The Birthright

Introduction

What if you knew today that you would be okay tomorrow? Would that change how you live? For instance, what if you knew without a shadow of a doubt that you would have enough money tomorrow? Maybe not enough to buy yourself a luxury car or a horse farm, but enough so that your family would have everything that you need. Do you think you’d be able to rest better or be more generous? Some of you may be facing the very worst moment of your life right now. Nothing seems to be going right. You find yourself waking up at 3:00 in the morning with an instant shot of adrenaline, and when you lay down, you can’t sleep because you’re still running on adrenaline. What if you knew with certainty that one day you would look back on this excruciating period in your life and be glad that you experienced it? What if you knew with certainty that this horrible circumstance was simply moving you closer to where you need to be, where your joy is full? Would you be able to face it with greater confidence?

Christians live with the privileged perspective of knowing what the future holds. We may not know every in and out or up and down that tomorrow will bring. But, we know how this story ends. We know who has the final word. We know that a day of final power and glory is coming. And, the freedom, peace, and joy you have today will be proportional to how fully you believe and embrace that certain future. This morning in Genesis, Moses calls for Israel to look back at God’s working in the past so that they might be assured of what lies ahead. And, that’s what I want us to do. I want us to look back 4000 years so that we can live with boldness, assured of what lies ahead.

God’s Word

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Assuring Reminders from God’s Story (Headline)

Our lives may be at a standstill, but our minds sure aren’t. In fact, I find that very often the more still my body is the more out of control my mind can be. I’m concerned that the current call for quarantine, while necessary for our physical health, may wreak havoc on our mental and emotional health. Our minds just aren’t accustomed to this type of stillness and contemplation anymore. So, what can the Christian do this strange easter? We should return to the Big Story. As we try to discern what God is at work doing now, we should fill our minds with how God has always worked. We should bring ourselves back to the gospel for assurance and hope and calm. A full mind, not an empty one, is the solution — a mind full of God’s assurances. Strangely enough, I think we see a series of assuring reminders from God’s story (headline) in our text this morning.

God’s story was “written” before us.

v. 21 “And Isaac prayed to the LORD for his wife, because she was barren. And the LORD granted his prayer...” First, we’re reminded that God’s story was “written” before us. God doesn’t have a beginning, but we do. God put us here “in the beginning”, and what assurance it is to know that He put us here with a plan that precedes us. Time and again, God reminds his frightened, dismayed, and confused children that He has a plan that He has written start to finish so that we can know that nothing we experience is aimless and no trouble that we face is endless. When God wrote chapter one, He knew exactly where He would land in the conclusion. God says through the prophet Isaiah, “I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done.” God has written this story so that his saving, redeeming character is revealed incrementally until ultimately all of creation is recreated, singing the song of redemption. That’s what the promise that God made to Abraham is all about. And, that’s the promise that’s already in trouble again here. God promised Abraham that his seed, his offspring would be a nation that would bless every nation on earth. And, Abraham must’ve wondered why a God so great would give a promise so precious to a man with a barren wife. Until Isaac came. But, God didn’t just do that once. He did it twice. Isaac’s wife, Rebekah is barren just as Sarah was.

A Miraculous People

Now, why would God establish the very people that were to make him known to all the world this way? Infertility seems like a cruel and painful path for a God to start a nation. But, the people of God weren’t to be a natural, ordinary people. God’s people are a “miraculous” people, conceived by his making, not man’s. That’s both then and now. What would set these apart wasn’t Abraham’s greatness of Isaac’s greatness, but God’s greatness. So, what frustrated Abraham and threatened Isaac was used by God to set apart a nation with a miraculous origin. The children of the promise are miraculously born. They are the answer to 20 years of prayers. They are born to barren women. And, it was also a reminder of ownership. It was an illustration of who was the potter and who was the clay. These promises were given by God, and they could only be kept by God.

Now, why would God establish the very people that were to make him known to all the world this way? Infertility seems like a cruel and painful path for a God to start a nation. But, the people of God weren’t to be a natural, ordinary people. God’s people were to be a miraculous people, conceived by his making, not man’s. What would set them apart wasn’t Abraham’s greatness of Isaac’s greatness, but God’s greatness. So, what frustrated Abraham and threatened Isaac was used by God to set apart a nation with a miraculous origin. And, it was also a reminder of ownership. It was an illustration of who was the potter and who was the clay. These promises were given by God, and they could only be kept by God. This was God’s story for God’s glory, and it would only take place by God’s grace. Isaac was God’s child, not Abraham’s. And, Jacob and Esau were the same. They didn’t belong to Isaac. They didn’t belong to Rebekah. In fact, they didn’t even belong to themselves. They belonged to God, without whom they would not have been. This is an early picture of us. We’re the new Israel. The New Covenant people of God. And, we are a Church that is born miraculously. We are born not by our merit or our heritage or our strength. We are not made by natural means at all. We are born again of the Spirit of God as a miraculous people. Born in Christ, we say, “I am not my own. I belong to God now and forever.” We are a miraculous church conceived by miraculous means to be a blessing to all nations. What we have here is a powerful foreshadowing. It’s a story written long ago coming to pass in part now and in full later.

“Jacob I Loved, Esau I hated”

v. 23 “the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger” You might expect a pregnancy given to you so miraculously would move smoothly from baby bump to second trimester glow to smooth delivery, but that isn’t the case. For Rebekah, it feels like there’s a war taking place inside of her, and she so she goes to God with it: “If this is from you and you have given me a child through whom your promise will be fulfilled, why does this seem to be going so poorly?” And, what God says to her, must’ve stopped her in her tracks. Now, remember, there were no 4D sonograms happening here. They’re totally in the dark about what’s going on until they’re holding the baby. And so, God tells her that she’s not having one child but two. And, He tells her that there’s always going to be conflict between them. They’re going to become two different nations, in fact. This means that only one of the boys will be the child of the Promise. The younger child will be the Seed of Abraham, the Child of the Promise, and the other will establish a nation that will constantly be ruled over by the other. Now, it’s important to note that at this point, neither child has done anything right or wrong. Neither child has made any good decisions or destructive decisions. Neither child is more worthy or less worthy. This has nothing to do with merit. And, this has everything to do with the future. We’re here at the beginning, and God is telling Rebekah what’s going to happen generations from now. Rebekah is thinking about the here and now, but God is pointing her toward the future generations. So, this is an assuring, unnerving oracle that is given. It’s both a promise and a curse. It’s assuring that the promise will continue and God will build his miraculous people, but it is unnerving in that one of the children will join the other nations of earth under the wrath of God.

God Has a Plan

Now, maybe you’re wondering how on earth that could encourage you, but there was a word there for Rebekah. And, it’s a word for us, too. God has a “plan”, and his “plan” will come to “pass”. God told Abraham what would be before it was, and it has come to pass. And now, God was telling Rebekah that He had a plan for each of his boys, and those plans would come to be. He isn’t just making this up as He goes along. He is unveiling the glory of his story, and though we can’t understand every in and out, what we can be certain of is that all of his people will call it wonderful. God’s plan includes painful “realities” but will land on a wonderful “conclusion”. In fact, that’s exactly what we celebrate on easter, isn’t it? On easter, we celebrate the excruciating plan of God because of it’s most glorious conclusion. Imagine being there when Jesus told the disciples that he must be “mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.” I imagine their reaction was a lot like Rebekah’s — assured but unnerved. Until He rose from the dead. Jesus died with a certain future. The crucifixion took place certain of the resurrection. We live certain today that the end is coming, and it’s coming just as God says it is.

God’s story doesn’t “depend” on us.

v. 23 “the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger” You see, God’s story doesn’t “depend” on us. God isn’t just the main character; He’s the writer and directer, too. That’s how Paul interprets what’s happening here in . He sees Jacob and Esau as a testimony to God’s Lordship. Turn with me there. Like, whoa, right? It’s shocking when we hear God say, “I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau.” Words that are actually repeated from Malachi 1. But, it’s critical to understanding what God is showing us here. Paul is writing so that Jews would understand that God’s salvation of sinners was not based upon human rules of eligibility. First of all, salvation is no one’s “birthright”. You aren’t a child of Abraham just because you were born in the ancestry of Abraham. Ismael was Abraham’s biological son, but he was outside the Promise. Esau was Abraham’s grandson and born at the same time to the same mother as Jacob, but he is outside the promise. So, you might be an ethnic Jew, but that doesn’t mean you’ll enjoy the salvation that’s come in Jesus through the Jews. You’re a son of Abraham only if your ‘faith is credited to you as righteousness”. You might be born into a Christian family. You might mark Christian on your Census form. You might tell everybody that you’re a Christian, and that you’ve always been a Christian. But, being a Christian isn’t something you inherit. Salvation is not your birthright. If you don’t actually love God and know God and pursue God by faith, you’re not a Christian, regardless of how godly your wife or your parents or your heritage is. Every Jew believed they were saved because they were the children of Abraham, ethnically. And, Paul’s point is: So was Ismael. So was Esau.

First of all, salvation is no one’s “birthright”.

And, salvation is no one’s “compensation”. So, maybe you’d say, well it must’ve been because Jacob was better behaved or a kinder person or a more generous neighbor is why God would choose him as the son of Promise. And, that’s why Paul points out: “though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad.” God’s plan for Jacob and God’s plan for Esau preceded them. God tells Rebekah what’s going to happen before it happens. He isn’t compensating Jacob for being good; He’s planning to rescue Jacob from himself. It’s his plan. And, maybe you’d say, but maybe God foresaw that Jacob would be good and that’s why he was selected as the son of Promise? Except that doesn’t make sense with the rest of the story. Jacob’s first action on earth is an act of aggression toward his brother, by clinging to his heel as though he’s trying to hold him back from the blessing. His very next action is to deceive his brother out of his birthright.

Lavish Mercy not Injustice

And, that’s why Paul writes verse 14. Maybe you’d say, “This is unjust!” “By no means!” God made Jacob, and God made Esau. He is the potter, and they are the clay. He placed them miraculously in their mother’s womb.” And, the hatred of Esau isn’t malice toward Esau; it’s a love for Jacob so lavish that it looks like hatred in comparison. You see, this isn’t about justice; this is about mercy. That’s Paul’s point. “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.” Justice says, “Condemn them all.” Mercy says, “I will redeem a remnant to know me and love me and receive from me — against all odds and against all of nature.” It isn’t unjust to find one family in the midst of many and provide a Christmas gifts and a meal for them. It isn’t unjust to cancel the debt of a single mother, even though the others with debt still pay. It isn’t unjust to adopt an orphan and bring them off the streets and into your house to love and to enjoy Christmas and to receive an inheritance. No! It’s wonderfully, powerfully, lavishly merciful!

It’s interesting how God, all the way through Genesis, chooses the wrong the son to be the representative of his promise, isn’t it? The law of the day was that the older son was the patriarch of the family, but God always calls the younger son, the lesser son. He receives Able’s offering, but not Cain’s, though Cain is oldest. He chooses Isaac, not Ismael, though Ismael was the legal heir. He chooses Jacob, not Esau. And, He chooses us. He chose me. He chose you. What sense is that? We are the wrong son brought into the promise by the sovereign grace of God.

You Can’t Lose Grace

Imagine the Israelites, the very children of Jacob, hearing Moses read these words as they wandered in the wilderness. How could they be certain that the Promise would hold? How could they be certain that their hope wouldn’t be put to shame? How could they be certain that God wouldn’t look at how wretched they were and how unfaithful they were and change his mind? Look at God’s commitment to Jacob, in spite of Jacob. Our assurance is as unshakable as God’s promises. God doesn’t “disinherit” his children. This is what election teaches. It teaches assurance. It’s assurance that God’s story doesn’t depend on us. We can’t ruin the will of God for him. And, we can’t lose what He has given to us. We didn’t earn it, and we weren’t entitled to it to begin with. You can’t lose what’s freely given! “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,“For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

God’s story is “accomplished” through us.

v. 31 “Jacob said, ‘Sell me your birthright now.” But, that doesn’t mean that we’re condemned to a life of cold fatalism. We’re not just a bunch of robots clanking around waiting for our batteries to run out. We make real decisions, and those decisions matter. In fact, we see this clearly in verses 29-34. And, what we see is that God isn’t reacting to our decisions as one caught off guard. Instead, He’s at work through them. God’s story is “accomplished” through us. It’s interesting that what we have replaying here is essentially a reenactment of what happened in the Garden of Eden. Esau is this Shrek like guy who loves to hunt, and Jacob is described as one who is quiet, calculating. Esau lives by his emotions and impulses. Jacob lives by his ambitions and opportunism. Esau is bulldozing his way through life while Jacob is lying in wait for an opportunity to pounce upon his chance — like a serpent. And, one day, Esau comes in from what must’ve been an extended time hunting, and Jacob is cooking a pot of bean soup. Esau is absolutely famished. He’s so hungry that he says that he’s about to die and pleads with his brother for his soup. And, it’s here that we see the worst characteristics in them both. Jacob has been waiting for this moment. “Sure, you can have some soup; it’ll only cost you your birthright. And, I’m being generous! I could just let you die of starvation and take your birthright anyway.” Jacob’s conniving and self-serving and unbrotherly. A man should not treat a stranger like this, let alone his brother. But then, Esau shows how impulsive he is and how unconcerned he is with the promise of God. He was the firstborn. He was the right heir to Isaac. And, he says, “What good is a birthright to a dead man. Take it, and give me the soup.” And, right there, the transaction is made with an oath over a bowl of bean soup. A move that the author of Hebrews calls godless on Esau’s part. So, Jacob’s name, which means ‘heel’ went from one of courage who watch your back to one who would grab your heel and trip you up. It became synonymous with deceiver. So, here, like the Garden, we have the Deceiver offering a tempting meal in Jacob, and in Esau, we have a man like Adam, impulsive and naive, who takes and eats, giving up his birthright as his father’s heir.

They Chose as They Wanted

Jacob did exactly what he wanted to do and so did Esau. These were free decisions made by their own desires. And, those decisions mattered greatly. God’s story was being accomplished, not just in spite of their corruption, but through it. God said Jacob would be the heir though Esau was born the heir, and Esau willingly gave it away to Jacob for beans. The story was unfolding, and it was unfolding through the decisions of men. God doesn’t just overcome our corruption. God works “through” corruption to “overcome” corruption. He works through what’s meant to shame him to glorify him. He works through what’s meant to destroy us to save us.

Salvation by Re-Birth

This has been the message of the gospel ever since the first gospel sermon was preached at Pentecost in . In verse 23, Peter says, “this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.” Do you see it? This is the easter story. Jesus was delivered to the cross according to the ‘definite plan’ of God. It wasn’t an uncertainty. It wasn’t a reaction to the surprise of sin. It wasn’t an unexpected twist the God figured out on the fly. Jesus, the Son of God, went to the cross according to God’s definite plan, written in the story in eternity past. And yet, though according to God’s definite plan, he was crucified ‘by the hands of lawless men’ who were doing exactly what they wanted to do, exactly what they thought was right. It was God’s unstoppable and definite plan accomplished through us and our decisions. And yet, God worked through our corruption and our ruthlessness to save us. Because the very next verse says, “God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.” It turns out that salvation is not by birth; it’s by rebirth. And, the Kingdom is the “birthright” of the “born again”. So, if you’re born again, you know what the future holds, and you can live like it.

this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.