Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Esau The Son Who Couldn’t Win │ Msg 414 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

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Esau The Son Who Couldn’t Win │ Msg 414 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: Let's vow for prayer together. Will you join me? Our Father,
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Speaker 1: We acknowledge that you are our God, and your son
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Speaker 1: is our Savior, and your word is our solitary, reliable
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Speaker 1: source of truth. In a world of many voices, many messages,
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Speaker 1: many convincing words. Give us a simple appetite for the
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Speaker 1: things that come from you, and a satisfaction that, in
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Speaker 1: coming to you and hearing from you, we have found
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Speaker 1: the best there is. As we undertake this series, may
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Speaker 1: we see within the truth of your book, this ancient
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Speaker 1: old Testament, truths to live by, stories to remember, lives
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Speaker 1: to give us warning, and others to give us hope
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Speaker 1: that we might find a pattern that unravels some of
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Speaker 1: the mysteries of life. Thank you in advance for the
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Speaker 1: things to be learned, and the conviction upon which to
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Speaker 1: respond and to act, and ultimately the changes that will
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Speaker 1: occur because we have risked again exposing ourselves to the
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Speaker 1: truth of your written word. In the name of Jesus Christ,
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Speaker 1: we pray Amen. We never outgrow our love for a story,
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Speaker 1: do we. There is something compelling, something magnetic, something altogether
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Speaker 1: unique about a story. When Jesus was faced on this
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Speaker 1: earth during his ministry. With opportunities to communicate truth, he
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Speaker 1: oftens a story, and in some cases he chose stories
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Speaker 1: rather than any other method, sometime to veil the truth,
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Speaker 1: other times to explain it and illustrate it. But stories
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Speaker 1: seemed to be one of his favorite kinds of communication styles.
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Speaker 1: Sometimes the stories we hear are true, and the reality
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Speaker 1: of them strikes us, impacts us. We'll read a story
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Speaker 1: in the newspaper or in a magazine, and journalists, by
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Speaker 1: the way or forever on a search for a story,
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Speaker 1: a story that has intrigue and excitement and perhaps struggle
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Speaker 1: and heartache, because they have learned over the years that
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Speaker 1: there's something about a story that keeps people reading. Clarence McCartney,
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Speaker 1: years ago, at the first Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, came
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Speaker 1: to be known for his ability to tell great stories.
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Speaker 1: I remember, as a little boy, by the way, not
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Speaker 1: having heard doctor McCartney, but having heard a number of preachers.
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Speaker 1: I remember recalling, years later a number of the stories
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Speaker 1: that were told. I couldn't remember the sermon, and I
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Speaker 1: often couldn't remember even the scriptures, but I would not forget,
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Speaker 1: and to this day I can still remember some of
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Speaker 1: the stories He was a master at storytelling. In one
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Speaker 1: of his books, and I think I own all of
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Speaker 1: McCartney's books, he writes this about stories. The mind of
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Speaker 1: man delights in a stirring scene or spectacle, whether it
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Speaker 1: is a battlefield of temptation, are an imaginary scene of
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Speaker 1: triumph and glory in the heavenly places. Let the preacher
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Speaker 1: remember this and throw open as wide as he can
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Speaker 1: the golden gates of imagination. Napoleon said, men of imagination
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Speaker 1: rule the world. The preacher of imagination is the prince
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Speaker 1: of the pulpit. And he was indeed that there is
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Speaker 1: an amazing thing about capturing a truth in story form.
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Speaker 1: So let's say a little bit about stories. Since this
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Speaker 1: is a series on great stories out of the Old Testament,
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Speaker 1: let me say some things, and I mean just a
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Speaker 1: little bit of about stories themselves and what makes them interesting.
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Speaker 1: What is a story? Well, a story is a narrative.
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Speaker 1: It is it is an account of incidents that usually
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Speaker 1: revolves around people and usually includes a plot. The plot
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Speaker 1: in the story is the plan, and it is that
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Speaker 1: plan as it unfolds, that holds our attention. Great storytellers
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Speaker 1: have the ability to hold the listener in suspense. Great
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Speaker 1: story writers do not tell you all of it at
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Speaker 1: the beginning, but they leave you waiting, interested, wondering, sometimes saddened,
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Speaker 1: sometimes excited about how the plot will unfold. Now what
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Speaker 1: makes a story interesting? Well. Stories form in our minds
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Speaker 1: certain settings. They allow our imaginations to soar, and we're
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Speaker 1: able to leave the present, humdrum and rather familiar world
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Speaker 1: in which we live, and we're able to move into
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Speaker 1: the realm of the unknown. We can see ourselves in
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Speaker 1: the story that we're reading or we're hearing. We can
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Speaker 1: draw lessons from those stories. The best kind of stories
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Speaker 1: have within the plot these elements surprise, struggle, romance, courage, loss, gain,
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Speaker 1: and frequently the stories leave us with a sense of encouragement.
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Speaker 1: I don't know if you remember the lyrics of one
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Speaker 1: of the old songs out of the Second World War,
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Speaker 1: made popular in the film Casablanca, But the lyrics of
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Speaker 1: this song illustrate for me the genius of a story.
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Speaker 1: It's still the same old story, a fight for love
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Speaker 1: and glory, a case of do or die. The world
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Speaker 1: will always welcome lovers as time goes by. There's something
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Speaker 1: timeless about great stories, and tucked away in the folds
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Speaker 1: of the Old Testament. The reason the truths are remembered
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Speaker 1: is that they are placed before us, unlike the New Testament.
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Speaker 1: They're placed before us in story form. But before we
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Speaker 1: look into the Old Testament, section I want to look
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Speaker 1: at in this study turned first to Romans fifteen, and
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Speaker 1: I'm looking at a single verse in the fifteenth chapter
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Speaker 1: of a Romans. It's the fourth verse. We've looked at
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Speaker 1: it before, and so just the reading of it is
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Speaker 1: all that's necessary. Romans fifteen to four. For whatever was
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Speaker 1: written in earlier times was written for our instruction that
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Speaker 1: through perseverance and the encouragement of the scriptures, we might
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Speaker 1: have hope. You may not know this, but that verse
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Speaker 1: has reference specifically to the Old Testament. Whatever was written
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Speaker 1: in earlier times. Paul wrote this verse before any of
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Speaker 1: the New Testament had begun to be compiled, certainly before
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Speaker 1: it had begun to be distributed. So he's referring to
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Speaker 1: the scrolls of the Old Testament written in earlier times.
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Speaker 1: And he states that through the perseverance and the encouragement
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Speaker 1: I suppose he has in mind, through the perseverance engaged
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Speaker 1: in studying the scriptures, and through the encouragement. From those pursuits,
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Speaker 1: we find ourselves full of hope. That's my main goal
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Speaker 1: in this series is to help build a reservoir of
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Speaker 1: hope in your life from the stories that we uncover
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Speaker 1: out of the Old Testament. So, without further delay, turned
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Speaker 1: back to Genesis, chapter twenty five, and we're going to
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Speaker 1: pull a story from this first book of the Bible,
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Speaker 1: a story that may be familiar to some of you.
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Speaker 1: But before we are through, in a little bit of time,
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Speaker 1: you may discover that you really didn't know a lot
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Speaker 1: about it, or as much about it as you thought.
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Speaker 1: I found that true in my own life. Now, please
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Speaker 1: understand as we begin this series that there is not
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Speaker 1: one life we're going to study in the Old Testament
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Speaker 1: that was supernatural. Some of the lives we will uncover
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Speaker 1: have supernatural power. They're given that power by God. Some
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Speaker 1: of the people who evidence that power are even able
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Speaker 1: to work miracles, not the one we're looking at in
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Speaker 1: this study, but some of them we will look at
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Speaker 1: in days to come. But all of these people we
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Speaker 1: are looking at are folks just like us. In the
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Speaker 1: words of James, Elijah was a man of like passions
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Speaker 1: as we are. Will if you will do this, it
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Speaker 1: will help remove all halos from above the heads of
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Speaker 1: all the people in the Old Testament. Take away all
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Speaker 1: of the aura, not all of the respect, but all
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Speaker 1: of the aura that keeps you distant from these people.
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Speaker 1: Otherwise you will hold them at such a distance you
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Speaker 1: will not see yourself in their lives. These are stories
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Speaker 1: of people just like you and me. They went through
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Speaker 1: similar situations we go through. They lived in a different era.
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Speaker 1: Times were perhaps more primitive, rugged, not nearly as comfortable,
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Speaker 1: certainly not as modern. But these are men and women
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Speaker 1: of like passions. They are ordinary if I'm a garden variety,
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Speaker 1: human individuals who knew nothing of their future and only
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Speaker 1: at times knew something of their present. They must have
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Speaker 1: wondered at times what life was all about. And now
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Speaker 1: that we've had years to look back on them, we
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Speaker 1: can unravel many of the mysteries that they live with
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Speaker 1: during their lifetime. Now I want us to study, in
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Speaker 1: this particular story, the life of a man named Esau.
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Speaker 1: I'm calling him the son who Couldn't Win. And I
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Speaker 1: have a feeling, in all honesty that some of you
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Speaker 1: hearing this story, some of you for the first time
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Speaker 1: hearing this story will have little difficulty identifying with some
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Speaker 1: of the struggles Esau head. My Bible is open to
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Speaker 1: Genesis twenty five, verse nineteen, which is one of the
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Speaker 1: earlier references to the genealogy of Esau. Let's say a
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Speaker 1: word to begin with about his birth in childhood. These
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Speaker 1: are the records of the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son.
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Speaker 1: Abraham became the father of Isaac, and Isaac was forty
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Speaker 1: years old when he took Rebeccah, the daughter of Bethuel.
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Speaker 1: Verse twenty one, Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf
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Speaker 1: of his wife because she was barren, and the Lord
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Speaker 1: answered him, and Rebecca, his wife, conceived. Before I go
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Speaker 1: any further, let me put to rest a misunderstanding. The
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Speaker 1: immediate thought after you read verses twenty and twenty one
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Speaker 1: of Genesis twenty five is that shortly after Isaac prayed,
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Speaker 1: God caused her to conceive. Wrong. You remember reading that
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Speaker 1: he was forty years old when they married. Look at
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Speaker 1: verse twenty six, the last line, Isaac was sixty years
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Speaker 1: old when she gave birth. We get a little impatient
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Speaker 1: in our prayer because we have to wait a week
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Speaker 1: or two, a month or two. How about twenty years
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Speaker 1: and how about being forty years old, realizing that you
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Speaker 1: don't have forever, wanting to have a family, asking God
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Speaker 1: to bring that to pass, and then it's not until
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Speaker 1: twenty years later. God says, yes, but we're getting ahead
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Speaker 1: of ourselves. Let's go back to verse twenty two. The
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Speaker 1: children struggled together within Rebecca, and she said, if it
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Speaker 1: is so, then why am I this way? So she
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Speaker 1: went to inquire of the Lord. This was before there
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Speaker 1: were sonograms, This was before there were obstetrician gynecologists, people
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Speaker 1: with those high tech pieces of equipment. She had no
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Speaker 1: idea she had within her. All she knew was that
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Speaker 1: there was trouble within her. There were wrestlings within her womb.
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Speaker 1: There are mysteries known only to a mother that are
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Speaker 1: known to no one else. And she felt within her
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Speaker 1: changes and conflicts and struggles going on within her. She
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Speaker 1: had no idea that she had the makings of a
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Speaker 1: war within her own body. And so she inquired of
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Speaker 1: the Lord. And in those days, the Lord spoke audibly
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Speaker 1: to those who inquired of him, and he said to her,
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Speaker 1: you don't simply have two children. You have the roots
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Speaker 1: of two nations in your womb. Two people shall be
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Speaker 1: separated from your body. One people shall be stronger than
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Speaker 1: the other. Now note this, and the older shall serve
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Speaker 1: the younger. She discovered from God's voice that not only
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Speaker 1: was she to have a baby, she was to have
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Speaker 1: two children, and that the conflict within her womb was
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Speaker 1: by the design of God. Never doubt that from the
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Speaker 1: time of conception onward, you have life within your womb,
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Speaker 1: never let anyone try to convince you otherwise, And that
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Speaker 1: God's design and purpose are both at work from the
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Speaker 1: conception on in the lives of your child or in
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Speaker 1: your children. She's told, these will not be simply two children.
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Speaker 1: They will be nations. And the younger will, as a
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Speaker 1: matter of fact, be the most dominant. The older will
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Speaker 1: serve the younger. When her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold,
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Speaker 1: there were twins in her womb. And the first came
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Speaker 1: forth read all over like a hairy garment, and they
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Speaker 1: named him Esau, so he's the older. And afterward his
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Speaker 1: brother came forth with his hand holding on to Esau's heel,
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Speaker 1: so his name was called Jacob. And Isaac was sixty
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Speaker 1: years old when she gave birth to them. I don't
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Speaker 1: want to look at the scene just theologically. I want
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Speaker 1: to look at it humanly as well. Can you imagine
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Speaker 1: being sixty years of age and the father of twins.
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Speaker 1: Some people pray for twins. Usually they have not talked
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Speaker 1: to people who have wins before they pray for twins.
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Speaker 1: It was always a great pleasure to me that we
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Speaker 1: had our children one at a time. Some people do
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Speaker 1: very well with twins, and I'm always amazed. Yesterday morning,
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Speaker 1: Cynthia and I decided we would take all five of
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Speaker 1: our grandchildren to breakfast. Both of our married kids. When
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Speaker 1: we called them and told them what we wanted to
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Speaker 1: do on the evening before, both of them said, are
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Speaker 1: you sure you know what you're saying? We said, we do,
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Speaker 1: we are. So we picked them up, We put them
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Speaker 1: in the car, and we drove to the local pancake
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Speaker 1: house and we began the process of unloading and going
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Speaker 1: into the restaurant, all seven of us. And I will
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Speaker 1: never forget the face of the gentleman sitting at the
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Speaker 1: table next to us, who had looked forward to a lovely,
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Speaker 1: quiet breakfast with his wife. When we asked for three
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Speaker 1: booster chairs and two high chairs, he really wasn't sure
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Speaker 1: he had chosen the right restaurant, and we sat down
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Speaker 1: and we had quite a breakfast together. I think Cynthia
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Speaker 1: ate four bites of food in between serving the five kids,
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Speaker 1: but that's five, just two. Isaac, however, was sixty years
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Speaker 1: old when Rebecca gave birth to those boys. We're not
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Speaker 1: told much about the childhood. We're told when the boys
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Speaker 1: grew up. Esau was different from his younger brother, Jacob.
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Speaker 1: Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the field.
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Speaker 1: Jacob was a peaceful man, living intense Nothing wrong with that.
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Speaker 1: You will discover shortly after their birth if you have
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Speaker 1: had several children, how different they are one from another.
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Speaker 1: All five of our grandchildren are very different. One you
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Speaker 1: place in the high chair and he's happy to sit there,
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Speaker 1: and if you leave him for an hour, all he
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Speaker 1: needs is crackers to crunch up and stuff to drop
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Speaker 1: on the floor, and he's content. The others are the
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Speaker 1: prelude to a war just beginning to happen, so you
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Speaker 1: have to keep them busy with other things they are.
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Speaker 1: Some of these are from the very same sets of parents,
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Speaker 1: but they're very different. Esau was different from Jacob. Nothing
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Speaker 1: wrong with that that's the way God designs him. But
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Speaker 1: something is wrong in the next verse, and humanly speaking,
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Speaker 1: it is the seed of great difficulty. Isaac loved Esau,
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Speaker 1: but Rebecca loved Jacob. Isaac loved Esau because he had
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Speaker 1: a taste for game. I suppose Isaac was the outdoors tight.
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Speaker 1: He liked it that his boy to hunt. He liked
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Speaker 1: it the way his boy conducted himself and handled himself.
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Speaker 1: He was a man, he was rugged. Rebecca liked it
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Speaker 1: that Jacob stayed near the tent. Maybe he liked to cook.
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Speaker 1: He stayed around the house. We would say he didn't
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Speaker 1: like the field. Nothing wrong with the boys being different,
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Speaker 1: but there is something wrong with this parental favoritism, which,
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Speaker 1: by the way, haunts Esau's steps for the balance of
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Speaker 1: his life. When Jacob had cooked stew, Esau came in
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Speaker 1: from the field and he was famished. And Esau said
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Speaker 1: to Jacob, please let me have a swallow of that
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Speaker 1: red stuff there, for I am famished. Jacob said, first
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Speaker 1: sell me your birthright, and Esau said, behold, I'm to die,
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Speaker 1: So of what use then is the birthright to me?
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Speaker 1: And Jacob said, first swear to me. So he swore
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Speaker 1: to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. Jacob gave
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Speaker 1: Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank,
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Speaker 1: and rose went on his way. And the chapter concludes
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Speaker 1: with a brief commentary on the mentality of this older son.
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Speaker 1: Esau despised his birthright doesn't mean much to English speaking people,
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Speaker 1: really means very little. To Americans, birthrights are no longer significant,
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Speaker 1: certainly not in gentile homes. James Hastings, one of the
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Speaker 1: fine biographers of Scripture, makes several statesments about the value
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Speaker 1: of birthright, and I want to refer to his writings
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Speaker 1: so you will see what Esau forfeited. Just listen. To
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Speaker 1: the birthright belonged pre eminence over the other branches of
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Speaker 1: the family. Second to the birthright appertained a double portion
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Speaker 1: of the paternal inheritance. Third to the birthright was attached
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Speaker 1: the land of Canaan with all its sacred distinctions. Fourth
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Speaker 1: to the birthright was given the promise of being the
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Speaker 1: ancestor of the Messiah, the first born among many brethren,
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Speaker 1: the Savior in whom all families of the earth were
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Speaker 1: to be blessed. And fifth to the birthright was added
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Speaker 1: the honor of receiving first from the mouth of the father,
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Speaker 1: a peculiar benediction which proceeding from the spirit of prophecy,
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Speaker 1: was never pronounced in vain. Such were the prospects of Esaul.
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Speaker 1: But in a moment of hunger, in a hurried moment
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Speaker 1: of hunger, where he says, I'm famished, he trades his
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Speaker 1: birthright and all of those blessings for a bull of soup.
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Speaker 1: It is the problem of instant gratification. And when we
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Speaker 1: come to the end of this message, I'll say more
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Speaker 1: about that. But he bases an enormous amount of this
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Speaker 1: decision on that instant moment of finding himself satisfied with
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Speaker 1: a bulletsuit. He releases all of those blessings to his brother. Jacob,
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Speaker 1: by the way, has been pictured by some as a
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Speaker 1: man who deceived his brother out of his birthright. I
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Speaker 1: don't find a deception right here. Well, later I find deception,
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Speaker 1: but this is out in the open. You want to
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Speaker 1: bowl of my soup, give me your birthright. Jacob was bright,
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Speaker 1: but he wasn't here deceptive. I'll give you the soup
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Speaker 1: if you give me your birthright. He didn't hide the
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Speaker 1: fact that he was an out and out trade. The
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Speaker 1: point I want to make is that Esau is of
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Speaker 1: such a mind as to despise something that is significant
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Speaker 1: and heavy for the satisfaction of his physical needs. Jacob
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Speaker 1: takes advantage of it. I think Jacob was a better
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Speaker 1: student of Esau than Esau was a Jacob tells us
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Speaker 1: something of his perspective. Spiritual priorities weren't nearly as important
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Speaker 1: as physical comforts. In tangibles meant little to Esau. He
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Speaker 1: saw only the need of the moment, and that was
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Speaker 1: to fill his stomach. Perhaps that's why Hebrews twelve sixteen
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Speaker 1: refers to Esau as a profane man. By the way,
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Speaker 1: let's don't just go through the story. Let's let the
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Speaker 1: story go through us. You may have a boy like Esau,
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Speaker 1: or you may have a boy like Jacob. Pay close
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Speaker 1: attention to what there is to learn from this interesting
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Speaker 1: conflict conflict between the two sons. What we are witnessing
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Speaker 1: in the end of chapter twenty five is the early
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Speaker 1: seeds of a carnal nature and a lack of parental
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Speaker 1: guidance and confrontation. I'm convinced the parents didn't even know
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Speaker 1: about the trade. By now, Isaac must be seventy five,
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Speaker 1: it says in verse twenty seven, when the boys grew up,
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Speaker 1: giving them the benefit of the doubt. Let's place Esau
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Speaker 1: at age fifteen. If you make him twenty, then Isaac
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Speaker 1: is now eighty, and age has a way of removing
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Speaker 1: a father from the immediacy of his son's needs. One
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Speaker 1: of the problems you have to deal with if you
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Speaker 1: are an older father with younger boys or younger girls.
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Speaker 1: Isaac becomes increasingly less involved in his children's lives. He
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Speaker 1: sort of watches life pass, but he doesn't get involved
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Speaker 1: with their needs. Chapter twenty six, Verse thirty four is
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Speaker 1: our next stop off. When Esau was forty years old.
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Speaker 1: Does that have a familiar ring? That's when Isaac married.
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Speaker 1: When Esau was forty years old, he married Judith, the
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Speaker 1: daughter of b Rai the Hittite, and Baysmeth, the daughter
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Speaker 1: of Elon the Hittite, two daughters of Heath, and they
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Speaker 1: brought grief to Isaac and Rebecca. We have noted that
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Speaker 1: Isaac was forty when he married. I wonder, and it's
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Speaker 1: just passing imagination. It is not inspired, It is just
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Speaker 1: a thought, just a suggestion. I wonder if by now
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Speaker 1: Esau realized he was out of the loop of parental affection,
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Speaker 1: or at least his mother's affection. I wonder if he
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Speaker 1: thought there might be something that could be gained by
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Speaker 1: seeking a wife at this age, something that would get
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Speaker 1: him back in the loop of favor and blessing. And so,
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Speaker 1: at age forty, like his father, he marries. But he
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Speaker 1: marries Canaanitish women, as they're later called daughters of heat.
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Speaker 1: He loses again, and as is customary in those homes,
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Speaker 1: he brings those wives with him back under the roof
28:22
Speaker 1: of his family, and they'd become a heartache to both
28:27
Speaker 1: his father and his mother. He cannot win. By the way,
28:31
Speaker 1: if you are out of the loop of blessing and favor,
28:35
Speaker 1: a marriage will not help. Finding a wife or finding
28:42
Speaker 1: a husband will not automatically solve the conflicts you have
28:47
Speaker 1: with your parents. Certainly, finding wives like Esau did did
28:53
Speaker 1: not do it. And one more word of a practical note.
28:59
Speaker 1: Only those whose family has been hurt by an unhappy
29:04
Speaker 1: marriage can understand fully the meaning of verse thirty five
29:08
Speaker 1: that they brought grief to Isaac and Rebecca. Haven't you
29:12
Speaker 1: seen it or have you experienced it? Where your son
29:18
Speaker 1: or your daughter makes an unwise choice, and as it were,
29:22
Speaker 1: brings home someone out of your favor. There's a grief
29:29
Speaker 1: connected with that that isn't healed now. Chapter twenty seven
29:36
Speaker 1: is clearly the most significant chapter in the story of
29:40
Speaker 1: the Boy or the Son who Couldn't win. I want
29:43
Speaker 1: to take our time through it, not too much, but
29:47
Speaker 1: enough for you to see four scenes as they unfold.
29:52
Speaker 1: Much of this is familiar, I understand. But the first
29:56
Speaker 1: scene is Isaac and Esau, the old. It came about
30:03
Speaker 1: when Isaac was old and his eyes were too dim
30:06
Speaker 1: to see that. He called his older son, Esau, and
30:11
Speaker 1: said to him, my son. And Esau said to the father,
30:15
Speaker 1: here am I? Here I am, Isaac said, behold now
30:18
Speaker 1: I am old, and I do not know the day
30:21
Speaker 1: of my death. Now, then please take your gear, your quiver,
30:25
Speaker 1: your bow, and go out to the field and hunt
30:27
Speaker 1: game for me. And prepare a savory dish for me
30:32
Speaker 1: such as I love, and bring it to me that
30:34
Speaker 1: I may eat, so that my soul may bless you
30:37
Speaker 1: before I die. See, the father knows nothing of the
30:39
Speaker 1: exchange of the birthright. He's looking forward to passing the
30:43
Speaker 1: blessing on to his older son, whom he favors. So
30:47
Speaker 1: he says to the boy, let's eat this meal together,
30:51
Speaker 1: that I might be strengthened and I might pass along
30:53
Speaker 1: the blessing. Rebecca was listening. Now this is an interesting study.
30:59
Speaker 1: Also this woman, or I should say, the wife of
31:02
Speaker 1: Isaac should speak of her with a little more respect.
31:05
Speaker 1: Isaac's wife, Rebecca is listening while Isaac spoke to his
31:09
Speaker 1: son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to
31:12
Speaker 1: hunt for game to bring home, Rebecca said to her son, Jacob,
31:19
Speaker 1: did you catch something that I read? While Isaac spoke
31:22
Speaker 1: to his son Esau, She later spoke to her son Jacob.
31:29
Speaker 1: Both of them are both their sons, but the favoritism
31:34
Speaker 1: by now is so strong. One is referred to as
31:37
Speaker 1: one son, the other one is referred to as the
31:40
Speaker 1: other's son. What we have in this next section five
31:46
Speaker 1: through seventeen, scene two is Rebecca and Jacob. Now you
31:50
Speaker 1: will see a conniving spirit at work. Rebecca said to
31:56
Speaker 1: her son, Behold, I heard your father speak to your
31:58
Speaker 1: brother Esau, saying, bring me some game and prepare a
32:01
Speaker 1: savory dish for me that I may eat and bless
32:04
Speaker 1: you in the presence of the Lord before my death. Now, therefore,
32:06
Speaker 1: my son, listen to me as I command you. Go
32:10
Speaker 1: now to the flock and bring me two choice kids
32:12
Speaker 1: from there, that is, two goats, that I may prepare
32:15
Speaker 1: them as a savory dish for your father, such as
32:17
Speaker 1: he loves. Then you shall bring it to your father
32:20
Speaker 1: that he may eat, so he may bless you before
32:22
Speaker 1: his death. Jacob answered his mother, Rebecca, behold, Esaw, my
32:26
Speaker 1: brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man.
32:30
Speaker 1: Perhaps my father will feel me. Then I shall be
32:34
Speaker 1: as a deceiver in his sight, and I shall bring
32:36
Speaker 1: upon myself a curse and not a blessing. Ah, she's
32:40
Speaker 1: got that all thought through. His mother said to him,
32:43
Speaker 1: your curse be on me, my son, only obey my voice,
32:46
Speaker 1: go and get them for me. So he went and
32:49
Speaker 1: got them and brought them to his mother, and his
32:51
Speaker 1: mother made savory food such as his father loved. Rebecca
32:55
Speaker 1: took the best garments of Esaw, her elder son, which
32:58
Speaker 1: were with her in the house, and with them on Jacob,
33:01
Speaker 1: her younger son. She even dressed her boy in his
33:04
Speaker 1: twin brother's clothing. She put the skins of the kids
33:09
Speaker 1: on his hands. Can you picture that and on the
33:12
Speaker 1: smooth part of his neck. What a strange plan. She
33:17
Speaker 1: put the skins of the kids on his hands and
33:20
Speaker 1: on his neck. She also gave the savory food and
33:22
Speaker 1: the bread which she had made to her son. A
33:26
Speaker 1: Jacob scene three verses eighteen to twenty nine. Jacob and
33:32
Speaker 1: Isaac his father. Then it came to his father and said,
33:36
Speaker 1: my father, And he said, here I am, who are
33:40
Speaker 1: you my son? You see he's almost blind. Jacob said
33:44
Speaker 1: to his father, I am Esau. You're first born. Now
33:50
Speaker 1: you see Jacob as a true deceiver. I have done
33:53
Speaker 1: as you told me. Get up, please and sit and
33:56
Speaker 1: eat of my game that you may bless me. Isaac
33:59
Speaker 1: said to it. So how is it that you have
34:01
Speaker 1: it so quickly, my son, he said, because the Lord,
34:04
Speaker 1: your god, caused it to happen to me. Wow. When
34:09
Speaker 1: you have begun to deceive and you take it far enough,
34:13
Speaker 1: it won't be long before you can even enter the
34:15
Speaker 1: name of the Lord in your game plan without hesitation.
34:21
Speaker 1: Isaac said this to Jacob, Please come close that I
34:24
Speaker 1: may feel you, my son, whether you are really my
34:27
Speaker 1: son Esau or not. Jacob came close to Isaac's father,
34:31
Speaker 1: and he felt him and said, the voice is the
34:33
Speaker 1: voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.
34:39
Speaker 1: He did not recognize him because his hands were harry
34:42
Speaker 1: like his brother Esau's hands. So he blessed him, and
34:47
Speaker 1: he said, are you really my son, Esau? He said,
34:53
Speaker 1: I am just a moment before we proceed. Jacob learned
35:02
Speaker 1: to deceive from his mother. He picked it up from
35:07
Speaker 1: her to be sure. He has a nature of deception,
35:11
Speaker 1: which you see as far back as the action in
35:14
Speaker 1: the womb. When he is coming out of the womb,
35:16
Speaker 1: he's grasping the heel of the brother Esau, the older brother.
35:21
Speaker 1: But he's learned the plot from his mother. He's learned
35:25
Speaker 1: the script from his mother, and he's not hesitating to
35:29
Speaker 1: carry it the full nine yards because he's been coached
35:34
Speaker 1: by his mother. Never underestimate the impact of your character
35:42
Speaker 1: on your children. So he said, bring it to me,
35:48
Speaker 1: and I will eat of my son's games that I
35:50
Speaker 1: may bless you. And he brought it to him, and
35:51
Speaker 1: he ate and brought him wine and he drank, and
35:54
Speaker 1: his father, Isaac said to him, please come close and
35:57
Speaker 1: kiss me, my son. So he came close and he
36:00
Speaker 1: kissed him, and when he smelled the smell of his garments.
36:04
Speaker 1: He blessed him. See, she even knew he would do that.
36:07
Speaker 1: When you're blind, your senses, your other senses are heightened.
36:11
Speaker 1: She knew his smell would be good, his ability to
36:14
Speaker 1: smell would be acute. And so she dressed him in
36:17
Speaker 1: the other boy's garment, and he blessed him and said, see,
36:20
Speaker 1: the smell of my son is like the smell of
36:22
Speaker 1: a field which the Lord has blessed. And he gives
36:26
Speaker 1: the blessing to him in verses twenty seven, twenty eight,
36:29
Speaker 1: and twenty nine. Scene four begins at verse thirty and
36:36
Speaker 1: takes us through verse forty, And as you can imagine,
36:39
Speaker 1: it is Esau the Older with his father Isaac. It's
36:43
Speaker 1: a tragic scene. All the while this deception has been
36:47
Speaker 1: going on, Esau has been out in the field trying
36:50
Speaker 1: to find game. He has located game, and he has
36:54
Speaker 1: killed it, and he's brought it back in hopes of
36:57
Speaker 1: receiving the blessing from his father verse thirty. As soon
37:00
Speaker 1: as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob. Jacob had hardly gone
37:04
Speaker 1: out from the presence of Isaac's father that esaw his
37:07
Speaker 1: brother came in from hunting. He also made savory food
37:11
Speaker 1: and brought it to his father, And he said to
37:13
Speaker 1: his father, let my father arise and eat of his
37:16
Speaker 1: son's game, so that you may bless me. And Isaac's
37:21
Speaker 1: father said to him, who are you? And he said,
37:26
Speaker 1: I am your son. You're first born Esau. Isaac trembled
37:33
Speaker 1: violently and said, who was he then that hunted game
37:36
Speaker 1: and brought it to me? So that I ate of
37:39
Speaker 1: all of it before you came and blessed him. Yes,
37:44
Speaker 1: and he shall be blessed. When Esau heard the words
37:48
Speaker 1: of his father, I watched this pathetic scene, he cried
37:54
Speaker 1: out with an exceeding great and bitter cry and said
37:57
Speaker 1: to his father, bless me even me. Also, Oh, my father,
38:02
Speaker 1: he's now pleading for the blessing. And he said, your
38:06
Speaker 1: brother came deceitfully and has taken away your blessing. And
38:10
Speaker 1: he said, is he not rightly named Jacob? For he
38:13
Speaker 1: has supplanted me these two times he took away my birthright.
38:18
Speaker 1: And now behold, now he has taken away my blessing.
38:22
Speaker 1: And he said, have you not reserved a blessing for me?
38:26
Speaker 1: Isaac answered and said to Esau, behold, I have made
38:29
Speaker 1: him your master, and all his relatives I have given
38:32
Speaker 1: to him as servants with grain and new wine. I
38:38
Speaker 1: have sustained him. Now as for you, then what can
38:43
Speaker 1: I do? My son? And Esau said to his father,
38:47
Speaker 1: do you have only one blessing? My father? Bless me
38:53
Speaker 1: even me also, oh, my father. So Esau lifted up
38:58
Speaker 1: his voice and wept. Isaac's words follow and then Esau's
39:08
Speaker 1: tragic response verse forty one. Esau naturally bore a grudge
39:18
Speaker 1: against Jacob because of the blessing with which his father
39:24
Speaker 1: had blessed him. And Esau said to himself, the days
39:29
Speaker 1: of mourning for my father are near, then I will
39:34
Speaker 1: kill my brother Jacob. Huh, just look at that for
39:44
Speaker 1: a moment. Let's don't leave this quickly. It's a scene
39:51
Speaker 1: that's sort of a mixture of pathos and tragedy and
39:55
Speaker 1: irresponsibility and deception. And yes, it's always getting what he
40:01
Speaker 1: had coming if you look at it strictly theologically. He
40:06
Speaker 1: passed off the birthright for a bowl of soup. And
40:11
Speaker 1: now he looks at the whole thing as it has unfolded,
40:15
Speaker 1: and he says, my dad will be dead soon, and
40:17
Speaker 1: when he dies, I will get back at Jacob, remember
40:24
Speaker 1: the prophecy that had been made to the mother before
40:26
Speaker 1: she even gave birth. Two nations are in your womb.
40:30
Speaker 1: They will be separated from one another, and the older
40:33
Speaker 1: shall serve the younger. And it's beginning to transpire. Esau
40:40
Speaker 1: cannot win. When the words of her elder son Esau
40:51
Speaker 1: were reported to Rebecca, she sent and called her younger son, Jacob,
40:58
Speaker 1: and said to him, you better watch out. Your brother
41:03
Speaker 1: Esau is consoling himself concerning you by planning to kill you. Now, therefore,
41:10
Speaker 1: my son, obey my voice and arise. Flee to Haron,
41:14
Speaker 1: to my brother Laban, stay with him a few days
41:18
Speaker 1: until your brother's fury subsides, Until your brother's angers against
41:25
Speaker 1: you subsides, and he forgets what you did to him.
41:28
Speaker 1: Who is she kidding? He will never forget. He will forgive,
41:34
Speaker 1: that's the good part that comes later. And will not
41:37
Speaker 1: try to get into that in this study. But he
41:39
Speaker 1: will never forget. She says, Then I shall send and
41:43
Speaker 1: get you from there. Why should I be bereaved of
41:46
Speaker 1: you both in one day? As soon as your dad dies,
41:49
Speaker 1: he will take your life. Get out of here, Jacob,
41:52
Speaker 1: run for your life. Now. Notice how she handles it
41:56
Speaker 1: with Isaac verse forty six. And Rebecca said to Isaac,
42:03
Speaker 1: I'm tired of living because of the daughters of Heath.
42:07
Speaker 1: Remember them, they're the ones that he saw married back
42:11
Speaker 1: in twenty six, thirty four, and thirty five. She says,
42:15
Speaker 1: I'm tired of living in the same house with these
42:18
Speaker 1: daughters of Heath. If Jacob takes a wife from the
42:23
Speaker 1: daughters of Heath like these from the daughters of the land,
42:27
Speaker 1: what good will my life be to me? The way
42:31
Speaker 1: she words it prompts Isaac to say to Jacob, you
42:37
Speaker 1: better be out of here, my son. So he calls
42:40
Speaker 1: him verse one of chapter twenty eight. He calls Jacob
42:44
Speaker 1: and blesses him and charged him, and said, you shall
42:47
Speaker 1: not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. Arise,
42:52
Speaker 1: go to paidan Aram, to the house of Bethelwale, your
42:54
Speaker 1: mother's father, and from there take to yourself a wife
42:58
Speaker 1: from the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother. And may
43:02
Speaker 1: God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you,
43:07
Speaker 1: that you may become a company of peoples. By the way,
43:11
Speaker 1: does it concern you as it does me that he
43:15
Speaker 1: gives his son, Jacob counsel and how to marry. But
43:19
Speaker 1: he never gave Esau counsel and how to marry. It
43:25
Speaker 1: seems as though Esau was left to find a wife
43:29
Speaker 1: as he felt best about it, and it was a
43:31
Speaker 1: wrong choice these women. And when it comes to Jacob,
43:35
Speaker 1: he instructs him where to go. He tells him who
43:37
Speaker 1: to marry or who not to marry. Don't take one
43:40
Speaker 1: of the Canaaniitish women. Stay within the fold. May God
43:44
Speaker 1: Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you
43:47
Speaker 1: that you may become a company of people. May He
43:49
Speaker 1: give you the blessing of Abraham to you and your descendants.
43:54
Speaker 1: Verse five, Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to
43:56
Speaker 1: Peyden Aram to Laban, son of bethu Well the Assyrian,
44:00
Speaker 1: the brother of Rebecca, the mother of Jacob and Esau.
44:04
Speaker 1: So Jacob is on his way to find a wife.
44:07
Speaker 1: He leaves no extra charge for this little tip. Your
44:15
Speaker 1: children need help in knowing how to choose a mate.
44:20
Speaker 1: Even if you have made a mess of your first marriage,
44:22
Speaker 1: or perhaps even your second marriage. All the more reason
44:25
Speaker 1: for you to give your children assistance in knowing how
44:28
Speaker 1: to marry. Knowing what constitutes a mate, knowing what is
44:33
Speaker 1: best for them or what will hurt them, what will
44:36
Speaker 1: encourage them, what will work against them, how to enhance
44:42
Speaker 1: the family as opposed to hurting the family. Marriage is
44:46
Speaker 1: not an independent thing. It's a family affair. It links
44:50
Speaker 1: families together, it ties together long time roots. This boy
44:56
Speaker 1: needed assistance and he got it. Esaw needed it all
44:59
Speaker 1: the more. In fact, look at the next verse. You
45:01
Speaker 1: see why I'm saying that Esau saw that Isaac had
45:05
Speaker 1: blessed Jacob. See he's watching this, He's longing for what
45:10
Speaker 1: Jacob has. He saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob, and
45:15
Speaker 1: that Isaac could send him away to peyden Aram to
45:17
Speaker 1: take to himself a wife from there, And that when
45:20
Speaker 1: he blessed him, he charged him saying, you shall not
45:23
Speaker 1: take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. You think
45:26
Speaker 1: that didn't cut to the heart of Esau. He's got
45:28
Speaker 1: two wives from the daughters of Canaan, and that Jacob
45:32
Speaker 1: had obeyed his father and his mother and had gone
45:34
Speaker 1: to peiden Aram. So look at this. Esau saw that
45:38
Speaker 1: the daughters of Canaan displeased his father Isaac. What did
45:42
Speaker 1: he do well? Esau went to Ishmael and married besides
45:47
Speaker 1: the wives that he had Mahalatha, daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son,
45:52
Speaker 1: the sister of nevaoath Is. It is Esau's way thinking,
45:57
Speaker 1: perhaps this will help win the favor, Perhaps if this
46:00
Speaker 1: will bring me back in good stead, maybe I will
46:03
Speaker 1: have something I've never had before. Time doesn't permit us
46:08
Speaker 1: to travel all the way to the end of the story.
46:10
Speaker 1: Esau ultimately does encounter Jacob. Jacob is scared, spitless. He
46:15
Speaker 1: is convinced that Esau is going to put an end
46:18
Speaker 1: to his life, and as a matter of fact, he
46:20
Speaker 1: does not do that. By then, time has passed and
46:24
Speaker 1: Esau has not carried out his or will not carry
46:27
Speaker 1: out his plan to take his brother's life. And by
46:30
Speaker 1: the way, I'm fully aware of what the New Testament
46:33
Speaker 1: says about Esau. I'm aware of the difficulty of the
46:37
Speaker 1: verse out of Romans, Jacob, have I loved Esau? Have
46:41
Speaker 1: I hated? Quoting from Malachi Chapter one, verses two and three.
46:47
Speaker 1: I'm also aware that he Brews twelve sixteen calls Esau
46:51
Speaker 1: an immoral and godless person. I'm aware of that theologically,
46:55
Speaker 1: I'm aware of it. That's another study, another subject for
46:59
Speaker 1: another time. My purpose here is more horizontal. What I
47:03
Speaker 1: want you to see is a family and conflict. What
47:06
Speaker 1: I want you to see is favoritism among parents and
47:10
Speaker 1: the tragic results that follow such an encounter are such
47:16
Speaker 1: a process that has never dealt with and is never faced.
47:22
Speaker 1: Let me close with some lingering lessons that I draw
47:25
Speaker 1: from the story of the Son who Couldn't win. I
47:29
Speaker 1: find three of them, as a matter of fact, that
47:32
Speaker 1: are timeless, and I think you will. You will agree
47:37
Speaker 1: with me when I've given them to you. Here's the first.
47:42
Speaker 1: Instant gratification is a dangerous basis for making a major decision.
47:51
Speaker 1: Instant gratification is a dangerous basis for making a major decision.
48:04
Speaker 1: I draw this out of the life of Esau, where
48:06
Speaker 1: he settles the account by giving up his birthright for
48:09
Speaker 1: a bowl of soup. Some of you give up your
48:13
Speaker 1: loneliness in an apartment for a quick marriage which you
48:18
Speaker 1: later horribly regret. Some of you trade off the momentary
48:26
Speaker 1: difficulties you are living with for a partnership in a business,
48:32
Speaker 1: and that provides instant financial relief. The problem is you
48:37
Speaker 1: have to do business with a partner who doesn't have
48:40
Speaker 1: a heart for God as you do. There is instant gratification,
48:45
Speaker 1: but it's a very dangerous basis for making that major decision.
48:51
Speaker 1: When you come to major decisions in life and you
48:53
Speaker 1: don't need to be told what they are, you know
48:55
Speaker 1: what they are. Take time back, Try to be as
49:03
Speaker 1: objective as possible. Listen to counsel that tells you what
49:07
Speaker 1: you don't want to hear. Pay attention to it. If
49:12
Speaker 1: you don't, lengthy consequences will follow, and they will dog
49:16
Speaker 1: your steps, perhaps for the rest of your life. Second,
49:23
Speaker 1: parental favoritism has a damaging effect on the whole family.
49:31
Speaker 1: Parental favoritism has a damaging effect on the whole family,
49:40
Speaker 1: and unresolved conflicts will continue to surface. Kids do not
49:48
Speaker 1: outgrow the feelings of prejudiced parents. Are parents that played favorites.
49:57
Speaker 1: Let me just talk straight with you for a moment.
50:01
Speaker 1: May I. You have a family, You have several children
50:06
Speaker 1: in the family. One of them is especially easy to raise,
50:13
Speaker 1: or one of them has a temperament that matches yours,
50:16
Speaker 1: or maybe is different from yours, and you find great
50:20
Speaker 1: delight in that oneness of heart. It might be a
50:24
Speaker 1: precious daughter, or it might be a son that was
50:27
Speaker 1: rather easy to raise. If you are not careful, unwittingly,
50:34
Speaker 1: you will add special favors, you will release discipline, You
50:40
Speaker 1: will even deceive by encouraging that favoritism. Don't think for
50:48
Speaker 1: a moment that the other members of the family miss that.
50:56
Speaker 1: I think some of the sharpest people on earth are children.
51:01
Speaker 1: They see right through us. We were at the breakfast
51:07
Speaker 1: table I mentioned, with all the grandkids, and we had
51:11
Speaker 1: little pieces of paper that they were to color, and
51:15
Speaker 1: problem is there were no crayons, and so the kids
51:19
Speaker 1: asked us half dozen times, can we have some crayons?
51:23
Speaker 1: And I looked at one of our grandchildren and I
51:26
Speaker 1: said to him, yes, we're going to We're going to
51:30
Speaker 1: get crowns. Now. Just wait a minute. And they didn't come.
51:34
Speaker 1: And you know, with children, if they're not there in
51:36
Speaker 1: thirty seconds, then there's something wrong with you. And Parker
51:40
Speaker 1: looked at me in bad his big eyes, and he said, Babba,
51:43
Speaker 1: you promised me, and you cannot break a promise to me.
51:46
Speaker 1: I said, I know, I know, I'm not going to
51:48
Speaker 1: break a promise. I mean, he was connecting with me
51:52
Speaker 1: and reminding me I gave my word. Don't you think
51:55
Speaker 1: for a moment that though children are small, even preschool age,
51:59
Speaker 1: that they miss a promise, or that they will easily
52:03
Speaker 1: and quickly overlook something that you said would happen. If
52:09
Speaker 1: it doesn't happen, you better have an answer, You better
52:12
Speaker 1: have an explanation, and it better be the truth. Third,
52:17
Speaker 1: unconditional acceptance is a longing in the heart of every person,
52:28
Speaker 1: and no one outgrows it. Unconditional acceptance is a longing
52:36
Speaker 1: in the heart of every person. It begins when we
52:39
Speaker 1: are children, and the first ones we long to have
52:44
Speaker 1: that acceptance with is our parent. When was the last
52:52
Speaker 1: time you look deeply into the eyes of your children,
52:57
Speaker 1: or perhaps each one, one at a time, and expressed
53:02
Speaker 1: without any any hidden agenda, your love, your acceptance, the
53:11
Speaker 1: treasure you find in that child, your pleasure. They may
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Speaker 1: never ask for it, but they never forget it when
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Speaker 1: it's given. It is a wonderful thing. As we grow
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Speaker 1: a bit older to see the dimensions of an investment grow,
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Speaker 1: as God raises our children to adulthood in our family,
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Speaker 1: and as we see the byproducts of our lives being
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Speaker 1: carried out in the lives of their marriages and their children.
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Speaker 1: There is a sense of enormous satisfaction, and it makes
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Speaker 1: me want to say to every young parent I encounter,
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Speaker 1: it's worth it all. Take time, pay attention, go to
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Speaker 1: the trouble, say your feelings. Remember you are being watched
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Speaker 1: and heard. Esau saw Jacob being counseled in his marriage.
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Speaker 1: Esau knew he had gotten none of that. Esau heard
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Speaker 1: that a Canaanite woman broke the heart of his mother,
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Speaker 1: and he would go so far as to marry again.
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Speaker 1: Maybe that would win favor. That's sort of the way
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Speaker 1: we're made, isn't it. There's one great fact, and that
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Speaker 1: is with our heavenly Father, there is unconditional acceptance, and
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Speaker 1: you never have to earn it. It comes because of
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Speaker 1: his grace. Let's bow for a few moments of a quietness,
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Speaker 1: and then prayer before we leave our story. Could it
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Speaker 1: be that enough has been said to prompt one or
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Speaker 1: two of you to take the time before this week
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Speaker 1: is pasted, to write a letter or to put your
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Speaker 1: arms around if your children are still with you, for
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Speaker 1: you to say how very much he or she means
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Speaker 1: to you. How about a nice lunch with one of
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Speaker 1: your grown children you haven't been with for a while,
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Speaker 1: doesn't need to be heavy the whole time, but make
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Speaker 1: sure it includes a few moments where you look into
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Speaker 1: those eyes and tell that now grown child of yours
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Speaker 1: how very much he or she means. Maybe they're miles away,
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Speaker 1: and it will mean a letter or a phone call. Father.
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Speaker 1: I thank you this moment for the truth of your book,
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Speaker 1: for the value of principles that live on beyond the
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Speaker 1: stories of lives in it. I thank you for these
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Speaker 1: who have listened so carefully, and I pray that as
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Speaker 1: a result of what we have uncovered from the life
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Speaker 1: of a man we've never met, from a family that
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Speaker 1: we have never seen, that we might see enough here
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Speaker 1: to apply it to our lives this very day. In
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Speaker 1: our hurried and busy world, it is easy for us
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Speaker 1: to assume that these basic things are known by those
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Speaker 1: who are brought into our family. Encourage us, Lord to
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Speaker 1: continue to be parents who are sensitive and loving, affirming
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Speaker 1: and verbal in our affection. Thank you for giving us
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Speaker 1: in the Scripture's true story of people who experienced much
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Speaker 1: of what we go through. Take these things and use
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Speaker 1: them in our lives and families. For the good of
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Speaker 1: our future and for the glory of your name. We
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Speaker 1: pray through Christ Our Lord Amen.
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Speaker 2: The preceding message, Esau The Son who Couldn't Win, was
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Speaker 2: copyrighted in nineteen ninety nineteen ninety two, two thousand and one,
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Speaker 2: two thousand and six, twenty twelve, and twenty twenty four,
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Speaker 2: and the sound recording was copyrighted in twenty twenty four
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Speaker 2: by Charles R. Swindahl Incorporated. All rights are reserved worldwide.
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Speaker 2: Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited