"Something Very Good From Something Very Bad"

Genesis 24:19-27, 27:1-40

January 11, 2009

I want to tell you the rest of the story of Isaac this morning. Last time we saw him he was going down Mt. Moriah after his father almost sacrificed him. Remember, Isaac was the God-given baby of Abraham and Sarah's advanced years (to put it mildly). He would go on to be the most favored son of Abraham's line. Abraham sent his half-brother Ishmael and his mother with God's permission and provision (Gn.21:5-21). The incident at Moriah happened next - and then Sarah died. The death of Isaac's mother was hard on both him and his father.

After that Abraham provided a wife for his son. He sent a servant back to the land and people from which he came. The servant was to come back with a beautiful bride! The servant asked the Lord for help in finding Isaac's wife and was led right to a well that Abraham's kin frequented. And Rebecca was beautiful! As the camel train came over the horizon from Haran, Isaac saw them at a distance. The servant told Rebecca that the man she saw was Isaac, her husband to be. Genesis 25 relates this story, full of laughter (which is what Isaac means after all) and joy!

Our text from Genesis 24:19-27 picks up the birth of Isaac and Rebecca's twin sons; and does the plot ever thicken!

¹⁹ This is the account of Abraham's son Isaac. Abraham became the father of Isaac,

²⁰ and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan Aram and sister of Laban the Aramean.

²¹ Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. The LORD answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant.

²² The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, "Why is this happening to me?" So she went to inquire of the LORD.

²³ The LORD said to her, "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."

²⁴ When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb.

²⁵ The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment; so they named him Esau.

²⁶ After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau's heel; so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them.

²⁷ The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was a quiet man, staying among the tents. ²⁸ Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob.

Oh boy! If you sense family trouble brewing, you have it right! Some very bad things are going to happen. Here's a tale about being impulsive, toxic rivalry between parents and brothers, and deception most foul. There's not much pretty about what follows, but if we're honest about our own histories, we'll find instances of the ugly amongst our forbearers too.

^NIV Genesis 27:1 When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see, he called for Esau his older son and said to him, "My son." "Here I am," he answered.

² Isaac said, "I am now an old man and don't know the day of my death.

³ Now then, get your weapons-- your quiver and bow-- and go out to the open country to hunt some wild game for me.

⁴ 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."

⁵ Now Rebekah was listening as Isaac spoke to his son Esau. When Esau left for the open country to hunt game and bring it back,

⁶ Rebekah said to her son Jacob, "Look, I overheard your father say to your brother Esau,

⁷ 'Bring me some game and prepare me some tasty food to eat, so that I may give you my blessing in the presence of the LORD before I die.'

⁸ Now, my son, listen carefully and do what I tell you:

⁹ 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.

¹⁰ Then take it to your father to eat, so that he may give you his blessing before he dies."

¹¹ Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, "But my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I'm a man with smooth skin.

¹² What if my father touches me? I would appear to be tricking him and would bring down a curse on myself rather than a blessing."

¹³ His mother said to him, "My son, let the curse fall on me. Just do what I say; go and get them for me."

¹⁴ So he went and got them and brought them to his mother, and she prepared some tasty food, just the way his father liked it.

¹⁵ Then Rebekah took the best clothes of Esau her older son, which she had in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob.

¹⁶ She also covered his hands and the smooth part of his neck with the goatskins.

¹⁷ Then she handed to her son Jacob the tasty food and the bread she had made.

Let me provide some background. Fathers bestowed the birthright - the right of inheritance to their heir. It was often the oldest son; which meant Esau since he was one step ahead of Jacob the "heel grabber." That was probably fine with Dad because he like Esau best anyway. He liked the rugged outdoorsman side of his boy - not to mention his cooking.

Isaac's birthright was Esau's to loose -- and he did. It's probable that Jacob's staying with the tents means he was engaged in managing the herds of sheep and goats as well as the grain harvested or bought. Therefore, Jacob had a steady source of food. Esau's food supply probably depended on his ability to find game. Chapter 25 ends with Esau coming to camp absolutely famished. It was probably a bad hunting trip. So he asks his twin brother for some of the soup he's making.

Now Jacob wants something that Esau has to give -- that birthright. He's not kidding around either. He makes his older twin swear to give the birthright; no take-backs! Esau gobbles down the stew after giving away his father's inheritance. God's promise to Grandpa Abraham would be tied up in that too. Now it belongs to Jacob! Esau threw it away for some stew -- and it didn't even have meat in it!

In those days people believed the blessing of their gods was handed down from parent to child. For Isaac, this would be this new God, the Lord of the Universe who commanded them to be in this land. It was the Lord God who promised to make them a great nation - a blessing to all peoples. Isaac was old and almost blind. He wanted some special time with his favorite. He wanted to pass on the blessings of the Lord to Esau! But Rebecca overheard this - and we've heard about how she set up her mama's boy son to steal the blessing. They were going for a clean sweep! It sounds like this family could use some help in honest communication doesn't it?

Now the moments of drama come. After some reassuring words to the skeptical and fearful Jacob, Rebecca sends him into his father's presence.

¹⁸ He went to his father and said, "My father." "Yes, my son," he answered. "Who is it?"

¹⁹ Jacob said to his father, "I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game so that you may give me your blessing."

²⁰ Isaac asked his son, "How did you find it so quickly, my son?" "The LORD your God gave me success," he replied.

²¹ Then Isaac said to Jacob, "Come near so I can touch you, my son, to know whether you really are my son Esau or not."

²² Jacob went close to his father Isaac, who touched him and said, "The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau."

²³ He did not recognize him, for his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau; so he blessed him.

²⁴ "Are you really my son Esau?" he asked. "I am," he replied.

²⁵ Then he said, "My son, bring me some of your game to eat, so that I may give you my blessing." Jacob brought it to him and he ate; and he brought some wine and he drank.

²⁶ Then his father Isaac said to him, "Come here, my son, and kiss me."

²⁷ So he went to him and kissed him. When Isaac caught the smell of his clothes, he blessed him and said, "Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the LORD has blessed.

²⁸ May God give you of heaven's dew and of earth's richness-- an abundance of grain and new wine.

²⁹ 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."

Can you believe it? Jacob lies through his teeth beneath cloaks of deception and rips off the blessing! Can this be in the Bible?! Well there it is. Does this mean God wants us to be sneaky? Does deception win God's blessing? Is that what the story teaches? No. The narrator is simply telling it like it was with very little editorial comment. You have to see how the story comes out to understand what lessons it may teach. Certainly, this passage explained how two great nations came into being; Edom (from Esau) and Israel (from Jacob). You won't be too surprised to learn that the relationship was often rocky.

There is absolutely nothing fair about what's happening here. Unfairness is a part of our world. Look for how it all comes out.

The final part of our biblical story is just sad. Esau returns and wails could be heard from quite a distance!

³⁰ After Isaac finished blessing him and Jacob had scarcely left his father's presence, his brother Esau came in from hunting.

³¹ He too prepared some tasty food and brought it to his father. Then he said to him, "My father, sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your blessing."

³² His father Isaac asked him, "Who are you?" "I am your son," he answered, "your firstborn, Esau."

³³ Isaac trembled violently and said, "Who was it, then, that hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it just before you came and I blessed him-- and indeed he will be blessed!"

³⁴ When Esau heard his father's words, he burst out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, "Bless me-- me too, my father!"

³⁵ But he said, "Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing."

³⁶ Esau said, "Isn't he rightly named Jacob? He has deceived me these two times: He took my birthright, and now he's taken my blessing!" Then he asked, "Haven't you reserved any blessing for me?"

³⁷ Isaac answered Esau, "I have made him lord over you and have made all his relatives his servants, and I have sustained him with grain and new wine. So what can I possibly do for you, my son?"

³⁸ Esau said to his father, "Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father!" Then Esau wept aloud.

³⁹ His father Isaac answered him, "Your dwelling will be away from the earth's richness, away from the dew of heaven above.

⁴⁰ You will live by the sword and you will serve your brother. But when you grow restless, you will throw his yoke from off your neck."

Verses 33-40 are just awful. Isaac, blind and feeble as he is shakes violently as he realizes he has been duped. It would have looked like he was having a seizure or something - like something from an Exorcist movie. If Isaac's tent was pitched in a mountain valley, Esau's cry would probably echo around it. I imagine Jacob and Rebecca heard it.

The words of blessing are gone but Isaac is given words that almost act like a photo negative of the one he gave thieving Jacob. Esau would live away from Jacob's prosperity - and Edom was located in the non-arable mountains southeast of the Dead Sea. It would be a violent existence and Jacob's descendants would dominate. Yet there would be few times that Edom was completely under Israel's heel.

It's all pretty awful. There's a lot of bad in this story. But great good comes out of it as well. Think about those words of Jesus we heard earlier (Lu.22:25-26).

Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.

If we want out of the lifestyle of a soap opera ; something based on the sort of back stabbing intrigue we find on television or in such biblical stories as this - there is a way out! We don't have to fear an arbitrary God or succumb to the death-dealing intrigue we've heard about today.

Think about how the tale of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob comes out. It ends with Jesus! The gospels of Matthew and Luke both have genealogies we usually skip over. Take a minute to look at them. You will see the names of flawed and sinful people who had a hope deep down. They wanted the promise of God and were part of the story in spite of themselves; Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob!

We believe God, revealed to us in Jesus Christ, can take something that is very bad and turn it into something that is very good!

Now that Jesus has come, we know better than to rely on jealousy, greed, and the like -- don't we?