The Will Of God And The Family Feud Series

The Will of God and the Family Feud

Text: Gen. 27:1-40

Introduction

1. Read Gen. 27:1-17

2. Illustration: I find that doing the will of God leaves me with no time for disputing about His plans. — George Macdonald

3. Fighting the will of God is like spitting into the wind; it always leaves you with a mess to clean up.

4. Yet people fight against the will of God all the time.

a. They are like Frank Sinatra; they want to do it their way.

b. Prov. 14:12 There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.

Proposition: We would all be better off if we would just submit to the will of God.

Transition: One of the reason people don’t submit to the will of God is...

I. Sometimes People Put Their Will Before God’s (1-5)

A. That My Soul May Bless You

1. As our story begins, Isaac is very old and has gone blind. He feels that he doesn’t have much longer to live and wishes to bless Esau, his oldest son, before he dies.

2. What’s wrong with this picture? What’s wrong is that Isaac was trying to give the blessing to the wrong son.

a. Isaac knew about the vision that his wife Rebekah had been given from God, that the older son would serve the younger (Horton, Complete Biblical Library, 237-239).

b. However, Isaac liked Esau better than his brother Jacob, because he had a weakness for venison and Esau was a hunter.

3. Another thing that is wrong with this picture is that Isaac didn’t even enquire of God about this matter. In fact, he was putting himself in the place of God (Horton, 237-239).

a. He was putting his own will in the place of God’s will.

b. He thought himself so important that he could overrule God.

4. So he told Esau "Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison. And make me savoury meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat; that my soul may bless thee before I die."

a. Notice who was going to give this blessing. Isaac says "so that my soul may bless you" (Ross, Creation and Blessing, 476).

b. Isaac tried to leave God out of the picture altogether.

B. Doing God’s Will In My Name

1. Isaac tried to do what so many of us do: he tried to do his will in God’s name.

2. Illustration: For years, I tried to my will in God’s name. I knew he had called me into ministry, but I thought it was music ministry. I think he wanted me to be a pastor all along, but I wanted to be a "Rock Star for Jesus!"

3. So often we try to put our will ahead of God’s, and when things don’t work out we wonder what God is doing wrong.

4. God has to bring us to a point of desperation, where we have no choice but to fall to our knees and submit to His will.

5. "There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death."

Transition: Another reason that people don’t submit to the will of God is...

II. Sometimes People Get in the Way of God’s Will (6-17)

A. Rebekah Was Listening

1. As Isaac’s little scheme was unfolding, Rebekah was listening outside the tent, and unlike her husband, she loved Jacob more than Esau.

a. She knew what God had promised her, that the older son would serve the younger son.

b. So she loved Jacob more, and felt as though she had to do something about it.

2. So she tells Jacob to go and get "two choice kids of the goats, and I will make savory food from them for your father, such as he loves. Then you shall take it to your father, that he may eat it, and that he may bless you before his death."

3. However, Jacob has some serious questions about this whole idea. He tells his mother "Look, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth-skinned man. Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be a deceiver to him; and I shall bring a curse on myself and not a blessing."

a. His problem with it was not moral or ethical, but about the fact that it might not work and he would get cursed instead of blessed (Walton, NIV Application Commentary, 555; Ross, 477).

b. How is she going to make goat taste like venison?

c. How can goatskin feel like human hair?

d. How about his voice?