Left Over Blessings (Genesis Part 47)
Text: Genesis 27:30-46
By: Ken McKinley
(Read Text)
Now last week; we talked about how God’s sovereignty always over-rules the will of man. If you remember; Isaac had fully intended to bless Esau, but it didn’t work out that way. God had said that Jacob would be the heir of the covenant promises and that’s exactly how it worked out. Now it’s true that Jacob and Rebekah didn’t go about getting the blessing in the right way. And I want to talk about that for just a minute before we go on. You see; just because God says something, or promises us something, that doesn’t mean that we have the right, or the freedom to engage in sinful behavior. Like the great protestant reformer, Martin Luther once said, “Grace is not a license to sin.” If you want to see a good example of someone who knew God’s will for his life, and then acted in the right way you could look at David, while he was waiting to become King of Israel. God had told them that he would be the king, but until Saul died, David patiently waited on the Lord and trusted in Him. Basically it comes down to humbly trusting that God will work all things together for good… it’s trusting that God will work it out. And if you know that story of David, then you know he wasn’t idle during that time, but he also wasn’t trying to become king in his way. Instead he waited upon the Lord and trusted in the Lord, and eventually; in God’s time, it worked out just like God said it would. Now some people will say, “Well I have to do something, because what if God doesn’t work it out?” And I would answer that question by saying, “Then it wasn’t His will to begin with.” And so Rebekah and Jacob sin in this. They sin in more than one way. Their first sin was not trusting that God would work it out, and then they sin in all the lies and deceit that we read about last week. And that brings us to our text this morning.
In verses 30 through 36 we see Esau return and all of a sudden the jig is up. Esau comes in and says, “Ok dad, I’m back. I’ve brought you food, go ahead and bless me.” And Isaac learns that he’s been tricked. And I want you to notice verse 33. First it says that “Isaac trembled exceedingly.” Now in the original Hebrew this actually has two meanings. It’s not an easy phrase to translate. Not only was Isaac physically trembling, but it goes beyond that. It’s almost like he was shaken to the core of his being. And the idea here is that, 1 – he’s angry because he has been deceived, and 2 – he’s fearful because he suddenly realizes that even though it was his will to give the blessing to Esau, God must’ve had other plans. And the realization that he had been going against God in all of this really shook him up. And that kind of helps us understand what Isaac means in the last part of that verse where he says, “I have blessed him, and indeed he SHALL be blessed!” In other words; Isaac is saying this. “Esau, I, in my own will and in my own desires wanted to give the blessing to you. I had every intention of it, but God in His sovereignty and His perfect plan, has seen to it that I didn’t do that. So the one who I blessed will be blessed, not because it’s what I wanted, but because it’s what God wanted.”
Now Esau’s pretty shook up about this, and you can’t really blame him. In verse 34 he says, “Bless me as well father!” He’s pleading with Isaac to give him a blessing as well. And this kind of shows us that Esau didn’t have a clue about the spiritual reality of the covenant.
He had already sold his birthright, and in doing that, he had given away his right to the blessing of his father as the covenant head. In Isaac we see that he’s suddenly aware that he’s been going against the will of God, and we see the signs of repentance. He understands that it was God’s will that Esau didn’t get the blessing; but in Esau, we don’t see anything like that. Instead he just wants something… anything, given to him. Here’s a guy who doesn’t even know that he’s lost, demanding more of what is causing him to be so lost. A great Scottish theologian said it this way, “Those who long for worldly blessings often receive them to their soul’s detriment.” The ancient Greeks said it this way, “Whom the gods would destroy, they grant them their wishes.”
So Esau asks him again… in verse 36, “have you not reserved a blessing for me?” and in verse 37 Isaac says, “Indeed I have made him your master, and all his brethren I have given to him as servants; with grain and wine I have sustained him. What shall I do now for you, my son?” Basically; what Isaac is saying here is that he’s spoken the blessing of God over Jacob, in accordance with the will of God, so what in the world could he possibly do to change that, or reverse that?
And as we read through this, most of us are probably sympathetic to Esau. I mean, he’s obviously upset. He’s crying, he’s begging his father for some blessing. But there’s no real repentance here. That’s what Hebrews 12 tells us. Let’s turn their really quickly because I want to show it to you. Hebrews 12:14 – 17 (Read). It’s sad to see what’s happened to Esau, but there was no repentance to be found in him. And the reason why is because he wouldn’t look at himself and see himself for the sinner he was. Instead he blamed Jacob… we saw that in verse 36. “It’s all Jacob’s fault!” No Esau, it’s your fault… you’re the one who’s to blame for your troubles. Ya’ know; people still do this today. They say things like, “The devil made this happen. It’s the devils fault I’m in this predicament.” James 1:13 – 14 says, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by HIS OWN DESIRES and enticed.”
Listen to what John Calvin had to say about this in his commentaries. He said, “That the mind of Esau was affected with no sense of repentance appears this way, because he accused his brother and took no blame for himself. But the very beginning of repentance is grief felt on account of sin, together with self-condemnation.” And guess what? We don’t see that in Esau. We don’t see him looking at himself and coming to the understanding and realization that all of what’s happening to him is a result of his own sinfulness and worldliness. So Esau didn’t come to repentance, because he didn’t see his sin. He blamed it on Jacob. He’s sorry that he’s lost the blessing, he’s not sorry for his sin.
In verses 39 & 40 Isaac prophetically blesses Esau, but that’s all he gets and so in verse 41 he says, “You know what… I’m going to wait until my dad dies, and then I’m going to kill Jacob.” Again; there’s no repentance in Esau’s heart, only murder. Esau was no different than Cain. Luckily, and again, I would say in God’s providence, Rebekah learns about what Esau is planning and so she sends Jacob away. She tells him to go stay with his uncle Laban. And you notice in verse 44 she says, “Just stay with him a few days… until your brother calms down.” Now that’s Rebekah’s plan, but here we see the results and consequences of sin. You see; she thinks that things will blow over in a couple of weeks and then everything will be back to normal.
But she doesn’t understand that sins have consequences, and the particular consequences of her and Jacob’s sins are going to linger around for the next 20 years or so.
So for us; as Christians, it’s important for us to understand that there are consequences for our sins, they may be immediate, or they may be delayed. But we need to understand that. We also need to understand that there is forgiveness of our sins. And the Biblical teaching is that – Yes God does indeed forgive us for our sins, but at the same time, He doesn’t sweep the consequences under the rug.
Let me try to explain this a little better.
Every single sin you and I have committed, or ever will commit, has been paid for by the blood of Jesus. The penalty for our sins was put on our Savior when He hung on the cross. And that’s one of the reasons why we as Christians should never take our sin lightly, because we understand the terrible price that was paid for them. But even though they were paid for, there is another way, in which we still have to face the consequences for our sins. And here’s why… If you are a Christian, then you know that God loves you. That’s what the Bible says, that Christ loved you and laid down His life for you. In-fact; the Bible teaches us that God loves us like a Father… and if He loves you like a Father, then He’s not going to let you get away with sin without disciplining you, because He doesn’t want to see you destroyed by your sin. And we can see the results here in Jacob and Rebekah’s lives.
Esau ends up hating Jacob. These are twins, and one hates the other one. And to be honest you kind of expect Esau to be angry. And the fact of the matter is that Esau did this to himself, but in a sense, Jacob is partially responsible for it as well. We’ve talked about how both Jacob and Rebekah had other options. They could’ve gone to the Lord in prayer and asked Him to fulfill His Word to Rebekah. They could’ve gone to Isaac and explained to him what was going on and what God had said, but they didn’t. And so their sin, and their behavior, bears some responsibility for the way Esau reacts here. Secondly; we see that Jacob has to leave, and he’s going to go spend some time with his uncle Laban. And when he’s with his uncle, he himself is going to be deceived on more than one occasion. The deceiver is going to be deceived. In other words, part of the consequence of Jacobs sin, is that God is going to punish him by allowing him to feel what it feels like to be on the other end. And then; if you look at Rebekah, you see in verse 45, her reason for sending Jacob away was because she didn’t want to lose both her husband and her youngest son, but the sad reality is that she’s never going to see Jacob again. She’s going to die before he comes back home.
But here’s what I want you to understand… God loved Jacob, and whom the Lord loves, He disciplines. God loved Jacob so much that He wasn’t going to allow him to destroy himself. We see this type of thing over and over again in the Bible. God disciplines Jacob, and He uses sinful Laban to do it. God disciplines Israel, and He uses the sinful Babylonians to do it. It’s the refiners fire, and if you belong to the Lord, then you’ve got to go through it. Because He’s molding you and shaping you and conforming you into the image of His beloved Son. And it seems hard when you’re going through it, but the end result is worth it.
I pray that we go through that refining process, we would all see and understand this, and be comforted in knowing that God works all things together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purposes.
LET’S PRAY
