Jacob, twin of blessing (i)
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God’s grace for messy grabbers
God’s grace for messy grabbers
Schoolyard pick / a dream team
Who does God choose?
1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
2 “I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
This is to begin the rescuer promised in
15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
[But what we’re going to discover is that all of humanity has been poisoned by the snake bite in the heel.]
This is the promised line who will be richly blessed and a blessing.
Genesis 21:12 (NIV)
12 But God said to him, “[..] Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.
Isaac, not Ishmael - the promised line.
Not going with customary oldest - not going throguh human efforts (Abraham trying to make the promise come through by his own plans).
So we’ll examine Isaac’s family.
In big picture - Isaac marries Rebekah (a beautiful story of a godly servant). They have twins. Jacob tricks Esau out of the birthright and then tricks Isaac to blessing him instead of Esau - then has to run away before Esau kills him. The tricking all happens around food.
But God has already spoken at the outset to Rebekah about the boys:
23 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.”
[Whether they all know this or not - God is not bound by custom or culture || furthermore - God does not choose based on what they’re like:
11 Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand:
Isaac
Isaac
21 Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant.
Prays. A promising start.
28 Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
Downhill from here. Favouritism for his stomach. His appetite. He lives on his senses, for his senses [like parents who live through their kids achievements]
I’d like to say ‘what kind of father’ - but we know of them - or we had them ourselves, and I pray none of you are like that - only loving the child for what you get out of it.
2 Isaac said, “I am now an old man and don’t know the day of my death. 3 Now then, get your equipment—your quiver and bow—and go out to the open country to hunt some wild game for me. 4 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.”
Will give his blessing after he gets some more tasty food for himself.
To-ing and fro-ing unsure of whether this son is Esau and Jacob (listening, touching, eating, smelling)
And is Isaac opposing God’s Word - spoken to Rebekah.
Listen again to God’s word:
23 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.”
Then listen to Isaac’s blessing of the boy he thinks is Esau:
29 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.”
It’s an open question - is Isaac trying to grab God’s blessing for his favourite son and overturn God’s own words about the boys?
[Whatever the case, Isaac is mostly a lousy father, with a faovurite son, fed by his own appetite and more than just physically blind - also been passive about Esau’s choice of wife]
Rebekah:
Rebekah:
22 The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord.
Like Isaac, a promising start with God in mind.
6 Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Look, I overheard your father say to your brother Esau,
13 His mother said to him, “My son, let the curse fall on me. Just do what I say; go and get them for me.”
She seeks to overrule Isaac, to deceive him. For her favourite son instead. Is she taking God at his word, and making sure Jacob is truly the blessed one like God promised? Whatever the case, she’s taking matters into her own hand.
Esau:
Esau:
29 Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. 30 He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” (That is why he was also called Edom.)
31 Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.”
32 “Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?”
Like father, like son. Driven by his appetite.
Let’s remember the promise to Abraham. A great people, a great place, blessing.
34 Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left.
So Esau despised his birthright.
Some lentil stew.
This is how he despised it.
41 Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. He said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
This will follow the Edomites all the way thru to Jesus’ day - Herod was from the Edomites too, seeking to kill the chosen one.
How about Jacob?
How about Jacob?
26 After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them.
33 But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob.
What kind of brother does this to another? Some what values the blessing of God - but a grabber.
19 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.”
20 Isaac asked his son, “How did you find it so quickly, my son?”
“The Lord your God gave me success,” he replied.
Uses God’s name in a lie.
Think back again to those words in Romans:
11 Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand:
God didn’t choose Jacob because he knew Jacob would choose him eventually, or do good - because God’s choosing is all about having mercy.
Throughout the Old Testament and again in the New Testament - even on the lips of Jesus - we have God call himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
At this point it seems pretty ugly for Isaac and Jacob.
And here is God calling himself again and again the God of lousy parents and lying thieves.
And more appallingly, God appears to Jacob on the run and says this:
15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
Which is to say, bless the sandals off him.
What is this ugly messy story of this family doing in our Bibles? And what is God doing picking people like this?
Because this is precisely who God chooses - because you and me, and everybody esle in the world, are like Jacob.
[In the question box was a profound statement for us to read at this point: ‘your a poopoo’]
This isn’t an account where we say Isaac/Rebekah/Esau/Jacob is a picture of Jesus - it’s a picture of Israel, and a picture of you and me.
Paul sums it up this way:
16 It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.
[Maybe you worry this is unfair - so remembr we only belong because of God’s mercy.
And then read on in Romans
13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
And finally, this shouldn’t only bring comfort to you but:
14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
This is an open public announcement for everyone - God is committing himself to sinners to be their God.
We’ll think more about this next week in terms of Jacob’s fall and rise.
But for us, right now - there is no moral of the story -
be like Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, Esau - no.
Be amazed at God