Isaac's Faith

If you have your Bible, Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11, one verse today, verse number 20. We are going through each and every character in Hebrews 11 to help you understand what it means to live by faith and not to walk by sight. For the just shall live by faith. In Hebrews 11, verse number 20 says these words, by faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even regarding things to come. One simple verse that if you're in the audience and the writer of Hebrews is writing to you, you understand Isaac.

You understand the history behind Isaac because you were raised in Judaism. And these great patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, the ones that we're covering, we're right in the middle of covering right now, are the ones that take up the majority of the book of Genesis. And they are the ones who would pass on the legacy of truth to their sons. Abraham to Isaac and Isaac to Jacob and Jacob to his sons, specifically Joseph. And it's a reminder to all of us as fathers, the responsibility we have to pass on the legacy of truth to our children.

It's what the writer of Hebrews said when Moses said these words, Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might. These words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart and you shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.

You shall write them on the doorpost of your house and on your gates. Moses would tell the people of Israel, you need to be able to teach the truth compellingly because it's on your hearts. It comes from your heart. You're to teach it consistently, diligently. You're even to teach it creatively, but you are to teach it all the time that your children will know the truth about the living God. Then again, over in Psalm 78, the psalmist says, Listen, O my people to my instruction, incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known. And our fathers have told us, we will not conceal them from their children, but tell to the generations to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wondrous works that he has done. For he established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers that they should teach them to their children that the generation to come might know even the children yet to be born, that they may arise and tell them to their children, that they should put their confidence in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments.

So important to realize that as fathers, the instruction has been given to us to diligently teach our children the truth of the living God. We are to pass it down to them so they in turn can pass it down to their children, so they in turn can pass it down to their children. That's why John said, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. So important for us as fathers to realize the command to follow through in teaching our children the truth of the living God. But is it not true that we tend to be passionate about the things that don't matter and passive about the things that do matter?

We get passionate about things outside of church, but we're passive about things in the church. We're passionate about our children getting a degree, but we're passive about teaching them God's decrees. We get passionate about things that really don't matter, but the things that do matter, the truth of the living God, needs to be passed down to our children so they in turn can pass them to their children. So important to understand that. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, these patriarchs, they were going to pass down the promise, the coming seed, the gospel that would come through the Messiah about the land of the nations that would come from that seed.

They were to pass that truth down from one generation to the next generation. And so they did. And because they did, we today are recipients of the blessed gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so it's a reminder to all of us to realize that we have a great privilege and responsibility. So we come to Isaac. Hebrews 11 verse number 20. Of the four patriarchs that cover Genesis 12 to Genesis 50, the least amount is said about Isaac. You would think that there would be a lot said about Isaac, but no, there's just three chapters and a little bit of information about Isaac throughout a couple of other chapters.

But he receives the least amount of print in the book of Genesis. And the question would be, why is that? And I will help you understand that Isaac is a lot like Jonah. Jonah was a reluctant prophet. Isaac was a reluctant patriarch. You would think that Isaac, who had this great beginning, would be a man who would flourish tremendously in the plans of God. But he didn't. And yet he's in the hall of faith because he would bless Jacob. He would bless Esau regarding things to come. But because we're not Jewish, we don't understand all there is to know about Isaac.

And we can't even presume the fact that even in one hour this morning, we can give you all the information about Isaac. But before you understand Isaac's faith, you need to understand a little bit about Isaac's family. And then you need to understand a little bit about Isaac's failures. And then you can begin to get a grip on Isaac's faith. But to do that, we have to go all the way back to the beginning. So turn back with me, if you would, in your Bibles to the book of Genesis, to the 25th chapter.

The 25th chapter. Isaac was born in chapter 21. Isaac was that promised son to Abraham and to Sarah. They had waited 25 years for this son to be born. And now when he finally arrives, he is that cherished promise that God had given to Sarah and to Abraham about this child that would carry on the legacy, that would begin to spawn nations that would come from his loins, that would spawn the Messiah who would one day come and bless the nations of the world.

They were ecstatic. And then one day God says to Abraham, I want you to take your son, your only son, and I want you to go and sacrifice him.

And we talked about this last week. We looked at Abraham's call and Abraham's commitment to do exactly what God said. And so he would take Isaac up to Mount Moriah and seek to sacrifice him because that's what God said. And he was all gung ho on doing what God said, but the angel of the Lord stopped him. And you would think that with Isaac, who was a perfect type of Christ, he from that great beginning would be used mightily by God, that he'd be on fire for God, that he would learn about not only was there a coming seed, but there was a seed that would be a substitute for your sin and for mine.

And his father Abraham would pass that legacy down to him and tell him all the history behind his birth and all that God had promised. And you would think that with all that knowledge and all that upbringing, that he'd be this great man of God on fire for the Lord. But he wasn't. He just wasn't. He was a reluctant patriarch at best. So you go back and you look at his family and you'll notice in Genesis chapter 25, he marries Rebecca.

This is his bride. Rebecca was a beautiful woman, gorgeous woman on the outside, not so much on the inside. But on the outside, she was absolutely gorgeous. And when you look at Isaac's family, you look at his bride and then you have to understand her barrenness because she too was barren like Sarah was barren.

It says these words, verse number 21. First of all, Isaac was 40 when he took Rebecca to be his wife.

And Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was barren. You know, when you read about the patriarchs, you realize that Sarah was barren. Rebecca was barren. Rachel was barren. And you wonder what God is doing. And God is teaching them to trust him. They couldn't go down the road to the fertility clinic and try to get all these tests and figure out what's going on. They had no idea. They just had to trust the Lord. What a novel idea. Just trust the Lord for the children he's going to give you.

And that's what they did. They had to learn to put their faith in the living God. As Sarah did, so too, Rebecca. And Isaac would know a little bit about this because I'm sure that his father would pass it down to him. And so he began to pray. He began to pray some more. He prayed for 20 years. For his wife, Rebecca, to have a child. I mean, most of us can't even pray 20 minutes a day, let alone 20 years. But he prayed for 20 years because when Jacob and Esau were born, well, Isaac was 60. At this point, he's 40.

So he prays for his wife, Rebecca. And it says, his wife conceived. God answered the prayer. But the children struggled together within her. And she said, if it is so, why then am I this way? It really doesn't let you understand the Hebrew necessarily because she's asking, this is such a difficult thing that's happening to me. I am struggling greatly. Would it be that I would die because of the pain and the turmoil and the struggle that's happening on the inside? She is suffering tremendously. It says, she went to inquire of the Lord.

That's always a good thing to do, right? You don't know what's going on, ask the Lord. He knows everything. And the Lord said to her, two nations are in your womb and two peoples will be separated from your body. And one people will be stronger than the other. And the older shall serve the younger. The Lord makes it very clear what he's going to do. He says, what is happening in your womb is a foretaste of what's going to happen in the future. There are two nations there and they're going to struggle with one another.

And on top of that, the older is going to serve the younger. Now, this portion of Scripture is used in the book of Romans to talk to us about the sovereignty of God, to talk to us about God's predestination, to talk to us about God's election, God's elective purposes. Because God was choosing the younger one to be the recipient of the blessing and not the older one. And in Jewish custom, it would be the older son who would receive the double portion, who received the blessing of the inheritance and the blessing of leadership in the family.

But not so here. God chooses differently. He chooses differently. And so when you come to the book of Romans in the ninth chapter, it does say this. It says in verse number nine, for this is the word of promise. At this time, I will come and Sarah shall have a son. And not only this, but there was Rebecca also when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac. For though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God's purpose according to his choice would stand not because of works, but because of him who calls.

It was said to her, the older will serve the younger. Just as it is written, Jacob, I loved, but Esau, I hated. Now you read that and all kinds of questions come to mind. Why would Jacob be loved and Esau be hated? Why would God do that? Why would God choose Jacob and not choose Esau? Well, why did God choose Isaac and not choose Ishmael? Why would God choose David and not seven older brothers? Why would God choose Ephraim and not Manasseh? Why does God choose Judah and not his three older brothers?

Because God does whatever he wants to do. You see, we think we know God. We think we understand the grace of God, but we really don't know God. Or the justice of God, but we really don't. Or even the providence of God, but we have a hard time with those things. Jacob, I have loved, Esau, I have hated. God chooses certain people, passes over others and doesn't choose them. Listen, it's a miracle that God chooses anybody because we're all born in sin, right? And he does. But to be able to understand the plans and purposes of God is for him and not for us.

We take it by faith. We trust it because God said it. And God made it very clear that I am choosing someone not because of their position, the firstborn. I'm not choosing someone because of their giftedness, a more skilled hunter than the other. I'm not choosing anyone because of who is he a descendant from. I'm choosing based on my choice. That's it. And that's what God wanted to do. He wanted to make it very clear that his choice was always based on his grace, always based on his justice. Because God is not unjust.

And in Paul, Romans and Romans 9, he would answer that question as to don't think that God is unjust. But he never said in Genesis that he hated Esau. No, that's from the book of Malachi, years later. Why? Because Esau is representative of every single person who loves the way of the world more than the ways of God. That's why God hates Esau, a nation of Edomites versus Jacob, a nation of Israelites. Because there was a nation who hated God based on a father who hated God and rebelled against him and despised his birthright.

So here's Rebecca. She's pregnant. She's struggling mightily. She inquires of the Lord and the Lord explains to her that there are two nations in your womb. And yet the younger one is going to be the recipient of the double portion and the divine prince, the seed that shall come. Well, she gives birth. When her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. Now the first came forth red, all over like a hairy garment.

And they named him Esau. Afterward, his brother came forth with his hand holding on to Esau's heel. So his name was called Jacob. And Isaac was 60 years old when he gave birth to them. So it was 20 years. Now, remember, if you read up earlier in verses 12 and following, Ishmael is having all kinds of kids, right? Ishmael's wife had no problem having kids. He had a slew of them. But Isaac, Rebecca, they were barren. And so for 20 years, he prayed and she gave birth to twins. Verse 27, when the boys grew up, Esau became a skilled hunter, a man of the field.

But Jacob was a peaceful man, living in tents. Now, Isaac loved Esau because he had a taste for game. But Rebecca loved Jacob. Ah, we already got a problem, don't we? One loves Esau, one loves Jacob. Isaac says, I love Esau. He's a real man's man. He's a skilled hunter. That's my kind of guy, my kind of son who goes after the game, kills it, brings it back. Jacob, he liked to dwell in the tent with his mom. And Rebecca loved Jacob. This is the rumblings of a marriage in a family that's destined for problems.

And so it is. It says, when Jacob had cooked stew, Esau came in from the field. He was famished. Esau said to Jacob, please let me have a swallow of that red stuff there, for I'm famished.

Therefore, his name was called the Edom. But Jacob said, first sell me your birthright. Esau said, behold, I am about to die. So for what you stand is the birthright to me. And Jacob said, first swear to me.

So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew. And he ate and drank and rose and went on his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright. Esau did not care about the things of God. It was irrelevant to him. He was all about the things of the flesh, not the things of faith. In fact, the book of Hebrews, we'll talk about this when we get to chapter 12. These words are written. It says, Hebrews chapter 12, verse number 15, see to it that no one comes short of the grace of God and that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble and by it many be defiled.

In reference to the context, Esau was a bitter man. And that bitterness would defile many, many people, even to this day. It says in verse 16, that there'd be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears. Esau was a godless man. Esau loved the things of the world. He was willing to give away his double portion.

He was willing to give away his right to the inheritance just so he could satisfy his fleshly desires. It's no wonder the Lord would say in Malachi, Jacob I have loved and Esau I have hated, because the Edomites, the descendants of Esau, the Palestinians today are the ones who are desires, desires of the flesh more so than a faith. And so you come and you move from his family to his failures. Verse 26, now there was a famine in the land, besides the previous famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham.

Remember that? Genesis chapter 12. So Isaac went to Gerar, to Abimelech, king of the Philistines. And the Lord appeared to him and said, do not go down to Egypt. Don't do what your dad did. I don't want you going to Egypt. Why? Because Egypt is symbolic and representative of everything in the world. Isaiah 31 verses 1 to 3, do not go down to Egypt. God appears to Isaac and says, don't do what your father did. Don't go there. Stay in the land, which I will tell you, sojourn in this land. Be a pilgrim in this land.

Don't set your roots down in this land, because this is not the land I have for you. Don't get too comfortable in Gerar. I will be with you and bless you. For to you and to your descendants, I will give all these lands. And I will establish the oath, which I swore to your father, Abraham. Verse 6, so Isaac dwelt or lived in Gerar. He didn't do what God said. He did the opposite of what God said. And when the men of the place asked about his wife, he said, she is my sister. Wow, just like his dad, like father, like son.

I mean, after all, my dad lied about my mom being a sister twice and got away with it. So if he got away with it, I can get away with it. He learned well from his father on how to say my wife is my sister. For he was afraid to say my wife, thinking the men of the place might kill me on account of Rebecca. That's the same thought that Abraham had. He, like his father, sought to preserve his own life. He's willing to sacrifice the life of his wife to preserve his life. After all, I'm the recipient of the promise.

I am the child of promise. I am the beloved son of my father. I can't die, but you dear, you can. It's okay. You can be defiled, but I can't be. And so not only did he disobey the Lord, he lied, but he lied because he was a coward. He was afraid. Even though God said, I'll be with you, I'll protect you, I'll watch over you. He was a coward. It cost him. It came about when he had been there a long time. Remember, he wasn't supposed to be in Gerar for a long time. He was to be a pilgrim there. He was to be a stranger there, an alien there.

He's a soldier in the land, not put his roots down in the land, but he lived there a long time. He didn't do what God said. And the Biblical king of the Philistines looked out through a window and saw, and behold, Isaac was caressing his wife, Rebecca. Now, the King James Version says that he was sporting with Rebecca. I'm not sure what that means. But he's sporting with her, he's caressing her. Whatever he was doing with her, you don't do with your sister, right? And so Abimelech saw that. He saw his affection for Rebecca.

Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, behold, certainly she is your wife. How then did you say she is my sister? And Isaac said to him, because I said I might die on account of her. Abimelech said, what is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have slain with your wife and you would have brought guilt upon us. So Abimelech charged all the people saying, he who touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death. Now, Isaac sowed in the land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold.

And the Lord blessed him. And the man became rich and continued to grow richer until he became very wealthy. For he had possessions of flocks and herds in the great household so that the Philistines envied him. Now you read that, you think, wow, God blessed him. He disobeyed, was blessed. Lied, blessed. Was a coward, blessed. It pays to lie. It pays to be a coward. We forget that God blesses in spite of us, not because of us. And God was going to protect him. God had made a covenant with his father, Abraham, the Abrahamic covenant.

It wasn't going to renege on that covenant. He was true to that. But yet, even in spite of his failures, he blessed him physically. And so it says, verse 15, now all the wells, which his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham, his father, the Philistines stopped up by filling them with earth. Then Abimelech said to Isaac, go away from us, for you are too powerful for us. And Isaac departed from there and camped in the valley of Gerar and settled there. So he didn't go back to the land of promise.

He settled in the land of Gerar. He didn't really leave. He just went down into the valley. He just went down the hill ways. That's all he did. And then Isaac dug again the wells of water, which had been dug in the days of his father, Abraham, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham. And he gave them the same names which his father had given them. But when Isaac's servants dug in the valley and found there a well of flowing water, the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with the herdsmen of Isaac, saying, the water is ours.

So he named the well Essek, because they contended with him. Then they dug another well and they quarreled over it too. So he named it Sidna. He moved away from there and dug another well and they did not quarrel over it. So he named it Rehoboth, for he said, at the last, the Lord has made room for us and we will be fruitful in the land. He kept digging wells and the men of Gerar kept filling up the wells. In other words, God was trying to get his attention. You don't need to be here. You need to move back, go back to where you were.

And so God was using all these situations to move him back to where he needed to be. Interesting. You ever find yourself in situations where one bad thing happens after another bad thing happens after another bad thing? You think, what is going on here? And God's trying to get your attention to get back to where you need to be. Honoring, serving and loving him. He's still in the realm of disobedience. Then he went up from there to Beersheba. Now he's back in the land, the well of the oath. Now he's back where he needs to be.

And the Lord appeared to him the same night and said, I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not fear for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham. So he built an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord and pitched his tent there. And there Isaac's servants dug a well. Like father, like son, he built an altar there in Beersheba. And he worshiped the Lord because now he was in the realm of obedience. God got him back into the land, took circumstances to bring him back, but he brought him back.

And God appeared to him and he built an altar and he worshiped the Lord. Isaac says that he makes a covenant with Abimelech. Then look at verse number 34.

When Esau was 40 years old, he married Judith, the daughter of Beeri, the Hittite, and Basemath, the daughter of Elan, the Hittite, and they brought grief to Isaac and Rebekah. Esau married women of the world. You see, Esau loved the way of the world, so he would marry the women of the world. He didn't marry another person who was ordained by God. He married someone that was of the world because that's what he loved. He brought a great burden to his mother and to his father. You know, when you marry the wrong person, it affects the family, right?

You have an issue where father loved one son and mother loved the other son. That in and of itself was a problem. Then you have a father who, when famine comes, he begins to move on and he disobeys God by dwelling in the land he said to sojourn in. And he lied and disobeyed the Lord and was a coward in the process. So his example to his sons, his example to his wife wasn't what it needed to be. And yet he is in the hall of faith as a man who by faith, right, blessed Jacob and Esau. And now his son Esau marries women of the world.

Think about this. What is it that would cause Isaac to want to bless Esau and not Jacob? Even though God said Jacob should receive the double portion, the blessing. Could it be that because he loved Esau so much and saw that he had sold his birthright, saw that he had gone the way of the world, gone the way of the women of the world, that some way, somehow he's thinking in the back of his mind, if I can bless Esau instead of Jacob, although God said that Jacob should receive the blessing and not Esau.

Listen, if I circumvent that, maybe this will turn him around. Maybe this will cause him to be a man of faith and not a man of the world, a man of flesh. Maybe the relationship I have with him will turn things around if I bless him. You ever notice how parents value relationship over truth?

They want to hold on to a relationship, thinking if I do this or if I do that, that'll turn them around. If I'm kind this way and not too harsh this way, that will turn them around. If I bless him this way and bless him that way, that will turn him around. We love being the sugar daddy, right? You know what sugar daddies do? Sugar daddies give you cavities in your teeth, and they give you a big waistline. They make you huge. Sugar daddies are not what your children need. They don't need to bring rottenness to your teeth, rottenness to your soul.

They need truth. And I believe that the reason Isaac wanted to bless Esau over Jacob, not just because Isaac liked the things of game as well, because that's what it says, but I believe in the back of his mind, he thought, wow, if I can just turn Esau around, if I can just bless him, I know what God said. I know what God said, but if I can do this, maybe this will bring him around. You know how many parents I've heard say that over the years? I know what God says, but they value relationship over truth.

And every time you do, you will end up destroying the relationship every single time. If you value relationship over truth, you will destroy the relationship. Might not happen today, might not happen tomorrow, but it will happen. You got to stand on the truth. So you come to that famous chapter in Genesis chapter 27, we looked at his family, we looked at his failures. This is his faith. Now it came about when Isaac was old and his eyes were too dim to see, that he called his older son Esau and said to him, my son.

He said to him, here I am. Isaac said, behold, now I am old and I do not know the day of my death. Now then please take your gear, your quiver and your bow and go out into the field and hunt game for me and prepare a savory dish for me such as I love and bring it to me that I may eat. So that my soul may bless you and bless you before I die. Now at this point, he's 137 years old. If you know the time he dies, he dies 43 years later. So he's not about to die, but he thinks he is. He lives another 43 years.

Isaac is 137. That makes Jacob and Esau, ready for this, in their 70s at this point. That's their 70s. Rebecca was listening while Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game to bring home, Rebecca said to her son, Jacob, behold, I heard your father speak to your brother Esau. Problem. Major problem. She doesn't go into her husband Isaac and say, hey, dear, I heard what you said. That goes against what the Lord has already told us. You can't give him the double portion.

You can't give him the inheritance. You can't bless him. God said no. She didn't do that. Why? Because she valued the relationship that she had with Jacob over truth. And that will come back to haunt her big time, as you will see in a moment. But see, both of them valued a relationship with their son or sons. Then they did the truth of the living God. Instead of going to her husband, she went to her son. She was listening behind the door. Why couldn't she be in there with her husband? Why did he have to do it by himself?

Why couldn't she be there with him? Maybe he knew that if she was there, she would try to stop him. So he does it with Esau behind closed doors or behind closed tents. I don't know. So it says, Rebecca said to her son Jacob, behold, I heard your father speak to your brother Esau saying, bring me some game and prepare a savory dish for me, that I may eat and bless you in the presence of the Lord before my death. Now, therefore, my son, listen to me as I commend you. She's commending her 70-year-old son.

I command you, go now to the flock and bring me two choice young goats from here. That I may prepare them as a savory dish for your father as he loves. Then you shall bring it to your father that he may eat, so that he may bless you before his death. Jacob answered his mother, Rebecca, behold, Esau, my brother, is a hairy man and I am a smooth man. Perhaps my father will feel me. Then I will be a deceiver in his sight. I will bring upon myself a curse and not a blessing. But his mother said to him, your curse be on me, my son, only obey my voice and go get them for me.

Wow. She had no idea what she was saying. Because when it's all said and done, Jacob leaves and she never sees him again. She dies before he comes back some 20 years later. Everything she wanted, a relationship with her son, a close relationship, she lost. Because she lied, she deceived. Oh, by the way, she learned that very well from her husband who lied and deceived. Gentlemen, whenever there is lying and deception in your family, always look back at yourself and ask yourself, did I lead this way?

Did I model this to my family? Because that's what Abraham did. Isaac picked it up well. That's what Isaac did. Rebecca picked it up well and so did Jacob. So it says in verse number 14, so he went and got them and brought them to his mother and his mother made savory food such as his father loved. Then Rebecca took the best garments of Esau, her elder son, which were with her in the house and put them on Jacob, her younger son. And she put the skins of the younger goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck.

So also gave the savory food and the bread which she had made to her son Jacob. Man, they went way out, way overboard. Okay, and now you're going to see best actor in an Oscar winning performance, Jacob. It says that he came to his father. They said, my father. And he said, here I am. Who are you, my son? Jacob said to his father, I am Esau, your firstborn. I have done as you told me. He lied. Get up, please sit in need of my game that you may bless me. Isaac said to his son, how is it that you have it so quickly?

My son, opportunity for him to repent. Opportunity for him to say or to confess. Well, dad, it's really not Esau, it's me, Jacob. But he didn't. He said, because the Lord, your God caused it to happen to me. When in doubt, blame God. Bring God into the picture. Because once you bring God into the picture, people are going to believe you, right? God did this. God is so good. He brought the game to me very quickly. Then Isaac said to Jacob, please come close that I may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not.

See, he had doubts. So Jacob came close to Isaac, his father. And he felt him and said, the voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau. Lying, deception. 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? Again, another opportunity to confess, but he didn't. He said, I am. So he said, bring it to me and I will eat of my son's game that I may bless you. And he brought it to him and he ate.

He also brought him wine and drank. His father Isaac said to him, please come close and kiss me, my son. Why? Because he wants to smell to make sure it is his son. So he came close and kissed him. And when he smelled the smell of his garments, he blessed him. Deception complete. Didn't sound like Esau, but he felt like Esau. He smelled like Esau. He cooked like Esau. See the smell of my son. It's like the smell of a field which the Lord has blessed. Now may God give you the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and an abundance of grain and new wine.

May people serve you and nations bow down to you. Be masters of your brothers and may your mother's son bow down to you. Cursed be those who curse you and blessed be those who bless you. That came about as soon as Isaac could finish blessing Jacob. And Jacob had hardly gone out from the presence of Isaac, his father, that Esau's brother came in from his hunting. And then he also made savory food and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, let my father arise and eat of his son's game that you may bless me.

Isaac, his father said to him, who are you? He said, I am your son, your firstborn Esau. And Isaac trembled violently. You know why? Because God's providence overruled one man's disobedience. And Isaac knew it. Isaac knew it. Isaac knew at that point that he had tried to deceive by blessing Esau. He knew his life of deception had brought him to this place. And yet now he was tricked. He was deceived. It came back to haunt him. And he realized God's providence would override his disobedience because God was going to do what he said he was going to do no matter what.

How different things might have been had Rebecca gone to her husband. How different things might have been if neither one of them had really a favored son, but loved them equally. How different things might have been had Isaac not lied in Gerar, lived in Gerar, and became a coward in Gerar. How things could have been different or should have been different, but they weren't. But in spite of all those things, God's providence rules over all. The younger would be blessed. The older would serve the younger.

Isaac trembled violently and said, who was he then that hunted game and brought it to me so that I am of all of it before you came and blessed him. And yes, he shall be blessed. That's acquiescence. That's capitulation. That's the realization that God did what God was going to do all along. In spite of all my efforts to change him, in spite of all my efforts to win my son back, God did what God was going to do. And Esau heard the words of his father. He cried out with exceedingly great and bitter cry.

He said, Father, bless me even, me also, oh my father. And he said, your brother came deceitfully, has taken away your blessing. Then he said, is he not rightly named Jacob, for he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright and behold, now he has taken away my blessing. And he said, have you not reserved a blessing for me? But Isaac replied to Esau, behold, I have made him your master and all of his relatives. What has happened has happened. It is done. I have given to him as servants and with grain and new wine, I have sustained him.

Now as for you then, what can I do, my son? Esau said to his father, do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me even, me also, oh my father. So Esau lifted his voice and wept. Then Isaac, his father, answered and said to him, behold, away from the fertility of the earth shall be your dwelling. And away from the dew of heaven from above, by your sword you shall live. And your brother you shall serve. But it shall come about when you become restless, that you will break his yoke from your neck.

By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even regarding the things of the future. He did. He did it by faith because he did believe in the promise. He did serve his God. He did ultimately want to honor his God, but he was a reluctant patriarch. Left up to him, he'd have blessed Esau. But because God was in charge, Jacob was the one who inherited the blessing. And of course, they go off to Mary, find a wife for Jacob. And so Isaac called Jacob, verse number 28, and blessed him and charged him and said to him, you shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.

In other words, don't be like Esau. Don't take women of the world. May God Almighty, verse number three, bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you that you may become a company of peoples.

He went to Jacob, reaffirmed the blessing upon Jacob and said, do not take for yourself a wife from the Canaanites. You read that in Isaac. There he is, verse 20, the hall of faith. God used him in spite of him, not because of him. A man with great beginnings, thinking that he would be just this warrior for God because of what took place on Moriah. But instead, he was a timid, weak, frail man governed by fleshly desires, valuing relationship over truth to the point it almost cost he and his family.

But for God intervening, that would have happened. But God is so good. There is more judgment pronounced upon the descendants of Esau than any one people group in the scriptures. Did you know that? There is more judgment placed upon the Edomites all throughout scripture than any one people group in the scriptures. Because he would live and die by the sword. But I got good news. I know my time is gone. It's okay. I got good news. In Revelation 12, Israel, the sons of Jacob, flee, it says twice. To the wilderness because the Antichrist is going to seek to kill them.

And by the wings of a great eagle, the descendants of Jacob flee to the wilderness. Do you know where the wilderness is? The wilderness is in Edom, the descendants of Esau. And there God will protect them and preserve them. And could it be then the very end of the tribulation that the descendants of Jacob, the descendants of Israel, because Jacob's name is changed to Israel, are protected by the descendants of Esau as they bring them in and protect them. Because when we see the Messiah coming, Isaiah 63, he comes from Bozrah, which is the ancient capital of Edom, the descendants of Esau.

And just maybe, I don't know this 100%, it's probably a definite maybe, but that the descendants of Edom, Esau, would protect the descendants of his brother Jacob. One last time in Matthew 25, when the Lord passes judgment at the end of the tribulation upon the Gentiles, he puts the sheep on his right, the goats on his left. And would it be that those sheep on his right, those nations, those Gentile nations, some of them are descendants of Esau? Because when I was hungry, you fed me. When I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink.

When I was in prison, you visited me. When I was naked, you clothed me. Could it be that they in the wilderness would visit, offer water, give them drink, give them clothing, and protected them in the end? Very possibly, that could be the case. Needless to say, by faith, Isaac blessed both Jacob and Esau. He did it by faith. He prescribed to them their future, because God would give him the wisdom to do so. He would trust in his God to bring these things about, and he did. There has been war against the Palestinians and the Jews for years, and will continue until the end.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you, Lord, for today and the opportunity we have to be in your Word. So much to cover, so little time to do it, but we thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to read the Scriptures, to realize the truth that's there. May we learn from what we've heard this day, that we might walk in truth and serve you. In Jesus' name, amen.