What hope is there in our messed-up world? A world in which nations go to war, tribes clash, classes struggle, families fall out, and individual relationships turn sour? What hope is there for human beings when our behaviour so often falls short of the standards we set ourselves – let alone God’s?!
Today’s passage is a story of sibling rivalry and domestic conflict. Its about a dysfunctional family worthy of a soap opera. But through it all, we can find hope in God. In the sovereign Lord who can bring good out of our messed-up world.
1. The story so far…
If you were here last week you will know that Abraham’s son Isaac has just married Rebekah. Through a series of providential events, God provided a perfectly suitable partner for Isaac. In due course, Rebekah became pregnant with two sons, so far so good.
But chapter 25 of Genesis tells us that things didn’t go so well from then on. Its a story of Fighting, Favouritism, Food and Foreign Wives.
Fighting, firstly, because the two unborn boys squabbled even in the womb. The babies jostled within Rebekah and she asked the Lord what was going on! God’s reply was this: “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.”
After fighting came Favouritism, because Isaac and Rebekah each had their own favourite son among the two boys who were born.
- The eldest son Esau was Isaac’s favourite. Esau was red headed, hairy and a ‘man’s man’ – he went hunting and provided Isaac with tasty wild game to eat.
- The younger son Jacob, in contrast, was his mother’s favourite. He was smooth skinned, less athletic and preferred to stay at home among the tents.
After favouritism, Food was the next bone of contention between the two brothers. Verses 29 to 34 of chapter 25 tell us what happened, and are worth quoting in full: ‘Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. 30 He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.” “Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?” But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright.’
In ancient societies, the birthright normally went to a father’s oldest son. It entitled the recipient to the lion’s share of his father’s inheritance, and bestowed leadership of the family upon him when his father died. The birthright was especially precious amongst the descendants of Abraham, because it endowed its recipient with leadership of God’s chosen family, the family which would become a great nation. The family through whom all nations would eventually be blessed. Jacob clearly knew how valuable this birthright was, but Esau couldn’t care less. He was more interested in filling his stomach than the future of his family – so he sold it to Jacob for a stew!
The final element of the depressing backstory to today’s passage can be called ‘Foreign wives’. Because Esau not only despised his birthright, he also married (not one, but two!) Canaanite women. He took two local ladies, Judith and Basemath, as his wives – despite the clear instructions of his grandfather Abraham that his descendants should not intermarry with Canaanites. The descendants for Abraham were to remain distinct from the religion and culture of Canaan, but again, it seems that Esau couldn’t care less. What he wanted, he took. No wonder that the last verse of Genesis 26 tells us that his marriages “were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah.”
2. A story in three scenes…
With all that backstory of fighting, favouritism and food and foreign wives in our minds, we move on to today’s passage. It’s a story of three scenes in which the two sides of this troubled family come into conflict with one another.
Scene 1 features Isaac and Esau. Elderly Isaac’s eyes are failing and he knows his end is near. So he makes one last request of his favourite son Esau. He says: “Get your equipment—your quiver and bow—and go out to the open country to hunt some wild game for me. Prepare me the kind of tasty food I like and bring it to me to eat, so that I may give you my blessing before I die.”
When a father bestowed a blessing on his son it ratified or confirmed the privileges of the birthright. When a father blessed his son it meant he was at the end of his life and was now passing his possessions and power to his chosen heir. Just as King Charles’ coronation recently confirmed his status as our Head of State, Isaac’s blessing would have made Esau head of his household. But first, Esau had to get his father some tasty food, so he went out to hunt.
And whilst Esau was out chasing a kill, Scene 2 of our story takes place, featuring Rebekah and Jacob. Rebekah had overheard Isaac’s instructions to Esau, and knew of his intention to bless Esau instead of Jacob. Rebekah knew this wasn’t right. Not only was Jacob her favourite rather than Esau, she also knew that God had said the older son would serve the younger. She may well have also known that Esau had sold his birthright to Jacob, meaning he had no right to be Isaac’s anointed successor.
Rebekah therefore devises a scheme to disguise Jacob as Esau. In verse 7 she says to Jacob: ‘Go out to the flock and bring me two choice young goats, so I can prepare some tasty food for your father, just the way he likes it. Then take it to your father to eat, so that he may give you his blessing before he dies.”
When Jacob reminds Rebekah that Esau is rather more hairy than he is, she takes the best clothes of Esau and put them on Jacob. She also covers his hands and neck with goatskins, and sends him off to see his father with the tasty food she had made.
As we come to Scene 3, involving Isaac and Jacob, the tension is palpable. Will Jacob’s disguise fool his blind father into blessing him instead of Esau? Its clear from the text that Isaac had his suspicions, but ultimately it is the smell of Esau’s clothing that convinced him. As verse 27 says: ‘When Isaac caught the smell of Esau’s clothes, he blessed Jacob and said, “Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed. May God give you heaven’s dew and earth’s richness— an abundance of grain and new wine. May nations serve you and peoples bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may the sons of your mother bow down to you. May those who curse you be cursed and those who bless you be blessed.”’
Jacob had succeeded in duping his Dad. Rebekah’s scheme achieved its objective – Jacob now had both the birth right and the blessing, he had become the head of the household and heir to the promises of God. It would be through his offspring, not Esau’s, that God’s family would grow.
3. Four fallen family members…
The Bible teaches that all have sinned, that every human is fallen and fallible. Nowhere is that clearer than in today’s story. None of the four characters involved comes out of it well.
We’ve already seen that Esau was a man who despised his birthright and wed two women from a hostile nation. In today’s language we might describe him as hedonist or a materialist – someone who cared more about his physical appetites than his spiritual health. He’s certainly not an example to imitate. Indeed, in the New Testament letter of Hebrews we are told “See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son.” Esau is not someone to emulate.
Esau’s father Isaac isn’t blameless in this episode either. Father’s shouldn’t have favourites, yet he tried to bless Esau even after he had sold his birthright to Jacob. He let his emotions tempt him to bless Esau, even though God had explicitly said that Jacob should have seniority.
When we turn to Rebekah, whilst we might admire her ingenuity, at the end of the day she did conspire to deceive her husband. Her intentions may have been noble, but noble ends don’t justify sinful means.
Lastly, as we look at Jacob, we ought to be shocked at the way he shamelessly lied to his father. Not once – but twice – he told his father he was Esau so as to secure his blessing. Once again, this is hardly conduct we should condone or admire.
4. One sovereign God who saves & sanctifies sinners…
So, as I finish, what positives can we draw from this sorry tale? What hope can we have when confronted with such compromised behaviour and such messed-up morality? What hope can we have when we ourselves sin in one way or another?
The answer is that we can look to the Lord. We can – and should – look up to the sovereign God who saves and sanctifies sinners. We can look in faith to the God who can bring good out of evil and build his kingdom in the midst of human mess.
Let me give three brief examples from our passage today:
- Firstly, God worked through this dysfunctional family to bring our Saviour into the world. After a thousand years the lineage of Jacob led to Jesus Christ. The Messiah was born in the same bloodline as Isaac and Jacob. The patriarchs in our passage today were far from perfect, but our Sovereign God was able to incorporate their imperfect lives into his plan for the salvation of the world.
- Secondly, God sent his Son into the world so that sinners like Isaac, Esau, Rebekah Jacob – and you and me – could be forgiven. Christ died to pay the penalty for the times we have given into temptation like Isaac or Esau, or when we have lied and cheated like Jacob and Rebekah. Full forgiveness is on offer because Christ bore the blame in our place on the Cross.
- And thirdly, we can have hope because our holy God can make us holy. He has the power to change our characters for the better. As we will see over the next couple of weeks, God wasn’t finished with Jacob. The Lord would get to work on Jacob’s life and character to make him more the kind of man he wanted him to be. And the New Testament tells us that God has the same intention for each one of us. By the power of his Spirit he is working to sanctify each of us – to make us more and more like Christ. It’s a work that won’t be completed this side of heaven, but God will finish what he has started.
God didn’t write off Jacob, and he won’t write off any one of us either. All he asks is that we keep walking in the way of Christ by repentance and faith, praying for the help of his Spirit to become more and more the type of people he wants us to be. So let’s pray…