This message was preached by Navaz D via zoom Word of Grace Church, on Oct 11th 2020. For the audio please click here.
GOD’S PLAN, THE POT, THE PLOT, THE
PREVAILING PROMISE OF GOD
Gen 25, 26,
28.
GOD’s
PLAN
We are in a
series going through major events in the Old Testament. We saw how God made big
promises to Abraham, that his descendants would be more than the sands on the
shore and stars in the sky. God did it in His time. Isaac was born. A son of
promise.
Now the son
of promise, Isaac has no heirs. He prays to God and God hears his prayer 20
years after marriage(Gen25:26). He saw God as one who answers prayer in His
time. God’s plan was on course.
However
there are not only two babies in Rebecca’s womb, but they are two boys from
whom two nations will also be birthed. (Gen25:23)
Personalities.
The two boys
were born and were very opposite not only in looks but in personality as
well. One was red and hairy and a man of the wild. He loved to hunt, he was
hot-headed and impulsive. The other was smooth-skinned and more domestic who
preferred to the indoors and cook. He was cool but calculative and cunning.
Prophecy.
Even before their birth, their destiny was
marked out for them. The older would serve the younger (Gen25:23). God had a
plan and a purpose. It was his sovereign will (Rom 9:11)
In the same way,
God has a plan for your life.
Today because we are Christ-followers, we have come into Abraham’s blessings.
Also, I am sure Rebecca had shared this with
Isaac and the boys and they must have grown up with this knowledge.
This is an oral culture that passed down family genealogy, history and stories from father to
son.
THE POT-
Passing pleasure leads to perilous pain.
The boys are
now young men. One day Esau goes out hunting but comes back with no game and is
famished. His brother happens to have just cooked some delicious stew. (Gen25:29).
He asks his brother to share his stew.
He asked for his brother’s birthright. At a
human level look at this ask! Was it an equal exchange? Stew for in exchange
for a Title deed and inheritance? Shocking, right?
This is
exactly what happened. Esau exaggerated his
need. Could he not have gone into the family kitchen and got something to eat?
He was driven by his senses that needed to be
satisfied in that instant.
Esau did
not have a long-term look on life. He did not see that he too was Abraham’s
descendant and in that, he too would be blessed. Was serving his brother was such a bad thing?
He gave
into the old lie of it will not be enough, and that one had to be in competition with your
brother and be at the top. He did not think of the repercussion of his
decision on future generations.
Esau too was a child of Abraham. We are all in Christ but we can live as carnal Christians. We can live for the moment, with no thought to our eternal destiny nor to the generations that follow us.
Our choices have consequences, as we will
see. A momentary pleasure can cause us to lose something of eternal value.
Passing pleasures can lead to perilous pain. We get to choose our sin but not
the consequences.
Do not
invoke grace because the right application of Grace is that grace would have
empowered you to do the right thing. Grace is not a license to sin; rather, grace
keeps you from sin.
Predestination.
We see the same mistake of Abraham repeated here. One would have thought that they would
have learned that God has his way to make it happen and He does it in his time.
Jacob felt he had to
grab it rather than waiting for God to give it to him and did not wait for God’s timing to work things out.
Some of us
can feel were not the scales tipped in Jacobs favour from the start. Yes, God
chose Jacob over Esau.
A woman once said to Mr.
Spurgeon, ‘I cannot understand why God should say that He hated Esau.’
‘That,’ Spurgeon replied, ‘is not my difficulty, madam. My trouble is to
understand how God could love Jacob.’”
THE PLOT.
Chapter
27
Now Isaac is
old and his eyes have grown weak. He
was about 137 years old. He thought he was going to die but he did not. He
lived another 43 years and died at the age of 180 years. (
Verses 1-5
He asks Esau
to make him some food so he could eat and then confer on him his blessing.
Let us stop
and think about this. What is strange about this verse? Isaac knew of God’s
prophecy over Jacob but insists on blessing Esau !!! How strange is that?
Why was he trying to subvert God’s plan? Surely, he
also saw the consequences of taking matters into one’s own hands and how that
turned out for his dad!
The plot
thickens
Rebecca
hears Isaac talking to Esau and decides to thicken the plot. She plots on how
this plant should be prevented.
She like her mother-in-law tries to help God
bring the prophecy to pass.
She schemes
with Jacob to trick the father. Jacob, who snatched once, was ready to take it
all – lock stock and barrel.
(v18- v17 )He cooks a meal, wears his brother’s clothes to smell like him, and puts goat’s skin on his hands to feel like his brother.
Jacob
doubts and asks several times, “is it you my son Esau?” The tragedy in this is all four of
them did not trust God, nor was there trust between each other.
It is only
later when Esau comes in that Jacob realizes that he was truly deceived. The
Bible tells us he trembled (27:33). It does not mention why he trembled. I
suggest two reasons for you.
He may have realized
he should have followed through with his doubt and called Rebecca in on this.
It could be the fear of God fell upon him because he well knew that this was
God’s intent all along and he was trying to prevent it from happening.
He
recognizes and resigns himself to God’s plan when he says to Esau “And indeed he shall be
blessed.” V33. And Hebrews
records it as faith !! Heb. 11:20 by faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau
concerning things to come. What amazing grace!!
Gen 28
We see Rachel
continuing to scheme. She knows that Jacob is no longer safe around his
brother’s murderous rage. She uses a ruse of wanting to find a wife for Jacob among
‘their own people’, to send him off to her brother Laban.
We know how
that turns out for Jacob. He met his match in his father-in-law.
In spite of
his scheming God does not go back on his promise. He speaks to Jacob in a dream
and reminds him of the unconditional covenant.
Gen28:15-22
I am with you
I will watch
over you
I will bring
you back
I will not
leave you until I have done what I have promised. (Gen28:15)
Jacob
unfortunately still has trust issues. And he wakes up and makes a conditional
promise to God
Verse20
If God will be with me…
Then God will be my God
You see the grace of God here. God still chooses to be known as the God of Abraham Isaac and
Jacob – all 3 deceivers. His call on our lives is a covenant call, no matter how
much we mess up. The promise will not be revoked.
If you have
messed up and tried things in your own strength, look at these three and take heart.
Come to God who is ever willing to forgive and put us back on track. Jacob
could not rely on heritage but he had to forge his own history with God.
My story – how
I have had to wait for promises of God with regard to songwriting etc. God
made it happen and is still making it happen in His time.
CONCLUSION
GOD’S
PREVAILING PROMISE
So we see that
all four messed up but God’s purpose prevailed but not without consequences.
Thank God, we
have one greater than Isaac and Jacob.
Jesus in the dessert was tempted
to give up His birthright, His identity as a son is questioned and God’s
promise of protection was mocked. If you are the son of God, throw yourself
down. If you are the son of God bow to me. If you are the son of God make these
stones bread. Thank God, Jesus did not sell his birthright for a piece of bread,
or for a counterfeit title and inheritance to Satan who had not the power nor
the authority to give them to Jesus in the first place.
Praise God,
Jesus overcame and we can overcome by the blood of the lamb.
In addition,
Jacob made a feeble attempt to cover himself in the robes given to a first-born.
We today are covered or clothed in Jesus’ robes of righteousness, which
qualifies us to receive an inheritance that will ever spoil not fade. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment