"Tampering with God's Will" - Genesis 27

Introduction:

Have you ever tampered with something (instead of waiting) and ended up making the situation worse?

Kids do this a lot right? Instead of waiting for mom or dad to help them put their Christmas gifts together they get impatient and decide they will just do it themselves.

Camden - Legos - “Son, I told you to just wait for me and we could have done it together.”

How many times have we done this with God’s will?

Maybe we got impatient waiting on God so we decided to tamper with His plan ourselves.

Maybe we thought we could do a better job so we decided to tamper with His plan ourselves.

Whatever the case, there are times we try to get ahead of his will and tamper with it.

This story from Genesis 27 is a heartbreaking story. It is a supreme example of what happens when we try to tamper with God’s will.

From this account, I’d like for us to notice 3 points:

1. Many times we tamper with God’s will by taking matters into our own hands. (vv. 1-4)

Genesis 27:1–4 CSB

1 When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could not see, he called his older son Esau and said to him, “My son.” And he answered, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “Look, I am old and do not know the day of my death. 3 So now take your hunting gear, your quiver and bow, and go out in the field to hunt some game for me. 4 Then make me a delicious meal that I love and bring it to me to eat, so that I can bless you before I die.”

Isaac is now 137 years old. As he is getting older, he is contemplating what we all contemplate. Preparing for death.

Isaac is 137 years old. He is blind. His half-brother Ishmael has been dead for 14 years. Every day he realizes he is growing older as his body gets weaker and weaker.

Isaac decides it is time to go ahead and give the family blessing to his son. Now, if Isaac would have been obeying God, he would have brought Jacob in and given him the blessing.

Remember back to Genesis 25:23

Genesis 25:23 CSB

23 And the Lord said to her: Two nations are in your womb; two peoples will come from you and be separated. One people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.

God had already told them Jacob was the one who would receive the blessing. Isaac knew this. Isaac knew this before either of his sons were even born!

Now most of us put the blame for this account squarely on Rebekah and Jacob. But for Isaac to call in Esau instead of Jacob was for him to go diametrically opposed to God’s will.

I don’t know what Isaac was thinking. Maybe he thought he could change God’s mind? Maybe he thought he knew better than God?

Regardless, he called Esau to him and asked Esau to go and hunt for him so that he can enjoy Esau’s wild game one last time. And he promises that after eating the wild game, he would bless him.

Now it’s easy to think at this point that Esau and Jacob are children. No, they were about 77 years old when this transpires.

Now, what’s interesting here is Isaac thinks he is getting ready to die, however, the Bible tells us that Isaac will actually live another 40 years after this event! Once again a reminder that God and God alone knows when our time is up.

But I want to focus on the horrible thing that Isaac did. He took matters into his own hands, setting himself up as God. Maybe Isaac thought he knew better. Esau was his favored child after all, right?

If we are not careful, we will take matters into our own hands. We will “tamper” with God’s will. Trying to mold it into something “us” centered.

Why do we take matters into our own hands?

We are impatient.

We are weak.

We think we know best.

All of these can be rooted in one main problem - the weakness of our flesh.

And what happens when we give into our flesh - we start to rationalize our behavior, convincing ourselves that God understands and that God even approves! I think this is maybe where Isaac ended up.

When our flesh starts to pop up and tell us we know more than God, remember the following passage:

Jeremiah 17:9 CSB

9 The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable—who can understand it?

There is only one person who ever took matters into his own hands and it ended up good!

God took matters into his own hands by becoming human in Jesus Christ.

Michael S. Heiser

2. Many times we tamper with God’s will by trying to do the right thing, but in the completely wrong way. (vv. 5-29)

Genesis 27:5–29 CSB

5 Now Rebekah was listening to what Isaac said to his son Esau. So while Esau went to the field to hunt some game to bring in, 6 Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Listen! I heard your father talking with your brother Esau. He said, 7 ‘Bring me game and make a delicious meal for me to eat so that I can bless you in the Lord’s presence before I die.’ 8 Now, my son, listen to me and do what I tell you. 9 Go to the flock and bring me two choice young goats, and I will make them into a delicious meal for your father—the kind he loves. 10 Then take it to your father to eat so that he may bless you before he dies.” 11 Jacob answered Rebekah his mother, “Look, my brother Esau is a hairy man, but I am a man with smooth skin. 12 Suppose my father touches me. Then I will be revealed to him as a deceiver and bring a curse rather than a blessing on myself.” 13 His mother said to him, “Your curse be on me, my son. Just obey me and go get them for me.” 14 So he went and got the goats and brought them to his mother, and his mother made the delicious food his father loved. 15 Then Rebekah took the best clothes of her older son Esau, which were in the house, and had her younger son Jacob wear them. 16 She put the skins of the young goats on his hands and the smooth part of his neck. 17 Then she handed the delicious food and the bread she had made to her son Jacob. 18 When he came to his father, he said, “My father.” And he answered, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?” 19 Jacob replied 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 bless me.” 20 But Isaac said to his son, “How did you ever find it so quickly, my son?” He replied, “Because the Lord your God made it happen for me.” 21 Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come closer so I can touch you, my son. Are you really my son Esau or not?” 22 So Jacob came closer to his father Isaac. When he touched him, he said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” 23 He did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau; so he blessed him. 24 Again he asked, “Are you really my son Esau?” And he replied, “I am.” 25 Then he said, “Bring it closer to me, and let me eat some of my son’s game so that I can bless you.” Jacob brought it closer to him, and he ate; he brought him wine, and he drank. 26 Then his father Isaac said to him, “Please come closer and kiss me, my son.” 27 So he came closer and kissed him. When Isaac smelled his clothes, he blessed him and said: Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed. 28 May God give to you— from the dew of the sky and from the richness of the land— an abundance of grain and new wine. 29 May peoples serve you and nations bow in worship to you. Be master over your relatives; may your mother’s sons bow in worship to you. Those who curse you will be cursed, and those who bless you will be blessed.

Now a lot of times when we read this passage, Rebekah and Jacob get all the blame. They are the “bad guys.”

I want to propose another way of looking at it.

Now, to be sure, what they did wasn’t right. Deception and lying are never the answer. They are sin and God is not pleased with them.

But what if Rebekah and Jacob wanted to do what was right?

Rebekah knew what God had told them before the children were born. “The older shall serve the younger.”

So what if she is trying to do what’s right? Yet, she does it in the completely wrong way!

What does she do? Makes Jacob wear Esau’s clothes, put skins on his hands and neck (to make him feel hairy) and cooked the food and bread that Isaac had requested.

She sends him into the room with Isaac and Isaac is fooled through their deception.

Sometimes we do the same thing in life. We want to do the right thing, but we do it completely the wrong way.

We desire God’s will. We want to follow God’s will. We have good motives! But we go about it in the wrong way. And that means it is wrong!

Let me give you a Biblical example and a life example.

1 Chronicles 13:9–12 CSB

9 When they came to Chidon’s threshing floor, Uzzah reached out to hold the ark because the oxen had stumbled. 10 Then the Lord’s anger burned against Uzzah, and he struck him dead because he had reached out to the ark. So he died there in the presence of God. 11 David was angry because of the Lord’s outburst against Uzzah, so he named that place Outburst Against Uzzah, as it is still named today. 12 David feared God that day and said, “How can I ever bring the ark of God to me?”

Uzzah was doing the right thing. He had right motives. But he did the wrong thing. And God judged him for it.

Let me give you a life example: A Christian woman marries an unchristian man with the purpose of evangelism.

Now evangelism is a good thing. Wanting to win people to Jesus is a good thing. But that is going about it in the completely wrong way.

Here’s how we keep ourselves from falling into this (and it’s pretty simple): TRUST AND OBEY.

3. When we tamper with God’s will we tend to make a mess. (vv. 30-46)

After you read this account, you think “What a mess!” Right?

Jacobs relationship with Esau is destroyed. Jacob and Isaac’s relationship is destroyed. Isaac and Rebekah’s relationship is damaged.

Notice the word used in vv. 34,

Genesis 27:34 CSB

34 When Esau heard his father’s words, he cried out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me too, my father!”

In the Hebrew language, this is an emphatic expression describing a painful wail. Here Esau, this man’s man, sobs bitterly.

This broke Esau.

Esau’s main problem was he wanted to CHANGE God’s will. He didn’t like the “elder serving the younger.” Jacob should be serving him!

The Bible says that Esau bore “ a grudge/ had animosity against” his brother Jacob.

And this would spill over through many, many years.

I can tell you today if you tamper with God’s plan and God’s will, you, too, will make a mess. I have seen it happen too many times to count.

The devil is in the “hurry up business,” God is in the “wait on me” business.

What should we do when we are tempted to tamper with God’s plan?

Trust that God can handle it. He doesn’t need our help.

I know that we like to think that we are important, but we really aren’t!

Do you trust him today? Because we really cause ourself a lot of heartache if we “Tamper with God’s will”