“What did your Daddy Say!”
Genesis 32:22-30
I. It should have been Esau wrestling with God not Jacob.
A. In Genesis 25 Isaac and Rebekah are expecting, but something doesn’t feel right; the Bible says Rebekah asked “…why am I thus?” and God responded, “Two nations are in thy womb…” and she would give birth to twins, but during the delivery of Esau, Jacob reached out and grabbed his heel.The Bible says (Ge 25:27-28) And the boys grew: and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob [was] a plain man, dwelling in tents. And Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of [his] venison: but Rebekah loved Jacob. Esau was daddy’s rough and tough outdoorsman, while Jacob was momma’s “metro-sexual” pretty boy. Isaac would take Esau to the Bass pro shop while Rebekah and Jacob went shopping at Saks 5th Ave.
1. One day Esau came home from hunting and was starving so Jacob makes a deal with him that if he will give his birthright to him he will give him a bowl of soup. Esau would sell his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of soup. The birthright was a privilege that was giving to the first born male.
a. Let me just give you a quick lesson church; don’t sale out your blessing for something cheap. In other words don’t take the first thing you see as a substitute just because you need it now. Nu 23:19 God [is] not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do [it]? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? I don’t want a knock off blessing I want the real deal.
2. According to Deuteronomy 21:15–17, a father was obliged to acknowledge his firstborn son as his principal or rightful heir, and to grant him a double portion of his estate as an inheritance; every child got a portion, but the “double portion” was reserved for the first born.
a. Let me mess with some of your basic Bible teaching for a moment. According to some experts there is a misconception when it comes to the term “double portion”, it does not always mean twice as much. The double portion was real estate; it was the entitlement to the father’s property or that which he conquered. The portion given to the other children were things that could be removed from the property (ex. wagons, cows, donkeys, etc.). But the first born got all the land and the means to continue to prosper. To put that in modern terms; that meant that the other kids each got a car but the first born got the factory that makes them.
3. The only way Jacob would get the entitlement and validation of the birthright was by tricking his blind daddy into giving him the “birthrights blessing” which would seal the deal.
B. We read Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but by tradition it should have read Abraham, Isaac, and Esau. Tradition established that the first born was to receive a double portion blessing, but nowhere in Genesis does God declare that the first born had a special entitlement.
1. The Abrahamic covenant never said it was the promise for the first born. God said to Abraham, And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.
2. There are several examples in the Bible where the second son was blessed more than, or in some way was greater than, the first one that came before it; such as Ishmael and Isaac, Zerah and Perez, Manasseh and Ephraim. These “second sons” were not in line to receive yet they got the better blessing.
C. Let me talk to some second sons that are here today. You may ask how do I know if I am a second son? A second son is someone that was told that they were not entitled to or next in line to receive a blessing. A second son are those of us that seem to be overlooked cause you didn’t fit the model or conform to someone else’s view of entitlement.
1. I want to talk to real people, not religious, pretentious, self-righteous people, but real people; I’m preaching this because there are some Jacob’s in this room today. The devil has told you that you couldn’t be blessed because you weren’t worthy. You wouldn’t prosper because you’re undeserving. You would never be anointed because of too many mistakes. You came from a dysfunctional family, have a history of abuse, alcoholism, or drug addiction, born on wrong side of tracks, to those that were told cause you were born with a plastic spoon in your mouth rather than a silver spoon, to those that didn’t get a proper education, were told you would never amount to anything, never be used, to those that were told you will never be able to achieve cause you didn’t look the part, to those of you that feel unworthy, to those that feel left out, to those that were picked last.
b. God’s trying to get you to understand that you were not chosen or selected based on merit for there is none good; God doesn’t bless you because you were worthy, fitting, or deserving. He blesses you because of grace. You may have habits, flaws, faults, and given to failure; but God looks beyond your fault and sees your need.
c. God has spoken some things over your life that looks ridiculous and absolutely foolish here and now. They don’t make sense to the sensual man because the carnal man receives not… There you are weak and God calls you strong. There you are defeated and God calls you more than conqueror. There you are sick and God calls you healed. God calls a poor man rich and a prisoner free. God calls those things that be not as though they were.
2. You may be last, you may not be in line, nor entitled by anyone’s standards, but that’s ok because man can place the order, but only God can establish it. Pr 16:9 A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps. (The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. ) If it was left to man we would be reading Abraham, Ishmal, Nebaioth, or Abraham, Isaac, and Esau but that just does not sound right Ge 17:19 And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, [and] with his seed after him. Ge 25:23 And the LORD said unto Rebekah, Two nations [are] in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and [the one] people shall be stronger than [the other] people; and the elder shall serve the younger. Man always tries to give away blessings based on their entitlement but God has a plan. It was always Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
3. When I was growing up there was a popular brand of shirts called “No Fear” that had varies phrases printed on them; according to No Fear, even coming in second was a sure sign of longstanding failure, there was no trying, only winning. I remember owning a shirt that said “Second Place was First Loser”.
a. That may be the world’s view but my God says the last shall be first. God’s in the business of shaken up man’s order 1Co 1:27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. When Jesus went to the wedding in Cana the best wine got served last.
b. We are living in the best times now; the best wine (the power of the HG) is being served now. Your not late to the party you are just in time! Ac 2:17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: Ec 7:8 Better [is] the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: Jesus said He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; there is still an anointing that breaks the yokes!
D. While I am talking about tradition let me say this in John chp.11 we find the story of Lazarus. You know the story; he was sick, his sisters sent word to Jesus that he was sick, Jesus sent word back He was on His way, He tarried and Lazarus died. Lazarus was buried because tradition said that if you were unclean if you were around the dead, even though Mary and Martha were told that Jesus was coming they listened to tradition over the words of Jesus.
1. So many people in church get thrown out because of tradition. Now listen closely I am not against traditions in the church but I am against it when it hinders the work of God. I am against those that will defend tradition over the Word of God. There are churches today that would rather preserve an image and don’t want any dead stinky sinners to linger in their beautiful edifice. They don’t give Jesus a chance to touch them they just throw them out. They are more worried about their carpet getting messed up, more concerned with church etiquette and enforcing it than a sinner finding a Savior. Whatever happened to we catch them and Jesus cleans them. There are people that are fighting hell when they come through the doors of the church; they don’t need to get hell from those from within it.
2. I am glad Jesus did not cast me out just because I stunk and was dead in sin. I am glad He still called my name even while I was yet a sinner, He called me out of deaths grasp and made me a new creature, old things are passed and behold all things are new.
3. I am just trying to help you understand that you have a place; you belong in the Kingdom of God and are entitled to the inheritance of that Kingdom. Your not a second class citizen just because of your past, just cause you don’t measure up to other’s standards’; it’s not theirs your measured by.
II. A Father’s words have power.
A. Regardless of entitlement the word’s of the family patriarch carried significance. When Esau came to his father to receive his blessing and discovered that his brother, Jacob, had already received from their father an irrevocable blessing, Esau said unto his father, Hast thou but one blessing, my father? bless me, [even] me also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice, and wept. Why was Esau so hurt over the paternal blessing being given to his brother instead of to him? He was devastated because he understood something that very few people understand in our modern times. Esau knew that a father holds in his hand a key to the future prosperity of his children.
1. When a father uses the key of blessing in the lives of his children, he releases them to prosper, his words are a form of validation. His words were meant to empower and direct his children to carry on after his passing.
B. A father’s words were not just used to bless but his words had the power to reverse a curse. Jacob’s wife Rachael had a difficult pregnancy when she delivered her second son; before she died from the complications of the delivery she named her son Benoni which means “son of my sorrows or pain”. Jacob stepped in and changed his name. By doing so he was saying my son is not a pain, he will not live under the weight of a curse that he was the reason for his mother’s death. He changed his name to Benjamin which means “son of the right hand, fortunate”. The right hand is a symbol of power, strength, and favor; Jacob promoted his son from pain to favor.
1. In 1 Samuel 4 records a dark period for Israel they were at war with the Philistines and were losing many fathers and sons died and on top of the death toll the Ark of the Covenant was stolen and taken into the enemies camp it was during all this there is another instance where a mother curses her child by naming him “Ichabod – which means the glory has departed”. He was forever cursed to be reminder to Israel of this dark period.
2. He had no father there to say my child is not a curse but a blessing. His name is never spoken again in scripture, I can only imagine his destiny would have been different had a father been there to reverse his destiny.
C. Your Mouth is a door. In scripture the word mouth appears over 340 times its Hebrew counterpart is “peh” (pa’ah) but there is one deviation when it is used as the word tera’ (ter-ah’) as it is used in Daniel 3:26, which means “gate or door”, what that means church is with your mouth you have the power to open or close blessing or curses. That verse in Daniel was a reference to the furnace that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were in. Your mouth is like a furnace it can consume and destroy or if you have Jesus in the midst it can be a place of blessing.
1. Words are powerful; Pr 6:2 Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth…Pr 18:21 Death and life [are] in the power of the tongue: We need to be gate keepers when it comes to our words. What we release has the power to change lives. Our words reside in a slippery place and we need to watch what slips out. Just because we live in a land of freedom of speak doesn’t mean we have a license to kill! Psalms 52:2 - Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs; like a sharp razor, working deceitfully. We forget about how we got our physical scars but the emotional scars we remember vividly.
2. How many remember as kids making a trade with your friends for something and after the trade you said “no take backs”. As much as politicians and others in the public want to believe there is take backs when it comes to words; there isn’t, once you release it into the wild that’s it Proverbs 29:11 - A fool uttereth all his mind: but a wise [man] keepeth it in till afterwards. You can apologize or attempt to retract or clarify your words all you want but once you say it that’s it. Proverbs 13:3 - He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life: [but] he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction.
a. The unique concept of the spoken word is important for understanding the significance of both cursing and blessing. According to Old Testament thought patterns, the formally spoken word had both an independent existence and the power of its own fulfillment. The word once spoken assumed a history of its own, almost a personality of itself. The word also had the power of its own fulfillment. Both of these concepts are fundamental to understanding Isaiah's emphasis on God's Word: “For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I send it”.
b. The Word of God exists as a reality and has within itself the power of its own fulfillment. When God spoke creation it was a sustaining word, He doesn’t have to tell the sun to rise and set Heb. 1:3, He upholding all things by the word of his power. Formal words of blessing or cursing also had the same power of self-fulfillment. Just as Isaac mistakenly blessed Jacob rather than Esau, he could not recall the blessing; for it existed in history it had acquired an identity of its own. (Genesis 27:18-41)
D. You sirs have a unique role that Satan has been fighting since Adam and Eve in the garden. Eph 5:23 For the husband is the head and as the head of the family you are a target. The head is considered to be the center of life for the body. The head supplies the life and functions for the body. If your head doesn’t work properly neither will your body. In Bible times an enemy wasn’t considered defeated until his head was severed from the body. It was to show the severing of power and life, and then would victory be proclaimed. When David cut Goliath’s head off it symbolized the destruction of the Philistine army. When Satan takes down a father he is taken down the family.
1. There are numerous studies that show that father’s do impact their child’s development. According to fatherhood.org out the 24 million children in America, one out of three or over 8 Million children live in a biological fatherless home. They go on and share statistics that a lack of a father contributes to children growing up in Poverty, having Emotional/Behavioral Problems, that the child will most likely be in Incarceration, or be involved in Crime, there is increased Sexual Activity & Teen Pregnancy among fatherless children; as well as suffering from sexual identity resulting in experimentation and prostitution, they are at risk for Drug & Alcohol Abuse.
2. By Biblical standards a father is an originator, someone who starts something. A father of nations, like Abraham, the Bible says there are fathers in music and instruments, metal working, and so forth. A father is a seed bed, someone with the capacity and potential to take what he has and reproduce it for the next generation. So let me talk to some Fathers for a moment to see what you are starting.
3. I know that we think that by giving and buying things for our children that we never had ourselves is us doing a good job. But Toys break, vacations become memories, cars are bought and sold, electronics are replaced. But nothing conveys love like saying it, words stick with us. A child’s value cannot be determined by what we buy but rather by what we say and do! Luke 6:45 - A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. What treasures are you giving your children?
4. Your children need you to build them up and instruct them, as the seed bed what are your children receiving? The Bible says for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. If I plant watermelons, guess what I get watermelons; if you are sowing (ex.) into your children than don’t be surprised when you get (ex.) from your children. He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.
a. Every night I speak blessings over my girls, I pray for God’s provision even now for them, I pray for their ministries, I pray for an anointing over their lives, I pray for their future husbands, so for all you that are match making my daughter now, I am praying for a real MAN OF GOD! From the moment I learned we were expecting I was already making deposits into her. Look at her now just 2 years old and she prays and praises more than some church folk, so I am not worried when the time comes she will know how to cast out devils too! I am not trying to toot my own horn but when I stood on this stage and dedicated my daughter is was not for show and tell and pictures. I knew what God had given me and the responsibility that came with such a precious gift. I don’t know about you but I want my children to achieve more than I have ever done, I want them to reach what I couldn’t.
III. Getting Validated.
A. I said all of this to help you understand that Jacob understood the power of a father’s validation. When he was wrestling with God this was not just for fun, he was a man on a mission. Jacob had his earthly daddies blessing but he knew that if he was to fulfill his role in Grandpa Abraham’s covenant he needed God to validate and speak over his life. He knew the deal could not be signed, sealed, and delivered unless God confirmed it.
1. Jacob got what his daddy had conquered on earth, but now he needed what God has conquered in the spirit.
B. This whole message has been a setup to help you see that there is power in words especially those spoken over you but there is even more power in God’s Word For the word of God [is] quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and [is] a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
1. When we were kids we asked momma for something she would send us to our daddy and when we went back to our mother she would ask “what did your daddy say” once he spoke it was official. To many people have said things about you, tried to put things on you, but before you let them claim you with their words you better go to your Father and see what your Daddy has to say about it!
2. God has the power to confirm and deny those words. Some of you have been carrying around curses that were placed over you by family members, by society, even by church folk.
3. Let the doctor make his prognoses, let the credit report say you don’t qualify, let the nay sayers tell you it can’t be done, you can say whatever you want about me, yoke me with your words if you like, cause I am going to my Father to see what he has to say about that!
4. Let me say this God asked Jacob for his name, not because they had never been properly introduced but because The Lord had Jacob to say his name because that was the last time he was to identify himself as a “heel grabber”, a “serplanter”, from here on out he was to be Israel “prince”. For those of you here today this is the last time you will be chained to a title, a past, a label, today God changes your name changes your status no more… say hello to…
We have access to the greatest second son that walked this earth. And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. The "last Adam" or "second man", Jesus, was perfect; For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.
The second son Jesus has the Fathers double portion He is entitled to everything that was conquered on earth and in heaven (the spirit). When Jesus was pierced with the spear a place was made for us, I was grafted in, I am on His side, everything He has I get, everything He has done I can do.
Illustration of three legged race. Now that I am joined at His side (joint heirs) I go where he wants me to go, the goal is set; the finish line is up ahead, all I have to do is keep up and stay connected. I got one foot in heaven and another on earth. This is how I can tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy. When I step He steps with me and what I step on He steps on! God told Joshua everywhere you step it’s yours; it was already entitled to them they just had to walk out the portions they wanted. It has already been conquered and claimed I just got to go get it … depression, etc… it has all been conquered!
