Genesis chapter 27. Title of
the lesson is The Blessing Cannot Be Changed. The blessing, just that alone
is comforting to me. The blessing cannot be changed.
I took the title from verse 33. Let me start reading in verse
30, then I'll go back and we'll pick up a few places, but there's
way too much here to read. In verse 30, and it came to pass,
as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob
was yet scarce gone out from the presence of Isaac, his father,
that he saw his brother came in from his hunting. And he also
had made savory meat and brought it unto his father and said unto
his father, let my father rise and eat of his son's venison,
that thy soul may bless me. And Isaac his father said unto
him, who art thou? And he said, I am thy son, thy
firstborn, Esau. And Isaac trembled very exceedingly
and said, who? Where is he that hath taken venison,
and brought it me? And I have eaten of all before
thou camest, and have blessed him, yea, and he shall be blessed. He shall be blessed. I can't
change it. I cannot change it. And when Esau heard the words
of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter
cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my
father. And he said, thy brother came
with subtlety, and hath taken away thy blessing. And he said,
is not he rightly named Jacob, supplanter? For he has supplanted
me these two times. He didn't deceive him the first
time. I was reading that, I thought, you rascal, you, standing there
lying to your father. He didn't deceive you the first
time. You purposely, knowing what you were doing, sold your
birthright. But he says, he tricked me two
times. He took away my birthright. No,
he did not take away your birthright. You sold it because it meant
nothing to you. Now he's taken away my blessing.
No, I'll tell you what, who took that away? God did. God is the,
is he not the first cause of all things? He says, he's taken
away my blessing. No, God took it away. You sold
it, you thought nothing of it, and God took away the blessing
that came with it, that came with the birthright. God took
it away, and he gave it to Jacob, whom he loved. Now, we know the
story. We know the story, I just mentioned
some of it. Back there in chapter 25, Esau
sold his birthright to Jacob. Jacob didn't take it from him,
he sold it to him outright. because it meant nothing to him.
That's why he sold it to him. It didn't mean anything to him
because he said, what does this birthright, not my birthright,
he said this. He never did own it as his own. It never was personal to him.
What's this birthright gonna do me if I'm dead, if I die?
So he sold it for a bowl of soup. He sold it to satisfy his appetite
is what he did. So time goes by. Years go by. Isaac is old. And he wants to
set things in order now. He's a hundred and, I think at
this time, he's 138, 140 years old. And he says there in verse
one, it came to pass, and when Isaac was old and his eyes were
dim, he couldn't see very well, so that he couldn't see, he called
Esau, his eldest son, and said to him, my son, and he said to
him, Behold, here am I. And he said, behold, now I am
old and I know not the day of my death. I was reading, I believe
it was John Gill said that his brother Ishmael had died at this
time. So he was probably contemplating his own death. But he's around
140 years old here. And he's saying, you know, the
time of my departure is probably pretty close. Well, he actually
lives another 40 years. He lived to be 180. You know,
it's a, but anyway, he's, so he says, now pray take, now therefore
take I pray thee thy weapons and quiver and bow, and you go
out in 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. He was going to give the
birthright, birthright to Esau. He's going to give the blessings
to Esau. I do believe that he knew that something of what God
said to Rebecca, the elder shall serve the younger. But Isaac
loved Esau. That was his favorite. Here's
a mistake with parents of having favorites in the family. It's
gonna cause trouble. And we shouldn't have. God doesn't,
does he? God has no favorite. He is no
respecter of persons. He's no respecter. You know,
Paul said, even though he was the chief of the apostles, yet
he was the least. He was the least. He counted
himself as the least. And so anyway, what happens here
is Rebecca, she hears this conversation there in verse five. She hears
the conversation. And after he goes out, Esau goes
out to the field, she calls Jacob to her. There in verse six, she
calls Jacob in. And they start this plot of fooling
Isaac. They're gonna fool him. It's
time to pass on the blessing to the firstborn. Isaac sends
Esau out to hunt. to cook some savory meat that
he loves. Rebecca hears it, and then the plot begins to thicken. I tell you what, sin is not acceptable
in any form, is it? Sin is not acceptable in any,
even though we may have good intentions about something, the
means that we use, if they are sinful means, are never acceptable,
never. So here they get the plot. She
calls Jacob, and they begin to plot the deception. And I think
what she's trying to do is the same thing that Sarah did when
she sent Abraham into Hagar, is try to move along the purpose
of God. God said, the elder shall serve
the younger. And Rebecca overhears this conversation, and she is
thinking, no, that ain't going to happen. Not on my watch. Because
she loved Jacob. She was partial to Jacob. And
she wanted Jacob to have it. And so here it goes. She dresses
Jacob up in the garment of his brother Esau. And she cooks the
savory meat that she knows that Isaac loves. And she sends him
in before Esau dressed up. Dressed up as Esau. And then
verses 18 through 27, the deception takes place. You know, there's
a gospel story in all this. I mean, just like, just like,
Jacob being dressed up like Esau coming in before the Father.
There's a gospel story in that. We come before God the Father,
how? In the name of Christ. In the
name of Christ. And there's a gospel story. You
say, well, I don't know how you use Esau as a gospel story. Well,
you know, one thing about types, they can only go so far. You
know, types are not perfect. They're not perfect. Here is
such a gospel story in the fact of Jacob coming before the father
dressed up as his brother in the name of his brother. And
that's how we come to God the father. We come to God the father
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Isaac said, you sound
like Jacob, but you smell like Isaac and you feel like Isaac.
or not Isaac, but Esau. Isaac said, you sound like Jacob.
You've got the voice of Jacob, but you smell, you feel like
Esau. And then what happens here in
verse 28, the blessing is given to Jacob. Look in verse 28. Therefore God, it was said in
verse 27, And he came near, it says, Jacob came near and kissed
him. Because Isaac said, come here
and kiss me. And he smelled the smell of his raiment. He smelled
like Esau, his favorite son. Well, there's a gospel story
right there. Smelled like his favorite son. You know, the death
of Christ, the person of Christ smells, smells good to God. It's a sweet smell to him. A
sweet smell to him. It smells like his favorite son.
And it says in verse 27, and he blessed him. It said, see
the smell of my son is as the smell of the field which the
Lord hath blessed. And here's the blessing. Therefore
God give thee of the dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth
and plenty of corn and wine. Let people serve thee, and nations
bow down to thee. Be Lord over thy brethren, and
let thy mother's sons bow down to thee. Cursed be everyone that
curses thee, and blessed be he that blesses thee. He gets the blessing. Well, what is the blessing? Well,
there's some temporal blessings here that we can speak of. His dwellings
would be blessed of God. Jacob's dwelling would be blessed.
He's saying, Jacob's, the favor of God will be on you. Now you
keep in mind, Isaac all this time is thinking of the firstborn
he saw. The blessings of Christ are on
you. The blessings of the firstborn
are on you. You have the blessings of the
firstborn. His dwellings would be blessed of God. God would
be with him. What's that worth? What's it
worth to have God with me? Thou shalt call his name Emmanuel,
God with us. He said the early and the latter
rain would fall on his garden. He would be blessed from heaven.
He would have providential blessings from God. People and nations
would serve him. He would be a conqueror. The
scripture says we are more than conquerors through him that loved
us. He would be Lord over his brethren, head of the family.
He said you'll be head of the family. That's great power. It carried great power and authority
with it. Scripture says we have been made
kings and priests unto God. And everyone, and listen, Everyone
that's your enemy, God says, will be my enemy. And everyone
that's your friend is my friend. Those are temporal blessings
that Jacob in his posterity would enjoy. But what are the spiritual blessings?
That's what I want to look at, the spiritual blessings. Here he speaks of the dew of
heaven. The grace of God The grace of God through the
Lord Jesus Christ is upon you. Not everyone experiences the
grace of God. Not everyone tastes that the
Lord is gracious. Not everyone. One of the great blessings here
that comes to us through the firstborn, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Remember in Isaac's mind, he's blessed in the firstborn. is
that the grace of God would be upon us. That's why Paul wrote
every time to the church, grace and peace. And he would start
his epistles, grace and peace be multiplied to you. How? Through
God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And then God would faithfully
bless him from heaven. God would faithfully bless him
with showers of blessings. We sing a song, showers of blessings. All spiritual blessings are ours
in the Lord Jesus Christ. All spiritual blessings. This
is what Esau despised. The spiritual part, he despised
it. Now, he wanted the material part.
He wanted the double portion that went to the firstborn. He
wanted more land and the control and rule. I mean, he wanted that
part. But the part that connected him to God, he didn't want. It meant nothing to him. But
it means something to you who believe. It means everything
to you. The blessings that we have in
the Lord Jesus Christ that we were blessed with before the
world began mean everything to us. You know, I'm going to lose
everything on this earth, all these temporal blessings. You
know, the Lord has blessed us. The Lord has blessed me. You
know, I have a comfortable place to live. You have a comfortable
place to live. He's given you homes and families and jobs and
you've been well taken care of. You've got the gospel. You have
the gospel here. But you know, one day these homes
and jobs and health and all, it's gonna be gone. It's gonna
be gone. But the blessings that we have
in the firstborn, through the firstborn, will never be gone. They'll never be gone. They'll
just grow. They'll just grow. And another blessing is that
God will make all things to serve him. You know that everything
in this world serves you whether you know it or not, whether you
realize it, whether I realize it or not. Through the Lord Jesus
Christ, who's the head of the church, who's king on the throne,
He rules and He reigns over this world and He makes everything
in this world to serve us. You say, but I don't know this
trial that I'm going through, this heartache I'm going through.
What about it? It's serving you. There's a spiritual blessing
in it that you don't realize. It's serving you. But here's the blessing. Here's
the blessing. Turn over to Psalm 65. Psalm
65. I want you to look in verse four. Here's where I wanted to get
to. It says in Psalm 65, verse four, blessed is the man whom
thou choosest. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. God chose Jacob before they were
born, before having done either good or evil, God chose Jacob. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest. When you look at Jacob and Esau,
I think you see this, both were equally sinful. Both were equal
liars. They both had the same nature,
but God loved Jacob. God love Jacob. Turn over Romans
chapter nine. In Romans chapter nine, let me
see what verse I want to start with. Let me look at verse nine. For this is the word of promise.
At this time will I come and Sarah shall have a son. And not
only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by
our father Isaac, for the children, be 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. Blessed
is the man whom God chooses. Do you believe the gospel? You believe the gospel because
God chose you. Before you was ever born, before
you did anything, God chose you in Christ. And not only did he
choose you, now listen, it doesn't stop there. Listen, and causes
to approach unto thee. You and I were out there running
with the world. We were out there running and
doing the same things the world And one day we heard the gospel.
And one day we had an interest in the Lord Jesus Christ. There
was an interest created. There was a call that went out
by the Spirit of God. And all of a sudden here you
are running with the crowd and God separates you from that crowd
and you start pulling away from Him. And you turn to, you start
turning to Christ, and you have an interest in Christ, and all
of a sudden, he has your attention, and he has your thoughts, and
he has your affection. What happened? You more intelligent
than the people you're running with? No, I don't think so. That's
not what happened. You know what happened. God called
you. God chose you. that He caused
you to approach unto Him. You came to Him. You came to
the Lord Jesus Christ. It is God who brings us near
to Himself. It's God who brings us to Himself. And here's the third reason.
First, He's chose us He's caused us to approach unto him. He's
given us an interest. He's called us and we've come
to Christ. And here, listen, that he may
dwell in thy courts. Here's the purpose of God choosing
you and loving you and calling you and causing you to approach
unto him. He's gonna populate heaven with
a people just like his son, Jesus Christ. And to think that I'm one of
them. that I'm one of his sons, that
you're one of his sons or daughters. And he's gonna see to it that
you come to him because he has a place prepared for you in glory
by his son. Christ said, I go and prepare
a place for you. I go and prepare a place for
you. I'll come again and receive you to myself. God's purpose in choosing us
and calling us and bring us to himself is that we might dwell
in glory in his house, in his heaven, in his paradise, and
be made just like his son, Jesus Christ, who is God. It is God's purpose to have a
people and to think that I could be a part of that people, that
number. And when God does this, he says
here in this psalm, we shall be satisfied with the goodness
of thy house, even of thy holy temple. All God's children shall rejoice
in the Lord and be satisfied, content in his house. I assure you, no one, no child
of God, no saint that has been taken to glory would ever come
back here. I promise you. There's not one
who would come back here. No. You and I weep and we mourn
when the Lord takes them. Because we are gonna miss them. They're our loved ones. But they
would not come back here. They don't miss us. I promise
you, they don't miss us. No, they're satisfied. They are
satisfied and content. We shall be satisfied with the
goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple. And
there's nothing about it we would change. When God finally takes
us home, and we stand in his presence, there's nothing we
would change. You know, when we get a president,
one of the first things that happens is his, Excuse me, ladies. When his wife comes in, she starts
rearranging the furniture, the White House, the pictures, what
pictures they can rearrange. They start rearranging the house.
It's just like, when we moved into a house, the first thing
she does is rearrange the house. Puts her stuff where she wants
it. Of course, I don't know why Elsa's stuff was in there when
we took it over. I don't rearrange the house.
I mean, it'll get rearranged if I do. But when we stand in glory, I'm
telling you, here's the thing, we'll be sat at, there's nothing
we would change. And the blessing, listen, these
blessings that he gave to the firstborn. Jacob received the
blessing of the firstborn, but Isaac, the father, was blessing
in his mind he saw the firstborn but now God the Father when he
blesses the firstborn he's blessing the Lord Jesus Christ all these
blessings the dew of heaven he said you you'll rule over you
know you'll rule over people and nations that belongs to Jesus
Christ he is the firstborn he is the ruler And all the blessings,
all the blessings of heaven belong to Jesus Christ, and they belong
to us in Christ. If you are in the firstborn,
you have all the blessings of the firstborn, and Jesus Christ
is the firstborn. And these blessings cannot be
changed. Verse 34, when Esau heard the
words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter
cry and said to his father, bless me, even me also. Oh my father,
sound like a, sound like a baby doesn't he? Crying. Listen, you
know what, he's, I'm guessing somewhere between 70 and 80 years
old. Because Isaac was 60 when they were born. He was 60 when
they were born, so he's about 140 now. So what's that, about
80 years? I thought about that when you
read this story back here when Jacob, Rebecca's talking to Jacob
and Jacob is saying, I'm gonna get caught here. She said, no,
you're not gonna get caught. You do what I say. Well, you
think, reading that, it sounded like he's 16 years old or something. The man's 80 years old. I hesitate to say this, but he
was a mama's boy. And he never, he never, at 80
years old he still was. She was telling him what to do
at 80 years old. Now I understand respect your
elders and honor your mother and father, but she's telling
him to do something they're wrong. And he's saying, but here's,
here's what, here's the point. He was in on this too. He wanted
it too. He was just, he was just saying,
But here's, let me throw out a scenario here. What if I get
caught? She said, well, let the curse
fall on me. The curse will fall on me. He said, okay, then I'll
do it. That was his attitude. Sinful, what a sinful family. What a sinful family. You know,
Isaac gives Rebecca up and says, she's my sister, like Abraham
did. And Jacob, he supplants and does
what he does. And Esau, what a, what a, Aren't
you glad God saved sinners? I'm so glad God saved sinners.
It was just, it's just a mess. It's a mess. But anyway, the blessing can't
be changed. Esau comes in and he tries to, he finds out the
deception. He tries to get him to change
his mind. You know, the scripture tells
us, I believe it was in Hebrews, it said he, He found no place
of repentance, though he sought it bitterly with tears. He couldn't
change Isaac's mind. Isaac knew. There's two things
here, I think. I think this shows his integrity.
Once he gave his word, he gave it. He didn't change it. But
Isaac knew this was of God. He knew this was of God, and
he's not going to change it. It is what it is. He says in verse 33, I have blessed
him, yea, and he shall be blessed. God has blessed his son, Jesus
Christ, and he shall be blessed. He shall
divide, it says in Isaiah 53, he shall divide the spoiled with
the strong. He's the mighty conqueror. He has been made Lord in Christ. All things have been put into
his hands. He says, all things have been given to me in heaven
and earth. And you and I, who believe the
gospel, have been blessed in Christ. We have those same blessings.
We have those same blessings. And they can't be changed. If
you have been blessed in the Lord Jesus Christ, You don't
have to worry about it ever changing. It can't be changed. I think
that's good news.