Sermons from Lone
Rock Bible Church Isaac’s Broken Home (Part II) We often associate “broken homes”
with violence, infidelity, drug abuse and the like. These are actually symptoms of the
underlying problem: God is not given His proper place. Long ago, this was Isaac’s
problem, too, as his home dishonored the Lord in a number of ways. Again, let’s
listen in . . . We’re going to follow these seven
conversations in this episode in the life of Jacob because they reveal to us the issues
behind Isaac’s broken home. On the 6th of December
1937, in the Denver Colorado area, a man and woman were married and would go down in
infamy. Their names were Pete and Della. This couple produced 18 children. The family of
Pete and Della bears the dubious distinction of being the most crime-ridden family ever in
that area. Among those 18 children were 206 arrests, a total of 793 years in prison.
Stolen goods, property and cash in excess of $2 million, hundred of crimes. Their last
name was Bueno, translated “good.” There is irony there, irony in a name.
There is irony surely in the situation of Isaac and Rebekah. If ever there was a family
set up not just in name but in circumstance, materially, physically, spiritually, it would
be Isaac and Rebekah. In light of that we would have expected better than what we find,
particularly what we find in the 27th chapter of Genesis. There are reasons they had problems.
To pin it down, it would seem to me that Isaac, as the leader of their home, and Rebekah
and their family came to trust more in themselves than they came to trust in God. After
all, wasn’t Isaac the miracle baby of the union of Abraham and Sarah in their old
age? Had not God visited him and reiterated to him that he would be the vessel of God’s
saving work through a Messiah. Wasn’t Isaac special? Didn’t they have what we
would call today a Christian home? Shouldn’t it have gone better than it did? Isaac and Rebekah, their marriage you
might say, had been made in heaven, at the very least orchestrated by God, but they
trusted more in themselves. Somewhere along the line, the Bible doesn’t tell us
specifically where God was left out of their home. If we learn anything from these verses
we need to learn to be challenged, to trust more in God than we trust in ourselves, to go
His way rather than our own. Seven conversations are recorded in
these verses. We talked about a couple of them a week ago. The first conversation was
between Isaac and Esau where they were forgetting God. Isaac thinks he is dying. He is 137
years old, the same age as his half-brother, Ishmael, had been when he passed away. He
commissioned his son to go out and kill some food and make him a meal and get his
blessing. They completely left God out of the equation. We don’t know the precise reason
for Isaac’s blatant favoritism for Esau. We do know that this particular son, the one
who was excluded from God’s blessing, was the one Isaac chose to favor and led to a
wreck in the home. The second conversation was that
between Rebekah and Jacob. She favored him. How well can a family be when Dad favors one
child and Mom favors the other and everybody knows it? His mother favors Jacob. His mother
decides to help God. She will deliberately take matters into her own hands. She perceives
that this blessing from her husband is going to go to the wrong son and she is convinced
if she doesn’t act somehow God’s will will be short circuited or somehow won’t
happen. So she, for other reasons, jumps in to help God. In the third conversation, she sets up
an elaborate plan of deception in order to steal the blessing of God from Esau. She tells
Jacob to go out and bring her a couple of kids and save the hide because he needs to
become hairy. She would set it up, fix the meal, they would deceive Isaac and Jacob would
steal the blessing from his brother Esau. 3. Jacob and Isaac (27:18-20);
using God In their conversation, in their
interaction between one another, God is only a tool for them. He has become a tool or a
means to worldly ends. Let’s use God to make things the way we want it. That’s
where these men are going. God has become the creature to them rather than as Paul would
say in Romans 1:25 rather than the creator, who is blessed forever. The roles are reversed
for them in these verses.
Their conversation immediately begins
on a note of uncertainty and I also suggest suspicion. I cannot believe that in a home
where Rebekah has been living all these years under the circumstances of favoritism, that
this would not be typical - the conniving, the deceiving, and the favoritism. Isaac knew
how the game was played. He realized something big was coming down and he was suspicious.
“Who are you, my son?” leading in the next two verses to four lies on the part
of Jacob. Almost as though it is natural to him. Lie number one: Jacob said to his
father, “I am Esau, your firstborn.” Isn’t that interesting? Years
before, Jacob had purchased that firstborn status from Esau with a bowl of soup. He had
bought it; it was his. Esau had voluntarily handed it over, but obviously Isaac had never
recognized that and was still referring to Esau, as his firstborn. Lie number two: “I have done as you told me.” What makes that a lie? It wasn’t Isaac who told him anything; it was his mother. Remember her words from the previous passage, you go and you do as I command you. And he did. He had not done as Isaac commanded but as his mother had told him. 19 Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn; I have
done as you told me. Get up, please, sit and eat of my game, that you may bless me.” Lie number 3: It’s not “my” game. I just went around behind the barn and slaughtered a couple of the kid goats. I didn’t go out and hunt. He is lying. “That you may bless me.” Do we sense a little bit of urgency? Sit up, eat! Here it is! I need the blessing.” Isaac says, “That happened awfully quickly, didn’t it?” 20 Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have it so
quickly, my son?” And he said, “Because the LORD your God caused it to happen to
me.” Lie number 4: “Yahweh caused
it.” You have heard of a little white lie, how supposedly that is no big deal,
but it is. This is a great big, black lie. It is a blasphemous lie and perhaps the reason
Jacob was not, at this point, hit by a mighty bolt of lightening for invoking the name of
the Blessed One for his own self-aggrandizement, was probably because he did not know God.
To him, God was just a tool, just a means so that Jacob could get the goods. “Yahweh
caused it. Your God,” he says, “brought this game to me in short order.” I want your soul to bless me. There is
a lot on the line here. Bless me from your soul. He is appealing to his father for a
blessing that comes from the very heart, one that serious, somber, and binding. Four lies, just like that. What a home! There are
reasons people lie. Reason number one, it seems to me, is fear. People lie when they are
afraid. Was Jacob afraid? Not likely. People lie when they want to gain
something. For instance in II Kings 5 when Naaman the Syrian is cured of his leprosy, he
brings a huge gift to the prophet Elisha. Elisha says no, it’s not necessary, take
it. But Elisha has a right hand man named Gehazi. Gehazi sprints down the road after
Naaman and said my master changed his mind, we just had company from out of town, we need
stuff from you. Lie. But it cost him. He lied for personal gain and it cost him a serious
case of leprosy. People also lie because they are
insecure and need to feel bigger than they are. The kid across the street from us used to
drive us nuts with this. Every time he opened his mouth he was telling us about his Dad’s
yacht that was too big for their driveway, too big for their backyard, so they had to
store it in a warehouse across town. And his mom used to date John Wayne. Every time he
opened his mouth he had a new one. How seriously did we take him? What he was trying to accomplish by being a
habitual liar, making himself look bigger, was actually working in reverse. I’m not sure in Jacob’s case
how afraid he might have been. I’m not sure how much he was just determined to make
illegitimate gain or whether he was just a liar because it was habit now and a way of life
to him. It might have been a combination of all three. If you can’t trust a person to
tell the truth, you can’t trust the person. In Jacob’s case he is so
misrepresentative of the God of heaven, he is so far from God here. Why? Because God is a
God of truth. God’s people are to be people of truth if we are to represent God. That’s
why they stoned a false prophet in those old days. You claim to speak for God, you had
better be right and you better never be wrong or you aren’t speaking for the God of
heaven who is 100 percent right all the time. Jacob lied. This family is a mess.
These lies slipped out of his mouth so fast. Lying ruins relationships and lying ruins
families. People lie when they are afraid, when they are involved in immorality. For fear
of being found out they become adept at lying. Jacob was really good at it. A series of tests follow beginning in
verse 21. There is no trust here. 21 Then
Isaac said to Joseph, “Please come close that I may feel you, my son, whether you are
really my son Esau or not.” We didn’t do real well with the
voice test; now let’s try the touch test. Remember, Isaac is blind so he is going to
refer to his other four senses to help him out. Right now he is very doubtful. It says the
voice sounded like Jacob, but he’s not convinced. 22 So
Jacob came close to Isaac his father, and he felt him and said, “The voice is the
voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” Remember Esau was a hairy guy. He must
have been a real hairy guy to compete with a goat. We wonder, what is going on in Isaac’s
mind? How sure must he have to be before he invokes this blessing? How much doubt is he
dealing with here? How conflicted is he on the inside after going through decades like
this, knowing what God had said -- that the older should serve the younger. Knowing that
legitimately before God, Jacob was supposed to be the one to carry on the Abrahamic
blessing, but favoring Esau to such an extent that he was ready to give it to Esau anyway. He is all torn up inside. He has a broken heart
and he heads a broken home. 23 He did
not recognize him, because the hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands; so he
blessed him. Here’s lie number five: And he
said, “I am.” 25 So he
said, “Bring it to me, and I will eat of my son’s game, that I may bless you.” Now it’s time for the taste test.
Failed on hearing, passed on touch, tasted, passed the taste test. And he brought it to him, and he ate;
he also brought him wine and he drank. Now we have to pass the smell test: 26 Then
his father Isaac said to him, “Please come close and kiss me, my son.” When he smelled the smell of his
garments, his blessing came out. Taste and touch and smell trump hearing. He blesses him.
Would you note please the content of the blessing beginning in verse 27. This is what it
looks like and I ask, does this sound to you like a spiritual blessing? “See,
the smell of my son is like the smell of a field which the LORD has blessed; 28 Now may
God give you of the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth, and an abundance of
grain and new wine; Blessings of the field, a farmer’s
blessing, an agrarian blessing, and a good one, well worded. What has it to do with the
redemption of the world? It is a worldly blessing. 29 May peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you; be master of
your brothers, And may your mother’s sons bow down to you. Field blessing. Family blessing. You
be the man, he said. This tells me that Isaac, at this point, is blessing Esau. He is
going for broke, He is saying this is Esau, I’m blessing you with the worldly
blessings that are so dear to me and that I know are so dear to you. Cursed be
those who curse you, and blessed be those who bless you.” Just a hint of the Abrahamic blessing
of Genesis 12. His best wishes of this world. Isn’t
it interesting that when it is Isaac’s time to bless, Isaac, who is locked in and in
love with the world, things that are temporary, things that don’t last, when it is
Isaac’s blessing, he wants to prolong the world. May you always have crops and may
everything continue on. May your mother’s sons bow down to you in perpetuity, and on
and on. It is this-world stuff. He wants to prolong it. By contrast, God’s blessing
through Abraham, he wants to restore it. There is a huge difference. With Isaac’s
blessing, things are fine. Let’s keep them that way. In God’s eyes, however,
through Abraham, things need fixing. Through you, I will fix them. Do we see the
difference? Isaac is worldly and he hands out to whom he believes is Esau, a blessing of
the world. He skirts the eternal. He skirts the spiritual side that had begun with
Abraham. This is where we enter in. As we pray,
as we plan, as we prioritize, as we engage in life, our priorities are revealed as well,
whether they are worldly. I don’t mean just doing naughty things, whether they are
based upon that which doesn’t last or whether they are based on the Lord. Our prayers
reveal our priorities. How frequently do we pray, locked into things that are not going to
last. We pray for someone to be healed, and that is fine, but we should want them to be
healed, that they may honor and glorify the king. For someone who is not a believer,
someone who does not know Jesus, simply to pray that they might be healed, that they might
then go to hell isn’t legitimate. For instance, how did Paul pray? You
could go to almost any epistle. I’ll just pick Ephesians. Ephesians was written from
prison. He didn’t pray to get out of that rotten place. He prayed that the gospel of
Jesus, through the new contacts that he had made, would not be bound as he is bound. What
a difference? He prays for the Ephesian believers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge
of Him, that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope
of his calling and what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us to believe. He
takes his prayer to eternal issues. I can think of a couple prayers of
Jesus, one of them we call the Lord’s prayer, all about God. Our Father in heaven,
may your name be held holy. May your kingdom come. May your will be done.
That’s how that prayer goes. Not, “Dear God, bless us. Bless us every one.”
That’s a great start, but for what? If eternity isn’t what it is about, if
honoring and glorifying the God of all ages isn’t what it is about, why, we might as
well live in Isaac’s tent because their world wasn’t about it either. Jesus
prays his high priestly prayer of John 17, he prays about things like “Father,
glorify yourself with the glory you had in me before the world was.” He prays for his
people that they may be one so they may better represent us to a world that needs to see
some hope. These things are eternal. 4. Isaac and Esau (27:30-41) Our next conversation is between Isaac
and Esau. The deception worked and in verse 30 we have almost one guy going out one door
and another guy coming in another. It’s tight. We’re intended here to feel the
tension. 30 Now it came about, as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob,
and Jacob had hardly gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother
came in from his hunting. His hands are probably dirty. He had
just field dressed something. He is bent on getting this blessing. He wants it. He thinks
he has it coming. He feels it deserves it. Five times in these verses he begs for it, even
with tears. He wants it so badly. Isaac and Esau, mostly Esau here. As
we shall see, Isaac is going to turn a corner. Esau thinks that God is all about him and
all about this life if God is all about anything at all. Esau limits God tremendously. If
we use God as a tool, well, every tool has its limitations. You can only do certain things
with a given tool. Obviously, God is kind of usable too, only to a point. What do we know about Esau? We know he
is impulsive, that he is given to instant gratification. Esau doesn’t really like to
wait around. We know that he can be bought. We know that he is a physical guy, an outdoors
guy. He is also quite unpretentious. He does what he says he will do and he gets right to
the point. No guesswork with Esau. He is not above a bit of selective memory, as we shall
see. He sold his birthright for a bowl of soup and now he wants the blessing. He sold the
birthright that is supposed to lead to the blessing and now he wants the blessing. He must
have forgotten. But he wants this blessing so badly. He wants to be number one. 31 Then he
made savory food, and brought it to his father; and he said to his father, “Let my
father arise and eat of his son’s game, that you may bless me.” “That your soul may bless me.”
Isaac, his father, had just wiped his mouth from the previous meal and he said “Who
are you?” I’ll bet his voice squeaked. Isaac
has just made the biggest blunder of his long life and he knows it. The answer he got was one he didn’t want to
get. “And he said, ‘I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.’” It is at this point, that all of the
conflicting emotion within Isaac has come to a head. The denial he has dealt with over who
is God’s choice over his choice has just come to climax. He has to move. He is on the
horns of a dilemma. In verse 33 he goes through crisis. Something in Isaac changes. The
Bible says Isaac trembled with a very great trembling. He was beside himself. He could see
what he had done. In all likelihood, he could recount what he had been doing all wrong for
years and years, his favoritism for Esau. The chickens were coming home to roost and he
has to deal with it. Isaac comes through in verse 33. This
is a huge verse and I will show you why. 33 Then
Isaac trembled violently, and said, “Who was he then that hunted game and brought it
to me, so that I ate of all of it before you came, and blessed him? And then he says, in a moment of
positive God-honoring affirmation: Yes, and
he shall be blessed. Isaac has crossed a threshold. He is
saying the blessing stands. It is your brother’s and I am sticking to it. It is
because of this moment that Isaac, who all along has been of questionable spiritual
caliber, it is here that qualifies him for mention in Hebrews 11. By faith -- that is in a
move to please and honor God -- trusting God now. That’s how we have a clue what
happened back in Genesis 27:33. Hebrews 11 Someone has said there is no fool like
an old fool. I would suggest it is never to late to do the right thing. And he does. By
faith, he now says what he has to say. He has blessed Jacob. That blessing will stand.
Esau, there is not much left for you. When Esau heard this, he burst into an emotional
tirade. “You have to be kidding me.” All of his resentment over the years of
watching his brother be favored by his mother and all of this are coming to the surface.
It has been simmering for years and now the pot is beginning to boil over. 34 When
Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry
and said to his father, “Bless me, even me also, O my father!” “He took away my birthright.”
No, you sold it. You disregarded it. You despised your birthright. It was nothing for you
to sell it off, and you did. and behold, now he has taken away my blessing.
“ And he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me? The book of Hebrews later will say he
wept only because he was sorry he didn’t get the blessing. He didn’t weep tears
of repentance toward God. It’s all about Esau. So he wept and Isaac his father said
to him, OK -- this is the best I can do. And in this is a prophecy, a prophecy that
unfolded and came true for the next 2,000 years. Right down to the time of Herod the Great
and the time of Jesus this came true. 39 Then
Isaac his father answered and said to him, “Behold, away from the fertility of the
earth shall be your dwelling, and away from the dew of heaven from above. Esau becomes the nation of Edom. Edom
is on the east side of the Dead Sea, barren and desolate. He is going to be a wanderer in
a tough country. 40 By your
sword you shall live, and your brother you shall serve; It will always be, as history unfolds,
that the nation of Israel coming from Jacob and the nation of Edom will always be in
rivalry but Israel will always have the upper hand. That’s simple history.
You will have some freedom, but it
will be a tussle. There is one more conversation I didn’t
mention and that is between Esau and Esau in verse 41. 41 So Esau
bore a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him That could be one of the greatest
understatements in the Bible And Esau
said to himself,, “The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my
brother Jacob.” He is wrong on the first count.
Forty-three years will go by before Isaac actually will die. He fully intends to kill his
brother. I think to myself that we have come a long way from Cain and Abel, haven’t
we? Not at all. Brother is determined to kill brother. What a home! Wouldn’t it be nice if we could
say in conclusion, “And they all lived happily ever after.” Not even a little.
This family will be shattered and they will be scattered. Isaac reminds us that it is
never too late to do the right thing. That’s on a personal level, but his family is
shattered. The consequences are huge. There is no communication here, no trust, no love,
and now there is hatred and murder on the horizon. Whatever will God do? Oh, I know. God will raise up the
perfect family, and from that perfect family, God will produce the gospel. No, the Bible
doesn’t contain one example of anything that could remotely approximate a perfect
family. Not one. But what we have and what the Bible comes back to over and over again is
a perfect God who takes the imperfect and shows himself strong. God is going to take Jacob hundreds of miles away and introduce him to another wreck of a family where Jacob will take a wife, sort of. And in seven more years take another, sort of. They are sisters, no less, and their handmaids, and twelve children. Assaults, murder, idolatry, death, lying, and flight -- all kinds of fun awaits him. But God will take him and God will break him and through his imperfection God will shine. No credit here. God will shine and He will send a Savior who will fix things, not prolong things, by taking flawed people, like us, to the end of ourselves so that our trust will be in Him. That will be His method. We need to trust God more than we trust ourselves and we need to do that sooner rather than later.
"Scripture
taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Jim Carlson 2005, Lone Rock Bible Church, Stevensville Montana, USA |