God uses such to drive you deeper to a place of dependence upon him. Especially I would say with continual, with abiding trials, like sort of chronic pain, depression, sleeplessness, just inner turmoil or outer turmoil, your body breaking down. It's meant to drive you to be utterly dependent upon the Lord. Second application is this. We live out our faith and display our dependence on God through persistent prayer to the one who has power of life and death. We live out our faith through persistent prayer to the one who has power over life and over death itself. I mean, it's hard to deny these verses proclaimed to us. A faithful believer is one who calls upon the name of the Lord in his trial, in his distress, and does so continually and prays without giving up. And here, Isaac is a description of someone following Jesus' command to ask. to seek, to knock and it will be opened to you, to be persistent in prayer. Remember Jesus told even a parable of a woman who would not give up in desiring justice and she kept pressing an ungodly judge to show her justice and eventually her pressing nature led to him caving and showing her justice. Now Jesus doesn't teach, get that parable in order to say that God is an unjust judge, you've got to sort of make him annoyed at you before you get your way, not at all. But it's an argument from the lesser to the greater. If this unjust judge gives justice through persistence, how much more a just judge will hear the cries of his people in answer. And that's exactly why Jesus told that parable that we always pray and never give up, literally his words. We see this here. The distinguishing mark of the Old Testament saints is that they call upon the name of the Lord. And that they do so their whole lives and continually. This is what we are called to do as we pray to Him, expressing our finitude that we do not live forever. We are dependent upon another, especially Him. It recognizes God's majesty and power to answer our prayers, and it recognizes His covenant that He does have us as His own people, and He is our God, and we can seek Him and call upon His name. because he has made and forged a covenantal relationship with us. So a bit of practical application. Husbands, how can you, like Isaac, pray for your wives right now today and for all the days ahead of you? How can you? What is there in your wife's life that is a trial and a form of suffering that you can right now commit to the Lord in prayer interceding for her? Wives, how about for your husbands? Children, you know your parents. How can you pray for them in a way now and persistently knowing their weaknesses, knowing their struggles and pains and trials and be faithful in your expression of your faith and dependence upon God and how you pray for your parents. And of course, parents, you all pray for your children. I hope you do. And I hope it's a persistent and continual prayer for as long as they're living. And I know you parents do that. We live out our faith in how we pray. Brothers and sisters, how can you pray for each other? How can you pray for your fellow believers sitting in this room across from you this morning? Live out your faith towards God in bringing and interceding on behalf of others, bringing them before the Lord in prayer. Third point of application. And here's where we broaden our scope a little bit. We learn from Jacob and Esau, and we will learn more from their lives, that our salvation Salvation of God's people is solely due to God's grace and not our works. We see that because of the doctrine of election. which is beyond our scope to go into much detail this morning, other than to say that we read Romans 9, and it proclaims to us that God is the one who chooses to have mercy. He chooses to show grace to undeserving sinners. And he has, in his sovereign good pleasure, due to reasons unknown to us, he has, before the foundation of the world, set his love upon his people. He's chosen them out. He's going to call them forth whenever they are born, or at a certain time in their life, to belong to Him, and He knows who they are already. We don't know in our minds how this all works out, except that it works out through the gospel as it's preached, and God brings faith to life in the midst of His people's hearts, and they call upon Him. But notice from this passage here, a number of things. First of all, it's in the context of God's covenant with Abraham, which unfolds through Isaac and Jacob, which is absolutely founded on grace and promise, not on works and reward. Abraham doesn't earn a relationship with God. God freely gives it to him. Unaffected by his sins and his good works before, God calls him forth from Ur. This is true as well in Isaac and especially in Jacob and Esau. Paul uses these verses in Romans 9 to highlight the electing love of God. And I think it shows us how we should think about election, that it deals with God's undeserving love shown to us from before the foundation of the world, from before we have done anything good or bad. That's literally the words of Romans 9, 11. God chooses the people and sets them apart completely unrelated to anything good they've done or anything bad they will do. And this might be a hard doctrine. It is a hard doctrine if we're all honest with ourselves. But we cannot claim that God is somehow being unfair, for fairness would result in the absolute condemnation of everyone. Fairness would be getting what we deserve. being paid what we are due. And the wages of sin and rebellion against the one true God is death. That's fair. Nor is this, we'll make it much in the next point of application about playing favorites. This is not exactly God showing favoritism to someone like Jacob. Favoritism would assume that there's something favorable to Jacob. And as the narrative will play out, there's really not much favorable to him, at least until God changes his heart after a very hard night of wrestling. There is a lot in Jacob that portrays a man who is a scoundrel, like he did. He holds on to Esau's hill. He's going to steal his birthright. He's going to be very cunning and duplicitous throughout his life. And so if it were based on how good a person is going to be, it's not Jacob. He's not your man. But God in his sovereign good pleasure chose him He set his covenant love upon him, not to play favors, but simply to show grace. That's what grace is. It's showing kindness to the absolute undeserving. This is the good news. This is good news for all of us because we are absolutely undeserving. We are sinners just as bad as Jacob and Esau, maybe worse. And yet our hope of salvation firmly lies with the Lord the same way it did with them. And the way that God brings his elect out of the woodwork, so to speak, or out of the graves, you might say, is through the means of grace, through preaching the word. And those who believe are the elect. Those who believe are the ones who have been marked out from before the foundation of the world. That's why it is incumbent upon us as God's people, as the church, it's incumbent upon me as a pastor to proclaim the word freely and openly because I don't know who the elect are. I don't get to choose. God is the one who works. He sends forth his word, he awakens hearts and brings people to himself. And he does so as his word is proclaimed. This is all good news to sinners who would yearn to and long to be free of their sin. There is a savior in the Lord Jesus Christ. Flee to him. Throw your life and your whole dependence upon him. Repent of your sins, turn from them. and believe in the only begotten Son of God, who died for sinners and rose again for justification. Our fourth application, narrowing it down a bit to our daily relationships, is this, that playing favorites is a universal danger, especially in the home or the church. Playing favorites is never good for churches or families. The Bible calls this the sin of partiality, showing partiality or singling out some as opposed to others and more favoring them, caring about them more, or just to strictly use the language of Esau, Rebecca and Isaac here, loving one better. Now there is a certain good partiality. Husbands should love their wives better than other women in their lives. Parents should love their children better than other children, right? And there's a common good to that. It's sort of a covenantal love. And that even shows the love of God. God has a love for all people in common grace, but he has a special love for his people, for his children, for his bride. Yet plain favorites, in a way, and I think we all know what this is. None of us is gonna say, well, we know how dangerous it can be. It's a very worldly thing. It should not mark the kingdom of God and its citizens. It's a base worldliness. You see that in Isaac, because what is the reason for him loving Esau more? His belly. He loves the food. It's not necessarily Esau. It's the food. And the Bible is very clear there. It indicts Isaac, shows his folly. We don't know why exactly Rebecca loved Jacob more, but she did. This is not good. This plain favorites. This will be a constant besetting sin of the patriarchs. Jacob himself will love Joseph more than his other sons, actually make him this beautiful coat that will single him out as the favored child. And Joseph himself, at least before he's a bit humbled having to be sold into slavery and things like that, himself kind of struts it around before his brothers. All this does real damage. In a family, of course, when a parent loves one child over the other, It's never good, not for families, nor for churches, which is kind of an eternal type of family. Brothers and sisters, we are in Christ, and James writes in his letter, a whole chapter, pretty much, or half of a chapter dealing with this, James chapter two, calling us not to be like the world, not to give deference to the wealthy and well-to-do while we trample upon the poor. You know, not to take someone who's poor and tell them to get up out of their seat so that the rich man can then sit down there and be comfortable. That's the literal example he uses. And it'll not be. It breeds cliques and discontent. It is displayed in a body where there are people who never talk to one another, people who will have nothing to do with that person because Well, just don't care about them as much as others. This is not like the kingdom of God. And we are to live as citizens of the kingdom of God when we show love to each other. When we love one another well. Playing favorites is never good. And our last point of application builds on that. And this is more than just for children. It's for adults too. And it's simply that sibling rivalry is a thorn in the side of the godly and an expression of great unbelief. Behold the harm and sad distress it is to parents when their children fight. And that's more than just nuclear families. Think of the church. What sad distress is it for the elders of a church when the church is at war with each other? What sad distress is it for the church when the elders are at war with each other? It's never good. Behold how blessed and pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity. We read in Psalm 133. The flip side is how miserable and terrible is it when brothers dwell together in conflict? Rebecca wished to die even before her children were born because of this. And how much more than after? Again, Implicated in their own showing and playing favorites, but this rivalry is only evil. There's a healthy sibling rivalry, I get that, right? Constant prodding and poking at one another in a form of jest. That's good, that's good. It actually builds a relationship. It furthers and fosters community. But this is not what we're talking about here. This is a hating of one another. A despising of each other. Again, not just in families, but yes, in families across aisles in the church and even in neighborhoods, things like that. This rivalry is not something new. It's found in Cain and Abel. Cain rose up against his brother Abel and put him to death. It will be found later on in Joseph and his experience at the hands of his brothers, who will, at first, seek to murder him, but then change their mind when they realize they can make a few pennies off of him. And they sell him to pretty much certain death. It's not something new, it's found in Christ himself, who came to his own brothers, his own family, and his own people, John 1 tells us, and they received him not. He spoke before his brothers and they said, kill him. He constantly appeared to his own, or came to preach to his own people, even at the very beginning of his ministry in Nazareth, the very hometown he was brought up in, and they drove him to the edge of the cliff, wanting to cast him to be broken on the rocks below. and were it not for Christ escaping through them, it would have happened. This is antithetical to all goodness in the kingdom of God. It is, too, a sort of worldliness when brothers and sisters fight. Now, this goes beyond simple annoyance and aggravation, though that can be used to further this. It's when such disunity devolves into bitterness and envy and despisal and hatred. This is utterly worldly, it is, but the Bible labors to drive home to us as to be fought against and avoided with every spiritual power within us. This is why the apostle John will write in 1 John 3 verses 14 through 17, he'll, Say, we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love, that Christ laid down his life for us, and we also lay down our lives for the brothers. If anyone has this world's goods and see his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Later on in John 4, verses 20 through 21, if anyone says, I love God, but hates his brother, he's a liar, and he does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. This is the commandment we have from him, whoever loves God must love his brother, must love others. That is to say, a sibling rivalry that manifests in hatred and despisal and envy and jealousy and constant conflict and strife is a great evidence of unbelief and something to be absolutely repented of and fled from. Parents, that is the thing perhaps to pray for your children for decades, asking that God would heal it. And again, this doesn't just apply to children. I mean, there are older siblings in the late decades of life that are still at each other's neck. And it's an ungodliness to be absolutely mortified. And it's something that we can only mortify and only put to death as we ourselves grow in the grace and knowledge of the one, the brother who laid down his life for us, our Lord. It's only through knowing how much he loved us first that we can then freely and easily go forth to love one another. That's why there's such a strong connection between truly grasping the gospel and showing that love that we've already received to one another. So these are very, this is a very good narrative we have in Esau and Jacob and their birth, yet it's also sad in that we see the poor and destructive effects of the fall. But thanks be to God that such sinfulness does not get the last word, does not gain the upper hand, that this resolves, you could say, in the work of God through Christ who brings reconciliation between God and man and between man and man. Let's seek Christ. Let us know more deeply. Let us be more dependent upon him. Let us yearn to grow in knowledge and reception and I experience even of His grace to us, to we who are sinners, yes, but also a people beloved of the Lord. Let's pray.