Turn back to Genesis 25. Genesis chapter 25. At least
I waited until after the conference to get this stuff again. Genesis 25. The birthright. The birthright. Now God has blessed Isaac. He is the heir of all the blessings
of Abraham. It says over in chapter 25 here
in verse 5, And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac. And Isaac was blessed. He was
blessed. It says in verse 11, And it came
to pass after the death of Abraham that God blessed his son Isaac. And Isaac dwelt by the well of
Lehiroi. But he's blessed. He's a blessed
man. And he's been married now for about 19 years. And they
are childless. And Rebecca wants a child now. Back in that day, especially
back in that day, that was so, so important. It was so important.
And she wanted a child. And I'm sure they had been talking
about this. entreats the Lord on behalf of
his wife. It says in verse 19, these are
the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son. Abraham begat Isaac. He was the son of Abraham. And
Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter
of Bethuel, the Syrian of Danerim. The sister to Laban, the Syrian.
I want you to notice The patience of Isaac in waiting for a wife. Forty years old, and he waited. He waited. This is a good picture
of Christ waiting for his bride. Waiting for his bride, who was
chosen by the Father before the world was, but waiting. And even
now, waiting. until that last one is brought
in and the body of Christ is complete, waiting patiently. And then notice also, we see
the patient waiting for the bride, but we also see here entreating
for the bride. In verse 21, and Isaac entreated
the Lord for his wife, and Isaac being a picture of Because she
was barren and the Lord was entreated of her. And Rebecca, his wife,
conceived. He entreats the Lord for his
wife because she has no children. And he knows that if there is
life to be had, if they are going to have children, God has to
be the one to give it. He's the giver of life. That's
all. He's the giver of life. And here's
a beautiful picture of Christ interceding for his bride His
church to bear children. No one is born of God that has
not been interceded for by the Lord Jesus Christ. He intercedes
for all His children and then they are born. And the Lord,
listen, and it says, and the Lord was entreated of him. He
had treated the Lord and the Lord was entreated of him. Our
Lord said this in one place, I know that you always hear me. I know you always hear me. He
said in John 17, I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but
I pray for them. Think of what it is. Think of
what it is to have Christ, the Son of God, to intercede for
you. To have the Son of God to pray
and entreat on your behalf. That's great comfort. We ought
to draw great comfort from that. And then look here. He entreats
the Lord for her, and she becomes pregnant. And then after this,
there's a real struggle that goes on. There's a real struggle
that takes place in her womb. And the children struggle together
within her. Now, she did not know she had
twins. She knew she was pregnant. But
she didn't know she had twins. And the language here is that
they fought. They fought, even from the womb.
They fought inside of her. And she was having to deal with
this struggle. Boy, isn't that a picture of that two natures
going on inside of a believer? That's just an absolute perfect
picture of that two natures struggling and warring and fighting inside
of a believer. And it says here, and the children
struggled together within her. And she said, if it be so, why
am I thus? And she went to inquire of the
Lord. Her trouble brought her before the Lord to entreat Him
and find out what's going on. Isn't that what happens when
we are first born of God? We really don't understand. We
really don't understand What's going on here? This struggle.
This fight. There's a war going on in the
womb of Rebecca. A war that she had never experienced
before. Before she was pregnant here.
And she goes to inquire of the Lord of this matter. And she
says, if it is thus, or Lord, if it's Your will that I'm pregnant,
then why am I having such a hard time? Why is it such a problem? Why am I thus? such a real ordeal
here, if it's your will? Why am I struggling so much with
sin if I've been saved from sin? Why am I struggling so much with
it? Why are things so hard if I'm yours? Why are things so
hard? Until a person is born of God,
there is no inward struggle with sin. The conflict starts when
there are two Opposing parties. That's when the conflict starts.
When there are two opposing parties within. And she said, Lord, if
it's Your will for me to be pregnant, and I am, why is it so difficult? Why is it so hard? Lord, if I'm
Yours, why am I going through this? If You put away sin, then
why do I struggle so much with sin? And the Lord answered her. And He said unto her, Two nations
are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated
from thy bowels. There's two nations. There's a holy nation. First Peter speaks of it. A holy
nation. That's the church. That's the
redeemed. He said it's in thy womb. And
then there's an ungodly nation. There's Esau. Both of them are
in thy womb. And there's two manner of people
be separated from thy bowels. Two manner of people. be separated
from thee. And the one shall be stronger
than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger."
There are two opposing people in your womb. There are only
two types of people in this world, saved and lost. There's only
two types, saved and lost. There's only two types of religion
in this world, false and true. There's a lot of different types
of religion, Really, they can be summed up in this, true and
false, or just two. We have that which is born of
the flesh, and it's flesh, and that's all it ever will be. And
we have that which is born of the Spirit, and it is Spirit,
and that's all it will be. It will never be flesh. And he
said the one will be stronger than the other. Now, it appears
that Esau was physically stronger than Jacob. I mean, by all appearance,
by his birth and by what he did for a living. He was physically
stronger than Jacob. He was the athlete. He was the
jock. He was a dumb jock because he
sold his birthright. This is the one that sold his
birthright. But that describes Esau. And Jacob, on the other
hand, was physically weaker, yet he ended up being stronger. Who is the one that wrestled
with the Lord of glory and won the blessing. Who is the one
whose name was changed from Jacob to Israel? Because as a prince
has thou power with God. He said that he said the one
stronger than the other. Well, physically, you look at
the one you say, well, he's a lot stronger. But in the end, it's
Jacob. It's Jacob. And he said the elder
shall serve the younger. You know, David, in David's reign,
David conquered the Edomites, which came from Esau. And they
was under David for many, many, many years. Somebody said, I'm
reading it, they was under the rule of Israel there for 150
years. And they paid taxes to them and
tribute. But the elder did serve the younger.
And note here, the Lord gives Rebekah a prophecy concerning
the two babes in her womb. And I believe this is what moved
Rebecca to have Jacob go and do what he did over in chapter
27 in deceiving Isaac to get the birthright. God told her
the elder shall serve the younger. She knew that the birthright
belonged to Jacob. She knew that. And I believe
that's what moved her to do what she did instead of waiting on
God to do it. And she should have. She should
have, like Sarah, she tried to move it along and had Abraham
to go into Hagar. Well, Rebekah is going to do
the same thing. She's going to try to move this thing along
and she puts her hand into it. And of course, you see what happens.
It causes a lot of trouble between those two throughout their lives.
But we also see God's sovereignty in this. God chose Jacob and
left Esau alone. He made this choice before they
were born. Before either one having done
any good or evil, God made the choice. He chose Jacob. He loved Jacob. And that's the
way it is with every child of God. God made the choice before
the world began. God loved you before the world
began. And it says over in Romans, it says, And he hated Esau. Well,
you know what? Esau hated God. And he proved
it when he despised his birthright. I'll show you something here
in a little bit. And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled,
behold, there were twins in her womb. And the first came out
red all over like a hairy garment." That would have been a sight,
wouldn't it? He was hairy all over, like a
hairy garment. And they called his name Esau.
And after that came his brother out. And his hand took hold of
Esau's heel. Jacob was after that birthright
from birth. I mean, it was like he was trying
to pull Esau back in. He had respect to the birthright.
Jacob loved the birthright. And he grabbed ahold of Esau's
heel on the way out. And his name was called Jacob,
and that means supplanter. We'll look at that at another
time. And Isaac was three score years
old when she buried him. He was 60 years old when these
two boys were born, these twins. One was a rebel and one was a
child of God. Now, Esau came out first and
he looked much older than he was. Some of the writers said
this. They said he was made. Let me see the word here. And the first came out red and
hairy all over. They translate that, he was made.
In other words, he looked like a man from his birth. He looked
like a man from his birth. That brought to my mind a commercial.
Have you ever seen a commercial with credit cards and these Vikings
are on there? You've seen it, haven't you?
And that one guy's holding that little boy and he's got a full
beard. That's Esau. That's Esau. He came out looking like a man.
That's what they said. He was made. He came out looking
like a very mature person when he was born. I know this. When we are born into this world,
this is the first thought that struck me. We receive an old
nature that's older than we are physically. Don't we? That nature has been around a
long time. It's been around a long time. How often have you parents
asked your children, why did you do that? And they say, I
don't know. I don't know. Well, that's because
that old nature, that old nature that they were born with is much
older than they are. It's much older than they are.
And deceitful. It's deceitful. And that makes me think of Esau.
He'd come out looking much older, much older. Well, the boys grew. And Esau was a cunning hunter,
a man of the field, and Jacob was a plain man dwelling in tents.
Here we have the character of the two boys revealed. Esau was a hunter. There's only
one other man in the scripture that was called a hunter. You
remember who he was? Nimrod, that wicked king Nimrod. He was called a hunter. Pretty much, I thought about
not bringing this point out. Pretty much every time the word
hunter or hunt is used in the scripture, it's used in an evil
way. There were several scriptures given, but in the scriptures
that's what it's used as, in that type of language. Esau was daring. See, this caught
Isaac's attention. He was daring. He was restless. But he never had any peace. He
was a hunter. He was just always looking. Never
had any peace. Always had to kill something.
And they said the idea of this is that he turned this into a
sport. He turned this into a sport. And he was just ate up with it.
It's consumed with it. And he was a man of the field.
Over in Matthew 13, 38, it says the field is the world. He was
a man of the world. That's what he's saying. He was
a man of the world. But Jacob was the total opposite of Esau. He says he was a plain man dwelling
in tents. Now listen, the Hebrew word for
plain, the Hebrew word for plain is tam, T-A-M. And it means this. It means perfect. It means upright. Undefiled. That's what it means. He was a plain man. He was a
quiet man like his father, Isaac. Isaac was a quiet man. Isaac
was not a man of war. He was a quiet man. He was an
upright man. I know his name means supplanter,
and he's going to do this one deed, But this really describes
his character after God saves him. This is the character of those
whom God saves. They are perfect, upright, undefiled
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And it says he was dwelling in
tents. He had no certain dwelling place. Like his father, he was
looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. Now, remember
this. He saw what was the firstborn.
He was the firstborn. And he was in line to receive
the blessings of the firstborn. And that meant a lot in that
day. It meant a whole lot. Here are some things that belonged
to the firstborn. First of all, the firstborn belonged... Now listen, and this will give
you some idea when he despised his birthright. The firstborn belonged to God.
Firstborn belong to God. Look over in Exodus 13. Exodus 13 and verse 2. Sanctify unto me
all the firstborn. whatsoever openeth the womb among
the children of Israel, both of man and of beast, it is mine."
The firstborn is mine. Now look over in Exodus 22. In
Exodus 22, in verse 29, Thou shalt not delay to offer
the first of thy ripe fruits and of thy liquors. The firstborn
of thy sons shalt thou give unto me." Now look over in Numbers
chapter 13. Verse 3, and let me make sure I got that
right. And Moses, by the commandment
of the Lord, sent them from the wilderness of Paran. Oh no, I've
written down the wrong scripture. I bet it was probably Deuteronomy
13. But anyway, you see it. The firstborn belonged to God. He belonged to God. And then
dignity and power and the head of the family belonged to the
firstborn. Then all spiritual blessings
were given to the firstborn. He was to be the priest of the
family until the Aaronic priesthood was set up. But until then, he
was the priest of the family. And all temporal blessings were
given to the firstborn. In fact, you can read over in
Deuteronomy 21, the firstborn was given a double portion. He
was given a double portion. And he had the sole right of
conducting the service of God. The firstborn did. And then the
promise of the Messiah was to come through the lineage of the
firstborn. Now, that's the privileges of
the firstborn. It really meant something. Now
with that in mind, Isaac loved Esau because he did eat of his
venison there in 28. But Rebekah loved Jacob. Isaac
fell for the athlete. That's what he did. He fell for
the jock, like all most men do. But Rebekah loved Jacob, the
one whom the Lord loved, the one whom the Lord said the elder
shall serve the younger. She loved Jacob. She had respect
to this prophecy, I believe. And here's the providence of
God. God is going to use this incident here to expose Esau's
heart. This incident of Esau being hungry
and coming from the field faint. Remember, he's the firstborn.
Before Jacob ever deceives Isaac, you and I are going to get a
glimpse of the heart of Esau and what he thinks about this
birthright. And Jacob saw it potage. And
Esau came from the field and he was faint. Now he was not
at the point of death, he was faint. And here's a picture of
how the world leaves its own. He came from the field and he
was faint. That's how the world leaves its
own. Faint. Empty. Nothing in this world
can give real satisfaction. Absolutely nothing. Everything
about this world is seasonal. We ought to learn that by now. It's just seasonal. That's all
it is. And Esau said to Jacob, Feed
me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage, for I am faint. Therefore his name was called
Eden. And Jacob said, Sell me your birthright. Sell me this
day thy birthright. Jacob had his eye on that birthright. He had his eye on that birthright.
Jacob knew that Esau didn't care at all about that birthright.
He knew Esau's heart. He grew up with him. He loved that birthright. The
spiritual blessings that went with it. All that went with that. Jacob had respect to it. The
worldly man despises the birthright. He despises it. He despises the
blessings of God in Christ. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
redemption. He despises those things. He wants to come up with
those things himself. But those that are chosen of
God and born of God, they love it. They love it. And Esau said,
Behold, I am at the point to die, and what profit shall this
birthright do me? Now, he was not about to die
at that time. I don't believe it's saying that he's about to
die right at that time. He can just go over to Isaac's
house there and get something to eat. Here's what I think he's
saying. He's saying here, I'm at the
point to die, and what profit shall this birthright do to me?
Well, the birthright says that you belong to God. It's your right to God. He said, what profit shall it do
me? Here's what he's saying. In a little while, I shall die. In a little while, sometime here
down the road, I shall die. And this birthright is not going
to do me any good at all. He had no respect for the birthright. The birthright meant nothing
to Esau, but it meant everything to Jacob. You see, the birthright
has significant spiritual meanings. One of the things that the firstborn
and the birthright had respect to was the Lord Jesus Christ. It pictured Him. He's the firstborn. He's the firstborn. And to despise
this birthright is to despise the Lord Jesus Christ. It's to
despise Him. It says in Colossians 1.15, He's
the firstborn of every creature. It says in Colossians 1.18, He's
the firstborn from the dead. It says in Romans 8.29 that He's
the firstborn among many brethren. See? It represented Christ who
is the true firstborn. And when He had no respect to
the firstborn, And the blessings of it. And the birthright. When
he had no respect to that. He had no respect to Christ.
No respect to Him whatsoever. And then here's the second thing
he had no respect. Was to the redemption that we have in the
Lord Jesus Christ. You remember in the land of Egypt? God was going to pass through? And the blood was going to be
shed? by the Passover lamb that is going to be put on the door
and on the side post and over the top of the door. Who was
that blood shed for? The firstborn. People say it was shed for Israel.
It was shed for the firstborn. If there had been an Egyptian
in the house of one of those Israelites where the blood was,
the firstborn Egyptian in there, he would have lived. The secondborn,
thirdborn could have went and played in the street. It wasn't
in no trouble. It was the firstborn that the
curse was going to be upon. And Christ is the firstborn.
And the redemption that comes through Christ. And he despised
the firstborn, Christ, and he despised redemption by the firstborn. That's what he despised. That's
how serious it was. He made nothing of it, but it
was serious. Everyone in Christ, Everyone in Christ, everyone
redeemed by Christ, everyone saved by Him, everyone is a firstborn. Everyone is a firstborn. Because they are His body. We are His body. The church is
His body. The firstborn. It says over in
Revelation, I didn't write it down, to the General Assembly
and the firstborn. The church of God. That's His
body. Well, here it is. I do have written
down. That medication is strong. I'll tell you what, do not take
Tuscan X before doing something like this. In Hebrews 12, 23,
it says, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn. All of us, who have been born
of God, who believe the gospel. Every one of us is the firstborn.
Every one of us. There's only one body. In Colossians 1.18, and he is
the head of the body, the church. The body is the church. Who is
the beginning. The firstborn from the dead.
That in all things he might have the preeminence. And Jacob said, Swear to me this
day, and he swore unto him, and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave bread and pottage
of lentils, and he did eat and drink. And he rose up and he
went his own way. And thus Esau despised his birthright. And now over in chapter 27, which
I'm not going to deal with, but over in chapter 27, After Isaac
had blessed Jacob, and Esau came in from the field, and he said,
Bless me, bless me. And he says, I have blessed him,
he's blessed. Here's a beautiful point. The
blessing cannot be changed. It cannot be reversed. We'll
see this when we get over to chapter 27. Isaac, even though
he was deceived by Jacob, could not reverse the blessing. He
said, I have blessed him and he's blessed. It's not going
to be changed. We have been blessed in Christ the firstborn. And
it cannot be changed. It cannot be reversed. Our sins... You say, well, Jacob got it by
deception. He's no more wicked and more
deceptive than we are. It can't be changed. My sins
and my sinfulness I can't change it. I can't change the blessing.
Not the blessing of the firstborn. And it says over in Hebrews,
chapter 12, that Esau sought repentance. Bitterly, it says,
with tears, but he found no place for repentance. He sought it.
He wanted this birthright. You know what he wanted, though?
Here's what Esau wanted. He wanted the temporal blessings
that came with it. That's what Esau wanted. He didn't care about
the spiritual blessings. He didn't care about the union
to God that it meant, the connection to God, to Christ and redemption
and salvation. He didn't care about that. No,
you see, the firstborn got double portion. That's what he wanted.
That's what he wanted. It meant nothing to him, but
it means everything. It means everything to those
who are born of God. It means everything. I want to
be a firstborn. I want to be a firstborn.