Now this is a story both historical
and spiritual. Many of you know the story back
in Genesis 27-25. But we're not going to dwell
on that so much this morning. We may do that at another time. I thought we might do that at
another time by itself. But this is, we're going to look
at the, The significance here, it says, Isaac. Isaac, by faith,
of what he did. But Abraham had two sons, Ishmael
and Isaac. Go back to Genesis chapter 16,
where this story begins. Isaac being the son of Abraham. God's elect was Isaac, son of
promise. God over and over says, I'm the
God of Abraham, Isaac, and in a minute we'll see Jacob, Jacob,
not Esau. Well, Abraham had two sons, Ishmael,
as you know, by the flesh, and that's a story in itself. But Ishmael, verse 11 and 12,
the angel of the Lord said unto her, Behold, thou art with child,
to Hagar. and you will bear a son, shall
call his name Ishmael, because the Lord hath heard thy affliction.
He will be a wild man. His hand will be against every
man, and every man's hand against him. And he shall dwell in the
presence of all his brethren." Who's that? That's the Arabic
world. That's Arabs, whom we know today
to be the Iraqis and Iranians and so forth. That's who they
are. And they sure fit that bill, don't they? But they are the
illegitimate brothers, as it were, of the Jews. But they hate everybody. Their
hand is against everybody. That's a historical story there
of God's providence. But then Isaac was the legitimate
God-promised son of Abraham and Sarah. Isaac had two sons, Genesis
25. Let's read this account, verse
19 of Genesis 25. These are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son. Abraham
begat Isaac. Isaac was forty years old when
he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel, the Syrian
of Paddaniram, the sister to Laban the Syrian. Isaac entreated
the Lord for his wife because she was barren, and the Lord
was entreated of him, and Rebekah, his wife, conceived, and children
struggled together within her. And she said, If it be so, why
am I thus? And she went to inquire of the
Lord. And the Lord said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb. Two manner of people shall be
separated from thy vows. The one people shall be stronger
than the other people. The elder shall serve the younger. And the first was Esau, and the
second was Jacob. And you know what God said in
Malachi 1 and Romans 9 about Jacob and Esau. God said, Jacob
have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Alright, those are the sons of
Isaac that he's going to bless in chapter 27. But Isaac heard
that. Isaac heard the Word of God concerning
Jacob. and Esau. The elder shall serve
the younger. But look here at verse 28 of
chapter 25. Chapter 25 verse 28. Isaac loved
Esau because he did eat of his venison. Rebekah loved Jacob.
Isaac loved And here's where we're going to see something
of the faith of Isaac. He loved Esau. He was his oldest
son. He was a hunter and a man of
the field. He was rugged, robust. Well,
he was manly looking. It says he was hairy all over.
And Isaac knew him. He knew his boys. And at this
time, Isaac, Esau, was about 30 or 35 years old. Now look
at verse 29. Jacob sawed pottage, and Esau
came from the field. He was faint. Esau said to Jacob,
Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage, or bowl of
beans. I'm faint. So his name was called
Edom. See that? That's significant. in God's purpose, Edomites, a
whole manner of people, Edomites. Jacob said, Sell me this day
thy birthright. Birthright. Now the birthright
are the rights, privileges, responsibilities of the firstborn son. The leadership,
spiritual leadership of the house. And Esau said, verse 32, I'm
going to die. In other words, he was so hungry,
so faint, he said, I'm going to die of hunger if I don't get
something to eat. What good is this birthright
to me right now? And Jacob said, swear to me.
And he swore unto him, and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. And Jacob gave Esau a bowl of
beans for his birthright. So it says that Esau despised
his birthright. In other words, Esau was more
interested in hunting and things like that than God. He thought more of the things of
this world than God. Esau represents, it's easy to
see who Esau represents, people of this world who are more interested
in lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. 2 Timothy 3 said. And though Esau appealed to the
flesh, his father and maybe others, Jacob was a mama's boy, 12th
and 10th. Esau seemed to be the more rugged,
manly fellow. God said he hated Esau. That's what he said. Why? Because
he sold his birthright. That's why. Because Esau hated
God. And Esau hated his brother. He hated Jacob. And this is all
over. He hated Jacob. Now Isaac heard
about this too. You know he did. He heard about
Esau selling This is all about Isaac. Isaac, by faith, blessed
the two. Now, he heard that Esau sold
his birthright to his brother. And he remembered what God said,
the elder shall serve the younger. In other words, Esau is going
to serve Jacob. All right, look at chapter 26. You've got to listen carefully
to this. We're building a story here.
what Isaac understood by faith. Chapter 26, Esau, verses 34 and
35, was forty years old. He took to wife Judith, the daughter
of Berei, the Hittites, and Bathshemeth, the daughter of Elon, the Hittite,
which were a grief of mine unto Isaac and to Rebekah. He married
unbelievers. He married people who were not
of his kin. He married Ishmaelites. Later
on, down in chapter 28, he married some Ishmaelites. He thought,
well, I'll please my parents because they, Isaac and Rebekah,
especially Rebekah, said, these daughters-in-law of mine are
killing me. Unbelievers. And so Esau said,
well, I'll marry somebody to please my parents. And he married
some Ishmaelites. Ishmaelites. Alright, now Isaac was a believer. Isaac was a believer. Isaac knew
God. Isaac heard God's Word. Isaac
heard God's purpose, the elder shall serve the younger. Isaac
heard that. Isaac knew his two sons, Jacob
and Esau. And he wondered how this is going
to happen. How is it that the elder is going
to serve the younger? The law is that the elder is
to have everything. According to the law of God,
the elder is the heir of all things. How is this going to
happen? Isaac didn't understand how this was going to happen.
And he's now an old man. Now go to chapter 27. This is
where he blesses these two more. He's an old man. Verse 1, Genesis
27. 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. 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." All right, it's time to bless
his son. Time to bless his son, and the
eldest gets the first blessing, the chief blessing. All right? But God, true to His Word, Sovereign in
his power and in his purpose, using whatever means pleases
him, he purposed, he allowed Jacob to deceive his father Isaac
and thus get the blessing. And you know that story. Like
I said, I wanted to save that for a whole message. That story
of Jacob coming in. His mother taught him that you
need to be your oldest brother to get the blessing. You need
to look like him. You need to smell like him. You
need to have that savory meat that your father loved. You're
going to come near. You can't be detected by your
father. You're going to have to be your oldest brother to
get the blessing. And those of you who know that
story know that's a picture of us, the sons of Jacob, sinners. Christ is the heir of all things,
the heir to the birthright. the rightful heir to all things.
For us to be accepted of the Father, and I'm telling it anyway,
for us to be accepted of the Father, we're going to have to
smell like Christ, feel like Christ, be like Christ, have
that savory meat that the Father loveth, and the Holy Spirit,
whom Rebecca represents, teaches us gives us that meat, prepares
it for us, and we come to the Father. This is what Jacob did.
He came to the Father and said, Are you my oldest son? And Jacob
said, I am. He said, Come near. And he felt
Him. He said, It feels like my oldest. And he smelled Him. He said,
It smells like Him. A sweet savor to me of the field. You have that sacrifice I love,
that meat? Jacob said, I have it. And the
Father said, Bless you, my son. That's a picture, a glorious
gospel picture of our acceptance in the Beloved, that we're accepted
in Christ because of Him. And when we come to the Father,
we plead Him. Are you Him? Yes. I'm in Him,
found in Him, given in Him. Of God are you in Christ? The
Holy Spirit puts us in Christ and gives us all of that. But
in the context here now. In this story of Isaac doing
this by faith. Isaac doing this by faith. Look
at this. Verse 24 of chapter 27. 24, Art thou my very son Esau? He
said, I am. Verse 27, Came near, kissed him,
he smelled the smell of his raiment, blessed him, said, See, the smell
of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath bled.
This is Jacob who is deceiving his father. Verse 28, So Isaac
now blesses whom he thought was Esau. He blesses. He says, Therefore, now he loves
Esau. He loves Esau, and he's blessed
his eldest son. Therefore God give thee of the
dew of the heaven, the fatness of the earth, and the plenty
of corn and wine. Let people serve thee, and nations
bow down to thee. Be Lord over thy brethren. Let
thy mother's sons bow down to thee. Cursed be everyone that
curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee. Isaac blessed, he thought, Esau. Alright? He thought. He loved
Esau. He remembers that, what God said.
He just doesn't see how this is going to, God's purpose is
going to come back. Alright, look at verse 30. Came
to pass, as soon as Isaac made an end of blessing Jacob, Jacob
was scarce gone out, the presence of Isaac his father, Esau came
in from his hunting. And he also made savory meat
and brought it to his father. And he said unto his father,
Let my father arise and eat 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 exceedingly. What's happened? He says, God
sovereignly had him bless his youngest son in spite of him. God had done this in spite of
him. Even through the deceitfulness
of sin, God's power overruled it all and brought about and
fulfilled his purpose. It's like Christ being crucified.
You with wicked hands have taken and crucified the Lord of glory,
but you did what God determined to be done. Esau sees the hand of God in
death. He can't change it. He believes
God. He knew that was so. How's this
going to happen? I don't know. The oldest comes in. He blesses
him. He didn't bless him at all. He
blessed the younger. My God reigns in all things. Now look at what
he says to Esau. He loves Esau. He's his favorite
son. Verse 33, Isaac trembled and said, Where is he that hath taken venison
and brought it me? And I have eaten of all before
thou camest. And I have blessed him, yea, and he shall be blessed." He shall be blessed. In other
words, what's been said is said. What's done is done. And I can't
change it. The will and the purpose of God
has been served in spite of me. And I can't change it and I won't
change it. In spite of blessing the one
I would not bless and not blessing the one I would have blessed,
God's will be done. This is what faith says. Right? This is what faith says. Not
my will, but thy will be done. Isaac seized it, seized the hand
of God. In my faith, he said, I'm not
going to change it. This is exactly the way it was
supposed to be done. And he trembled at God's sovereign
providence. Verse 34, But Esau heard the
words of his father, and cried with a great and exceeding bitter
cry, saying, Bless me, even me also, O my father. My brother
came, the subtlety. Verse 37, And Isaac answered
and said unto Esau, Behold, I have made him thy lord, and all his
brethren have I given to him. for servants, and with corn and
wine have I sustained him. And what shall I do now unto
thee, my son? I have made him Lord over all."
That's faith. I'm not going to change it. This
is God's will and God's purpose. Esau said this, Oh, Father, is
there not one blessing for me? And he did bless Esau. Verse 39, Behold, thy dwelling
shall be the fatness of the earth. In other words, you'll have more
more land than your brother, as do the Arabs, as do the Edomites
and so forth. And by thy sword thou shalt live. Thou shalt serve thy brother. It shall come to pass when thou
shalt have the dominion, thou shalt break his yoke off thy
neck. This happened to the Edomites later on. They split from Judah
But as it is written, by faith, now so in our text it says, by
faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning the things to
come. This is our text. Isaac, believing
God's sovereign purpose and His covenant in spite of his own
natural love for his oldest son, the son that he loved, blessed
Jacob concerning the things to come. He's a father, he's a natural
man, he's a son of Adam, he has a boy that he prefers over the
other, but he's a believer. He's a new creature. And he wouldn't
change a thing. Here's the point. By faith, Isaac
blessed his youngest over his oldest, his natural love. And
believing parents, believing husbands, wives, believing brothers,
sisters, believers know God's will will be done, that God has
an elect and they will be saved. And if it's not the one that
I choose, So be it. It's God. Right? Like Eli said when Samuel
came in and said, the Lord is going to kill both your sons.
He said, he loved those boys. What did he say? It's the Lord.
It's the Lord. Didn't he? That's what faith
said. It's the Lord. In spite of his
natural affection, Isaac said, this is the way it's going to
be. Not the way I would have had it, but that's the way it
is. And he bowed to and he submitted
to the choice, God's choice over his own. You see that? Here's
the contact. And, you know, this is where
the real faith meets the road. Rubber meets the road, as we
might say. Job said this. Job said it. He said, it may
be my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. I don't know about Job's children,
do you? God killed them all. I don't
know about them. I don't know if they were believers
or not. It doesn't make that clear to me. Maybe not. Maybe. Eli, it's the Lord. Perhaps the truest test of faith
of all. is when our flesh and our blood
is involved. This is what faith said. It started with Abel. Remember
Abel? He came. Two brothers. I had two brothers. There were three of us. A daughter,
a sister. We were very close. Very close. Sometimes we'd scrap, you know. Particularly my middle brother
who was closer in age. That just happens, doesn't it?
Sam, it just happens. John. But I loved him. I still love
him. I still love him. But what if my brother, what
if your brother doesn't love God? And who make a theodifer? Jacob
knew. I'm not more lovely. God loves
me. He said he did. He hates my brother Esau, but
I'm not better than Esau. Jacob knew that. Isaac thought
the same thing. I'm not better than Ishmael,
didn't he? But he chose me. Because it seemed good to God.
Abel with Cain. Abel with Cain. Ishmael with
Isaac. Abraham and Lot, remember? Abraham
and Lot came to a party of the ways. Abraham loved that boy
like a son. His brother died and he graced
him. He loved him like his own son.
They came to a party of the ways. Abraham is going to walk with
God. Lot is going to go to Sodom. What's Abraham going to do? He's going to part with flesh
and blood when it comes to Who do you love? Who do you serve? Abraham offering Isaac? We just looked at that. Every
believer has got to, faith is going to be tried, and this is
the greatest trial of all when it comes down to our flesh and
our blood. Abraham offered his only forgotten
well-beloved son." Why? Because he loved God more. That's
how you know. That's how you know. See? By
faith. Isaac blessed his son. He didn't bless the one he thought,
but he said, that's the way it's going to be. My, my. Do we love the Lord more? David
and Absalom. Remember how much David loved
Absalom? Remember that? Slew Absalom. That was hard on
David, wasn't it? But he submitted to that. God's will. David had two sons. Adonijah, who was the next born
after Absalom, in line for the throne. And then Solomon. Adonijah was the one in line
for the throne, but nope. God said Solomon. The elder is
going to serve the younger. There it is again. And David
had to tell Adonijah, you're not the king. Solomon. Solomon,
his own brother, he had him killed. Adonijah, he had him killed.
His own brother. And the Lord himself. Remember
when the Lord himself came as a man. Did any man love his birth
mother more than the Lord Jesus Christ? No way. No possible way.
He is loved. He loved her more than any man
could possibly love his mother. But when it came to the people
of God and her, what did he say? He was worshiping God with the
people of God. And his mother came and said,
I need to see you. He said, who is my mother? So
that's the content. By faith, Isaac. When it comes to God, faith says,
I love God more. I love God more. And Esau represents
Edomites. They're a national people. There's
a historical, prophetical reason for this. They represent the
Edomites, Jordan, what is now Jordan, close kin to Jacob. They hate him. They hate him. Esau hated Jacob from then on.
And in Numbers chapter 20, when the Israelites were passing through
the land, they refused to let their blood kin come through.
And God slew them all. And that's the picture of the
world. And though there are brothers in Adam, Jacob have I loved,
Esau have I hated. There's some fine people in this
world, people I think that are finer than I am. But if they're
not God's, the judge of the earth will do right. That's right. But I believe the lesson for
us to learn here is that by faith, Isaac blessed the one that God
chose over the one that he chose. Let God be true. It's God's will. God's not my
own. This is a true story. There was a man in the church
where I grew up who the Lord saved early on. He was married. His wife was an unbeliever and
never did. The Lord never did save her. And he would go and
worship. He was a member of the church
where my father was. He would go and worship and she would
not. One day he came, one morning, Sunday morning, he was getting
ready to go to worship and she literally, she literally got
in the doorway. and said, if you leave here today, I'm leaving. If you go, you don't
have to worship God, she said, today. If you leave and go and
come back, I won't be here when you come back. I have to go today, since you
made me make a choice between you and my God. I have to. You've left me no choice." And
he did. And she left him. He said, by faith. That's what faith says. Faith
chooses whom God chooses. Faith bows to the will of God. Faith blesses those whom God
blesses. It bows to His sovereign will
over flesh and blood. By faith I say, okay.