Amazing Grace Genesis 25:29-34

Good evening, DCC. I am so excited to share with you tonight the word of God.

Let’s all turn to each and say welcome. 

Have you ever craved something to eat? There’s a group of guys who absolutely love a place called dPot. DPot is an all you can hot pot place in Irvine, and it is actually really good. We often speak about how much we need to eat dPot or how good it sounds. In fact, when we think about things we really want to do, sometimes we are willing to sacrifice other things for them. Honestly speaking, I have disregarded my studies or homework to hang out with friends many times. Oftentimes we sacrifice what needs to be done with what we want to do. In fact, when we come to a crossroads to choose between what is truly good and what we want, what we choose reveals the condition of our hearts and our identity. Today we are going to read about a man who came to a crossroads between making the right decision and the decision he desired. If you all would rise to hear the reading of God’s holy word. Today’s passage comes from Genesis 25:29-34.

29 Once when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was exhausted. 30 And Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted!” (Therefore his name was called Edom.) 31 Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright now.” 32 Esau said, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?” 33 Jacob said, “Swear to me now.” So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. 34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

I think this is a passage we are all familiar with. This is the famous story where Esau sells his birthright for a bowl of lentil soup. Let’s actually get a picture of lentil soup up here. Honestly…, I would never eat this. Maybe it looks tasty to you, but clearly it looked tasty enough to Esau. When we first read this story, some of us might get frustrated at Esau or might be upset at Jacob. In fact, Jacob could have and probably should have just given his older brother food to eat in his exhaustion, but instead he uses this moment of weakness to swindle his brother’s birthright. But this passage actually doesn’t shed any ill light on Jacob for doing this. The negativity is directed at Esau. 

Prior to this passage, we learn that Esau is a skillful hunter. He is a man of the outdoors and that particular day the scripture says he was exhausted. He was so exhausted he said he was about to die. We can relate to this feeling can’t we? We tell each other “I’m dying of hunger”. So, we know here that Esau wasn’t actually going to die if he didn’t eat. In verse 34, it says that he ate and drank and rose and went his way. If you were about to die, first of all, it’s not food that would save you, and second of all, you would probably have no strength to get up and go on your way right after you eat. Esau was exaggerating that he was just really hungry.

So why do we get mad at Esau when we read this story? What exactly is this birthright? Back in the days of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the birthright was always given to the firstborn son. When the father of a family dies, his land and possessions are split between his children. But the firstborn, because of his birthright, would receive a double portion of the inheritance. Furthermore, the birthright grants the firstborn the position of clan leader and he has authority over the whole clan and its affairs. We can’t even comprehend why Esau would give this up for a bowl of soup! 

It is often for this reason that we are dumbfounded at his choice. He’s not just given up great inheritance for himself, but for his descendants: his children, and his children’s children all have no say in Esau giving away a future of wealth and prosperity for them… all for a bowl of lentil soup.

But even this falls short of the gravity of this situation. There is another aspect to the birthright we don’t often think about. We are drawn to see the material loss, but what’s more important is the spiritual loss.

In Genesis 15, God makes a covenant with Abraham that God will bless Abraham with many descendants and make his family the chosen people for the messiah to come. In John 8:56, Jesus himself says, “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” The promise that Abraham had faith in and rejoiced for was the coming of Jesus from his line. This spiritual lifeline was supposed to be passed down by the covenant blessing through the birthright from Abraham to Isaac and then to Esau. But Esau not only gives away generational material inheritance to Jacob’s line, but also the covenantal spiritual promise that God chose to bless Abraham’s descendants with. John Calvin puts it this way: “It would have been his true wisdom rather to undergo a thousand deaths than to renounce his birthright; which, so far from being confined within the narrow limits of one age alone, was capable of transmitting the perpetuity of a heavenly life to his posterity (meaning future generations) also.” This means that Esau did not care that this birthright could secure everlasting, heavenly, divine blessings for the generations that follow from him. Thus in verse 34, it says that Esau despised his birthright. 

(slide of despised highlighted)

In Hebrew, the root word used for despised is bazah. Everyone repeat after me: bazah. The word bazah appears in the Old Testament many times and it means to see something as worthless and unworthy of respect. In many instances bazah is used when an Israelite breaks the law and sins. Usually the Israelite has no respect for the law and sin abounds in their heart, and thus he despises God. When we begin to realize what this word means and we read that Esau despised his birthright, we realize that Esau so easily sold his birthright for soup because he had no respect for it. And what that implies is that Esau had no respect for God’s blessings and God’s covenant he established with Abraham. So remember this word despise, because it will be important.

And while it seems so grave that Esau would despise his birthright like that, we can’t blame him because we are no different. We all treat God and our salvation with the same despising attitude as Esau. I moved into my brother’s apartment in Irvine last year, and last week I had a conversation with our wonderful Pastor David Yoon about how comfortable Irvine is as a city. We agreed that the more we become accustomed to Irvine, the more we find ourselves chasing comfort. I think Irvine is one of the nicest and safest cities to live in in this whole world, and quite quickly I began to lose a sense that I needed God. I began to feel like I needed to feel comfortable. My heart chases after good food, good time spent with friends, and nice cafes. And while these things aren’t inherently wrong, my natural tendency is to follow after the desires of my heart. At the bottom of it all, my heart falls back into satisfying itself rather than wanting the things of God. My deceitful heart has placed my own desire over the true sustainer. And I realized the more comfortable I felt in Irvine, the less I desired the comfort of my Lord and savior Jesus. 

When I was reading this story about how Esau gave up his birthright, I began to become convicted of the sin that has so well disguised itself in the depths of my heart. See, Biblical scholars and theologians refer to Esau as a “profane” man, meaning that he is a man completely driven by his desires and passions. The kind of man that trades a heavenly life for himself and all his descendants in Christ to satisfy his hunger. And that seems like a big, monumental moment, but Esau is just grabbing a meal; this decision didn’t seem like that big of a deal to him. 

But that’s where our sin abounds. In places and decisions that don’t seem like a big deal. In everyday circumstances where we choose evil over good and personal desire over heavenly choices. When we gossip or put down other brothers and sisters that Christ himself laid his life down for just for the sake of a laugh. When we choose to utter gross profanity and hateful words with the same mouth we sing praises to the Lord. When we give our bodies into lustful desires when our bodies were made to be a temple of the most holy God. When we harbor anger and frustration and ill thoughts about our parents and friends. See, every small decision and uncontrolled emotion comes from the condition of our hearts, and like Esau, we willingly accept our sin at the expense of holiness and love everyday. 

And my brothers and sisters, this sin is graver than you can ever imagine. At the core of it all, our hateful tongues or angry thoughts or self-loathing feelings or lack of self-control of our bodily desires are less of a strike against each other and yourselves but completely more of an offense towards God himself. When King David lusted over Bathsheeba and proceeded to murder her husband Uriah to have her for himself, his sin wasn’t counted against Bathsheeba or Uriah, it was counted against God. He cries out in Psalm 51:3-4, “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight,...” 

My brothers and sisters let's not be so shallow to think our sin is insignificant. James tells us that “desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” Every time we confirm and accept the desire of our flesh, we sin. And when our sin abounds, like a disease, it pollutes the family, the friends, and the community around us. As members of a one body, our sins drag each other down and, like Esau, we proclaim in the face of our God: “I despise you. My sin is more worthy than you.” And thus, as it says in Romans 3:12, our sin has caused us to turn aside and become worthless. Our sin makes us worthy of being despised by God. Our sin is towards God and God alone, and in the courtroom of heaven… when justice needs to take place on judgment day… an unrighteous sinner has no place with the holy, righteous, just God. Justice in the courtroom of heaven is that your sins condemn you to eternal death. We hear the saying we should love the sinner and hate the sin. But God makes no distinction between sin and sinner in his justice. There is no separation of sin and sinner before God. As sin makes a sinner worthless before God, when it comes time to judge God judges the whole sinner because of his or her sin. 

Even as I speak this to you now, I feel the looming sense of hopelessness I would have before God. But if this was all I had to say to you, I wouldn’t be here in the first place. In all of our daily offense against God, which condemns us to stay dead in our sins, God, incomprehensibly rich in his grace and mercy by his love, has given us hope in our demise. That somehow, you and I can stand before God on judgment day and be declared righteous and blameless before the Lord. 

See, while Esau despised his birthright, while we despised God as reflected by our sin, while we deserved to be despised by God in return, Psalms 69:33 tells us something undeservingly beautiful. The Psalmist is in despair on the verge of his doom as he writes this Psalm, but in verses 32-33 he reveals something special. He says, “When the humble see it they will be glad; you who seek God, let your hearts revive. 33 For the Lord hears the needy and does not despise his own people who are prisoners.” You who seek God, let your hearts revive. For the Lord hears the needy and… does NOT despise… his own people. Here, the Psalmist writes in hebrew the same root word bazah for despise that describes how Esau felt towards his birthright, towards God. While Esau deemed in his heart that the covenant blessing and promise of Christ was worthless to him, while your decisions to sin reveal that in those moments you find Christ’s love to mean less than your sin, while you should be worthless before God…, you who seek God, let your hearts revive. For the Lord hears the needy and does not despise his own people. Even though our hearts have despised our God, he did not despise us. And our God hears us, who need him.

And this is the heart of our amazing God: “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.”

You and I, like Esau, who were followers of the prince of the power of the air, Satan, living in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath and dead in our sins. But even as we have transgressed against the heavenly Father, God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, has given us life again through Jesus Christ… By grace you have been saved… 

You may wonder why this way? Why Jesus? Why did Jesus have to come as a man? Why did God choose to save us this way? Couldn’t he have just said your sins are forgiven and we would be free? We have to remember that our God is a just God. With “justice” being one of his attributes, no transgression against him can go unpunished. And for you and I made in the image of God, there is no creature that can truly bear the penalty of our sin. Our sin requires that we die; not just physically, but eternally face God’s wrath in hell. Either we must pay for it ourselves, or someone who has done no wrong must take upon our punishment for us. So God, being rich in mercy because he loved us, sent us His one and only Son Jesus, whom he eternally loved, to become man and perfectly fulfill the Law and words of the prophets. In His perfect life he earned the status to take upon himself our sins as a perfect sacrifice. By His blood he graciously has placed each one of our sins upon himself and died with them, completing the full price, redemption of our sins. Now you and I, who should have taken the penalty of our sins before God, have our sins completely wiped clean through the blood and sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. You see, on that cross where Jesus hung, he saw each and every one of us and the hearts that despised him, but he did not despise his own people. 

And though his sacrifice saved us from the penalty of our sins, our God did not stop there. By Jesus resurrected in all glory, God also “raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness.” Not only has he declared us righteous, now he has promised us that we will share in His glory as well. He has promised us eternal life together with him.

And this is why I titled this sermon Amazing Grace. We have become dulled and numb to the word grace, and have forgotten how amazing the grace of our God through Jesus Christ is. Grace is not just that we receive something we didn’t deserve, but grace saves us from what we did deserve and merit on our own and also bestows upon us gifts that we demerited or did not deserve. That’s why Paul explains to us in Ephesians 2:8 that for by grace we have been saved, not from our own doing, but it is a GIFT from God. That you and I were so utterly hopeless in our sins before God, tainting and blaspheming his good creation, but God chooses to love you nonetheless. God chooses to let his Son die instead of you. God chooses to come bring you back home to him when he knew you would never choose him.

I hope each one of us in this room can begin to scratch at how marvelous this gift of grace is. That God loves you and cherishes your souls so much that he would send his Son to shed his blood to bring you out of your death and seat us in with him in heaven. He loves you so much that as a man, he did what you and I and the rest of humanity could not do. He lived so perfectly, for what? So he could die for you. You see our God is a God who lived a perfect life so he could be the perfect sacrifice for our imperfection. It wasn’t the Pharisees or the Romans that nailed Jesus to the cross. But it was you and I, our sin. And as the perfect sacrifice, God saw that it was “just” that Jesus would volunteer your sins and my sins to be attributed to himself. So when he died, so too the penalty of sins were completed. That’s why he said “It is finished.” What a gift of grace.

And so now, the beauty of the gospel is that we are not only forgiven and pardoned, but in Jesus Christ God finds us perfectly righteous as we stand before him. You know sometimes when we lower our heads and kneel before God as a posture of prayer, we are reminded of how sinful we are. Now you don’t just feel guilty, but you feel shameful as if you must hide your face before Him. The Lord is here to tell you that you are righteous before him now. Lift your head and stand because you are not only forgiven but your shame has been stripped away in the light of his glorious grace. 

Can we have the praise team come up. 

You know, when I was asked to give a message for a revival night, I wondered what a revival really is. What do we need to be revived from? God is speaking to you today to convict you of your sins against him. Because of your sin you don’t know God. Because of your sin you feel distant from God. Some of us feel so trapped by our sin, some of us don’t know why we can’t stop sinning. I believe you and I will experience revival when this gospel truth takes root in your heart. That by your sin you are hopeless, but by the love of God through Jesus Christ you are brought back to life. When we shift our attention from our sin to the love of Christ, our decisions move from being based on “I shouldn’t sin” to the reminder of God’s grace and mercy in his love. That because of his great love for us, we will glorify our God in goodness and truth. We begin to fall in love with God again and again every time we are reminded of the gospel. Like a pool of water, come drink from the gospel every day. Revival in your hearts and of your faith will come when you continually approach the pool of grace, and drink from it, and swim in it, and live from it.

Come and seek. You who seek God, let your hearts revive. For the Lord hears the needy and does not despise his own people. Come all you weary and heavy laden, find rest in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Even if you feel so shameful and beyond repair, come seek life in our God. He didn’t die for nothing. He precisely died so that your guilt and shame would be washed away. Come and receive his love. In his grace and love, walk the straight path as a community. By his grace and love share in His peace and holiness together as one body in Christ. Taste and see the loving kindness of our Lord and Savior and go live in newness of life that our God has prepared you for in Jesus. Go and live now for the glory of our great redeemer, the name above every name, because he is worthy. For though we despised God in our sin, he did not despise us. So come and seek Jesus, and let your hearts revive.

Let us pray.