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Good morning. I am Abigail Todd and I am part of CC Kids.
Today's scripture reading is from the book of Genesis, chapter 25, verses 21 to 23, and chapter 27, verses 1 to 4, and 15 to 34, as printed in the liturgy.
A reading from the book of Genesis.
Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was childless.
The Lord answered his prayer and his wife Rebecca became pregnant.
The babies jostled each other within her and she said, why is this happening to me?
So she went to inquire of the Lord.
The Lord said to her, two nations are in your womb and two peoples from within you will be separated.
One people will be stronger than the other and the older will serve the younger.
When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak he could no longer see, he called for Esau, his older son, and said to him, my son.
Here I am, he answered.
Isaac said, I am now an old man and don't know the day of my death.
Now then, get your equipment, your quiver and bow, and go out to the open country to hunt some wild game for me.
Prepare me the kind of tasty food I like and bring it to me to eat so that I may give you my blessing before I die.
Then Rebecca took the best clothes of Esau, her older son, which she had in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob.
She also covered his hands in the smooth part of his neck with goat skins.
Then she handed to her son Jacob the tasty food and bread she had made.
He went to his father and said, my father.
Yes, my son, he answered.
Who is it?
Jacob said to his father, I am Esau, your firstborn.
I have done as you told me.
Please sit up and eat some of my game so that you may give me your blessing.
Isaac asked his son, how did you find it so quickly, my son?
The Lord your God gave me success, he replied.
Then Isaac said to Jacob, come near so I can touch you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.
Jacob went close to his father Isaac, who touched him and said, the voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.
He did not recognize him, for his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau.
So he proceeded to bless him.
Are you really my son Esau, he asked.
I am, he replied.
Then he said, my son, bring me some of your game to eat so that I may give you my blessing.
Jacob brought it to him and he ate, and he brought some wine and he drank.
Then his father Isaac said to him, come here, my son, and kiss me.
So he went to him and kissed him.
When Isaac caught the smell of his clothes, he blessed him and said, ah, the smell of my son is the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed.
May God give you heaven's dew and earth's richness, an abundance of grain and new wine.
May nations serve you and peoples bow down to you.
Be lord of your brothers and may the sons of your mother bow down to you.
May those who curse you be cursed and those who bless you be blessed.
After Isaac finished blessing him and Jacob had scarcely left his father's presence, his brother Esau came in from hunting.
He too prepared some tasty food and brought it to his father.
Then he said to him, my father, please sit up and eat some of my game so that you may give me your blessing.
His father Isaac said to him, who are you?
I'm your son, he answered, your firstborn Esau.
Isaac trembled violently and said, who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me?
I ate it just before you came and I blessed him and indeed he will be blessed.
When Esau heard his father's words, he burst out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, bless me, me too, my father.
The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever.
All right.
What a wonderful recitation from Psalm 23.
And what a wonderful reading from Genesis 27.
I don't know if you have read many Russian novels, but Leo Tolstoy was a Russian novelist and he wrote a novel called Anna Karenina.
And the opening of that novel, the very first sentence, he says,
Happy families are all alike.
Every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
If you came here today and you're feeling a little discouraged about your family,
the message of Genesis 27 is cheer up because things could be a whole lot worse.
Okay.
The holy family we meet here is actually quite unholy and therefore quite unhappy.
And that's crazy because if you're familiar with Genesis, you go to Genesis 24,
what you find there is one of the first and best love stories in all of world literature.
It's a story about how Isaac and Rebecca became husband and wife.
And then we heard a little bit in Genesis 25 there where Rebecca, his wife, is barren.
She's struggling with infertility for 20 years.
And Isaac prays for her for 20 years.
And it says that Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife and the Lord answered his prayer.
So it's an amazing love story.
But by the time you get to Genesis 27, they're not speaking to one another.
They are at cross purposes with each other.
This marriage is in trouble.
And so if you're reading the story, you're thinking to yourself,
well, what happened to this marriage made in heaven?
What happened to the spiritual union?
What happened to their covenantal intimacy?
Why are they now prayerless?
They're not even talking to God.
Why are they so dysfunctional?
Why are they so uncommunicative?
And by the way, aren't these supposed to be God's chosen people?
Aren't they supposed to be carrying within themselves the very promises of God
and the blessings of God on Abraham to all the nations of the world?
Why are they being such poor spouses and partners to each other in this story?
And what's more, how did they become such terrible parents to their kids?
Now, when we planned our parenting class for today,
we did not look ahead at the scripture lesson.
But God knows.
God has a sense of humor.
And the story is, of course, much deeper than this.
But parents, don't show favoritism to your kids.
Don't compare them with each other.
Don't say, hey, this is actually my kid and that's your kid.
Don't have divided loyalties.
And of course, if you get nothing else from today,
it's fine to dress your kid up on Halloween.
But please, do not go to the level of Genesis 27
and dress up your favorite kid
in order to deceive your spouse
that they're actually blessing their favorite kid.
I say this because the Bible is actually quite shocking.
We come to it with certain expectations.
We come to the Bible thinking it's going to give us some sort of spiritual uplift,
thinking that the Bible is going to give us some moral inspiration,
maybe a little chicken soup for the soul.
And we very quickly begin to realize
that the Bible is this soap opera of epic proportions.
Right?
It's a bizarre reality TV drama.
And in one episode after another,
we witness this just tragic downward spiral of human failure.
And today's story is actually quite bleak.
There's jealousy.
There's power struggles.
There's deception.
There's betrayal.
It's like a Russian novel.
And it basically ends with everyone falling apart,
trembling violently, crying bitterly.
Everybody feeling spiritually uplifted so far?
All right.
Awesome.
So what we're going to talk about is
we're going to talk about the power of God's blessing
and the dysfunction of God's family
and the triumph of God's grace.
The power of God's blessing,
the dysfunction of God's family,
and the triumph of God's grace.
First of all,
the power of God's blessing.
The word bless or blessing in Genesis 22 or 2027
occurs many times.
It occurs 22 times.
It's a key word in this text.
And you hear it there in verse 4 of Genesis 27
where Isaac says to Esau,
he says,
prepare me the kind of tasty food I like
and bring it to me to eat
so that I may give you my blessing before I die.
And then down in verse 19,
it says,
What does that word blessing mean?
It's a religious-sounding word.
We say a blessing at a meal.
We say bless you when you sneeze.
We say I'm feeling so blessed when life is going well.
We say, you know,
bless you or bless in the south.
We say bless your heart.
But we post pictures on Instagram
of our recent vacation,
and we say hashtag blessed.
But what does the word even mean?
It's that the English word is just so vague, actually.
It's so weak and so shallow
that we need to go back to Genesis 1
where the story of the Bible begins
with this God who brings life out of the darkness,
and he's ordering this beautiful world,
and he gives the first blessing in the Bible.
And he blesses the animals that he's made.
And what does he say to them?
He says,
Be fruitful and multiply.
Fill the earth.
Fill the sea.
Fill the sky.
So blessing is about flourishing.
It's about the multiplication of life.
Blessing is about God sharing
his life-producing ability with others.
And we read in Genesis 1-2
that God then blesses humans,
and he says,
I'm making you in my image.
You're gonna be fruitful
and multiply with life,
and you're to rule and steward over
the blessing that I've given
to this flourishing world.
And of course,
as we've been tracking the story,
Genesis 3,
pretty immediately,
humanity says,
Well, no,
we don't want the blessing that way.
We want the blessing this way.
We want the blessing on our terms.
And then the world begins to fall apart.
Fast forward to Genesis 12.
I think we have a slide on this
where God chooses one couple.
He blesses Abraham and Sarah.
He says,
You're gonna have a huge family.
You're gonna be fruitful.
You're gonna multiply with life.
And through you,
my blessing of spiritual life
is gonna go out to all the nations.
And this is God's plan.
This is God's way
that he's going to reverse the curse
on humanity
through this one family.
That the blessing of spiritual life
on Abraham and Sarah
is the thing
that's driving the drama
of the book of Genesis.
And really,
it's the thing that's driving
the drama of the whole Bible.
You just can't get the Bible
unless you get that.
And so our story today says,
you know,
okay,
without God's blessing of life,
there's no hope for this world
that's stuck in sin and death.
And right now,
this blessing
moving from one generation
to the next generation,
it really hangs in the balance.
Here you have Isaac,
the son of Abraham.
Isaac,
the son of promise,
the son of the covenant,
the son of blessing.
And he has a wonderful,
believing wife,
but they have no kids.
And in Genesis 25, 21,
his wife Rebecca
has been barren for 20 years.
That's a problem.
How's the blessing
going to go on
to the next generation?
So Isaac prays
to the Lord
on her behalf.
He intercedes for her.
And the Lord uses
the means of his prayer
to bless her with life.
And he blesses her
not just with one kid,
but with two kids
in her womb.
And the question is,
which of those sons
is going to inherit
the blessing?
And that's the question
that's driving
the entire plot line.
You with me so far?
Now, I want to argue,
and I think the text,
the narrator argues,
that even though Isaac,
Rebecca, Esau, and Jacob
are wrong
in the way that they give
and receive
this blessing of life,
this divine blessing of life,
and we'll get to that
in a moment,
they are absolutely right
in their desire to have it.
They're absolutely right
because there's no greater
treasure in the world
than this divine blessing
of life on Abraham
because through him
and through his descendants,
God has said salvation
is going to come
to the whole world.
And what's surprising
in this text
is that Isaac intends
to pass this blessing
on to Esau,
but he actually gives it
to Jacob instead.
And you may be wondering
to yourself,
like I was wondering
when I read it,
why didn't Isaac
just take it back?
Anybody wondering that?
Why didn't he just say,
Jacob, you scoundrel,
you're not even
my favorite child.
Jacob, you're a cheater
and you're a deceiver
and you're canceled, right?
I take it back.
Well, I don't know about you,
but my older brother
taught me when I was a kid,
there are no takebacks, right?
There are no do-overs.
That got pounded
into the old brain here.
And we all know that
since childhood,
but also,
it's just not how blessings work.
You know it from your own story.
You know it if you've gone
to counseling
or talked to your therapist
that the words people say to us,
whether they're words of blessing
or they're words of cursing,
they have power, don't they?
They stick in our heads,
they get lodged in our hearts,
they work their way
into the innermost parts
of our being,
and those words of blessing
or those words of cursing,
they shape our lives.
They form our narratives
and our beliefs
about ourselves in this world.
They form our thoughts
and our feelings.
They shape our sense of identity
and belonging
and meaning and purpose
in the world.
And so you can't just take them back.
Many people,
I've seen many people
spend a good portion
of their lives
seeking a blessing
that they wanted
from a parent
but they never got.
And I've also seen
many, many people
trying to get over words
of cursing
that lodged inside of them
like shrapnel
that's sort of creeping
up to their heart.
And what we should have learned
as kids
and what we should have said
to each other as kids
is sticks and stones
may break my bones
but words can make
or break my very soul.
Right?
Words have deep power.
It's not just as simple
as take it back.
And if that's the way it is
with our everyday words
and our offhanded comments,
our simple words
of affirmation
or condemnation,
our simple encouragement
or criticism,
then how much more so
with this divine
supernatural blessing
and this end of life
last will and testament
moment with the son
of Abraham
speaking formal words,
speaking legal
and binding words,
passing on not just
his parental
and personal blessing
but passing on
the life-giving blessing
of Almighty God.
Can't just take it back.
So how does this apply
to our lives?
Well, I just want to say
that every single one
of you
and every person
you meet
is made for God's blessing
and you're never
going to be content
without it.
The book of Ecclesiastes
has a wonderful
verse.
In Ecclesiastes 3.11
it says,
God has set eternity
in the human heart.
St. Augustine
famously said,
O Lord,
you've made us
for yourself
and our hearts
are restless
until they find
their rest in you.
And what Ecclesiastes
and what Augustine
is saying is,
look,
you have a God-shaped
eternity-sized
hole in your heart
and only a God-shaped
eternity-sized
blessing
is going to fill it.
And we see people,
maybe you're one
of these people,
you try to find
the blessing
in the approval
of your parents.
You try to find
the blessing
in the arms
of a lover.
You try to find
the blessing
in fancy degrees
from elite universities,
from the security
of a big bank account,
from the satisfaction
of a successful career.
You try to find
the blessing
in the comfort
of food or drink.
And it's kind
of elusive, right?
I've been thinking
about this a lot
as our daughter
is a senior
in high school
and she's applying
to colleges,
applying for scholarships,
and that means
that we've been
receiving a ton
of mail
over this past year,
an incredible amount
of mail
from admissions offices
that are recruiting
her to apply.
And these glossy mailers
are making massive promises
to my daughter
about how her life
is going to change
for the better,
how her life
is going to improve
dramatically
should this particular
school decide
to confer upon her
the blessing
of acceptance.
Right?
And everything hangs
on getting accepted,
getting in.
If the right people
say you're the right person
and you can come
to this institution,
you'll be blessed.
And this is very important
because where you go
is who you're going
to be, right?
Your degree,
the brand,
the friends,
the network,
the job prospects,
your earning potential,
we have the ability
to give you the blessing.
C.S. Lewis
was a professor
at the University
of Oxford
and Cambridge
and he gave a lecture
called
The Inner Ring,
capital I,
capital R,
Inner Ring.
And this is a lengthy quote
but I think it's worth
giving to you.
He says,
I believe that in all
men's lives
at certain periods
and in many men's lives
at all periods
between infancy
and extreme old age,
one of the most
dominant elements
is the desire
to be inside
the local ring
and the terror
of being left outside.
Think of our longing
to enter
the inner ring,
our anguish
when we are excluded
and the kind of pleasure
we feel
when we get in.
The desire
is one of the great
permanent mainsprings
of human action.
It is one of the factors
which go to make up
the world
as we know it,
this whole pell-mell
of struggle,
competition,
confusion,
graft,
disappointment,
and advertisement
and if it is one
of the permanent
mainsprings
then you may be
quite sure of this.
Unless you take measures
to prevent it,
this desire
is going to be
one of the chief
motives of your life
from the first day
on which you enter
your profession
until the day
when you are too old
to care.
Whether by pining
or moping outside
rings that you
can never enter
or by passing
triumphantly further
and further in,
one way or the other
you will be
an inner ringer.
The quest
of the inner ring
will break your hearts
unless you break it.
To a young person
just entering
adult life
the world seems
full of insides,
full of delightful
intimacies
and confidentialities
and he desires
to enter them
but if he follows
that desire
he will reach
no inside
that is worth reaching.
The true road
lies in quite
another direction.
See Lewis
thought quite a lot
about
where does
the blessing lie?
Right?
Does it lie
in that inner ring
out there?
And he personally
found that
the only inside
worth reaching
the only inner ring
worth being a part of
was entering into
the power
of God's blessing.
Stepping into
the inner ring
of the Father,
Son and Holy Spirit
which Jesus calls
eternal life
or abundant life
or divine life.
And I just want you
to know that
if you don't come
into the power
of God's blessing
and you don't let
the power of God's blessing
come into you,
you will spend
the rest of your life
looking for it
in inner rings
that make
really big claims
and really big promises
but can never actually
give you the thing.
So that's the power
of God's blessing.
And I want to talk
for a little bit about
now the dysfunction
of God's family
because now hopefully
we see
the need for
this divine
blessing of spiritual life
and why this family
was so right
to desire it
and to seek it
but I also want us
to look at all
the wrong ways
that they sought
to give it
and to receive it.
And I want to walk
through each family member
and show you
how they're all wrong
though some of them
are relatively less wrong
than others.
Okay, you tracking with me?
Basically, if you want
your family to be miserable,
if you want our church
to be miserable,
be like these people.
Okay?
In this patriarchal context,
Isaac bears the most
responsibility
as the leader of the family.
You can quibble with that
in your modern feminist ways
but that's just the world
that we're talking about.
And he's the heir
of the promises
and the covenant
with Abraham.
And so the question is,
is this old and blind man
merely the victim
of Rebekah's ruse
and her deception
or is there something
more going on
in the story?
And also in the ancient
Near East,
Esau bears big time
responsibility
as the firstborn son
and again,
you might not like
that structure
but that's what it is.
And the question is,
is Esau,
this manly man,
this hunter dude,
is he merely the victim
of Jacob's lies
and trickery
or is there something
deeper going on?
And I want to say
that like life,
this story is way more
complex than all the headlines.
Because if you look
at verse four,
Isaac says to Esau,
he says,
prepare me the kind
of tasty food,
the kind of delicious food
that I like
and bring it to me to eat
so that I may give you
my blessing
before I die.
Basically,
Isaac had been
a man of God,
he had been this person
who was persistent
in prayer
and was known
for his spirituality
but at this point
in his life,
he's known less
for his spirituality
and more for his sensuality.
He's controlled
by his mouth,
he's controlled
by his stomach
and somehow
his appetite
for meat
has become more powerful
than his theology.
And he's become
basically like Esau,
if you know the story
in Genesis 25,
Esau sold his birthright
for a pot
of lentil stew.
And so both Isaac
and Esau
surrender something
that's eternally precious,
something that is
a precious long-term good
in order to immediately
satisfy their appetites.
And what's more,
if you look at
Genesis 24 to 28,
it's very clear
that Abraham and Sarah
went to great lengths
to find Isaac
a wife
who shared
their spiritual vision,
shared their values,
shared their training
and their faith
in the Lord.
But Isaac seems
to have not done that
for Esau
and Esau
goes out
and he marries
a Canaanite wife,
basically a wife
who doesn't believe
anything about
the God of Israel,
Yahweh,
Elohim.
He not only marries
one Canaanite wife,
he marries two
Canaanite wives
who basically
just care
nothing about God,
nothing about
the promises of God,
the covenant of God.
They don't care anything
about what we read
about in Genesis 18-19
where it says,
Abraham,
you're to direct
your children
and your family
to keep the way
of the Lord
by doing what is right
and just.
Esau doesn't care
about that.
These women
don't care about that.
And what I want us
to see is that Isaac,
though he started strong,
he ends weak
and he ends passive.
And his physical blindness
is a sign
of his spiritual blindness.
His eyes can't recognize
God's leading
because he should have seen
that Esau
was actually
spiritually unsuitable,
that Esau
was actually
an unbeliever.
He despised the Lord.
He despised his family.
He despised his role.
He despised his birthright.
He held it all in contempt.
He said,
it's completely worthless
to me.
I'd rather have
this pot of stew.
And what's worse
is that Isaac
also knows
this word of the Lord
from Genesis 25,
verse 23.
This word that came
to Rebekah
where the Lord said,
the older will serve
the younger
and my will
is for the blessing
to bypass
the older one
and for the younger one
to be stronger
and for the younger one
to be the ruler.
That God
in his sovereign freedom
said,
I want to reverse
and I want to turn
upside down
the norms of culture.
Isaac knew that
but he stubbornly
resisted that clear
word of the Lord
and said,
well that's not
how I want to do it.
And so like
Adam and Eve
in Genesis 3
who loved
that forbidden fruit
more than they loved
trusting and obeying God.
And like Esau
in Genesis 25
who loved
that pot of stew
more than he loved
his spiritual birthright.
In this story
Isaac loves barbecue
more than he loves God.
And the question for us
is do you ever
resist the Lord
like this?
Do you ever resist
the Lord's word
and his will
and his way
for you like this?
Like Isaac and Esau
do you ever put
your appetite
before principle?
Do you ever put
self-indulgence
before the just thing
and the right thing?
Do you ever put
immediate satisfaction
before long-term
spiritual values?
Have you ever
found yourself
in a place
where you're just
unwilling to submit
to the plans of God
when they differ
from your own desires?
Isaac
and his love
for a comfortable life,
Isaac and his love
for good food
has put him
in this precarious place
where he's
not only neglecting
his parental duties
but he's also
become spiritually
indifferent
to pleasing the Lord.
And that's a very
dangerous place to be.
Just so you know,
passing on the blessing
was meant to be
a public affair.
Okay?
You're supposed
to call
your whole community
together,
get your whole
extended family,
all your kids
and your spouse
and you're to have
this moment.
But Isaac says,
no, I'm going to
conspire to have
this private
clandestine meeting
with only one son
and I'm not going
to share it with my wife.
Now, guys,
I'm still figuring
some stuff out
about marriage.
But here's one thing
I do know.
Do not keep secrets
from your wife.
Ladies,
can I get an amen
on that?
Okay.
Now, ladies,
if you see your husband
trying to thwart
God's plan
that he's given
in his word,
what should you do?
Should you dress up
your favorite child
like it's Halloween
and act like a con artist?
Should you pull up
a heist on your husband
through trickery
and manipulation
and deceit
and domination?
Your husband
definitely should not
be keeping secrets
from you.
He definitely
should not be favoring
your most rebellious
child
and he should not
be flat out
refusing to obey
the Lord.
But what should you do?
You should go
talk to him.
You should go
have a conversation
with him.
You should go
and say,
honey,
I'd like to discuss
a spiritual matter
that's very important
to me.
And again,
I'm still figuring
some stuff out
about marriage
but here's one thing
I do know
is ladies,
your husband
cannot read
your mind.
Amen?
And here's the other thing,
if he could read
your mind,
he still won't get it.
You're going to have
to spell it out
for him
and then explain that
and then give
a further explanation
of that.
Like he's,
we're slow.
And what I want you
to see is that
Rebecca's spiritual
values are actually
sound.
I think she's
the most sound
person spiritually
in the story.
Right?
She goes to inquire
of the Lord.
She desires
to be faithful
to God's word.
She treasures
the birthright
and the blessing.
She wants God's
will to be done.
All of those
are good and right
things.
Her spiritual values
are sound
but her methods
are deplorable.
And she goes
about trying to
pass on God's
blessing in all
the wrong ways.
as if the right
ends justify
wrong means.
And basically
instead of dropping
to her knees
in prayer
or instead of
going to her
husband and saying
can we have a
conversation?
Both of which
would have been
the faithful
and commendable
thing to do.
Rebecca says to
herself desperate
times call for
desperate measures.
And I'm going to
do a righteous
thing in a very
unrighteous way.
And so she reacts
to Isaac's
deceitful behavior
and his failure
to be the kind
of spiritually
discerning person
that he was
supposed to be.
And she launches
this counter
conspiracy
perpetuating a
more hurtful
ruse that
exploits her
husband's weaknesses
his blindness
his appetite
and Jacob
goes along
with his mom
not only deceiving
his father
but look in
verse 19
it says
Jacob said to
his father
I am Esau
your firstborn
I've done
as you told
me
please sit
up and eat
some of my
game
so that
you may
give me
your blessing
and Isaac
asked his son
how did you
find it so
quickly my son
the Lord
your God
gave me
success
he replied
you ever
have you
have
you ever done
it's a dangerous
thing to be
a spiritual
person
to use
the name
of God
to use
the things
of God
actually to
further your
own personal
interests
and my point
is this
that if you
look hard
enough into
the mirror
of Genesis
27
and you
don't see
something of
yourself
reflected back
to you
if you
can't identify
with the
failings of
this holy
family
then you
might be as
blind as
Isaac was
blind
because at
times
we fall
as badly
as this
and I can
say that now
I couldn't say
that as a
young pastor
but I've been
a pastor
20 years
at times
we fall
as badly
as this
and if I
had time
I'd show you
all the
spiritual
and relational
dysfunctions
that catch up
with this family
in the end
all the ways
they reap
what they sow
and they're
paying just
dearly
we'll see it
as we go
through the
story
they're experiencing
all the
consequences
of just
going against
God's moral
law
and you might
be saying
well pastor
why are you
trying so hard
to discourage
us today
and I'm
actually trying
to do
the exact
opposite
I'm trying
to encourage
you
because if
God can
bring about
salvation
in a
context
of such
unprincipled
behavior
by literally
every fallible
member of
the covenant
family
the chosen
people of
God
each one
of them
self-centeredly
seeking their
own interest
all of them
acting out
of impure
motives
and misdirected
intentions
their virtues
almost always
serving as
vices
if that's
what God
can do
here
then perhaps
in his
mercy and
grace
he can
bring about
salvation
in our
own lives
as well
right
if God
can overcome
their weaknesses
and if he
can use them
warts and all
then perhaps
he can use
me
perhaps he
can overcome
your messiness
perhaps he
can use us
as well
so that's
why I like
to end
talking about
the triumph
of God's
grace
we talked
about the
power of
God's blessing
and the
dysfunction
of God's
family
but let's
talk about
the triumph
of God's
grace
you know
what's
outrageous
in this
story
it's meant
to strike
us as
outrageous
is that
the power
of God's
blessing
is almost
squandered
it's almost
lost
because
God's people
are so
dysfunctional
that's
outrageous
and the
second thing
that's outrageous
is that
God's
intentions
to bless
his elect
God's
intentions
to bless
Jacob
are actually
forwarded by
the most
underhanded
tactics
the most
Machiavellian
manipulation
you can imagine
I don't even
know how
this is in
the Bible
it's crazy
but actually
the most
outrageous
thing of
all
is that
God
consistently
brings
his scandalous
intervening
grace
into the
lives
of people
who do
not
deserve
it
into
the
lives
of
people
who
aren't
even
really
looking
for
it
and
into
the
lives
of
people
who
are
perpetually
resisting
it
and
even
after
they've
gotten
it
they
don't
even
appreciate
it
what
this
story
tells
us
is
that
God's
grace
cannot
be
silenced
by
conflict
or
alienation
nor
can
it
be chased
away
by
exploitation
and deceit
and in
spite of
all this
family's
machinations
and mischief
the divine
purpose
stands
and
despite
all the
appalling
misdeeds
of
fallen
infallible
men and
women
like us
God's
gracious
blessing
to give
life
God's
sovereign
election
of his
people
continues
on
and his
purposes
ultimately
are fulfilled
and
this
is
one
thing
we
see
over
and
over
in
the
book
of
Genesis
is
that
this
God
of
grace
he
loves
to draw
straight
lines
with
crooked
sticks
in
Genesis
50
the very
end
of
the
book
one
of
the
sons
of
Jacob
his
name
is
Joseph
he
says
this
he
says
what
you
intended
for
harm
and
evil
God
intended
for
good
and
the
saving
of
many
lives
if
the
kingdom
of
God
coming
into
this
world
dependent
on
us
and
our
faithfulness
it
would
never
happen
but
the
good
news
is
that
the
kingdom
of
God
is
totally
and
completely
dependent
on
God's
sovereign
grace
God's
gracious
blessing
of
life
that
overrides
all
absolutely
all
of our
miserable
failures
and so
the
question
as we
conclude
is
how
can
you
get
the
blessing
of
God's
triumphant
grace
in your
life
how
does
it
become
operative
in
your
life
well
it's
interesting
when you
turn the
gospel
of
John
Jesus
is
called
the
only
begotten
son
of
God
he's
the
eternally
beloved
son
of
the
father
who's
been
forever
in
the
state
of
living
under
the
blessing
of
the
father
and
then
you
go
to
the
end
of
the
gospel
and
it
says
that
Jesus
gave
up
that
blessing
by
taking
on
not
just
human
flesh
but
by
dying
on
the
cross
now
why
would
Jesus
give up
his
blessing
of being
the
eternally
begotten
and beloved
son
of the
father
the
answer
is
because
he
wanted
you
to
have
it
the
apostle
Paul
says
in
Galatians
3
he says
Jesus
redeemed
us
from
the
curse
of
the
law
by
becoming
a
curse
for
us
for
it
is
written
curse
it
as
everyone
who
is
hanged
on
a
tree
and
he
took
on
that
curse
Paul
says
so
that
the
blessing
given
to
Abraham
might
come
to
us
through
Jesus
Christ
see
on
the
cross
Jesus
is
in a
way
Jesus
is
dressing
up
like
us
and
he's
getting
the
curse
that
we
deserved
so
that
when
we
believe
in
him
we
get
the
blessing
that
he
deserved
and
he
came
to
give
you
all
of
the
blessing
that's
his
all
the
blessing
all
the
inheritance
of
being
the
first
born
son
so
when
you
look
at
that
blessing
in
verse
28
where it
says in
Genesis
27
28
may
God
give
you
the
of
heaven's
dew
and
of
earth's
richness
an
abundance
of
grain
and
new
wine
may
nations
serve
you
and
peoples
bow
down
to
you
be
lord
over
your
brothers
and
may
the
sons
of
your
mother
bow
down
to
you
may
those
who
curse
you
be
cursed
and
those
who
bless
you
be
blessed
surrounded
by all
of
his
loyal
and
adoring
subjects
and
so
the
question
as we
come
to
this
table
of
abundant
grain
and
new
wine
this
royal
feast
that's
set
before
us
is
Jesus
Christ
resurrected
from the
dead
is he
your
king
and
through
Jesus
have you
had
lavished
upon
you
the
love
of
God
the
father
and
in
Jesus
Christ
have
you
had
put
into
you
the
presence
and
the
power
of
the
Holy
Spirit
of
God
and
has
he
invited
you
to
come
and
feast
with
him
around
this
table
of
abundance
this
table
of
victory
because
if
that's
you
no
matter
how
dysfunctional
you
are
no
matter
how
undeserving
you
are
you're
part
of
the
nations
that
God
is
gathering
together
in
this
blessing
that
are
serving
Jesus
and bowing
down
to
Jesus
and blessing
Jesus
and that
means
that you're
living under
the power
of God's
blessing
and that
means
that the
triumph
of God's
grace
is going
to be
true
for you
so friends
let's come
to this
table
expectant
that
as we
come
we're
children
of the
blessing
that
here
we
get
heaven's
dew
and earth's
richness
that
here
we
get
an
abundance
of
grain
and
new
wine
here
we
get
to
sit
down
with
the
king
of
kings
and
the
lord
of
lords
around
whom
all
the
nations
are
bowing
down
and
will
one
day
bow
down
and
say
you
are
the
Lord
this
is
where
the
blessing
!
In the
name of
the
Father
Son
and
Holy
Spirit
Amen