Jacob’s Lie

Good morning everyone, it is so good to be here this morning with you all. Right now we get to send out the kiddos to their class where you have the opportunity to learn about God in a way that makes sense to you. Then, remember, you gotta pay attention real good so that you can come find me after service and tell me something you learned today. Then of course we also want to welcome those of you joining us online, etc.

So we are in the midst of a series on Isaac and seeing what we can learn from this man that lived roughly between 4000 and 4500 years ago. So what can we learn from this man and from the experiences of him and his family. I think it’s pretty fascinating when I study and God shows me things that are connected and how things actually work together. There is a story from Aesops Fables called “The Lion and the Statue”. Here is what this story says,

The man and a lion were discussing the relative strength of men and lions in general. The man contended that he and his fellows were stronger than lions by reason of their greater intelligence. “Come now with me,” he cried, “and I will soon prove that I am right.” So he took him into the public gardens and showed him a statue of Hercules overcoming the Lion and tearing his mouth in two. “That is all very well,” said the lion, “but proves nothing, for it was man who made the statue.” Moral: We can easily represent things as we wish them to be.

Another way of saying the same thing comes from a good friend of mine in Lafayette named Steve VanPelt. Steve would say, “It’s your lie…tell it how you want.” I love that phrase because that is the truth of a lie, right. Tell it however you want because it’s not true anyway…But then again, that is what’s wrong with lying, right? When you lie, then nothing you say can be trusted. We talked about that last week when we discussed Rebekah’s deception.

This morning we are going to continue looking at a story that is full of lies and then we are going to talk about why it’s important to the difference between right and wrong. Let’s go ahead and turn over to

Genesis 27:18–30 ESV

So he went in to 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 me.” 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. 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 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!” 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.

There are a few things that we can see from this passage this morning. I would like to focus in on the lies that Jacob tells his father Isaac, because there is more than just 1 lie. However, first, I want to discuss why Jacob felt the need to lie. Let’s just go through this a little bit together. First of all, let’s answer the question,

What is a blessing?

See, Jacob has already taken advantage of Esau to take his birthright. A birthright is an honor that is bestowed on the first born. It is essentially the first rights in the inheritance. The first born would always get a double portion of the inheritance compared to everyone else. So in the case of a family with 2 males, the inheritance would be slit into thirds, and the first born would get 2/3rd’s while the second born would be given 1/3rd.

A blessing however is a little different. You see, a blessing could be given to anyone despite who is the elder son. Receiving a blessing from your father was a high honor, and losing a blessing was essentially the same as a curse. This is why Esau will get so angry and hurt when we look at his story next week. An Old Testament blessing of a father to his sons included words of encouragement, details regarding each son’s inheritance, and prophetic words concerning the future. This is where it would get really interesting. Now, it would seem that Jacob stole the blessing from Esau, and that event did happen. However, Jacob acting deceitful did not change the words that God gave to Isaac to speak over his son. It just meant that Isaac didn’t understand who he was speaking to. Humanly speaking, Isaac blessed the wrong son. Divinely speaking, God knew exactly what he was doing.

So, from Rebekah and Jacob’s perspective it would be important for Isaac to bless Jacob because they would have believed that this blessing actually directed God instead of God directing the blessing. So really, that explains …

Jacob’s Lies

Now like I said before, there is more than just one lie that Jacob tells…Let’s take a look at these together because of of these we can probably relate to…First of all,

Jacob lied about his name

The very first lie that Jacob told was about his name. When he walked in the door and he called out to his father. He responded to his father claiming to be Esau, Isaac’s firstborn. Now, did Isaac ask who he was because he couldn’t hear? No, as a matter of fact, that is what raised a red flag for Isaac. Jacob didn’t sound like Esau. Isaac heard the voice and was confused because it just didn’t sound right. However, Jacob lied about who he was. This was the first of many though, so what was next?

Jacob lied about what he did

It’s about to get really sticky here for Jacob. I mean, soon he will pass the point of no return. At this point he could have apologized and came clean, but he wasn’t very interested in doing that. Maybe because he had his mom right there encouraging him to keep going. However, Jacob is still responsible for his own behavior. So, he tells his father Isaac that he has obeyed him and that he should sit up and eat his game. So he really commited to this lie, both saying he did as he was asked, but then also calling the goat mean, his game. Now in that region there is a very good chance the Esau was hunting wild goat, so he mother Rebekah has prepared a meal that Isaac has asked for. So, what else did Jacob lie about?

Jacob lied about God

Now this is a pretty brave thing to do to be honest. To lie about the Lord is fairly gutsy…Remember, when Jacob was questioned about how he made it back so quickly he responded saying that God had given him success. This is especially egregious as Jacob is giving God credit for his lie. Have you ever done that? I mean, have you ever thought about how your dishonesty was actually a blessing from God? That is a pretty common thing. For instance, “Praise the Lord, I got this new job that I lied on my resume to get.” or “Thank you Lord for providing me the funds to be so generous, when you aren’t actually generous at all.” for instance, “I praise the Lord for financial stability and I just know that God provides for me because of my faithfulness to tithe and give regularly,” when you don’t actually tithe regularly. See, people tell this kind of lie all the time…we just don’t think about it.

Jacob is just going further and further into this lie isn’t he? I mean, he could have stopped, he could have repented or even just walked away. However, he is going further and further into this lie, adding lie after lie on top. Isn’t that kind of what lying is all about though? I mean, when you start to lie, you have to keep lying in order to not be found out. This is going to be true with Jacob because now he will have to approach Isaac and confirm he is Esau. This led to a further lie.

Jacob lied about his identity

This is pretty similar to a name, but takes it a whole extra step. Remember that Rebekah had put Esau’s clothes on Jacob and attached hair from the goat to Jacob’s hands and neck in order to show that he was in fact his brother. Well, unwilling to trust his ears, Isaac felt Jacob’s hands and mistook that goatskin for Esau’s hair, and then Jacob assured him again that he indeed was Esau. Isaac knew something was off, but when he didn’t trust his eyes and ears, he trusted his touch and smell finally believing that this was in fact Esau. There was one more lie that we just read about though…

Jacob lied about what he loved

He lied about what he loved. This is honestly what it all comes down to…You see, Jacob claimed to love his father, and he even went over to receive a kiss from his father, but he did not love his father…he loved what his father would give him. How could Jacob claim to love his father when he was in the act of deceiving him? I think many times we have to ask ourselves this very question, don’t we? How can we claim to love The Father when we are in the very act of being deceptive and lying. We claim…and some of you are here this morning, or joining us online, and you claim to love God, but then throughout the week you will do whatever you can to avoid spending any time with him. You will say something like, “I’m just not disciplined to pray” or “I can’t just read, or even listen to Scripture..I just don’t think like that, or it’s to boring.” Maybe you’ll say something like, I can’t live my life in a way that is Biblical…that’s just not how the world works.” Listen, if you are here today and you claim to be a Christ follower, meaning you have commited your life to the Lord and not to yourself…yet you would say any of the things like I just said…then you are lying about what you love. You don’t love the Lord…you love yourself!

Listen, I know thats a hard thing to hear and I can almost hear the objections now, Pastor Billy, that’s not very fair, I do love the Lord, I just struggle with…or, I do love the Lord, I just really would like to…or what about this one, I do love the Lord, but I just want what I want…Why do we do what we do? Because we want what we want…and why did Jacob do what he did? Because he wanted what he wanted. Here’s the deal though, here’s why Im telling you this…because if you’ve never been told, then you will never change. So…

Whats the Point?

Why do you think God gave the Law? We read about why the law came in

Romans 7:7 (ESV)

What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”

Then the first half of

Galatians 3:19 (ESV)

Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions…

You see, God loved us all enough that he made very clear when the things we are doing are sinful. He does this to show us that there is a need for a savior. However, if I don’t know that I am sinning…then I don’t know I need to repent. God offers forgiveness to all, but if I am not sinning, then I don’t need forgiveness. That is why I point things out like this…because the loving thing to do is to tell the truth about Scripture.

There is a particular book that has come out called the Queen James Bible and the whole purpose of this book is to make various sins ok. They have removed all language of sinful lifestyles, specifically in regards to sexual lifestyles. The culture around us tells us that things like living together before you’re married is not only ok, but is preferred. The culture around us tells us that murder is actually ok, there are even special murder rights given to parents of the pre-born. The culture around us is very quickly telling us that theft is actually ok, and that the nuclear family is oppressive. You see, the culture around us teaches that everything the Bible calls sin is actually not only ok, but it’s good. Why would the culture around us seek to teach this? Because the ruler of this world is the father of all lies…His whole job is to convince you that you don’t need a savior…he started with Adam and Eve in the garden at the beginning of time, and he will continue until the final judgement when he and all who worship him will be placed in Hell for eternity.

That doesn’t have to be you though…I may not know your story specifically, but I know the one who does? I may not have walked in your shoes, but I know the one who has walked along side you. I may not understand all of your past, but I know the one who has seen it all…That one still offers hope and healing for your soul. That one does not desire you to leave here still ignorant of your own need for a savior. However, you will not be forced into belief…you will not be forced to seek forgiveness. You can no longer claim ignorance because if you are here this morning you know that you have sinned becuase you have lied about yourself and about what you have loved…just like Jacob. So, it’s time for you to repent of the lies and call on the name of the Lord.

Acts 2:21 (ESV)

And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

This morning as we close out and prepare to go to various classes, let me challenge you. Im challenging you to repent of your disbelief. Im challenging you to repent of your selfish motives. Im challenging you to repent of your self-focus, and turn back to God this morning. Over the last few weeks we have covered how to heal your spiritual blindness and how to overcome deception, but now we need to simply be reminded that none of that matters if you have not cried out to the Lord. That is where everything else starts…If you are here this morning and you have not stepped into a relationship with the Lord, please connect with me afterwards and let’s have a conversation. If you’re here and you feel led to take that next step of Biblical baptism then please connect with me afterwards and lets have a conversation. If you are here this morning and you realized that you have taken your focus away from God, then please let me know about your desire to refocus your eyes and your heart so that I can pray with you…Whatever it is that God is showing you in your life, take that next step this morning, and if you don’t know what that next step is…let me know so I can help you take that step…

Let’s pray: Pray that God will continue to convict of sin in our lives. Pray that we will not have calloused or hardened hearts when it comes to God’s Word. Pray that God will give us the strength support needed to live a life pleasing to him.

For instance, did you know that these events are before the 10 commandments