Turn with me to Genesis chapter
27. Genesis 27. This is a chapter that must be
viewed with spiritual understanding, with an eye toward the promise
made to Abraham concerning the redemption of the people of God
and the Lord Jesus Christ. promised to Abraham was said
in this manner, that in Isaac shall thy seed be called. And that seed is Christ. He was
sent of the Father, and he came, willingly laid down his life
to redeem his people with his own precious blood. And that
means that as we go through this chapter, we're going to look
at what we're reading. We're going to look at these
details through the eyes of the church. through the eyes of the
Church of God, who is taught by the Spirit, led by the Spirit,
who reveals these truths to us. And so we see this here, these
eyes of the Church, through Rebekah's eyes. Rebekah is a figure here
of the Church who is led of the Spirit, taught of the Spirit
of God, to know the things of God, to understand, to move with
understanding concerning the promise of God in Christ. And I say that because, as you'll
see, Isaac had other ideas of who would receive the blessing. Isaac had set his heart upon
giving the blessing of Abraham to his son Esau, the firstborn. And this was opposed to what
the Lord had taught Rebekah and showed Rebekah concerning the
boys that were in her womb before they were born, before they did
any good or evil. And the Lord told Rebekah saying,
the elder shall serve the younger. The elder shall serve the younger.
And so Isaac had plans that contradicted what the Lord revealed to Rebekah. And we're told in another place
concerning this very thing in Genesis 25 verse 28 that Isaac
loved Esau because he did eat of his venison, but Rebekah loved
Jacob. And so as we read this chapter,
as we look at, we won't look at every verse, but at the verses
we look at here, it appears that Isaac really wanted to give this
blessing to Esau. And this is not a foreign concept
to us. Abraham really wanted the Lord
to bless Ishmael. He said, oh, that Ishmael might
live before you. And that was before Isaac was
born. And the Lord told him in Genesis
17, 19, he 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. And so our God is always looking
toward his eternal promise made unto us, unto the people of God
in Christ. That is taught to us right here
from the very first words in Genesis and all the way through
the scriptures. It all speaks of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so man had his idea and what
he was going to do, but God purposed and will to bring forth His will
and to reveal and manifest Christ as he purposed to do it, and
whom he would bless according to his word of promise. And so
the Hebrew writer summarizes this chapter saying this, that
by faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to
come. And the blessing that he gave
those two boys, because each one received a blessing, but
it was in respect to the promise, the promise of Christ that would
come through Jacob. that seed would come through
Jacob. And so man in his flesh had his idea, had his plans and
what he would do, but God's will prevailed overall. So let's begin
here in the first four verses of Genesis 27. And it came to
pass that when Isaac was old, And his eyes were dim, so that
he could not see. He called Esau, his eldest son,
and said unto him, my son? And he said unto him, behold,
here am I. And he said, behold, now I am
old. I know not the day of my death. 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 savory meat
such as I love and bring it to me that I may eat that my soul
may bless thee before I die." Now, the Lord is teaching us
gospel truths here. He's revealing the gospel to
us. He's going to make known to us the truth as it is revealed
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember that back in Genesis
25, 23, this was the promise, this is what the Lord spoke to
Rebekah. The Lord said unto her, 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. And so, This concerns the order
of their birth. And really, salvation is about
birth. It's about birth, right? It was
about birth between Isaac and Ishmael. Ishmael was born into
bondage, born of the flesh. Isaac was free-born, born of
grace. And that's the children of God,
born of grace. Well, here we have a birth order
that's appointed by the Lord. It's appointed by the Lord. The
Lord could have easily ordained it so that Jacob came forth first
and then Jacob would have had the birthright and Jacob would
have had the blessing without any intrigue or deception going
on there. The Lord could have done that.
He's able to do it. He's sovereign. He does exactly as He pleases
and as He wills. But the Lord ordained the order
of these births as it is recorded here for us in Scripture because
He is teaching the people of God. He is revealing spiritual
truths to us about the mystery of God's will. And so as we're
getting into this, let me just give you four lessons here to
begin. Four lessons that our Lord is
teaching us here in the birth order of why Esau was born first
before Jacob. Four things here. So first, it's
to show us that God is sovereign, that he's able to bring to pass
his will in spite of all the works and efforts of this flesh
to do its will. And to do what we would do, God's
going to bring to pass his will, his good pleasure, exactly as
it pleases him. Because we see there that Jacob,
the second born, negotiated the birthright. He was able to get
that birthright. And now he's going to receive
the blessing, the blessing that God made unto Abraham. that in
his seed all the nations of the world would be blessed. And so
the flesh witnessed in what Isaac intended to do for Esau, to bless
him. Isaac was, according to the flesh,
was trying to secure that blessing and give it to his favored son
Esau. And the flesh is doing things
its own way, but the flesh failed. Try as hard as he tried, the
flesh came short of the glory of God, and God's will prevailed
over the will of man. And that's what God does. He's
sovereign. He's sovereign. There's only two kinds of people
in this world, as we see from these two boys here, those that
believe the Lord, that are his people called in grace, and those
that don't believe him. In spite of all the differences
that man makes, there's only two people in this whole world.
Believers and unbelievers. And believers are saved according
to the will and purpose of God. Sovereign, holy God. Now, follow
along with me in Ephesians chapter 1 concerning this will of God. Ephesians 1, and we'll pick up
in verse 7. Because we see that what God
does, he does to the glory, praise, and honor of his name. And he
glorifies his son. And he glorifies his son in our
hearts. And God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit are glorified in the hearts of His people who
worship God, who bow before the sovereign, true, and living God
who created us, the God of all. He's all. So in Ephesians 1-7,
it begins, in whom we have redemption through his blood we have been
purchased by the blood of Christ and through him we have received
the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace wherein
he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence having
made known unto us the mystery of his will according to his
good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself." And we see, going
back here into Genesis, we see those beginning works, those
early works where God is bringing to pass his will. Now we see
it in Christ. We see His will manifested in
what He was doing here according to His grace. That in the dispensation
of the fullness of times He might gather together in one all things
in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth,
even in Him. in whom also we have obtained
an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will."
God isn't reacting to what man does, and what man decides, and
what man chooses, and God isn't saying, well, okay, I guess I'll
go along with that. No. He's implementing his sovereign,
holy, perfect will exactly as it pleases him. He's sovereign
God. And so with that understanding,
we see this blessing goes to Jacob according to the will and
purpose of God. Now second, the second thing
we see in this is that it gives us an understanding of what the
works of the flesh looks like as opposed to the fruit of the
spirit. and how God brings forth His
works in grace. You know, our Lord tells us in
John 3, 6, He reminds us, He says, that which is born of the
flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit
is spirit. And what the flesh brings forth
is what we see Isaac trying to do. He brings forth that which
is fleshly and carnal. That's what we do in the works
of the flesh. We bring forth, we give birth
to fleshly things. So that tells us right there,
we cannot work for our salvation. We cannot do works of righteousness
by these hands, and this mind, and our thoughts, and our ideas,
and our ways, and bring forth anything that is spiritual, and
lasting, and holy, and accepted with God. Only by the Spirit
of God are lasting things wrought. It's by grace. It's by grace.
So it's not man's decision. It's not man's choice in what
man would do. Because all man can do is bring
forth that which is of the flesh. But it's by the grace and power
of God so that one calls upon God and says, Lord, help me,
save me a sinner. That's the grace of God. That's
born of the Spirit that's given that sinner life and calls them
to know their need of God's grace and to cry out to Him for mercy.
Save me, Lord. That's wrought by the Spirit
of God. And this birth of Esau and Jacob, it shows us a picture
of how we come forth sinners, dead in trespasses and sins,
born of Adam, unable to please God, unknowing of the true and
living God, but he gives us a new birth in grace, graciously, because
we haven't earned it. He gives us his spirit and gives
us a new birth so that we're born again. And we see that because
Esau here pictures the flesh. He's the firstborn, that which
is fleshly. We all come forth Esau's by nature,
and all he can produce is carnal, fleshly works, and he can never
receive the blessings of God by his works. It cannot happen,
it will not happen. And you look at what Isaac required
of Esau back there at verse three and four again, Genesis 27, three
and four. He said, now therefore take,
I pray thee, thy weapons. and you take thy quiver and thy
bow and go out to the field and take me some venison. Go get
this for me, son, and make me savory meat such as I love and
bring it to me that I may eat, that my soul may bless thee before
I die. He's saying, Esau, son, you go
out and you do what your flesh does best. You do your best works
and bring it to me, bring me that which I love, and I'll eat
it and I'll bless you. I'll bless you for your labors,
for what you've done here in the flesh. And so he's telling
Esau, I'll give you the blessing of Abraham. If you do this work,
I'll give you the blessing of Abraham, the blessing of redemption,
if you do this work. And I know it's the blessing
of Abraham because go to chapter 28, just for a moment, Genesis
28, and look at verse three and four. This is after the fact,
after Isaac gave the blessing to Jacob, and listen to how he
describes the blessing. It's very clear here. when he
was sending him off to Laban for a few days, he thought, or
the mom thought, but it would be years. And he says, verse
three, God Almighty bless thee and make thee fruitful and multiply
thee that thou mayest be a multitude of people and give thee the blessing
of Abraham. to thee and to thy seed with
thee, that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger
which God gave unto Abraham." And we know that's a picture
that spiritually points us to our eternal inheritance in Christ
forever. And that blessing of Abraham
is the blessing of redemption which was to come through Christ
through Christ, and he intended to give that blessing to Esau
for his hunting prowess, for his skills, for his ability to
hunt and to take things. And I think it was last week
we saw, we were reminded that when it comes to Esau, Esau is
very comparable to Nimrod. who is the mighty hunter, the
mighty hunter before the Lord. He was able to hunt and take
things. And that man hated the true and living God so that he
worked up the flesh and got those men all to work with him and
to build the city with baked bricks that he might build a
tower up to heaven so that he, by his strength and his wisdom
and his power, could bring down the blessings of God, could secure
the blessings and the power of God by his works. because he
hated the truth. He would never come in a lamp.
But God wouldn't have it and God destroyed his works. And so the Lord is teaching us
here that this flesh, by this flesh's strength and talents
and abilities that we do the works of the flesh, they're called,
we cannot secure the blessing of God to ourselves. By the works
of the law, we can't do it. By the imaginations and devices
of man and his imaginations and what he does, we cannot gain
or obtain the blessings of God by what we do. And he tells us
this in Romans 8, 5, for they that are after the flesh do mind
the things of the flesh, but they that are after the spirit,
the things of the spirit. And the reality of it is that
we want the blessings of God, and secure them for ourselves,
that we may consume them upon our flesh, that we may glory
in them and boast of what we've done, to save ourselves and God
others to do." That's what the carnal man does. He wants to
boast and glory in his works. And so Esau is a picture of our
flesh and we're not going to gain the blessings of God by
our flesh, just as Esau did him. Jacob, on the other hand, pictures
that which is born of the Spirit. which is born of the Spirit,
the second birth. Our Lord said, except a man be born again, except
he be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into
the kingdom of God. Ye must be born again, Nicodemus. You know a lot of things, but
you must be born again. It's not what you know and what
you do, it's Christ. He is the grace of God for sinners. Look to Him, believe Him, trust
Him. He is the salvation of God. For in Christ Jesus, neither
circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but a new
creature. Our works don't make us new creatures.
Our works don't change our standing with God. Christ does. Christ
does. It's as simple as that. Christ
does. And so he saw pictures of that flesh and what do we
see him do with the birthright? Because this shows us what we
do in the flesh with the birthright. Right? It says back in Genesis
25 verse 32 Genesis 25, 32, Esau said, behold,
I'm at the point to die. And what profit shall this birthright
do to me? He said, I'm not waiting around
for God for some far off promise that I'll never see. I don't
believe that. What can you give me now to satisfy
my flesh? I need something right now. That's
the flesh of man. We want to consume the riches
of this world upon our own lusts. And Jacob said, swear to me this
day. And he swear unto him. And he sold his birthright unto
Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils. That's
dust. That's stuff born of this cursed
ground. That's all he got. And he did
eat and drink and rose up and went his way. Thus Esau despised
his birthright. For one morsel of meat he sold
his birthright. And that birthright, through
that birthright was to come the promised blessing of redemption
in Christ. That's what it was picturing.
He was just trampling the blood of Christ underfoot. He cared
not for it. It was just a light thing to
him. Big deal. That's off somewhere in the future. I don't have to worry about that.
I'm a strong young man. I can do what I want in this
world. I can get what I need in this world. Well, this world's
a vapor. Your life's a vapor in this world,
and it's gonna come to an end very quickly. Very quickly. And
so like we see, like Paul said, truly the natural man receiveth
not the things of God, of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto him. Neither can he know them, because
they are spiritually discerned. And so this natural man, like
Esau, and we born of the flesh, without the Spirit, we don't
understand the things of God. This is just a how-to manual
of how we get ourselves saved, rather than declaring and exalting
Christ, who saves his people. who is the very salvation of
his people. And so we see there the difference between the old
man of flesh and the new man of grace. The third lesson is
these sons reveal that God is a God who elects his people unto
salvation. He chooses to bless whom he will.
Turn over to Romans 9. Romans 9, and we'll pick up in
verse 10. And I encourage you to read this
whole chapter. when you get home today or this week. Romans 9
verse 10. And not only this, but when Rebecca
also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, for the
children, being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might
stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said unto
her, the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob
have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? God forbid. Absolutely not. For
he saith to Moses, I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy,
and I will have compassion upon whom I will have compassion.
So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth,
but of God that showeth mercy. mercy and compassion and grace
is given by God to whom He chooses, to whom He chose in Christ before
the foundation of the world apart from our works, either good or
bad, and our works don't change our standing and our eternal
inheritance, Christ determines our inheritance. When Christ
died, He delivered us from that body of sin and the condemnation
of that body of sin. And he took us out of that, translating
us into his kingdom of light, out of that darkness, out of
that bondage, out of those works under fear and worry and doubt
and flailing around without anything to buy salvation. We had nothing.
We were in poverty. He delivered us out and he put
us in the body of Christ so that we stand complete in him, having
his inheritance. And so our God does this for
sinners of his choosing whom he will be gracious to. And then
fourth, God used this birth order to give struggles to Jacob that
he ordained for his good, for his learning and instruction.
And we learn and are instructed by these same things as we are
brought through the afflictions of the gospel, hoping in Christ,
trusting in Christ, confessing Christ, believing that God has
raised him from the dead, knowing that we are even now seated with
Christ in heavenly places. And it's done. It's fixed in
him, eternally fixed in him. And so Jacob, what Jacob endured,
because he was not the firstborn, but he endured struggles. And
it was difficult. But yet through those manifold
temptations, and through your manifold temptations, and your
trials, and these things which prove the grace of God in you,
that prove the faith of God in you, that stretch you and grow
His people in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, it's
for your good. That's why the struggles you
have have been ordained and given to you by God. Look to Christ
and trust Him. Cry out to Him. Cast your care
upon Him, but believe Him. He's done it for your good, to
draw you to himself, to hug up on your Savior, to cry to him,
Lord, I need your grace. That's a good place to be. I
don't like being facedown in the dirt, but I know it's for
my good. I know it's for my good. The
Lord has done it for us. We're his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk All right, let's move back now to Genesis
27. Genesis 27 verse 5 through 8,
And Rebekah heard when Isaac spake to Esau his son, and Esau
went to the field to hunt for venison and to bring it. And
Rebekah spake unto Jacob her son, saying, Behold, I heard
thy father speak unto Esau thy brother, saying, Bring me venison,
and make me savory meat that I may eat, and bless thee before
the Lord before my death. Now therefore, my son, obey my
voice according to that which I command thee. So Rebekah here,
she's moved to action. And given what the Lord is teaching
us about Jacob and Esau and Jacob's pursuit of the blessing, it's
profitable for us to look at Rebecca here, to view Rebecca
here as a figure of the church, as a figure of the church who
addresses, who declares, who exalts Christ before the people
and holds him up and says, look to Christ. He's the ensign. He's
the Savior. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. And so she preaches. She's here addressing the new
man, the new man born of grace. That's who she's preaching to.
She's preaching to the Lord's people. She's doing all things
for the sake of the elect. That's how we're to view this
here. And she's making sure that Jacob
knows what's going on. And rather than view this from
the rightness of it or the wrongness of it and the subtlety and the
intrigue that's going on here, what do we see of Christ in this?
What is the Lord teaching us of the Lord Jesus Christ in this?
Because that's what He's showing us. He's revealing Christ and
our need of Christ in this thing. It's not just to teach us moral
lessons and values. Don't do this or do that. Touch
not, taste not, handle not. No, it's to show us Christ, who
is the Savior of His people, who accomplished our salvation.
It's done. The works were finished from
before the foundation of the world. Look to Him. Believe him,
he's the Savior whom the Father has sent. So this passage here,
it speaks to us of substitution. That's something that we see
here of Christ, of substitution. And so to begin, Rebecca asked
for two goats. And she said, bring me two goats,
because I'm going to make savory meat such as your father loves.
Verse 10, and thou shalt bring it to thy father, that he may
eat, and that he may bless thee before his death. And then Jacob
was concerned. He was concerned that he was
going to be found out. If I trust what you're saying here, I'm
going to be found out, and I'm going to be cursed. It's going
to all fall back on me, and it's going to go bad. Verse 15 and
16. And Rebekah took goodly raiment
of her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the house, and
put them upon Jacob her younger son. And she put the skins of
the kids of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of
his neck back here. Because he was a hairy man. So
when he touched him, he was going to feel all that matted hair
that he was used to feeling of his son. And so Jacob entered. He came into the presence of
his father with that savory meat. the feel of his brother with
the hairy hands and the hairy neck there and he had the scent
of his brother all on him so that the father would know this
is my son Esau who's coming into my presence here and and this
convinced Isaac that that he was blessing he was eating Esau's
food and he was blessing Esau. And so Jacob came in the person
of Esau and obtained that blessing. It's a picture of how we come
to the Father in Jesus Christ our elder brother. It's a picture
of the sweetness of Christ. And in one sense we know of substitution
that Christ came as our substitute. He came in the likeness of this
sinful flesh because we can't save ourselves. So Christ came.
He was sent to the Father. He came willingly, and He laid
down His life as the Lamb of God for His people to put away
our sin and to obtain the blessings and give them to us by His hand. And that's what our Lord did.
And having obtained our redemption by His own blood, we now come
in Christ. We enter into the presence of
our Father, being accepted and received in Christ Jesus. That's how we enter, washed in
His blood, robed, not in our own righteousness, but in the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we trust His sacrifice. We believe the word Concerned
in Christ that those who come to the father are accepted of
him. He's well pleased in his son
Hear ye him who said I'm well pleased in him you come to me
in him and you shall not be rejected you shall not be cast out as
a hypocrite you shall not come short you shall receive the blessing
of my son's redemption in him all who trust him shall not fail
to receive the blessing of Christ our Savior we come in that in
his sacrifice in the sweet smelling aroma of Christ's sacrifice just
like Jake as we see pictured in Jacob coming in His brother's
clothes with that savory meat, that sacrifice. That's how we
come. We come to the Father in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ
whom He sent and the Lord receives all who come to Him, loves them
who come to Him in His Son whom He loves. There's a picture of
this in Revelation 14. It says, well, this is the result
of it. Revelation 14, 4 and 5, it says,
these are they which were not defiled with women for they are
virgins. That's talking about we're not
We're not in league with the whore of Babylon. We're not believing
that false doctrine. We're not being led astray by
lies and false religion and false doctrine. We're not defiled with
them. We're virgins in Christ, all of us, that believe. These
are they which follow the Lamb, whithersoever he goeth. These
were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God
and to the Lamb, and in their mouth was found no guile. We're not coming in a lie, we're
coming in Christ. For they are without fault before
the throne of God. That's how powerful, how effectual
the blood of Christ is. That we, who by nature are sinners
in Adam, can enter into the presence of Holy God on His judgment throne,
and God who sees all and knows all finds no fault in you that
come into His presence in Christ." That's amazing. That's glorious,
brethren. That is good news for needy sinners
who have no righteousness of their own. We come into the presence
of God robed in Christ, robed in Him. And so that's what our
Savior's atoning sacrifice has wrought for us. And we are received
of Him. And so the church here, as Rebecca,
she's directing Jacob. She's saying, this is what you
do. Go to Christ. Go to Him. Go to Him who has
provided the sacrifice with His own blood, and He'll lead you
into the presence of His Father, and you shall there worship Him,
be reconciled to Him in peace and rest and joy forevermore
in the Lord Jesus Christ." And so, that's how Jacob received
the blessing, that's how you receive it. Christ in the Lord
Jesus Christ and I'm telling you just what Rebecca told her
son go to Christ go and go in Christ and you shall not be Rejected
though you be a guilty sinner because every one of us is a
guilty filthy vile sinner who cannot save himself and but Christ
has laid down his life for the sinner and Esau despised it,
but Jacob, he pursued it, and he obtained that which God had
given to him before the foundation of the world. It's such a glorious picture.
Let's just stop right there. Just rejoice in the Lord Jesus
Christ. I pray he bless that word to
your hearts, brethren. Come in Christ. Come in Christ.
He's the fountain open for sinners in his blood.