Genesis-People Relating To God- Part 6-- You Want To Trade ? Series

Please use any or all of this sermon for God's glory

all Scripture is from the NLT

as always- I write like I preach so-----

You want to trade?

Genesis 25:29-34

For as long as I can remember I have liked trading

Whether it is horses and mules

Cows

Saddles and tack

Trucks and trailers

Guns

Pocket knives

Early in my childhood years marbles- and toys

I am sure many of you like trading also

Over the years I have made more trades than I can

Some good

Some bad

I will tell you that I have made some trades that even I could not believe

The best ones where when

Both parties walked away thinking they were the winner

So

In the law of trading

They were good trades

But

Other times

I acted on impulse

Did not check out thoroughly what I was trading for

Or did not know what I had

Traded a decent mount for a blind horse

A good heifer for gimp legged cow

An old but dependable truck for a newer on that ended up having a bad motor

You get the picture

Or even worse

I have made many trades

Where I walked away feeling I had made a good trade or even skinned the other guy

Only to find out that what I traded off

That thing I thought had little value

Was actually very valuable

That I had really missed the worth of what I had

This is where we find ourselves this morning in our continuing study of People relating to God

From Genesis

In our round pen this morning we took a hard look at how God can use people we often think he should not for this glory

We studied all about Jacob

And saw how he often followed the lead of his ancestors

And lied

Manipulated others to get what he wanted

Jacob and Esau made a trade

But in the trade we are going to look at this morning

It was his older brother Esau that made the dumb trade

Please open your bibles to Genesis chapter 25

I am going to read verses 19 -34 for you then back track and tell you the story leading up to today’s passage

19 This is the account of the family of Isaac, the son of Abraham. 20 When Isaac was forty years old, he married Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan-aram and the sister of Laban the Aramean.

21 Isaac pleaded with the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was unable to have children. The LORD answered Isaac’s prayer, and Rebekah became pregnant with twins. 22 But the two children struggled with each other in her womb. So she went to ask the LORD about it. “Why is this happening to me?” she asked.

23 And the LORD told her, “The sons in your womb will become two nations. From the very beginning, the two nations will be rivals. One nation will be stronger than the other; and your older son will serve your younger son.”

24 And when the time came to give birth, Rebekah discovered that she did indeed have twins! 25 The first one was very red at birth and covered with thick hair like a fur coat. So they named him Esau.[b] 26 Then the other twin was born with his hand grasping Esau’s heel. So they named him Jacob.[c] Isaac was sixty years old when the twins were born.

27 As the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter. He was an outdoorsman, but Jacob had a quiet temperament, preferring to stay at home. 28 Isaac loved Esau because he enjoyed eating the wild game Esau brought home, but Rebekah loved Jacob.

29 One day when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau arrived home from the wilderness exhausted and hungry. 30 Esau said to Jacob, “I’m starved! Give me some of that red stew!” (This is how Esau got his other name, Edom, which means “red.”)

31 “All right,” Jacob replied, “but trade me your rights as the firstborn son.”

32 “Look, I’m dying of starvation!” said Esau. “What good is my birthright to me now?”

33 But Jacob said, “First you must swear that your birthright is mine.” So Esau swore an oath, thereby selling all his rights as the firstborn to his brother, Jacob.

34 Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and lentil stew. Esau ate the meal, then got up and left. He showed contempt for his rights as the firstborn.

Focus with me for a second on verses 30-32

“I’m starved! Give me some of that red stew!” (This is how Esau got his other name, Edom, which means “red.”)

31 “All right,” Jacob replied, “but trade me your rights as the firstborn son.”