The passage that was assigned to me was all of Genesis 25, but today we are just going to look at verses 19-34. To quickly summarize what happens earlier in the chapter, Abraham dies, and is buried with his wife Sarah. Ishmael’s descendants are listed, and Genesis mentions that they lived in hostility towards the tribes related to them. Here we see that God’s words to Hagar in chapter 16 are coming true. Ishmael’s family is starting to live in hostility towards those around them. In any case, this is not the focus of the message. Instead, we are going to talk about the birth of Isaac’s sons, Jacob and Esau. I have three points that I want to talk about in regards to the passage: God doesn’t always make sense, God is always in control, and God is good, all the time.
The first point is that God doesn’t always make sense. Why am I talking about this? If we read the passage, we see that Isaac has a similar dilemma to his father Abraham. Let’s read verse 21. “Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant”. If you recall to earlier in Genesis, Abraham and Sarah didn’t have a child for a very long time. Back in their times, not having a child was a pretty big deal. Abraham and Sarah took matters into their own hands, and Abraham had a son with his slave Hagar. This son is Ishmael, who lived in hostility with his brothers. Now, Isaac and Rebekah are having the same issue of childlessness. However, we see that Isaac and Rebekah don’t take things into their own hands. They pray to the Lord for a child, without trying anything by their own efforts. You would think that since they were faithful to prayer, God would quickly and directly answer their prayer for a child. However, some interesting things happen. Firstly, it takes twenty years for Rebekah to give birth a child. Secondly, they don’t just have one child, they have twins. When Rebekah is pregnant, verse 22 tells us that “the babies jostled each other within her, and she said, ‘why is this happening to me?’”. God answers this in verse 23. Let’s read that together. “The Lord said to her, ‘two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger’”. Now, I know that we are all accustomed to the story of Jacob and Esau, so we kind of forget how weird their story really is.
Here in America we have a culture in which age is not a huge deal. The only time age really matters is in terms of the law, such as driving or drinking. However, age is not super important in our social interactions with others. In other countries, such as Korea (although I hear it’s not so much these days), age is very important. Perhaps you guys know the terms “hyeong” and “dongsaeng”. If you don’t know, “hyeong” means “older brother”, and “dongsaeng” means “younger brother”. Actually I remember a time when I was playing flag football with some FKPC guys, and they would call Lam “Lam Hyeong”, which sounded a lot like “lamyeong” (ramen). I was so confused as to why people kept shouting “lamyeong” until I realized they were simply calling Lam with the respectful title “hyeong”. Anyways, the point is that in Korea and some other countries, age is very important. Younger people should respect older people, especially when it comes to family. The same principle was true in Isaac and Rebekah’s time. When God tells Rebekah that the older will serve the younger, this probably made no sense to Rebekah. The idea of the older son serving the younger son is ridiculous. Why didn’t God just give Isaac and Rebekah a single son? Why all this drama of having two children? Why not just have the older son be the inheritor of God’s promise to Abraham? I don’t know the answer to these questions, but I do know that Rebekah sought to know God’s will. Even when things in her life didn’t quite make sense, she inquired of God. Even when God’s answer didn’t make sense to her, there is evidence later in her life that she still wanted to do God’s will. Deuteronomy 4:29 says “if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul”. So when God doesn’t make sense, we should still seek after Him and His will.
With Christmas being just two days ago, I’ve been thinking a lot about the birth of Jesus. An immediate question I had is “why did Jesus come as a baby”? This question actually has a lot of theological implications, so I won’t try to answer it. Do you know who was probably the most confused about this? I think the Jewish people probably were the most confused about the humanity of Jesus. When they thought about their coming Messiah that was promised to them, I can guarantee you that they were not thinking about a baby. What is a baby going to do for you? A baby can’t even take care of itself! The Jewish leaders and teachers of the law were not ready to accept Jesus as a baby, which is why I believe the angel appeared to the shepherds. For one thing, no one was awake except for the shepherds. Isn’t it strange that the Son of God was born, and no one was even awake except for some shepherds? The teachers of the law and the Pharisees were so caught up in the idea of the Messiah being a powerful king that they couldn’t even accept that Jesus would come as a baby. Literally anyone could have come and approached Jesus when He was a baby, but the idea of the Messiah as a baby made no sense to them. They failed to seek God, and as a result, they missed out on who Jesus was. God doesn’t always make sense to us, but we should seek Him and His will.
So we’ve covered that God doesn’t always make sense, so let’s move to point two: God is always in control. Thinking again about Jesus’ birth, Luke 2 tells us that Caesar Augustus was the leader of Rome at the time. He issued a decree for a census, which required each person to return to their hometown to register. This meant that Joseph and Mary had to travel to Bethlehem. This journey probably sucked, since Mary was pretty far along in her pregnancy. When I was studying this passage with my fellowship, Fredrick said something very interesting. It seems like Caesar Augustus in the one in control. He gets everyone to do whatever he wants, even if it means traveling far in order to register for a census. There were no exceptions to his rule, not even a pregnant woman. The funny thing is that this was probably the kind of king that the Jewish people wanted. They wanted a strong king who would take over the Roman Empire through displays of power and authority. In other words, they wanted a king who would take complete control over the world. What they didn’t realize is that they had a God who was in control. When Caesar Augustus forces Mary and Joseph to travel to Bethlehem, he is actually fulfilling God’s plan. Matthew 6 tells us that the Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem is the fulfillment of God’s prophecy in Micah. It seemed like Caesar Augustus was in control, but in fact, God was always the one orchestrating everything in accordance to His will. God is always in control.
So what does this have to do with our passage? When Jacob and Esau are born, Jacob comes out grasping Esau’s heel. The name Jacob was given to him because Jacob means “he grasps the heel”, which is an expression for “he deceives”. We learn that Esau likes to go out and hunt, where Jacob likes to stay home. One day, Jacob is at home, as always, cooking some stew. Esau comes home and asks, or more like commands, Jacob to give him some stew. Jacob, being a deceiver, realizes that this is his chance to take something from Esau. Jacob tells Esau to give him the birthright in exchange for some stew. Immediately we can ask, “what is a birthright”? A birthright is a right of possession or privilege that someone is given from birth, especially as an eldest child. This could be in the form of a greater portion of the father’s inheritance and a higher position in the family line. Now, what do you think is more valuable, some stew or a birthright? Clearly the birthright is of much greater value than some stew, but Esau is so hungry he still makes the trade with Jacob. Jacob ends up with the birthright, thanks to his deceptive manipulation of his brother.
In this part of the story, it seems like Jacob is in control. He finds a weakness in Esau and exploits it in order to take the birthright. Jacob is possibly even pleased with himself that he was able to take the birthright from his brother Esau, because it meant that Jacob now would get a greater inheritance and is now higher in position than Esau is in the family line. However, what Jacob probably doesn’t know is that he was fulfilling God’s plan. Remember that God told Rebekah that the younger son would rule over the older. In only a couple verses, we see that God is already fulfilling what He told to Rebekah. Jacob is now the owner of the birthright, and is in a higher position than Esau. Jacob probably thought that he was in control, but in fact, God was in control the whole time. God can use anything in order to fulfill his sovereign plan. Proverbs 16:9 says “in their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps”. God used Jacob’s deception of Esau in order to put Jacob in position to receive the promise of Abraham. What Jacob lacked is trust in God, because he put too much trust in himself. The time in Jacob’s life where he finally found peace is when he wrestled with God. I don’t want to spend too much time on this, since you will have another message on it, but let’s think about why God wrestles with Jacob. What is the point of wrestling? By the way, welcome back Caleb. What is the point of wrestling? It’s to gain control of the other person. Think about it. You’re fighting and grappling to be the person in control. God approaches Jacob in a wrestling match because He wants Jacob to understand who he is. Jacob always tried to take control of his life, usually by deceiving people to get what he wanted. God wrestles Jacob because He wants Jacob to stop trying to control his own life. God touches Jacob’s hip and dislocates his hip, basically showing Jacob that God is the one really in control. God wants Jacob to surrender to His will, and stop trying to control his own life. We can always try to control our life, but God will always be in control. Why not just let go and let Him have control of our lives?
How many of you have been to Grace Retreat? In Grace Retreat, I noticed that the people are much more expressive in worship than our church is. It’s funny because there a lot of different kinds of ways people express worship. The most common way that I see is people raising their hands during praise. In fact, I have a chart here that outlines some of the different hand raises. The most common one is the “touchdown” pose, where both hands are raised as if a referee were signaling a touchdown. I am ninety-nine percent sure that I know where this came from. Where else do people do this pose, outside of sports? It’s when someone points a gun at someone else. The reason people place their hands up is to signal that they surrender to the gunman. In a bad case, this could mean someone surrendering their money to a criminal. In a good case, this could mean a criminal surrendering to the police. In either case, a hand raised motion is a signal of surrender. I believe this is why the worship pose is so similar, because it is a way of telling God that we surrender to Him. Jacob finally gave up control to God when he surrendered to God’s will. God doesn’t always make sense, so we seek His will; God is always in control, so we surrender to His will.
Lastly, let’s talk about the last point, God is good, all the time. As you probably guessed, I stole this expression from our church. We like to say “God is good, all the time, and all the time, God is good”. Why? Well, because it’s true, even when we don’t know it. When I was younger, Matthew and I would sometimes do really stupid things. For example, we would go downstairs and play with footballs, soccer balls, or anything that you probably shouldn’t play with inside. Whenever we did something really bad, like knock something over or scratch the wall, my dad would get very upset. Often, he would “discipline” us. At the time, I hated it, and I’m sure Matthew did too. However, what we didn’t realize is that my dad was doing this for our good. I can say this because I knew that my dad loves me. One time, my mom had set a ladder outside in the backyard, and sternly told me not to play with it. Of course, no child could resist an invitation like that, so I went out and I climbed the ladder. I fell, and bashed my head against the ladder. What do you think my mom and dad did? Did they spank me right then and there? No! They rushed outside and came to my aid. They placed ice on my head, because at this point I had a bump the size of a baseball. My parents made sure that I was okay, and then they spanked me. All joking aside, they tried to do everything for my good.
In the same way, God does everything for our good. Matthew 7:9-11 reads “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!” In other words, if we know that our parents are working for our good, how much more is God working for our good? Hebrews 12:5-6 says “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastens everyone He accepts as His son.” Even when things don’t seem to be good, God is good.
Perhaps it is off-putting to think that God is completely sovereign over everything. Even when we see the good intentions of people who love us, we see their failures. People will always betray you, so it’s hard to surrender to God because we remember how people fail us. This is why I wanted to stress that God is good, all the time. In Jacob and Esau’s case, it seems like God is cruel to allow Jacob to take the birthright. We know that God doesn’t always make sense, but why would He allow Jacob to take the birthright through deception? We know that God is always in control, so why would He choose a deceiver to be the receiver of His promise? I honestly don’t know, but I can say with confidence that God was working everything for good. Jacob goes through many trials in his life, as you will learn later, which test his character. He constantly struggled with others, and we see him deceiving others continually. However, God used the trials in his life, and even his deceptive and controlling nature to build his character to become the father of the nation of Israel. Jacob became a great man of God, and the inheritor of the promise God gave to Abraham, becoming a blessing to people all over the earth.
The sad part of the story is that Esau didn’t see the fullness of God’s goodness. When he comes home to Jacob and asks for stew, Esau gives up the birthright much too quickly. Esau should have valued the birthright higher than anything else, especially some stew. He gives up the birthright to Jacob, and thus loses the promise of God to Abraham. Not only that, verse 34 tells us that Esau despised the birthright. Perhaps this means that Esau didn’t truly understand the value of the birthright. Maybe Esau didn’t even want the birthright. Whatever the case, Jacob did see the value of the birthright, and he took it, albeit through deceptive means. Now I’m not sure what Jacob really wanted from the birthright, whether it was the inheritance or the position of authority. Whatever it was, he treasured it, even deceiving his own brother for it. This brings me to my last point, God is good all the time, so we should treasure His will.
1 John 3:1 reads “see what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him”. The most important thing I want you to remember is that God is good, and He is working for your good. We are the children of God, do you know what that means? It means that we too have a birthright, as children of our heavenly Father. 1 Peter 3-4 says “In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.” We have a spiritual inheritance waiting for us, which we should treasure. We also have the position as children of God. The will of God is that we receive these things, so we should treasure His will. We should hold onto these things which God has given to us, and not give it up like Esau did.
Of course, this all sounds nice, but in reality these things are hard to accept. It is hard to accept that God doesn’t always make sense to us. We don’t like when things happen to us that we can’t understand. It’s difficult to accept that God is always in control, because we want to be in control. We don’t always see that God is good when bad things happen to us. However, accepting these things will align us to the will of God, which is for our good. God doesn’t always make sense, so we seek His will. God is always in control, so we surrender to His will. God is good, all the time, so we treasure His will.
-Smart
Thanks for giving the message!!
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