A DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY AND SOVEREIGN GRACE

Family Dysfunction

Recap

Genesis 25:23 “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.””

Genesis 25:28 “Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.”

Isaac- He showed preference to Esau. This preference blinded him to Esau’s faults. And because of this preference, he ignored the word from the Lord that Jacob was to be the heir and pursued his own plan instead. Being blind to your child’s faults can often cause parents to enable their children in their sin, and we certainly see that here. Though Isaac was blind, he used his other senses in his effort to confirm that it really was Esau who had brought him food. He used his hearing (the voice sounded like Jacob). He used his touch (he felt that Jacob’s hands were hairy like Esau’s). He used his taste (the food tasted like Esau’s food). For the final test, he used his smell (the clothes smelled like Esau). He ended up blessing Jacob with abundance, authority over the nations and over his kinsmen, and he gave him the blessing of Abraham. He trembled violently when he discovered the truth, but eventually accepted the outcome as the Lord’s will. So the blessing was irrevocable.

Proverbs 14:12 “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.”

Rebekah- She showed preference to Jacob. Since she preferred Jacob, she accepted the Lord’s choice of Jacob to be the leader of the family. Rather than trust the Lord to work out the details, she concocted a plan of lies and deceit. When Jacob was worried about receiving a curse, she said that curse could fall on her instead. Her plan worked to some degree, but Esau’s desire for revenge prompted her to go even deeper with her deceit. She told Isaac that her life would be unbearable if Jacob married a Hittite woman, so she used this as an excuse to send Jacob to her brother Laban. So now Jacob would have the blessing, and would be safe from Esau’s wrath. However, this sinful plan brought all sorts of hurt and harm to the family.

Romans 3:7–8 “But if through my lie God’s truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? And why not do evil that good may come?—as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.”

Jacob- He heard his mother’s plan, and was immediately doubtful that they could pull it off. After all, Esau was extremely hairy while Jacob was not. He was worried that he would be cursed instead of blessed for deceiving his father. His worries were well-founded. He should have listened to his conscience instead of his mother. He was asked multiple point blank questions by his father, but he lied each time. He should have trusted in the Lord instead of his mother’s deceitful plan.

Acts 5:29 “But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.”

Esau- He had already despised his birthright and sold it to his brother for a bowl of stew. He then married two pagan, Hittite women. This brought great grief to his parents. In spite of this, he remained his father’s favorite. When Isaac called him to hunt game and cook food for him so that he could bless him, Esau was ready and willing to do what his father commanded. Yet when he finds out that he had been tricked out of the blessing, he was furious. He blamed Jacob for cheating him out of his birthright, when it was actually his own fault. He rightly blamed him for cheating him out of the blessing. He begged his father to bless him as well. Isaac told him that he would dwell away from the abundance that had been given to his brother. He was going to live by his sword and serve his brother, but would one day cast off this yoke of service. All of this played out in the history of the people of Edom and the people of Israel. We see that he was not truly repentant over selling his birthright here because he accused Jacob of cheating him out of it and he plotted to murder him after Isaac died.

Hebrews 12:15–17 “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; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.”

Sovereign Grace

Though the whole family was plotting and scheming, it was the Lord’s plan that would prevail.

Proverbs 19:21 “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.”

Ephesians 1:11 “In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,”

Does the Lord have the right to do what He wants with His creation? Even to give grace to sinners?

See Matthew 20:1-16...

Matthew 20:15 “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’”

Romans 9:20 “But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?””

Why does the Lord do things the way He does?

See 1 Corinthians 1:26-31...

We should be thankful the Lord saves sinners, otherwise we would have no hope!

Romans 3:10 “as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;”

Galatians 2:16 “yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.”