Genesis chapter 27. One of the things that you and
I have learned, I hope, as we've studied the book of
Genesis, and one of the things that has become apparent to me
that I guess I never saw before, not only the doctrinal truths
that's taught in Genesis, what we're to believe, but all the
practical things that you and I have seen in the book of Genesis. And one of the things that has
stood out to me from the very beginning is family trials. Somebody said there's no trials
like family trials, and what has stood out in this book is
the trials that have come upon families. Everyone from the parents
to the children to the in-laws. You remember the first family
after they fell and had their sons. One brother slew the other
brother. Can you imagine what a trial
that was to mom and dad? That that happened in their family.
An unbearable burden. And look at the trial that Noah
had. Canaan, his son or his grandson. mocked him and brought an awful
curse upon him. The family trial that that was.
Abraham, remember the trials, and we looked at that when we
were there studying about Abraham and Sarah and Hagar and Ishmael
and Isaac and all that went on in that family, the turmoil and
the burden and the grief of mind that they suffered. Joseph's brethren sold him down
in to Egypt, and what a trial that was to his dad, and how
he learned about it, and the other brethren that didn't agree
with that. And then there's the in-laws, when you bring the in-laws
into the family. Lot's son's in-law, remember
how they treated him? They mocked at him when he went
to warn him of the coming destruction. He seemed to them as one that
mocked. They mocked him. Jacob's father-in-law
deceived him, cheated him, changed his wages ten times, would have
done him harm and probably killed him if God hadn't stopped him. That's family trials. Trials
in the family. And here in Genesis chapter 26
and verses 34 and verse 35, He saw Isaac and Rebekah's son
married two Canaanite girls. And it was said there in verse
35, which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah. Now, if you have any trouble
out of your daughter-in-law's, she was a family that had trouble
too. And over here in the 27th chapter in verse 46, look at
this. Rebekah said unto Isaac, I am
weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. That was her
two daughters-in-law. They worried me sick. If Jacob
take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these which
are of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do? Family trials. Children, moms
and dad, and in-laws, trials. Grief of mind. That's what they
said about it. The grief of mind. So that's
a practical thing. We learn a lot about that. Do
you have any troubles in your family? Well, welcome to the
club. These people of old had troubles
in their family too. But here in verse 1 of chapter
27, there's something else here that's very practical, I thought. And we can read over it if we're
not careful. It came to pass that when Isaac
was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he
saw his oldest son, and said unto him, My son, and he said
unto him, Behold, I am here." Here was a child of promise,
and he had gotten old and blind. He really wasn't that old. He
lived 40 years after this. At least 40 years and maybe more.
But here he was blind. And he had to put up with this
blindness over 40 years. That was the child of promise.
Afflictions to the righteous children of God. We've heard
these TV preachers and they often tell us that it's never God's
will. It's never God's will for you to be unhealthy. It's never
God's will for you to be sick. Never God's will for you to suffer
any kind of affliction at all. But what about this man? This
was a child of promise. What about him? He was afflicted
with blindness for over 40 years. Was that God's will? David Pledger made a statement. He said, you hear these TV preachers
talk about, it's never God's will for you to be sick, and
if you're sick, you know, then you're just out of God's will
and all this. And he said, then they die. And you hear that they
were on heart medicine. Or they were being treated for
stomach ailment or something like that. They were lying all
the time. They were sick. Well, tell everybody
else, it's not God's will for you to be sick. And how often
have we thought to ourselves, if I'm sick, God must be displeased
with me. Have you ever thought that? We
get sick or we get afflicted, and the first thing we think,
what have I done? God's displeased with me. Oh, He's punishing me.
Well, here's the child of promise. Forty years. He was blind. He could not see. Why was he blind? Well, the Bible
doesn't say that. It doesn't say. Why was Isaac
blind? Why was he afflicted with this
blindness? Do you see him out there filling around where he
went with his little cane? Who is that old man out there?
Who is that man that that little kid is leading around from place
to place? That's a child of promise. But why is he blind? What's he
done? What sin has he committed that
he's blind? That's what the disciples asked, wasn't it? Who sinned,
him or his parents, that he's blind? Why is he blind? I have no idea why he's blind.
Other than this, it's the will of God. It's the will of God. Here is a child of God and he's
afflicted. And if you can't find any other
reason why, it just boils down to this, it's the will of God.
The will of the Lord be done. I tell you, if you take the will
of God from a child of God, then he has nothing else to comfort
him. When you get afflicted, and if
you need to correct it, then you correct it. If you need to
be humble, then you've been humble. But the affliction lingers. And
it lingers and it lingers. And you have to bear with it
the rest of your life. Finally, you're going to have
to resolve, this is God's will. This is God's will. And here in verse 2, it seems
to me that Isaac felt a lot older than he really was. Here in verse
2. Now remember, he was probably,
they tell us, those people that calculate this stuff, that Isaac
was probably 137 or 140 years old. He lived to be 180. But
here in verse 2, he called his son Esau and said, Behold, now
I am old. I know not the day of my death. He was going to bless him, but
he said, I could die at any time. He must have felt a lot older
than he was. I could die at any time. I often tell Jo that, babe,
I ain't going to live till I'm old. And she said, I've been
hearing that for 35 years. She told me the other day, I
wish you'd just go ahead and die. Ain't that what you told me,
something like that? Isaac did this for 40 years. 40 years. I could die at any time. We better
get this settled now. I imagine, I imagine that his
blindness, other afflictions, and he got old before his time. But that's a practical thing.
Child of promise. One of the things about Isaac,
too, was he, we very seldom think about this, but this is something
to think about. You know, he was still alive
when Joseph's brethren sold him down into Egypt. He lived 13
years after that. So he went through all of that,
knowing that, thinking that some beast had torn his grandson apart. That was one thing that made
that sin so awful that Joseph's brother did. Not only did they
lie to their dad and have him thinking that his son Joseph
was eaten by a beast, but they allowed their grandfather Isaac
to die with that thought. Awful, awful sin. But he said,
I'm old. I'm old before my time. And I'm
tired. Verses 3 and 4, look at this. When you think of the grief that
Esau had caused Rebecca and Isaac, And yet he calls Esau, his son,
and he says, I don't know when I'm going to die, but I want
to bless you before I die. Verse 3, Therefore take, I pray
thee, thy weapons and thy quiver and your 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. Here was a young man, now probably
in his mid-thirties or so, but he caused his dad and mom so
much grief of heart by his wives that he'd married. But this man
here, his dad, Isaac, says, I'm going to bless you. My soul loves
you, and I'm going to bless you before I die. Ain't that a wonderful
thing? That's a good attitude for parents
to have with their kids. No matter what they do, no matter
how they've strayed, no matter how much grief they've caused
us, here's a good example to us. Love them anyway. Love them
right up to the end. And let the last thing we do
in this world be this desire, my soul wants to bless you before
I die. That's almost unconditional love,
ain't it? We're told often in the Scriptures that children
should obey their parents, and that's so. That's the first commandment
we're promised. But I tell you, parents should
honor their children too. Parents should treat their children
with respect and dignity as well. Your child may cause you a lot
of grief of mind, and you may have to deal with them in tough
love. But don't stop loving them. Don't get hard towards them.
Make sure your soul continues to level. Look how the Lord Jesus'
children treated Him. He said the night that they betrayed
Him, little children, I ain't going to be with you much longer.
Little children. Little children. I'm going away
and you can't follow me. And all of them said, Lord, I'll
follow you even to death. But one of them cursed, denied
that he even knew him. All of them forsook him. But
what's the first thing he said the next time he saw him? Peace
be unto you. Peace be unto you. Peace be unto
you. And they were out fishing all
night and caught nothing. And they were cold and damp and
wet. And he said, little children?
That's not a funny way to talk to these people. Little children?
Have you caught any meat? No, Lord, we haven't caught a
thing. Well, he said, I've got a fire lit up here for you. I've
got some fish and meat on the farm. Come and dine. Come and dine. That's the way
he treats his little children. And that's the way you and I
ought to treat our children. I tell you, none of us have ever
been grieved by our children like we've grieved our Master,
have we? And our Father in Heaven. Luther used to tell the story.
And you've seen that movie, Luther. It's one of the best movies I've
ever seen, I think, on Martin Luther. Because they stuck so
close to the facts. But Luther used to love to teach
children. He used to get little children
around him and teach them. He was teaching the little children
about the prodigal. The return of the prodigal. And
the father seeing him afar off. And the Lord Jesus, depicted
in our Heavenly Father, says he ran and fell on his neck. Can you imagine how he smelled?
The filth on him. And the Father fell on his neck
and kissed him. And Luther said there's two reasons
he did that. And he said, you know, dignitaries
don't run. Poor people run. Common people
run. But he said you never read of
a king running. Governors don't run. But he said
the father ran and fell on his neck. And Luther said two reasons
he did that. One was he longed for fellowship
with his son. He'd been watching for him and
waiting for him. And Luther said the second reason was he knew
his son was discouraged. He'd been down in the hog pen.
He knew what a mess he'd made out of everything. And as he
came home, he thought, my father will never receive me. And he
thought about turning back. So his father ran and fell on
his face, fell on his neck and kissed him so he wouldn't be
discouraged. And despair and go back to the
hog pit. I tell you, there are some parents,
bless their hearts, they don't have an encouraging word for
their children. They've got good children, but the children can't
do a thing to please them. Almost everything they do is
to discourage their children. We shouldn't be that way, should
we? There's enough in this world to discourage young people. Mom
and Dad, if anybody ought to encourage them. Bring them up. Bring them up in the fear and
admonition of the Lord. I'm not saying be their buddies.
I'm not for all of that. You're a parent. You have to
be the parent and all that that entails. But encourage them in
the truth. Encourage them in that which
is right. That's what this man did. He
said, if it's the last thing I do, my son, my soul wants to
bless you. This Esau, he was a wretched
son. He went and married another woman
or two after this, just to spite his mom and dad. But boy, that
didn't change old dad and mom's attitude towards you. They loved
him. That my soul may bless thee before I die. That's practical
English. But that's a good lesson. That's
a good lesson for you and I. In verses 5 through verse 17,
and we'll stop there in verse 17, look at this, let me read
this. Here's Rebekah's plot to give
Esau the blessing, to give Jacob the blessing. And Rebekah heard
when Isaac spake to Esau his son, and Esau went to the field
to hunt for Vincent and to bring it. And Rebekah spake unto Jacob
her son, saying, Behold, I heard your father speaking to Esau
your 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. Go now to the
flock, and fetch me from fence two good kids of the goats. And I will make them savory meat
for thy father, such as he loves. And thou shalt bring it to thy
father, that he may eat, that he may bless thee before his
death.' And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Behold, Esau my brother
is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. My father preadventure will
fill me, and I will seem to him as a deceiver. And I shall bring
a curse upon me instead of a blessing. And his mother said unto him,
Upon me be thy curse, my son. Only obey my voice, and go fetch
me them. And he went and fetched and brought
them to his mother. And his mother made savory meat,
such as his father loved. 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 skin of
the kids of the goats upon his hands and upon the smooth of
his neck. And she gave the savory meat
and the bread which she had prepared into the hand of her son Jacob.
And he came to his father and said, My father, and he said,
Here I am. Who art thou, my son? And Jacob
said to his father, I am Isaac, thy firstborn. I have done according
as thou didst me. Arise, I pray thee, set and eat
my venison, that thy soul may bless me." There's two things
you and I know about this blessing. It belonged to the firstborn. And we know this about this,
that God had already determined to overthrow the normal rule
of the blessing of the firstborn. Because God had decreed that
Jacob, not Esau, would be blessed. He appeared to Rebekah when she
was pregnant with these two boys. And he said, the elder shall
serve the younger. Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. Isaac didn't know that seemingly,
but Rebekah knew that. God said to her. He told her
this. That's the first thing we know
about that. God's decree was to bless Jacob and not Esau. And the second thing we know
about that is this. Esau had already sold the birthright.
It wasn't his anymore anyway. Remember when he came in from
the field and he was weak and faint? And his brother Jacob
was cooking that stew, and he said, give me some of your stew.
And he said, you give me your birthright, and I will. And Esau
traded his birthright for that stew. So God's decree said Jacob's
going to be blessed, and Jacob would be blessed because Esau
had sold him his birthright. I don't think Rebecca even was
aware of that incident. I doubt it very seriously. She
even knew what had happened to those two young boys years before
this. She only knew that God had decreed
it, that Jacob would be blessed. But that wasn't why she was scheming
and plotting. The reason she was scheming and
plotting for Jacob to be blessed was because she loved him. She
loved him. She loved him because he was
domesticated. He hung around the house with
his mother. That's why she loved him. Esau was always out hunting. And Isaac, he loved to eat of
that venison. She loved Jacob. And when it
come time for the blessing, because she loved him, she plotted and
schemed a way to get her husband Isaac to bless him. And she gained her desired end.
If you finish this story, you'll realize that she got just what
she wanted. Jacob got the blessing. But I just about bet you Rebecca
lived and loathed the day that she had a hand in it. And you
know why? Look right on over here in verse
43. God overruled the evil and her
mistrust. And he brought good out of it.
But I tell you what, she suffered for it. She suffered for it. When Esau had found out that
his mom and Jacob had schemed to get Jacob the blessing, he
said, I'm going to kill my brother. I'm going to kill him. When I
bury my dad, you know, I think he's probably dying. When I bury
him, I'm going to kill Jacob. And they came and told Rebekah
that. Esau was going to kill Jacob. And look what she said
in verse 43. Now therefore, my son, obey my
voice, and arise, flee thou to Laban my brother, to Herod, and
tarry with him a few days, until thy brother's fury turn away,
until thy brother's anger turn away from thee, and he forget
that which you've done to him. Then I will send and fetch thee
from Thent, Why should I be deprived of both of you in one day? I'll
send for you in a few days." She never saw him again. He was
out there probably 20 years or better. And when he came back,
she was gone. She was dead. In a few days,
I'll call for you. It's going to be alright. That's
what she thought. That's what she thought. The
Lord overruled her scheming and her plotting, but she suffered
for it. She suffered for it. She never
saw her son again. Brothers and sisters, there's
no substitute, never has been and never will be, for honesty,
for integrity, for transparency. There's no substitute for living
by faith upon God's promises. upon God's grace and His wisdom
and His provision. We may do something contrary
to God's revealed will, and He may overrule that evil and bring
good out of it. But He usually does it in such
a way that when He's finished with us, He brings us to repentance
over it and tears. God decreed that Joseph would
be governor down in Egypt. and his brethren sold him. And
that was the very means that God used to get him down there. But what did they think about
their hand in it? They wept over it, didn't they?
They were scared to death about what they had done. We may do
something, and God overrule it, and bless him the day that he
does, and thank him when he does. But I tell you one thing, we'll
probably not get by with it. We'll probably not get that word.
Could God have worked out this blessing for Jacob without her scheming and her
lying? Well, sure He could have. And sure He would have. How would
He have done it? We'll never know now, will we?
We'll never know now. But it was because of her mistrust
and her scheming and plotting that we'll never know. How often do you and I diminish
the sweetness of God's blessing by our bitter mistrust and schemes? Trust in the Lord with all your
heart and lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways,
acknowledge Him. Acknowledge Him. honestly and
sincerely and truthfully acknowledge Him. When we turn from that,
like she did, we don't acknowledge Him. You
acknowledge Him and He shall direct your steps. Trust in the Lord with all your
heart. Lean not to your own understanding. Acknowledge Him, and He shall
direct thy step. Be not wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord, and depart from
evil. It shall be health to your navel,
and marrow to your bones. It's never right to lie and deceive
and be dishonest and cover it up. We may do it. As children of God, we may do
it. And God may overrule it. And it come out well at last.
But you know it and I know it. But we won't forget it. And we'll
take what was a sweet blessing. and what would have been sweeter,
and we'll put our bitter mistrust with it. Rebecca was a most blessed woman. And boy, in this time in her
life, she wasn't an example for you and I to follow, but a beacon
to beware of. I have seen people do things,
Christians, I have done things, And thank God, the evil that
I did, he overruled and it turned out good. And I thought, oh Lord,
thank you for that. Thank you for that. It turned
out well and I appreciate that. Then later I found out somebody
was watching. Somebody's watching. And they
thought, well, I thought since you did it, I could do it. Then
it breaks the heart, doesn't it? Then it breaks the heart.
I know a man, a dear friend of mine, Not much anymore, but he
was at the time. He and his wife divorced. And seemingly, the Lord overruled
the evil in him. I don't know if anything happened
to him personally. But a few months later, his daughter
divorced. And you know what the reason was? I thought, well,
I've been wanting to leave him for a long time. And since Dad
and Mom did it. How do you think that made him
feel? See what I'm saying? We may do something, we may scheme
and connive and lie and cover it up, and God in His grace may
overrule it, and it turn out well at last. This turned out
pretty good, didn't it? Jacob got the blessing. But wouldn't
it have been so much better if Rebecca had said, God told me
a long time ago, that he'd already decreed that Jacob would be blessed. I'm just going to wait and trust
him to see how this turns out. I'm looking for a husband, some
girl will say. Well, pray about it. Trust the
Lord that he'll send you a good husband. Don't go out and marry
one that don't even know the Lord, thinking, well, he'll overrule
it and it'll turn out well. If he does, you'll live to regret
it. Some way or another, you'll live
to regret it. Oh, here's a man, a young man looking for a wife.
Well, pray about it. Pray about it. Trust the Lord
to send you a good wife. You may go marry one that you
picked out and don't even know the Lord. And the Lord may save
her and overrule your foolishness and your haste. But some way
or another, in His wisdom and His fatherly chastening, you
wish you never did it. See what I'm saying? Ain't that
good practical lesson in this? And we learn it from God's children.
These aren't ungodly people. These are God's loved ones. His
family. And we learn these lessons from
them. May God help us all to learn them and live by them.
Let's pray.