Grasping for Blessing

Many years ago when Jodi and I had 3 very young children, we had been in Pennsylvania visiting my family, and were driving through the night coming back to Iowa.

But we were on I-74 coming through Indiana almost at the Illinois line, it was 5am, sun coming up behind us, I’m in the left lane coming up on a semi and all of a sudden, the car that’s passing the semi ahead of me spins out in the left lane, dust starts flying, the car flips once, now into the median, flips again, and comes to rest upside down on it’s roof. It was far enough ahead that I was able to slow down and pull over on the shoulder. Jodi called 911, and I ran across the highway to the car with 100 movie scenes running through my head.

And when I get to the car, the wheels are still spinning, I can see there’s someone inside, and my adrenaline overpowered my intelligence, and I say the only thing that came to my mind. “Is anyone in there!?” You don’t want me to be the first person at a crash site.

I’m pulling on the door handle trying to open it, because in all the movies, cars blow up when they flip over. It won’t open, and then this trucker comes up behind me, kneels down by the window and says are you guys okay? They were pinned to the ceiling, but were alive and he very calmly said, help is on the way, they’ll be here any time. And soon you could hear sirens and all of that.

Today is going to be one of those scriptures in the Bible where if you’re the kind of person who drives by car accidents really slow hoping to see something, you’re going to enjoy this. Today’s part of the story is a multiple car pileup. And God is going to be confusing. He’s not going to completely make sense. If you make it through the story, and don’t have questions, you’re probably not paying attention.

But we are in Genesis again, starting in chapter 27. And if you’re just joining us, here’s what you need to know: God had promised that the covenant blessings given to Abraham back in Genesis 12 would pass through his son Isaac. Isaac and his wife Rebekah have twin sons: Esau and Jacob, and surprisingly, God told Rebekah that the promise would continue through her younger son Jacob rather than Esau. Before the twins were born, God declared that the older would serve the younger.

That’s enough to get us started, so grab a copy of scripture, and before we drive by this dumpster fire that happens here in the middle of Genesis, let’s go to the Lord in prayer.

PRAYER

I’m going to summarize a lot of the story as we go along, but I’ll try to give you verse markers so you can follow along in your copy of scripture. Chapter 27:1 Isaac was getting really old and his eyesight was basically gone. One day he called in his older son Esau and said, “Look, I don’t know how much longer I have. Go out hunting, bring back some wild game, cook up that delicious meal I love, and then I’ll give you my special blessing before I die.”

The birthright we talked about last week is the authority and responsibility of the oldest son to carry on the dad’s property when he dies. Jacob already stole the birthright last week.

Now, as Isaac gets older, he needs to pass along the blessing – this is the authority and the responsibility and the abundance to carry out God’s covenant blessings in the world, that started with “be fruitful and multiply” in the Garden of Eden, the rule over all the living things on earth that was in the covenant with Noah, being a nation that is a blessing to the world that was promised to Abraham.

And either because Isaac didn’t know God told Rebekah that the younger son should get the blessing, or because Esau was his favorite of the boys, Isaac sends Esau out for food so he can eat his favorite meal and then pass on the blessing. Well, God had promised this blessing to the younger, and he will not let his purposes and his plans be undone.

So, verse 5 says Rebekah was eavesdropping on the whole conversation. The moment Esau left to go hunt, she turned to Jacob and said, “Quick—your father is about to bless Esau! Listen to me and do exactly what I say.” Verse 9, “I’m going to make his favorite food, and you’ll take it to him so he blesses you instead instead of Esau before he dies.”

And verse 11, Jacob rightfully gets a little jumpy and says, hang on, Esau is a hairy man and I’m not. “What if Dad touches me? He’ll know I’m not Esau and then I’ll end up receiving a curse instead of the blessing!” But Rebekah told him, “If there’s a curse, let it fall on me. Just go!” She had Jacob grab two young goats from the flock. While she cooked them up just the way Isaac liked, verse 15, she raided Esau’s closet and dressed Jacob in Esau’s nicest clothes. Then she covered Jacob’s smooth hands and neck with the hairy goat skins so he’d feel and smell like his hairy brother.

So in, verse 18, Jacob went in carrying the food and said, “Father, I’m Esau, your firstborn. I did what you asked—sit up and eat so you can bless me.” Isaac was suspicious. The voice sounded like Jacob. I’m thinking, come on Jacob, if you’re going to pull this off you gotta disguise your voice. Dad can’t see you, but he can hear you. In verse 20, he asked, “How did you find game so fast?” Jacob lied, “The Lord your God helped me out.”

Now it’s a lie, but it’s a lie that tells us something. The Lord your God. In our day, when a child grows up in a Christian home, and is surrounded by church and Bible stories and going to camp and KidCity and praying at meals and bedtime and all of that, they are going to start talking about God, quoting Bible stories they’ve heard, and even using “churchy” language and know how to pray. And what’s hard for parents and pastors to know is how you determine if there is actual saving faith there, or if, like Jacob, they are simply talking about “the Lord your God”, either because they know it’s important to you or because it’s familiar.

I think what this communicates to us is that although Jacob knows the language, he does not automatically know God. He does not automatically worship Yahweh, just because God chose him before he was born. He has not seen Yahweh as glorious yet. He has not encountered the living God in a meaningful way yet. He knows the right name to use. Yahweh your God. He knows the language of sovereignty – The Lord made it happen for me. But Yahweh is not yet Jacob’s Lord.

Why does that matter? Because anyone can call themselves a Christian. Just because you grew up in a Christian home doesn’t mean you know Yahweh. Just because you show up at church and read your Bible doesn’t mean you know Jesus. Everyone knows John 3:16, that God loved the world in this way – he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. And then Jesus goes on in John 17:3 to clarify: “This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and the one you have sent—Jesus Christ.” So being a Christian is not about going to heaven when you die – it’s about knowing the one true God and the one he has sent, which is Jesus.

Jacob isn’t there yet. Yahweh your God made it happen for me.

Isaac still wasn’t fully convinced, so verse 21, like Jacob thought he might, he had Jacob come close so he could touch him. He felt the hairy hands and said, “The voice is Jacob’s, but the hands are Esau’s.” Are you really Esau? He smelled the clothes, which smelled just like the outdoors, and that sealed it for him. Isaac ate the meal, had Jacob kiss him, and then in Verse 27 gave him the full blessing:

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 (older serve the younger – and now here’s the continuation of the blessing that started with Abraham): Those who curse you will be cursed, and those who bless you will be blessed.

And just like that, through a bowl of soup, some barbecued goat, and a pretty elaborate trick cooked up by his mom, Jacob walked away with both the birthright and the covenant blessing.

And as you might guess, in verse 30, Right after Jacob left his father’s room with the stolen blessing, Esau came back from hunting. He had prepared his own delicious meal just like his dad asked, and he walked in saying, “Father, get up and eat some of my game so you can bless me.” But his father Isaac said to him, verse 32, “Who are you?” he asked. “I’m Esau, your firstborn son,” he replied. verse 33, Isaac started freaking out a bit. “Then who was the one who just brought me game? I already ate it all and blessed him—and that blessing can’t be taken back!”

Skip down to verse 41, From that moment on, Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing. He determined in his heart, “as soon as dad is gone, I’m going after Jacob and I’ll kill him.” And for the second time in Genesis, the older brother sets out to murder his brother.

Well, mom caught wind of that, verse 42, Rebekah quickly called Jacob in and warned him, “Your brother is comforting himself by plotting to kill you. Listen to me—run away right now to my brother Laban in Haran. Stay with him for a while until Esau’s rage cools down and he forgets what you did. Then I’ll send for you.” She tells Isaac in verse 46 that she thinks they should send Jacob back to her hometown to find a good wife, Isaac agrees, and at the beginning of chapter 28, blesses Jacob again, praying that he would become the great nation God promised, and that God would give him the land he promised.

So far, this family has really got it going on. This is the kind of stuff that keeps therapists in business. If you’re still stuck in believing that God only uses good people and ignores the bad people, you’re going to have a migraine before we’re done with the next part of this. We’ll keep moving.

One night while Jacob was traveling, he stopped to sleep, and had a powerful dream: He saw a stairway (or ladder) reaching from earth all the way to heaven, with angels of God going up and down on it. At the top stood the Lord, who said,“I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and Isaac. I will give you and your descendants this land. Your offspring will be like the dust of the earth—spreading out in every direction [nation]. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. And then the Lord gives Jacob the most glorious of all the promises: I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go. I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I promised.”

Verse 20, When Jacob woke up, he made a vow: “If God will be with me, protect me on this journey, give me food and clothes, and bring me safely home, then the Lord will be my God. This stone will be God’s house, and I’ll give Him a tenth of everything He gives me.”

How many of us have done something like this, where you approach God with a bunch of “ifs”? How many of us have tried to make deals with God like this? If you will be with me, give me food and clothes, and keep me safe, then I’ll worship you. I’ll serve you if you get me out of this. I’ll know you’re a good and powerful God IF you keep me safe. Doesn’t that seem like the opposite of what Jesus said in Matthew – seek first the kingdom, and I’ll take care of the rest.

Jacob still has not let Yahweh be the Lord – he’s still calling his own shots, trying to be in control. Hebrews 11 says faith is the evidence of what we CAN’T see, and Jacob is basing his worship only on what he CAN see. This encounter with God amazed him, it stirred his emotion, but it did not produce faith in him.

There are plenty of people in the church, maybe even here in this room today, who are looking at God like he’s a genie in a bottle, just here to give you what you wish for. And if he answers them the way they want or expect, they will give him the nod. God was so good. God is so faithful. OR they are looking for something that’s awe-inspiring. God, I’ll trust you if you show me a miracle. I’ll believe you are good if you bail us out of this financial situation, or the Holy Spirit is only at work if I feel something.

Jacob seems to say, in a sense, I’ll believe it when I see it.

In chapter 29 he finally gets to the region of his long lost relatives where he hopes to find a wife. If you read this like an American in 2026, this reads like a Hallmark movie. Out of town boy comes back to his grandpa’s old stomping grounds, verse 9 a good looking 4H girl shows up to water the sheep, a handsome “traveling stranger” shows off his strength and helps her get water, and then she lets him kiss her– I mean what more could you want?!

It’s not quite as romantic as it might appear – the kiss is more of the kind of greeting that families give each other, and then, look at verse 11, Jacob starts bawling. She’s probably like, uh, what’s happening, and he might have said something like, “Does the name Rebekah ring a bell?…” at which point, verse 12, she leaves the sheep with him and takes off running to tell her dad, Laban who welcomes Jacob to come and stay with them for a while, and now we’re back to the Hallmark movie.

Over the next 4 weeks that Jacob stays with the family, verse 18, Jacob had fallen in love with Rachel, so he told her dad, “I’ll work for you seven years in exchange for your younger daughter Rachel.” Laban agreed, saying, “It’s better that I give her to you than to some other man.” So, verse 20, Jacob worked as Laban’s employee seven years for Rachel—but because he loved her so much, the years felt like only a few days. And everyone said, aw. In a day of arranged marriages, this kind of romantic interest is pretty unique.

At the end of the seven years, verse 21, Jacob said to Laban, “Listen, I’ve been thinking about this woman for seven years, watching her walk around this farm, knowing she’s my wife, I love her so much… he’s watching his watch, it’s been exactly seven years right……….NOW. Give me my wife so I can sleep with her, I’ve been waiting long enough.” So, verse 22 pops threw a big wedding feast, and invites all the men of the community to come and celebrate with them and it looks like this is going to be one big happy ever after. Now why Laban didn’t invite any women to the wedding is a little sketchy to begin with.

But that night, verse 23, Laban took his oldest daughter Leah (whose name means “wild cow”, the one verse 17 says had tender eyes), put her in the marriage tent instead of Rachel (the daughter who verse 17 says was shapely and beautiful, whose name means lamb), and Jacob spent his wedding night with the older sister instead of the one he loved! The deceiver gets a taste of his own medicine! And here is where we all have questions, right? How does he not know which sister he’s in bed with? Based on the fact that it’s only men at this party, I think most of this question can be answered by alcohol.

Once again, if we’re all panicky and desperate to figure out all the details of what happened and how it happened, we’re going to miss the overall point. What we do know is that in verse 25, Jacob wakes up and rolls over expecting to see the girl he loved and had worked 7 years for, and instead, it’s her sister.

Jacob does what you and I would do – he jumps up and sprints to his father-in-law and yells, “What have you done to me? I worked for Rachel—why did you deceive me?” Laban replied, “It’s not our custom here to give the younger daughter before the older one. Finish this week’s wedding celebration with Leah, and then I’ll give you Rachel too—in exchange for another seven years of work.” This guy Laban is a slimy dog, right? But in some ways, Jacob is getting a taste of his own medicine.

Now I warned you at the beginning of the sermon that you would have questions about what God is doing. It’s confusing. Things don’t make sense. We’re left scratching our heads, going, wait, what??? Well, buckle up, because here we go.

Jacob now ends up with two wives in one week – one, he loves like crazy, the other he doesn’t love at all. But that doesn’t stop him from sleeping with both of them. Verse 31 When the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, He opened her womb, but Rachel remained childless. Leah ends up having four boys over the next several verses, and then she stopped having children. Each of the names she gave her boys reflected Leah’s desire to eventually win Jacob’s heart, have him notice her, and show her some affection.

Well, as you can imagine, Rachel was jealous of her sister having children. In Verse 1 of chapter 30, she demanded of Jacob, “Give me sons, or I’ll die!” Which isn’t the best pickup line if we’re still talking Hallmark movies. In fact, Jacob got angry with her, in verse 2, and said, “Am I in the place of God? He’s the one who has kept you from having children.”

And then, this should bring back memories… So Rachel gave her servant Bilhah to Jacob as a wife.

Jacob follows in Grandpa Abraham’s footsteps, and has not just one but two kids with one of the servant girls. Rachel, the one Jacob loved, is relieved and says “Ah, God has seen me and heard my prayers.” HOLD UP. You order him to sleep with your servant, and then pray that she gets pregnant – and this happens multiple times?! It’s not over yet.

When Leah saw she had stopped having children, verse 9, she gave her servant Zilpah to Jacob. and he had two more kids with her, at which point she says, verse 11, “what good fortune.”

So Jacob now has four wives, they are all in competition with each other – in fact, in the next couple of verses, one of Leah’s sons found some medicinal herbs, called mandrakes, that were thought to help with fertility. Rachel saw this, and begged Leah for some.

I mean, can you feel Rachel’s pain? Have you ever prayed and prayed and prayed for something and it seemed like God answered your prayers for everyone BUT you? She’s desperate, so in verse 15, Leah says, “Fine, as long as I get to sleep with Jacob tonight. That evening, when Jacob came in from the fields, Leah met him and said, “You must sleep with me tonight—I’ve hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” Again, not the most romantic move.

So Jacob slept with her, and look at this – God listened to Leah. She became pregnant again and gave birth to two more sons, and eventually had a daughter named Dinah. Then God remembered Rachel.

God hasn’t forgotten Rachel exists or that she wants to have children. It did not slip his mind where he now says, “oh, that’s right!” But he remembered as in, he directed his attention toward her. Obviously she has never stopped praying for children, because verse 22, He listened to her and opened her womb. She became pregnant and gave birth to a son she named Joseph.”

If this is your first time reading this, the promise about multiple offspring that will become a great nation looks like it’s starting to happen as the family grows, but maybe you can’t help but wondering is this the way God imagined it? Is this the way God pictured the family of promise? Nothing but deception and bitterness and rivalry and multiple wives – If you were watching tv in the 90s, this is the kind of thing that made the Jerry Springer show. In the rest of chapter 30, Laban cheats Jacob again, Jacob turns around and cheats Laban out of loads of money and livestock.

And the whole time, it’s like, Jacob, my guy – before you were even born, God said that you would get the blessing, and now you’re acting like everything depends on you (Bible Project)! From the birthright in the beginning to cheating his boss here in chapter 30, Jacob is grabbing after the very thing that God has promised to give him – even if it means betraying and cheating his own family members.

And you may wonder, what’s the point of all of this. Well, here’s what I haven’t told you about Genesis yet. The book of Genesis was written by Moses as he brought the people out of Egypt in the book of Exodus. By the time Moses’ people are reading this, God has already told them that among all the nations of the world, Israel is the one God would choose to be his own people. They would have recently recieved the Law, and started making moves toward the promised land. Like Jacob, they are the chosen son of God.

And yet as Moses records this story for them, they learn that you can be the chosen one, but choose to live as if you're not. You can be the chosen nation, and still choose to hurt each other in order to get the thing that God wanted to give you all along (BibleProject). You can be God’s chosen people and still choose to live like everything depends on you.

And as we saw in the text today, when you choose to live as if you only answer to yourself, and the outcome of your life depends on you, it leaves a trail of carnage – not just a mess behind you, but also a mess ahead of you that you’re going to have to step in some day. Next week we’ll watch has Jacob has to face up to the people he has cheated – Laban and Esau. He’ll finally have that encounter with God that changes him forever.

But for now, it looks like we have come upon an accident here in scripture. God is confusing. He seems to be either absent OR in the places he IS involved, we’re not sure whose side he’s really on. He seems to be rewarding Jacob’s poor choices, and blesses him for it! What is happening!? How do we make sense of this? How do we wrap our heads around God’s involvement here? Does God even care what we do at all, if he just works with whomever he wants to work with, no matter what they do!?

Like that truck driver in the story at the beginning, just saying, help is on the way. God would send a Savior to help make sense of everything, and show us the heart of God for his people. 2 Corinthians 5:15 “And he died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for them and was raised.”

So I don’t know where you’re at as you come in the gathering today, but all of us often live like this whole thing depends on us – where we think we have to move because God isn’t.

Maybe you’re like Rachel, and you feel like you’re praying prayers of desperation, everyone else gets the answer instead of you. Maybe like her, you are reaching for the things of earth to do for you what you wish God would do.

Know that God hasn’t forgotten you either. He knows the story he’s written for you, and even if he never answers your prayers the way you think he should, seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and he’ll add to your story whatever he knows is best.

Maybe you’re like Leah today – unloved, uncared for, unseen. She desperately hoped that her accomplishments (having children) would make someone love her. Maybe you’re doing that too. You want to be noticed and approved of and for someone to say they are proud of you, so you brag about what you’ve accomplished.

Look back at those verses – when God saw that Leah was unloved, he heard the cries of her heart and made her the mother of all of Israel’s kings and priests. You may feel unnoticed and unloved, but that doesn’t mean you are.

Maybe you’re like Jacob, where you are willing to lie, cheat, steal, or run over whomever you have to to get the prize you’re after.

This entire time Jacob has been firmly, securely, and sovereignly held in the hand of Yahweh. God stuck by him in both his faithful moments and his unfaithful ones, and continued to encourage Jacob with the promises.

And mayb

Romans 5:18–6:4 “So then, as through one trespass there is condemnation for everyone, so also through one righteous act there is justification leading to life for everyone. For just as through one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so also through the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. The law came along to multiply the trespass. But where sin multiplied, grace multiplied even more so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness, resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life.”

Close with an illustration or story

Invitation to prayer

SOURCES

Bible Project, Power Grabs and Patriarchs, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNUw2SsPjiw)