Father's Day - The Blessing

MELVIN M. NEWLAND, MINISTER

RIDGE CHAPEL, KANSAS, OK

REVISED - 2016

(PowerPoint slides used in this sermon are available at no charge. Just e-mail me at mnewland@sstelco.com with your request - #219.)

TEXT: Genesis 27:25 34

ILL. One day in school, Calvin, the precocious, smart-mouth kid of the Calvin & Hobbes comic strips, raised his hand in class. Warily, his bespectacled teacher, Mrs. Wormwood, asked, “You have a question, Calvin?”

Calvin replied, “Yes! What assurance do I have that this education is adequately preparing me for life in the 21st Century?” Waxing eloquent, he stood up & continued, “Am I getting the skills I’ll need to compete effectively in a tough, global economy?”

And dramatically ending his speech with a raised clenched fist, he proclaimed, “I want a high-paying job when I get out of here! I want opportunity! I want success!”

Approaching his desk & tapping it with her pointer, Mrs. Wormwood looked down at Calvin & said, “In that case, young man, I suggest you start working harder. What you get out of school depends upon what you put into it.”

Calvin responded, “Oh. Then forget it.”

Thankfully, not every child is like Calvin. Listen to this little poem:

"To get his good night kiss he stood beside my chair one night,

And raised an eager face to me, a face with love alight.

As I gathered in my arms the son God gave to me,

I thanked the lad for being good, & hoped he'd always be.

His little arms crept around my neck, & then I heard him say,

Four simple words I shan’t forget, four words that made me pray.

They turned a mirror on my soul, on secrets no one knew.

They startled me. I hear them yet. He said, ‘I'll be like you.'"

ILL. Fatherhood has changed over the years. I heard about a father being asked who was in charge at his home & answering, "Well, my wife bosses the children, my children boss the dog & cat, & I can say anything I want to the goldfish.”

A. Fatherhood may have changed a bit in our society in recent years, but I don't think God's perception of what the father is to be & do has changed.

So this morning I'd like for us to turn to the 27th chapter of Genesis, to the story of Isaac bestowing his blessing to Jacob. Of course, the blessing was intended for the oldest son, Esau. But through deception the blessing was given to Jacob instead.

As you may remember, Isaac & Rebecca had twin sons, Esau & Jacob, who were not anything alike.

Esau was an outdoorsman with hairy arms & hands & he loved hunting & fishing. Jacob was more of a homebody, & spent a lot of time with his mother.

In the 27th chapter of Genesis, their father, Isaac, has grown old & blind, & he decides it is time to pass on the blessing to his oldest son.

Now a Jewish father's blessing was a formal bequeathing of the father's leadership & authority in the family to his oldest son. And since the oldest son was to assume family leadership responsibilities, he also received a double share of his father's possessions. So the bestowing of the blessing was a very important event indeed.

In Genesis 27:2 4 Isaac tells Esau, "I am now an old man & don't know the day of my death. Now then, get your weapons your quiver & bow & go out to the open country to hunt some wild game for me.

"Prepare me the kind of tasty food I like & bring it to me to eat, so that I may give you my blessing before I die."

B. So Esau leaves, & while he is gone, Rebecca, his mother, seizes the opportunity to secure the blessing for Jacob, who was her favorite. She quickly prepares some tasty food & tells Jacob to put on Esau's best clothes.

To help fool blind old Isaac, she puts goatskins on Jacob's hands & arms to make them feel hairy. Then she sends him in with the food to ask for the blessing.

Listen to vs’s 19-20, "Jacob said to his father, ‘I am Esau, your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please sit up & eat some of my game so that you may give me your blessing.'"

Now Isaac was suspicious because Jacob's voice didn't sound like Esau's. So he asked, "How did you find it so quickly, my son?" Jacob replies, "The Lord your God gave me success."

Continuing on in vs’s 21-23, "Isaac said to Jacob, ‘Come near so I can touch you, my son, to know whether you really are my son Esau or not.' Jacob went close to his father Isaac, who touched him & said, ‘The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.'