And I'm one of the pastors here at Cheyenne Mountain Presbyterian Church.
And it's my joy to bring God's word to you this morning.
And we're continuing today in our series on Genesis,
which tells the origin story of God's people, Israel.
This summer we are in the story of Isaac and Jacob,
mostly Jacob, which shows up in chapters 25 through 36.
And to a certain extent, it is the same theme as the Abraham story last summer.
We are continuing to ask, what does it look like to follow God in faith?
But the story of Isaac and Jacob adds some more layers, some new themes that are introduced.
So if you were here with us two weeks ago, you'll remember that Isaac repeats the sins of Abraham.
And so we talked about God's work in and through dysfunctional families.
Now, I warned you at that time, this was going to be a repeated theme that showed up again
and guess what?
This week we return to the same topic, God's work in and through dysfunctional families.
God's faithfulness to sinful, rebellious people, people who trust themselves rather than God.
Now, as we come to this story, I will share with you, this is one of the major stories in all of Scripture.
It is 42 verses that we're going to read this morning, but it is in fact only one sermon.
So as I tell you from time to time, I will say something, not everything.
Also, in light of the fact that it is 42 verses, sometimes if we're honest, it can be hard to stay focused
and keep on track as we read a long passage together.
So if that's you, I have a job for you to help you stay awake.
I want you to count as we read together how many times the phrase delicious food shows up in this passage.
Okay?
So mark delicious food is what you're looking for.
Mark it, write the number at the bottom.
We can hand them out.
We'll grade each other's papers at the end of class.
We are in Genesis chapter 26, starting at verse 34, which you will find on pages 7 through 9 of your worship guide.
As we turn there, remember that this is God's word.
And Isaiah chapter 40 tells us that the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.
And so that's why we read now Genesis chapter 26, starting at verse 34.
When Esau was 40 years old, he took Judith, the daughter of Beri the Hittite, to be his wife,
and Basemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah.
Chapter 27.
When Isaac 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.
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.
Verse 14,
So he went and took them, and brought them to his mother,
and his mother prepared delicious food, such as his father loved.
Then Rebekah 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.
Verse 18.
Excuse me.
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 you.
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.
Verse 26.
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 people 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.
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 game
that you may bless me.
His father Isaac said to him,
Who are you?
He answered,
I am your son,
your firstborn Isaac.
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.
Verse 34.
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.
I invite you to pray with me
as we come to this portion of God's word.
Our father in heaven,
we do thank you again this morning
that you speak to us in your word,
and we ask that you would do it.
You'd do what you've promised to do,
that by your spirit
you would help us
to understand spiritual things.
You'd open our eyes,
that you'd soften our hearts,
that you would lift Christ high
in our sight,
in our vision,
that we would grow
in our love,
in our affection,
our reverence,
our all,
our obedience to him.
And we ask all of these things
in Jesus' name.
Amen.
If you look on page 9
of your worship guide,
you'll see a quote
from Revenge of the Tipping Point
by Malcolm Gladwell,
which says this,
Communities have their own stories,
and those stories are contagious.
And you might be thinking,
wait, is Matthew confused?
Is he preaching the same sermon
from two weeks ago?
Because this is not the first time
you've seen this quote.
This is, in fact,
the same quote we printed
in the worship guide
when we were in Genesis chapter 26.
Now I told you about that quote
because remember,
I said this,
families also have their own stories,
and those stories are contagious.
So remember,
there's a story
that is driving the Abraham family,
and it is this,
it is all up to me
to protect and provide for myself.
That's the story
that Abraham passed to Isaac.
It's my cunning,
it's my schemes,
those are actually
what are going to make the difference.
I have to make it happen,
I have to manage life,
I have to make it work.
And when you live by this story,
as we've seen,
it means fearing man more than God,
it means trusting in schemes
more than God and his promises.
And so that's why,
chapter 26,
we saw Isaac lies about Rebekah
in the same way
that Abraham lied about Sarah.
This is the default story,
it's the story that Abraham
and his descendants turn to,
and this story continues
to drive this family
in this passage.
It explains the trickery
and the lies
that show up throughout.
Now to understand all this scheming,
we have to review one other thing.
Remember from four weeks ago,
chapter 25 of Genesis,
there is a rivalry
between Jacob's,
Isaac's sons.
Okay, Jacob and Esau
have a rivalry
that started in their mother's womb.
And it's actually worse than that,
it's not just that
they have a rivalry,
it's that mom and dad
have picked sides
in this battle.
Rebekah loves Jacob.
Isaac loves Esau.
With all that background,
we come to this passage
before us this morning,
which is a story
about who gets the blessing.
Who gets the blessing
that God gave to Abraham?
Remember we talked about
the chain of custody,
when the blessing gets passed
from Abraham to Isaac.
Now there's two sons,
not one.
Who does the blessing pass to?
We're going to look at two things
this morning.
You'll see on page nine
of your worship guide,
our sermon title,
Sinful People,
Faithful God.
And that's our outline
for right now.
Sinful people comes first,
and what I'm going to do
essentially is this,
I'm going to show you
everyone's really bad behavior.
Okay?
No one comes out of this story
looking good.
First,
Isaac behaves poorly.
Isaac has a scheme,
verses one through four,
and he summons Esau
and only Esau
to receive the blessing.
This is not how this
is supposed to work.
If you're familiar
with the story of Genesis,
you know there's going to be
another blessing seen
in chapters 48 and 49
where Jacob calls
all his sons.
Okay?
You're supposed to bring
the whole family in.
Everyone takes part in this.
And so Isaac is kind of
doing this run-around play.
He's going to try to do it
so that one son
and only one son
gets everything.
He wants Esau
to get all of it.
Now there's an irony here.
Had he not done this,
Rebecca could not run
the play that she ran.
Okay?
If he had brought
both sons in,
actually he would have
prevented what happened
to him.
By the way,
he's also not really
supposed to do this
until he's about to die.
He says in this passage,
hey, I don't know
when I'm going to die.
Well, he doesn't die
until Genesis chapter 35,
which is over 20 years later.
So he's giving
the blessing early
and he's sneaky about it
so he can only give it
to one son.
By the way,
God already said
in Genesis chapter 25
when the two sons were born
that it was going to be
Jacob who came out on top.
So Esau's not just being sneaky,
he's actually trying to subvert
what God has already revealed.
And in the blessing,
he tries to reverse that.
If you look at verse 29,
he's setting it up
because he thinks
he's blessing Esau.
He's setting it up
so that Esau actually
ends up on top.
Okay?
So Jacob is a,
so excuse me,
Isaac is just a trickster here.
And it gets worse.
What did we find out
at the end of chapter 26?
Esau has taken foreign wives.
So Isaac should know
that this son,
by the way,
it's not that they're foreign,
it's that they're pagan.
That's the problem.
We'll talk about that next week.
Isaac should know
that this son,
this is for you military people,
is unfit for command.
And yet he's still going
to give him the blessing.
Isaac behaves poorly.
Isaac wants his favorite son
to have the blessing.
Well, guess what?
Rebecca wants her favorite son
to get everything.
And so she has this scheme
and her scheme is that
Jacob pretends to be Esau.
That's verses 5 through 17.
All this trickery, by the way,
is not innocent at all.
Remember, we looked
at the ninth commandment
in our confession of faith.
Rebecca and Isaac,
excuse me,
Rebecca and Jacob
are breaking the Ten Commandments
left and right.
So track with me.
The third commandment says,
do not use God's name in vain.
Oh, look at verse 20.
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.
It's using God's name in vain.
No, the Lord did not grant him success.
He's lying through his teeth.
Fifth commandment,
honor your father and your mother.
Here he is taking advantage
of his father's old age
and lying to him.
This is only possible
because Isaac actually can't see.
Okay, he's taking advantage
of his father's infirmity.
If that's not dishonoring,
I don't know what is.
Then we move on
to the ninth commandment.
Don't bear false testimony.
Jacob explicitly lies twice.
Verses 19 and 23.
He says, look, I am Esau.
Of course, the whole performance
is a lie.
We don't need two verses
to prove it.
The whole narrative
ties up Rebecca as well.
She is guilty
as the planner
of the deception.
Rebecca and Jacob
behave poorly.
Now, what about Isaac and Esau?
We've already talked about Isaac
a little bit,
but we're going to talk about it more
because it continues to get bad.
Isaac and Esau
both break the first commandment,
which is this.
You shall have no other gods
before me.
God is clearly
not their first love.
The author goes out of his way
to tell us
what Isaac loves
more than anything else,
which is what?
He loves that delicious food.
Now, we already know that
from chapter 25.
Why does Isaac prefer Esau?
It says it explicitly.
Secondly, Isaac loved Esau
because he ate
of his game.
This has been going on
for years.
And like father,
like son,
Esau has the same problem.
What did Esau do
in chapter 25?
He sells his birthright
for food.
Both father and son
are ruled
by their stomachs.
By the way,
I think I got the count wrong
on delicious food
as I was reading it.
How many did you guys get?
Okay, yeah.
I think I only,
I only even had four
in what I listed here,
but it showed up
even more than I realized
because I didn't do
my count right.
Why does it show up
six times?
So that we can know
without a doubt
that there is nothing
that Isaac loves
more than food.
Verse four,
prepare for me
delicious food
such as I love.
Verse nine,
go to the flock
and bring me
two good young goats
that I may prepare
for them delicious food
for your father
such as he loves.
Verse 14,
and his mother
prepared delicious food
such as his father loved.
Verse 31,
this is now Esau.
He also prepared
delicious food
and brought it
to his father.
Esau gave up
his birthright
for vegetable stew.
Isaac now gives up
his integrity,
his faith in God
for one nice meal.
like father,
like son.
By the way,
there's no rule
that says
you have to send
your son
to go do
some special feat
before you give
the blessing.
Okay,
so Isaac has just
cooked this up
so that he can
have a nice meal.
Remember,
we get to see again
how this works
in Genesis chapters
48 and 49.
Jacob does it.
He doesn't send
anyone to prepare
him a meal.
Okay,
he actually just
blesses them.
And that's what
Isaac is supposed
to do here.
So he is just
steered and ruled
by his outrageous appetite.
We're supposed
to walk away
from this thinking,
man,
this is really gross.
Here's this man
who has just
completely lost
the plot.
What should he be doing?
We found out
at the end
of chapter 26
that Esau
got married
when he was
40 years old.
Now that matters
because we were told
that Isaac
married Rebecca
when he was also
40 years old.
So the timing
is the same.
What's different?
Isaac should have
been doing
what Abraham did.
Isaac should have
been going out
and finding
godly spouses
for his sons.
That's what Abraham
did.
Abraham sent
his servant
and said,
I can't have
my children
marrying pagan
wives.
I need you
to go find
someone from
among our own
people.
Isaac's lost
the plot.
He doesn't even
realize what's
supposed to be
happening,
how he's supposed
to be taking
responsibility
and agency
to carry on
God's blessing.
No,
he is worried
about his
next meal.
There's a whole
other sermon,
by the way,
about how Isaac
does not end
well.
And the author
of Genesis
goes out of his
way in a way
we don't have
time to go
into this
morning to
highlight how
poorly Isaac
ends his life.
Okay,
I said both
Isaac and Esau
break the first
commandment,
you shall have
no other gods
before me.
We've talked
about Isaac,
now it's time
for Esau.
Esau is also
ruled by his
appetite as
we've discussed,
not just his
appetite for
food,
he's ruled by
his lust
for women.
The end of
26,
which we read,
he decides to
go get some
foreign wives
and what does
verse 35 tell
us?
They made
life bitter
for Isaac
and Rebecca.
Remember I
said foreign
wives,
the problem
is not that
they're foreign,
the problem
is that
they're pagan.
So Esau
has gone
out,
he's married
women who
do not
worship the
true and
living God.
They don't
share the
religion of
the Abraham
family.
They're not
people who
follow after
Yahweh and
so it
shouldn't
surprise us
that they
make life
so miserable
for the
extended family.
We're going
to spend
more time on
that next
week so I
won't say
any more.
But in
short,
in case I
haven't made
it clear,
everyone
behaves
poorly.
Isaac
behaves
badly.
He tries to
give the
blessing to
his favorite
son even
though God
had already
said that
Isaac would
rule.
Excuse me,
that Jacob
would rule.
He serves
his stomach
rather than
God.
Rebecca
behaves
badly.
Rebecca
deceives and
dishonors the
husband she
should be
protecting,
especially
because he's
blind.
Jacob
behaves
badly.
He deceives
and dishonors
his father,
his father
defrauds
his brother,
takes God's
name in
vain.
Esau
behaves
badly,
marries
pagan wives
rather than
women who
fear the
Lord.
Everyone
behaves
badly.
But how
does God
behave?
Remember I
told you we
have two
points,
sinful
people,
faithful
God.
We're
going to
turn now
to faithful
God.
God
behaves
is this.
God
accomplishes
his
purposes
no
matter
what.
In the
midst of
everyone's
sin,
God
keeps his
promise.
Remember
his promise,
Genesis
chapter 25.
Jacob and
Esau are in
the womb.
he says
the older
will serve
the younger.
And what
ends up
happening?
The older
serves
the younger.
Now that
doesn't mean
the end
justifies the
means.
It doesn't
make anyone's
sin correct
in this
passage.
What it
means is
this.
No matter
what your
scheme,
God will
come out
on top.
no matter
the
actions
of men,
God's
end
state
will be
accomplished.
One
commentator
says this,
it is
clear
that God
can accomplish
his holy
purposes
by using
not merely
unholy
people,
but even
the unholy
actions
of those
he has
chosen.
it is
not just
that though,
it is not
just that
God accomplishes
his purposes
no matter
what,
it is also
that God
is faithful
to his
people
no matter
what.
God made
a promise
to Abraham.
He made
a promise
to Abraham
that his
descendants
would be
as the
sands on
the seashore
and the
stars in
the sky.
He promised
to Abraham
that his
descendants
would be
the blessing
to the
nations.
And you
know what?
God is
going to
keep that
promise.
The men
and women
he has
chosen
break the
Ten Commandments
left and
right.
God's
promise
is
unbroken.
God's
kingdom.
point is
this.
The
generational
sin
of your
family
cannot
stand
in the
way
of the
freight
train
of God's
kingdom.
God
no matter
how
powerful
the
forces
that
flow
down
to you
from
previous
generations
God
is
more
powerful
still.
Jeremiah
chapter
23
his
word
is like
a hammer
that breaks
a rock
into pieces.
there is
nothing
so
powerful
that
God's
word
is not
more
powerful
still.
Now I'm
not peddling
cheap grace
here.
Sometimes
it's tempting
for people
to hear
things like
that and
think oh
so what
Matthew's
saying is
I can
do
whatever
I want
and it
doesn't
matter.
No.
In this
one day
and this
one episode
the Abraham
family has
made a
mess that
will echo
for hundreds
of years.
Next
week you're
going to
see that
Esau
threatens
to kill
Jacob
and so
Jacob
has to
run away
and doesn't
see his
brother again
for 20
years.
Remember
that Jacob
is Rebecca's
favorite
son.
She
will
never
see him
again.
Isaac
gets to
watch this
unfold in
his old
age as
his sons
are at
each other's
throats.
By the
way Esau's
descendants
become the
Edomites
and the
Edomites
are going
to be a
thorn in
the side
of God's
people for
hundreds
of years.
This is
not
insignificant.
I am
not telling
you, oh
God is
faithful, do
whatever you
want.
No, I'm
saying God
is faithful,
follow his
commands.
Choose the
easy way,
not the
hard way.
It's the
same quote
from two
weeks ago,
page nine
on your
worship guide
from Crime
and punishment.
Your worst
sin is that
you have
destroyed and
betrayed
yourself for
nothing.
Isaac,
Jacob,
Esau,
and Rebekah
have all
thought that
their scheming
was going to
be the answer
and the only
people they've
punished are
themselves.
One author
says this,
trusting God
is hard,
but failing
to trust God
is even
harder.
Trusting God
is hard,
failing to
trust God
is even
harder.
God will
accomplish
his purposes.
God will
keep the
promises that
he has
made,
and our
actions still
have consequences.
We can
still betray
ourselves,
for nothing.
Do you
want to
avoid
pain?
Do you
want to
do what's
for your
good
and God's
glory?
Proverbs
chapter 3
tells us
how to do
that.
Trust in
the Lord
with all
your heart
and do
not lean
on your
own
understanding.
In all
your ways
acknowledge
him and
he will
make straight
your paths.
Be not
wise in
your own
eyes.
Fear the
Lord and
turn away
from evil.
Remember the
story of the
Abraham family.
It is all
up to me
and my
cleverness
and my
skill and
my ability
to control
and manage
the world.
God
is all
and the
gospel tells
the opposite
story.
The gospel
tells the
story of
Psalm 23.
The Lord
is my
shepherd.
I shall
not
want.
Surely
goodness
and mercy
will follow
me all
the days
of my
life.
And I
don't have
to scheme
and lie
and plan
for that
to happen.
what everyone
in this
story
misses
is to
trust
in God
and his
provision.
And as I've
told you many
times, we
have even
greater reasons
to trust in
God than
Isaac and
Jacob and
Esau and
Rebecca did.
Because we've
seen something,
we look back
to something
that they only
look forward
to, which
is the
death and
the resurrection
of Jesus
Christ.
that God
sends his
one and
only son
to live
the perfect
life that
we should
have lived
and to
die the
death that
we deserved.
If he
did that,
will he
not do
everything
else?
Remember
Romans
chapter 8
verse 32.
He who
did not
spare his
own son
but gave
him up
for us
all,
how will
he not
also with
him graciously
give us
all things.
Sinful
people,
faithful
God.
What love
could remember,
no wrongs
we have
done,
omniscient
all-knowing,
he counts
not their
sum.
Thrown
into a
sea,
without
bottom
or shore,
our sins
they are
many,
his mercy
is more.
Let's
pray.
Our
Father in
heaven,
we thank
you and
we praise
you that
you keep
your promise
no matter
what.
We ask
that you
would root
that deep
in our
hearts that
we would
trust you
rather than
ourselves,
that we
would look
to you
and your
provision
more than
anything else,
that you
would
lead us.
Psalm 23
says,
lead us
streams of
water.
Ask all
of these
things in
Jesus'
name.
Amen.