Back over in Genesis 27. Let's
begin here in verse 18. We began last week and we looked
at this plot that Rebekah had schemed up to get her son Jacob
the blessing. And one of the things that you
and I saw there that she gained her in. She got what she wanted,
but it was a grief to her. She got the blessing for Jacob,
but she never saw her son again. brought trouble into her family.
And we're going to look at it tonight. And you see here, beginning
in verse 18, that Jacob, he got the blessing too. But he lied
to get it and deceived his dad to get it. And you and I know
from chapter 32 that the Lord confronted him because of that. So let me read here in verse
18. Let's begin in verse 18. It came to pass. It came. He
came. Jacob came unto his father. His
mom had fixed this venison. And he brought this savory meat
unto his father and said, My father. And he said, Here am
I. Who art thou, my son? You remember that Isaac was blind.
And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau, thy firstborn. I have done according as thou
badest me. Arise, I pray thee. Set, and
eat of my venison. venison that my soul may bless
thee. And Isaac said unto his son,
How is it that you found it so quickly, my son? And he said,
Because the Lord thy God brought it to me. And Isaac said unto
Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that I may fill thee, my son,
whether thou be my very son Esau or not. And Jacob went near unto
Isaac his father, and he felt him, and said, The voice is Jacob's
voice. But the hands are the hands of
Esau. And he discerned him not, because
his hands were hairy, as his brother Esau's hands. So he blessed
him. And he said, Art thou my very
son Esau? And he said, I am. And he said,
Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son's venison, that
my soul may bless thee. And he brought it near to him,
and he did eat. And he brought him wine, and
he drank. And his father Isaac said unto
him, Come near now, kiss me, my son. And he came near and
kissed him. And Isaac smelled the smell of
his raiment, and blessed him, and said, See, the smell of my
son is as the smell of the field which the Lord God hath blessed. Now that's the deception that
Jacob had schemed him and his mom against their dad. But one
of the things he said here, You remember how the Lord corrected
him for this. First thing, Isaac asked him,
Who are you, my son? And you remember what he said,
I am Esau. I am Esau. Now you turn over
with me in the 32nd chapter of Genesis. And this is 20 years
later. Jacob had to flee from home. He found his wives Leah and Rachel. from his uncle's house. He married
them and now he's returning back to the land of Canaan. Esau is
coming out to meet him and he's so afraid that Esau is going
to destroy him and his wife and children. And he lies upon this
certain place and this angel wrestles with him. The Lord wrestles
with him. And beginning in verse 24 of
Genesis chapter 32, this is 20 years later and notice how the
Lord deals with him over this lie that he told his dad. In
chapter 32 and verse 24, And Jacob was left alone, and there
wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And
when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the
hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out
of joint as he wrestled with him. And he said, Let me go,
for the day breaketh. And Jacob said, I will not let
thee go, except thou bless me. And verse 27, look what the Lord
said unto him. The Lord said to him, this angel
said to him, What is thy name? What is thy name? You remember
the last person that asked him that was his daddy. And he said,
My name is Esau. It took 20 years for the Lord
to bring him to this place. He owned up to his lie. I am
Jacob. That's what he said. I am Jacob.
I am Jacob. And he said, Thy name shall be
called no more Jacob, but Israel. For as a prince, hast thou power
with God and with men, and hast prevailed. And Jacob asked him
and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore
is it that you ask after my name? And he blessed him there, and
Jacob called the name of the place Penel. For I have seen
God face to face, and my life is preserved. So we see there
that the Lord, He indeed corrected Rebecca for her plotting. But
here He corrects Jacob for his. And what does the Bible say about
chastisement? It's grievous. Jacob will live
the rest of his life. But what happens if we're not
corrected? We're bastards, aren't we? And ain't it a wonderful
thing to know that the Lord won't let us buy with sin? And how
many of us, how many of us have plotted and schemed? I have,
haven't you? Sometimes you do it without real
life. Sometimes you do it because you're afraid not to. And sometimes
you're caught in a trap and you plot and scheme. But the Lord
catches us, don't He? And it may be a while, but after
a while, He corrects us for it. And we bless Him for it because
He corrects us because He loves us. He loves us. He grieves us,
but He loves us. So they got the blessing. They
got the blessing. The Lord did bless. But they
were chastened of the Lord because of it. In verse 28 in our text,
here's the blessing. And you know the reason that
Rebecca wanted this blessing, the reason Jacob wanted it. When
these holy men of old, like Abraham blessed Isaac, and Isaac blessed
Jacob, and Jacob before he died blessed his children, Joseph
blessed his children, and it wasn't just a wish. It wasn't
saying, boy, I wish you the best, and I hope that God blesses you. It wasn't that. It was a prophecy. Rebekah knew that if Jacob was
blessed of his father Isaac, he'd be blessed. Because he's
going to bless him in the name of the Lord. He was going to
prophesy. And Jacob knew it too. Well, look over here in verse
30. Look over here in the same chapter, chapter 27. In verse
33. After Isaac had blessed Jacob,
he said, and Isaac trembled very exceedingly and said, Who, who
are you? When Esau came unto him, where
is he that hath taken venison, and brought it to me? And I have
eaten of all that before thou comest, and have blessed him,
yea, and he shall be blessed. That's why they wanted this blessing.
Because when Abraham said this about him and that about him,
he knew it was going to come to pass. So here's the blessing. Here's
what he said about it in verse 28. Therefore God give thee of the
dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn
and wine. Now that's what he said the Lord
was going to give you, the dew of heaven. And you know it was
so important. If we look at this from a physical
and natural standpoint, the dew in the land of Canaan was so
important because they just got two big rains a year. You've
read about the early rain and the latter rain. They got a big
rain in the spring that germinated the seed and got it to go, and
they got a rain in the fall. But they had this thick dew that
would fall from heaven that watered the plants and nourished them. It was so important, the dew.
And when Isaac said, ìHere, the Lord give you the dew of heaven,î
Jacob realized what that meant. But when you study dew in the
Scriptures, It means the doctrine of the Lord, the teaching of
the Lord, the voice of the Lord. It means God speaking. Listen
to Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 2. My doctrine shall drop as
the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain
upon the tender herb, and as the shower upon the grass. What does dew mean to us today?
The Word of the Lord. The Lord speaking to us. That
was the blessing that was to come upon Jacob. And this earth
of land there in Canaan was so fat. It was a land, Lord, with
milk and honey. That was the blessing that God
gave to Jacob. But the Lord has another land
today. And that's His church. We're likened to His land. And
don't we pray for showers and blessings. Don't we pray for
the dew of heaven. That the Lord would look favorably
upon His land and make us fat. Make us fat. And then he says
here in verse 29, 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 every one
that curses Thee, and blessed be he that blesses Thee. What
a blessing this was, and what a prophecy this was. Can you
imagine nations coming and bowing down to you? But this wasn't
for Jacob as a person. But you know who this was speaking
about? Jacob's descendant. Especially Christ. Who is going
to bow down to Him? Look over here in Psalms chapter
72. The whole of Genesis chapter 27. Look over in Psalms chapter
72. And look in verse 7. This is speaking of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Look what he says about Him in
verse 7. Psalm 72. In His days, in the days of our
Lord and His flesh and His reign in heaven, in His days shall
the righteous flourish in abundance of peace so long as the moon
endureth. He shall have dominion also from
sea to sea and from the river until the ends of the earth.
They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him, and his
enemies shall lick the dust. The kings of Tarshish and the
Isles shall bring presents. The kings of Sheba and Saba shall
offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down
before him, all nations shall serve him." That was Jacob's
descendant. That's the greater Jacob. Jesus
Christ the Lord. Now, I never read in the Scriptures
where they served Jacob. But they served Jacob's seed.
And they are now. They're serving the Lord Jesus
Christ. Look here in verse 30 and 38. I just wanted to go through
this quickly with you. Look in Genesis chapter 27, verse
30 and verse 38. Jacob secured this blessing.
And he was blessed. And all his descendants were
blessed. especially Christ, that came out of Jacob. And here's
where Esau now comes to get the blessing. And look at it in verse
30. 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
his father Isaac, that Esau his brother came in from honey. Can
you imagine what a tense moment this was? I mean, Jacob had just,
don't you imagine, he kept watching the door and peeping out the
door to see if Esau was coming. Very, very tense moment. And
he also had made savory meat and brought it unto his father
and said to his father, Let my father arise 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? Who is he that hath taken venison,
and brought it to me? And I have eaten of all before
thou comest, and have blessed him. Yea, and whoever he is,
he shall be blessed." Because it was God's will for me to bless
him. 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, with deceit, and hath taken away thy blessing.
And he said, Is not he rightly named Jacob? For he hath supplanted
me these two times. He took away my birthright, And
behold, now he hath taken away my blessing, and he said, Hast
thou not reserved a blessing for me? 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 to thee,
my son? And Esau said to his father,
Hast thou but one blessing, my father? Bless me. Even me also,
O my Father. And Esau lifted up his voice
and wept. Now that's a sad account, isn't
it? But there's two things, and I think we may have covered this
before about Esau and his birthright. Let me give you these two things
I've given to you before. You probably forgot them. But
here's two things concerning Esau. You remember he despised
his birthright. He despised being the firstborn,
and the firstborn was the one that received the blessing. Now,
there's two things when we consider the firstborn. There's two things
that that means in the Scripture, and it's so clear. First of all,
the firstborn represents to us Jesus Christ the Lord. Throughout
the Scriptures, He's referred to as the firstborn. You get
your concordance sometime and look up firstborn, and look at
the times that's applied to Jesus Christ God's Son. In Psalms chapter
89 verse 20, here's what the Father said to him. I have made
him my firstborn higher than the kings of the earth. My mercy
will I keep for him forevermore, and my covenant shall stand fast
with him. He's the firstborn. In Romans
chapter 8 verse 29, Christ is the firstborn among many brethren. And then Colossians 1.18, he's
the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have
the preeminence. For it pleased the Father in
him should all fullness dwell. And he's called Mary's firstborn.
So as the son of God, he's God's firstborn. As Mary's son, he's
the firstborn son. And you remember what happened
to the firstborn? You remember what he was entitled
to? Jacob came here and he said, who are you? I'm your firstborn.
That was so important. When Esau came before Isaac,
he said, Who are you? He said, I'm your firstborn.
Why did they say that? Because to them belonged the
blessing. They were to inherit everything. And what does the Scripture say
about the Son of God? He's God's firstborn, therefore
God has made Him heir of all things. The Father loves the
Son and hath given Him all things. put all things into his hands
because he's the firstborn. So when Esau despised his being
the firstborn, he was despising Christ. That's why if you don't
have Christ, if you despise Christ, you can't have the blessing.
Before the blessing comes the firstborn. And he despised Christ. And therefore he forfeited the
blessings of God. So that's the first thing. That's
the first thing. The firstborn represented Jesus
Christ the Lord. And secondly, when he despised
his right as the firstborn, he despised redemption. He despised
the new birth. You remember in Exodus chapter
12 and Hebrews chapter 11, who was it that was redeemed down
in Egypt? It was the firstborn. Remember
that? We talked about that, didn't we? Nobody else needed redeeming
but the firstborn. Everybody that was redeemed was
the firstborn. The firstborn typifies to us
redemption. Esau despised that. And secondly,
it represents to us being in the church. Now, not the local
assembly. We can come here and sit and
be among the saints but not be in the church. The Lord has to
put you in the church. The church is the body of Christ.
And to be in Christ, you've got to be born into Him. And that's
God's business. But in Hebrews chapter 12 and
verse 23, here's what's said about the church. Who is the
church? Who is the church made up of?
And he says in chapter 12 verse 23, You have come to the general
assembly and church of the firstborn. Everybody's in the church is
firstborn. They're born of God, and they're like the Savior.
They're called the firstborn. You'll find that over in Hebrews
chapter 12 and verse 23. So when Esau despised his birthright,
what did he really do? He was despising Christ. That's
why Moses and all of those from Moses on, even Abraham back there,
they were so careful. When God told them what to offer
as a sacrifice and how to offer it, they were so careful to do
it because they knew what those things represented. It's Christ. And he despised his birthright
and sold it. The Hebrew writer said he sold
it for one mess of pottage. Just a mess of pottage. What
good is this birthright to me, he said. And he sat down and
ate a little bowl of pottage and got up and went his way and
never thought another thing about it. Would somebody sell Christ
that cheap? He did, didn't he? Would somebody
sell redemption that cheap and the new birth being in the church
that cheap? He did. He did. And now, and
now look at this, now it comes time for the blessing. But there's
no blessing apart from the firstborn, is there? The blessing belongs
to the firstborn. There's no blessing in the end
except there's a new birth here. There's no blessing in heaven.
Except the person's in the body of Christ here. Now he comes
down for the blessing, and what does he do? He lifts up his voice,
and he weeps. He don't have the blessing anymore.
And the Lord Jesus, look over here what the Lord Jesus said
mainly to the Jews. Look in Luke chapter 13 and verse
23. The Lord told in Luke 13, verse
23, the Lord was preaching this to Nicodemus about the new birth.
He didn't understand it, and the Jews, for the most part,
despised this. But there's just no blessing
in the end if a man's not born here, if he's not in the body
of Christ here. There's no blessing in the end. He can't hope for
the blessing at last. A man goes to heaven without
being in the church. then he's in trouble. There ain't
no blessing there, is there? This world despises the church,
but I tell you, there's no blessing outside of it. That's the body
of Christ. And this man had asked here in
verse 24, there are few that be saved, and he told him to
seek to enter into the straight gate. And he says here in verse 25,
When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut the
door, And ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying,
Lord, Lord, open to us. And he shall answer and say unto
you, I know you not which you are. Then shall ye begin to say,
We have eaten and drunk in your presence, and you have taught
in our streets. But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not
which you are. Depart from me, ye workers of
iniquity. There shall be weeping, wailing,
and gnashing of teeth. When? When you shall see Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God,
and you yourselves threshed out. They shall come from the east,
and from the west, and from the north, and the south, and shall
set down in the kingdom of God. That's going to be a wonderful
day. And He's going to say, Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you. Blessed! He's going to pronounce
a blessing on them. Come, you blessed. You have been
blessed. You're going to be blessed. But there's a bunch of people
He's going to say, depart from me. Why? They missed the new birth, didn't
they? They missed redemption. They
missed Christ. And if you miss that here, you'll
not be blessed there. Esau discovered that. He wept
bitterly for a blessing. But there's no blessing left.
It was for the firstborn. You know, if we go back now and
look at this in that light, and remember what this blessing,
what this birthright represented, what this blessing represented,
there's no wonder Rebecca plotted and schemed that Jacob get it. And there's no wonder he's willing
to lie to his daddy and deceive his daddy to get this blessing.
What would you do for the new birth? What would you do to win
Christ? What would we give up to win
Christ? Is this new birth, is Christ, is redemption as important
to us as it was to Rebecca and Jacob? That's something to think
about when we look at it that way, isn't it? And when we remember,
there's no blessing hereafter without being the firstborn,
without the new birth. Well, we may take up there next
time. May the Lord bless His Word.