20230813 Genesis 27: Even Our Heroes Are Sinners
Genesis: Looking Back in Order to Move Ahead Spiritually • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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1 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.” 2 He said, “Behold, I am old; I do not know the day of my death. 3 Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me, 4 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.” 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, 6 Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “I heard your father speak to your brother Esau, 7 ‘Bring me game and prepare for me delicious food, that I may eat it and bless you before the Lord before I die.’ 8 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice as I command you. 9 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. 10 And you shall bring it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.” 11 But Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. 12 Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing.” 13 His mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, bring them to me.” 14 So he went and took them and brought them to his mother, and his mother prepared delicious food, such as his father loved. 15 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. 16 And the skins of the young goats she put on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. 17 And she put the delicious food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob. 18 So he went in to his father and said, “My father.” And he said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?” 19 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 me.” 20 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.” 21 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.” 22 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.” 23 And he did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands. So he blessed him. 24 He said, “Are you really my son Esau?” He answered, “I am.” 25 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. 26 Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come near and kiss me, my son.” 27 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! 28 May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine. 29 Let peoples 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!” 30 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. 31 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.” 32 His father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?” He answered, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.” 33 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.” 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!” 35 But he said, “Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing.” 36 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?” 37 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?” 38 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. 39 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. 40 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.” 41 Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.” 42 But the words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah. So she sent and called Jacob her younger son and said to him, “Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by planning to kill you. 43 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise, flee to Laban my brother in Haran 44 and stay with him a while, until your brother’s fury turns away— 45 until your brother’s anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send and bring you from there. Why should I be bereft of you both in one day?” 46 Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I loathe my life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women like these, one of the women of the land, what good will my life be to me?”
Introduction:
Palace Beautiful - Valley of Humiliation
The Pilgrim’s Progress The Fourth Stage
APOL. Thou hast already been unfaithful in thy service to him; and how dost thou think to receive wages of him?
CHR. Wherein, O Apollyon, have I been unfaithful to him?
APOL. Thou didst faint at first setting out, when thou wast almost choked in the gulf of Despond. Thou didst attempt wrong ways to be rid of thy burden, whereas thou shouldst have stayed till thy Prince had taken it off. Thou didst sinfully sleep, and lose thy choice things. Thou wast almost persuaded also to go back at the sight of the lions. And when thou talkest of thy journey, and of what thou hast seen and heard, thou art inwardly desirous of vainglory in all that thou sayest or doest.
CHR. All this is true, and much more which thou hast left out; but the Prince whom I serve and honor is merciful, and ready to forgive. But besides, these infirmities possessed me in thy country, for there I sucked them in, and I have groaned under them, been sorry for them, and have obtained pardon of my Prince.
Veneration: - great respect, reverence. But when applied to religious persons it takes on the meaning of “one worthy of our worship” and carries with it the sense of sinlessness and uncommon holiness
In 1988, Salman Rushdie published a book entitled, the Satanic Verses. Rushdie was knighted in 2007 for his services to literature. In 2008, The Times ranked him 13th on its list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945.
The book and its perceived blasphemy motivated Islamic extremist bombings, killings, and riots and sparked a debate about censorship and religiously motivated violence. Fearing unrest, the Rajiv Gandhi government banned the importation of the book into India. In 1989, Supreme Leader of Iran Ruhollah Khomeini declared a fatwa against Rushdie, resulting in several failed assassination attempts on the author, who was granted police protection by the UK government,[5] and attacks on connected individuals, including the Japanese translator Hitoshi Igarashi who was stabbed to death in 1991. Assassination attempts against Rushdie continued, including an attempt on his life in August 2022.
Mohammad, Buddha, Confucius, Joseph Smith, Charles Taze Russell, the Pope, Mary the mother of Jesus.
But as we have just read, does God venerate the heroes of the faith? What does the Bible have to say about our heroes?
All our heroes are sinners
9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” 13 “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” 14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 in their paths are ruin and misery, 17 and the way of peace they have not known.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
The principle of God’s total sovereignty - is there a free floating molecule in the universe that is out of God’s control?
1 The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.
38 Balaam said to Balak, “Behold, I have come to you! Have I now any power of my own to speak anything? The word that God puts in my mouth, that must I speak.”
49 For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak.
In Genesis 27 Moses is saying something in this section about the victorious sovereignty of God being greater than the depravity and foolishness of men
God’s Rascal: The Jacob Narrative in Genesis 25–35 (Chapter 3: The Promise of God and Four Sinners (Genesis 26:34–28:9))
Esau marries, 26:34–35Isaac orders Esau, 27:1–4Rebekah directs Jacob, 27:5–17Jacob deceives Isaac, 27:18–25Jacob blessed, 27:26–29Isaac discovers deception, 27:30–33Esau ‘deprived,’ 27:34–40Rebekah directs Jacob, 27:41–46Isaac orders Jacob, 28:1–5Esau marries, 28:6–9
The central focus of this section is the blessing of Jacob. But who really blessed Jacob?
The blessing
3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
The sovereign will of God
23 And the Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.”
The foolishness and depravity of men
15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.
This means we must understand he saying “but by the grace of God, go I”
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
And so,
We’re told to love God with all our heart, soul, mind , and strength, but,
In Genesis 27 we see depth of our fall. Our sinfulness affects in every way. It is pervasive. It is a depravity that effects our heart, soul, mind, strength
We’re told to be a holy people committed to covenant faithfulness and obedience, but,
We see that our fallen condition affects our choices - Esau’s wives
We’re told to walk by faith not by sight, but,
We see what happens when we walk by sight and not by faith
We’re told to trust in the Lord with all your heart, but,
We see what happens when we don’t trust in the Lord with all our heart and we lean on our own understanding
What we see in Genesis 27 are four people who should be following the Lord, and loving the Lord, and trusting the Lord, and obeying the Lord, but, instead we have:
Isaac represents those who allow their feelings to have greater authority over their hearts than the word of God - favoritism and food . His physical blindness is only eclipsed by his spiritual blindness
Rebekah epitomizes those who think they serve a helpless God - God can’t do it so I must.
Jacob represents those who believe that the end justifies the means. Those who would do anything, even lie, if it achieves their goals
Esau represents those who refuse to take responsibility for their actions. They blame others, they act sorrowful, but they will not admit their role in the foolish decisions they make
The victorious sovereignty of the God who keeps and fulfills his covenant promises
3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
How can God bless all the families, all the nations of the earth through such wretched people?
The Lord is sovereign but we
God promises to bless but our culture thinks that if God says that He will bless, then we are blessed, and blessed people are God’s favorite people, and people who are God’s favorites can get away with bad behavior, they can cut corners. They think that in some way God turns a blind eye . They think that God is their buddy. They think that God is like the overindulgent grandparent who always spoil and never disciplines.
The glorious beauty of the Savior who is perfectly obedient, perfectly holy, perfectly sinless, and perfectly faithful
22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.
15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.