Sermons from Lone
Rock Bible Church Unhand My Foot! - Jacob’s Early Years God’s promises to His people have
always been amazing. Who are we most like in trusting the God of Promise: Jacob or Esau .
. . or neither? Let’s go way back in time and see God’s promise regarding young
Jacob. 1. Jacob’s birth (Genesis
25:19-26) We’re starting a series in the
book of Genesis that will seek to follow the life of Jacob. It’s going to be a bit
different than what we did in Galatians. There we took a few verses at a time. Things get
pretty theological when that sort of study is going on. This is different because the book of
Genesis is full of stories. Stories make up more of the Bible than any other type of
literature. The Old Testament is 77 percent of the Bible. Stories are 40 percent of the
Old Testament. By sheer bulk God’s Word
indicates that we listen afresh to truth from history as to what God did. I learned long ago one principle to keep in mind
when I read Bible stories -- there is always only one hero and He is God. That’s
where our hearts and our attention will need to be drawn as we begin talking about Jacob. In my mind, Jacob is one of the most
fascinating characters of the Old Testament because his life seems to represent so much of
our own. Oftentimes good intentions didn’t go well. Surprises come from time to time.
He takes matters into his own hands. We see how God is faithful even when God’s
people struggle. I believe that this time in the book will be profitable. We will take a look today at the very
first episode in the life of Jacob. You probably have heard many of these stories before,
but a close look can be very profitable. Genesis
25 19Now these are the records of the generations of Isaac, Abraham's
son: Abraham became the father of Isaac; Anticipation of a new baby is probably
one of the most fun times in life. Knowing that there will be one, or in some cases more
than one. A newborn in the home means a lot of changes have to be made. As parents, we can
reflect on what that was like. So many thoughts, dreams, plans, aspirations, are all part
of what goes into the prospect of a new child in the home. It is one of the most exciting
and unique times in life. When we enter into that, so much of
what we do is based on hope. We know we are going to have a child or we have a newborn and
as he or she grows and develops we have all manner of hopes for this one. What will she
look like? What will she be like? What will she like? What will she not? What will she
accomplish? Where will he go? What kind of mark will he make in the world? So much of that
is hope on our part because we do not know. Perhaps that is what makes a funeral for a
child one of the most tragic events. Not only have we lost a loved one, but we have lost
hope and all of it seems for the moment to amount to nothing. What would it be like to anticipate a
new child, not based on what we hope will happen, but based on what we know will happen?
Based on specific promises from the God of heaven -- what would that be like? That’s
where we are with Jacob. Jacob was born based not on happenstance or just another child,
but Jacob’s birth and life were built upon a promise made by the God of Heaven. I
wonder what that would be like. If we get nothing else from these
verses, we should be moved toward a deeper trust in the God of promise. The story
doesn’t actually begin with Jacob in Genesis 25. The story could possibly be said to
begin long before that in Genesis 9. Recall that Genesis 9 recounts how God judged the
world and in a sense started over afresh. It was, many say, the days of the cave man
because there was nowhere else to live. Everything had been destroyed. Humankind in the
persons of Noah and his wife and three sons and their wives, were starting over and made
do with what they had. If you recall from chapter 9 of
Genesis a tragic and embarrassing account took place. As a result of being a successful
vineyard owner, Noah embarrassed himself in his own tent. One of his sons saw him and drew
attention to the fact and shamed himself. At that point, about verse 27, God made an
interesting promise. I’ll paraphrase it something like this: “Somebody has to
fix this mess. Humankind needs to be changed. There needs to be redemption, salvation,
recovery, restoration.” God at that point indicated He was going to do it, and do it
uniquely through one of these three sons, through Shem. The Bible traces from that point on
the lineage of Shem and takes us down to offspring of Shem many generations, to Abraham.
Abraham is arguably the most critical figure in the Bible outside of Jesus Christ. It is
to Abraham that three of the greatest religions in the world trace their roots.
Christianity, Judaism, and Islam all name Abraham as their father. What God did through Abraham was
create a miracle nation. He claimed that through this nation, He was going to work into
the world to change it and to save it. Abraham was an individual who was a descendent of
Shem. We meet him in what is today Syria. We don’t know how his family had a
knowledge of Yahweh, the God of Israel, but we know they did. God spoke to Abraham in
Genesis 12 and gave him a promise, “Abraham, through your seed I will bless with my
favor every nation of the world. Abraham, you are key.” There was a problem with Abraham and
that is he was old and his wife was not much younger. She had never been able to have
children. Abraham needed to learn to trust God with His promise. God repeated and
emphasized His promise to Abraham, “You are a special individual because I’ve
made you such and through you I am going to create a nation unlike any other nation on
earth. It will not come about through geography or economy or those types of things where
nations normally spring. Your nation is going to come about through a direct miracle of
God, Abraham. Do you trust me?” Through the course of his life, false
starts and foibles, Abraham learned to trust in God. As a result he was blessed. He and
Sarah his wife, in their old age, were blessed with a son, who name was Isaac. At one
point Isaac would need a bride as well. The text starts off with Abraham as the father of
Isaac, and Isaac and Rebekah. It’s very interesting that Isaac’s bride could not
be just any old gal he took a shine to. Isaac’s bride had also to be in the family of
Shem. She had to be taken from among that tiny believing remnant that lived hundred of
miles away to the northeast. That is why Abraham’s servant went back there to find a
bride for Isaac. He found one, Rebekah, and brought her back to the land of Canaan and
presented her to Isaac and they were blissfully wed. Yet there was a problem. The promise
is passed from Abraham to Isaac. The problem is similar. Rebekah is unable to bear
children. Isaac needed to learn to trust God as Abraham his father had done. That’s true with every
generation. It wasn’t sufficient for Isaac to say, “God, you came through for my
father Abraham.” No, Isaac had to trust in the living God for himself. I think
perhaps one of the greatest liabilities to a young person reared in a Christian home is
adopting the faith for yourself. Knowing Jesus, not because Mom and Dad do, not
because we’re raised that way, but knowing Jesus because He knows your name and He
wants a relationship with you. That’s where Isaac was. That’s where Jacob and
even Esau would need to go as well. Every generation is on its own this way. Now Isaac and Rebekah need to trust
God. Isaac prayed to the Lord for Rebekah his wife, because she was barren. Twenty years
into the marriage. Isaac is now 60. She became pregnant and what a pregnancy she had! She
basically is looking at herself and saying, “What is going on in there?” There
is more to it than just lots of activity. Here is a woman who had tried for years, hoping
against hope that she would bear children. I wonder how many false starts she might have
had. I wonder about her fears and her concerns, whether she would be able to carry those
to term. God assured her that her pregnancy was
not founded on the hope that most parents live with. The promise -- God had said and God
would come through. She needed to know that and she needed to hang on to it. She turned to
the Lord. God’s promise recorded for us in verse 23 sets the stage in many ways not
only for the immediate future but for the distant future. Two nations are in your womb.
Lady -- you are carrying twins and they are not just two children, but they will eventuate
in two nations. This is huge news! Two nations and two
peoples shall be separated from your body and they won’t get along! They won’t
be compatible. One will be stronger than the other. The normal order of things, Rebekah,
will be reversed in that the older will serve the younger and not the other way around.
It’s interesting how that notion of division is introduced here. There will be
division between these two twins, between Jacob and Esau. There will be division in their
home between Isaac and Rebekah. There will be division between their two clans ultimately.
Coming right down to today there is perpetual division between the Israelites and
everybody else. God has laid it out. The promise is struck. The die is cast and away we
go. We can expect after a pregnancy of
this nature the delivery would be a bit unusual too, and it was. That day came. Rebekah,
at an advanced age, bearing twins. The Bible is very interesting in its description. The
first twin is born; he is covered with red hair, so they named him “Hairy.”
Literally, that is what Esau means. In a way, his future is kind of foreshadowed right
there in that little baby. He looks like a little orangutan. He is lively. He is red. Red
would later be the color of his downfall. There is a little bit of a preview here because
later on he is going to ask his brother for some of that “red stuff.” So Esau,
Hairy becomes Edom, Red. So we’re sort of prepared for that by the text a little bit
if we read it carefully. This is the way it is going to go. Esau is a wild man. Normally in the birth of twins, there
is a bit of time lapse between number one and number two. In this account was there
wasn’t any such thing. As Esau emerges from his mother, the last thing out is his
foot and clinging to that tiny little foot is the tiny little hand of his brother. Jacob
was born looking normal but they know he is not going to have a normal life. They name him
Jacob because he is holding onto his brother’s heel. Jacob means “one who trips
someone else up.” When you trip someone, normally you
are coming from behind. Normally your intentions are not transparent. Normally you have
your own agenda. Jacob -- the supplanter, he who trips up another. So we have Hairy and
Jacob, Hairy and the Tripper, however we want to look at it. Twins -- so different from one another
in appearance and the prediction is hard to miss. This is an amazing account. This
pregnancy had Rebekah all churned up literally with two twins, two nations. Division will
ensue. One is looking completely different and acting completely different from the other.
What an amazing thing! Hold that thought and let me read from
Psalm 139 with this reminder. God is sovereign and intimately involved in every pregnancy
and birth and child. Jacob and Esau were unique indeed, but so were you. So am I. Psalm
139 There is nothing more unique about
Jacob and Esau than there is about you and me from the standpoint of God’s sovereign
plan. Jacob’s promises may have been a bit different but the rest is pretty much the
same. We have our promises from God as well. The birth of Jacob and Esau -- can you
see how it was all set up and carried out as God’s doing. He did this. He created a
miracle nation through Abraham. He perpetuated it miraculously through Isaac and now He is
continuing it through Jacob and Esau. God has set it up and God is on top of it and God is
all over it and all through it. It’s His to do. He is the God of promise, who makes
them and who keeps them. What people do may be quite another
thing. Speaking of twins, have you ever noticed how it is not unusual for two children,
even twins, from the same parents to be completely different? Look at the difference in Esau and Jacob. The boys
grow up. Esau becomes a skillful hunter. He wants to be outside. He is sensory. He likes
to see, smell, taste and touch. He gains his information and makes his decisions
physically, graphically, sensorily. That’s Esau. Jacob wasn’t like that at all. He
is what we might describe perhaps as more intuitive, more pensive, a thinker, a
philosophizer. He doesn’t believe in wasted effort. That’s how he is wired. He
sticks around home. Maybe that is one of the reasons the parents were the way they were.
It’s one thing for two brothers like this to be so different in the way they are
wired, but the dynamic gets even worse when the parents weigh in to take sides. That is
what happened. Isaac favored Esau. Every time we see
Isaac it seems he is eating. He liked Esau’s food and later on during the episode of
the blessing, it is food he wants from Esau before he dies.
On the other hand, maybe Isaac admired his son’s brazenness and
impulsiveness because that is not how Isaac was. Isaac comes across to us in Scripture as
being a quiet individual, something of a recluse, passive in his character. Esau is
nothing like that. Rebekah, on the other hand, favored
Jacob. He is wired a little bit like her as we shall learn. She is wired a lot like her
brother Laban. Laban isn’t someone you would necessarily want to be in a business
arrangement with. There is a little bit of underhandedness running in the family. Rebekah
favored Jacob perhaps because they are wired similarly. Perhaps because he helped her in
the kitchen. He is always home. He is in the tent. He is cooking the lentil stew when his
brother comes in. Notice that. So he knows his mother and his mother knows him. They talk.
They are together and that is going to create an issue. Esau makes things happen. Jacob
figures out why. In this odd family, two things were
quite clear. The first is that everybody knew about God’s promises. That
characterized this family. Abraham and Isaac and later Jacob were wealthy men. They cut a
wide swath in their community. They were merchants. They owned a lot. They had a lot. They
were high-profile people. It was no secret that there had been a Devine disclosure
regarding this odd birth of these twins. They had wondered where the promise would go.
They knew it began with Abraham. Isaac knew it was passed on to him. That is recorded in
Scripture. Now what? What of the big promise? The promise that goes from Genesis 12:3 to
the end of the Revelation promise. That’s how big it is. Who is our next key player? That would
have to be their question. They knew it would be Jacob. God had said so. “The older
shall serve the younger.” Jacob, you are it. It was understood. Everybody knew it.
They knew what the birthright was. Birthright means precisely what it says. The firstborn
gets it all. The firstborn gets the inheritance. That’s how it went. The firstborn
son is supposed to receive the wealth, the family name, everything. In this case an
additional bonus that would extend into eternity. Jacob -- you will carry the promise of
God to redeem the world through your line. They knew it was so. They had to know.
It was part of their family. The second thing that is clear --not
only that everybody knew about the promise -- but nobody seems to be trusting God. They
received direct, specific word from God, clear promise from God that this is the way God
is going to take it and these are His players. But they don’t seem to trust Him with
it. The parents seemed to be caught up in their favoritism, each favoring and ultimately
neglecting the other child. There didn’t seem to be much instruction. It didn’t
seem like the parents were real keen on sitting the boys down and saying, “We serve a
wonderful God and He has made an amazing promise. He is going to do a remarkable work in
the world, boys, and he has chosen our family. This is how he is going to do it. Esau --
we have good news and bad news. The good news is you are going to get to hunt all you
want. The bad news is your brother gets the birthright.” Later on the narrative will show that
had Esau been informed. Had this been handled through open communication and clear
schooling of these boys and understanding of what this meant and where this goes, Esau
could handle it. He wouldn’t care. He would sell his birthright for some stew. Later
on he goes out and starts his own nation. He is not concerned with the birthright,
that’s how he is. He could have handled the news. Esau, you may not get the
birthright and the lineage, but here is a new bow. “Hey, great. Thanks!” And we
can see him charging out. That’s how he was wired. But that didn’t happen. The
parents didn’t instruct. The parents weren’t trusting God because they
weren’t instructing their boys as to God’s promises. The boys weren’t
trusting God either, we learn that from these verses. Jacob had cooked lentil stew,
it’s colored red. They still eat it over there. Esau came in from the field. This was
hunting season. He comes rolling in and says, “Jacob, give me a bite of your stew.
I’m famished.” Jacob has been waiting for this opportunity. He may well have set
this up deliberately. Esau will be in about noon. He will be hungry. He loves lentil stew. Nothing has been said around here
about the birthright. Nothing has been settled. Evidently the folks aren’t going to
move on this. The folks are getting older. Jacob is taking matters in his own hands. Right
or wrong, probably wrong, but he understands the birthright. He understands where this is
going. He knows what it means and he knows it is his and if the parents aren’t going
to do this legitimately and set it up. Jacob is thinking, “I’ll do it.” So he said, “OK, Esau, I’ll
trade you. I’ll give you a whole bowl for your birthright.” That was such a
statement. Esau, all you have to do is turn over to me all your rights of first
inheritance to include God’s eternal promise to save the world forever and I’ll
give you this big, hot bowl of stew. “Give me the stew. What good is
the birthright to me. I’ll be dead anyway.” What an incredible display of
impulsiveness on the part of Esau. There are times you would love to have a guy like this
around. “Sure I’ll swap you. Swear to it.” So he swore an oath. Jacob
handed him the bowl with a smile. “It’s done. It’s mine. That’s taken
care of.” Jacob gave Esau the stew. Esau downed
it, ate and drank, rose and went his way. The Bible tells us here, “Thus Esau
despised his birthright.” He didn’t want it anyway. He was more interested in
the stew, more interested in other things. He just didn’t care. Hebrews chapter 12 weighs in on this. Jacob wanted it, understood it, went after it. He didn’t wait and he didn’t trust, but he went after it, got it in his own way. Esau despised it. God had laid out a promise and Esau deliberately rejected it. That is what is happening here. God promises, Esau says, “I don’t think so Hebrews 12 He despised his birthright. God had made a promise. Esau rejected it. God
promises things and God fulfills. God comes through on His promises. People, folks like
us, our responses differ, don‘t they? How are we doing with God’s promises? God
promises that anyone and everyone who will put all their trust in Jesus Christ lives
forever. That’s a promise sealed with the blood of His Son. That’s quite a
promise. Have we treated that like Esau treated the birthright? Or have we laid claim to
that? God promises to give His people grace.
“My grace is sufficient. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you
with my righteous right hand.” Yet are we perhaps quick to do like Jacob and do an
end run around God’s promise and assistance? God has promised us Heaven. “I go
to prepare a place for you,” Jesus said. That was two thousand years ago. It must be
quite a place. “And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive
you unto myself.” He promises us Heaven. Do we think heavenly? Or is that one of
those promises that we will relegate to the back burner or hand off to the intensive care
unit or wherever? It’s a promise of God. Do we
despise it, reject it, ignore it as Esau? He gives us His Word, His Bible. Jesus said these words are true. Jesus endorsed
the Old Testament clearly and authorized the New Testament. Yet to many people it’s
optional. The Bible weighs in on something -- but what is another opinion? Oftentimes out
of convenience or other illegitimate reasons we say we’ll go elsewhere rather than to
the pages of God’s Word. Jesus promises it is true. The principles are sound. They
work. God promises that when we share the
truth of Jesus with folks they will come to faith. Some say, “Oh, let the evangelist
do that. Let the pastor do that.” No, we need to take the promise more seriously. God
promises that when husbands and wives and children behave biblically in their homes and in
their relationships with others that He will bless. God promises a way to escape temptation. Not to rationalize or justify or redefine but to escape. He promises a way out. Do we despise that one as well? Note His promises. Have we embraced them or are they optional to us? When God makes a promise, His people should trust Him. Jim Carlson 2005, Lone Rock Bible Church, Stevensville Montana, USA |