The Will of God and the Family Feud
Text: Gen. 27:1-40
Introduction
1. Read Gen. 27:1-17
2. Illustration: I find that doing the will of God leaves me with no time for disputing about His plans. — George Macdonald
3. Fighting the will of God is like spitting into the wind; it always leaves you with a mess to clean up.
4. Yet people fight against the will of God all the time.
a. They are like Frank Sinatra; they want to do it their way.
b. Prov. 14:12 There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.
Proposition: We would all be better off if we would just submit to the will of God.
Transition: One of the reason people don’t submit to the will of God is...
I. Sometimes People Put Their Will Before God’s (1-5)
A. That My Soul May Bless You
1. As our story begins, Isaac is very old and has gone blind. He feels that he doesn’t have much longer to live and wishes to bless Esau, his oldest son, before he dies.
2. What’s wrong with this picture? What’s wrong is that Isaac was trying to give the blessing to the wrong son.
a. Isaac knew about the vision that his wife Rebekah had been given from God, that the older son would serve the younger (Horton, Complete Biblical Library, 237-239).
b. However, Isaac liked Esau better than his brother Jacob, because he had a weakness for venison and Esau was a hunter.
3. Another thing that is wrong with this picture is that Isaac didn’t even enquire of God about this matter. In fact, he was putting himself in the place of God (Horton, 237-239).
a. He was putting his own will in the place of God’s will.
b. He thought himself so important that he could overrule God.
4. So he told Esau "Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison. And make me savoury meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat; that my soul may bless thee before I die."
a. Notice who was going to give this blessing. Isaac says "so that my soul may bless you" (Ross, Creation and Blessing, 476).
b. Isaac tried to leave God out of the picture altogether.
B. Doing God’s Will In My Name
1. Isaac tried to do what so many of us do: he tried to do his will in God’s name.
2. Illustration: For years, I tried to my will in God’s name. I knew he had called me into ministry, but I thought it was music ministry. I think he wanted me to be a pastor all along, but I wanted to be a "Rock Star for Jesus!"
3. So often we try to put our will ahead of God’s, and when things don’t work out we wonder what God is doing wrong.
4. God has to bring us to a point of desperation, where we have no choice but to fall to our knees and submit to His will.
5. "There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death."
Transition: Another reason that people don’t submit to the will of God is...
II. Sometimes People Get in the Way of God’s Will (6-17)
A. Rebekah Was Listening
1. As Isaac’s little scheme was unfolding, Rebekah was listening outside the tent, and unlike her husband, she loved Jacob more than Esau.
a. She knew what God had promised her, that the older son would serve the younger son.
b. So she loved Jacob more, and felt as though she had to do something about it.
2. So she tells Jacob to go and get "two choice kids of the goats, and I will make savory food from them for your father, such as he loves. Then you shall take it to your father, that he may eat it, and that he may bless you before his death."
3. However, Jacob has some serious questions about this whole idea. He tells his mother "Look, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth-skinned man. Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be a deceiver to him; and I shall bring a curse on myself and not a blessing."
a. His problem with it was not moral or ethical, but about the fact that it might not work and he would get cursed instead of blessed (Walton, NIV Application Commentary, 555; Ross, 477).
b. How is she going to make goat taste like venison?
c. How can goatskin feel like human hair?
d. How about his voice?
4. Now what’s wrong with this picture? It was unnecesarry!
a. God had already promised Rebekah that Jacob would get the blessing.
b. Esau had already sworn to give the birthright to Jacob for a bowl of stew, and while they were different, the in this case the blessing is contained in the birthright (Horton, 225).
c. The blessing was already his; he didn’t have to scheme to get it.
B. Getting In God’s Way
1. Illustration: Once an evangelist friend of mine, who has a tremendous gift in praying for people to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, came to do a revival for me. One particular lady came to the altar one night and we prayed for her to receive the baptism, and at least five people heard he pray in tongues and receive the baptism. However, to this day she denies it, because she said it was too easy! It’s supposed to be easy; it’s a gift!
2. You cannot earn the blessings and gifts of God because He has already promised them to you!
3. We get in the way of the will of God becasue we think that we can earn them based on human standards.
4. God doesn’t need our help to accomplish His will. He is completely capable of doing it on His own.
Transition: A third reason that people won’t submit to the will of God is...
III. Sometimes People Lose More Than They Gain (18-29)
A. "Are You Really My Son Esau?"
1. Read Gen. 27:18-40
2. Jacob goes along with his mother’s scheme and takes the food to his father.
3. Notice the lies and deception that Jacob resorts to. First, he lied about his identity. "I am Esau your firstborn; I have done just as you told me; please arise, sit and eat of my game, that your soul may bless me."
4. Second, he lied about the food and God’s provision. But Isaac said to his son, "How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?" And he said, "Because the LORD your God brought it to me."
a. This was not only a lie, but blasphemy.
b. He said the Lord had brought it to him.
5. Everything seemed to work perfectly except the voice. Even though he was old and blind, he still could recognize that this was not the voice of Esau.
6. However, in the end, Isaac blessed him. He blessed him with:
a. Land
b. Prosperity
c. Victory
d. Protection
7. There is still something wrong with this picture: he lost plenty and gained nothing.
a. He didn’t really gain anything because he merely got the blessing that was already his.
b. He lost his mother. He had to flee for his life and Rebekah never saw him again.
c. He lost all of the comforts of home, and all the possession that his father had accumulated (Dods, Book of Genesis, 274).
B. Losing More Than We Gain
1. Illustration: Satan promises the best, but pays with the worst;
He promises honor and pays with disgrace;
He promises pleasure and pays with pain;
He promises profit and pays with loss;
He promises life and pays with death.
Thomas Brooks.
2. Every time we take the Devil’s advice instead trusting God, we set ourselves up for heartbreak.
3. Every time we try to do it the Devil’s way instead of God’s way we are asking for trouble.
4. Every time we try to accomplish a spiritual end by fleshly means we are asking for failure.
5. "There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death."
Transition: Now, fortunately, we people don’t submit to the will of God...
IV. Sometimes People See the Error of Their Ways (30-40)
A. Isaac Trembled Exceedingly
1. Just as Jacob leaves, here comes Esau with the venison that he had prepared for his father. Now confused, Isaac asks who he was?
2. When he heard Esau’s voice the text says "Isaac trembled very exceedingly..." Now Isaac could have trembled for several reasons.
a. He could have trembled because he was mad about being deceived.
b. He could have trembled because Esau didn’t get the blessing as he intended.
c. However, I believe he trembled out of the fear of God. He realized that he had been fighting the will of God, and God has overruled him (Horton, 247).
3. Then he had to tell Esau what had happened, and Esau cried out in anguish and in anger.
a. He cried out in anguish because he knew his father had nothing to give him.
b. He cried out in anger because once again his brother had deceived him out what Esau thought was his.
4. He also tells Esau the grim news "by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck."
B. Admitting We’re Wrong
1. Illustration: Las Vegas now has a call-in “Connection Confession” line where people can call and confess their sins to a recording. America’s first confession line makes it possible, for a fee of $9 per three minutes, to record your sin and if you want to pay a little more you can listen to other people’s sins. Apparently the service is being bombarded by calls One of the originators said, "It’s a technological way to get something off your chest without the embarrassment that comes from confessing one on one." But do you know what it really is? Besides a money maker for someone? It’s confession without accountability.
2. We all make mistakes. We all miss God from time to time. The good news is that God is full of grace and forgives us.
3. However, can’t we see that it is much less painful to God’s will, God’s way the first time, than to have to find out the hard way.
4. Isn’t it easier to obey God the first time then to be like the Israelites and have to make another trip around the mountain?
Transition: Like the old commercial said, "You can pay me now or you can pay me latter!"
Conclusion
1. We would all be better off if we would just submit to the will of God.
2. But we’ve got to do things the hard way. Sometimes we:
a. Put our will before God’s
b. Get in the way of God’s will
c. Lose more than we gain
d. Admit we were wrong
3. Isn’t it easier to just do things God’s way?
