sermon, Genesis chapter 27 and more. Paul commands Timothy to devote himself to the public reading of scripture. We are going to obey that command today. Our text is 1,447 words. That leaves far fewer words for me. That's all right. God's Word still speaks for itself. And this is such an engaging and effective and timely story. It's a good opportunity for us to maybe try and do things a little bit differently today. So don't worry. Generally for me, shorter text means longer sermon. So I won't actually, this doesn't actually equate to longer text means what insanely longer sermon. No, same length sermon, longer text. We are back to blessing again. Blessing is our theme again. Last week we saw the promise of blessing and then the nature of that blessing as we considered God's dealings with sometimes idiot Isaac. In spite of the sin of Isaac, we still see God's faithfulness to his word and his commitment to bless his sometimes sinful, often almost unimaginably stupid people. And as a sometimes sinful, often almost unimaginably stupid person, I was so encouraged by the study of this text this week. Last week, Isaac did some really dumb things, and we still saw God's faithfulness and the blessings of protection, prosperity, peace, and presence. This week, Isaac's even worse. And this week, Isaac is not alone. The narrative in chapter 27 is transitioning back to Jacob, and he's an idiot in this story. The story also includes Esau and Rebekah and their idiots in this story. We have four people, and we have four stupid sinners. This story, were it not so sad, would almost be funny. It is a comedy of errors. It is a tragicomedy. of errors, a tragicomedy of sin. They are all going to do things. And you are going to be tempted to think, wow, these people are idiots. And you're going to be correct. But you're also going to be tempted to think and to question, well, how could they be such idiots? Implication and, well, not me. I'm not this dumb. And there is where you would be wrong. For you are more of a stupid sinner than you think that you are. And I am more of a stupid sinner than I think that I am. And we see that stupid sin almost cosmically exaggerated in this story to show us ourselves and to magnify how powerful and gracious our God is to still bless such stupid sinners. Blessing is everything. How could any blessing, any good be possible if even God's people are this bad? Well, let's see. Since our text is so long, we're going to do things differently. We're going to break up our text. I'm going to read a scene. I'll just make a couple of brief observations about that scene. Then we'll read the next scene, and so on. We'll discuss, maybe kind of generally we'll structure our time with the four main characters. We'll discuss Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob, and Esau. And then we'll close with you and draw a few applications. So read a little bit, observe a little bit, read a little bit, observe, and we will apply at the end. What's going to happen to the blessing? How can you, in all of your stupid sin, still find blessing? Let's read. Our narrative unit, the story, the whole thing, actually begins in 26, 34. So I'm going to pick up at the end of chapter 26, reading verses 34 and 35. I'll read there first to chapter 27, verse 4. and we'll pause and pray, and we'll start to work through this fascinating and disturbing story. So Genesis 26, 34, please pay attention. Hear through this story what God wants to say to you today. When Esau was 40 years old, he took Judith, the daughter of Beri, the Hittite, to be his wife, and Basimath, the daughter of Elon, the Hittite, and they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah. was old, and his eyes were dim so that he could not see. He called Esau, his older son, and said to him, my son. And he answered, here I am. He said, behold, I am old. I do not know the day of my death. Now then, take your weapons, your quiver, and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me. and prepare for me delicious food, such as I love, and bring it to me so that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die." Let's stop our reading there. Let's pray. Let's ask for God's help in this time. Father, you are far wiser than us. Father, you are far more knowledgeable of who we are than we even are of ourselves. Father, you know far better than we do what we need. Father, often what we need is to be exposed and to see ourselves more accurately and more clearly. Father, so many of your stories that you record for us in your Word are mirrors that you give to hold up to us, to show us who we truly are in our sin, to show us the absurdity of sin and the misery that sin always results in. Father, this is a miserable mess of a story. Father, so many of us find ourselves in miserable messes of stories, either of our own making or simply just due to suffering or trouble that has come our way in your providence. Father, there is much comfort to be found in this text. Father, I pray that you would help me to bring that out. I pray that you would help me to teach this story accurately. I pray that the applications and the implications and the truths that we draw from it would be correct. I pray that you would reveal and shine and show forth yourself even through the mess of your people here in this story. Father, please guard our hearts and our minds from distractions and frustrations and other concerns. Father, work in these next few minutes to show us ourselves, and to show us your grace, and to draw us ever closer to your Son, Jesus Christ. Father, we desperately need your help in this time, and we ask this in Jesus' name, amen. All right, let's begin with Isaac, but first I want to set a little bit of context because the story does start with verses 34 and 35. These are sort of like transition and intro verses back to the main narrative and back to the conflict. between the sons over the blessing. Remember, that conflict was introduced in chapter 25. Then there was this interruption. Chapter 26 is the only chapter devoted to Isaac. We're going to finally try and answer why that is this morning. But chapter 26 serves to reemphasize and establish the importance of the blessing. What is it, and where is it? We've seen its transference from Abraham to Isaac. Now, who is it going to? Again, this whole thing is about the blessing. Don't forget everything is about the blessing. Blessing is the one thing that you need. Blessing is the one thing that you should be after. Blessing is a promise and a pronouncement. of good. I've never forgotten a while back I was reading in a Hebrew dictionary and it defined the Hebrew word for good, tov, defined it like this. Good is that which pertains to life. Good is anything that is beneficial to, anything that promotes, produces, enhances life. So blessing is about that which is good and good is about that which is life. And life is literally everything. You want blessing. You want good. You want life. Well, how do we get it? Who gets it? Well, it seems like no one should get it based upon this text. But as we go, it's going to be very tempting in a few minutes to look at Esau as maybe the most sympathetic character in this whole sordid affair. In the central action of the story, he's going to come across better than the other three. And that's why these opening verses are here. And that's why they're so important. If you actually step back and look over our whole text, you'll notice that it's actually the marriages of Esau that frame our narratives. Often in Hebrew scripture, you have this framing, this sandwiching device that tells us what this story is about. What's this whole unit? Well, we open with this marriage to these Hittite women. Hittite women, that means Canaanite women. Canaanite women means not part of God's people. Canaanite women, the Canaanites have already had the curse pronounced upon them by God. And then at the very end of our text we're going to see in verse 9 of chapter 28 Esau marries another woman and Ishmaelite wife, also not part of God's people. He kind of tries to do a little bit better. He tries to get it right and he still completely fails. And so in a story that's all about covenant and the covenant as the blessing, our author is right here at the beginning of our story, not so subtly revealing to us Esau's character. Remember, when we last left Esau back in 2534, he was trading his birthright. He was trading the right of inheritance possessed by the firstborn. And in this family, especially, that inheritance was everything. And we saw him trade it for nothing. He sold his birthright for a bowl of stew, thus Esau despised. his birthright. Remember that stupid stew. Remind yourself sin is just stupid stew. Don't trade everything for nothing. That's what sin is. Sin is stupid. That's what Esau has done. He's traded everything for nothing. And there has been no change as we see demonstrated here as he continues to despise his family's heritage. despise the covenant, despise God by marrying these pagan women who also despise God and are outside of the covenant of blessing. So that's how our story begins. And it's an important beginning. From the beginning, we're being signaled and told, hey, Esau's no better than the rest of them. Esau is not just the victim here. Esau has proven that he has no right to and no desire for So we'll come back and we'll end with Esau. But let's begin with Isaac. Look at verse 1. And a cast full of despicable characters. I think Isaac is probably the worst. Isaac is the patriarch. He is meant to be the head. He's meant to be the spiritual leader, the one taking sacrificial responsibility to love and lead his family and lay down his life for the good of his family and do everything he can to help his family love his Lord. The head and the leader bears greater responsibility for his response and what he does and how he helps and blesses and benefits others. What is Isaac doing with that great responsibility? or he's loving him some food. That's the main thing we keep getting told about Isaac. Man loves to eat. The main repetition of our text is, of course, blessing. The noun is used seven times, the verb blessed 21 times. Again, blessing is the theme of our text. But there's some more less blessed repetition. The word game is repeated eight times, and delicious food. six times. So 14 times we're being drawn attention to the delicious food. This text made me wonder if maybe I love and talk about food a little bit too much. So I'm gonna not talk about how much I love food in this text. But in verse one, we see Isaac old and blind. And based on what follows, that's an important signifier. That has to be symbolic. Isaac's physical blindness is a reflection of his spiritual blindness. Isaac thinks that he's going to die. He's not going to die for like 40 some years at this point, right? He's way off. But he calls Esau, his favorite son, tells Esau, do the thing that you do, go hunt your game, prepare me some of that delicious food such as I love. And you remember, This has been hinted at. Remember back in 2528, there's been a little bit of foreshadowing. We were forewarned about Isaac's coming idiocy. Remember 2528? Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game. That's terrible. I love you because your food is delicious. I love you because you feed me and give me all of these good things. That's not love. So much of our world's definition and conception of love is just selfishness. I love you because you're so pretty. I love you because you make me feel good and you make me look good. Again, that's not love. That's selfishness. Isaac loves Esau because he loves to eat. He loves this son more because he loves to eat his food. That's absurd and ridiculous. Isaac's eyes may be bad, but his belly is fine. He's got to be a bigger guy at this point. I don't know. I assume he's a bigger guy at this point. It's hard not to think of Philippians 3.19 here, where Paul talks about those whose God is their belly. Isaac right now is not here operating as a man of faith. but as a man of sight, which is ironic as he is blind. But this text is going to go to great lengths to demonstrate that Isaac is a man very much living and operating according to his senses. Touch, taste, smell, sound are all going to play an important role in what's to follow. So he loves his food. Verse 4, Esau, get me some of it that I might eat that my soul may bless you. Feed me that I may bless you. It's absurd. And it seems like there's just a whole lot wrong here. The act of blessing was supposed to be a public thing, a family affair, as we will see in chapter 49. Maybe, interestingly, Jacob experiences it being done so wrongly here that Jacob's going to do it right at the end in chapter 49. But this is secret. This is behind closed doors. That's a bad sign. Plus, here's the key, he desires to bless Esau. Notice verse 1 highlighting Esau as the older son. He desires to bless Esau, the older son, when Isaac knows God's word. Isaac knows what God has very clearly said. 25-23. The older shall serve the younger. Isaac knows that. Isaac knows that Esau has already despised and sold his birthright. He knows all of these things. I spent a lot of time trying to sort this out, and I finally kind of gave up. The definite relationship between the birthright and the blessing is just a bit unclear. Everyone understands and relates them differently. No one can agree. So I think it's simplest to understand that the birthright and the blessing largely go together. That's how the New Testament seems to understand it. In Hebrews 12, 16, we read that Esau sold his birthright for a single meal, for you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing." It seems to be kind of treating the things together. Maybe the inheritance is more concerned with the material and the blessing more with the spiritual. That's what some people think, but I don't think that quite holds up, maybe the birthright is more past-focused, what will be gained of the present possessions of the father, and the blessings more future-focused, kind of prophetically announcing what will be. Again, I just don't know exactly. I think it's difficult to divide it all up. I think it largely all goes together. And if that's the case, then maybe this right here is why Isaac gets gapped. Remember, Isaac is ignored Isaac. Why? Abraham, even in his sin, gets all kinds of space. Jacob, even in his sin, gets all kinds of space. Isaac gets one chapter. Why? Again, I'm not 100% sure, but maybe this is why. Maybe because right here, Isaac is directly working against the will and the word of God. God has made it very clear. I am going to bless Jacob. Esau has made it very clear. I don't actually care about the blessing. Isaac is here making it very clear. I'm going to bless Esau anyways. Maybe because he likes his food. Maybe over the years as he has committed himself to his oldest son, he has slowly and subtly begun to become like his own son. His son, not part of the covenant. Remember, we become what we behold. We become like what we love. He loves his son. He loves his food. Isaac is slowly becoming more like him, maybe. Sin is stupid. It makes us stupid. And Isaac cuts a tragic and sad and ironic picture here. Feed me and I will bless you. I don't care what God has said. Scene. Let's read scene 2. Look at verses 5 through 13. What's going to happen? The intrigue is building. Verse 5. Now, Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it, Rebekah said to her son Jacob, I heard your father speak to your brother Esau, bring me game and prepare for me delicious food that I may eat it and bless you before the Lord before I die. Now, therefore, my son, obey my voice as I command you. Go to the flock and bring me two good young goats so that I may prepare from them delicious food for your father such as he loves. And you shall bring it to your father to eat so that he may bless you before he dies. But Jacob said to Rebekah, his mother, behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man and I am a smooth man. Perhaps my father will feel me and I shall seem to be mocking him and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing. His mother said to him, let your curse be on me, my son. Only obey my voice and go bring them to me. Stop there. All right, Isaac's awful. Maybe Rebekah's better. Nope. First off, she is spying on her husband. Generally not a good sign. Ladies, if you're already spying on your husband, please go see Pastor Mike and let's talk about that. She's also here actively, clearly scheming against her husband. And I want you to notice a key pattern here now that we've seen it for the second time. There's kind of like seven basic scenes to this story. And there are four people involved in this whole mess. But I want you to pay attention and notice that every single scene features only two people. The four never come together and communicate. Jacob and Esau never communicate. Isaac and Rebekah communicate in only one verse after the worst is done. But this dialogue between the ever-changing two parties is what structures this whole story from scene to scene. We just saw Isaac and Esau. Now here is Rebekah and Jacob. Next will be Isaac and Jacob. Then Isaac and Esau. Then Rebekah and Jacob. Rebekah and Isaac. Isaac and Jacob. Never all four of them. Never even three of them. And that's key to this mess. So hold on to that thought. But Rebecca is clearly the driver of the action here. She is in charge. She is calling the shots. Mothers, you need to teach your children to obey you. Tell them, obey me. Mothers, when your children are 40, do not tell them to obey you anymore. Twice, Rebecca says to her adult son here, obey me, obey me. And Jacob obeys her. She's in charge. He does what she says. She's got a plan. It's ridiculous. This whole thing is ridiculous, as we are about to see. And again, the whole thing is supposed to be ridiculous. Again, it's a sort of comedy of error. Sin is stupid. I'm going to keep saying it. It's foolishness. The whole thing, the plan, is absurd. Rebecca's goal in this absurd plan is verse 10, that he, your father, may bless you, Jacob, not Esau. Now here would have been Jacob's chance. Notice he does protest. Maybe here he could say, hey mom, this is wrong. Thou shalt not lie. The ends never justify the means. He obviously does not do that. Notice his concern. His concern is not immorality, but impracticality. Not that it's wrong, but that it might not work. and that he might get caught. He cares nothing about hurting Isaac. He cares only about potentially hurting himself. And listen, in this story that is all about deceit, this is one of the great deceits of sin. It's this belief that we all kind of have sometimes that sin won't hurt us, that it won't come back to bite us, that we can sin without consequence, that we can sin, particularly some of those private secret sins, and we do those things in part because we foolishly assume that no one will find out, and thus it can't hurt anyone else and won't hurt us. Listen, just be very clear. We'll see this at the end as well. Sin always hurts. Sin always harms. Sin never satisfies. It always offers that which it can never give. Sin only takes, separates, hardens, worsens, destroys. We can never describe sin too strongly. We can never consider its evil too regularly. You are constantly tempted to think that, hey, this sin You know, some of us, maybe, older on in life, we're pastors, we're the experts, right? Or maybe some of you older saints. We've, by the grace of God, gotten beyond those, like, really big, external, outward, egregious sins. We're like, all right, I don't have to worry about those anymore, so, you know, I'm kind of good to go. Listen, be very, very careful about the little things and thinking that those little things aren't really a big deal. Be very, very careful of ever assuming that your sin will not find you out. Numbers 32, 23. Be sure your sin will find you out. But Jacob's concern in verse 12 is correct. In seeking blessing, hey, what if I end up bringing curse on myself? That's exactly what sin is. And that's exactly what sin does. Sin always smiles at us. It always attracts and appeals. It always holds out the offer and looks like blessing. It is always and only curse. If we understood truly what sin is and what the curse was, we would never willingly take it on. Oh, but man, look at Rebecca. Look at verse 13. Let your curse be on me, my son. Only obey my voice. Let your curse be on me. What a foolish thing to say. For her. But for now, it's her scheme. How is this going to all work out? How's this going to work out for her? Let's keep reading. Verses 14 through 29. Here's the heart of the action. Pay attention. Verse 14. So he, Jacob, went and took them and brought them to his mother, and his mother prepared delicious food such as his father loved. Then Rebecca took the best garments of Esau, her older son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob, her younger son. And the skins of the young goats she put on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck, and she put the delicious food and the bread which she had prepared into the hand of her son Jacob. So he went into his father and said, my father. And he said, here I am. Who are you? My son. Jacob said to his father, I am Esau, your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Now sit up and eat of my game that your soul may bless me. But Isaac said to his son, how is it that you have found it so quickly, my son? He answered, because the Lord, your God, granted me success. Then Isaac said to Jacob, please come near that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not. So Jacob went near to Isaac, his father, who felt him and said, the voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau. And he did not recognize him because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's hands. So he blessed him. He said, are you really my son Esau? He answered, I am. Then he said, bring it near to me that I may eat of my son's game and bless you. So he brought it near to him and he ate and he brought him wine and he drank. Then his father Isaac said to him, Come near and kiss me, my son. So he came near and kissed him. And Isaac smelled the smell of his garments and blessed him and said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed. May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine. Let peoples serve you and nations bow down to you. Be Lord over your brothers and may your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you and blessed be everyone who blesses you. Stop there. It's like a Jacob for a second. He's playing dress up. There's so much symbolism here. Jacob is clothed. in the robes of Esau. Notice verse 15, her older son and her younger son. The one is literally supplanting and taking the place of the other. Jacob is covered in goat skin. Gross. Jacob is smooth. Esau is hairy. And listen, apparently Isaac is so far gone in every way that they believe that this ridiculousness will actually work. You come to me with a piece of goat on you. I'm like, hey, I think you've got goat. on you. That feels like goat skin. He is dumb and they are deceitful. Everyone is terrible. That's the point. It's absurdly ridiculous. That delicious food that Isaac so loves is prepared. And so Jacob goes in. It's such a good story. It's full of tension and emotion. Jacob says, my father. Isaac says, here I am. Who are you? My son. It's hard not to assume maybe Jacob's got a little bit of a higher voice than the manly, hairy hunter Esau. Who knows? But Jacob, without hesitation, here's Jacob. Jacob, without hesitation, lies. I am Esau, your firstborn. Eat, bless me. Something feels off, obviously, even to blind in every way Isaac. So he asks, wait, how did you go hunting, kill an animal, dress that animal, come back, cook that animal, and do all that so quickly? Look at what Jacob does. Here it is. Jacob, without hesitation, blasphemes because the Lord, your God, granted me success. So that's the definition of taking the Lord's name in vain. Be very careful about dragging God's name and God's character into your foolishness. But Jacob has no problem. dragging the name of the compassionate, committed, covenant God, Yahweh, through the mud and right into this mess. And notice that he says, the Lord, your God. He's not Jacob's God. Not yet. Here we see very clearly the nature of this Jacob, the deceiver. We see clearly, Isaac does not. He's sure, still not sure what's going on. So he calls Jacob near, he wants to feel him. Again, notice all the emphasis on the senses. Look at verse 22, notice that he hears Jacob, but he feels Esau. And that's probably significant. Here we've talked before about hearing as the organ of faith. We walk by faith and not by sight. And faith comes through hearing, and hearing through the word. But Isaac walks by sense and not by faith. He chooses feel over hear. It feels like Esau. It feels like the one he wants to bless. So no hesitation, verse 23. So he blessed him. Then he eats of that good game. Verse 27, Jacob comes near. Again, Isaac smells him. It smells like Esau, the one Isaac wants to bless. And so he blessed him. There's the blessing of fertility there, that's life. There's the pronouncement of lordship and leadership. And then there's the covenant protection there, and the covenant mediation that we keep seeing. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you. Success. Done, right? Jacob has got the blessing. all's well that ends well. Let's keep going. Let me read verses 30 through 40. Pay close attention here. Listen, the theme, the point of the story is actually in these verses. Listen to verses 30 through 40. There's the tension, the timing. Great story. As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac, his father Esau, his brother came in from his hunting. He also prepared delicious food and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, let my father arise and eat of his son's gain that you may bless me. His father Isaac said to him, who are you? He answered, I am your son, your firstborn Esau. Then Isaac trembled very violently and said, who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me? And I ate it all before you came and I have blessed him. Yes, and he shall be blessed. As soon as Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry and said to his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father. But he said, Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing. Esau said, Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has cheated me these two times. He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing. Then he said, Have you not reserved a blessing for me? Isaac answered and said to Esau, Behold, I have made him Lord over you, and all his brothers I have given to him for servants, and with grain and wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son? Esau said to his father, Have you but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice and wept. Then Isaac, his father, answered and said to him, Behold, Away from the fatness of the earth shall your dwelling be, and away from the dew of heaven on high. By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother. But when you grow restless, you shall break his yoke from your neck. Stop there. It's almost impossible not to sympathize with Esau there. It's a well-written story. The pathos and the pain, it's palpable. Pitiful. Jacob and Esau just miss each other. Esau comes in saying almost the exact same things that Jacob has just said, and Isaac knows immediately. He's shook, literally. He trembled very violently. And then, did you see it? The point of this whole sordid affair? Remember, a lot of space is given to this mess. Why? What's it all about? It's actually Isaac and Esau that tell us here. Verse 36 tells us, he has cheated, deceived me these two times. He took away my birthright and behold, he has taken away my blessing. Verse 33, Isaac tells us, I have blessed him and he shall be blessed. Jacob the deceiver is Jacob the blessed. That's the point of the story. And as we will see in a moment, that's a wonderfully blessed point. It is your only hope, and it is my only hope. Jacob is the worst. Jacob is the blessed. But first, Esau. I mean, Esau is in agony. Esau knows that he has lost everything. Esau is begging, he is pleading, he is crying, bless me, even me, also all my father. Yeah, it's heart-wrenching, as it should be. Sin is misery. Sin always results in misery. Esau is miserable. Listen to Hebrews 12, 17 again. This is hard for us to hear and understand. Hebrews 12, 17 says, For you know that afterward, when Esau desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears. There is a point of no return. There is a final, eventual hardening for everyone, but we should never take sin lightly. We should never cease to warn against the dangers, the deceits, the hardening of sin. We've got to be very careful because we don't know when that point is for anyone. And so, in hope, we always continue to worn and to pray and to labor, proclaiming the gospel that is the power of God for salvation. But God does eventually give hardened sinners completely over to themselves and what they have chosen, death and hell. But that's probably not really what this verse is about. I think the point of Hebrews 12, 17 is not that Esau desires to spiritually repent and turn to the Lord and he can't do it. I think the point is that the earthly-minded Esau who has very clearly proven who he is and is about to again at the end of our passage, he's not actually lamenting the loss of spiritual blessing. He's lamenting the great loss of the material blessing. He's just lost everything. He's just lost great wealth and he's understandably devastated. And so he begs, he weeps, he'll try anything at this point. Have you ever just gotten to the end? You have no other hope. So you just, you'll try whatever it is to get that thing. I think that's the tears and that's the weeping and that's, that's the brokenness. And he's not actually seeking the spiritual blessing. He's devastated because he's lost everything. He begs. What does he get? I don't even know. He gets like a sort of anti-blessing in verses 39 through 40. It's a sort of parody of Jacob's actual blessing. Is he away from fertility and life? Is he a life of servitude? Is he living by the sword? One day eventually throwing off the yoke. Some people think that's 2 Kings 8 when Edom successfully revolts against Israel. But the point is that Esau is not blessed. Jacob is blessed. Esau is not. Jacob is terrible. Esau is terrible. Jacob is blessed. Esau is not blessed. Let's finish up. Reading verse 41. I'm going to go all the way through the end and then we are going to conclude and apply. I'm reading all the way through verse 9 of chapter 28 because that's where the story technically ends. Verse 41. Now Esau hated Jacob. because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him. And Esau said to himself, the days of mourning for my father are approaching, then I will kill my brother Jacob. But the words of Esau, her older son, were told to Rebekah. So she sent and called Jacob, her younger son, and said to him, behold, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by planning to kill you. Now, therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise, flee to Laban, my brother in Haran. and stay with him a while until your brother's fury turns away, until your brother's anger turns away from you and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send and bring you from there. Why should I be bereft of you both in one day? Then Rebecca said to Isaac, I loathe my life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women like these, one of the women of the land, what good will my life be to me? Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him. and directed him, you must not take a wife from the Canaanite women. Arise, go to Paddan Aram, to the house of Bethuel, your mother's father, and take as your wife from there one of the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother. God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply that you may become a company of peoples. May he give the blessing of Abraham to you. and to your offspring with you, that you may take possession of the land of your sojournings that God gave to Abraham. Thus Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan Aram, to Laban, the son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob and Esau's mother. Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan Aram to take a wife from there, and that as he blessed him, he directed him, you must not take a wife from the Canaanite women, and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and gone to Paddan Aram. So when Esau saw that the Canaanite women did not please Isaac, his father, Esau went to Ishmael and took as his wife, besides the wives he had, Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of Nebaioth. The end. You made it. The narrative ends as it begins with Esau and the foolish marriages that reveal his heart. Relationship and who we are willing to enter into relationship with reveals much about our hearts. Esau doesn't actually want anything to do with the covenant. And it's God. And he proves that again here. Verse 41 completely reveals who he really is. I will kill my brother, Jacob. He's Cain, Cain, Cain and Abel all over again. He's just another in the long, terrible line of the seed of the serpent. He is not part of the people of God. And the opening and the closing make that very clear. But he means what he says, and Rebecca knows that he means it. She's got spies all over the place apparently, so she hears, she fears, and she again schemes on how to take care of the one son she loves. Jacob has got to run. Verse 46 is the only verse that Isaac and Rebekah actually communicate, and it's only for her to deceive him further. She's trying to get Jacob safely away the right way. And thus, the next scene of Jacob's life is set as he is sent away to Laban to find a wife. That's going to occupy our time for the next couple of weeks. But first, in verses 3 and 4, don't miss again, there's more blessing. Again, no one can decide how to relate all of these. Maybe this is the public affirmation of that which was private earlier. Maybe this is Isaac finally starting to come around and explicitly confirming the blessing and explicitly connecting the blessing to Abraham's blessing that had been passed to him. May God give the blessing of Abraham to you and to your offspring with you. And that's it. That's everything. Remember, the blessing of protection, prosperity, peace, presence. Remember, ultimately, the blessing is the promise of God himself, the God of life and joy and peace. The blessing is everything. Jacob gets it. He got it. He got the blessing. Now, what about you? And what do we do? with this mess. Let me, as we wrap up, let me give you one big idea and just three brief little applications to take from this mess. First, the one big idea. It's such a long, dark, difficult story. Again, we didn't do it justice. We're trying to cover a whole big thing. There's so many details there we skipped. Go spend some more time in it tonight or tomorrow. But what's the point of this thing? Here's the point. Here is what you most need to hear this morning. Nothing, nothing can or will stop God's promise to bless his people. Nothing can stop the promise of God. That's the point of the story. Nothing can hinder the will of God. The point of this text is that God is sovereign. He's so big. He's so powerful and wise and good that nothing can stop Him from doing what He desires. And what does the God of all power desire? Blessing. The Lord has promised good to me. The Lord has promised to work all things together for my good and for your good, if you are His. And of course, he's going to work all good things together for your good. That wouldn't even need to be said. So the all things there must include the idiocy things, the sinful things, the utter foolishness things, like Genesis 27. That's the point. And that's the great comfort of an insane story like this. Listen, I keep picking on Isaac, and I keep talking about Isaac's idiocy. I have spoken somewhat strongly about the stupidity of sin, because it is stupid, and Isaac is an idiot, and so am I. And so when I come to a story like this, and I look at a man like Isaac, and then I look at myself and my own story, I can find great encouragement and hope. The point is that if God can work good out of all of this, If God is so powerful and wise and gracious to bless even these people, then I need not despair. I need not fear. What you need to hear this morning, wherever you are right now, maybe you're stuck in the midst of great suffering, not of your own doing. Maybe you're stuck in the midst of great sinful idiocy that is of your own doing. The promises of God are bigger. God is bigger. Nothing can get in God's way. Nothing can stop God's plan. And God's plan, he has made it very clear, God's plan is to do eternal and unimaginable good to his people. God's plan and God's promise is blessing. And even Genesis chapter 27 doesn't stop that. And so even you, in Christ, cannot stop that. Your suffering, no matter how great, your sin, no matter how idiotic, cannot stop God. Because He is the God of complete power. And He is the God of compassionate grace. And if things are Genesis 27 bad, And they are everywhere. Read our news cycle. We are all of us far more of a mess than we would ever admit to each other. We are all of us having a far more difficult time than we would ever admit to each other. Genesis 27 is the perfect picture of life in this vanity world that we're seeing in Ecclesiastes. But if it's this bad, Genesis 27 bad, then the only hope for such wretches like them, and like us, is grace. And that's why this is such an important scene. That's why the original promise to Abraham passed to Isaac, now passed to Jacob in spite of their utter lack of qualification. It's so important because we know it's ultimately a promise about a seed and about a son, about the one who is going to come and do what was required to save such wretches like them and like us. And whereas Rebecca foolishly says, let your curse be on me, Jesus the Christ, the son of God, the one whom all this is getting us to, lovingly says, hey, let your curse be on me. That's the blessing. That's the gospel. It's the blessed one taking on our curse so that we could have his blessing. He takes on our sin. And we say that so flippantly sometimes. Oh, yeah, he takes on our sin. This kind of sin, Genesis 27 foolishness kind of sin. He take blasphemy. He's taking on the blasphemy of Isaac, the blasphemy of Jacob. He's dying for that sin and your worst and most wretched of sins. He's taking all of that on, doing what none of us could do. He pays the penalty that we deserve to pay. lived, died, and rose again in our place for the forgiveness of sins like Genesis 27. The terrible sins like deception and unbelief and blasphemy, adultery, stealing, murder, whatever they are. All those terrible sins that we are guilty of. The whole point of the gospel is that Christ takes all of them. And if he did that, If the sin that is death, if the enemy, if God handled that for us, defeated death for us, then surely it is true that nothing can stop the promise of God. Nothing can get in the way of God's commitment to bless His people, to bless you. That's what God is doing. That's what He has promised you. I will bless you. And He will not and He cannot let us down. fail us or disappoint us. Because He is God. And that's what you need to know. Now what do you need to do? Three quick things and I'm done. Wait, walk, work. Those are my three applications. Wait, walk, work. Your first application is wait patiently. Wait patiently. 1983. YouTube. 40. Look it up. Give it a listen. It's a song. Might sound strange to you, but it's a song that has ministered to me this week. The song is a year older than me, except that it's Bono's rendition of Psalm 40, so it's actually 3,000 years old. 3,000 years older than me. I quoted Psalm 40 last night. Love Psalm 40. I waited patiently for the Lord. He inclined to me and heard my cry. Verse three, David says, he put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise Isn't a new song sound good in the Psalms? A new song is often a song of victory, a song of life, a song of peace. But in the U2 version of the song, 1983, they added a refrain, and the song goes and closes again and again. It's how long to sing this song. And I was blessed, I got to go to one U2 concert in my life, my brother took me years ago, and the band frequently ends their shows with this song, with 40. And the concerts, I don't know about always, I don't know, but often end with the whole audience singing over and over and over again as the band exits, how long, how long, how long. It's a cry of waiting. Listen, we need to understand that much of the Christian life is waiting, waiting. We've got a couple of things in our life and family right now that are involving lots of waiting. Waiting is very hard. It can be tempting to lose hope when you wait a long time. It can be tempting to give up. Listen, it can be tempting to pull a Rebecca and try to work out my will, my way, on my timescale. It doesn't work. It doesn't work. Wait. Wait. How different would this story have been if Rebecca and Jacob had just waited? God had told him, just wait. God has told you what he's gonna do. Wait. Trust him. You will have to wait more than you think. You will have to wait longer than you think. Don't give up. Don't give in. Wait patiently. Listen, if God is sovereign and good and wise, our waiting is never a waste. Never. We sing it sometimes. He is working in our waiting. So wait. Work on seeing waiting as an opportunity. Andrew Murray says that waiting takes our eyes and thoughts away from ourselves, even our needs and desires, and occupies us with our God. There's nothing we need more than eyes off of ourselves. Eyes off of our thoughts and our circumstances. Let waiting help you, force you to put your eyes on the Lord. Wait patiently. Psalm 25, three, none who wait for you shall be put to shame. Psalm 27, 14, wait for the Lord. Be strong and let your heart take courage. Wait for the Lord. All right, your second application. Walk by faith. Walk by faith and not by sight. We're gonna close and we're gonna sing it. And we're gonna go out and do it, Lord willing. These two things go together. Waiting and faith go hand in hand. Isaac, ironically, even in his blindness, is the epitome of walking by sight or sense and not by faith. All his senses fail him. And remember, it's the ear that's the organ of faith. It's his one sense that almost works, but he ignores it. And he trusts his touch, his taste, and his smell. Isaac walks by sight. Now, if you know your Bibles, you're wondering about this, and I don't even want to mention it, but it's there. It'll help me focus on something else. So we've got to deal with it. Listen to Hebrews 11.20. This verse is insane. Listen to Hebrews 11.20. By faith, Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. What? Come on. Faith, really? I would almost rather that verse not be there, but it is. I'm so very glad that it is. I don't think I have it all sorted out, but the blessing is communicated through words. There's a prophetic part of these patriarchs that I don't think exists any longer. If I pull you off to the side after the service and I pronounce some sort of blessing over you, let people serve you and nations bow down to you. Guess what's gonna happen? Nothing, absolutely nothing is gonna happen, except that you should think less of me. My blessing there is no different than my blessing you when you sneeze. But I'm not Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I'm not one of the patriarchs. I'm not pre God's written and revealed clear word. So by simply believing that God works through his word and that God would confer his blessing through the pronouncement of those words, Isaac is operating at least to some degree out of faith there. And when it becomes clear what Jacob has done, Isaac doesn't say what I would have said, nevermind, take it back, doesn't count, he tricked me. No, he says, I have blessed him. and he shall be blessed. Listen, there's not a lot of faith going on here, but there's at least a little. There's a weak faith. And church, I often have only a little weak faith. Good news, Thomas Watson, a weak faith may lay hold of a strong Christ. Weak faith, strong Christ. Praise God. for that. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't learn from their faith failure examples. That doesn't mean we should just go on sinning. Look, God blessed them anyway, so it doesn't matter what I do. No, don't do that. That's kind of what Esau's doing. Remember, your sin will find you out. This story also makes clear that even eternally forgiven sin can have present significant consequences. Rebecca does lose both of her sons. Rebecca never sees Jacob again. Rebecca's servant's death is recorded and Rebecca's not. Rebecca just passed away. She and Isaac just fade away from the scene. And Jacob is headed away for 20 years of hard labor. The deceiver is being sent to a deceiver. Jacob is about to meet his match. Sin has terrible consequences, even for those who are the Lord's. but your senses will try and deceive you. They will try and convince you that sin is not a big deal, that it will satisfy you and make you happy. Do not believe the lie. Walk by faith, not by sight. Trust your ears, not your eyes. Trust God's words, not the world's images. Did God really say? Satan is asking you that question constantly. Did God really say? Yes, He did. Our God has spoken to us very clearly, and he has spoken to us very clearly about very good things. He has spoken to us very clearly about his very good will, that he is going to bless us. So trust him, and listen to him, and walk by faith. Application three, short and sweet here, this is just kind of, it's an important part, this is a less spiritual one, but I think it's important. Hey, application three, hey, let's work to communicate. Let's work to communicate. So much of this mess could have been avoided had the four parties simply been involved in openly and honestly communicating with each other. Our God is the communicating God. He is the God who speaks, lets communicate with one another, and speak to one another. We consider the absolute importance of friendship and companionship and fellowship in Sunday school this morning. Communication is central to all Communion. Husbands, talk to your wives. You'd be amazed how little, probably, there is actually good, healthy communication going on between husbands and wives. Husbands, don't be like Isaac. Take the lead. Communicate. Talk with your wives. Parents, talk to your children. Talk to them. Deuteronomy specifically tells us, hey, we're supposed to be doing that day and night, constantly communicating with our children through the things of God. You can't do that if you're never with them. You can't do that if they're always on a screen. Communicate to your children, parents. Brothers and sisters in Christ, let's communicate with one another. We have been blessed with the wonder of words that reveal and relate. Let's use those words wisely and well to the glory of God. Wait, walk, work, all of it in light of the glorious sovereignty of God and his loving and stubborn commitment to bless his often stupid people. He cannot and he will not fail to bless us. Let's trust him together. Let me pray. Father, thank you for such a painful picture of what your people are like. Thank you for such a beautiful picture of what you are like. Thank you that it was while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Thank you that Christ came not for the healthy. Thank you that he came to seek and to save the lost, Father, sinners, the sick. Father, that's us. Father, we have to see ourselves as such first. Father, that's the prerequisite. is seeing ourselves for who we are in our hopelessness and in our helplessness and our wretchedness and our wickedness and then letting that by your grace drive us to your power and your compassion and your love for us, your people. Father, that you would love us, should overwhelm us and should delight us and should make us glad in all things. We thank you that even Genesis 27 cannot get in the way of your commitment to bless your people. Thank you that whatever each and every one of us is thinking right now about our circumstances, past or present, about our suffering or about some foolishness. Thank you that whatever that thing is in Christ, it cannot get in the way of you blessing us ultimately and eternally in Christ. Father, help us to wait patiently. on you and help us to trust you no matter what we see with our eyes. Father, you have spoken so clearly to us about how good you are and about what you're going to do for us. Father, help us to trust you. We ask and pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.