Genesis 25 picking up Genesis
again Won't talk tonight about Jacob's birth Jacob's birth Now
look back up in verse 11 of chapter 25 what happens here? And it
came to pass after the death of Abraham that God blessed his
son Isaac and and Isaac dwelt by the well of Laharon. God buries his workmen. God buries his elect. God buries
his people. But his work carries on. There
in Abraham, and then it says, and it came to pass after the
death of Abraham that God blessed his son Isaac. One passes, but
God's blessing still goes on. One goes, one continues on. And God calls his service to
himself, but his purposes continue right on. They continue right
on. Abraham dies, but God lives. God lives. And the blessing continues
and rests upon the son of Abraham. God made a covenant with Abraham
that in thee all nations of the earth should be blessed. And
so he told him he'd have a son and he waited and waited and
waited and waited and waited and he had Ishmael. That wasn't
his son, not the one God promised. And this is the one God promised,
Isaac. And so when he died, God blessed
Isaac, his work continues on. And I tell you what, beloved,
after the blessing of centuries and rest upon the son of Abraham,
the Lord Jesus. But I tell you what, God is faithful.
He is faithful. He is faithful to Abraham, faithful
to Abraham's son, and he's going to be faithful to Abraham's son.
And he's faithful to all of his seed that's in the Lord Jesus
Christ. God is faithful. God is faithful. We may not be faithful. Abraham
wasn't as faithful as he should have been. But I tell you what,
God was faithful to him. More is said about Abraham and
Jacob than about anybody else. But there's so little bit said
about Isaac. You know Abraham's talked a lot
about Abraham's many messages about Abraham and Jacob is a
main character in the Old Testament and he's even a main character
in the New Testament the Jews always you know, they count their
heritage back to Jacob and God is known as the God of Abraham
Very little said about Isaac because Isaac was so quiet Isaac
was so passive But he was still yet heir to the covenant of promise. God's known as the God of Abraham.
And as time goes by, he becomes known as the God of Jacob. I'll
tell you, in the Psalms it says, blessed are they who have the
God of Jacob for their God. What does it mean to have the
God of Jacob for their God? That means that you're in the
covenant. That means that you're chosen of God. That means you're
born of God. That means that God's going to
keep you and God chose you and God set you apart from all the
world. And God makes you fruitful like
he did Jacob. And Jacob is the father of the
12 tribes of Israel. So Jacob is a pretty important
character, but let me tell you some things about Jacob as we
get into this. And it goes down here talking
about these twins being born, and we'll get into them in a
minute. But in Jacob, we see our fallen nature. We see fallen
nature. Oh, what a sorry nature Jacob
had. And what a sorry nature we had.
He was a despicable character. His name means supplanter. It
means deceiver. That's what his name means. He
gonna go around and I tell you what, if you made a deal with
Jacob, you'd get beat. That's what kind of person Jacob
was. He knew how to get things done. He knew how to come out
on top. And he didn't care to work about
it. I mean, don't say that, but I'll tell you what. But he had
a despicable character. And we see our fallen nature
in Jacob. But we see also God's blessed, sovereign grace at work
in this man. In this man. And we can see ourselves
in Jacob. I certainly can. Like I can in
Simon Peter. We can see our weaknesses as
we'll learn about Jacob. Oh, and the weaknesses we have.
We see our aspirations. Jacob had great aspirations.
He labored 14 years for his wife. 14 years for Rebecca. 14 years. No, for Rachel, excuse
me, not Rebecca, Rachel. He labored 14 years for, but
in Him we can see our weaknesses, our aspirations, our failures,
and we can see new starts. Oh, how many times did He have
a new start? And we can also see our caretess in Jacob and
yet see our trust in God. But let's take up the family
life of Isaac up until Jacob and Esau are born. Now let's
look at the husband. Let's look at Isaac, the husband.
And it says in verse 20, and Isaac was 40 years old when he
took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel, the Syrian of Pedanaram,
the sister to Laban, the Syrian. Now before I go any further,
go back here to Genesis 24, and I want to show you something
about Isaac and Rebekah. You know that God, you remember
when Abraham sent his servant to get a bride for Isaac. Sent
him over there to get a bride for Isaac. Well, he got a bride. He got one of God's choosing.
And all that servant talked about was Rebekah. I mean, excuse me,
of Abraham and Abraham's son. That's all they talked about.
He said, I'm here to tell you one thing. I'm here to tell you
about my master and his son. And all the wealth of my son.
He's Abraham's son. My master's son is heir of everything.
And I tell you what, so here they are in verse 61. of Genesis 24 and Rebekah arose
in her damsels and they rode upon the camels and followed
the man and the servant took Rebekah and went on his way. And Isaac come, came the way
from the well of Laharoi for he dwelt in the south country.
And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the evening time.
It says in the margin he went out to pray. In the evening time,
in the evening he went out and he was walking through the fields
and he was praying and he looked up and he saw and behold camels,
he saw camels coming his way. And they got a little closer
and Rebecca, she looked up, she lifted up her eyes, she looked
up and she saw Isaac. She jumped off her camel. Why
did she jump off her camel? And this is the reason she jumped
off her camel. For she hath said unto the servant, What man is
this that walketh in the field to meet us? And the servant hath
said, It is my master. Therefore she took off her veil
she took her veil and covered herself and the servant told
Isaac all things that he had done now listen to this and Isaac
brought her into her his mother's tent and took Rebecca and she
became his wife and listen to this now and he loved her and
Isaac was comforted after his mother's death so oh my you're
talking about a people that They fell in love before they ever
met. God met their hearts together, brought their hearts together
before they ever met. And when they, she said, Oh,
that's him. Is that the one you've been telling me about? Yeah,
that's him. Oh, listen. And is this the one
you went to get for me? They got happy, you know, and
they had a wonderful life. And so, for 40 years, and Isaac
was 40 years old, and he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter
of Bethuel, the Syrian of Paddan-Aram, the sister of Laban, the Syrian. And Isaac, listen now, and Isaac
entreated the Lord for his wife, because she was barren, and the
Lord was entreated of him, and Rebekah, his wife, conceived. Now here's Isaac as the husband. It's been 20 years, 20 years
since he married Rebekah. And yet they had no children.
And for a woman to be married and not have any children, a
Jewish woman especially, that wasn't good. That wasn't good
at all. In fact, when we get to Samuel, you'll see that. But
he was burdened about it. He was concerned about it. You
know, remember Abraham had to wait and wait and wait and wait
and wait for years and years and years before Isaac was born.
But he was burdened about him not having any children. Of Sarah,
I mean Rebecca, being barren. Because God had promised him
that in his seed, in his seed, all the nations of the earth
would be blessed. He had the same promise that God gave to
Abraham. And so this is a real, real trial
for his faith. Just like for his daddy. His
daddy, God tried his faith. And he got tired of waiting and
they had Ishmael. But I tell you what, they waited
and waited and waited. And what a real trial for Isaac
and Rebekah. Like his father before him. God
put his faith to the test. But God's purpose is going to
be fulfilled. It will be fulfilled. But you
know what Isaac did different than his daddy? Here's what Isaac
did. Isaac took his trial. Isaac took
his burden. Isaac took his anxieties. Isaac
took his worries to the Lord. That's what he did. Ain't that
what it says? Because she was barren, he entreated the Lord.
And the Lord wasn't treated of him. He asked God. God said,
okay, I'll listen, I'll do it. And oh, see, that's the thing
about it, beloved. He took this, and the best thing
anybody can do when they're in a trial is take it to the Lord. Take your burden to the Lord
and leave it there. That's what Isaac did. He said,
oh, Lord, my wife has not got any children. I ain't got any
children. You made a promise to us. And oh, we want a son,
we want children, we want to have heirs. And he took it to
the Lord in prayer, and the answer soon came. And Isaac knows, just
like Abraham did, that the children would be by promise, not by the
generation of the flesh. That the children would be by
grace, not by nature. They was married 20 years and
didn't have any children. Do you know when they had children?
when he sought the Lord. And you know what? When they
had children, when God's promise was fulfilled. And when the covenant
was fulfilled. And it was by promise, it was
by grace, and it wasn't by nature. And he delayed this, he delayed
this child being born to teach Isaac one thing. You're gonna
have to trust me. Trust me. And I tell you what,
God puts us, oftentimes, you gonna trust me or trust yourself?
You gonna trust me or trust your own feelings? You gonna trust
me or trust my emotions? You gonna trust me or you gonna
trust your reasoning? And that's why Psalm 62 and 5
says, you know they that trust the Lord, their expectation is
from Him. Oh, all the things we expect
from God. Oh, our expectation, our expectation
from grace is from Him. Our expectation of faith is from
Him. Our expectation of getting through
trials is from Him. I don't expect nothing from me,
do you? And I'll be honest with you, I don't expect anything
from you either. You just come and listen. You know our expectations. Boy, I'll tell you what, I was
expecting them to do this, but boy, they didn't do it. Well,
we have an expectation from God, and God fulfills our expectations. Never fails. Never fails. And
then also, that's the husband. He is a husband. He loved Rebecca. And he wanted her to have a child.
He wanted a child. And oh how he loved her. And
he said, Lord, we need a child. We need children. And he had
treated for her. And Joel, listen. Now look what
happened. And it says in the last part
of verse 21, and Rebecca, his wife, conceived. When was she conceived? When
she asked God. When she asked the Lord. And this is Isaac's chosen bride. Now let's look at the wife. This
was Isaac's chosen bride. She was told of God's covenant
too. She was told of God's promise.
She was told about all that God was going to do for Abraham and
do for Isaac and how that's all there was going to be multitudes
of nations come out of them. But oh my, she got pregnant. She began to have to go through
all kinds of experience and all kinds of distress and perplexity. And it says there in verse 22,
the children struggled together within her. So evidently she
was having a perplexing distress and things were going on inside
of her. And she didn't understand it. She didn't know why in the
world she was having these problems and this struggle inside of her.
Two children just knocking and moving around inside of her.
And she said, if it be so, if I'm going to have a child, then
why in the world am I having such a struggle on the inside?
And if it be so, why am I thus? She didn't understand God's dealings
with her. But you know what she did? She
did just like her husband did. You know what she did? She went
to inquire of the Lord. Lord, what in the world is going
on here? Why am I having such a hard time with these babies? She didn't know she had two.
She just thought she had one child. She said, oh my, Lord,
what's going on with me? What in the world is going on
inside of me? I'm having a struggle. There's
terrible time going on inside me. And she did like her husband. She did the best thing that she
could possibly do. She inquired of the Lord. Inquired
of the Lord. What a blessed thing to do. Inquired
of the Lord. She prayed to the Lord. And you
know what? God answered her. And it wasn't
what she expected. After they answered, it wasn't
what she expected or what we often time expect. Look what
happened. And the Lord spoke to her now. The Lord came to
her. This is the Lord Jesus Christ. Has to be. Can't be nobody else.
And the Lord said unto her, two nations are in your womb. Two nations? Well, they're babies. They ain't even born yet. God
said there are two nations. And two men are a people. Two
men are a people. Two nations and two men are a
people. Oh my! So these people are going
to be nations and they're going to be people that's just polar
opposites to one another. And she goes on to say, and two
men are a people shall be separated from thy bowels and the one people
shall be stronger than the other people. One of them is going
to be stronger than the others. And this is the thing that's
hard for anybody, especially for the Jewish people and for
people living in this world. And the elder, now the elder
is always there. The elder always got a double
portion. The elder is the one who is responsible
for the whole household. The elder is the one who is responsible
to be the spiritual head of the house, the provider of the house.
And he's the elder that's supposed to take care of everything. He
takes over all the responsibilities, spiritual responsibilities, and
everything. And he says, now, the elder,
he's going to have to serve the children. That's backwards. That's backwards. That's not
the way it's supposed to work. But that's what happened. And
I'll tell you what, And this children struggled within her.
Let me say this about this struggle within her. That these two people
would be opposed to each other from the womb. And I'll tell
you what, there's two people in us. There's two people in
us. There's a Jacob and a Esau in
both of us. There really is. And I'll tell
you something. That new man, that younger man,
That one born of God makes that elder fellow, that
old man, serve him. We don't serve the flesh. The
flesh is not our master. We got this struggle within us.
We got this war within us. We got this struggle within us.
We have this war within us. The flesh lusts against the spirit. The spirit against the flesh.
And the scriptures tell us about this old rotten miserable flesh. Paul said, who shall save us
from this body of death? But I'm telling you that new
man, that younger man, that one that God gave us in the new birth,
made partakers of the divine nature, the elder fellow, the
first one that was born is that man Adam. But does he control you? Is he
your master? Or does that new man make the
old man serve him? He got a whole lot of heel. And
it's a struggle sometimes. I mean it gets to be a real struggle.
In fact, sometimes you get so disgusted with him, you wish
you could just, you wish you could get him, get him in a corner
and just wear him out. You wish you could get your old
nature in a corner. If I could separate me from my old self,
I'd just wear him out. But you can't do it. But I'll
tell you one thing, that new man, that new man, always is
going to beat that old man. You know why? God promised it
would. The Spirit, the Spirit, the Spirit
of Christ in us, that's why we have no confidence in the flesh.
We don't have any confidence in this flesh, but we've got
confidence in God who made us new creatures in Christ. And
she had this struggle, and that's what's in us, we have a struggle.
She had this struggle inside of her. And oh my, they'd be
opposed to each other from the womb. And here's the thing, Rebecca
was unconscious. She was an unconscious instrument
used to carry out God's blessed purpose and grace. Jacob had
a love, Esau had a hate. And the children not yet being
born that the purpose, purpose of God might stand, not of works,
but of him that calleth. Jacob have a love Esau have a
hate so she's carrying out God's purpose and she's unconscious
of it She don't have a clue what these two boys gonna do But God
told her God told her and her her trouble had nothing to do
with her individually But it was part of God's unfolding purpose,
which is working out for his own glory and calling his sovereign
son and calling Jacob out and setting Jacob aside. God is sovereign. Our Lord Jesus Christ, when he
prayed in Matthew 11, 25, he said, I thank thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, that you've hid these things from
the wise and hid them from the prudent. But who do you reveal
them unto? Babes. and all this and God said he
works all things after the counsel of his own will. And he's made
us to know the mystery of his will. The mystery of the will
that everything is centered in his blessed son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I tell you, beloved, and
that's why we have this struggle. She didn't know she was carrying
out God's purpose. She was unconscious of it. She
was unconscious of it. But God was carrying out His
purpose. Having all this trouble inside of me. There are going
to be two people coming out of you. There are going to be two
nations coming out of you. And they are going to be options. And then now look at the signs.
Look at the signs now. In verse 24, And when her days
were to be delivered were fulfilled, Behold there were twins in her
womb. She didn't know that, she just
thought oh my I'm having a hard time. Look at the difference in these
two sons. Look at the difference in their
appearance. And the first came out red all
over like a hairy garment. They called his name Esau. Red
man. I can't imagine a baby coming
out just covered in hair. But he was. I'm not trying to be funny, but
oh my goodness. And after that came out his brother. And his hand reached out and
got a hold of Esau's heel. And his name was called Jacob. And his name means supplanter,
deceiver. He's going to supplant. He's
going to take over. He's going to have the authority
in the house. He's going to be the one who ends up being running
everything. And oh listen, Isaac was three
score years old. They looked different in their
appearance. We was over the day eating and
I walked in and there was kids everywhere around this table.
Kids everywhere. And a girl was sitting down there
with two babies, just sitting on the floor with two babies
that needed a little bit of carry. Just tiny babies. And I walked
in and said, you all need to get you some kids, don't you?
I mean, they had kids everywhere. And come to find out, those two
little ones here was twins. A boy and a girl. Twins. Identical
twins. And then she had two more twins.
Girls. And they looked just alike. Two
set of twins. Two twins out of the same husband
and wife. But they looked alike. These
fellas don't look alike. And these fellas don't act alike.
These fellas is different. Oh my goodness they're different.
They're different in their looks. They're different in their natures. Their difference in what they
like, their difference in who loves them, there's a great difference
in these two boys. And look what it says here now. And look out when Esau, it says
in verse 28, excuse me, verse 27. And the boys grew up, they
began to grow. Big enough to get out and do
things. Esau was a hunter. He loved to hunt. He loved to
hunt. He was a man of the field. He
wanted to be outside all the time. He wanted to be outside. He wanted to be out doing things.
He was a hunter. He was a man of the field. He
liked to be out doing. But Jacob, he was just the opposite. Jacob was a plain man. That means
he was quiet. Easy going. Very plain man. had nothing distinguishing about
himself. And he loved to dwell in the
tents. He stayed at home. He stayed in the tent. I saw
out here hunting. He's a man of the field. Jacob,
he stayed in the house. He stayed in the house. Almighty, quiet, plain, home
keeping man. And they received their names
because of their differences at birth. Isaac, red man, hairy
man, Jacob a supplanter a deceiver And all they called us the names
when they was born Carl now and I'll tell you And the parents
let me tell you something that you say parents don't make a
difference in their children these two parents did They made
a difference in their children They made a difference in their
children. Look what it says in verse 28
And Isaac loved Esau Because he did eat of his finish Esau
was Isaac's favorite. Isaac loved Esau. Isaac loved
him because he was a man of the field. You know, and you'll see
later, when he came in, he said, boy, you feel like Esau, you
smell like Esau, but you smell like Jacob. Because he had been used to Esau
coming in and bringing him food in and fixing it in a certain
way for him and he loved it. He loved it and he loved Esau.
Oh how he loved Esau. But look what it said about him.
But Rebecca loved Jacob. My goodness. You think, well
I love most of my boys. But it said here that Isaac loved
Esau. Rebekah loved Jacob. I'll try to give you a couple
of reasons why. Isaac probably saw Rebekah's
nature and he saw it. You remember when she saw Isaac
out in the field, she jumped off her camel and went running
to him? Full of life, full of vigor, found him out in the field,
quiet, pensive, praying. Isaac probably saw Rebekah's
nature in Esau. Full of energy, strong, assertive. And then Rebekah, she looked
at Jacob, and she probably saw Isaac in Jacob. Because Isaac
was a quiet man, a passive man. a man who didn't put himself
forward. And so they probably, that's
probably why, oh I love, oh he's so much like his mama. Rebecca saw Jacob and said, oh
he's so much like his daddy. And that's probably why. But
let me close with this. In times of perplexity and difficulty,
Let's do like Isaac and Rebecca did. When Isaac asked the Lord,
when they shouldn't have a child, they asked the Lord, Lord, would
you cause my wife, me and my wife, to have some children?
The Lord said yes. And she conceived. And then she started having trouble.
And what did she do? She went to the Lord. She went
to the Lord. And in times when we're perplexed,
when times we're having difficulty, just wait and pray. Wait and
pray. And I'm going to tell you something
that I have learned over the years. And it's took me a lot
of years to do it. But if I don't know what to do,
I don't do nothing. But if it is something spiritual,
something to do, or making some kind of a big move, if I'm not
sure that it's to be done, I won't do nothing. Because if I take
the wrong step, I don't want to do that. I want to be like
Ruth was this morning. I don't want to have to retrace
my steps. But Isaac and Rebekah, they experienced,
oh what an experience they had, not knowing how God's will and
purpose were to be fulfilled. They didn't know how God's purpose
was going to be fulfilled. But you know what they did? They
knew God knew how to fulfill it. They knew what God could
do. And they looked to God. And we need children. God, you're
the only one that can give life. You're the only one that can
cause a child to be born. And then, oh Lord, I'm having,
oh my difficulty, such difficulty in this pregnancy. And you know
what that she did? She turned it over to the Lord.
And oh beloved, that's what you do when you have a difficulty,
you have a worry and an anxiety. Take it to the Lord. Take it
to the Lord. Cast your cares upon Him. Cast
your cares, that word, cast your cares, that means to roll it
off yourself and roll it on somebody else. How many, if you'll pick
up sometimes, you know, and you'll pick up something and say, oh
my goodness, I hope I can carry it from here to there. And you
can't hardly wait to get it down. Well, I'll tell you what, and
then you just roll it off yourself and lay it down. Well, that's
what he says about cast your cares upon him. When you have
cares on you, he says, you get up there, it's like having something
on your shoulders and you roll it off. and give it to the Lord. He can carry it. He can carry
it, and I tell you what. But here's the problem. Leave
it there. Don't get back up and pick it
back up. Oh, don't do that. And in the
face of our problems, and oh my, we have problems. All of
us have different problems at different times. In the deep
problems of life, let us trust and pray. Trust and pray. Rebecca couldn't understand the
trouble she was having. Caused her anxiety. But she trusted
the Lord and prayed. God says, my ways are not your
ways. My thoughts are higher. My ways
are not your ways and my thoughts are not your thoughts. And so
our ways and God's ways, so we'll just wait and do His way. God
help us, God help us to live in humble trust and a hopeful,
hopeful prayer until the Lord, till one day we see the goodness
of the Lord in the land of the living. And one of these days
we will. One of these days we will. I'm
going to find a song in this hymn book that I was just thinking
of. What's the name of that song? Take your burden to the Lord
and leave it there. That old black preacher. If the world
withhold from you its wealth and its care. What's the name
of that song? Take your burden to the Lord
and leave it there. Let me see if that's what it is. 353. I think
that might be it. Yeah, that's it. Now we're not
going to sing it because I don't know it. Now Gary could probably sing
it. But all listen to this. Listen to the words to it. This
is what I wanted to get to. If the world from you withhold
of its silver and gold, And you have to get along with meager
fare. Just remember in his word how
he feeds the little bird. Take your burden to the Lord
and leave it there. If your body suffers pain and
your health you can't regain. And your soul is almost sinking
in despair. Jesus knows the pain you feel. He can save and He can heal.
Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there. When your
enemies assail and your heart begins to fail, don't forget that God in heaven
answers prayers. He will make a way for you and
He will lead you safely through. Take your burdens to the Lord
and leave it there. And here's where we're coming
to. When your youthful days are gone, and old age is stilling
on, and your body bends beneath the weight of care. He will never
leave you then. He'll go with you to the end.
Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there. She knows it, really
knows that song. She sang it over there. Oh, boy. Well, folks, we've had a wonderful,
wonderful day. The Lord's been gracious to us
another day. Gary read back there in Psalm
68, the Lord daily loatheth us with benefits. And he does. He loatheth us up today. Good
night and God bless you. And I'll see you Wednesday, Lord
willing.