The God of Truth in the World

My wife and I have very different tastes in entertainment, but the one thing we have agreed upon that we partake in together is watching The Cosby Show. We have found one TV show that we can both agree upon and appreciate. I like The Cosby Show because it's kind of nostalgic of the better days of TV. It's downright hilarious, of course, because it's Bill Cosby, but you also see The family presented there differently than you see in most television shows today. You actually see authority and respect portrayed between Heathcliff and Claire and the children. Also, Heathcliff, he sports the sweaters well, so it's fun to watch for that reason. It sends me to another TV show. I remember growing up, about the same time the Cosby Show was going off, a new TV show started. It's called Roseanne. It was the Barr family, and this was supposed to really be the prototypical dysfunctional family. I remember this because my parents didn't let me watch it, and so I snuck around and tried to. Don't do that, children. Obey your family, your parents. But it really marked a stark difference in the way the family is being portrayed and it probably reflected the family changes taking place in America. You no longer had parents who are respectful towards one another and children who are obedient and respectful to their families. Now this isn't going to be a social commentary on TV. I point that out because the family we're looking at this morning is much more like the Barr family on Roseanne than the Cosby family. The Covenant family probably wouldn't even make it on network TV today. The Covenant family is a deceptive, sinful, gross people. The Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob, Esau, this is not network TV kind of stuff. What we see here is God choosing sinners. God choosing to use sinners in His plan of salvation. God choosing to put His love out for sinners. It's amazing that as we look through the many stories of who God is working with, who God is choosing to bring into his kingdom, they're nasty folks. As we looked this morning, our thesis is this, our main point. God commits his love and faithful presence to us despite our selfishness and deception. God commits his love and faithful presence to us Despite our selfishness and deception. Let's remember where we're coming from. We're getting here into Genesis 27. You can go and turn in your Bibles there, but I'm going to go back. We were all created in the image of God. Then the fall. We are sinners and we're all without hope. We're all deceived and deceiving one another. But God says, I will send a son who will reverse this curse. I will send a son who will save the world. And fast forward to Abraham, a man of many years. He and his wife have promised a child and they wait and they wait and they wait. And finally, that promised child arrives and it's Isaac. And as we learn more about Isaac, We're very thankful that the hope of the world rests upon the promise of God for this child rather than that child itself. Isaac is a failure. Isaac continues to follow his appetite rather than God. We're thankful that the promise does not depend upon the child's obedience. Then God provides Isaac a wife, Rebecca. He gives success to that journey the way only God can. And then Rebecca has two children. Esau and Jacob. Isaac, he loves Jacob because Jacob makes him tasty food. That's emphasized in the story before. It's actually at the forefront of our story this morning. Isaac loves Esau because he gives him tasty food. Rebecca, she loves Jacob. And we hope that that love is based upon the fact that she knows that Jacob is God's chosen child. We've already seen Jacob steal the birthright from Esau. Esau comes in starving, wanting just some porridge. I'm famished. I'll die. So he gives away his birthright to Jacob. And from that point on, he despises birthright. And now we come to the story where Isaac is seeking to give the blessing of the birthright. And he's still not trusting God. He's still not following God. He's going to try to give it to Esau. Let's look at our characters. There are four main characters here. Esau and Jacob, the two brothers, they're at the forefront of the story. Isaac is quickly passed over here. We're waiting for Isaac, chapter after chapter after chapter with Abraham, wondering who will this great promised son be. And when it's Isaac, You're very disappointed. And Scripture just brushes right over him fairly quickly. The only major story we have of him being the focal point is Genesis 26. Here, the two brothers are at the forefront. You have Esau, the red hairy man. Really, we should see him as the industrious, wild one. Then you have Jacob, the ankle grabber. He's opportunistic and unprincipled. You have the father, Isaac. who's sensuous and weak. And you have Rebecca, his wife, who's deceptive and manipulative. Those are our characters and we're going to see this story played out in five major scenes. The focus on each scene is the conversations that take place between a parent and a child. Isaac, the first scene is Isaac seeks to blast Esau privately. The second scene is Rebekah plots so that Jacob can steal the blessing. The third scene is Jacob deceives Isaac and steals the blessing. The fourth scene is Isaac and Esau realize Jacob stole the blessing. And then finally, Jacob flees his brother Esau, who is seeking to kill him. Now, before we get into the first scene, notice that very first paragraph right above chapter 27. When Esau was 40 years old, he took Judith, the daughter of Beree, the Hittite, to be his wife, and Basmath, the daughter of Elon, the Hittite, and they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah. Now flip over. Look at verse 46 of chapter 27. Then Rebekah said to Isaac, I loathe my life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women like these, one of the women of the land, what good my life will be to me." It's bookended with this interesting insert about the marriage of Esau and how his wives are making life miserable for Rebecca. Those bookends are supposed to draw attention. There's something dysfunctional here about the family. There's something wrong with the family. And we may even see here the motivation for Rebecca wanting to make sure Jacob is the chosen child, because if Esau becomes the head of the household, well, then life will become even more unbearable. Let's look at our text, chapter 27. Our first scene, Isaac seeks to give the blessing to Esau privately. Let's read verses one through four. When Isaac was old, his eyes were dim so that he could not see. He called Esau, his older son, and said to him, My son. And he answered, Here I am. He said, Behold, I am old. I do not know the day of my death. Now then take your weapons, your quiver and your bow and go out to the field and hunt game for me and prepare me delicious food such as I love and bring it to me so that I may eat that my soul may bless you before I die. Now Isaac is probably about 135 to 140 years old. The best date is he's probably 137 years old. He's going to live to be 180. But here he's feeling death approaching. He is feeling the years on his life. He feels like he could pass away at any moment and he wants to give away the birthright so that he has the peace and his deathbed. He calls his older son. It's very important. In the Hebrew culture, in the ancient Near Eastern culture, the older son got two portions to the younger son's one portion. He got the right to lead the family. He got the right to carry on the culture and the language and the customs and the religious beliefs of the family. Receiving the firstborn blessing meant he was the new head of the family. Now, something that isn't obvious in this text is that that is typically a public celebration. Whenever the patriarch of the family would hand over the firstborn rights and blessing to the next in line, it was a great public feast. Here, Isaac, he's doing it secretly because he knows of the oracle. Jacob is supposed to be the firstborn. He knows that his family is not supposed to follow this way. He himself is already showing some deception here by wanting to do it secretly. Now, one of the most interesting things that you see here about Isaac is that he loves food. Go make for me some of that delicious food. Go get me the game that I love. Bring it to me so I may eat. We saw before in chapter 25, he loves Esau because he fixes the game that he likes. Isaac follows his own appetite. Esau and Isaac are very much alike. Esau gives up his birthright for some porridge. Isaac is going to give the birthright up to the son who gives him the food he likes. He has an appetite not for divine things, but for earthly things. Now, let's think about this appetite. We thought about it a little bit last week, but I want to delve into this because it is the major focus. The phrase, delicious food, is used six times this passage. Over and over again, it's referring to Isaac and that delicious food that he loves. It's clearly portraying him as a man who is led and guided by his sensual, worldly appetite. The ultimate failure in this dysfunctional family is Isaac. The problem in the family is Isaac. The father's greatest weakness is always the greatest weakness of the family. That's just how it works. Fathers, your greatest weakness is the greatest weakness in your family. Isaac is the problem. He loves the food too much. He is loving his own desires too much. He's too busy getting his fill of food rather than leading the family in godliness. He is not denying Himself for the purpose of His family. As we think about this as families, well, obviously the application in its heart is home to the fathers. Are we denying ourselves for the benefit of our families? If the call of a disciple is to deny yourself and follow Christ, the arena that that should be done first and foremost in is the family. It should be with your spouse and your children. If you cannot deny yourself to lead and love your family, how can you deny yourself to follow Christ? That is the best place, the best arena to express your love and your gratitude to Christ and what He's done for you. Are we denying ourselves? Men, did you go home and ask your spouse, what do you think the kids believe my appetite is for? What do you think the children would say my appetite is for? Is it for heavenly things? Or is it for earthly things? Maybe if you have older children, ask them, what do you think? What do you see in my life that I crave and I long for? Children, you need to constrain your appetite by honoring your parents. That's what you're called to do. You are called to honor your parents. You are called to constrain your desires. Let your parents lead and guide you well. And parents, you need to realize that you have great authority and freedom in leading your family. You have great power in modeling and teaching. We as a church, we are also a family. Are we coming together and denying ourselves for the purpose and benefit of the body at large? Are we exercising proper discipleship to Christ by coming together, denying ourselves and serving one another? These are the two great arenas that we are supposed to be expressing discipleship in. We're supposed to be expressing our love for God. Do we deny ourselves or do we follow our appetites? Now, let's think about this hungering a little bit more. The obvious sin in the text is Isaac's unrestrained appetite. Our appetite for sin sidetracks our appetite for God. Our hunger for sin sidetracks and is contrary to our hunger for godliness. Our hunger for sin is contrary to our hunger for God. They cannot coexist. We cannot have two masters. One will be stronger than the other. One we will follow and obey and one we will set aside. It's worth meditating upon Matthew 5, 6. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are those that hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. A nice paraphrase of this. Happy are they that have found righteousness in Christ, because they have the peace of God. See, the word blessed there is happy. We try to find happiness in so many things and the other longings of our heart, but there is no happiness to be found there. It is always unsatisfactory. The only thing that is going to satisfy our hearts is finding our satisfaction in Christ and what He has done. Friends, do you hunger for the peace of God? Do you hunger for a deeper experience of God? Do you hunger to know who Christ is and to see Him more? You see, hunger is a key mark of health. If you're not hungry, you're not healthy. Physically speaking and spiritually speaking, if you are not hungry, you're not healthy. Do you hunger for knowing the righteousness of God. Do you hunger to know who you are in Christ? Do you hunger to experience at a deeper level the great benefits and the blessings that Christ has accomplished for us on the cross? If you are not hungry, you're not spiritually healthy. See, of all the desires we have for godliness or for sex, food, money, whatever else the desire is, the one desire that is never to be constrained or restrained or corralled is your desire for God. Every other desire we have must be constrained. God has given us a good desire for food, but that must be constrained. That must be corralled. Our desire for God, it should never be constrained. But this is what we do. We constrain our desire for God by allowing other desires to overwhelm it. That's the battle. That's the internal spiritual battle that we are in. We constrain and restrain our desire for God by letting other desires come around it. We must deny our sinful passions so that our godly desires grow. They're warring at one another. They're two different masters. If we want to have a hunger for God, if we want to have a hunger for the things above, if we want to have a hunger for the things of God, we must deny ourselves the other passions, the other appetites, the other things we thirst for. Do you hunger for a higher experience of God, a richer experience of His beauty, His power, His grace, His love, His peace? When we're not hungering for God, what we're typically going to be doing is coveting the other things people have. When you're not hungering for God, you're probably just being distracted and coveting the other things of this world and allowing those desires to overwhelm your hunger for God and what He has. If you lack hunger, here's the prescription. Meditate on the cross and the resurrection. That is where you see the love of God manifest. Meditate upon the cross and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Pursue Him in His word and in prayer. It's simple. But it takes discipline. It takes denying yourself. If you lack hunger, and you used to have it, It's going to take some hard meditation, but this is what I suggest you do. Go back and pursue that sin that sidetracked you from having the hunger. If you once had a hunger, a thirst, and you're wondering, whatever happened to me? Why did that go away? Well, God didn't remove His presence with you. He's always with you. You stopped hungering after Him. Either a sin came up that you decided you were going to hunger after more than God, or what most likely happened is that you were progressing in sanctification. As you're progressing in your love for God, all of a sudden another sin was revealed that's already been in your heart since day one, and you said, I can't give that up. See, the closer we get to God, the more we love God, the more our sin is revealed. And probably what happens, is we start realizing, oh, I've got to give that up. I've got to stop loving that thing. I don't know if I can do it. And that's when our hunger for God is destroyed. What you need to do is go back and figure out what that one thing was that you weren't willing to give up and give it up. What you have to do is think about what that one thing was that you were afraid of giving up for God and say, God is better than that thing. God is going to give me satisfaction and not that one thing. Friends, we are called to hunger and thirst for God and he will satisfy us. But in order for him to satisfy us, we have to stop hungering and thirsting for all the different things of this world. Let's continue on with our story and get back into our our scenes, our second scene. We've seen Isaac and his appetite, and it's going to continue to come up over and over again. But now we see Rebecca and her plot. To make sure Jacob gets the blessing, we would be verses five through 17. Now, Rebecca was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it in, Rebecca said to her son Jacob, I heard your father speak to your brother Esau. Bring me game and prepare for me delicious food that I may eat it and bless you before the Lord before I die. Now, therefore, my son, Obey my voice as I command you. Go to the flock and bring me two good young goats, so that I may prepare from them delicious food for your father, such as he loves. And you shall bring it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.' But Jacob said to Rebekah, his mother, Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. Perhaps my father will feel me and I shall seem to be mocking him and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing. His mother said to him, Let your curse be on me, my son. Only obey my voice and go bring them to me. So he went and took them and brought them to his mother and his mother prepared delicious food such as his father loves. In case you missed, he loved delicious food. Then Rebekah took the best garments of Esau, her older son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob, her younger son. And the skins of the younger goats she put on his hands and on the smooth parts of his neck, and she put the delicious food and the bread which she prepared into the hand of her son Jacob." Alright, so Isaac is wrong for wanting to make a secret ceremony. He's removing the public nature that this is supposed to have. He's being secretive. He's not choosing the right son. He's choosing the wrong son for the wrong reasons. But Rebecca really heightens the tension at a whole other level here. She initiates the major problem. She is going to convince her son to lie to his father and to steal from his brother. She's listening to a private conversation. Now remember, this is Laban's sister. We're going to see even more of Laban. He's one of my favorite characters to pick on, because the guy is just so manipulative. Here, you see she comes from this family, and Jacob is just like her. She is manipulative. She's a deceiver. She immediately goes to Jacob with a full plan intact, as if she's been waiting for this day. She's got the food covered. She's got the skin covered. She's got the smell covered. She's got everything. Well, except for the voice. She doesn't have the voice covered. She's got a plan in place. She goes to Jacob, and Jacob is concerned. He's worried. He says, well, what if my father finds out and I'm found out to be a deceiver. I shall be to him a mocker." Yeah, you are. Jacob, you'll only be found out for who you really are. Your name is Ankle Grabber. You're worried about the immediate finding out, but he has to realize the long game is he gets found out. Esau's got to come back home eventually. He's only worried about that immediate understanding or being found out to be a deceiver. But he is a deceiver. He is a mocker. He's only worried about the immediate shame. Well, Rebecca being a good mother, I guess, is willing to take a curse for her son. She's willing to sacrifice herself for her son. Now, the thing about Rebecca, she has the right son. And I want to believe that it's because she received the oracle, she knows Jacob is the right one, but these Hittite women are definitely influencing her. She is certainly not going about this in a way that a godly woman would. She's not trusting God. She's got the right son, but she's not doing this the right way. She's undermining her husband, she's leading her child to lie, and she's not trusting God. She should trust God and know that God will bring about the choosing of the right son. God is the one who gave Abraham Isaac. God is the one that gave Rebecca to Isaac. God is the one who chose Jacob. And God is going to make sure that Jacob is the head of the household. But she feels like she has to be manipulative. She has to make it work her way. Her major sin is she is not trusting God. She undermines her husband. And she leads her child into deception. I mean, let that sink in what this family is like. This is the people that God chose. God especially ordained Rebecca to be Isaac's wife. He commits himself to us despite our sin. Let's think about the family here for a second in application. In a perfect world, there's perfect harmony in the family. There's a father who leads. A wife who submits and children who honor. Now, we do not live in a perfect world. We live in a world where we are all sinners and we are all rebellious and we are all sinning against one another. But let me speak to the children for a second. You need to be thankful that you have parents who do not lead you into sin. That's something you should be thankful for. It's kind of one of these obvious things I assume most of you have grown up with, but that's something to be so thankful for. Your parents aren't trying to lead you into sin. Your parents are trying to lead you to God. Be thankful for your parents. Not every child has that benefit. Now, let me speak this way. If there's ever a situation where you feel like your conscience is being seared, that you feel like your parents are trying to lead you out of God's Word, be very careful to challenge your parents. Make sure you understand exactly what they're saying as clearly as possible. Make sure you're understanding God's Word as clearly as possible. Now, let's just go ahead and throw out some of these things. You don't need to go and say, well, Jesus had long hair, so I should have long hair. That's not what I'm talking about. Your parents have a lot of authority over the secondary issues of this world. I'm talking about your parents telling you to lie when God's Word clearly says not to lie. If that ever happens, please come talk to me or another man in the church. But be very careful to not overthrow or undermine your parents. If you're ever going to challenge your parents, you need to make sure you have the clearest scriptural reason to say, Mom, Dad, I don't know if this is what God really wants me to do. Parents, they're called to honor you. The best way to lead and love them is to lead them in godliness. Make sure you are taking the full authority and pointing them to Christ, the absolute authority. Make sure you are following God. Make sure everything you do is leading them to trust Scripture and trust God and obey Him. It really should make us disgusted that Rebecca would try to lead her son into sin. But when we have to analyze our own lives, how often are we leading our children into thinking wrongly about the world, wrongly about others, by our own actions? Verses 14 and 17 simply point out that Jacob follows the actions. There is a strong contrast, obviously, between the older son and the younger son, but we're going to go on to our third scene. Jacob succeeds in deceiving his father and taking the blessing from Esau verses 18 through 29 So he went in to his father and said my father All right, I've been reading this Jacob 77 years old All right, that changes the picture in your mind, doesn't it? This isn't a young man being foolish This is a 77 year old man Okay, so while I'm reading this, there's a 137-year-old man on the bed, there's a 77-year-old man dressed in goat skin saying these things to his father. So he went into his father and said, my father. And he said, here I am. Who are you, my son? There's already that voice problem. The voice recognition is already coming up. Jacob said to his father, I am Esau. You are firstborn. I have done as you told me. Now sit up and eat of my game that your soul may bless me. But Isaac said to his son, How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son? He answered, Because the Lord your God granted me success. Then Isaac said to Jacob, Please come near that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you really are my son Esau or not. So Jacob went near to Isaac, his father, who felt him and said, The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau. And he did not recognize him because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's hands. So he blessed him and he said, Are you really my son, Esau? He answered, I am. Then he said, Bring it near to me that I may eat of my son's game and bless you. So he brought it near to him and he ate and he brought him wine and he drank. Then his father Isaac asked him, Come near and kiss me, my son. So he came near and kissed him. And Isaac smelled the smell of his garments and blessed him and said, See the smell of my son as the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed. May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine. Let people serve you and nations bow down to you. Be Lord over your brothers and may your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you and blessed be everyone who blesses you. Here we see the deception of the son, the deception of Rebecca really being played out. Jacob, the 77 year old man, he comes in, my father. Just the audacity from the very beginning to come in, my father. The father answers, here I am. This echoes the Isaac Esau exchange. Who are you, my son? I am Esau, your firstborn. I have done what you told me to do." Now, let me give you some in-depth commentary here. He's a liar. It's just blatant. That's the whole point of this long exchange. He's a liar. The promised son of Abraham is a liar. Remember, how dangerous and damaging a lie can be from Genesis 3. He's a liar. And then he gets right to the point, sit up, eat, bless me. There's not a lot of friendly, other than saying, my father. I mean, there's nothing really friendlier. Hey, let's get this show on the road before I get found out. Verse 20 really enters into an interesting dialogue where you see two tricksters going at it. Isaac's blind. He can't see. The rest of his senses must have also been failing him because he thinks a goat's skin is his son's skin. There's some sensory problems going on. He's old and he's not with it anymore. But you see that he gives Jacob five opportunities to admit his lie. There's five different tests. There's five different ways that Jacob could have told him. Alright, I'm not your son. I'm too convicted to go on with this. Verse 20 is really the most amazing one. How have you caught the game so fast? How did you do this so quickly, my son? The Lord granted me success. It's blasphemous. He's blaspheming in the name of God. He's giving God the credit for his lying deception. That's gross. It's disgusting. It's the same kind of words that were being used when God gave Rebecca to Isaac. Remember? God grant me success. God granted me success. Here, the promised child is taking God granting success as a lie to cover his sin. The second thing, come near so I can feel your skin. Then he says, your voice is not like Esau's. This is the best opportunity here. Just cut your losses. OK, you found me out. But then his father says, but you are Harry. OK, he keeps going. Notice that he's not as loquacious anymore. Early in the story, Jacob uses a lot of words, but as soon as his father says, your voice isn't yours, it's one to two word answers. He's sharp. Then verse 24, are you really my son? He knows his senses have been failing him, but he and he knows something's going on, I assume. And he asks, are you really my son? And he says, come near to smell him as Jacob leans in to kiss his father, which is really a kiss of betrayal. Let's look at the blessing quickly. We see the blessing is really unique for Esau. See the smell of my son is the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed. He gives him a very basic firstborn blessing. Your children and the other relatives, your brothers, your mother's sons, they will all honor you. You will be the head of the family. Again, the firstborn was supposed to be the leader of the family. He's supposed to carry on the culture, the language, the religious beliefs. Everything about the family is now dependent upon him. He blesses a man who is a man of the field, which is Esau. And then curse to everyone who curses you and bless to everyone who blesses you. There it's, I believe, reflecting upon the Abrahamic covenant. God with you is what gives you blessing. Let's go to our fourth scene. Esau and Isaac realize that they have been duped. Let's read verses 30 through 40. As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac, his father, Esau, his brother, came in from his hunting. He also prepared delicious 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. His father Isaac said to him, Who are you? He answered, I am your son, your firstborn, Esau. Then Isaac trembled very violently and said, Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me? And I ate it all before you came, and I have blessed him. Yes, and he shall be blessed. As soon as 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 also, O my father. But he said, Your brother came deceitfully and he has taken away your blessing. Esau said, Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has cheated me these two times. He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing. Then he said, Have you not reserved a blessing for me? Isaac answered and said to Esau, Behold, I have made him lord over you and all his brothers, and I have given to him for servants. And with grain and wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son? Esau said to his father, Have you but one blessing, my father? Bless me even also, O my father!" And Esau lifted up his voice and wept. Then Isaac, his father, answered and said to him, Behold, away from the fatness of the earth shall be your dwelling, and away from the dew of heaven on high. By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother. And when you grow restless, you shall break his yoke from your neck. some divinely appointed timing. As one son is leaving, the other son enters. God makes it to where Jacob does get out. It's divinely appointed timing. And here we see Esau. He comes in and has the same response. I am Esau, your firstborn. Who are you? And at the declaration that it's Esau, he recognizes his voice and he recognizes what's happened now. He trembles violently. Isaac wanted to go to the grave in peace. Isaac wanted to die with peace, knowing that he had given over the blessing to his favorite son. And now he goes to his deathbed 43 years later with trembling anger. He cannot reverse the promise. He cannot reverse the blessing. He has nothing else to give Esau. And really, the blessing he gives Esau is an anti-blessing. It's not necessarily a curse, but it's an anti-blessing. He doesn't give him anything except for really a prophecy of how he will live. It's interesting here. Esau gives great commentary on Jacob. Is his name not rightly called the ankle grabber? He's a deceiver, the manipulator. What he does leave out is the fact that he sold his birthright. He stole from me twice now, my birthright and my blessing." Well, Esau, you're forgetting that you actually gave up your birthright for a bowl of porridge. But he's going through some hard times. We'll let him forget those facts. Let's conclude with our last section. Esau hates his brother, and Jacob flees. Verse 41, Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him. And Esau said to himself, The days of mourning for my father are approaching, then I will kill my brother Jacob. But the words of Esau, her older son, were told to Rebekah. So she sent and called Jacob, her younger son, and said to him, Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by planning to kill you. Now, therefore, my son, obey my voice, arise, flee to Laban, my brother, and Haran. And stay with him a while until your brother's fury turns away, until your brother's anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send and bring you from there. Why should I be bereft of you both in one day?" Now, the consequences of Rebecca's plan are that she actually loses her son. Jacob is gone for 20 years. Her favorite son, her beloved son, the consequences of her sin are quite evident and immediate. She now loses her son and she definitely doesn't have Esau's love. So she now has no children. She's lost her two children. And so you see there the ironic consequences of sin when we're trying to gain something. In sin, we typically lose it. Now Esau, he presents himself rather like a Cain figure here. He's murderous. He's going to appease his wrath. He's going to appease his desires by killing someone. That really doesn't solve anything, but he thinks it will make him feel better. Remember, Jacob, he lacks brotherly love because he doesn't feed his brother. He's willing to let his brother die of hunger. Here we see Esau. He lacks brotherly love. He wants to kill his brother for the deception. If we look at both of these men, neither one of them deserve the promise. Neither one of them deserve being in the covenant family. Neither one of them deserve any kind of promise or blessing from God. It's by God's grace alone that Jacob receives that blessing. This is your covenant family. A lying father, manipulative wife, A wife who undermines her husband. A wife who leaves her children in deception. A son who wants to kill another son. A brother who wants to kill a brother. And another brother who is deceiving his brother. It's worse than a soap opera. This is a covenant family. This is a family we're supposed to be depending upon for our salvation. Well, thankfully, the promise doesn't end with Jacob or Esau or even Judah. Thankfully, our promise ends with Jesus Christ. Thankfully, we are not dependent upon any of these sinners. We're not dependent upon anyone like us. We're dependent upon the perfect one, the Savior, Jesus Christ. This story really reminds me of one of Jesus' parables. If you want to turn with me to Matthew 22. Matthew 22, I'll be reading 1 through 14, and the real emphasis of the story is 11 through 14. And again, Jesus spoke to them in a parable saying the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. And again, he sent other servants saying, tell those who are invited. See, I prepared my dinner, my Austin and my fat cows that have been slaughtered and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast. But they paid no attention and went off one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully and killed them. The king was angry and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, the wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go, therefore, to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find. And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good, so the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. He said to him, Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendant, bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness in that place where there will be no weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen." Friends, Jacob and Esau, neither one deserved to be called to that wedding feast. Jacob and Esau, neither one and none of us, none of us deserve to be called to the wedding feast. But God in His graciousness, God in His mercy calls some. What we have to realize is that we are invited to come to a wedding that we do not belong to. In order to come, we must be properly adorned. We have to be properly dressed. The only way we can come to the wedding is through Jesus Christ. The only way we can come to this wedding feast of Christ, the only way we can get into the Kingdom of Heaven, is if we have the proper attire. And Christ is the only one who gives out the wedding garments. You see, all of us and our sin are like filthy rats. Our sin is on us. Our garments in and of themselves are offensive to God, and they are not appropriate for feasting with a king. They're not appropriate for the wedding supper of the Lamb. Our sin is offensive in the presence of God. That's why Jesus Christ came and He died to remove that sin. He died to remove our offense so that we can cast off our filthy garments and we can put on His righteousness. Christ Himself looks at all of us and He says, we're all sinners. We don't belong there. He says, in order to make sure they can get in. I will die to take away their offensive garments, and I will give them my garments. I will give them my righteousness. I will die on the cross so they are forgiven, and I will give them the righteousness that only comes from God. You see, we don't get to come to the kingdom of God because of the way we were born. We're not born to the kingdom. It's not being children of the flesh that makes us children of Abraham. It's children of faith. The only way we can make it into the wedding feast is to believe in Jesus Christ, believe in what He's done, and receive His garments. There is no work that we can do to make ourselves ready to go into the wedding feast. If we think there is something that we do to get into the wedding feast, we're liars just like Jacob. If you think you can get into the wedding feast and tell God a lie, I deserve to be here because I was always in church every Sunday. You're just like Jacob. You're trying to lie yourself into the kingdom where the only way to get into the kingdom is believing in Jesus Christ and putting on his garments. The only way we can be blessed and participate in the wedding feast of Christ is to believe in Christ. I had a great gospel conversation with a young man this week. We were talking about God's goodness and his nature, his justice. And after the conversation, the young man gave the most precise gospel summary I think I could have wished for. He said this, so what you're saying is if Jesus hadn't come, we would all die and go to hell. Yeah, that's pretty clear and precise. If we're left to ourselves, if Jesus doesn't come, we all die and go to hell. If Jesus doesn't come and die on the cross and rise again from the grave, there is no hope. We're all going to go before God with our filthy garments and be judged. Thank God that he sent Jesus Christ so that we do have hope, that we do not live in a world without hope. We live in a world where Jesus has died. He has risen and he is forgiving us of our sins. Friends, if you've never believed in Jesus Christ before, you're not welcome to the wedding yet. But here's your invitation. Look at your sin. Look at your lies. Look at your life. Look at what you hunger for. These things are offensive to God, and God will not allow you into the wedding feast. God will not allow you into the kingdom until you confess these things as sin, confess them as forgiven in Christ, and ask Christ to give you new life. This is a great blessing of God, that He, by the power of His Word, save liars and sinners like us. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Lord, how we long to see You. not constrained by our sinful appetites and hunger, but to be in your kingdom, in your presence, seeing you face to face, eating with the Lamb, eating with the great King Jesus Christ, being there as the adorned bride, ready to come in to worship you for eternity. Oh, how great that hope is in the midst of how we see our own sin. Convict us, Spirit, Help us, Lord, to see how deceptive we are in thinking we deserve to be in heaven. Help us, Lord, to see that it's only Christ who deserves the blessing and the benefit of God. And it's only in Christ that we have any blessing and benefit. Thank you, Father, for choosing and using sinners such as us. Thank you for saving us. In Your Holy Name we pray, Amen.