DISOBEY YOUR MOTHER
GENESIS 27:1-45
#mothersday2022
INTRODUCTION
Today is Mother’s Day which is a Sunday where ever since 1907 folks gather and focus on the importance and impact of mothers. Today we are focusing on mothers, but we are also thinking about obedience to mothers. Obedience to parents is a command in the Bible.
READ EPHESIANS 6:1-2 (ESV)
“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), 3 “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”
When I think about obedience to mothers, I also think about disobedience to mothers. I was thinking about my mother and my obedience to my mother and so I called her last week and asked her for some help with this sermon. I asked her for stories of when I disobeyed her. She first could not come up with any stories because… and I quote… “you were a very compliant child.” That quote alone lets you know why talking about growing up is not a favorite topic for my sister.
Eventually my mother came up with three… not one… but three examples of my disobedience.
#1 As a child I would often swing my arms around at the table while eating breakfast, lunch, or dinner. She would tell me not to. I would do it anyway and at every meal I would spill my milk. Then there was literally “crying over spilled milk.”
#2 As a child of the 1980s, I loved big wheels. I would often stop my big wheels by dragging my legs and stopping the big wheel with the tops of my shoes. This completely ruined a pair of shoes in a short amount of time. My dad was an enlisted NCO at the time and we did not have the money for a new pair of shoes weekly. I did not listen.
#3 My mother specifically remembers telling me not to hang out with a young boy named Clayton. Clayton was bad news. I did not listen. It was with Clayton that I broke into a house and was discovered when the family came home to us sitting at their kitchen table. It was also with Clayton that we rolled car tires down the hill to see how far they would go and bounced them into cars along the way not to mention those vehicles at the bottom of the hill that were the barriers to stop the tires.
As I reflect on my life, I believe that I was a “very compliant child” who occasionally got into trouble. And yet, the message today on this wonderful Mother’s Day is: Disobey Your Mother.
NARRATIVE INTRODUCTION
Happy Mother’s Day! Today we are going to be looking into the lives in one particular family and the lesson we are going to learn is: Disobey Your Mother.
There are four people in this particular family:
First, we have Isaac who is a good guy, but if I am honest seems a bit like a taco short of a combination plate. His father was a famous man in the Bible named Abraham and true story… Isaac was once almost sacrificed to God as a test, but his dad passed the test and Isaac was spared.
Second, we have Rebekah who comes from a family of liars and cheaters and likes to play favorites among her children. Her brother is one of the cheat-ing-ness people we see in the Bible and is only out cheated by one person in the Bible… Rebekah’s son Jacob. We’ll get to him in a minute.
Third, we have the older boy of twins named Esau. They are not identical twins and the defining characteristic of this guy is that he is a walking rug. This guy is the inspiration for chia pets and Chewbacca from Star Wars. He is a hunter and loves the outdoor life.
Fourth, we have the younger of the twins named Jacob. He is not exactly the outdoors type, but rather prefers to stay home among the tents and stay inside and is completely a ‘momma’s boy’ in all the ways that term is bad. Also, as I mentioned before, he takes after his mother and is a master cheater and liar.
So that is who we have in this passage: Father Isaac, Mother Rebekah, Son Esau and Son Jacob. Let’s get into the passage.
NARRATIVE: THE CHEATERS SET UP THE DEED (VERSES 1-13)
READ GENESIS 27:1-13 (ESV)
When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called Esau his older son and said to him, “My son”; and he answered, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “Behold, I am old; I do not know the day of my death. 3 Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me, 4 and prepare for me delicious food, such as I love, and bring it to me so that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die.” 5 Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it, 6 Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “I heard your father speak to your brother Esau, 7 ‘Bring me game and prepare for me delicious food, that I may eat it and bless you before the LORD before I die.’ 8 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice as I command you. 9 Go to the flock and bring me two good young goats, so that I may prepare from them delicious food for your father, such as he loves. 10 And you shall bring it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.” 11 But Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. 12 Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing.” 13 His mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, bring them to me.”
This passage sets up for us a very important event in the life of the people of God in Genesis. Abraham, Isaac’s father, had received a promise and covenant from God that he would be the father of many nations and the whole earth would be blessed through him (Genesis 12). That promised covenant passed from Abraham to Isaac. We are told in verses 1 and 2 that Isaac was old and he was sure he would die soon. He wanted to make his favorite son, Esau, his heir.
Now to be honest, this is a bit confusing since God told Rebekah before the boys were even born:
READ GENESIS 25:23 (ESV)
“Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.”
Maybe Becky didn’t share with Ike about the children or maybe Isaac did not understand, but clearly the covenant promises were going to be passed from Isaac to Jacob. This was God’s will. It was God’s declared will that the covenant blessings would pass from Abraham to Isaac and then to Jacob. Why the blessing passed from Isaac to Jacob and not Isaac to Esau is a long discussion for another day, but for now, let’s just say Esau’s path was always veering away from God and never towards Him (Hebrews 12:15-17). And yet, Isaac asked Esau to prepare for the blessing.
This blessing is a big deal. Isaac has asked Esau to prepare to receive a binding blessing from his father. The picture we get is that this blessing is a prayer of the father mixed with God’s blessing and was considered a binding thing that God would honor as the family to whom God gave a covenant. This is a big deal. Isaac, Rebekah, Esau, and Jacob all know this is a big deal.
Esau goes out to prepare for a blessing. Now, here is where we begin to learn our lesson for the day: Disobey Your Mother. Verse 5 shares with us that Rebekah eavesdrops in on Isaac and Esau and knows what is about to happen. Rebekah wants her favorite son to receive the blessing and not her oldest hairy rug-of-a-son. In verse 8, Rebekah invokes her authority as a mother and commands her son to listen to her as she devises a plan to cheat Esau. She devises a way to deceive her husband. This takes lying, some sewing, and some on purpose deception.
Rebekah plans on purpose to help her son deceive his father dramatically, lie, cheat, and steal. May I suggest to you that if your mother wants you to lie, cheat, and steal that you are free to disobey her. Rebekah knows what they are doing is wrong and in verse 13 even boldly declares that if there is a curse or consequences in any of this, it should fall on her. Bold. Boldly stupid, but bold.
TRANSITION: The narrative continues.
NARRATIVE: THE CHEATERS DO THE DEED (VERSES 14-29)
READ GENESIS 27:14-29 (ESV)
14 So he went and took them and brought them to his mother, and his mother prepared delicious food, such as his father loved. 15 Then Rebekah took the best garments of Esau her older son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son. 16 And the skins of the young goats she put on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. 17 And she put the delicious food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob. 18 So he went in to his father and said, “My father.” And he said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?” 19 Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, that your soul may bless me.” 20 But Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?” He answered, “Because the LORD your God granted me success.” 21 Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.” 22 So Jacob went near to Isaac his father, who felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” 23 And he did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's hands. So he blessed him. 24 He said, “Are you really my son Esau?” He answered, “I am.” 25 Then he said, “Bring it near to me, that I may eat of my son's game and bless you.” So he brought it near to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank. 26 Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come near and kiss me, my son.” 27 So he came near and kissed him. And Isaac smelled the smell of his garments and blessed him and said, “See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field that the LORD has blessed! 28 May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine. 29 Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you!”
Rebekah enlists Jacob’s help in the deception and he obeys. He goes and kills some helpless innocent goats and the meat becomes the meal of deception and some other goat skins become part of making Jacob hairy like Esau. It is not important to the story, but how hairy do you have to be for goat skins to approximate your body hair count?!
I want you to notice verse 20. Verse 20 is the point at which Jacob has to decide if he will or will not obey his mother and deceive his father. Up to now, a few goats have lost their lives and there has been some sewing and cooking and nothing bad has happened. I would even go so far as to say when he goes into the tent and pretends to be Esau nothing bad has happened. Jacob questions his identity and he could have backed out, but he did not. Verse 20 is the hinge verse and the place where Jacob commits. How does he commit? He invokes the Lord. He invokes the Lord… falsely. Bold. Boldly stupid, but bold. He is his mother’s son. Jacob says that he is back and prepared because God granted Him success! That is one of those times you the cha-cha slide to the right to avoid the possible lightning strike. Jacob lies about God blessing him.
Isaac eats and drinks and thinks he is having a meal with his favorite child. He is not, but it is what he thinks is happening. Eventually, Isaac blesses Jacob and it is a binding prayer blessing that is wonderful:
Jacob is blessed with bounty from the earth (verse 28).
Jacob is blessed with a promise of ruling over others (verse 29).
Jacob is blessed with divine protection (verse 29).
Again, this blessing is a big deal. Isaac just passed the Abrahamic covenant promises from himself to his son Jacob. This is God’s will. Make no mistake, no mistake was made. God uses this deception for His own ends and His will is done on earth as it is in heaven. It didn’t have to be this way. It didn’t have to be lies and deception and sin and wearing a Halloween costume to trick your own father, but God used their willful sin for His own purposes.
I believe Jacob should have disobeyed his mother. Jacob should have heard her idea about lying and deceiving and should have said, “no!” He should have backed out before the deception was full-blown. He was the heir God chose anyway, but it didn’t have to go down this way.
* Mothers should lead their children to follow the will of God and not their own way.
* Mothers should teach their children to prayerfully remember to Whom they belong and to follow the path that leads them towards a relationship with God and not away from God.
* Mothers should be all about encouraging their children towards love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, and thinking about noble things.
Rebekah didn’t get that message.
I believe Jacob should have disobeyed his mother.
TRANSITION: The narrative continues.
NARRATIVE: THE DEED IS DISCOVERED (VERSES 30-40)
READ GENESIS 27:30-40 (ESV)
As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, Esau his brother came in from his hunting. 31 He also prepared delicious food and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, “Let my father arise and eat of his son's game, that you may bless me.” 32 His father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?” He answered, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.” 33 Then Isaac trembled very violently and said, “Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate it all before you came, and I have blessed him? Yes, and he shall be blessed.” 34 As soon as Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me, even me also, O my father!” 35 But he said, “Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing.” 36 Esau said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has cheated me these two times. He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing.” Then he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?” 37 Isaac answered and said to Esau, “Behold, I have made him lord over you, and all his brothers I have given to him for servants, and with grain and wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son?” 38 Esau said to his father, “Have you but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father.” And Esau lifted up his voice and wept. 39 Then Isaac his father answered and said to him: “Behold, away from the fatness of the earth shall your dwelling be, and away from the dew of heaven on high. 40 By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother; but when you grow restless you shall break his yoke from your neck.”
The deed was done, but it did not stay undiscovered for long. Esau returned because he was a good hunter and prepared the food and walked in for the meal with his father and for the blessing. Immediately, the two men discover they have been deceived. How did it go?
We have two specific phrases which tell us how it went.
Verse 33 tells us, “Isaac trembled very violently.” The picture we get from this word is a mountain torn in two by an earthquake. Apply that to a person and I can imagine Isaac’s cries of anger and shame and sadness could be heard for miles.
The other phrase that tells us how it went occurs in verse 34 describing Esau: “he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry.” Esau is enraged with bitterness and mirrors his father’s reaction. I have to tell you, I would not have wanted to be there. A father and son are torn apart in a moment. They were torn apart on purpose by a wife and mother and by a son and brother.
Isaac doubles down in these verses that his prayerful blessing on Jacob is binding, but Esau asks for a blessing. In the midst of his tears, he asks his father to bless him as well. Isaac blesses Esau and it is a binding prayer blessing that is harsh, but also hopeful:
Esau is blessed with a hard life without many easy material things (verse 39).
Esau is blessed with success by the sword (verse 40).
Esau is blessed with eventual freedom from his brother (verse 40).
TRANSITION: The narrative continues.
NARRATIVE: THE RESULTS OF THE DEED (VERSES 41-45)
READ GENESIS 27:41-45 (ESV)
Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.” 42 But the words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah. So she sent and called Jacob her younger son and said to him, “Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by planning to kill you. 43 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise, flee to Laban my brother in Haran 44 and stay with him a while, until your brother's fury turns away— 45 until your brother's anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send and bring you from there. Why should I be bereft of you both in one day?”
The end results of the lying and cheating and deception go about how you think. Esau is livid. We are told in the last part of chapter 27 that Esau is so angry that he has plans to kill his brother. This is not a crime of thoughtless anger, but rather Esau decides that as soon as his father dies that he will kill Jacob.
The end result of the favoritism of parents, the deception of a wife and mother, the obedience of a son to sin, and the complete dysfunction of a family is that one son wants to kill another. We have seen this before with Adam and Eve. It was a little bit different situation, but envy and a broken relationship led to one son killing another. We are heading down that same path here.
Rebekah hears what Esau plans to do and again comes to Jacob and for the second time in this passage she invokes her authority as a mother and tells her son to run away. She wants him to run away to her family which, as a side note, are where she learned to be sneaky and a liar. Rebekah tells Jacob to run away from the anger and the problems and the issues they created at home.
I believe Jacob should have disobeyed his mother. Jacob should have heard her idea about running away and should have said, “no!” He should have gone to his father and to his brother and humbly asked for forgiveness so that this seed of bitterness that was planted between them all could be dealt with. The anger and bitterness and brokenness would only grow worse over time because that is how bitterness works!
* Mothers should encourage their children to face up to their mistakes and confess.
* Mothers should teach their children to prayerfully make their relationships right no matter how difficult it might be.
* Mothers should be all about encouraging their children towards love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, and thinking about noble things.
Rebekah didn’t get that message.
I believe Jacob should have disobeyed his mother.
MOTHER’S DAY LESSON
In case you have not figured it out, my message today is not actually: Disobey Your Mother. Not completely anyway. I would like to leave you with a principle from this passage that I believe is a needed word for our day and it fits with everything we have been talking about.
The Mother’s Day Lesson: Be careful to whom you listen and to whom you obey.
I think about complementary passages like:
READ COLOSSIANS 3:23-24 (ESV)
Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
READ HEBREWS 13:7 (ESV)
Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.
We live in a world where many people claim authority and have some kind of influence over us. People can influence us towards God and people can influence us away from God. We may listen to a Bible teacher about politics or moral situations or laws and I am saying to you today… be careful! In this passage, a mother influenced her son away from God and he should have disobeyed her in favor of obeying God.
* May you be encouraged to follow the will of God and not some other way.
* May you prayerfully remember to Whom you belong.
* May you face up to your mistakes and confess.
* May you prayerfully make relationships right no matter how difficult it might be.
* May you be committed to love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
CONCLUSION IN PRAYER
INVITATION
I’d like to do something a little different this morning as we have our altar call. I would like to lead us in a responsive reading where you participate as we pray for those who may have decisions to make. The words will be on the screen. I will read some and you all, if you would, read together the bold print.
Preacher: Lord God we come to this time of decision and know that some among us may have decisions with You to make.
Congregation: Lord Hear Our Prayer
Preacher: For those among us who need to accept you for the first time as their Lord and Savior, may you give them the boldness and the confidence to come forward.
Congregation: Lord Hear Our Prayer for their souls.
Preacher: For those among us who need to come forward and pray and converse with You our always loving Heavenly Father, we pray for boldness and humility.
Congregation: Lord Hear Our Prayer and give them boldness.
Preacher: For those among us who need to decide to make this their permanent church home and join our fellowship in membership, we pray that their gifts, talents, and encouragement would be added to us.
Congregation: Lord Hear Our Prayer for our Brothers and Sisters in Christ.
PRAYER
