Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, the Aramean of Paddan Aram,
! the sister of Laban, the Aramean, to be his wife.
And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife because she was barren.
And the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebekah, his wife, conceived.
And the children struggled together within her.
And she said,
If it is thus, why is this happening to me?
So she went to inquire of the Lord, and the Lord said to her,
Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided.
One shall be stronger, and the other.
The older shall serve the younger.
And when her days to give birth were completed, behold, there were twins in her womb.
And the first came out red, all his body like a hairy cloak.
So they called his name Esau.
And afterward, his brother came out with his hand holding Esau's heel, so that his name was called Jacob.
Isaac was six years old when she bore them.
And when the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field,
while Jacob was a quiet man dwelling in the tents.
And Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game.
But Rebekah loved Jacob.
Once, when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was exhausted.
And Esau said to Jacob,
Let me eat some of that red stew, for I'm exhausted.
Therefore his name was called Edom.
And Jacob said, Sell me your birthright right now.
And Esau said, I'm about to die.
Of what use is a birthright to me?
And Jacob said, Swear to me now.
So he swore an oath to him and sold his birthright to Jacob.
Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew.
And he ate and drank and rose and went his way.
Thus Esau despised his birthright.
Let's pray.
Lord, we're thankful even for the failures of technology.
Father, we're thankful for your word, for it shows us that you work through imperfection.
That same gospel message that gives us life to sinners that are in need of grace, that are imperfect,
permeates through all of life.
Even in brothers that fight against each other.
Lord, we ask that you might show us Jesus this morning through the story of Jacob and Esau.
And it's in Christ's name we pray.
Amen.
Full disclosure, this morning is going to be a little bit nerdier than I normally am.
Which probably some of you are like, oh yes, thank goodness.
And some of you are like, oh no.
If you're in the oh no category, you might not recognize where this is from.
But you've heard it before.
It was the best of times.
It was the worst of times.
Now if you never read a single book in high school, not that I commend that, you know that phrase.
But it's from Charles Dickens' Tale of Two Cities.
It's a book about two men, two countries really, that want the same thing.
One Frenchman, one Englishman.
They couldn't be any more different than each other.
And yet, they want the same thing, the same woman.
It's a paradox really.
They even look like each other.
How could they be so different and yet the same?
So even if you're not a literature person this morning,
you've felt the tension of a paradox like that.
You've walked through difficulty in life and thought to yourself,
how is God working or maybe even seeing God working through the midst of difficulty.
If you've walked on this earth, you've felt sadness and happiness all at the same time.
And those two things are being held together.
And you don't know how they're the same.
In the same instance, they both can be true.
You might have even heard the phrase,
you have to spend money to make money.
How can you spend money and make money at the same time?
Or maybe something like,
he was too smart for his own good.
He was so studied that he had no common sense.
Or maybe on a bigger scale,
how can a sinner be holy?
How can a follower of Christ still struggle with sin?
We've talked about that time and time again in Romans.
But that contrast,
those two things being held together at the same time,
is at the center of this story.
But it's in the form of these two brothers,
Jacob and Esau.
How could they be brothers when they're so, so different?
Almost different in every way.
But even in the midst of all of that,
God is working.
And God is at work even now.
So this morning, we're going to see that God is at work
in the story of Jacob and Esau.
But he's at work in two things that seem kind of silly.
He's at work even in the midst of sin.
And he's at work in the midst of a big stew incident.
Okay?
Sin and stew.
But I want us to remember this morning,
the main point is that God is working
to accomplish his purposes
in spite of sin
and even in spite of stew.
Those are the divisions of this section of Scripture.
Your Bible might even highlight those.
And as we think through this,
I mentioned it earlier,
that we're jumping back from the book of Romans
back to Genesis.
And as we do so,
I want us to keep in mind what we've learned so far
in our earlier time in Genesis.
That God has promised Abraham and his descendants
a great blessing of children
and something that's eternal.
And now we have Abraham's descendants.
Not too far removed,
but forgetting all that was promised to him.
So this morning, let's first look at sin.
Look with me at that first part of the story.
It's a story that doesn't begin
with Jacob and Esau at all.
In fact, it begins,
this is really the story of Isaac.
But in Isaac,
the most important thing that comes from Isaac
is Jacob.
If you remember,
Isaac is that long-promised son of Abraham.
Not simply a promise of blessing,
but descendants and a family
and a kingdom
that would be everlasting.
Except there's one problem, right?
He's got no kids.
And that new family tradition
of great promise of blessing
and fruitfulness
continues with Isaac.
He has that promise,
but he has no children.
Look back with me at verse 19.
These are the generations of Isaac,
Abraham's son.
Abraham fathered Isaac,
and Isaac was 40 years old
when he took Rebekah.
That's important.
We'll come back to that later.
The story is less about Isaac
and more about his children.
Apart from what will be
a little short snippet
about Rebekah
and her family relations,
it immediately goes in verse 21.
Look with me.
Isaac prayed to the Lord
for his wife
because she was barren.
That family tradition
of not having children
now is fulfilled
because it says
the Lord granted
his prayer
and his wife conceived.
There's a lot of information
in this first section,
and this should be
a little bit of a preview
of what's going to happen
in Jacob's life.
Laban is really irrelevant
to this story right now,
but in a couple chapters,
a couple verses later,
Laban is going to figure
very prominently
because he's going to make
Jacob's life miserable.
It's a foreshadowing
of what's in store for Jacob,
but there's this longing
for a family,
and that familiar storyline
for Abraham
is now true in Isaac,
and we might see
those similarities
and think,
hey, what's going on here?
And if you know
a little bit about Scripture,
this is going to happen again.
And sometimes,
that causes us to question
the truthfulness of Scripture.
How could this happen
so often?
And it's caused some
to question the authenticity
of these accounts.
But it's really
a literary technique
where we draw in similarities
to then highlight
the differences
of what's going on.
So it's drawing us back
to the story of Abraham,
and he's trying to highlight
not a difference,
but a similar theme.
That God was at work
in Abraham and Sarah
just like God is at work
in Isaac and Rebecca.
And the means
that he uses to bless them
is their prayer for a child
and their prayer
that he's going to grant
some 20 years later.
God is the one
that's in control
over infertility.
God is the one
that sovereignly grants children.
That fact's unchanged
from Isaac to now.
I know that's difficult
for some of us.
The high hopes
and then falling
each time
the test comes back negative.
Doctors appointments,
endless doctors appointments,
maybe even praying with me,
others in this room.
I don't know why that happens.
And Rebecca's
in the same spot.
She doesn't know why either.
But I do know
it's not just you.
It's also this family.
But even in the midst
of that heartache,
God is still at work.
That fact is unchanged as well.
But Rebecca's story
is happy.
Rebecca conceives a child.
We see that at the end
of verse 21.
What great joy!
But then there's something wrong
that we see.
The children inside of her,
she doesn't know it yet
that they're children,
but there's a great
struggling inside of her.
Literally,
they're smashing each other
together
inside of her womb.
Like demolition derby,
two cars just driving
at each other
with no care
for safety.
And the struggle
that began
with these two brothers
inside the womb
will continue.
It will slip out
into real life.
And it's so much
that she's asking herself,
why is this happening
to me?
If we think
we're the only ones
that struggle
and ask God why,
think again.
Rebecca here
asks the same thing.
Even on the heels
of such a blessing,
there's so much turmoil
inside of her,
she questions
what is going on.
Now,
Rebecca seeks the Lord
and read
the Lord's response
to her.
Look at verse 23
with me.
The Lord said to her,
Two nations
are in your womb
and two peoples
from within you,
you shall be divided.
The one shall be
stronger than the other
and the older
shall serve the younger.
Now,
think about this.
It's the days
before the ultrasound.
She doesn't know
yet for sure
that she has two children.
She just knows
something's going on
inside of her
and she doesn't know
what to do.
But us as the reader
know the pain
that she's experiencing
is because those two
are already fighting
against each other
and that battle
is just more than
sibling rivalry.
It's a division
of God's people.
It's a division
of people
that God promised
that's already begun.
And the most odd thing
about this whole promise
that we see
is a reversal
of the birth order.
First is one of the brothers
is going to be
really stronger,
a lot stronger
than the other.
And the second
is a reversal
of the traditional order.
The younger brother
will prevail
in strength
and the older
will serve the younger.
That's a weird promise
just on its face.
Now,
throughout this passage,
and this is what
I was alluding to earlier,
there's all these
weird connections
between the words
and how they're structured
or how they rhyme,
but we don't get that
when we read in English.
And so I'm going
to help us out.
Now,
the word serfs
is really slave,
but guess what?
It also rhymes
with Jacob.
So the author
is trying to make
this connection
between what's going
to happen with Jacob
and the younger,
it rhymes with the word
for another name
for Esau.
And so in granting
this kind of weird promise,
God is tipping off Rebecca
what will really happen,
except it's a weird reversal.
Esau.
Esau will be the slave
and Jacob
will be the one
that's stronger.
Jacob,
the one that's younger,
will be the one
that is mightier.
Okay,
that's all good and well.
This kind of weird promise.
We have this
God working through
and granting children,
but what about
these two brothers?
Here comes the long
awaited day
of the birth
and Rebecca
has this promise
that she doesn't know
what to do with
and inside of her
they're smashing
against each other
and remember,
she doesn't know yet
for sure
that she's going
to have two.
She believes God's promises,
but she hasn't seen them yet
and then they're twins
and the first one
is Esau.
What do we know
about Esau?
He's red.
We don't know
if he's red-headed
or red-skinned,
but he's red
and he's hairy
all over
and his name,
actually his other name,
Edom,
where we get to Edomites,
the people that will oppose
God's people
for really all of time.
Those people are named
after him
and it's a play
on the word red.
And so the image here
is this wild,
crazy man,
uncivilized,
out in the wilderness.
Verse 27 tells us
that Esau grew up
and all of that
was channeled
into hunting,
a skillful hunter,
a man of the field.
And as he grows,
this wild,
untamed personality
comes to full fruition.
So that's one brother.
The other brother
is Jacob.
And the reason
I'm spending
so much time
on the names
is something
that we've seen
before in Genesis.
The names
are actually prophetic.
They say something
that's either going
to happen to them
or that they will become.
And Jacob
is no exception,
right?
Verse 26 tells us
he comes out of the womb
and he's doing what?
He's grabbing Esau's heel.
It's as if this newborn
kind of bar fight
spills out
not into the street
but out into the real world.
It just continues
from her womb.
And his name
is from that event.
And not only
does his name
look like the word
for heel,
but it also
alludes to him
being a deceiver,
a trickster.
So we have
this deceiver,
trickster
who's grabbing
his brother's heel
who's been fighting
inside the womb
and we get
this impression
from Esau
that he's this
wild kind of
mountain man.
And then we get
this impression
from Jacob
that he's very different.
It says he's quiet,
dwells in tents.
It doesn't mean
that he's like
an inside kind of kid
because he's going
to grow up
and be like a shepherd
like his father,
like a farmer.
But he doesn't live
out in the open field.
He doesn't live
hunting under the stars
like his brother.
And if we think
that Jacob
is the perfect child,
let me remind us,
he is not.
He's tricky,
he's deceptive,
and he fights his brother
even before he's born.
This is a great family,
right?
The parents
are even more awesome.
We see kind of
bubbling up
what's bubbling
underneath the surface
of this contrast.
Esau is this way,
Jacob is that way,
and then the parents,
quite honestly,
might even be worse.
And why do I say that?
Look with me
at verse 28.
Isaac loved Esau
because,
why?
He ate of his game,
but Rebekah
loved Jacob.
This is not a recipe
for anything
but disaster.
One parent loves one,
and the other
loves the other.
it's more than
sibling rivalry.
Here is the first
installment of
clear sin
that Isaac
loves Esau
because he loves
to eat,
and that's why
he loves his son.
It's ironic
that the thing
that he loves him for
is the thing
that's also going to
trap his own son
that he loves
to eat.
this great family
dynamics here.
God's preserving
his line,
he's preserving
his promise
through two children
that can't get along
from the womb
and that continue
to fight
for a really long time.
And then we have
parents
that separate them
and love one
more than the other,
and the parents
are pitted against
each other.
And yet God
preserves his people.
It's kind of like
going to a car lot.
Is anybody
bought a used car?
When you do,
you're kind of thinking,
okay,
where's the play here,
right?
How do I know
this guy
who's selling me
this car
isn't selling me
a lemon?
I have to go
through the smoke
and mirrors,
and despite his
kicking the tires
and doing all
those things,
I have to figure
out if this thing
is good
or if it's a piece
of junk.
He might be
trying to sell me
something that
looks good,
but it has engine
trouble.
It's been in accidents.
And this scene
that we have here
is not dissimilar
to that.
We as the reader
are trying to sort
through,
who's the good guy
here?
Is it Jacob?
Is it Esau?
It's definitely
not the parents.
But this story
is different
than us trying
to find that
one shining
new
new to us
car,
right?
They're all
lemons in this
story.
Jacob is a
lemon.
Esau is a
lemon.
The parents
are lemons.
They're all
junk.
Jacob has
problems just
like everyone
else.
He's a deceiver.
Esau is wild
and the parents
are against
each other.
So what are
we supposed
to do with
this?
How do we
make sense
of God
preserving his
line through
these people
when they're
all bad?
God is at
work.
Not because
Jacob's the
perfect child
or the
likable child
or the
obedient child.
God is at
work just
because there's
doting parents?
No, not even
that.
He's at work
in this mess
of a family
to bring about
his promises.
It's kind of
similar to the
story of Jesus
if we think
about it.
We as
sinners
don't deserve
grace,
but it's
offered to
us.
And this
story should
inform how
we think
about the
good news
of Jesus.
We're not
a gleaming
new car
on the
lot.
We're broken
down,
marked by
sin,
and yet God
plucks us
out, not
because we
look new
and shiny,
not because
we're worth
it,
but because
he loves
us.
Nothing in
ourselves.
And Paul
reminds us of
that in Romans.
for while we
were still
weak at the
right time,
Christ died
for the
ungodly.
We are
sinners and
God has
offered to
work through
us to
give us
eternal life,
not because
of our great
wealth, of
our appearance,
because of
our confidence,
our competence,
our character,
our intellect.
None of that
matters.
God gives us
eternal life
because he's
God.
And he gives
it to each
of us.
So if you're
here this
morning, take
it.
Put your
faith in
Jesus.
Now, our
family this
morning is
messed up.
We know
that.
To the
earlier comment
I made about
the trustworthiness
of the Bible,
it's a more
complicated argument
than that.
But if I'm
simply embellishing
a story and
trying to
convince you
of this,
I'm not
putting this
story of
this family
in there.
In fact,
I'm going to
leave that on
the cutting
room floor.
But even in
the midst of
all of this,
God is still
at work.
And that
should give
us great
confidence in
our own
lives.
So God
is at work
in the midst
of our sin,
in spite of
our sin.
But now we
come to the
great stew
incident of
Jacob and
Esau.
I don't know
how many of
you and your
families have
these things
of lore,
this great
incident.
Maybe it's a
decision you've
made.
Maybe it's a
decision in your
marriage.
Maybe it's
something that's
funny.
I have a
friend that
refuses to
call arguments
arguments or
fights.
He calls them
by the word
Ingalls,
which if you're
from the south,
that's a place.
It's not a thing.
Ingalls is a
grocery store
because for
generations,
his family
always called
fights Ingalls.
Why?
Because they
got into a
fight in the
Ingalls parking
lot.
Now that's
funny, but
some of us
have stories
that are marked
by heartache,
pain,
defining choices
to marry this
person and not
another, a job,
maybe moving to
Colorado,
Colorado Springs,
maybe an
accident.
In all of
those things,
God is at
work.
It might
seem silly
or infamous,
but in our
family, the
thing that we
keep going back
to is the
butter dish
incident.
The butter
dish incident
is not
actually an
incident surrounding
a butter
dish, but a
decision that I
made as a
husband to
go to an
army school
right before I
was going to
leave for a
really long
time.
And it was
a source of
great disagreement
and I
thought I
should go.
Now to be
fair to myself,
I had been
canceled from
this school
many times
over and
over.
And I
went and I
thought the
whole time I
was going to
fail as God's
judgment on me
for going.
But I
passed and I
felt guilty the
whole time.
So what did I
do?
I brought back
my wife some
nice pottery.
pottery.
And this
butter dish.
And what did
it do in my
suitcase?
It broke.
And it's
broke every
time we've
moved since
then.
And it's
still broken
and I keep
gluing it back
together.
That's funny,
right?
But it's
marking a more
serious thing.
Kind of like
this stew.
It's not
really about
the stew.
It's about
something far
greater.
It's about
Jacob and
Esau struggling
over a
birthright.
Birthright,
inheritance,
same thing.
It's not
really about
the stew.
So we have
the stew
pointing to
this much
greater reality
just like the
butter dish is
reminding me
every day of
my own
selfishness.
So what
comes next in
the life of
Jacob and
Esau?
But the
stew incident.
Look with
me at
verse 29.
Once Jacob
was cooking
stew,
Esau came
in from the
field and
he was
exhausted.
And what
does he
say?
Remember,
he's this
wild man,
uncivilized.
He says,
I, and
he's also
obsessed with
food, and
he says,
I'm about
to die.
He's led
by his
stomach just
like his
father.
And Jacob
is deceptive.
So he
comes home
and demands
food.
And how
many of
you parents
have ever
heard your
kids come
in and
say, I'm
about to
die.
It's the
same concept
here.
He's not
really about
to die, but
he's starving
and he's
thinking with
his stomach.
And what
does he
eat?
Well, what
does he
see that
Jacob has?
Verse 30,
Esau said
to Jacob,
let me eat
some of
that red
stew for
I'm
exhausted.
So the
red man
wants the
red stew.
The connotation
is that he
has something
like a
meaty stew.
Maybe Esau
had killed
it the
day before.
The great
stew incident
is Jacob's
time when
he deceives
his brother.
Read verse
31.
The
connotation
is he's
seizing the
opportunity.
So he
says, sell
me your
birthright
right now.
And Esau
responds with
what we'll see
in a second.
It's got no
use to me.
He seizes
the opportunity.
He's been
waiting and
watching and
waiting to
strike at
Esau.
And Esau
overcome with
hunger and
he's about
to die.
He says,
what use
is this
birthright
to me?
Because I'm
about to
die.
You know,
the birthright,
your future
inheritance,
the double
portion,
not food at
the dinner
table,
but of
riches.
He
exchanges his
future blessing
for immediate
gratification.
And Jacob
seizes the
opportunity.
Every time
I read this
story, I
think about
Esau just
so quickly
giving away
that which
is so
important.
And I
think about
the missionary
Jim Elliot.
He was the
missionary to
South America
who lost
his life.
And then by
losing his
life, the
expansion of
the gospel
went out to
this Indian
group, but
he wrote
this in
his journal.
He is no
fool who
gives what he
cannot keep
to gain that
which he
cannot lose.
It's the
exact opposite
of Esau.
Esau gives
away the
thing that's
most important
to him, the
thing that he
should not
lose.
He gave up
eternal
blessing for
a pot of
stew.
But remember,
it's not simply
the inheritance.
If we track all
the way back to
Abraham, it's
this promise,
not of riches,
but of
greatness, a
kingdom of
power, eternal
ruling over one
another.
We get all
that from the
context, but
it's this
promise that
there would be
a people, a
great kingdom
that goes on
forever.
And he traded
this for a
bowl of
soup.
And as if
the trick to
get the
inheritance wasn't
enough, what
does Jacob turn
and then give
him?
Not red stew
with meat in
it, but he
gives him lentil
soup and bread.
So we see that
Esau has just
traded that which
was most precious
to him for a
bowl of vegetable
soup.
He doesn't even
get the red
stew.
He's a wild
man.
And so it's
keeping with his
character that
cements what we
know about Esau,
that he trades
away all of
this in a
moment.
And in
closing, he
says, or the
writer says,
he despised his
birthright.
Esau trades
things that are
eternal for
soup.
He trades the
promises of
God not simply
for the meaty
stew, but for
that vegetable
soup.
And as I think
about that, I
keep saying that
God is at work,
but it's hard to
see in the midst
of this.
It's hard to
see in the midst
of the sin of
favoritism of the
parents, the sin
of the brothers,
the sin of Esau.
And this is why
the writer of
Hebrews calls
him unholy.
Esau has
chosen, but he
didn't choose
God.
He chose his
stomach.
To be fair, this
should serve as a
warning to us,
that we don't
exchange things
that are unfading,
that are eternal,
that are life-giving
for things that are
temporary and
fleeting.
But we do that
every day, even
if we're Christians.
We think about
what we're going to
eat, which is
important.
We think about
what we're going
to wear.
We think about
what we're going
to go and do.
And those things
captivate our minds
and our attention.
But we need to
fix our eyes upon
Christ.
We think about
security and
better jobs and
better homes.
Those are all good
gifts, but those
are not eternal.
If we walk away
from this, though,
and think Jacob
is perfect, we've
missed the story.
I have a friend
that's an Old
Testament guy, and
he calls Jacob
positively obnoxious.
And we'll see why
in the coming
chapters.
But even in this
instant, he is
obnoxious.
And we'll see that
more and more as
Genesis unfolds.
God is at work in
spite of Esau's
sin.
God is at work
even in Jacob's
failing, in his
character flaws,
in his own sin.
And he uses us,
he uses him, he
uses others, because
God is at work in
spite of people.
And God is holding
out this promise that
will come later.
That even in a
family tree full of
tricksters and
cheats and bad
parents, he's
holding forth this
promise that he
will make all things
right.
And that one day he
would bring a
redeemer from this
family.
family, yes, even
this family, to
offer salvation and
to bless the entire
world.
God is at work.
Even in the midst
of sin, God is at
work.
Even in
stew, he's at
work to bring us
to Christ.
To bring Christ
to us.
Let's pray.
Lord, we're
thankful this
morning for the
reminder that you
are at work.
That you're in
work in spite of
sin, our own sin,
the failings of
this world, and you
use very unimpressive
people to make
these grand
promises come
true.
And we pray that
you might remind us
of that through the
person of Jacob and
Esau.
God is at work
and we pray this in
Christ's name.
Amen.
Please stand as we
sing in response to
God.