God's Big Picture: Genesis 25

CIT: God accomplishes his purposes purposes in ways that may seem strange to us, but it is all according to his beautiful plan of redemption

Abraham’s Death/Isaac’s Provision

Jacob & Esau’s Birth

Esau’s Foolishness

How many of you have had a plan for how life was going to go only to have it changed by some weird circumstance? When I was in high school I had a plan, I was going to play WR at Furman University, my dream school, but my plans changed when I felt called to ministry. So I adjusted my plans a little bit, I w2as now going to go play WR at University of the Cumberlands in KY, but my plans were changed when I got my 8th concussion in 5 years and had 4 different doctors tell me that I could never play football again.

But you know what that did? It pushed me to go to Afghanistan on mission, a trip that changed my life, it pushed me to move to Dallas, TX to go to Criswell College, and it pushed me to apply to a church in Lowell, NC.

See God had a radically different plan for my life, and he was going to accomplish his purposes for me wether I liked it or not, so he did it in a way that seems very strange, through my 8th concussion. But when I step back and look at what God has done I see how he has woven me into this incredible story of redemption. Tonight were going to see how God accomplishes his purposes in ways that may seem strange to us, but it is all according to his beautiful plan of redemption.

Abraham’s Death/Isaac’s Provision

After Sarah died, Abraham married another woman

This woman was named Keturah, not much is told about her other than that she had multiple children with Abraham.

Abraham gave gifts to his other sons and wives

This is reminiscent to the second time Abraham sent Hagar and Ishmael away. He gave all of these people gifts and sent them away from him to the east

This was so that there would not be anyone to challenge Isaac for the promised land.

Abraham gave all that he had to Issac

We may think that it is strange that Abraham only gave some gifts to his other wives and children, we may even think that it was selfish. But our understanding of inheritance if shaped by the American understanding that it all gets divided up by the children evenly, but this is the ANE, the inheritance would always go to the firstborn son.

But then this is still weird even in the ANE because Ishmael was the firstborn son. Abraham is giving Isaac all that he has so that he can be prosperous. This was God working through Abraham to protect Isaac so that he could accomplish his grand purposes of redemption through him.

God is protecting the lineage of Abraham and Isaac in order to bless the nations

Think about what God first told Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3, that through Abraham all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Then in chapter 21 God tells Abraham that Isaac will be the one he continues to carry on this blessing through. Not because Isaac has done something to earn the favor of God, but simply because God is gracious enough to bring Isaac into his plan.

Genesis 25:19 uses the phrase, “These are the generations...” This phrase is a transitional phrase in the book of Genesis to show that the story of redemption is moving to a new central character. Ultimately leading to Matthew 1:1 where we see this same phrase used for Jesus, showing that he is the true central character of the story of redemption.

Jacob & Esau’s Birth

Rebekah is barren so Isaac prays for her

Similar to Sarah Rebekah is barren, but different than Abraham, Isaac goes to the LORD in prayer for his wife. Instead of trying to figure out a way to have a child on their own terms they trust that the LORD can accomplish this work.

Also, by

Rebekah being barren it shows that the birth of Jacob was not a coincidence, it was God’s sovereign plan and his working that made this happen.

Rebekah has twins, Esau, the older, and Jacob, the younger

It is important for us to know that in this story Esau is the older brother and that Jacob is the younger brother.

Because what is the custom for birthrights and blessings in the ANE? The older son gets the birthright and the blessing.

God tells Rebekah that Esau will serve Jacob

When Rebekah feels that there are multiple babies moving around inside of her she asks God what is happening. Again highlighting hers and Isaac’s faith in God and his plan.

God informs her that these two children will be two nations.

Esau = Edom

Jacob = Israel

But more importantly that the older shall serve the younger. Esau will serve Jacob. Again we see God carrying forward his plan of redemption in strange ways, that the younger brother is the one who receives the blessing from God to bless the nations.

It’s not our lineage that matters, it’s only God’s grace through faith in Jesus

Paul takes this story and teaches us a very important theological truth in Romans 9:6-13.

At the beginning of Chapter 9 he talks about how the promises of God belong to the nation of Israel, but it is obvious to us that Israel has failed and abandoned God when they crucified their Messiah, which was part of God’s plan. But Paul flips it to show that God has used this to bless the nations because, “For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring,”

This means that just because someone was an Israelite, someone who has descended from Abraham, doesn’t mean that they are truly part of the Chosen People of God, that is Israel. But, the glorious part is that there are those who have not descended from Abraham, that’s us, who are a part of Israel, that’s Christians!

See, God doesn’t care about your lineage, he chose Jacob and not Esau to bless. So it doesn't matter if your parents and grandparents are faithful Christians. It doesn’t matter if your family has been going to this church since it was formed. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been dragged to church every Sunday and Wednesday with your parents. If you have not truly surrendered to Jesus Christ in complete faith - that you are a sinner, that he has taken your punishment on the cross, and that he rose from the grave defeating sin and death securing our salvation - then you are still running fast towards the gates of hell thinking that you’re strolling towards the gates of heaven, now is your chance to turn in faith and look to the God of grace for salvation.

But if you have placed your faith in Jesus then here’s something you need to learn from this chapter

Esau’s Foolishness

Esau came home from hunting and was hungry, so he asked Jacob for food

Esau was a hunter, Jacob was a cook. So when Esau came back hungry from a hunt he asked Jacob for some of his stew.

Jacob asked for his birthright

Jacob turns around and immediately asks for Esau’s birthright.

Esau gave up much to receive little

Esau is very dramatic fashion says what good is a birthright if I’m dead from hunger, then he swears that the birthright is now Jacobs.

Esau gave up his birthright, the right to all of Isaac’s property and wealth, for a cup of stew. That’s foolish...

He gave up so much and got only a little

When we sin we give up God’s grace for fleeting pleasures

But friends, that’s the same thing that we do when we choose to sin against the God who has given us grace in salvation.

When we choose to sin we are holding God’s glorious grace in our hands and we throw it away for something that will only last a few moments, every time we sin we give away the most for the least.

The author of Hebrews makes this point clear in Hebrews 12:12-16

He says that we need to “lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet,” Because we need to be strong to resist sin. The author brings up the sin of sexual immorality and says that committing that sin is just like Esau selling his birthright, giving away so much for so little.

Conclusion

I believe that the song that brings these three theological concepts together - that God is orchestrating all of history to accomplish his purposes of blessing the nations through redemption, the God has chosen a people to redeem by his grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone not according to who they are or what they’ve done, and that our sin is just giving up the best thing in the world, that is God and his grace, for something so little that only lasts a moment - is Amazing Grace. Because when we examine all three of these truths together we should be brought to our knees just as the author of this hymn was and sing about God’s amazing grace.