Transcript for: Isaac and Jacob: Deception and Consequences
So we finished with the
death of Abraham last time, a close-up of Isaac's life now
being transcribed by Jacob. Remember, you know, Jacob is
transcribing Isaac's life, Isaac was transcribing Abraham's life, you know, the various
recorders of that history. Early on, we've seen Isaac's
own personal tests of faith and the birth of his
twins, Jacob and Esau. The majority of the chapter
compares the character and the activity of these two brothers, that's what we've been
talking about last time, and it finishes up as we
see one brother, Esau, more or less just giving
away his birthright to his brother Jacob for a pot of stew. God had promised that
it would go to Jacob, but his, but you notice
Jacob's small faith moved him to manipulate in order to get it rather than to just wait on God. God had said this, the
promise is going to go to you. Rebekah knew that from
the beginning, you know. The younger son would be the
one that would get the promise. It's just another case of
manipulation, you know, trying to get ahead of
God, fixing the thing. So, it shows you that
small faith moves you to certain actions, which
many times you regret, in the same way that great faith moves you to certain actions that
cause us to rejoice. And we're all guilty of it. I mean, all of us have had
this type of experience. That's one of the things I
love about Genesis, you know, it's an ancient record of ancient peoples, and yet the stories, the
feelings, the relationships, the mistakes that the
people make are so common, we see ourselves in these characters. I find that so wonderful. Anyways, this manipulation
will cause problems later on, and the next chapters deal
with the continued striving with this family over the blessing, who's going to posses the blessing. Now, in chapter 26, verses 34 and 35, it says that Esau, to the
sorrow of his parents, married two pagan women from the area. So, this sets up the
condition and the strife within the family as
we enter into the story as it is being told in chapter 27. So, let's read verses one to five. It says, "Now it came
about, when Isaac was old "and his eyes were too dim to see, "that he called his older Esau
and said to him, 'My son.' "And he said to him,
'Here am I, or here I am.' "Isaac said, 'Behold now, I am old "'and I do not know the day of my death. "'Now then, please take your
gear, your quiver and your bow, "'and go out to the field
and hunt game for me; "'and prepare a savory
dish for me such as I love, "'and bring it to me so that I may eat, "'so that my soul may
bless you before I die.' "Rebekah was listening
while Isaac spoke this "to his son Esau. "So when Esau went to the field "to hunt for game, to went to the field "rather to hunt for game to bring home." So, Isaac is getting older. He's not really near death at
this point, as the thought, because he goes on to live
to about 180 years old, he's about 135. So, there are some days we feel like 135, and we're ready to go, right? So, he was feeling old. He wasn't ready to die,
he was feeling old, and it was the custom to
pronounce the blessing at the time of a feast. And so, since Isaac was to bless Esau, it seemed fitting that Esau should provide the feast himself. "I'm going to bless you,
you prepare the feast." Some interesting notes
about this passage here concerning the blessing, if you kind of look between the lines. First of all, it was done in secret. He was doing it in secret. He didn't bring the whole
family together and say, "Hey, I'm going to confer the blessing," that was a big deal. No, no, no, just between him and Esau. Rebekah, it says, overheard. She wasn't included in
this, she overheard it. So, it seems that this was not a popular thing that he was going to do. Right, have you never
seen your father say, "Look, between me and you,
don't tell your mother." You know, so this is one of these deals. Then, Isaac's rebellion, yes, I said it again, Isaac's rebellion. Despite Esau's unholy behavior, he had married not one,
but two pagan women, despite God's promise to
give the blessing to Jacob, which Isaac knew about, despite Esau's oath to
give the blessing to Jacob, despite all of these
things, Isaac was determined to give the blessing to Esau anyways. So, you add all that up, and that adds up to rebellion. Number three, the physical blindness. It mentions that he was going blind, and we can understand that, you know, cataracts, things like that. Isaac's physical blindness, however, mirrored his spiritual blindness when it came to favoring
this particular son. Again, such a human thing. How many families have we seen where the parents favor
a particular child, and I hate to put it in these terms, who's just no good. You know, he or she is the devils seed, you know what I mean? But that's the one that
gets all the favors. So, let's keep reading, verse 16. Verse six rather, long passage. It says, "Rebekah said to her son Jacob, "'Behold, I heard your father
speak to your brother Esau, "'saying, "Bring me some game "'"and prepare a savory dish for me, "'"that I may eat, and bless you "'"in the presence of the
Lord before my death." "'Now therefore, my son,
listen to me as I command you. "'Go now to the flock and bring me "'two choice young goats from there, "'that I may prepare them as a savory dish "'for your father, such as he loves. "'Then you shall bring it to your father, "'that he may eat, so
that he may bless you "'before his death.' "Jacob answered his mother Rebekah, "'Behold, he saw my brother is a hairy man "'and I am a smooth man. "'Perhaps my father will feel me, "'then I will be as a
deceiver in his sight, "'and I will bring upon myself a curse "'and not a blessing.' "But his mother said to him, "'Your curse will be on me, my son; "'only obey my voice, and go, "'get them for me.' "So, he went and got them, "and brought them to his mother; "and his mother made savory food "such as his father loved. "Then Rebekah took the
best garments of Esau "her elder son, which were
with her in the house, "and put them on Jacob her younger son. "And she put the skins of the young goats "on his hands and on the
smooth part of his neck. "She also gave the savory
food and the bread, "which she had made, to her son Jacob." So, in this passage, we see Rebekah, Isaac's wife, you know, she devises a plan where she would cook the food. Now, right away your thinking, it seems that Isaac's love for
game food was not that great, since he couldn't tell the
difference between game and goat, so maybe he just favored the son. In addition, she plans to have
Jacob serve it in disguise. Again, neither she nor
Jacob, notice, are rebuked, God doesn't rebuke them for this. The plan was deceitful,
but the purpose was right. They were trying to do the right thing, but they were doing it in the wrong way. So, God doesn't support deceit. The trouble that they were
allowed to suffer for this in the future shows that. But, God lets us work our
way with our own methods if we insist on it, instead
of waiting patiently for him. It's a little bit like,
"Hey, knock yourself out. "If you just wait, I'm
going to take care of this, "but if you want to go ahead "and try to manipulate the situation, "go ahead, you'll see what happens." And they found out what happens, we'll see the results of their
scheme a little later on. So, Jacob is hesitant,
but Rebekah convinces him that her food and a
disguise of Esau's clothing, with this particular smell, and animal skins sewn to
his collar and wrists, you know, would be able to full Isaac. So, we see something about
Rebekah here, very interesting, she's a forceful and decisive woman. She makes a plan, she convinces her son, she's even ready to take the
blame if it all goes wrong. She said, "Don't worry about it, "the curse will be on me." Now, this could be for
the love of her son, but her character so far suggests that she is a strong-willed believer, she's a kind of take charge kind of woman. Isaac seems to be a little
more kind of laid-back. You know, if you're looking
at the two characters, there's a messenger that
goes out to find him a wife, and bring him a wife, you know, and it says she comforted him after the death of his mother. You know, you kind of get an idea of what kind of man he is. Her strength, Rebekah's
strength is her zeal for God, and doing God's will, but
her weakness is impatience, impatience and self-will. And again, you know, how
many people are like that? "We want to do the right thing, "we're going to do it. "We're not afraid to go ahead," and a lot of times, we're trying
to get to the right result, but we take all kinds of back roads in order to get there, like this. So, the story keeps on
going, verse 18 it says, "Then he came to his father and said, "'My father.' "And he said, 'Here I am. "'Who are you, my son?' "Jacob said to his father,
'I am Esau your firstborn; "'I have done as you told me. "'Get up, please, sit and eat of my game, "'that you may bless me.' "Isaac said to his son, "'How is it that you have
it so quickly, my son?' "And he said, 'Because the Lord your God "'caused it to happen to me.' "Then Isaac said to
Jacob, 'Please come close, "'that I may feel you, my son, "'whether you are really
my son Esau or not.' "so Jacob came close to Isaac's father, "and he felt him and said, "'The voice is the voice of Jacob, "'but the hands are the hands of Esau.' "He did not recognize
him, because his hands "were hairy like his brother Esau's hands; "so he blessed him. "And he said, 'Are you
really my son Esau?' "and he said," oops, wait. Let me go back here. "'See, the smell of my son is
like the smell of the field "'which the Lord has blessed;'" there we go. Verse 28 says, "'Now may God
give you the dew of heaven, "'And of the fatness of the earth, "'And an abundance of grain and new wine; "'May peoples serve you,
And nations bow down to you; "'Be master of your brothers, "'And may your mother's
sons bow down to you. "'Cursed be those who curse you, "'And blessed be those who bless you." A long passage there. You know, one question
arises from this passage, why did God honor this blessing when it was received
through deception and lies? Certainly not because God justifies, or doesn't care about lies. Certainly not because the
means justifies the end, or the end justifies the means. You know, certainly
that's not how we play, that's not, you know, that's not our God. Not, you know, the end
justifies the means, you know, that's not how we work. The answer is, because
God honors our will, for good or evil, He honors our will. He allows us to choose. That's why, you know, a good
goal was pursued in a wrong way He allowed it to happen. God promised the blessing to Jacob, but his mother and
Jacob went ahead of God, like Abraham and Sarah did, you know, the apple doesn't
fall far from the tree. So, they went ahead of God in
order to work the thing out, and God permitted them to do it, but He also permitted them
to suffer the consequences. See, that's free will. You get to choose, but you get to choose, you know, your choice will also determine the consequences that you
will suffer afterwards. "If you obey me," He says, "You live. "If you disobey me, you will die." So, the sins were definitely
on Esau and Isaac's hands, one of them for being an ungodly man, Esau, he was an ungodly
man, and he was a sinner, and the other, Isaac, sin
was on his hands as well, because he refused to do God's will. I mean, it was blatant. God would've handled them and the blessing in His own way in time, but Jacob and Rebekah
would not have sinned, if they would not have sinned,
or kind of rushed ahead. So, this brings up
another ethical problem, and that's the problem of
the lesser of two evils. You know, sometimes we're in
a situation where the options, well, our options are bad, and worse. You know, like you ever
been in a situation, you know, bad and worse. For example, a woman, you
know, a pregnant woman is going to die. There's no doubt about it, she's gonna die if she doesn't abort the child. And I'm not going to go into all
the medical reasons for that, but we know that that
happens from time to time. In certain types of pregnancies, you know, a woman won't survive it. So, it's the mother, or it's the child. Is there a good choice there? No. It's bad, or it's worse. Or, people will be murdered if the one hiding them does not lie. Or, 10 people are deadly
ill with a terrible disease, but there are only five
vaccines available. You know, no good choices here. So, the Bible also shows example of people who had to break, you
know, one of God's commands in order to obey another. For example, the Hebrew midwives who disobeyed civil authority, the king's edict was to
kill the male children, well, they disobeyed that in order to save the Jewish babies. And of course, risking their own lives, so you know, bad and worse. Bad, kill the kids, or not kill the kids, or disobey the king and
have ourselves killed. You know, no good choice here. Or, Rahab, the harlot lied to the Army and jeopardized her family in
order to protect the spies. So, somewhat argue that Jacob and Rebekah lied and practiced deceit in
order to preserve the promise, and save it from going into
the hands of an ungodly man, thus bringing condemnation
and destruction on the family, but lying to save it was not, you know, not as bad as
what could've happened. You know, a bad thing is, well, you lie to save the blessing, a worst thing is the blessing
goes to a guy like Esau. But in the end, whether one suffers in waiting for God to intervene, or one intervenes by choosing
the lesser of two evils, the one thing that these
situations bring about is the necessity for God's grace to save us in every situation. For those who wait, they wait
for God's grace to save them. For those who make bad choices, they need God's grace to cover their sins in order to save them. It's always the same thing, a lie, even if done to
save, is still a sin, and it requires God's grace. You know, the woman, let's say, the woman and her husband, they decide, "We're gonna abort the child," for whatever reason, you know, "We have other children, I
can't let go of my wife," blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But in the end, a living being is going to be killed on purpose. There's no right thing here. So, a woman lets the child
go in order to save her life. You know what she needs? She needs God's grace to forgive her, and also to comfort her in having to make this impossible choice. Jacob and Rebekah needed God's grace to forgive their flawed plan, even if it was done with good intentions, and because they were in a
faith relationship with God, they received that grace. That's the difference. That's the difference. The point is, if you are in a
faith relationship with God, you receive grace for sins, you receive grace for bad choices, you receive grace for decisions, you know, the lesser of two evil type decisions. It's evil, or it's even worse evil, so no matter what you choose, it's evil. Well, you need grace
for that, to cover that. If you're not in a relationship with God, then you don't receive the
grace, that's the terrible thing. Many nonbelievers are faced
with the impossible choice, two evils, they have to choose one, and then they also recoup the
consequences of those things. The difference with a Christian is, if you make the lesser of two evils, you're still with God's grace. I love that analogy of
the woman with the child, there's no good choice there. That woman will need the
grace of God to forgive her for having destroyed this
child knowingly and willingly, but she also needs God's
grace to comfort her, because she lost her child, you know? So, in the final verses of this section, Isaac gets to the heart of the matter by giving away the blessing. First, he blesses him for
physical and worldly things. You know, prosperity,
and so on, and so forth, and then the blessing of
God regarding superiority, protection, and the fact
that he would be blessed by others, and he would
be a blessing to them. So, despite the rebellion of Isaac, the worldliness of
Esau, because Esau knew the blessing was promised to Jacob, and that he had sold it to him himself, he was still ready to accept it. You know, Esau, this is not a good guy, this is not an honorable guy. He gave his word, he
gave away the blessing. The minute his dad said, "You know, "I'm gonna give you the blessing," what he should've said, "Well, dad, "I'm sorry to say, I apologize, "but I gave it away to Jacob. "One day I was hungry, he
tricked me," or something. No, no, no, no, no, no, he just said, "Sure, bring it, bring it on," you know? So, let's take a look at verse 30 to 33, continue the story. It says, "Now it came about, "as soon as Isaac had
finished blessing Jacob, "and Jacob had hardly gone out "from the presence of Isaac his father, "that Esau his brother
came in from his hunting. "Then he also made savory food, "and brought it to his father; "and he said to his father,
'Let my father arise "'and eat of his son's game,
that you may bless me.' "Isaac his father said
to him, ' Who are you?' "And he said, 'I am your
son, your firstborn, Esau.' "Then Isaac trembled violently, and said, "'Who was he then that hunting
game and brought it to me, "'so that I ate of all
of it before you came, "'and blessed him? "'Yes, and he shall be blessed.'" So, Isaac and Esau learn
of Jacob and Rebekah's, you know, deceit. You know, it's interesting
that Isaac confirms that Jacob, notice he says,
"He shall be blessed." I mean, he finally
gives into God, at last, when in trembling
reality, he sees that God has judged his rebellion
through Jacob's deceit. It's that, "Uh-oh" moment. "Uh-oh," the light comes on. He's been had, he's been,
you know what they say? What is it, gob smacked? You know, it's like God reached down, and slapped him behind the head. Have you ever done something wrong, you knew it was wrong, but
you kept doing it anyway, and then something happens to you to prove that you shouldn't
of been doing this all along, and you get caught? That moment of, "I shouldn't have done, "I knew this was gonna happen." well, that's what's
happening to Isaac here. He loved Esau, he idolized
his sons virility, and he allowed it to blind him, and go against what he knew was right. And so now, God has shown
him, through this event, what he knew all along,
but wouldn't give into, that Jacob was God's choice. It's like it hit them all of a sudden. "God always wanted me to do it, "and no matter what I
did, God has worked it out "in such a way that I blessed Jacob." his trembling was a mixture
of anger at his family, but also fear that God had, by this event, judged his rebellious heart. Terrific moment. So, he's quick to see
this, and he becomes firm, that's why he says,
"And he shall have it." "Okay, I'm through being rebellious. "Don't even argue with me,
Jacob's going to keep the blessing." 34, oh, this is so painful to read this. "When Esau heard the words of his father, "he cried out with an
exceedingly great and bitter cry, "and said to his father, 'Bless me, "'even me also, O my father!' "And he said, 'Your
brother came deceitfully "'and has taken away your blessing.' "Then he said, 'Is he
not rightly named Jacob, "'for he has supplanted
me these two times? "'He took away my birthright, and behold, "'now he has taken away my blessing.' "And he said, 'Have you not "'reserved a blessing for me?' "But Isaac replied to Esau, 'Behold, "'I have made him your master, "'and all his relatives I
have given to him as servants; "'and with grain and new
wine I have sustained him. "'Now as for you then, "'what can I do, my son?' "Esau said to his father, "'Do you have only one
blessing, my father? "'Bless me, even me also, O my father.' "So he so lifted up his voice and wept." He's begging. He's a grown man weeping
and begging his father. 39, "Then Isaac's father
answered and said to him, "'Behold, away from the
fertility of the earth "'shall be your dwelling, and away "'from the dew of heaven from above. "'By your sword you shall live, "'And your brother you shall serve; "'But it shall come about
when you become restless, "'that you will break his
yoke from your neck.'" he's asking for a blessing,
and what is Isaac giving him? He's giving him the bad news of what his future is going to be like. So, Esau is sad, because the political advantage of the blessing
has slipped away from him. The elder will serve the younger means their descendants will have
this type of relationship. He begs for a blessing. Since Jacob took it by deception, he figures it doesn't count. You know, "The blessing
you gave him, really? "That doesn't count,
that was just for show." So, Isaac refuses, and instead, he gives a prophecy concerning Esau, that he'll dwell in
rocky places, be at war, have a brief time of respite. Interesting, as you study, you know, further along in the Bible, Esau's descendants, called the Edomites, the Edomites bear this prophecy out. They lived in the hill country, they were constantly at war with Israel, and they were independent for
a time, until David's reign, but once David took control of the nation, you know, as a king,
and unified the nation, they became in subjection to David, and then ultimately they
disappeared as a people. So, let's just keep going. Near the end it says, "So Esau
bore a grudge against Jacob "because of the blessing with which "his father had blessed him; "and Esau said to himself, "'The days of mourning
for my father or near; "'then I will kill my brother Jacob.' "Now when the words of her elder son Esau "were reported to Rebekah, "she sent and called
her younger son Jacob, "and said to him,
'Behold your brother Esau "'is consoling himself concerning you "'by planning to kill you. "'Now therefore, my son, obey my voice, "'and arise, flee to
Haran, to my brother Laban! "'Stay with him a few days, "'until your brother,'" notice she says, "Stay
with him a few days, "until your brothers fury subsides. "until your brother's
anger against you subsides "and he forgets what you did to him. "Then I will send and get you from there. "Why should I be bereaved
of you both in one day?" And it says, "Rebekah said to Isaac, "'I am tired of living because
of the daughters of Heth; "'if Jacob takes away from
the daughters of Heth, "'like these, from the
daughters of the land, "'what good will my life be to me?'" So, here we go, the deceit bears fruit, of course, as Esau's sadness
turns into a murderous rage. What else was gonna happen? The guy's a hunter, instruments of death. So, Rebekah decides to
send Jacob to her relatives to live, while Esau calms down. Also, to prevent him from marrying the pagan women, like Esau did. But notice, her character,
you know, shines forth. The thing blows up, but she has a plan. "All right, here's what we're going to do. "You're going to leave,
you're going to go there. "I'm going to call my brother,
he's going to take care of you. "You'll just be gone a few days," no. That's not how it worked out, right? But, she's a planner,
she's a planner this woman. Of course, she's planning on
Esau to kind of cool down, and we find out that eventually he does, but it will be 20 years
before Jacob returns, and this will be the
last time that Rebekah will see him, she will be
dead before he comes back. So, her favorite son, you know, she made a plan for him,
she tried to save him, and in a sense lost him. All right, so next time, we're gonna talk about Jacob and his travels, continue with the story. You know, there's object lessons galore here in this episode,
and I just, you know, you know how I do, a couple
of application lessons here. First one is, we need
God's grace for everything. We think we need God's grace only when we do something wrong, but without his grace,
we couldn't even exist. Grace is what brings us into being, grace provides for all of our needs, grace permits us to continue to exist despite the fact that we're
imperfect in every single way. I don't know about you,
but one of my prayers is, "God, could I ever just do one thing "that is just absolutely
perfect, and right? "No fly in the ointment," you know? And sometimes we do, right? Sometimes we say exactly the right thing, at the right moment, to the right person, with the right intention,
you know, and so it happens, and it's such a wonderful
moment, isn't it? But, boy, it doesn't happen a lot. Doesn't happen a lot. So, from morning till night,
and all through the night, we need God's grace to
sustain us when we do wrong, and when we do right, but
we do it even imperfectly. So, one lesson that we see
from these people, all of them, from the dad, to the mom, to the son, they need God's grace
in every way, as we do. Lesson number two, blind
love is not true love. Esau is a good example of those children who are talented and charismatic, they're raised in Christian
homes, with love and stability, but they love the world,
they reject or ignore all the good influence
that is around them, and we know children like this, right? Parents sometimes make Isaac's mistake of ignoring all the signs of fallen faith, and try to love their
children into heaven. You can't do that, you
can't love them into heaven. One thing that we see in the record here, nowhere in the record of Isaac
and his dealings with Esau, nowhere in the record does Isaac rebuke, admonish, or discipline Esau,
you don't see it anywhere. You don't see it anywhere. On the contrary, he
encourages him in his ways. So, blind love is not true love. True love takes the good
and the bad for what it is, and deals with both the good and the bad in an appropriate manner. You know, in other words, you know, true love
lifts up and encourages, and reinforces the good, and true love also calls out the bad. "I love this about you, and so
on, and so on, and so forth, "but this here, this is wrong. "What you're doing here, this is wrong." I remember when our kids
were, a small example, I always use smoking, because
it's such a universal thing, you know, because many of us have had to deal with tobacco in our lives. I used to say to Paul, because you know, he was always the one who wanted to experiment with everything, and I said, "All I'm telling you is this, "you can smoke behind my back, you know, "it'll be the easiest
thing for you in the world, "to go behind me, or you know,
you're outside of the house, "I'm not watching you 24/7, "but I just want you to realize one thing, "every time you smoke,
you're disobeying me. "I don't care if you're 50
miles away, or 5000 miles away, "every time you pull out a
cigarette and you light up, "you are disobeying me, "because I have commanded
you, as your father, "do not do this. "This is destructive, this
is not good for your health, "blah, blah, blah, all
the things we all know." And that stayed with him his whole life. And yeah, did he disobey me, sure he did. Young guys go out, they
go in the military, they try all kinds of stuff, but he's come back and said, "I remember. "I knew every time I wasn't
doing the right thing." I'm just using that as an example. We have to build up our
children, and really tell them, you know, "I appreciate this about you," or you know, "I love
this quality about you," but we must also not be afraid to say, "But this thing over here,
this is not a good thing. "You're gonna have to work on that. "I'm going to pray for you," and whatever. You can't love the sins away. You have to rebuke the sin, you
have to admonish the sinner. And then, the third lesson, of course, come on, there we go. There's always a price to pay. I mean, that's pretty obvious
here, always a price to pay. Isaac lost both sons, and he lost the confidence of his
wife for his rebellion. Rebekah lost sight of her beloved Jacob, and the peace that she had in her home. Esau lost the blessing, he lost
the respect of his parents, the fellowship of his brother, and Jacob lost the entire family. So, everybody was a loser at the end. Jacob for his deception,
Esau for his worldliness, Rebekah for her manipulation,
Isaac for his rebellion, you know, everybody's a loser, because everybody, of
course, was disobeying God. So, even if no one knows, even if you think it will result in good, there's always a price to pay for sin, and I'm looking in here, and we're pretty much
experienced Christians here, I'm certainly preaching to the choir. All right, so next week,
we'll just keep on going with Jacobs great adventures, with Laban, and finding a wife,
and so on and so forth.